right to perform all the
apostolic functions should be placed above challenge. In some way, which
is not particularly described, their appointment by the Spirit of God
was accordingly made known to the Church at Antioch, and thus all the
remaining prophets and teachers, who officiated there, were warranted to
testify that these two brethren had received a call from heaven to
engage in the work to which they were now designated. Their ordination,
in obedience to this divine communication, was a decisive recognition of
their spiritual authority. The Holy Ghost had attested their commission,
and the ministers of Antioch, by the laying on of hands, set their seal
to the truth of the oracle. Their title to act as founders of the Church
was thus authenticated by evidence which could not be legitimately
disputed. Paul himself obviously attached considerable importance to
this transaction, and he afterwards refers to it in language of marked
emphasis, when, in the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans, he
introduces himself as "a servant of Jesus Christ, _called_ to be an
apostle, _separated unto the gospel of God_." [71:1]

In the circumstantial record of this proceeding, to be found in the Acts
of the Apostles, we have a proof of the wisdom of the Author of
Revelation. He foresaw that the rite of "the laying on of hands" would
be sadly abused; that it would be represented as possessing something
like a magic potency; and that it would be at length converted, by a
small class of ministers, into an ecclesiastical monopoly. He has,
therefore, supplied us with an antidote against delusion by permitting
us, in this simple narrative, to scan its exact import. And what was the
virtue of the ordination here described? Did it furnish Paul and
Barnabas with a title to the ministry? Not at all. God himself had
already called them to the work, and they could receive no higher
authorisation. Did it necessarily add anything to the eloquence, or the
prudence, or the knowledge, or the piety, of the missionaries? No
results of the kind could be produced by any such ceremony. What then
was its meaning? The evangelist himself furnishes an answer. The Holy
Ghost required that Barnabas and Saul should be _separated_ to the work
to which the Lord had called them, and the laying on of hands was the
_mode_, or _form_, in which they were set apart, or designated, to the
office. This rite, to an Israelite, suggested grave and hallowed
associations.