Acts 10:2

2. Devout… feared God Men of deep thought and solemn consciousness of sin at this time looked for a true, infinite, holy God, by whose worship the reason would be satisfied and the conscience be assured of divine mercy. Such men often found the true God in Israel, and hence when stationed in the Holy Land (like Cornelius and the centurion of Luke 8:2, and perhaps Acts 27:3) they would first be attracted to the synagogue, with perhaps some repugnance to circumcision and the heavy Mosaic ritual, but would find true relief in Christianity, both from the ritual and the condemnation of sin.

With all his house His own family under the influence of his own devout spirit; his official aids, like the devout soldier of Acts 10:7, were selected for their like spirit.

Always With established and regular home devotion.

Cornelius, had not the Gospel been brought to his knowledge, would have had his piety, under the influence of that Spirit granted to all sincere and earnest souls, completed unto salvation by the atonement of the unknown Redeemer. Millions of holy men have by this same unknown Saviour gone, even from pagan lands, to glory. Where the Gospel is rightly presented such thirsty souls drink it in powerfully; and by such men and the energetic Church combined the Gospel is destined to overflow the world with a deluge, not of destruction, but of universal salvation. It is the existence of such spirits in all lands which constitute the encouragement for our missionary Church and the hope of a dying world. They are the scattered tinder in the pagan mass to catch the Gospel spark and spread it to a flame.