t h e k i n g ' s B u s i n e s s dropped the business of ministering the charities of the church. Some would persuade us today that ministering the alms was the better kind of praying; but the inspired apostles did not esteem it so. No one can be a soul-winning preacher or Sunday School teacher who allows anything, no matter how import ant it may seem to be, to crowd waiting upon God in prayer out of his life. If you and I have so much to do for the Lord that we have no time for quiet communion with the Lord himself, we have more on hand than the Lord ever asked us to undertake. 3. Praising. See 2:46, 47. The gen uine Christian is a happy Christian, a praising Christian. See how full of praise is the book of Psalms, the best devotional book in the world. The praise-full life is always a victorious life. “ Praising ■God for our blessings extends them; Praising God for our mis eries ends them.” 4. Ministering. Amongst the con verts at Jerusalem were some, probably many, not very well-to-do persons. “ The poor have the Gospel preached to them” is one of the sure signs of the genuine Gospel. This action by which everything was thrown into a common treasury was an entirely voluntary affair. There was neither rule nor compulsion. “While it remained was it not thine own? and after it was sold was it not in thine own power?” said Peter to Ananias. Broth erly love could not bear to see a brother in need, and so divided up with him. To join the church as one joins a fraternal organization for the insurance features would be as wrong as was what Ananias did; but should the church, if it really is an organization of brethren in Christ, allow any of its members to be in want? See James 2:14-18. One of the traits of the early Christians that made a pro found impression on the heathen sur rounding them was their generous giv ing to not only their own needy ones but to needy heathen as well. A bit of
700 have wrought such havoc in our semin aries and pulpits if our own spiritual constitution .had not been so run down through neglect of real evangelistic preaching and soul-winning effort? The most (spiritually) healthy lay man (as well as minister) is the one who is really winning, or at least hon estly endeavoring to win men to Jesus. “ In 1835 seven men in a shoemaker’s shop in Hamburg resolved to attempt in person to spread the Good News. Within 20 years they reported 50 churches, 10,000 converts, 500,000 Bibles, 8,000,000 pages of tracts, and 50,000,000 people had heard the Gos pel. At the same rate 250 people could reach the entire population of the world in 30 years. Five hundred disciples each winning one soul a year, and each convert doing the same, could reach the whole race in 12 years.” It used to be said that Queen Vic toria could have had a proclamation published in every part of her world wide empire in 18 months. It did not take her grandson, George V, one-third of that time to summon his soldiers from the farthest ends of the earth to the defense of the empire. But the church of Jesus Christ, professing loyalty to Him, after 1900 years cannot look up into His face and say, “ Lord, what thou didst command is done,” Luke 14:22. Notice that the apostles were so engrossed in prayerfully preaching the Word that they refused to allow even the highly important work of adminis tering the alms of the church to inter fere with it. How different from some modern ministers, and minister’s critics, who seem to think that the church ought to be doing about everything else under the sun other than preaching the Word. 2. Praying. See 2: 42 and 6:4. Prayer was a part of the regular life of the apostles and of all the other believers. But the apostles ministering the Word heeded time to pray so truly that they
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