“And worketh righteousness.” It is in order now to speak on this point in the text.  We know that God is just, “and there is no unrighteousness in him.”  The prophet Daniel in his confession said:  “O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee.”  To work righteousness, then, is to do the righteous will of the Father.  All works of righteousness have their origin in supreme love to God and subordinate love to man.  “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” covers the ground.  It is very much the same as that other saying of Jesus:  “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them, for this is the law and the prophets.”  This command comprehends all the possible relations of men with each other.  It takes in the social, moral, civil, commercial, national and religious relations of the human family in all time; and when a man’s conduct in these varied relations is governed by the Lord’s golden rule, he is working righteousness in the eye of God and is accepted of him. “He that worketh righteousness” takes in every human being that lives a good life.  But no one can live a good life without help from the Lord.  Jesus says:  “Without me ye can do nothing.”  Cornelius had help from God.  He feared God.  He worshiped God.  He was a devout man himself, and all his house had the same reverence for God.  He had also heard of Christ, especially of the witness borne by the Holy Spirit, at his baptism, and that of the Father acknowledging his divine sonship.

But Cornelius needed instruction in matters pertaining to the ordinances of God’s house.  His knowledge and faith were sufficient for the purposes of living a good, righteous life.  He was a man of prayer.  He also possessed that element of goodness which Paul says is greater even than faith, and that element is charity.  Notice, the angel said to him:  “Thy prayers and thine alms are gone up as a memorial before God.”  The angel included nothing else.  In our acknowledgments of regard and favor in the behalf of any one we refer to one’s character and standing in the eyes of men.  But the angel made no such reference.  From this we may learn what God loves most in his people, and that is LOVE.  The love of Cornelius for God was manifested by his prayers.  Loving, faithful, trustful prayers are the proof that we love God:  and kindness, gentleness and goodness toward others, the proof that we love our neighbor.  This was manifest in his alms.

But the Lord wanted Cornelius to arise and mount a higher plane in the life of righteousness:  a high plane of holy intelligence and knowledge respecting himself and his people.  The Holy Ghost falling upon him and the rest brought with it the illuminating power, in verification of the Lord’s words:  “The Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things.”  This inflowing power, teaching, quickening, regenerating the soul, is what Jesus means by a man’s being