would be
worth while, because wherever they went He would be at work in them and
through them. The real work would be done by Him. But it would be done
through them. His presence was essential to their work being done. Their
presence was essential to His doing His work. He would work as they went,
and where they went.

That was the new blessed partnership of world-wide service planned by the
Master as He went away. They would tell of Jesus. The Spirit would open
doors, guide their tongues, guard their persons, and make the message of
Jesus as a flame of fire in men's hearts.

Just before this, Jesus had talked a great deal with His disciples about
the Holy Spirit. They didn't yet know how much this that He was saying,
would come to mean to them. But they remembered after the Master was gone,
and then they understood. When they got down into the thick of the world's
crowds they understood the great significance of what He had said.

That last talk[24] they had together in the upper room and along the
Jerusalem streets, on the betrayal night, was full of teaching about the
Holy Spirit. And the next time after that that they met, in the upper
room,[25] on the evening of the resurrection day, He breathed strongly
upon them, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." And the very last word
on the Olivet slope was, "Wait; wait until the Holy Spirit comes." He
burned in deep that their dependence must be entirely upon the Spirit.

<u>The Partnership of Service.</u>

Jesus Himself is an illustration of what He told them about this. He was
on a missionary errand. He had been sent by His Father, even as later
these men and we have been sent. With awe ever growing, one remembers that
the divine Jesus in the days of His humanity gave Himself over to the
control of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was the dominant factor in His life
and in all His activities. All His teachings and movements were at the
suggestion and direction and control of the Spirit. The power in speech
and action, in healing, in raising the dead, and in the wondrous mastery
of Himself was the Holy Spirit's power working upon and through Jesus.

Then it was that as He was going away He said, "As the Father hath sent
me, even so I send you." And with that He coupled the significant
breathing upon them, with the word, "Take ye the Holy Spirit." We are to
be as He, both in our utter dependence upon the Spirit and in our
assurance of His power in us.

Ever since