on all through the course of a Christian man's life. And that carries
very large and important lessons.

I. I ask you to notice here, first, the profound conception which the
writer had of the present action of the ascended Christ. 'The Lord
added to them day by day those that were being saved.'

Then Christ (for it is He that is here spoken of as the Lord), the
living, ascended Christ, was present in, and working with, that
little community of believing souls. You will find that the thought
of a present Saviour, who is the life-blood of the Church on earth,
and the spring of action for all good that is done in it and by it,
runs through the whole of this Book of the Acts of the Apostles. The
keynote is struck in its first verses: 'The former treatise have I
made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and to teach, until
the day in which He was taken up.' That is the description of Luke's
Gospel, and it implies that the Acts of the Apostles is the _second_
treatise, which tells all that Jesus continued to do and teach
_after_ that He was taken up. So the Lord, the ascended Christ, is
the true theme and hero of this book. It is He, for instance, who
sends down the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. It is He whom the
dying martyr sees 'standing at the right hand of God,' ready to help.
It is He who appears to the persecutor on the road to Damascus. It is
He who sends Paul and his company to preach in Europe. It is He who
opens hearts for the reception of their message. It is He who stands
by the Apostle in a vision, and bids him 'be of good cheer,' and go
forth upon his work. Thus, at every crisis in the history of the
Church, it is the Lord--that is to say, Christ Himself--who is
revealed as working in them and for them, the ascended but yet ever-
present Guide, Counsellor, Inspirer, Protector, and Rewarder of them