Ananias, to the one on the road to Damascus and to the other in the
city. It is the Lord to whom Peter refers Aeneas when he says, 'Jesus
Christ maketh thee whole.' It was the Lord that 'opened the heart of
Lydia.' It was the Lord that appeared to Paul in Corinth, and said to
him, 'I have much people in this city'; and again, when in the prison
at Jerusalem, He assured the Apostle that he would be carried to
Rome. And so, at every turn in the narrative, we find that Christ is
presented as influencing men's hearts, operating upon outward events,
working miracles, confirming His word, leading His servants, and
prescribing for them their paths, and all which they do is done by
the hand of the Lord with them confirming the word which they spoke.
Jesus Christ is the Actor, and He only is the Actor; men are His
implements and instruments.

The same point of view is suggested by another of the characteristics
of this book, which it shares in common with all Scripture
narratives, and that is the stolid indifference with which it picks
up and drops men, according to the degree in which, for the moment,
they are the instruments of Christ's power. Supposing a man had been
writing Acts of the Apostles, do you think it would have been
possible that of the greater number of them he should not say a word,
that concerning those of whom he does speak he should deal with them
as this book does, barely mentioning the martyrdom of James, one of
the four chief Apostles; allowing Peter to slip out of the narrative
after the great meeting of the Church at Jerusalem; letting Philip
disappear without a hint of what he did thereafter; lodging Paul in
Rome and leaving him there, with no account of his subsequent work or
martyrdom? Such phenomena--and they might be largely multiplied--are
only explicable upon one hypothesis. As long as electricity streams
on the carbon point it glows and is visible, but when the current is