Acts 1:12-14 Then returned they to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.… If the prayer-meeting is the thermometer of the Church, then the first Christian prayer-meeting registers a high degree of spiritual life existing just after the departure of Christ. This was a model in point of — I. ATTENDANCE. There were one hundred and twenty present. 1. All the office-bearers were there. Are modern elders and deacons as exemplary? 2. The male members were there. Business or pleasure did not hinder them. 3. The female members were there. "The women" still form a large proportion of the attendants at prayer-meetings. II. THE SPIRIT. Peace and unity prevailed. The day of "murmuring" had not yet come (Acts 6:1.) Union is strength. A divided Church cannot long remain a praying Church. God answers prayer when it is offered by few or many "with one accord." The promise is addressed to those who are "agreed." III. THE RESULTS (see chap. Acts 2.). The Church was born at a prayermeeting, which should encourage us to sustain our often thinly attended and cold-spirited prayer-meetings. The prayer-meeting is more than the thermometer of the Church, it is the source of her spiritual power. There is as intimate a relation between the prayer-meeting and the outpouring of the Spirit as between the gathering of the cloud and the downpour of the shower. Pentecostal revivals must be preceded by ante-Pentecostal prayer-meetings. (T. S. Dickson, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. |
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