Ananias and Sapphira were anxious, amidst such fine specimens of disinterested goodness, not to appear backward. They might be conscious that the respectability of their situation, and the zeal of their profession, excited expectations amongst the other disciples; and though they were certainly under no obligation to practise this profuse charity, they seemed unwilling to lose the opportunity of enhancing their fame: We may justly suspect, that a long struggle was maintained between the love of money and the love of applause. They consulted together;--they were anxious to devise an expedient by which they might gratify their vanity, and yet retain at least the principal part of their property. Ambition and avarice were to be alike gratified, but they were to contrive the concealment of their hypocrisy. With this view, they agreed upon a course of meanness and dissimulation, which involved the most tragical consequences. Ananias seems to have proposed, and Sapphira to have abetted, the transaction. With her consent, which he chose to obtain, and which might have been legally necessary, their estate was sold; and _part_ only of the purchase-money was laid at the apostles' feet, as if it were the whole, and as if Christian charity had dictated this liberal distribution of it. Hypocrites, we perceive, are frequently very much influenced by example and popular applause. How many ostentatious charities may be traced to this polluted source! It is not to do good, to assist the needy, to promote the cause of Jesus Christ; but to escape censure, or to purchase renown, that men often unite in pious contributions. They will slot be outshone by others, or submit to the dishonor of being reputed niggardly and ungenerous. But however such persons abound in _visible_ acts of benevolence, their charity does not resemble the subterraneous rivulet, that revives the drooping flower, and refreshes the languishing herb, wherever it directs its _secret_ and _silent_ course.