1931 Young Mens Corner - page 194

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THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

It is in the second letter to Timothy that the Apostle refers to his approaching end, when he was evidently again a prisoner in Rome.

Now, only Luke is with him. The time of his martyrdom is come, having fought the good fight and finished the course and kept the faith J. SCOTT.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

"And so we came to Rome "; such is the terse summarizing of the manner of the Apostle’s entrance into the Imperial City.  As a

witness of Jesus Christ he has stood in religious Jerusalem, in philo-sophic Athens, and now he stands in political Rome, the mistress of the world, as God’s minister ; as having nothing yet possessing all things, as poor yet making many rich. Though a prisoner in bonds, yet he is upheld with a free spirit, and though under the surveillance of the soldiers of the Praetorium, to these and others he publishes peace and liberty.

Passing strange it may seem to the natural mind of the men of that day, yet such is the mystery of God’s will and of the gospel, that God did allow His servants to be imprisoned that their bonds might result in the progress of the gospel.

During the past twelve months we have traced the growth of the work of God from the days when there were 120 names together in Jerusalem, to the time when in that same city there were myriads of Jews that believed ; and from the early work amongst the Gentiles at Antioch, by those scattered from Jerusalem, to the welcoming of Paul by the brethren at Rome.  Far and wide flowed the streams of living truth from the saints of God, in the house of God, bringing refreshment to thousands, and onward advanced Christ’s lowly followers, led forward in triumph in Christ.  Over all the work could be written that phrase coined in our own time --" One thing for God. "

There was one God, one Lord, one Spirit, one apostolic circle, one doctrine of the Apostles called later " one Faith "; which expressed the one will of the one God for His people. There was in consequence One Testimony on earth -- the Fellowship, the house of God, however many might be the churches of God.

While the advance of Christianity, as it is called, may seem spectacular to us now, yet we have to remember that the work went on in the homes of the common people, amongst men and women who were regarded as the foolish things of this world, and carried on by men whose life was in danger continually.  Though the environment may have been drab, and the times dangerous, who can deny that the work was a glorious work which was destined to continue though powers and empires and cities crumbled to dust and desolution?

We trust that our studies. will leave some increased knowledge of the will of God with us, and some of that zeal, too, with which the work of God in that early day was carried on.

We wish all our friends every good wish for a coming year, when we hope, God permitting, to view part of that other great leader’s work -- Moses, the man of * God -- in the book of Exodus.

EDS.

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