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The Acts of the Apostles
eloquent testimony to the faithfulness of his labors and to his authority
to counsel, reprove, and exhort as a minister of Christ.
Paul regarded the Corinthian brethren as his testimonial. “Ye are
our epistle,” he said, “written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ
ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living
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God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.”
The conversion of sinners and their sanctification through the truth
is the strongest proof a minister can have that God has called him to
the ministry. The evidence of his apostleship is written upon the hearts
of those converted, and is witnessed to by their renewed lives. Christ
is formed within, the hope of glory. A minister is greatly strengthened
by these seals of his ministry.
Today the ministers of Christ should have the same witness as that
which the Corinthian church bore to Paul’s labors. But though in this
age there are many preachers, there is a great scarcity of able, holy
ministers—men filled with the love that dwelt in the heart of Christ.
Pride, self-confidence, love of the world, faultfinding, bitterness, envy,
are the fruit borne by many who profess the religion of Christ. Their
lives, in sharp contrast to the life of the Saviour, often bear sad testi-
mony to the character of the ministerial labor under which they were
converted.
A man can have no greater honor than to be accepted by God as
an able minister of the gospel. But those whom the Lord blesses with
power and success in His work do not boast. They acknowledge their
entire dependence on Him, realizing that of themselves they have no
power. With Paul they say, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also
hath made us able ministers of the new testament.”
A true minister does the work of the Master. He feels the im-
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portance of his work, realizing that he sustains to the church and to
the world a relation similar to that which Christ sustained. He works
untiringly to lead sinners to a nobler, higher life, that they may obtain
the reward of the overcomer. His lips are touched with a live coal from
the altar, and he uplifts Jesus as the sinner’s only hope. Those who
hear him know that he has drawn near to God in fervent, effectual
prayer. The Holy Spirit has rested upon him, his soul has felt the vital,
heavenly fire, and he is able to compare spiritual things with spiritual.