Seeker for Truth
93
Peter said, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is
accepted with Him.”
Then to that company of attentive hearers the apostle preached
Christ—His life, His miracles, His betrayal and crucifixion, His resur-
rection and ascension, and His work in heaven as man’s representative
and advocate. As Peter pointed those present to Jesus as the sinner’s
only hope, he himself understood more fully the meaning of the vision
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he had seen, and his heart glowed with the spirit of the truth that he
was presenting.
Suddenly the discourse was interrupted by the descent of the Holy
Spirit. “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on
all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which
believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that
on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For
they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.
“Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should
not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.”
Thus was the gospel brought to those who had been strangers and
foreigners, making them fellow citizens with the saints, and members
of the household of God. The conversion of Cornelius and his house-
hold was but the first fruits of a harvest to be gathered in. From this
household a wide-spread work of grace was carried on in that heathen
city.
Today God is seeking for souls among the high as well as the
lowly. There are many like Cornelius, men whom the Lord desires
to connect with His work in the world. Their sympathies are with
the Lord’s people, but the ties that bind them to the world hold them
firmly. It requires moral courage for them to take their position for
Christ. Special efforts should be made for these souls, who are in so
great danger, because of their responsibilities and associations.
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God calls for earnest, humble workers, who will carry the gospel
to the higher class. There are miracles to be wrought in genuine
conversions,—miracles that are not now discerned. The greatest men
of this earth are not beyond the power of a wonder-working God. If
those who are workers together with Him will be men of opportunity,
doing their duty bravely and faithfully, God will convert men who