376
Gospel Workers 1915
To the Jew, this form was a significant one. When a Jewish father
blessed his children, he laid his hands reverently upon their heads.
When an animal was devoted to sacrifice, the hand of the one invested
with priestly authority was laid upon the head of the victim. And when
the ministers of the church of believers in Antioch laid their hands
upon Paul and Barnabas, they by that action asked God to bestow His
blessing upon the chosen apostles, in their devotion to the specific
work to which they had been appointed.
At a later date, the rite of ordination by the laying on of hands was
greatly abused; unwarrantable importance was attached to the act, as if
a power came at once upon those who received such ordination, which
immediately qualified them for any and all ministerial work. But in
the setting apart of these two apostles, there is no record indicating
that any virtue was imparted by the mere act of laying on of hands.
There is only the simple record of their ordination, and of the bearing
that it had on their future work.
[443]
The circumstances connected with the separation of Paul and Barn-
abas by the Holy Spirit to a definite line of service, show clearly that
the Lord works through appointed agencies in His organized church.
Years before, when the divine purpose concerning Paul was first re-
vealed to him by the Saviour Himself, Paul was immediately afterward
brought into contact with members of the newly organized church at
Damascus. Furthermore, the church at that place was not long left in
darkness as to the personal experience of the converted Pharisee. And
now, when the divine commission given at that time was to be more
fully carried out, the Holy Spirit, again bearing witness concerning
Paul as a chosen vessel to bear the gospel to the Gentiles, laid upon
the church the work of ordaining him and his fellow-laborer. As the
leaders of the church in Antioch “ministered to the Lord, and fasted,
the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work
whereunto I have called them.”
God has made His church on the earth a channel of light, and
through it He communicates His purposes and His will. He does not
give to one of His servants an experience independent of and contrary
to the experience of the church itself. Neither does He give one man a
knowledge of His will for the entire church, while the church—Christ’s
body—is left in darkness. In His providence, He places His servants
in close connection with His church, in order that they may have less