“He Ordained Twelve”
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ment. Christ is the great center, and they would approach one another
just in proportion as they approached the center.
When Jesus had ended His instruction to the disciples, He gathered
the little band close about Him, and kneeling in the midst of them,
and laying His hands upon their heads, He offered a prayer dedicating
them to His sacred work. Thus the Lord’s disciples were ordained to
the gospel ministry.
As His representatives among men, Christ does not choose angels
who have never fallen, but human beings, men of like passions with
those they seek to save. Christ took upon Himself humanity, that He
might reach humanity. Divinity needed humanity; for it required both
the divine and the human to bring salvation to the world. Divinity
needed humanity, that humanity might afford a channel of communi-
cation between God and man. So with the servants and messengers of
Christ. Man needs a power outside of and beyond himself, to restore
him to the likeness of God, and enable him to do the work of God; but
this does not make the human agency unessential. Humanity lays hold
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upon divine power, Christ dwells in the heart by faith; and through
co-operation with the divine, the power of man becomes efficient for
good.
He who called the fisherman of Galilee is still calling men to His
service. And He is just as willing to manifest His power through us
as through the first disciples. However imperfect and sinful we may
be, the Lord holds out to us the offer of partnership with Himself,
of apprenticeship to Christ. He invites us to come under the divine
instruction, that, uniting with Christ, we may work the works of God.
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding great-
ness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.”
2 Corinthi-
ans 4:7
, R. V. This is why the preaching of the gospel was committed
to erring men rather than to the angels. It is manifest that the power
which works through the weakness of humanity is the power of God;
and thus we are encouraged to believe that the power which can help
others as weak as ourselves can help us. And those who are themselves
“compassed with infirmity” should be able to “have compassion on the
ignorant, and on them that are out of the way.”
Hebrews 5:2
. Having
been in peril themselves, they are acquainted with the dangers and
difficulties of the way, and for this reason are called to reach out for
others in like peril. There are souls perplexed with doubt, burdened