Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come on you: and you shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem… Christ was about to be seen no more among men. What memorial had He left? The kings of Egypt built mighty pyramids to immortalise their fame. Those of Assyria have left on chiselled column and even on the bold sides of their native cliffs the hieroglyphics that should commemorate their wonderful deeds. The Roman emperors have bequeathed to us triumphal arches which even now bring before us the splendour of their victories. But Christ left no such memorial. He did not commit a single line to writing. His only record in Scripture is the one He traced with His finger upon the sand. He left no parchment, pillar, pyramid, arch, or temple. On that farewell day He was without the slightest trace of a record, except that written on the heart of His disciples. Whatever impression therefore He was to make upon the world depended on the courage and fidelity of these men. If they had given one uncertain sound, oblivion would have settled like a pall upon Gethsemane, Calvary, and Olivet. They were the one living link between Christ and the world He came to save. And it is so still. Christ is not here. We have, it is true, the printed witness of the apostles; but the world does not get its ideas of Christ and Christianity from that, but from the living testimony of professing Christians. How important then the function of the humblest! He is Christ's representative and memorial before men. (H. Pedley, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. |
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