Acts 8:7

“Many of those having unclean spirits, roaring with a great voice went out of them.” “Crying” in E. V. is the Greek boaoo, by whose pronunciation you see that it means to roar like the lowing of an ox. Hence we see that those great, stalwart heathen men, under the mighty conviction of the Holy Ghost, through the preaching of this red-hot young Israelite, threw their mouths open and roared like oxen. I have seen much of this kind. Lord, help us to get back to the “roaring,” knock-down convictions (1

Corinthians 14:25) of the Apostolic age. Philip in Samaria met the obstruction so common in all ages, i. e., the devil's preacher, Simon Magus, cultured, influential, wealthy and wielding an apparently omnipotent influence among the people. Nothing is too hard for the grace of God. Consequently, Satan's preacher comes down at the mourners' bench along with his members and gets religion. Some doubt this, but Acts 8:13 is conclusive: “And Simon himself also believed, and having been baptized, was accompanying Philip.” If uninspired man had said that “Simon believed,” I would doubt his conversion; but since the infallible Holy Ghost, the Author of l true and saving faith, here certifies that “Simon believed,” we dare not gainsay. However, it is perfectly clear that he failed to get sanctified under the preaching of Peter and John, and consequently lapsed into condemnation like millions of others who, having been truly converted and refusing to obey the call of the Holy Ghost and go on into holiness, forfeit their justification and, with Simon Magus, plunge into a backslider's hell. The love of money which would have ruined Jacob had he not received his Peniel sanctification twenty years after his Bethel conversion, and did drag poor Judas Iscariot from the apostleship down to hell, also proved fatal in the case of Simon Magus.