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The reference, in these verses, to "a great dearth throughout all the world" (ver. 28), and to the sending of relief by the disciples, according to their several ability, to the brethren in Judaea (ver. 29), may suggest to us thoughts concerning the provision which God has made for us in his Divine goodness and also in his Divine wisdom. We look at -

I. HIS PROVISION FOR OUR TEMPORAL WELL-BEING. The great multitudes of mankind, the hundreds of thousands of millions are fed, year after year, age after age; and many hundreds of millions more might be sustained if all the use were made that might be of the opportunities open to us. God, in his bounty, provides what we want in

(1) fruitful and extensive soil,

(2) multiplying set,

(3) agricultural knowledge (Isaiah 28:26),

(4) materials for implements of husbandry,

(5) all nourishing and ripening agencies.

II. HIS CONSIDERATION OF OUR PIETY. God gives us our bread, our maintenance, in such a way that we are almost compelled to acknowledge his hand in the harvest. Evidently we did not produce the soil nor make the seed; evidently we cannot cause it to fertilize and grow; evidently it is his sun that shines and his rain that falls on our fields. The ordinary processes as by which the seed is multiplied are such as direct our eyes to heaven. And often, in his wisdom, he holds his hand, he withdraws the sunshine or keeps back his clouds, he sends dearth as "in the days of Claudius Caesar" (ver. 28), and then men are constrained to remember that there is work being done in the soil and in the sky which they cannot control, and in regard to which they must look up to God the Giver of all, whose is the earth with its fullness, and ask of him, and plead with him, and, it may be, humble themselves before him.

III. HIS REGARD FOR OUR INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL WELL-BEING.

1. Intellectual. God teaches us (Isaiah 28.), but he leaves much to be discovered by our own mental labor. Agriculture provides a very wide and a very noble field for observation, experiment, contrivance; it tasks and trains the mind.

2. Moral. We cannot secure our harvests without

(1) industry,

(2) combination,

(3) patience (James 5:7). The abundance, and indeed superabundance, of the earth's yield is such that

(4) there is enough for the supply of those engaged in other pursuits; hence there is room for all kinds of labor beside that of agriculture - for the pursuit of art, and for the teaching of religious truth and training in the religious life. Those who have received the bread of eternal life from the lips of others can furnish, as Antioch now supplied Jerusalem, the bread of this temporal life to those to whom they are under spiritual obligation. The abundance which prevails in some districts - and famine is never universal - gives the opportunity of

(5) showing practical kindness. On this occasion there was sufficient in Syria for its own need and for the distress in Judea, and the Christians of Antioch contributed to supply the wants of those at Jerusalem. We should:

(1) receive God's temporal mercies with the gratitude which belongs to piety;

(2) distribute of our abundance to those who have a claim on us, either on account of the spiritual favors they have conferred or in virtue of their special necessity. - C.

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KJV: And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.

WEB: Now in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.