Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1917-03-23

John in the 18TH, 18th. and part Of
the Goth. chapters. Beginning with
the 18th. verne Of the 10th. chapter,
the story is taken up again Of the
eleven and continues to the close Of
the book. Jesus meets with the
eleven on the first day of the week
and says in verse 81, "Peace be unto
you: As the Father hath sent me,
even so send you. And when he had
said this, he breathed on them and
said receive We the Holy Spirit
Whosoever sins We forgive, they are
forgiven them, whosoever sins We
retain they are retained. Certainly to
the Apostles alone would he use such
words. This shows the special mis-
sion Of the Spirit to the Apostles. In
like manner careful examination of
Acts i and 2 will show also the
special mission to the Apostles of the
Holy Spirit. The subject Of these
cnaoters is the Apostles. 1.-THE for
mer treatise l made, o! Theophilus,
concerning all that Jesus began both
to do and to teach, until the day he
was received up after that he had
given commandment through the Holy
Spirit unto the Apostles, whom he
had chosen, to whom he also showed
himself alive, appearing to them, and
being assembled with them, he charged
them to wait for the promise of the
Father. They therefore when they
were come together. But ye shall
receive power after, that the Holy
Spirit is come upon you, and we shall
be my witnesses. All these promises
refer to the Apostles. Then they are
named in verse 10. In verse IA and
Is mention is made of Mary and the
women and of the 100, but the main
subject is not changed and the eleven
proceed to fill the vacancy left by the
suicide of Judas, and the last verse
says Matthias was chosen and he was
numbered with the eleven Apostles.
Remembering that there were no
chapters and verses in the original
bible, we read without break the next
verse which says, 'And when the day
of Pentecost was now come they were
all together in one place. Gram
matically THEY can only refer to the
nearest noun which is Apostles in
verse rs of chapter /. So also all the
pronouns to verse refer to the same
word Apostles, and show that the
fiery tongues sat above the Apostles,
alone, and the Apostles alone were
here miraculously endued with the
power to speak in tongues.
This is further shown to be the case
because they are called Galileans in
verse 7. The 100 were not all Cali
leans. The multitude appealed to
them and Peter standing up with the
eleven Tvs. l4) speaks to the people.
In verse 81, chapter 2, the direct APP
peal is to Peter and the rest of the
Apostles. This shows that the oc-
currences of the day had singled these
men out as the special ones, having
special gifts and special powers and
authority given them by the Holy
Spirit. These conclusions are further
strengthened as you go through the
book of Acts. In Chapter 6, these
Apostles lay hands on the specially
chosen deacons, (verse g.. In chap
ter eight, verse II, Peter and John
two Apostles lay hands on the Samar
itan believers, and they receive the
Holy Spirit with miraculous power
} This is shown by Simon Magus want
Apostle also had this power, for a
Ephesus he laid his hands on some
and they received the Holy Spirit ant
spoke in tongues and prophesied
Acts 1876, 7. The Apostles alone
possessed this special power of i'm
parting to others by the laying OF
of hands these miraculous powers, ant
when the Apostles died and the peopl
upon whom they laid hands, thes
powers ceased There is only on
case where the Holy Spirit was givel
in miraculous way directly iron
heaven to others who were not Apostles
in the New Testament and that wa
to Cornelius and his friends who hear
Peter speak. Acts 10 :44-46. A careful
examination of this case will SHOW
that this exception to the rule was t
convince Peter and his Jewish breth
rem that Gentiles had a right to b.
baptized and become Christians jus
as much as Jews had the right. Co
was no respecter Of persons
Cornelius and his companions ar,
not shown to have had power to i'm
part the spirit to others or to have re
tanned any miraculous powers. MEN.
signs and wonders were wrought b,
the hands of the Apostles, Act
SIP, but few were wrought b,
others, and only as power was i'm
parted by the laying on Of APOSTLE
hands
The Apostolic age was noted TO
its spiritual gifts. No new test