Article April 25, 1903 Issue

Religious Items

with contributions from F. W. Gunsaulus, Joseph Parker, T. W. Campbell, William C. Gannett, Ichabod Spencer

There is hardly a congregation in which there is not some saint, who, without many advantages of education, by spiritual meditation, by prayer, and the inward illumination of the Spirit, has gained an insight into the Gospel that the pastor of the church may well covet. And this is true, though the pastor and the saint enjoy the same knowledge of the facts, as Apollos and Priscilla did not. However we may explain it, there is an insight into spiritual truth and a power in using it that does not come from investigation and reasoning, but from what Luke calls the reception of the Holy Spirit.

And yet while we acknowledge in the fullest sense the correctness of this statement we should not forget that Luke distinctly recognizes the fact that the attainments of Apollos equipped him for a service which the lowly artisan could not render. After Apollos had shared their experience he was endowed for the largest usefulness. Acts, 18 : 28 is a case in point. It is said, "He powerfully confuted the Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ." [R.V.] Priscilla might have done that for a little company of sympathetic spirits. Apollos could do that on a great scale against opposition. His hearers felt that they had a match on their own plane, and that his disciplined power commanded respect for his distinctively spiritual message. And if we adopt the venerable tradition that the epistle to the Hebrews is from the pen of Apollos, every time we read it we are aware of how transcendent human gifts may be utilized by the Spirit.

It is a mistake, therefore, to assume that because the Spirit imparts a knowledge of the Gospel to be derived from no other source, therefore the only instruction needed is that of the Spirit. Human faculty has an invaluable service in the work of extending the Kingdom of God. By itself it is not enough. But when it is informed, vitalized, and inspired by the inner illumination, we have the man of God thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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