THE KING’S BUSINESS
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preaching. God bore this testimorfy by “granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.” Then division arose. Division always will arise when God uses men. The faithful preaching of God’s Word i by Spirit-filled men always causes division. The only way ydu can prevent division is by that meaningless and pointless preaching that arouses no one and leaves the whole mass undivided because all are alike unsaved. In this case the opposition became very violent and an attempt was made to do them physical injury, “to stone them,” but God showed His servants the infamous plot that had been formed against them, and Paul and Barnabas obeyed the injunction that Jesus gave for just such an emergency, and fled to another city (cf. Matt. 10:23). 'It took courage to do that, more courage than it would to stay.' A man of Paul’s temperament would rather have stayed and fought it out, but though they fled, they did not give up preaching, but ' to every city they visited “they preached the gospel.” Friday, January ig. Acts 14 : 8 - 10 . Paul and Barnabas had been driven out of Antioch in Pisidia and went to Iconium, but in turn they had been driven out of Iconium and had fled to “Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia.” The devil had driven them out, but he had driven them right into a great opportunity. The cripple whose case is here mentioned was not like many of the alleged cases of healing today, where the trouble is wholly or largely imaginary. It was a case of real lameness. The man was a full grown man and never hgd walked. The case was beyond all human skill, utterly Eopeless from the human standpoint, but there are no hope less cases with the Lord Jesus. In the ninth and tenth verses we have another point at which the healing recorded differed utterly from many of the alleged healings by “divine healers” and Christian Science practitiofiers today: there was no magnetic touch, there were no treatments, absent or present, there was just a look and a word,'
and then a perfect and not questionable, a real and not imaginary, cure. And there was still another point of difference, there was no charge for the treatment. The man did not claim to be healed, he was healed, he was visibly healed* He did not need to tell about his Jhealing, you could see it. He was not at all like the man who limps across the platform and thanks God that Mother Eddy has healed him from his lameness. He was not merely alleged to have been healed while having all the symptoms of his old trouble. Every trace of his old trouble had disappeared, not only “the thought” of being ,lame had vanished, but the fact of being lame had vanished; he “leaped up and walked.” What a world wide difference there is at every point between the healing here recorded and those that one hears about in testimony meetings of Christian Scientists, and that one hears about as the alleged cures of men and women who advertise . themselves as “divine healers” in our day. Paul did not attempt to heal every man he met. Heal ings of this kind seem to have been the exception rather than the rule. God attracted his attention to this particular man and gave Paul to see that he had “faith to be healed.” How did this man get this faith? Evidently by hearing Paul speak (cf. Rom. 10:17). Something of this kind wa's needed to gain Paul a hearing in -Lystra, and so this miraculous healing was granted. There may be times when some thing of this kind is needed today, and when it is needed God is willing to work, if we meet the conditions. Paul thoroughly studied and understood the case before he spoke the word: he fastened his^eyes upon the man and mastered the situation before he spoke. How 'unlike is this to the thoughtless, impulsive actions of some today who, imagine they are following in the footsteps of Paul and declare that some one is going to be healed, without any guidance from God, and without having thoroughly considered the case, and the. person is not healed, and God is dishonored. Paul commanded the man to do the natur-
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