Northwestern Bible School - Scroll Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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The Power of the Commission By W. B. Riley ’Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth, Go ye, therefore” (Matt. 28:18-20), The command was from One of all authority and power. It was from the man Christ Jesus, the Son of God; from the One, and the only One, who had a right to command; from the One whose right is recognized in heaven; from the One whose right is also recognized in hell, and whose authority covers all intervening space. When God was working special miracles by the hand of Paul, casting out evil spirits, and certain exorcists took upon them to name over them that had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure thee by Jesus whom Paul preacheth (Acts 19:13}, The man in whom the evil spirit was, answered, Paul I know and Christ I know, but whence are ye? (Acts 19:15). His authority is recognized in belli When the man who had the legion of devils was in His presence, they called out, Why hast thou come to torment us before our time? All authority and all power? It is His to command, for Christ is the Lord of both the dead and the living (Rom. 14:9}, In Ephesians 1:22, 23: God hath put all things under his (Christ ' s) feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, If, therefore, I am a member of the church—His body ' —He has as much right to command me as my brain has a right to command the action of my hand, the movement of my feet, or the utterance of my lips. This commission was unto the men who knew Him best and loved Him most. Have we noted the phraseology of it? The eleven disciples went into Gali¬ lee (Matt. 2:17), There is a real reason for calling them disciples here, instead of apostles. The theory of a verbal inspiration ol the Book makes the use of that name significant in the last degree. He commissioned disciples,” not apostles only; and yet He gave that commission originally to the eleven who knew Him best, and to the eleven who loved Him most. With them He made His begin¬ ning and in them He rested His dependence, and it is a sample of the Christ-method. He could never trust His ministry in the world to men and women who were not devoted to Him; and He could never expect the carry¬ ing of His gospel to the ends of the earth, over sea and land, in spite of all dangers and hardships and even death, of others than those who loved Him ardently, and who yielded themselves to be obedient to His wilL In old Virginia, a lad sat in a meeting addressed in the interest of missions, and watched them take up an offering to send the gospel of Christ to foreign lands. The box returned and the contents were counted In the sub¬ scriptions they found a card written, “I gave myself.” Inquiry was made as to who had signed it, and from the rear of the room a young man arose, v ith blushing face, and said, I did. It is all I have to give! It was John Lewis Shuck, who later went away to China, and who was so blessed of God that he laid the foundations of the Southern Baptist Convention work in foreign missions. That is the first offering God wants—the offering of self. ( 23 )

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BOARD DF DIHECTORS W. B. Riley, D.D., LL.D., President S, E. Robb, Treasurer R♦ L. Moyer, D.D. E, V. Pierce, D.D. I Colgate Buckbee Prof, C T. Shoop W, H, Schmelzel S. Marx White, M.D. C. K. Ingersoll {Deceased, April, 1941) Peter MacFarlane N. T. Mears Archer Young A, O. Bjorklund A, f. Bisbee John R. Siemens W E. Paul D.D. ( 22 )

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Channel of Power “Now these are thy servants . . . whom thou hast redeemed by thy great POWER (Nehemiah 1:10).