James Nisbet Commentary - Acts 14:17 - 14:17

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James Nisbet Commentary - Acts 14:17 - 14:17


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

GOD’S GIFTS TO MEN

‘[God] left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.’

Act_14:17

These words come from one of St. Paul’s sermons. He was preaching to heathens, who, until then, had never heard of the true God. He was telling them that though they had never heard of God, yet they might have known what God was like because of the good things which were sent to them from God.

What good things does St. Paul tell them of?

I. God’s gifts to men.—The rain from heaven, the fruitful seasons, these are what he mentions. The rain and the harvest, the food which these things bring, and the gladness of heart which men feel when they have all their wants supplied: these things, says St. Paul, are God’s gifts to men, and from them men might have known, if they had cared to think, that God was good, and took a delight in making people happy. But the verse tells us more than this. It is not only that it is God that gives them, but that God intends us to take them as examples of His goodness. He intends us to see from these gifts how good He is, so that if a man had never heard anything about God, he might say, ‘I am sure there is a God, I am sure He is a good God, and I am sure that He takes care of me, for all the good things of life are His gift to me, the rain, and the fruitful seasons, and the food and gladness of my life.’

II. If they are God’s gift, we should acknowledge them to be so.—It is a rule in the Christian life that whatever we believe in our heart, we should confess with our month, and act on in our conduct. So the question is, How are we to acknowledge the gifts of Nature to be God’s bounty? The answer is twofold:—

(a) We must thank God for them, and

(b) We must also ask God for them. In every harvest thanksgiving we do confess with the mouth, and publicly act on the belief that it is God Who of His great goodness has given us the rain and the fruitful season, and filled our hearts with food and gladness. This part of the duty we do now, in most places, perform with some degree of care. We must ask for God’s gifts as well as thank Him for them; and I fancy that, in the case of the good gifts of Nature, this has been even less thought of than the thanksgiving. And yet God says to us through His Apostles—‘in everything, let your requests be made known unto God.’

III. This is what Rogation Days mean.—Rogation is only another word for praying or making petitions. And the particular petitions for which the Rogation Days were set apart were those for a fruitful season and a sufficient harvest. God has promised that, while the world lasts, ‘seed-time and harvest shall not fail.’ And God also intends that every seed-time and every harvest shall put us in mind of Him, and lead us to acknowledge His power and His goodness. It does us good to be reminded of Him. Ask yourselves when do you lead the best lives? When are your life, and mind, and thoughts and words, the best? Is it not when you remember God? And when does your conscience tell you that you have the most to be ashamed of? that you have lived the worst and fallen into sin the most? Is it not when you have got into the way of forgetting God, of thinking of Him only now and then, or not at all, of saying your prayers as a mere form, and then giving yourself up wholly to the affairs of this world? You know this, and God knows it too. And, therefore, God sends us reminders of Himself; things which will make us think of Him, speak to Him, remember Him.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Unless the harvest festival be accompanied by some real self-denial, it is apt to be somewhat unreal. A harvest festival is a pleasant thing. There may be a good deal of merely worldly excitement about it. It is pleasant to attend a bright, cheerful service in a gaily decorated church. It is at a time of year, too, when people are at leisure. All this is otherwise at Rogation time. To come to church and make prayers to God that His rain may be given in due season, and that the harvest which is to make food plentiful for the toiling millions of the poor, to whom a little more or a little less in the price of bread makes all the difference between health and something like starvation—this must be genuine. There is no self-deception here, It is sure to be true and sincere. This is sure to be a real acknowledgment of God’s power and God’s goodness, and God knows this, and this is why God looks for it. A harvest thanksgiving may be in some measure outside show. The Rogation prayer time is sure to be real and genuine.’

(2) ‘No one can read this speech of St. Paul without once more perceiving its subtle and inimitable coincidence with his thoughts and expressions. The rhythmic conclusion is not unaccordant with the style of his most elevated moods; and beside the appropriate appeal to God’s natural gifts in a town not in itself unhappily situated, but surrounded by a waterless and treeless plain, we may naturally suppose that the “filling our hearts with food and gladness “was suggested by the garlands and festive pomp which accompanied the bulls on which the people would afterwards have made their common banquet. Nor do I think it impossible that the words may be an echo of lyric songs sung as the procession made its way to the gates. To use them in a truer and loftier connection would be in exact accord with the happy power of seizing an argument which St. Paul showed when he turned into the text of his sermon at Athens the vague inscription to the unknown God.’