The Acts of the Apostles (1911) — PDF Scan 313

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A MESSAGE OF WARNING 307 kingdom of God." He begged tliem to control the lower passions and appetites. ^'Know ye not," lie asked, ''that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in yon, which ye have of God!" While Paul possessed high intellectual endowments, his life revealed the power of a rarer wisdom, which gave him quickness of insight and sympathy of heart, and brought him into close touch with others, enabling him to arouse their better nature and inspire them to strive for a higher life. His heart was filled with an earnest love for the Corinthian believers. He longed to see them revealing an inward piety that would fortify them against temptation. He knew that at every step in the Christian pathway they would be opposed by the synagogue of Satan, and that they would have to engage in conflicts daily. They would have to guard against the stealthy approach of the enemy, forcing back old habits and natural inclinations, and ever watching unto prayer. Paul knew that the higher Christian attainments can be reached only through much prayer and constant watchfulness, and this he tried to instil into their minds. But he knew also that in Christ crucified they were offered power sufficient to convert the soul, and divinely adapted to enable them to resist all temptations to evil. With faith in God as their armor, and with His word as their weapon of warfare, they would be supplied with an inner power that would enable them to turn aside the attacks of the enemy. The Corinthian believers needed a deeper experience in the things of God. They did not know fully what it meant to behold His glory, and to be changed