March 12

Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me. — Acts 1:8

Look at it! Think of it! A hundred and twenty men and women having no patronage, no promise of any earthly favor, no endowment, no wealth a company of men and women having to get their living by common daily toil, and busied with all the household duties of daily life and yet they are to begin the conquests of Christianity! To them is entrusted a work which is to turn the world upside down. None so exalted but the influence of this lowly company shall reach to them, until the throne of the Cæsars is claimed for Christ. None so far off but the power of this little band gathered in an upper room shall extend to them until the whole world is knit into a brotherhood! Not a force is there on the earth, either of men or devils, but they shall overcome it, until every knee shall bow to their Master, and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord.

A thing impossible, absurd, look at it as you will, until you admit this they are to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Then difficulties melt into the empty air. Then there is no limit to their hopes, for there is no limit to their power. Their strength is not only “as the strength of ten,” it is as the strength of the Almighty.

This is Christ’s idea of Christianity; the idea not of man it is infinitely too sublime the idea of God! — Mark Guy Pearse.