Twentysix sermons on various subjects Author:William Beveridge Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SERMON III. THE EFFICACY OF FAITH ON THE MINISTRATION OF THE WORD. 1 Thess. ii. 13. " For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye... more » received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." "!n you that believe;" there lies the emphasis, and the foundation of all that I design at present to build upon these words. St. Paul having been at Thessa- lonica, and preached the word of God to the inhabitants of that city, many of them hearkened to what he said, not as spoken by a philosopher, but by an apostle sent from God; and therefore received it, not as "the word of men," which may or may not be true, but as it really was, the infallible " word of God" himself. For this the apostle here tells them "he thanked God without ceasing," ascribing it wholly to his power and goodness; and puts them withal in mind of two things: first, of the great force and efficacy which the word they so received had upon them : " the word of God," saith he, " which effectually worketh in you." It had, it seems, its whole effect, its end, its perfect work, upon them, insomuch that, as he saith in the following words, " they were now able to suffer as much for the sake ofChrist, as the Churches in Judea did." And then, secondly, he acquaints them also how the word of God came to have so much power upon them,—even because they believed it; "which effectually worketh," saith he, " in you that believe:" in you, and none else, and in you only as believing it, without which they could not have been wrought upon, nor would have received any benefit at all by it. According to that also of the Apostle to the Hebrews, where, speaking of the Gospel preached to the Je...« less