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The Acts of the Apostles
“Send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon.” Thus God gave
evidence of His regard for the gospel ministry and for His organized
church. The angel was not commissioned to tell Cornelius the story
of the cross. A man subject, even as the centurion himself, to human
frailties and temptations, was to be the one to tell him of the crucified
and risen Saviour.
As His representatives among men, God does not choose angels
who have never fallen, but human beings, men of like passions with
those they seek to save. Christ took humanity that He might reach
humanity. A divine-human Saviour was needed to bring salvation to
the world. And to men and women has been committed the sacred
trust of making known “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
Ephesians
3:8
.
In His wisdom the Lord brings those who are seeking for truth into
touch with fellow beings who know the truth. It is the plan of Heaven
that those who have received light shall impart it to those in darkness.
Humanity, drawing its efficiency from the great Source of wisdom,
is made the instrumentality, the working agency, through which the
gospel exercises its transforming power on mind and heart.
Cornelius was gladly obedient to the vision. When the angel
had gone, the centurion “called two of his household servants, and a
devout soldier of them that waited on him continually; and when he
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had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa.”
The angel, after his interview with Cornelius, went to Peter, in
Joppa. At the time, Peter was praying upon the housetop of his lodging,
and we read that he “became very hungry, and would have eaten: but
while they made ready, he fell into a trance.” It was not for physical
food alone that Peter hungered. As from the housetop he viewed the
city of Joppa and the surrounding country he hungered for the salvation
of his countrymen. He had an intense desire to point out to them from
the Scriptures the prophecies relating to the sufferings and death of
Christ.
In the vision Peter “saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel de-
scending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners,
and let down to the earth: wherein were all manner of four-footed
beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls
of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.
But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is