"And being let go, they went to their own company.”
Acts 4:23.
THIS simple statement presents a beautiful example of the instincts and tendencies of the divine nature. We always find that when a man is released from some special engagement—set free from some special demand upon him—in a word, when he is "let go," he will, most probably, seek the company of those most congenial to his tastes. When parade is over, the soldiers betake themselves to their various associates and pursuits. When a school breaks up, the pupils do the same. When the warehouse or counting-house is closed, the young men betake themselves, some to the religious assembly, some to the reading-room, some, alas! to the tavern, the theater, or the gambling-house. "Being let go," they are almost sure to go "to their own company." It is when a man is fully at leisure that you see what his bent and tendency really are. Two men may stand behind the same counter from eight in the morning till six in the evening; but mark them when the clock strikes six! Observe them when "let go"! One makes his way to the taproom, and the other to some place of worship or religious instruction. "Being let go," they soon find out "their own company.”
Reader, how do you act when "let go"? What company do you seek? Do you betake yourself to those who, like the assembly in Acts 4, occupy themselves in holy worship, prayer, and praise? Or do you own as your companions the giddy and the thoughtless, the profane and the immoral, the scoffer and the skeptic? Oh! search and see. Just ask yourself, when next you take your seat in the midst of your own company, "Would I, at this moment, like to hear the voice of the archangel and the trump of God?" Are you washed from your sins in the blood of Jesus? Are you saved? Are you at peace with God? Let me beseech you to make close, personal work of it this very hour. Do not trifle with your soul and with a boundless eternity. God is in earnest—Christ is in earnest, the Holy Spirit is in earnest—Satan is in earnest—and will you trifle? "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2). May the Holy Spirit lead you now to believe in the love of God, and learn fully, and without a shadow of a doubt, upon the perfect sacrifice of Christ. Then you will seek the "company" of the redeemed on earth; and when "let go" from every weight and hindrance down here, you will join "your own company" in the mansions above. C. H. M.