they might understand
the Scriptures, and showed them that a suffering Messiah was the
thought which pervaded the entire Hebrew Scriptures. "Thus it is
written, and thus it behoved the Messiah to suffer, and to rise from
the dead the third day." What would we not give to have some
transcript of that wonderful conversation! With what new eyes should
we read the Bible, if only we could know what Jesus said on that
occasion!

Next He repeated the "Peace be unto you," and told them that He was
sending them forth as the Father had sent Him--"Go ye unto all the
world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." But He added,
"Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you; but tarry ye in the
city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." "And
these signs shall follow them that believe. In My name shall they cast
out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up
serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them;
they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

Then, to fit them for this time of waiting, and that the Holy Spirit
might prepare them to receive His fuller inflow, the Lord breathed on
them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit,
they are remitted unto them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are
retained." By which He surely meant that there was no other way by
which sins would be forgiven and put away than by the preaching of the
Gospel, which He now committed to their trust. They are therefore
parallel with Peter's statement in after days, "Neither is there
salvation in any other, for there is none other name given under
heaven, among men, by which we must be saved." The Church of God alone
can proclaim to men the conditions of evangelical repentance,--and
those who refuse her testimony, and disbelieve her Gospel, expose
themselves to unspeakable condemnation and loss. "There remaineth no
other sacrifice for sin; but a certain looking for of judgment, and
fiery indignation." Refuse Christ, and there is no alternative way of
salvation. Whatever else is contained in these words, it is quite
clear that there was nothing exclusively reserved to the apostles and
their successors, which is not equally the possession of all who
believe; for we know that the Lord's words were spoken not to the
apostles only, but to the two that had come from Emmaus with burning
hearts, and to those who were in the habit of commingling