one of us talking to his brethren? Is that the proper order? 'They
continued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching,' no doubt; but also
'steadfastly in prayer.' I pray you to try to make this picture of
the Pentecostal converts the ideal of your own lives, and to do your
best to help forward the time when it shall be the reality in this
church, and in every other society of professing Christians.



A PURE CHURCH AN INCREASING CHURCH

'And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be
saved.'--ACTS ii. 47.

'And the Lord added to them day by day those that were being
saved.'--(R. V.)

You observe that the principal alterations of these words in the
Revised Version are two: the one the omission of 'the church,' the
other the substitution of 'were being saved' for 'such as should be
saved.' The former of these changes has an interest as suggesting
that at the early period referred to the name of 'the church' had not
yet been definitely attached to the infant community, and that the
word afterwards crept into the text at a time when ecclesiasticism
had become a great deal stronger than it was at the date of the
writing of the Acts of the Apostles. The second of the changes is of
more importance. The Authorised Version's rendering suggests that
salvation is a future thing, which in one aspect is partially true.
The Revised Version, which is also by far the more literally
accurate, suggests the other idea, that salvation is a process going