The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 188

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THE APOSTOLATE

148

ready contained in the word: "I have received mercy to be ful,"

i.e.,

By

in

my

work

faith-

of regulating the churches.

these ordinances and regulations the apostles not only gave

to the churches of those days a fixed form of

life, but they also prepared the channel that was to determine the future course of the life They did this in two ways of the Church.

First, partly

by the impressions they made upon the

life of

the

churches, and which were never wholly obliterated.

Secondly, partly also and more particularly by leaving us in

writing the image of that Church, and by sealing the principal features of these ordinances in their apostolic epistles.

Both these influences, that directly on the life of the churches, and that of the apostolic Scriptures, have taken care that the image of the Church should not be lost, and that, where it was in danger of such loss, by the grace of God it should be fully restored. This leads us to consider the second activity of the apostles,

whereby they operated upon the Church

of all ages, viz., the in-

heritance of their writings.

Our writings are the richest and raaturest products of the mind and the mind of the Holy Spirit received its richest, fullest, and most perfect expression when His meaning was put into documental form.

The literary labor of

the apostles deserves, therefore, careful

attention.

When

the apostles Peter and Paul preached the Gospel, healed

the sick, judged the unruly, and founded churches, giving them ordinances, they performed in each of these a great and glorious

work. e.g.,

And

yet the significance of

the Epistle to the

Romans

St.

Paul's labor

when he

wrote,

so far surpassed the value of preach-

ing and healing that the two can not be compared.

When

he wrote

that one little book, which in ordinary pamphlet form would

make

no more than three sheets of printed matter, he performed the From this little book the most far-reachgreatest work of his life. ing influences have gone forth. By this one little book St. Paul became a historic person. We know, indeed, that many of our present theologians reverse this order, and say " These apostles were profoundly spiritual men they lived near the Lord and had entered deeply into the mind of Christ; they labored and preached and occasionally wrote a few letters, some of which have come down to us; yet this letter-wri:

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