THE GUILD OF ST. BARNABAS
1903; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 3; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1097/00000446-190306000-00015
ISSN1538-7488
Autores ResumoWheneveb we catcli a glimpse of this bright and God-like apostle, with his grave and commanding appearance, so that the men of Lystra called him Jupiter, we see him free and impulsive to a fault, hastening to sell all that he has, always generous in his actions and thoughts about other people.He would not give up John, whose surname was Mark, even when St. Paul wished it.He was sure there was some good in the young man, even though he had thrown up his work at a critical time.Years afterwards we find St. Paul warmly commending St. Mark in his letter to the Colossians, and yet later we hear him asking for Mark to be brought unto him, "for he is profitable to me for the ministry."(2 Tim., iv., 11.)So also when St. Paul, in the early days of his conversion, was in trouble and under suspicion, when this great and useful instrument for God was in danger of being chilled, St. Barnabas takes him and brings him to the ApostleB St. Peter and St. James.It is St. Barnabas who explains exactly what had happened and disperses with his bright sunlight all unmanly suspicions.We want the spirit of St. Barnabas, with his kind, gentle, strong touch, to rescue for Christ souls, among some of whom you may even find the making of a saint and the stuff which may become an apostle.There are souls for whom Christ died who are chilled, repressed, and driven back on evil because Christians are afraid of them and point at the past and question if the repentance is sincere.But Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost.Who knows how many St. Pauls and St. Marks are being lost now for want of a St. Barnabas?Here comes some man, some woman, to the hospital with a wistful look in the eyes as much as to say: " Can you help me?Do you know how I have prayed and struggled against this desperate sin which has brought me low and for which people despise and loathe me?Do you know?Do you care?Or are you just another nurse like the rest, doing what you are paid for, and not a minister of God?"Has Christ given him up?Perhaps this accident or disease, which is the result of his own folly, is his crucifixion, and this poor soul may yet enter Para¬ dise if only he can catch a glimpse of the Lord and Saviour to whom your sympathy has pointed him." See," our dear teacher used to say to us, " there is hardly a roadside pool which has not as much landscape in it as above it.It is not the brown, muddy, dull thing we suppose it to be.It has a heart like ourselves, and in the bottom of that there are the boughs of the tall trees, and the blades of the shaking grass and all manner of colors of variable, pleasant light and of the sky.Nay, even that ugly gutter which stagnates in the heart of the city is not altogether base.720
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