On other grounds it was desirable that the mission of Barnabas and Paul should be thus inaugurated.  Though the apostles had been lately driven from Jerusalem, and though the Jews were exhibiting increasing aversion to the gospel, the Church was, notwithstanding, about to expand with extraordinary vigour by the ingathering of the Gentiles.  In reference to these new members Paul and Barnabas pursued a bold and independent course, advocating views which many regarded as dangerous, latitudinarian, and profane; for they maintained that the ceremonial law was not binding on the converts from heathenism.  Their adoption of this principle exposed them to much suspicion and obloquy; and because of the tenacity with which they persisted in its vindication, not a few were disposed to question their credentials as expositors of the Christian faith.  It was, therefore, expedient that their 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