The Acts of the Apostles (1911) — PDF Scan 457

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m BOME 451 In reply, liis hearers stated that they had received no charges against him by letters public or private, and that none of the Jews who had come to Eome had accused him of any crime. They also expressed a strong desire to hear for themselves the reasons of his faith in Christ. '^As concerning this sect," they said, ''we know that everywhere it is spoken against." Since they themselves desired it, Paul bade them set a day when he could present to them the truths of the gospel. At the time appointed, many came together, ''to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening." He related his own experience, and presented arguments from the Old Testament Scriptures with simplicity, sincerity, and power. The apostle showed that religion does not consist in rites and ceremonies, creeds and theories. If it did, the natural man could understand it by investigation, as he understands worldly things. Paul taught that religion is a practical, saving energy, a principle wholly from Grod, a personal experience of God's renewing power upon the soul. He showed how Moses had pointed Israel forward to Christ as that Prophet whom they were to hear; how all the prophets had testified of Him as God's great remedy for sin, the guiltless One who was to bear the sins of the guilty. He did not find fault with their observance of forms and ceremonies, but showed that while they maintained the