It was a particularly arresting Gospel for those present to consider, as
it included our LORD'S words, "If I by the finger of GOD cast out
devils, no doubt the kingdom of GOD is come upon you." There is no more
striking symbol for a Jew than that of the "finger of GOD," nor anything
more absorbingly interesting than "GOD'S kingdom"; and I have always
thankfully felt that I was fortunate that night. The Chaplain of Warsaw
is not one who loses or wastes opportunities, and he did his very best
with that one. It was an extraordinarily interesting scene as I watched
the faces of that little gathering of men and women gazing with the
keenest and most penetrating of expressions upon their teacher; and now
and then, as he mentioned psalm or prophecy, taking up their Bibles to
find the passage named. Then, satisfied as to its apposite character,
they would look up again as eagerly as before. I seemed to be back again
in spirit sharing in one of those Apostolic scenes of the New
Testament, when one or another "preached CHRIST unto them," and they, as
at Berea, received the teaching "with readiness of mind, and searched
the Scriptures whether those things were so."
Just such little gatherings as that at Warsaw, and in just such places,
to which people came stealthily yet expectantly, were addressed by
Barnabas and Paul, by Silas and John Mark. One feels now when listening
to a chapter from the Acts of the Apostles, or reading it, as if one had
been there and seen and heard. It is only a year since I was once more
at Warsaw, and again it was Sunday evening, with the Holy Communion,
Confirmation, and other services of the day all over, and just as before
the Jewish inquirers came quietly in, in ones and twos and threes, only
this time the gathering was larger and the attention keener even than it
had been three years before. The same order was followed, the singing of
hymns in German, prayer--those present were encouraged to pray in very
simple words--the reading of a passage from the New Testament, and then
its exposition; but though it was the same faithful teaching of the
Faith, or preaching CHRIST, there was a difference both in what was said
and in the questions asked. It was no longer the Messiah, or the CHRIST
fulfilling Messianic psalm or evangelical prophecy, but the living
CHRIST of to-day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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