THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER.
While the disciples of Jesus waited in Jerusalem for the gift of the
Holy Spirit--the Comforter--who was to come and teach them all things,
and bring all the Lord's words to their remembrance, they were much in
prayer, and looked to the Lord for direction about the things of the
Kingdom.
Peter did much to help the others, for his faith had grown stronger,
and he was no longer afraid. Many who had partly believed in Jesus
before His crucifixion, and who had come to believe in the risen Lord,
joined the little band, until they numbered one hundred and twenty at
one of their meetings, and the mother of Jesus was among them. At this
meeting Peter proposed that some disciple who could be a witness with
them to the Lord's resurrection should be appointed to the place that
Judas once held in the circle of the twelve. The ten disciples agreed
with Peter, and two were chosen--Joseph and Matthias. Then they prayed
that the Lord Himself would show them which of these two He wished to
be an Apostle, and when they cast lots the lot fell upon Matthias.
When the upper room became too small they went to a larger one that was
more public, and did not try to guard their doors, for the priests had
become afraid of the people as well as of the signs at the time of the
Lord's death, when the sky was darkened, the rocks rent by an
earthquake, and the Temple veil by an unseen Hand.
The Feast of the Weeks came on, and at the end of May--the day of
Pentecost (the fiftieth after the second day of the Passover), the
Lord's little church had gathered in their large public room to pray
and wait for the Promise. Suddenly there came a sound from the heavens
like the rushing of a mighty wind, and with it came a flash of fire
which was not lightning, but which divided into many, and sat above the
brow of each like a soft, bright tongue of flame.
Then the silence was broken, and they all began to praise God in other
languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance, for the Promise of the
Father had been given, and the Lord Himself had come to dwell in His
people--not only in these, but in all who should believe on Him through
their word.
There were some good Jews present who had come from foreign countries
to the Feast, and spoke other languages, and when each heard his own
language spoken by these unlearned men they were astonished. The news
spread and many came to hear. "Are not all these which speak
Galileans?" they asked, "and how hear we every man in our own tongue
wherein we were born? What meaneth this?" Others made light of it
all, and said that they were full of new wine.
Then Peter, strong in the power of the Holy Spirit, stood up and spoke
to the people. You will find Peter's sermon in the second chapter of
Acts, and his text was a wonderful saying of the prophet Joel,
beginning, as Peter gave it,--
"And it shall come to pass in the last days I will pour out of my
Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall dream dreams; and on my servants, and on my
handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall
prophesy. And it shall came to pass that whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord shall be saved."
Peter did not spare the enemies of our Lord in his sermon, nor did he
fear them. He preached to them of Jesus of Nazareth, and whom they had
taken and by wicked hands had crucified and slain: and whom God had
raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not
possible that He should be holden of it. He closed by telling them
that God had made that same Jesus whom they had crucified both Lord and
Christ.
There were many among the people gathered there who were pricked in
their hearts because of Peter's words, which had the power of the Holy
Spirit in them. They looked at each other and said,
"Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
Peter encouraged them to repentance and baptism in the name of Jesus
Christ, telling them that the promise was to them and to their
children, and to all that were afar off.
It was a wonderful day for the Church of Jesus Christ, and for His
Kingdom on the earth, for there were about three thousand who that day
received baptism, and joined the little despised company of the
followers of Jesus of Nazareth. And all that believed were drawn
together by the love of the Lord Jesus, and no longer lived for
themselves, but for each other. That there might be no rich and no
poor among them, they sold their possessions and parted them to all, as
every one had need. In the Temple, in each other's houses breaking
bread together, wherever they were they were happy and strong in their
new faith and in favor with all the people. Though great trials and
persecutions came after awhile, they bore them as seeing their
invisible Lord, and they joyfully met the loss of all things--even that
of life itself with a smile, remembering the Father's House with its
many mansions, and their spiritual Elder Brother who had gone to
prepare a place for them.
AN AFTERWORD.
_Dear Child_:--God's Book is a Book of Ages, a Book of Races, and a
Book of Nations; but it is far more, it is a Book through which God
Himself speaks to the soul of man. We begin to read it thinking that
He is speaking to the mind; afterward, when our conscience wakes, we
believe He speaks to the heart, but at last we find that He speaks to
the inmost spirit--the immortal soul. Then all that had seemed to be
history, poetry, biography, philosophy, begins to be to us the voice of
God in the inmost of the soul, speaking of the life of the spirit.
We, find at last, too, that One has walked beside us all the way,
teaching us by His Spirit as He taught the people on the hill-side, or
by the lake-side in Galilee: the One who said, "Before Abraham was, I
am"--the Child of Bethlehem, whose name was called "Wonderful,
Counsellor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, The Prince of
Peace." That you, dear child, may find Him walking close beside your
way, be in the habit of walking daily with Him in the paths of His
Word, and He will reveal Himself to you there.
End of Project Gutenberg's Child's Story of the Bible, by Mary A. Lathbury