The Heart Opened
Acts 16:13
And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down…


Though labouring from his childhood under extreme shortsightedness, Ampere, the celebrated French philosopher, was unconscious of this defect till awakened to a sense of it by the following circumstance. When travelling, at the age of eighteen, in one of the most beautiful parts of France, he chanced to take up the eyeglass of a fellow traveller, and he burst into tears of wonder and delight at the first discovery thus suddenly made to him of the beauty and magnificence of nature. Before, when he heard others speak with enthusiasm of the loveliness of some particular scenery, he could not understand what they meant, and thought they must be under some strange delusion. But now he felt as if he had suddenly been endowed with a new sense, and could say, like the blind man in the gospel narrative after he had been restored to sight, "One thing I know: that whereas I was blind, now I see." This incident affords a striking illustration of the brief but emphatic description given of the conversion of Lydia, "whose heart the Lord opened."



Parallel Verses
KJV: And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.

WEB: On the Sabbath day we went forth outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down, and spoke to the women who had come together.




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