Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come on you: and you shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem… No natural gift can suffice, and when any men have the power of God, failure is impossible. Yet do not let us suppose there is no room for gifts. If some people make the Cross of Christ of none effect through wisdom of words, others make it of none effect through lack of wisdom. There are some persons who put dulness for piety. Of the wise man we read that he "sought to find out acceptable words" — "words of delight," as it is literally. And of a greater than Solomon it is recorded that the people heard him gladly. Christianity invites and consecrates every gift of God and every grace and art of which man is capable. There is room for money, enterprise, methods, learning, and genius. All gifts are good when they are lost in the great purpose of the gospel; but any gifts are perilous, just in proportion as preacher or people are conscious of them. In a sham fight everybody admires the uniforms, the music, the horses, the precision of the march. But in a real fight there is a desperate earnestness that cannot stay to admire anything — that just girds itself up for death or victory. If there be the intensity, the downright earnestness, the baptism of fire, which longs to make Christ the conqueror, then the more gifts the better. But if that baptism be lacking, gifts are a peril and a snare. (M. G. Pearse.) Parallel Verses KJV: But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. |
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