I was standing on the gallery of the store thinking about it with that hungry heart of mine. That night, when assigned to a room in the hospitable home of the Methodist pastor, I could not sleep; but lay thinking and praying on the bed.
MY SANCTIFICATION
Many will remember the day and hour, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the time. I knew it as though the name was written across the face of the blessing and upon every wave of glory that rolled in upon my soul.
CALL TO THE EVANGELISTIC WORK
One was in the general conviction of the people that I ought to be and would be an evangelist. I was to leap out on the waves, and go out at the command of the Lord, not knowing whither I went.
REVIVALS
These instantaneous downpourings of the Holy Spirit have established a remarkable similarity in my mind to certain natural phenomena. The subject was the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, received after the birth of the Spirit, a second work of grace.
ALTAR WORK
A man full of the Holy Ghost carries with him a sphere of spiritual influence which is soon felt at the altar. Angels from above and devils from beneath struggle for the possession of the souls at the altar.
THE SECRET OF THE LORD
Here again we see the failure of many Christians in the obtainment of the blessed experience. The secret of the Lord kept her not only uncomplaining, but joyful through a quarter of a century of suffering.
WITHOUT REPUTATION
Paul tells us that Christ had none, that he was “of no reputation.” The same fact is brought out in his reference to the disciples of the Lord. Out of a large fortune he gave thirty dollars a year to the support of the Church, and was bitterly opposed to missions, especially those in the foreign field.
THE COMFORT IN TEMPTATION
Under temptation, one’s rapturous feelings go down; so did those of the holy Madame Guyon. Under the light of this clear Bible statement down go the timeworn excuses for falling in “the smell of the wine at the Lord’s table,” “the odor of a saloon,” “the power of habit,” “the force of suggestion,” “the influence of a smile,” “the touch of a hand,” etc. He has not only saved us in the past; but we can say with Paul concerning the future, “The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom.”.
THE FOUR LOOKS TOWARD SODOM
The great majority come down by the steps, by the successive stages of moral lapse typified in the expressions, “looking toward,”. The disposition to look back on the world we have left, and the sinful life we have forsaken, is one of the strange facts we have to encounter in the spiritual life. There was no joy in Abraham’s look that morning of disaster to Sodom, and there will be nothing of the kind in the heart of God’s people on the dreadful Day of Judgment.
THE STRENGTH OF SAMSON
It means that the unction and influence of the sanctified man is a mystery to all who have it not. We do not doubt that when the Spirit of the Lord would come upon Samson, he would shout, and under his tremendous onset nothing could stand before him. There was no “power.” The results of the meeting were more like that of a dress parade and review than an actual battle.
THE DEFEAT OF AI
It is while lying in the fields besieging little Ai, he described how he captured Jericho on the fourth or fifth day, his auditors meanwhile wondering why he can not take the small place now before him. An accursed thing is in the camp; the offender has his tent pitched over it, and the face which looks out of the tent is one of darkness and profound melancholy. He may be in the possession of gifts which, if used, might lead him to.
THE SIFTER AND FAN
It would require a much larger article than this to mention and describe the various chaffy things that can become mixed up in the wheat of the. The southern part of the State had a population of a million, with a large number of towns. The college register thus far has failed to record the arrival of the southern part of that State.
THE BATTLE IS NOT YOURS
Not a jar was felt through all the vast and complicated machinery of the Church; not a halt of a single moment upon the part of God’s mighty advancing hosts. One is, that God took care of the Church quite a while before they were born. The old ship of Zion will be coming up the stream of Time, the banks resounding with the shouts of the redeemed, while you are being lowered in the grave.
THE TEST OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE
One of them said, “He could not stand success; the flattery of a nation was too great for him.”. He said that in twelve hours the “swelling” of the man was painfully apparent to his best friends. In his own words, — “he wanted to die.” He who stood the test of success and glorious victory went down under the test of temporary reverse or apparent failure.
THE TEST OF WANT AND RELIEF
He has swept up out of the class of “The Thirty,” and is one of the famous “Three” spoken of in the Old Testament. The strangeness of God’s methods of relief is again seen in the way He remembered His gifted servant. But it was not small in the sight of God or of the man benefited.
THE WITHERED HAND
One office of the spiritual hand is, to give the grasp of interest and love. And yet this needed work of the hand is lacking in so many places because it is withered. A fourth office of the hand is, to supplicate in prayer to God, and bring down the power of Heaven upon the people.
THE SMITTEN MOUTH
Listen to some of the words as they fall from the lips of the smiter as he strikes the mouth of one of God’s Spirit-filled servants. He is a Church-splitter — a crank — a schismatic — an abuser of the Church and his brethren.” Bang — thud — smash. Did you investigate the Church-splitting matter, and hear the other side of the case?”.
THE SILENCE OF CHRIST
The Roman governor put many questions to Jesus, and charged Him to answer, but the Evangels tell us, “He answered him nothing.” Two replies, evidently given for the benefit of the world, make all the more remarkable Christ’s silence to the individual. The study of the Roman governor shows him to have been timorous, cowardly, time-serving, and unjust. Matthew says, “When He was accused of the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing.” And Mark states, “The chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing.”.
WAITING ON THE LORD
A fourth promise is, that we “shall walk, and not faint.” It is placed almost last as the result of waiting on the Lord; but it is not less blessed than the other two, and may be even more important. An additional promise to the man who waits on the Lord is, that “he shall inherit the land.” In another place David says, “He shall exalt thee to inherit the land.” The figure is one of complete deliverance, perfect victory, and quiet establishment. This last promise is made to the man who will wait on the Lord in the sense of tarrying for the Divine providence, or giving God His own time to do for us what we have asked and He has promised.
THE CLEANSING BLOOD
The Bible says, “The blood cleanseth.” Myriads are shouting this in the sky, and multitudes are proclaiming it on earth. All this gloomy talk is nothing but an emphatic denial of God’s own Word, that the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin. Sick as I was, I felt my face kindling with joy as I repeated, “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.”.
DWELLING AMONG LIONS
He may have been thinking only of the ferocity of the beast; but it is doubtful. Christ knew what it was to be among lions when He looked into the pitiless faces of the high priest and elders, as He stood arrested and bound before them. It is to live year after year in a godless community, where Christ is forgotten, the Sabbath desecrated, the Bible and religion laughed at, while the devil is the unquestioned monarch and ruler of the place.
THE BLESSING OF TIME
In the religious life we are told to leave the first principles, and to go on to perfection. Some delight in titles, and, as Christ says, love to be called Rabbi, Rabbi, in the market-places. Men may dispute and wrangle about the chief seats in the synagogue; they can have them all; he does not desire a single one; he is perfectly satisfied in sitting at the feet of the Savior.
THE FALL OF BALAAM
To stray out of the order of God’s will and providence is to be continually getting hurt. It was the spiritual flaring up of the human candle before going down and out in the socket. Of the four individuals mentioned above, but one seems to have been rescued, and that one was David.
THE MAN NEAREST TO GOD
First, the mystery is explained of the Divine favor and use of certain men in the Church and world. There are good people in the congregation, and some are better, and there is the man or woman who is best or nearest to God. The answer has already been given, and is also embraced in the Bible statement — the man who prayeth secretly shall be rewarded openly.
WHY WEEPEST THOU?
After its discovery, to sit down and sorrow over the dark inheritance and fail to come to Christ with it, is to repeat the folly of the ordinary. Since that marvelous and blessed return, and since the words, “I am the resurrection and the life,” how can there be inconsolable sorrow at the side of the deathbed, and by the margin of the grave. He will take care of the mud-flinger, the mud-flinging, the mud, and especially the coat and the man flung at.
HOLY JOY
Various may be the opinions of the listeners; but there is conviction in the expressions for them all. Again, if the joy should declare itself in the action of the body, there is peculiar convicting power even in that manifestation. Our strength is the joy of the Lord; our invincibility will be found in being filled with the Holy Ghost.
LOOKING UNTO JESUS
A man who does not know this secret of the Lord said once to the writer,. Scripture, and show different degrees of nearness upon the part of the soul to God. Some have been reproduced by special arrangement with the current publisher or holder of the copyright.
