Men of the Bible | Page 6

blessing had not come through Moses; but the great law-giver, with
characteristic insight and generosity, would not heed the request--"My
lord Moses, forbid them." Calmly, yet decisively, the answer rang out,
"Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were
prophets, and that the Lord would put His spirit upon them!"
In the experience of these two men there is imbedded valuable and
permanent truth. We regard it as an evidence, the more remarkable
because given under a ceremonial regime, that God did not intend to
institute any order of men outside the limits of which there was to be no
liberty of prophesying and no fitness for it. Nor is there any exclusively
sacred place, be it tabernacle, temple, synagogue, or church, where
alone such gifts can be conferred. We believe that outside all sacred
places, outside the churches of our own faith and order, and of any
other churches, there are men, and women too, equally called of God
with those within such limits, and the evidence that they are so called
lies in the fact that in them also the Spirit of God is resting, and through
them the Spirit of God is working.
This lesson, which still needs to be enforced in our own day, is perhaps
best deduced from an incident so early and so simple as this. Just as we
may learn more of the way in which an engine really works from a
simple model--say of George Stephenson's--than from one of the
complicated machines of the present day, so we may gain the more
instruction from this incident, because of its very simple character,
while its antiquity keeps it out of the confusion caused by modern
controversies.
Eldad and Medad were men called of God to undertake holy service for
the good of His people. In their case the call was manifestly inward
rather than outward. Though truly chosen, they were not in the
Tabernacle, nor were they wrapped in the cloud, and they received no

ordination from the laying on of hands by Moses and Aaron. The
evidence of their call lay in their fitness for the work, and their fitness
was due to the gift of the Spirit. Yet all this occurred under a
dispensation which was far more strict in ceremonial law than that
under which we live.
What does it teach? It surely confirms our belief that the word of God
is not bound. The exposition and enforcement of Divine truth is not to
be confined to those who have received priestly ordination by some
outward rite. No man therefore has the right to forbid any preacher
from exercising his functions on the ground that his orders are not
regular, or because he has not been recognised by an Episcopate, a
Presbytery, a Conference, or a Union.
To put the same truth in hortatory form, I would say to any one who
has knowledge of Divine truth, who has experienced the graces of the
Holy Spirit, and who has the gift of utterance: You are called upon, by
the fact of possessing these qualifications, to serve God as opportunity
comes. You ought not to be silent on the claims of Christ, nor should
you refrain from leading others in prayer, while on every other topic
you are fluency itself. "Neglect not the gift that is in thee," whether it
came by laying on of hands, or in some other way. Every true convert
should sometimes feel as the prophet Jeremiah felt, when he said, "The
word of the Lord was within me as a burning fire shut up in my bones. I
was weary with forbearing and could not stay." The work assigned too
often exclusively to the minister is really the work of the Church.
Happily, speech is not the only mode in which men can serve God. It is
clear from the Hebrew narrative that Eldad and Medad, like their
brethren at the door of the Tabernacle, did not receive an abiding gift of
prophecy, but a transient sign which seemed adequate to convince the
people that they had been chosen and inspired. Unfortunately, the
Authorised Version gives us a phrase which is the exact opposite of the
meaning of the Hebrew phrase in the twenty-fifth verse, rendering it
thus, "They prophesied, and did not cease." The Revised Version sets
this right in the phrase, "They prophesied, but they did so no more." In
other words, the singular manifestation of power soon passed away. It

was not a permanent possession.
This is in harmony with the experience of the early Christian Church.
The miraculous power given to the apostles, as evidence of their Divine
commission, was not always at their disposal. The gift of tongues
bestowed on them, and on others, soon ceased; for it