Gospels. And I now remark that in these words, in their plain and
unmistakable meaning, there lie involved the inspiration and
authority of the Apostles as teachers of religious truth. Here we
have the guarantee for the authority over our faith, of the words
which came from these men, and from the other who was added to their
number on the Damascus road. They were guided 'into _all_ the truth,'
and so our task is to receive the truth into which they were guided.

The Acts of the Apostles is the best commentary on these words of my
text. There you see how these men rose at once into a new region; how
the truths about their Master which had been bewildering puzzles to
them flashed into light; how the Cross, which had baffled and
dispersed them, became at once the centre of union for themselves and
for the world; how the obscure became lucid, and Christ's death and
the resurrection stood forth to them as the great central facts of
the world's salvation. In the book of the Apocalypse we have part of
the fulfilment of this closing promise: 'He will show you things to
come'; when the Seer was 'in the Spirit on the Lord's Day,' and the
heavens were opened, and the history of the Church (whether in
chronological order, or in the exhibition of symbols of the great
forces which shall be arrayed for and against it, over and over
again, to the end of time, does not at present matter), was spread
before Him as a scroll.

Now, dear friends, this great principle of my text has a modified
application also to us all. For that divine Spirit is given to each
of us if we will use Him, is given to any and every man who desires
Him, does dwell in Christian hearts, though, alas! so many of us are
so little conscious of Him, and does teach us the truth which Christ
Himself left incomplete.