And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;
This certain poor man, it appears, from Acts 4:22. was now at this time forty years old: and as he never had walked, having been lame from his birth, had most probably been often, if not daily, laid at this gate of the temple, by way of exciting the compassion of the feeling, to soften his indigence by their alms. And what can more strikingly represent the crippled state of our fallen helpless nature? Every son and daughter of Adam is born so, and hath been lame from the womb. We may be laid down as this poor man was, at the gate of the temple or in the way of ordinances, but never until an act of grace be passed upon us, shall we truly walk in the temple of the Lord. Forty years long the Lord was grieved with Israel, and the Lord said, they have not known my ways. And this cripple at the beautiful gate might have lain there unhealed, had not Peter and John passed by to give his feet and ankle bones strength, in the name of the Lord. And spiritually considered, as well as in body, there is no healing for the soul, but in Jesus.