Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

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BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
could not. . . . Being
a miracle Himself, it would be the greatest
of all wonders if He did not work miracles.
Bushnell.
574. When God had some new tidings to tell to the world,
which they could not have found out by their own sense and
wit, He gave to the men whom He sent with the message the
power of working miracles. The miracles were a sort of bell,
which they rung in the ears of their generation, that people
might listen to what they had to say, and believe that it came
from Heaven. Thus when God sent Moses upon an errand to
the Israelites that they might attend to what he said, God gave
him the power of working all manner of wonders. Goulburn.
MISSIONS
575. The missionary spirit is the spirit of the Bible. From
the fall of man the great end of God's revelation of His will
to man has been to bring wandering, rebellious man back
to Himself. This great purpose became more and more apparent
as the ages rolled by, until it burst all bounds in the great commission
given to the apostles to go into all the world, to all
nations, to every creature, and preach the glad news of the
pardoning love of God as set forth in the gift of His Son to
suffer and die for our redemption, that man might be reconciled
to God in loving surrender to His will. The missionaries of the
first century of the Christian era fully realised the missionising
genius of the gospel of Christ ; and with burning zeal for the
salvation of men went forth and suffered and endured untold
hardships in their efforts to bring the world to Christ. So great
was the power they exerted and so mighty was the conquest
they achieved that they were described as "the men who turned
the world upside down" (Acts 17:6).
But this missionary spirit was smothered and paralyzed by
worldly pride, ambitions, love of preferment and bitter controversy
about petty things ; such as priestly orders, relics, images,
vestments and many other trifles. For sixteen hundred years
the missionary spirit that characterised the first century was all
but dead. But the nineteenth century was particularly noted
for the revival of this missionary spirit; and to-day it is more
widespread than ever before in the history of religion. Christian
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