Acts 3:6

Acts 3:6. Then Peter said. Recognising from something he could read in that face, marked by years of suffering and want, that lure was true faith.

Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee. Centuries after, Cornelius a Lapide beautifully relates how Thomas Aquinas once came to Pope Innocent IV. at a moment when the pontiff had before him a great treasure of gold. ‘See, Thomas,' said Innocent, ‘see, the Church can no more say as it did in those first days, “Silver and gold have I none.”' ‘True, holy father,' replied Thomas Aquinas, ‘but the Church of the present day can hardly say to a lame man what the Church of the first days said, “Arise and walk”' (Cornelius à Lapide, quoted by Wordsworth). Peter and his companions in the Church of Jerusalem were compelled literally to comply with their Master's injunction (Matthew 10:9), ‘Provide neither gold not silver in your purses.' The community of possessions, a state of things which prevailed then generally (though not universally) in the city, had the effect of producing an ever increasing poverty among the brethren.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. When their Master performed a miracle, His language was that of direct command, as in Luke 5:24: ‘I say unto thee, Arise,' and the palsied man rose up healed; while Peter likewise bids the helpless sufferer ‘arise,' but he commands in his Master's name, by the power of which the wonder-work was to be accomplished.