Ver. 24. _God glorified in Good Men._--We are taught to honour God in man and man in God. We are taught to avoid, on the one hand, all creature idolatry, and, on the other, that cynical severity, or ungrateful indifference to the Author of all good in man, which undervalues or neglects the excellencies which ought to be held up to admiration that they may be imitated by ourselves and others. Each of these extremes robs God of His just revenue of grateful praise. In what does creature idolatry consist but in honouring and trusting in the natural and acquired excellencies of creatures to the exclusion of God? But is there then no wisdom, no might, no excellence, in man? As it were absurd to deny this, it would be affectation to pretend to overlook it. Admire and deny not this wisdom, acknowledge this efficiency, and affect not to lower its estimate; only glorify God who worketh all in all. If He has chosen any of them to be more eminently His instruments for the furtherance of His purposes of mercy to mankind, He does it by virtue of His sovereignty. If He continues their useful lives, whilst you have their light rejoice in the light and glorify Him from whom it comes as its original and source; and when He chooses to quench these stars of His right hand in the darkness of death, still glorify Him. As to us, this is to remind us of our dependence on Him, who appointed their orbit and invested them with their different degrees of glory; and as to them, though their lustre fades from these visible skies, it is that it may be rekindled in superior glory in the kingdom of their Father.--_R. Watson._ * * * * * * * * +CHAPTER II.+ _CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._ Ver. 1. +Then fourteen years after.+--From Paul's conversion inclusive. +I went again to Jerusalem.+--The same visit referred to in Acts xv., when the council of the apostles and Church decided that Gentile Christians need not be circumcised. Ver. 2. +I went up by revelation.+--Quite consistent with the fact that he was sent as a deputy from the Church at Antioch (Acts xv. 2). The revelation suggested to him that this deputation was the wisest course. +Communicated privately to them which were of reputation.+--It was necessary that the Jerusalem apostles should know beforehand that the Gospel Paul preached to the Gentiles was the same as theirs, and had received Divine confirmation in the results it wrought on the Gentile converts. Ver. 3. +Neither Titus+ [not even Titus], +being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.+--The apostles, constrained by the firmness of Paul and Barnabas, did not compel or insist on his being circumcised. Thus they virtually sanctioned Paul's course among the Gentiles, and admitted his independence as an apostle. To have insisted on _Jewish_ usages for _Gentile_ converts would have been to make them essential parts of Christianity.