But this happy state of things did not long continue. Satan and sin soon interrupted its trustful, unselfish course, and we never find again that they that believed had all things common, after the events recorded in Acts v. A man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira joined the Church, and seeing that others parted with their possessions, they also sold a piece of land, and laid a portion of the price at the apostles' feet, pretending that they had given up the whole of the money received. Peter, being divinely inspired, detected the falsehood, and Ananias fell down dead at his feet, was carried from the place of meeting, and buried immediately. Sapphira, ignorant of the dreadful fact, came to a later service, and repeating the lie to Peter, she also was struck with death in a moment, and was borne to her husband's grave. His seems to have been an _acted_, hers a _spoken_ lie. In each case the falsehood was partly true, but the intention was to deceive, and this is the very essence of a lie. It was hypocrisy. They "played a part," like actors on the stage. They pretended to be different people from what they really were, and they wanted to be thought of as loving, sincere, and generous Christians, while they were false-hearted and hollow all the time. May we never try to deceive others, to make a false impression--to seem better than we are. God sees and knows us altogether. May it be our chief desire to have our hearts and lives right with Him. But why did such a terrible doom fall upon these two false ones at the very beginning of the Christian era? In the olden time God's judgments fell upon transgressors in a sudden and fearful way, but under the gracious reign of Jesus we might scarcely have looked for such a display of wrath. Yet, though "God is love," He is also "a consuming fire," and there is not all that difference between the old dispensation and the present one which might at first appear. David was forgiven ages before, and these sinners were destroyed in Gospel times. Then, "God was greatly to be feared in the assembly of His saints," and still He must "be had in reverence of all them that are about Him." But what were the effects of this awful occurrence? "Great fear came upon the Church, and upon all who heard these things." This is just what we should have expected. "And of the rest" (of those who were not true and whole-hearted) "no one dared to join that company." So much the better, just as the disciples were better off without Judas Iscariot. A decaying corpse in the house injures the health of the living inmates, and false professors have never done good, but rather harm, to the true Church of God.