Connecticut western news., 1891-01-07

power, not Ioglcal power, not scientific power. not social power not financial power, not brain power, but power complish more in one week than with from on high. With it we could ac- out it in hundred years. And l am going to get it, if in answer to prayer, earnest and long continued, God will grant it me. his unworthy servant Men and women who know how to pray, when you pray for yourself pray for me that may be endued with power from on high. would rather have it than all the diamond fields of Golconda, and all the pearls of the sea, and all the gold in the mountains. Many of the mightiest intellects never had touch of it. and many of the less than ordinary intellects have been sur charged with it. And every man and woman on earth has a right to aspire to it, alright to pray for it, and, properly i persistent, will obtain it.
 !! Power from on the level is good thing such power as l may give you or you may give me by encouraging words 1 aud actions. Power from on the level when we stand by each other in any Christian undertaking. Power from on the level when other pulpits are in accord with ours. Power from on the level when the religions and secular press forward our Christian undertak- ings. But power from on the level is not sufficient Power from on high is i what we need to take possession of us Power straight from God. Supernat- ural power, omnipotent power, all con- quering power Not more than one out of thousand of the ministers has it continuously. Not more than one out of ten thousand Christians has it all the time. Given in abundance, these last ten years of the Nineteenth century would accomplish more for God, and the church, and the world than the previous ninety years of this century.
 POWER FROM ON HIGH.
 A few men and women in each age of the world have possessed it. Caro- line Fry, the immortal Quakeress, had it. and three hundred of the depraved and suffering of Newgate prison under her exhortation repented and believed Jonathan Edwards had 1t, and North ampton meeting house heard the out burst of religious emotion as he spake of righteousness and judgment to come. Samuel Budgett, the Christian mer chant, had it. and his benefactions showered the world. John Newton had it. Bishop Latimer had it. Isabella Graham had it. Andrew Fuller had It. The great evangelists, Daniel Baker and Dr. Nettleton and Truman Osborn and Charles G. Finney, had it. In my boyhood saw Truman Osborn rise to preach in the village church at SoDer- vile, N. J., and before he had given out his text or uttered word people ir the audience sobbed aloud with relig ious emotion. <, It was the power from I on high. All in greater or less degree may have it. Once get it and nothing can stand before you. Satan goes down. Caricature goes down. Inf delity goes down. Worldliness goes down. All opposition goes down. Several times in the history of the church and the world has this power from on high been demonstrated. In the Seventeenth century, after great season of moral depression, this power from on high came down upon John Tillotson and Owen and Flavel and Baxter and Bunyan, and there was a deluge of mercy higher than the tops of the highest mountains of sin. In the Eighteenth century, in England and America religion was at low water mark. William Cowper, writing of the clergy of those days, said:
 Except few with Ellis spirit blest,
 Hophni and Phineas may describe the rest
 The infidel writings of Shaftesbury and Hobbes and Chubb had done their work. But power from on high came upon both the Wesleys and Lady Hunt. ington on the other side the Atlantic, and upon William Tennant and Gilbert Tennant and David Brainerd on this side the Atlantic. and both hemispheres felt the tread of a pardoning God. Coming to later date there may be here and there in this audience an aged man or woman who can remember | NoW 1OIh III 1CO1, Wl16ll G1llS power from on high descended most won. drously. It came upon pastors and congregations and theatres and com mercial establishments Chatham Street theatre, New York, was the scene of most tremendous religious awakening
 A committee of Christian gentlemen called upon the lessee of the theatre and said they would like to buy the lease of the theatre. He said, 'What do you want it for?" They replied, "For church." "For wh- a-a-tl" said the owner. ''For a church," was the i reply The owner said, You may have it, and will give you thousand dollars to help you on with you, work" Arthur Tappan, man might lily persecuted in his time, but |. man, as saw him in his last days, as honest and pure and good as any man eve, knew, stepped on the stage of old Chatham theatre as the actors were closing their morning rehearsal, and s@id, "There will be preaching here to n,ght on this stage,' and then gave out and sang with such people as were there the old hymn:
 The voice of free grace cries, escape to the mount 1 ain,
 For all that believe Christ has opened fountain
 A RARROOM MADE A PRAYER ROOM The barroom of the theatre was turned into prayer room, and eight hundred persons were present at the first meeting. For seventy successive nights religious services were held