and honour of being Christ's witnesses confined
to the Church's ministers? Or does it extend to
and fall on the members of the Church as well?
We answer, We see nothing in the words of Christ
here, or in His teachings elsewhere, limiting His
witnesses to a single class of followers. No
doubt His Apostles were in the forefront of
those first addressed, but all of the one hundred
and twenty names of the Church in the upper
room were undoubtedly included. So are the
members of the Church in all succeeding time,
as are the successors of the first ministerial
witnesses of Christ. Some of the successors of
the membership early proved themselves worthy
witnesses for Christ. For example,
For example, the men
who planted the great Church of Antioch (in
Syria) were not Apostles but members of the
Church. Their zeal and work are recorded, but
not their names, in the eleventh chapter of the
Acts. So in one way or another it is the
privilege and duty of every Christian to bear
witness for Christ.
How many Church members
are found in our own day bearing faithful witness
for Christ in destitute places, in mission churches,
in Sabbath schools and neglected districts? In-
deed, the members, not the ministers, are often
the pioneers in sparsely settled places, for collect-
ing and organising new churches. Also testifying
to a personal experience of Christ in the heart has
become a characteristic feature of bodies of Chris-
tians, so that we may regard it as the privilege of
all capable members of the Church, as well as of all
ministers, to be replenished with the power of the
Holy Spirit to be faithful witnesses of Christ.

2. Let us further consider the extent to which,

or the sphere in which they were to bear witness for Christ. The field in which they are to bear witness is not left an open question to be decided either by the witnesses or the Church. It was settled by the Lord when He designated Jerusalem as its centre, or starting-point, and the ends of the earth its circumference or boundaries. Says Christ, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." The place first named was the one in which Christ's life character, death, and resurrection were best known. Anything false in their witness would have surely been detected. But it was true and feared nothing, it opened into a field of labour wider than the apostles, up to that time, had dreamt of, and even wider than has yet been reached by apostolic zeal or the missionary enterprise of the whole Church. When they first went forth as preachers of the kingdom of heaven their sphere was restricted to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then Christ commanded them, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not." But the Master soon began to teach them, and gradually they learned that He had other sheep than those of the Israelitish fold, that, besides the scattered seed of Abraham, he came to seek and save the lost of every race and nation.

Their view of the sphere of witness-bearing began to widen with their growing experience, It widened still further with the scattering of the disciples in the persecution which arose about Stephen. At that time Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ to the Samaritans,

with such power that the greater part of the city believed. The success of the movement so surprised the Church at Jerusalem that they sent two apostles to inspect and, if necessary, regulate the movement. But they could only approve and expand the work, and confirm the new Christians in the faith. About the same time Peter, by a Divine monition, went down to Cæsarea to instruct the Roman centurion, Cornelius, and his family. There, in a marvellous way, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. Thus the sphere widened not only to the limits of Palestine and Israel, but to the Gentile world. God was even then preparing a new and efficient herald to carry the good tidings far away to the ends of the earth. Saul, the zealous persecutor, becomes the intrepid apostle of Christ, and is designated by His Master, who called Him to be the apostle of the Gentiles.

Our text also makes prophetic pre-announcement of the sphere in which the first witnesses of Christ should bear testimony for Him. The history of their work corresponds with and verifies the predictions. Their work conveys the promise of an onward march of the Gospel till it reaches the most distant portions of our world and race. We must never forget that there is a plenitude of unspent power stored in the Church to complete the work of evangelising the world. That newness of life in her members, as well as of efficiency in her ministry, springs from the power of the Holy Spirit which abides in her. The life that is in the members of the body of Christ is one and the same Divine life with that of the head. Why then should we

not have life and power more abundantly than we have them? May it not be because we do not rely on and seek the Holy Spirit with sufficient faith and importunity. The Church is still held responsible as Christ's witness, for carrying His Gospel "to the uttermost part of the earth."

"Spirit Divine, attend our prayers,

And make our hearts Thy home,
Descend with all Thy gracious power,
O come, great Spirit, come!
Come as the wind, with rushing sound
And Pentecostal grace,

That all of women born may see

The glory of Thy grace."

VI

THE CROSS, OUR SUPREME

INSPIRATION

"God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the World is crucified unto me, and I unto the World." -GAL. vi. 14.

"In the Cross of Christ I glory,

Towering o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.

When the woes of life o'ertake us,
Hopes deceive and fears annoy,
Never shall the Cross forsake me,
Lo, it glows with peace and joy."

THE views of our Apostle concerning the Cross of Christ had greatly changed from what they were, when he was first introduced to us in the sacred record, as "a young man named Saul." Then the Cross of Christ was an offence to him, for it was to him the symbol of a new superstition, whose founder was a malefactor, who had expiated his crimes by a shameful death upon the Cross. When the protomartyr, Stephen, was stoned to death, Saul approved of his persecution and kept the garments of the false witnesses who testified against him and led on the infuriated mob which stoned him to death. Later, he became the avowed enemy and persecutor of Christ's followers, "bringing whomsoever he found, whether men or women, bound to Jerusalem." While on one of these