Chapter 6—At the Temple Gate
This chapter is based on
Acts 3
;
Acts 4:1-31
.
The disciples of Christ had a deep sense of their own inefficiency,
and with humiliation and prayer they joined their weakness to His
strength, their ignorance to His wisdom, their unworthiness to His
righteousness, their poverty to His exhaustless wealth. Thus strength-
ened and equipped, they hesitated not to press forward in the service
of the Master.
A short time after the descent of the Holy Spirit, and immediately
after a season of earnest prayer, Peter and John, going up to the temple
to worship, saw at the gate Beautiful a cripple, forty years of age,
whose life, from his birth, had been one of pain and infirmity. This
unfortunate man had long desired to see Jesus, that he might be healed;
but he was almost helpless, and was far removed from the scene of the
great Physician’s labors. His pleadings at last induced some friends to
bear him to the gate of the temple, but upon arriving there, he found
[58]
that the One upon whom his hopes were centered, had been put to a
cruel death.
His disappointment excited the sympathy of those who knew for
how long he had eagerly hoped to be healed by Jesus, and daily they
brought him to the temple, in order that passers-by might be induced
by pity to give him a trifle to relieve his wants. As Peter and John
passed, he asked an alms from them. The disciples regarded him
compassionately, and Peter said, “Look on us. And he gave heed
unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said,
Silver and gold have I none.” As Peter thus declared his poverty, the
countenance of the cripple fell; but it grew bright with hope as the
apostle continued, “But such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
“And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and imme-
diately his feet and ankle-bones received strength. And he leaping up
stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking,
37