[Songs in the Night - March 19]
I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears. Acts 20:31
WE SEE in the parting of the beloved apostle with
the elders of the church at Ephesus, who had come
to bid him farewell before he set sail for Jerusalem,
and to receive his parting counsel, another reminder
of his faithfulness and a worthy example for our imitation.
He said to them, "I know that ye...shall see
my face no more.
Wherefore I take you to record
this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men
[he was bearing in mind his personal responsibility
as a steward of the Lord and the solemn significance
of it as indicated by the Prophet Ezekiel 33:7-9]: for
I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God."
On the part of Paul there was no compromise
of the truth, no mixing of it with human
philosophies to make it more palatable to either Jews
or Gentiles, or to avoid thus any measure of the otherwise
inevitable persecution.
The Christian teacher
who can truly bear such testimony under such circumstances
is indeed a soldier of the cross. Z'93-222 R1558:6 (Hymn 34)