Article March 23, 1912 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from Frank N. Riale, John Richards Brown, R. J. Campbell, Harry Adams Hersey, Charles R. Brown

[Rev. Frank N. Riale, Ph.D., D.D., in Christian Work and Evangelist.]

No one can read the New Testament without seeing, as clear as a beam of sunlight, that the threefold purpose of Jesus in his earth-coming was to forgive all sins, to heal all manner of diseases, and to grant unto his followers the gift of the Holy Ghost. His very name makes clear the first great purpose, they shall "call him Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins." His whole life-work proclaimed the second, "He went about ... healing all manner of sickness." The third was the sole theme of his last days, when he turned over and over again kaleidoscopically the wonderful message of the Comforter whom he would send unto them, who, when he should come, would lead them into all truth, and would bring Christ's joy into their hearts and make their joy forever full.

It is just as clearly stated in the New Testament that the very purpose of the Christ should ever be our purpose also. We are to forgive men their sins. "Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." He likewise tells, at his parting moments, that his followers are to heal all manner of diseases and the works that he did they shall also do, and greater than any that they had beheld in the moments of his miracles. They were to give unto the believer the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It was the common question asked of the disciples, as they journeyed from place to place in the founding of the new church, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" If this new charisma was not possessed, they laid their hands on them and prayed, and they received the Holy Ghost. The power bestowed was no figment of the imagination; it was a mighty power of God unto salvation that fell on the believers like the marvelous manifestation of the Spirit at Pentecost.

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