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The Fundamentals or table, if it be not taken into the heart. But when so re- ceived into the heart, the Word of God grows and increases. I t is assimilated into the life of him who receives it, and henceforth is a part of himself. It is important to note what stimulated this recorded in- crease of the Word of God. The Apostles, who were its cus- todians or depositories, had found themselves taken up with ministering to the material wants of the flock, and they brought this matter before the body of disciples saying, “It is not reason that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables,” and they asked that suitable men be appointed for that service while they should give themselves continually “to prayer and the ministry of the Word.” The growth of the Word then, accompanied by a great mul- tiplication of the number of disciples, was the result of faith- ful ministry of the Word—a ministry which was sustained by prayer. This method of promoting the growth of the Word of God is highly important. Every believer, having the Word, in his heart and in his mouth, may be and should be the means oT its propagation; and the extent to which the Word has been spread abroad in this inconspicuous way will not be known until the time when all things shall be manifested. There are great multitudes who would never get the Word from the printed page, or from the spoken sermon or address. Hence the importance of these epistles of Christ written-not with ink, but with the SPIRIT of the living God, not in tablets of stone, but in the fleshy tablets of the heart. (2 Cor. 3:3.) Such epistles are read by many who never read the printed page; and the eternal destiny of many souls may depend upon the distinctness and legibility of that writing. May our lives, as believers, be so transparent that the Word written in our hearts may be distinctly seen; and thus, as sons of God we shall shine “as lights in the world holding forth the Word of life” (Phil. 2:15, 16).
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