THE CHARACTER OF CORNELIUS.

REV. J. MARSHALL, A.M.

TOLBOOTH CHURCH, EDINBURGH, SEPTEMBER 7, 1834.

"There was a certain man in Cesarea, called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently, about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter; he lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea-side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually; and when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa."-Acтs, x. 1—8.

DURING the early periods of the world, the tidings of the existence of a God were presented indiscriminately to the people of all nations: the inhabitants of the world had opportunities of becoming acquainted with their Maker, had they only availed themselves of the advantages that were afforded them. Adam was admitted to the most friendly intercourse with God in Paradise. The events which befell him when he sinned were well adapted to illustrate Jehovah's character; and Adam was preserved for several centuries after he fell, to be. the instructor and the counsellor of his race. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied respecting Christ-not only foretold his first coming, but likewise gave information respecting his second coming. Noah was a preacher of righteousness and although we read particularly of no others, yet we have every reason to conclude that there were other preachers and other prophets besides Enoch and Noah, whom God admitted to personal communication with himself, and by whom he sent messages to mankind at that early period of the world's history. However, its inhabitants were not disposed to avail themselves of their privileges; they departed from the living God; they did not like to retain him in their knowledge; and they at length fell into such a state of ignorance, and debasement, and rebellion, that God, in the exercise of merited indignation, destroyed them by a flood.

After this striking dispensation, God was pleased to deal with men very much as he had done antecedently to it: there was still no distinction between nation and nation between people and people: and, in addition to the information which had been previously communicated, the flood was, in a very eminent manner, calculated to impress the descendants of Adam with a sense of the

importance of repentance, and of the danger to which they exposed themselves by venturing on in the path of rebellion.

Still, however, men did not seek God: after the flood they conducted themselves as preceding generations had done before them; and at length the period arrived when rebellion and idolatry were spread as wide throughout the world as they had been at the period when God said to Noah, "Behold, I, even I, will bring a flood upon the earth, to destroy the inhabitants of the earth."

To preserve, therefore, the knowledge of himself in the world, to prevent all acquaintance with him from being obliterated amongst mankind, Jehovah was at last pleased to select for himself a peculiar people, to confer upon this people very distinguished advantages, to make them the depositaries of his truth, the keepers of those Sacred Oracles that have come down to our day, and that still administer consolation and instruction to the Christian Church as they did, under the former dispensation, to the Jewish Church. Down to the period with which the verses we have now read are connected, this distinction between Jews and Gentiles was preserved. Jesus Christ was of the seed of Abraham : he came to his own, although his own received him not: his injunction-first to the twelve, and then to the seventy-was, "Go not to the Gentiles; into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ;" and when about to leave the world to ascend to his Father and our Father, to his God and to our God-although he commanded his Apostles to "go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature," yet at the same time he added, "beginning at Jerusalem." Now, however, this distinction was to be done away; the Gentiles were no longer to remain "strangers and foreigners," but were to be "fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God"-were to be admitted, through the Lord Jesus, to ail the privileges enjoyed by their Jewish brethren.

In the character of Cornelius, who was the first among those who had not been circumcised who was publicly admitted a member of the Christian Church, there is much that is interesting, and much that is calculated to afford us practical instruction in the view which is in these verses given of the character and previous conduct of this Centurion. "There was a certain man," we are informed, "in Cesarea, called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway."

From these words it is obvious, in the first place, that previous to the admission of Cornelius into the Christian Church, previous to his being made acquainted with the doctrines of the Gospel, as preached by the Apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ, he had been made a convert to Judaism; he had been led to renounce the idolatries of heathenism; he had been led to worship the living and the true God. He is here spoken of as 66 a devout man, and one that feared God;" that is, the true God, the God whom the children of Israel worshipped and served.

There were two distinct classes of proselytes at this period of the history of the Jewish Church. There was one class who not only admitted the truth of the Jewish religion, but submitted to circumcision, and in this manner became "debtors to do the whole law," to observe all the ceremonies of the Mosaic economy. There was another class who remained uncircumcised, but yet

worshipped the God of the Jews, received the religion of the Jewish people, and conformed their lives to those moral precepts which that religion enjoined upon their observance. To this class of proselytes it seems very obvious Cornelius belonged. He had not been circumcised, but, at the same time, we are informed he "feared God:" and, fearing God, he would be led to make himself acquainted with the will of that God, as unfolded in the Jewish Scriptures; fearing God, he would conform himself to his will, he would receive the doctrines inculcated in the Jewish Bible, he would yield himself to the precepts which the Scriptures enjoined.

From this we may learn a very important lesson. Here we read of an individual who was once a heathen, who was born, and had been educated, amongst heathens, who held the highest station in the Roman army, and who was exposed to all the snares connected with that station. We find him, notwithstanding the very disadvantageous circumstances in which he was placed, coming to the knowledge of the living and true God; when that knowledge was obtained, by having yielded himself to its influence, living in the fear of that God, making a surrender of himself to the service of that God. Thus it was with Cornelius: is it so with us? Our circumstances have indeed been very different from those in which he was placed. We have been born, and we have been educated, amongst Christians: we have been taught from our infancy the nature and the perfections of the living and true God; we have been taught to regard it as our first duty to love, and to revere, and to serve him: and oh! if in these circumstances we serve him not, but live in i difference about him, or go on trampling upon his authority and his laws, how will Cornelius, and many others, who, like him, were placed in circumstances of a most disadvantageous character, rise up against us in the day of judgment, and pronounce upon us the sentence of merited condemnation !

In the second place, we here read not only that Cornel as feared the God of the Jews, but that he was "a devout man." There are persons who profess the true God, the God of the Bible, who hold in detesta ion the idolatries of heathenism, whose creed is in perfect accordance with the revelation given us of the living and true God, whose external conduct is in a high degree correct, perhaps exemplary, and who yet, in the midst of all this, are by no means entitled to the appellation of "devout.” "Devout" is a word that, in a very particular sense applies to God-to the influence he has over the mind, the thoughts, the affections, the desires, the purposes of the soul. It is only the man who delights in thinking about God, and who delights in growing conformity to the mind and to the will of God, and who delights also in the prospect of the final enjoyment of God, who can be pronounced a devout man.

Now, there are individuals, respecting whom the assertion may be made that we have been just adverting to, and yet regarding whom it cannot be inferred that they thus set God before them, and thus delight in God. They acknowledge the fact of his existence: they conform their creed to the revelation he has given; they likewise avoid in their external conduct all grosser sins: but then they think more about the world than about their Maker, they long with far greater eagerness, after the possession of present objects of enjoyment than the friendship of Him who made them, and at whose judgment-seat they are by and bye to stand. And with respect to their enjoyments, they have no

association of happiness connected with God: all their associations are connected with the objects and the sources of enjoyment that are about them. It was not so, however, with Cornelius. He was a devout man, and God had the place in his thoughts, in his affections, in his purposes and designs, which the word "devout" is calculated to comprise. Let us inquire whether it be so with us. Let us inquire whether we have something more than an orthodox creed, and a merely external conformity to the mind and will of Jehovah. Let us inquire as to the place he has within our breasts. Let us remember that in heaven he has the supremacy in the hearts of all: there all delight in him: all love him supremely: all think more about him than about anything else whatsoever. Then let us remember that, if heaven be our home, we ought now to seek preparation for it, by on earth becoming devout, having something of the devotedness here that characterizes the inhabitants of that glorious and happy place.

In the third place, there are individuals who are most punctilious in the external service of Jehovah, who make these observances a cloak for the neglect of other very important duties. The Pharisees, for instance, could not be characterized as devout, though they were most strict in the observance of devotional exercises. They made long prayers; they paid tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin: but, at the same time, the same Scriptures that inform us of these facts tell us, that while they made long prayers, they "devoured widows' houses"-while they paid tithe of mint, anise, and cummin, they neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. This was the case with respect to the Pharisees: they preserved the external appearances of devotion; but they not only neglected other duties, they made these external services a cloak for the commission of very atrocious sins. It was not so, however, with Cornelius. He feared God; he was a devout man; and under the influence and feeling of a devotion, and a genuine fear of the God whom he served, he not only was just towards his fellow creatures, but he was kind, he was merciful. We are told of him that he was "a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, and gave much alms to the people."

Is this, too, a feature in our character? Do we profess to love God? Do we show that we love him by loving our neighbour also? Do we profess like Cornelius to fear God? Do we show that we fear him by keeping in remembrance that the property we possess belongs to him-that we are called upon to use it in the way that he has expressly appointed; and that, as he has commanded us to supply the wants of our neighbours-not only to say, "Be ye warmed, and be ye clothed," but to put forth our hands for the accomplishment of these objects-that on this account it is our imperious duty to God as well as to man in this manner to employ our substance, in this manner to act in accordance with the injunctions of Him to whom the earth belongs and the fulness thereof?

Again, we are here told respecting Cornelius, not only that he himself feared God, and was devout, and gave alms to the people, but that he also sought to be instrumental, and was successful in his endeavours, in inducing the members of his household to cherish the same spirit, and to manifest that spirit by a similar line of conduct. God has not only divided the human race into kingdoms, and empires, and nations, and communities, but into families: and

he has made this subdivision, that the individuals placed at the head of these families may exert their influence over those who are placed under their care, in inducing them to seek the God of their fathers, and to give themselves up to his service. In this manner we find Cornelius employing his influence: we are told, not only that he feared God, but that he "feared God with all his house." It is a very striking illustration of the influence which, by his example and his instructions, he exerted, not only over his children, but even over his servants, his domestics. We read at the seventh verse that "when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him." This was another trait in the character of this individual.

Oh, my brethren, with our far greater advantages, let us seriously inquire whether we, too, are seeking, not only ourselves to serve God, but to induce the members of our households to go and do likewise? We hear much in these days of government, of the best way of ruling empires, and nations, and communities; but it would be well for every man to keep in mind, every man particularly who is placed at the head of a family, that God has given him the government of a circle, for the mode in which he acts toward that circle he is one day to be called to a solemn account; well for every man to inquire whether, with reference to this stewardship he is thankful; or whether or not he is seeking to use it for God, and for the interest of the souls of his children and his servants; or whether it be not the case, that by an example of heedlessness about spiritual and eternal things, he is doing what he can to lead those connected with him down to death, to continue them in indifference also, and to impress on their minds-that it is a matter of no moment whether they seek God or not, whether they are prepared for death and for judgment, or not.

Still further, it is obvious from what we here read, not only that Cornelius was a man who feared God, who was devout, who gave alms, who was faithful to his own soul, and to the souls of the members of his family, but that he was a man who felt his guilt in the sight of God; who felt his actual dependence on the grace and strength of God. There is no way in which a sense of sin and of our dependence on God will be found more strikingly exemplified than by our prayer. The man who is self-righteous will pray continually but when he does pray his prayers will resemble that of the Pharisee who said, "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, idolaters, or even as this publican." The man, on the other hand, who feels his sinfulness in the sight of his Maker, who is sensible of his entire dependence on the grace of his Maker, will be found often on his knees seeking the forgiveness, the grace, and the strength that he stands in need of. So that by the fact of a man praying or not praying-by the fact of the frequency or the infrequency of a man's prayers, you may judge of the humility of his spirit in the sight of his Maker, of his sense of sin and dependence on God for pardon.

Respecting Cornelius, you will observe, it is stated in the conclusion of the second verse, that he "prayed to God alway." He was regular and constant in the observance of the stated times of devotion and prayer prescribed by the Jewish Church: but besides this we are taught from the expression that is employed, that, in addition to the observance of the stated periods of prayer, the spirit of supplication was often poured out on him; that his soul frequently