“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 who are 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 office is closed, the young men go either to a religious assembly, or reading room or, alas, to the saloon, or theater or gambling house, etc. “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. When he gets free from present claims you will be able to judge of the pursuits and companions of his heart’s selection. Two men may be seen standing 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 they are “let go” — and you will find one making his way to the saloon, and the other to his home and then to a religious meeting. Thus it is always. “Being let go.” we soon find out “our 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, the infidel and the atheist? O 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 trumpet 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, dear friend, to make close, earnest, personal work of it this very hour. Do not trifle with your immortal soul, and with a boundless eternity. God is in earnest — Christ is in earnest — the Holy Ghost is in earnest — Satan is in earnest — and will you trifle? Will you delay? “Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). May God the Holy Ghost lead you, now, to believe in the love of God, and lean fully, and without the 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.