The sin of Ananias, then, lay in this, that he gave a certain sum _as if it were the whole_. There was no necessity for his giving either the whole or the part. Had he hung back, when others were selling their possessions, he would have been pronounced _ungenerous_ in comparison with them. Had he brought a part, making no mistake about it that it was only a part, when they were giving all, then he would have been not _so generous_. But when he brought a part as if it were the whole, he added to his former selfishness and avarice _deceit and hypocrisy_. If he did not in so many words tell a lie, he did what was equally heinous, he _acted_ a lie. It is only when we thus clearly realise the enormity of Ananias's sin, that we can understand the reason of the dreadful doom that followed. "_And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down, and gave up the ghost_" (ver. 5). The judgment came not from men, but from God. As it was in God's sight--the sight of the living and heart-searching God--that the sin had been committed: so it was by the direct "visitation of God" that it was now punished. Nor was the awful lesson yet over. Three hours had scarcely elapsed since the young men had carried forth her husband, and buried him, when Sapphira, "_not knowing what was done, came in_." "_And Peter answered unto her_"--answered her look of amazement as she regarded the awe-struck faces of those present--"_Tell me, whether ye sold the land for so much_?" "_Yea, for so much_," she replied, adhering to the unholy compact into which, with Ananias, she had entered, and adding deceit in speech to his deceit in act. "_But Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and they shall carry thee out_" (verses 8, 9). It was the first intimation the unhappy woman had received of Ananias's death: and to the shame of her own consciousness of guilt, must have been added the feeling that she had a certain responsibility in what had befallen him. A word of remonstrance on her part might, at the beginning, have prevented the crime: it was too late now. "_And she fell down immediately at his feet, and gave up the ghost: and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her by her husband_" (ver. 10). And as the sacred historian again impressively adds, showing how deep was the effect produced: "_And great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all that heard these things_" (ver. 11).