Perhaps with another church we shall trace the intrusion of the clergy into the assemblies. What Christ hated, so did the Ephesian Assembly. That was to their credit. Sometimes I wonder at some of us putting full-time workers in an elevated class above the rank and file of God's people calling them THE Lord's Servants, while, in reality, we are all the servants of the Lord, seeking to fulfil the various positions in which the Lord has placed us in the Body of Christ. Consequently, at some conferences, only full-time evangelists are expected to rise and teach, while teachers and teaching elders are expected to remain seated.
Brethren be sober-minded.
To the Asian mind a tree was the seat of divine life, the intermediary between divine and human nature. The prosperity and safety of the family depended on the sacred tree. Planted by a grave, the buried man's spirit penetrated the tree. To cut down such a tree invoked the death penalty. The first Adam forfeited the right to the tree of life in an earthly paradise.