The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-05-20

Pontecostal Pororations.
Sand when the day of Penteooa was fullv
come the Disciples were all with one accord In
one place. And they were all filled with tl,e
Holy Ghost and began to speak with other
tongues as the spirit gave them uterance.''
This, in brief, is the historical record
Of the fulilment of the Saviour's last
promise to His Disciples. 1t is an inn
portant fact in the Christian theology,
and the Church universal very properly COM
memorates the event here recorded-namely,
the descent Of the Holy Ghost yearly at this
season. 1t was to be the Anal and perpetual
proof of His own divinity and the assurance
OF His continued presence with the Church.
And whichever else the disciples might doubt
they could not doubt the Saviour's ascension
to heaven nor the divinity Of His character
and mission after that the Holy Ghost had
come upon them and filed their souls. Hence
they Immediately left their seclusion and
stepped out boldly to confront the hatred and
bigotry and superstition Of the people of Jerusa-
lem, and to proclaim that Jesus of Nazareth,
whom they had cruciied was "a man approved
of God" "whom God had raised up, having
loosed the pains of DEATH" and that, 'ebeing
by the right hand of God exalted, and
having received of the Father the promise Of
the Holy Ghost He had shed forth His
spirit whose manifestation they Witnessed in
the diversity of tongues which every man
heard and understood for himself. And such
was their power, that in one day we are told
there were added unto the infant Christian
Church about three thousand souls. Accepting
this narrative as true, as we most heartily do
it is one Of the grandest historical attestations
Of the divinity Of the Christian religion that
can be brought to our notice. And if we deny
this record, and altogether ignore it, God has
not left himself without witnesses in this age
and in every age of the Christian era of the
presence of the Holy Ghost in and with
believers. So that if we apply the ordinary
rules of testimony to this event we must accept
it as true. And hence the Church makes much
of it, and yesterday it was the theme for con-
sideration in many Of the pulpits.
The Rev. Mr.. Brigham nevertheless con-
sidered the miracle an absurdity. The real
miracle, to his mind, was the loss Of dialects
by the motley audience. But we can hardly
see how the difficulty is lessened by this view
Brigham's declaration that sit depends upon
the religious sympathy between the receiver
and the imparter whether the receiver profits by
instruction. If their thoughts are discordant, the
preachers words are useless What we want
is the sameness of the words of the minister
and the thoughts Of the congregation. Let the
reports Of sermons in the HERALD Che added).
show that the arguments addressed to the
merchants are the language of the Exchange;
to the lawyer, of the bar, and to the wording,
Of pleasure" And we may add, let the preach;
ers thus lay bare the secret sins Of those
classes as well as others and minister to
them the just rebukes which they
merit and we will cheerfully give them a
place in our columns. The Reverend Father
McNamee considered the same subject in it's
fructifying influences on the Church, and drew
q parallel between the descent Of the Spirit
upon chaotic nature in the beginning and
upon the Church in its infancy. In the first
instance nature bloomed with beauty and be-
came vocal with life and sound. The germ
seeds were planted and nurtured by
the sunshine and the showers. In
the other instance Christ planted
the germ of His Church, which to be matured
must be fertilized by the Holy Ghost. The
effect of this divine influence upon and its re-
lation to the Church the reverend preacher
compared to that arising in another sense from
the union of body and soul. As the soul is to
the body 80 also is the Holy Ghost to the
Church The body by the power Of the soul
sees works and progresses SO the Church by
the inspiration of the Holy Ghost sees works
and progresses as she shall ever do until the
end of time. Without the Holy Ghost the
Church would be what the body is when the
soul is gone.
Mr.. Hepworth in his own style, met some
of the sceptics and DIRECTORS to Christianity
who Judge Of it by its worst professors, and
who undertake to frame systems of faith for
themselves, and left them with little to stand
upon. Men, he said, frame theory or re-
ligion of their own, and then go to the Bible
and Gull out texts and sentences to support it
Then there is q school Of thinkers who say
there cannot be revelation. The thing ia
contrary to law. AS if God cannot
do what pleases Him, but must do
what pleases us. This was the old argument
applied to Jesus Christ, ''Can any good thing
come out Of NAZARETH" and because He
came therefrom He was rejected. voltaire re-
jected Christianity because some Of it's priests
were hypocrites. And others have rejected il
because they thought its spirit was repre-
sented by the Inquisition or by the whipping