The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 215

as in the higher and spiritual, offices of the Church. In public esteem they must be blameless. ~ II. AcTIVE PIETY. The persons selected are to be" full of the Holy Ghost," or "full of the Spirit." The Church, to be enabled to judge who had such a baptism, mus{ observe some things which were recoanized sicrns of a fulness of the Divine indwelling and sealing. They would be two: "1, A high fervour of religious feeling, seen in rapidly developed Christian experience, advanced Christian knowledge, and unusual prayerfulness. 2. Active and energetic and self-denying labours for the welfare of the fellow-Christians and for the spread of the gospel. Men of the self-indulgent type are mischievous in Church offices; men of the retiring and monastic type are unfitted for Church offices; men of characteristic energy and business activity, if these are combined with warmth and fervour of devotion, are the men "full of the Holy Ghost," who still may nobly serve the Church and the Master. III. PRACTICAL FITNESS. The persons selected are also to be "full of wisdom ; " i.e. of practical sagacity an<l skill for the management of the particular work to which they are called. The Church must seek fitness. Each man must be set in his right place. and given his right work. Each can serve best in the sphere for which natural disposition and Divine endowment have fitted him. Such men ha.ve always been provided in the Church, but they usually need to be s01tght out. The best men a.re very seldom found fo!'Ward to press themselves into office, but when their :fitness is made plain to others, and leads to their selection and appointment, it is no true humility on their part to refuse the service. Impress that counted worthy to serve is the Christian's supreme honour.-R T. Ver. 4.-The work of the ministry. In no age of the Church hae it been more necessary than it is in this to exalt the ministry of the Church, to secure its freedom from secular cares, and to culture its spiritual life and efficiency. Thousands of Christian clergy long to be able to say the words of our text, and hopelessly repeat after Dr. ChalmerR, "I am bustled out ofmy spirituality.n We may help to a betterunder- standing of the work of the ministry if we cousider- L ITs PRIVATE AlID PBEPABATOBY FEATURES, "Give ourselves continually to prayer." The term "prayer," as here used, is a comprehensive one, and includes all that belongs to private piety and soul-culture, the nourishing of the Christian vitality, and enriching of the personal spiritual stores of thought, feeling, and truth. Ministers know, by a constant experience, how immediately their pleasure and their power in their work depend on their personal spiritual conditions, The soul must be full of God that is to speak well for God ; and Christian congregations should take it upon them, a.s a burden of duty, to free their pastors from care, both in his family and in the tem- poral matters of the Church, so that he ma.y "give himself unto prayer.n Prayer may here be ta.ken to include: 1. Self-culture-the full mastery of a man's own disposition and habits. 2. Mental culture-a sufficient training of the intellectual powers to ensure full and wise teaching of the people. 3. Scripture-culture-adequate acquaintance with the actual contents of God's revealed Word, and quickness of spiritual insight into its deeper meanings, suggestions, and mysteries. 4. Soul-culture-that kind of sym- pathetic, pe!'Sllasive force which seems to bring God near to man, in us, and man near to God, through us; the kind of power that only comes to us through " prayer and fasting." These things are the absolute essentials of true and successful ministerial work terda.y. The men of prayer are the men of power. II. !TB PUBLIC AND OFFICIAL FEATURES. "The ministry of the Word," or the service of the revealed Word. This may be set in two forms. 1. The ministry of the Scriptures; not merely in their contents, but in their applications, their examples, warnings, counsels, comfortings, etc. "Our ministers are the teachers of a Book, and each has more than a lifetime full of labour if he sets his heart upon declaring the whole revealed counsel of God." 2. The ministry of the Christ, as the very essence of the Scriptures, In this bringing out the special redemptive featureB of the Divine relation, and claiming personal surrender to, personal obedience to, and personal homage to, the risen, glorified, and reigning Lord. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." It may be further pressed that: (1) The Word, or message of salvatioo, needs a human ministry; " by the foolishnesa of preaching God would save tbe1n that believe," (2) That i, CJ[I. VJ. 1-15,] THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. 211