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In this brief but emphatic record of the labours of the first apostles we may find a pattern after which to model ours, in the prosecution of that great work to which we have been set apart.

I. Examine THE COMPREHENSIVE CHARACTER OF THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE DELINEATED — marking its adaptation to the end for which it was originally instituted. The recovery of the sinner — his restoration to the Divine image and favour, is the revealed purpose of God. We must not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. Herein we perceive what should constitute the staple of our preaching. It is Christ, in the glory of His person, in the all-sufficiency of His offices, in the riches of His grace.

1. To preach Jesus is to announce Him as a Peacemaker, who brought in, by His one oblation of Himself once offered, an atonement. It is to herald Him as the Saviour, to the exclusion of all other humanly-devised methods, wherein salvation is sought; a Saviour, suitable and sufficient — suitable as man, sufficient as God — His deity being the altar upon which His humanity was immolated; "the altar sanctifying the gift."

2. To preach Jesus is "to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins"; a righteousness resulting from His obedience, at once active and passive, exacted and rendered as the sinner's substitute, and imparted unto all who exercise faith in Him.

3. Further, the title of Christ is applied to the Saviour. Christ, the anointed Prophet, Priest, Advocate, and King.

4. It is further recorded of the apostles that they did not restrict their labours to the service of the temple, but that they instructed "from house to house." "We watch for souls," and should therefore have our people under constant inspection, and ever-wakeful supervision. By such a course we shall best prove that we are indeed alive to their highest interests; by this will the cause of religion and morality and public tranquillity be best advanced; by this, too, shall we be best prepared for meeting that solemn inquiry, "Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?"

5. Another remark upon this part of our subject is suggested by the expression, "they taught Jesus Christ." It is in the power of conduct, as well as of words, to convey instruction. "Ye," said our Lord, "are the light of the world." Like a moral Pharos, enkindled from above, we are placed in a direct line with the haven of eternity, in order that, by the concentrated beams of purity of doctrine and of conduct, we may guide the endangered sinner across these perilous waters, wherein many are engulphed and for ever lost. We are to be "ensamples unto our flock," giving strength and power to our public admonitions by the consistency of our private deportment. That which we have "heard and seen," tasted, and are enjoying, we declare unto our perishing fellow sinners; and this invests our addresses with a charm and power which nothing short of it could possibly impart. Ours it is to utter testimony confirmed by experience; and who can fail to admit its force, in its peculiar fitness for the end designed?

II. THE CONSTANCY AND FULNESS OF DEDICATION TO THEIR WORK EXHIBITED BY THE APOSTLES, furnishing for our imitation a just and impressive pattern. It was a noble declaration of the twelve, "We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word." They appear to have been influenced by an "inconceivable severity of conviction, that they had one thing to do." Upon this one object the whole force of their mind was expended. For its furtherance they were content to suffer the loss of all things, deeming reproach an honour, suffering a privilege, a martyr's death a gain. The necessity for this self-sacrificing devotedness still exists, in order to our reaching the highest style of ministerial excellence.

1. The ministry of the gospel, in its widest acceptation, is emphatically the work we have to do. Well may we, engaged in such an undertaking, affirm in the language of Nehemiah, "I am doing a great work." The magnitude of that work will be further seen in the diversity of the employment connected with its due discharge. To the Christian pastor belongs the study of human character in its every different aspect. He will have to adapt his resources to the peculiarities of every rank and age in the Church and in the world.

2. The disproportion between our powers and the undertaking upon which they are to be expended is another consideration calculated to prove the necessity for the accumulated force of all our powers in its performance.

3. Moreover, we may observe that the amount of our success will bear some proportion to our efforts. The seed will reproduce itself, and the greater the quantity sown in prayer and watered by that gracious influence which faithful sustained supplication calls down, the more abundant will be the crop. The manifestation of this success may be for a while denied; we may be permitted to toil on, witnessing but little fruit of our labour; nevertheless, the result is certain.

(Henry Abney, B. A.)

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KJV: And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

WEB: Every day, in the temple and at home, they never stopped teaching and preaching Jesus, the Christ.