declaration of who is the true Worker of all that is wrought for men
by the hands of Christians. That disavowal has to be constantly
repeated by us, not so much to turn away men's admiration or
astonishment from us, as to guard our own foolish hearts from taking
credit for what it may please Jesus to do by us as His tools.

The declaration of Christ as the supreme Worker is postponed till
after the solemn indictment of the nation. But the true way to regard
the miracle is set forth at once, as being God's glorifying of Jesus.
Peter employs a designation of our Lord which is peculiar to these
early chapters of Acts. He calls Him God's 'Servant,' which is a
quotation of the Messianic title in the latter part of Isaiah, 'the
Servant of the Lord.'

The fiery speaker swiftly passes to contrast God's glorifying with
Israel's rejection. The two points on which he seizes are noteworthy.
'Ye delivered Him up'; that is, to the Roman power. That was the
deepest depth of Israel's degradation. To hand over their Messiah to
the heathen,--what could be completer faithlessness to all Israel's
calling and dignity? But that was not all: 'ye denied Him.' Did Peter
remember some one else than the Jews who had done the same, and did a
sudden throb of conscious fellowship even in that sin make his voice
tremble for a moment? Israel's denial was aggravated because it was
'in the presence of Pilate,' and had overborne his determination to
release his prisoner. The Gentile judge would rise in the judgment to
condemn them, for he had at least seen that Jesus was innocent, and
they had hounded him on to an illegal killing, which was murder as
laid to his account, but national apostasy as laid to theirs.

These were daring words to speak in the Temple to that crowd. But the