OF THE ORDINATION OF THE EVANGELIST

OF THE ORDINATION OF THE EVANGELIST

There is one thing more to notice on this chapter.

The prophets laid their hands on Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, when these were set apart for their work among the Gentiles. Reader, you will no doubt think that Paul and Barnabas (for he also was called apostle) acted as apostles in this mission; that what Paul did in all the churches to order what concerned their walk, that all his remarkable labours in Asia Minor, in Macedonia, in Greece, were apostolic labours — the work of an apostle. Not at all; that cannot agree with Mr. Wolff’s system, because the imposition of hands, in the ordinary sense, must always be “from the higher to the lower, never from the lower to the higher. Everywhere the minister lays his hands for a charge either for an inferior or equal to his own, and never for a higher charge” (page 32). That is all very well; but moreover, says the writer,

“^[p. 252] The blessing must always, in its importance and effects, be proportionate to the elevation of the one who gives it. Hence, when it is Jesus Christ who confers the imposition of hands, it operates miracles, it heals the sick, it raises the dead. When it is the apostles, they share with simple believers the miraculous gift which was laid on their heads at Pentecost” — a fresh proof, it may be said by the way, of what we have said; for it is certain that it was the Holy Ghost Himself, the Comforter, who came down, so that it is this which is lost — and not merely gifts. The writer confounds the special form of manifestation, and the administrative means of transmission, with the presence itself of the Comforter. “Finally,” he says, “when it is a question of the other ministers, they invest the candidate with the charge they received themselves.”

Thus the ministry which Paul exercised was not in the least the ministry of an apostle.

You may suppose that the conclusions I draw are forced. Listen rather to Mr. Wolff on Acts 13: 1-3: “Paul and Barnabas,” he says (page 28, 2�), “were marked out by the Holy Ghost to receive the charge of evangelist, which was to be conferred upon them by their colleagues.” Thus all the labours of Barnabas or of Paul were in nowise an apostolic work. This is rather strong. “But,” says Mr. Wolff, “the text expressly tells us that it” — the imposition of hands — “was only conferred upon them with a view to their charge as evangelists.” This I have not found. It is quite true that the apostles did not disdain (very far from it) this solemn recommendation to the grace of God for the work (for it is thus that the Holy Ghost designates this imposition of hands, Acts 14: 26); but to say that it was simply an ordination from the higher downwards! an ordination to the charge of evangelist, this, assuredly, is rather strong.

But there is still another difficulty. “As to the other ministries,” says Mr. Wolff, “they invest the candidate with the charge they have received themselves” (page 32).

This is indeed very convenient, in order that pastors may make pastors of certain young students who are candidates; but Barnabas, Simeon, etc. (Acts 13: 1), were prophets who had received a vocation from God alone, and not a charge; and Paul and Barnabas depart as evangelists. So that, according to Mr. Wolff, the prophets had invested the candidates with a charge which they had not received themselves.

I hesitated a little, lest it should be dishonouring the precious word of God to introduce all this, as shewing what a terrible mess is the result of the desire to authorize that which is practised. If I have been wrong, may God deign to forgive me, for it is very painful. But such absurdities and such contradictions are always the consequence of having adopted a system, and then seeking, at any cost, to establish it by the word. If the word has been dishonoured, it is the system that dishonoured it, and not I.