---

To study the unfolding of the Divine plan is one of the greatest occupations that can engage the mind of man. It engages the student of nature. It is the pursuit of the devout historian, to whom the track of human history appears spread out as a river from its source to its mouth. It is above all the study of the Christian, who, Bible in hand, loves to muse on that wonderful development of the Divine plan which, through page on page of psalm, and prophecy, and history, has wrought out the wealth of meaning that lay enshrined in that earliest promise given to man between his fall and his expulsion from the gate of Paradise. The chapter Item Which our text is taken possesses extreme interest because it records a marked stage in the development of the Divine plan.

I. THE DIVINE PLAN IS COINCIDENT WITH HUMAN NEED. "While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee, arise, get thee down, and go with them." The point to notice is that these three men were representatives of the great heathen world — etc., they were not acquainted with what is known as revealed religion. One was a devout soldier, the other two were household servants of a Roman officer, who commanded one of the choicest regiments in the Roman army. We are thus confronted with the whole question of the heathen needs. There are men whose goodness is unquestionable who reason thus, "The gospel is the ordained means of salvation and the only means; now it is clear that the heathen, having never heard the gospel, cannot believe it, therefore they cannot be saved." Now, this line of reasoning cannot be true. Even if it were argued as consistent with God's justice, it could not be shown to be consistent with His pitiful goodness, to condemn them to suffer for the ages of the ages, if there were no way of salvation for them but the holding of definite convictions about the person and work of One who had never been revealed to them.

1. Nationality is of no account to God. The Jew thought that salvation was for him alone.

2. It is also clear that God deals with men according to their light. Our Lord drew a clear distinction between the servants that knew and those that knew not their Lord's will.

3. It is also clear that God can give credit for the quality of man's moral attitude. After, on one occasion, upbraiding the cities in which His mighty works had been done, our Lord went on to say, "If the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." He here tells us what would have been. Now, this intimate knowledge of the moral condition of man, of the quality of the soul, and of the way in which it would act, is an essential qualification of the Judge of all men. It enables Him to deal not with the results or manifestation of character, but with its essence. I go into the market, and on a barrow I see some spring flowers. An experienced friend says, "Buy them." On inquiring I find the price enormous. "What!" I whisper to my friend, "Are they worth so much?" "Yes," he replies, "if you plant them in your hothouse, or beneath a sunny wall, they will bloom and fruit thus and thus." His knowledge of what they may do under certain conditions justifies me in buying the unsightly bulbs at an extravagant figure. Now, it is so that our Lord deals with men. He thinks, not so much of their creed, or even of their actions, but of their moral nature, and of what they may or might become, if favoured by certain soil, and sun, and rain. And if in the twilight of heathenism the soul has yet attained but a sickly growth, the Lord will still set a high value on it, and if He sees that in the full light of the gospel it would have equalled the moral nature of the best, He will put it on a level with them. We cannot too much insist on this, that our Master knows the moral nature of each, and what it would do under more favourable circumstances, and He judges us not by what we say or do, but by what we are. He knows how much of our failure to put to the credit of ignorance, and how much to the essential stupidity and stubbornness of our hearts.

4. It is also clear that God has not left Himself or His truth without witness in the heathen world.

5. It is also clear that no man is saved apart from the death of Christ.

6. It is clear also that the acceptance of men, whether Jew or Gentile, is only possible to faith.

7. But if this be the case with the heathen, why send them the gospel? For two reasons. First, because what they have cannot satisfy the noblest spirits. Cornelius is said to have prayed to God alway. For what did he pray? Evidently for what he had not got, for light and grace and power, for the fulness of God's salvation. Outside of Christ there is no certain knowledge of the love of God, of forgiveness of sin, or of eternal life; the heathen can only guess at the best; he longs to know that God is love, that sin may be forgiven, and that there is a future life. And for further light and teaching on these momentous subjects, the heathen world sends its representatives to knock at the door of the Christian Church. But there is a yet more imperious demand which sends them there, referred to in the expression, "Words by which thou shalt be saved." Great as is the yearning to know, there is a still stronger one to be. The one demand of the noblest souls was for power — power to salvation, power to resist sin, power to fulfil the noblest yearnings of the soul. And this is the burden of our message to the heathen today. We do not deny to them visions of God, intuitions of truth, lofty unselfishness, morality, prayer; but we affirm that they lack power, power unto salvation. But, secondly, the heathen for the most part are not represented by Cornelius. They have not faith. They do not live up to their light. They fail to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. They do not fear God and work righteousness. They are sunk in sin, from which they show no inclination to arouse themselves. In this case they have to be saved from the results of their own evil choice. They must be awakened, convicted of sin, led to repentance. There is no doubt, therefore, as to the need of man, and we adore the grace of God that His plan has been coincident with it. It is always so. Nature and Providence work as a double hinge. The fish do not seek insects in the summer afternoon, which do not flutter over the silver surface of the pool. Birds do not seek for fruits and berries which are not strewn through the woodlands.

II. THE DIVINE PLAN CAN ONLY BE WROUGHT OUT THROUGH HUMAN COOPERATION. In each stage of its unfolding it has been so. When from amid the recreant race of man God was desirous to select one family to become the depository of the sacred trust, He called Abraham from kindred and country, and prepared him by special trials for his high commission. When the progress of the Divine purpose seemed to be arrested by the captivity in Egypt, He took up the broken thread in Moses, the faithful servant. And at each successive crisis there was a David or a Hezekiah, an Ezra or a Nehemiah to carry it forward; as in the torch bearing of the old Greek games. And thus it has been in all subsequent ages, as the plan of God has taken some new phase there has ever been a Paul, an , a Luther, a Wesley, a Carey, through whom it has wrought. By men the will of God has been done on earth, as it is in heaven. This is the one passionate yearning of all true hearts, to know whether they are carrying out God's plan. There is plenty of work which is being done in the world which is abortive. Great beginnings, poor endings. This line of thought suggests some very serious reflections. It is clear that God's plan is not as yet realised. And what sort of men are they through whom He will work? Ah, Peter shall furnish the illustration. There was plenty of human nature about him. But with all the peculiar idiosyncrasies that marked this foundation stone from all the rest in the foundations of the New Jerusalem, there was that devotion to the Lord and Saviour, that love for prayer, that openness of heart to the Divine Spirit, that willingness to obey, that absence of assumption, which lifted the prostrate soldier to his feet with the words, "Stand up, I also am a man"; which are the prime notes of any soul to whom God will reveal His purpose, and by whom He will effect it. Is this thy state of heart? Then wait at Joppa, however obscure the place, and tiresome the delay. Nourish thy heart with prayer and meditation. Dare to wait though all men bid thee begone. If the vision tarry, wait for it.

III. THE EVOLUTION OF THE DIVINE PLAN IS ALWAYS ACCOMPANIED BY THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY GHOST. Plan and power always go together. "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word." There is no need to expatiate on our need of the Holy Ghost, and that need is two fold, first as respects His influence on the worker, then as respects His cooperation in the work. There is a mysterious something in the worker who is endued with the Holy Ghost, which you can neither define nor imitate

(F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

---

---

KJV: Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

WEB: Peter opened his mouth and said, "Truly I perceive that God doesn't show favoritism;