Paul and the Baptist's disciples.
I. LESSONS FROM PAUL IN THIS RELATION. His care for souls is comprehensive, zealous, and wise.
1. "Have ye received the Holy Ghost?" Is your religion genuine? Is it profound? Is it a living consciousness of God within the soul? Or a dependence on forms, on creeds, on ideas merely? How many trained and taught as Christians must answer, "We know not yet the Holy Spirit"! the new birth, the love, "the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father"!
2. "In whom were ye then baptized?" A question also for us. What means the name "Christian" that you bear? Is the devil and all his works daily renounced? Baptism reminds us of God the Father, and of childhood to him; of God the Son, and of redemption through his blood; of God the Holy Spirit, and of the temple we ought spiritually to be. Let us ask ourselves the questions Paul asked of the disciples of the Baptist.
II. LESSONS FROM THE DISCIPLES OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.
1. They are typical, as we have seen, of many among us; and those who resemble them among us should be treated in like manner. There are those who stand upon a lower step of faith. They know that the gospel requires them to give up sin; perhaps not yet that it calls them to the perfect trust and the love that casts out fear. They confess themselves ignorant if questioned of this "higher life."
2. The testing question. A living faith, a life in conformity with the baptismal profession, a sanctified speech and life, give the only satisfactory answer.
3. The unity of all disciples under one Master. "One is your Master, and all ye are brethren" Human teachers impart their words, Christ his Spirit. Human teachers lay the foundation, give the elements; he leads on to perfection, guides to the goal. Many are the schools of philosophy, one is the Church of Jesus Christ.—J.