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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 3
the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth,
buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church,
and upon as many as heard these things.”
This signal manifestation of the wrath of God upon the dissemblers
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was a check which Infinite Wisdom knew was needed. The church
would have been disgraced, if, in the rapid increase of professed
Christians, there were persons professing to serve God, but worshiping
mammon. There are many Ananiases and Sapphiras in our day, whom
Satan tempts to dissemble, because of their love of money. By various
plans and excuses they withhold from the treasury of God the means
intrusted to them for the advancement of the cause of God. Should the
punishment of Ananias and Sapphira be visited upon this class, there
would be many dead bodies in our churches requiring burial.
This marked judgment upon two avaricious hypocrites, whose sin
had been detected by the evidence of the Spirit of God to the apostles,
excited the reverential awe of all the new converts. From that time
there was greater caution manifested by them, and a more thorough
self-examination, testing the motives of their actions. In any great
religious movement there is always a class who are carried away by
the current of feeling, but who soon reveal selfishness and vain-glory.
Such persons can never be an honor to the cause they advocate.
The discernment of the apostles in detecting hidden sin added to
the confidence of their brethren in them and the message which they
preached. The apostles continued their work of mercy, in healing the
afflicted and in proclaiming a crucified and risen Saviour, with great
power. Numbers were continually added to the church by baptism, but
none dared join them who were not united heart and mind with the
believers in Christ. Multitudes flocked to Jerusalem, bringing their
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sick, and those who were vexed by unclean spirits. Many sufferers
were laid in the streets as Peter and John passed by, that their shadows
might fall upon and heal them. The power of the risen Saviour had
indeed fallen upon the apostles, and they worked signs and miracles
that daily increased the number of believers.
These things greatly perplexed the priests and rulers, especially
those among them who were Sadducees. They saw that if the apostles
were allowed to preach a resurrected Saviour, and to do miracles in
his name, their doctrine that there was no resurrection of the dead
would be rejected by all, and their sect would soon become extinct.