The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-07-27
FACTS AND THEIR
MOTIVE POWER.
Terse Comments Upon the Christian
Endeayor Topic For August I, Life
Lessons For Me From h Book of
Acts" Acts 90: 1921.
BY T. ELLIS.

BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
The Book Of Acts is a book of facts
It's value as religious literature con-
sists chiefly in it's historical variations.
There is power in a fact. Some per-
sons who are forever "spiritualizing"
all things, and trying to draw a les
son." need to be reminded Of the
dynamics resident in sheer fact. The
gospel itself, in it's early simplicity,
was the mere narration Of certain
historical facts. Those facts-carry-
body of truth-have conquered the
nations that govern the world; and
they seem likely by their telling to
bring all peoples in subsection to the
Christ, concerning whom the Good
News is told. No argument is equal
to a proved experiment. Down IN the
rescue missions. in h Sums Of the
great cities, it is not eloquence that
reclaims men from sodden vice, but
the reiterated testimonies Of persons
who have been in like case, and
whom the power Of Jesus had made
over into new men. Ii any company
Of Christians undertake to study Sc
riously the Book of Acts, they are GER
tain to be animated to new efficiency
in their own Church work.
> . i
The titles Of the books of the Script
ura1 canon are not inspired. The ap-
pellation 'The Book Of the Acts of the
Apostles is a pa1paDle nianomer,
for at the outset this history dismis-
ses most Of the apostles with a mere
mention, giving far more space to
some men who were not apostles than
to most of the members Of that body.
Peter and Paul are the principar fl
cures, the latter occupying the larger
part of the authors attention. One
commentator has pointed out that the
book is more truly a record Of the
acts of the Holy Spirit than Of the
acts Of the apostles.
First-century Christianity is reveal
ed as of heroic stuff by the Book of
Acts. It dared and did and died that
the gospel might grow.
DR.. Luke. was a great historian.
Doubtless it was his theme that
caught him UP to the heights Of abil-
ity of which neither he nor his friends
life, when called upon to produce
state papers, suddenly develop uncom-
mon literary ability. His subject mat
ter aside, however, DR.. Luke must be
credited with a simple, direct and ma
ural literary style. His unconscious
have come to be profound arguments
for the authenticity of his work.
Who was Theophi1us, to whom two
books Of the New Testament were
written by DR.. Luke? We do not
know. He was simply an interested
disciple, with a great friend. Posi-
bly, it is to his thirst for knowledge
that we owe the third Gospel and the
Book of Acts. Because of his quest
for truth. his name is forever en-
balmed in the New Testament, the
roafnCf 1ifnrof1rr0 "a h1po -
When some Chinese converts were
studying the Book of Acts one of
them naively remarked, W like this
book. Its people are just like our
selves They had h same sort of
they stumbled Just Is we do" For
this peerless history depicts, with rare
fidelity, the infant Church against a
sombre background of environing
heathendom.
The Book of Acts is incomplete. It
is q OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES" story.The
author purports only to tell of begin
nings and c~ontinuings, but not Of end
ings. All the significant aspects Of
early Christian history which Luke
touches, he leaves unfinished. The
end is not yet. The Book of Acts is
still in the writing. We know some
O1 the later CnapteIS"tne persecution
of the Early Church, the dispersion
over the known world, the great COS
pei triumphs, the gradual corruption
of ecclesiasticism, the Reformation,
and the new missionary era. Does it
not ali, like a thrilling story, make
one eager to learn the end? That
end we can only reach when we come
to know fully" In the meantime,
we are permitted to help make the
history which this unfinished volume
is yet to record.
The world is Keen to hear a man
talk who has been a part Of his own
story. That is why adventures and
explorers are such popular lecturers.
Now Luke figured in the events he
described; occasionally he lapses in