and teaching of these folk, seeing what they taught and believed, we may be able to capture the secret of power that enabled them to turn the world up side-down. How much we would give if we could have results such as they had in their day! As I think of this, I have my Bible "The Valley of Weeping" I have been through the valley of weeping. The valley of sorrow and pain; But the "God of all comfort" was with me. At hand to uphold and sustain. As the earth needs the clouds and the sunshine. Our souls need both sorrow and joy; So He places us oft in the furnace, The dross from the gold to destroy. When He leads through some valley of trouble, His powerful hand we can trace; For the trials and sorrows He sends us Are part of His lessons of Grace. Oft we shrink from the purging and pruning, Forgetting the Husbandman knows The deeper the cutting and paring, The richer the cluster that grows. As we travel through life's shadowed valley. Fresh springs of His love ever rise; And we learn that our sorrows and losses Are blessings just sent in disguise. So we'll follow wherever He leadeth, Though pathways be dreary or bright; For we've proof that our God can give comfort. Our God can give songs in the night. — Unknown open to the Book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 8 and I am considering what the Lord Jesus said when speaking to His disciples. He said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon, you; and ye shall be wit nesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and 20
The Church Today (continued) know them today — no youth officers, educational officers or musical directors. They had no outreach program as we think of it. In fact, if we were to com pare the churches in America today and the amazing way in which they are organized and equipped, one is tre mendously impressed. I was in a church recently that had 44 members on the office staff. That office is so effective in the things of God in that town, and yet, compared with the New Testament Church, how little they had! The folk of the early church had so little devel opment of skills, techniques, and per sonality, and yet such a tremendous result in the work for God, and I com pare that with the Christian church of today. How often there is phenominal activity and I wonder how much is really produced by this activity. What is the worthwhileness of all this in the lives of the people roundabout us? As I thought about this phase, I came really to one thing — that these peo ple in the early church, with no men and materials, no plans and no pro jects, all that they had was power, but this church was literally dynamic in its power and content. Wherever they went power was displayed and the mind and purposes of God were vindi cated through these witnesses — these mere nobodies, His power was radiated and demonstrated through them. The outreach of this New Testament Church was simply one of power. All they had was power and as I think of the church of today, in some of the churches in my own country, it could be said of them that they have so much, and yet the only thing they do not have is pow er — power to be operative, power to be effective. Now if this is so, and it is so, what is the secret behind it all? If we could find just a little simple secret that these people had and which we seem to have missed today, possibly the rea lizing of their secret might be the re leasing of the power in our lives. And I think that is what we can do — that is what I hope will happen. If, as we come to delve into the life
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