The Acts of the Apostles (1911) — PDF Scan 549

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JOHN THE BELOVED 543 be chief among you^ let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. " * In the kingdom of God, position is not gained through favoritism. It is not earned, nor is it received through an arbitrary bestowal. It is the result of character. The crown and the throne are the tokens of a condition attained — tokens of self-conquest through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Long afterward, when John had been brought into sympathy with Christ through the fellowship of His sufferings, the Lord Jesus revealed to him what is the condition of nearness to His kingdom. ''To him that overcometh," Christ said, ''will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne. ' ' ^ The one who stands nearest to Christ will be he who has drunk most deeply of His spirit of self-sacrificing love, — love that "vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, . . . seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil,''"" — love that moves the disciple, as it moved our Lord, to give all, to live and labor and sacrifice even unto death, for the saving of humanity. At another time during their early evangelistic labors, James and John met one who, while not an acknowledged follower of Christ, was casting out devils in His name. The disciples forbade the man to work, and thought they were right in doing this. But when they laid the matter before Christ, He reproved them, saying, "Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in My name, *Matt. 20:25-28. ^Eev. 3:21. «1 Cor. 13:4,5. 35 — Acts