The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1893-05-23
WHIT-sUNDAY SERMON.
Rev. PowIck's Discourse in the Methods
Episcopal Church

Rev BOWlCA'H DlbCpuTbS IN ble hShAoNbS
Episcopal Church
The sermon in the NJ L. church on Sunday
morning was appropriate to Wbit-Sunday.
The subject of discourse was "The Spirit of
Truth" John, 1918; "When He, the spirit
of truth, is come He shall guide you into all
the truth" The day we celebrate is forever
memorable as the birthday of the christian
church. 1t witnessed the promised coming of
the spirit of truth who demonstrated the
ascension of our risen Lord and attested for
all coming time his supreme divinity. We
worship, not a dead Christ, but an everything
and all-triumphant Lord of heaven and
earth. The spirit of truth is the third per
son of the adorable Trinity. He is the rep
resentative of the Godhead in the earth His
personality is as distinctly taught in the
Bible as is that of God Himself. And he
who would resolve him into mere influence
will find it just as easy to resolve God into
an influence. The invisibility and incom-
prehensibility of the one are no more mys-
terious than those of the other.
The spirit of truth is so called because He
is its animating being. He makes it live and
glow and burn Mere truth is cold and heart
less and dead. 1t has in itself no saving
power 1t is IA mere sign-post pointing out
the way to the weary or the unwilling pill
grim. The moral teachings of Socrates and
Seneca contained some beautiful and truthful
sentiments, but they produced no stir and
| brought nothing to pass. They lacked the
vitalizing energy of the spirit of truth. The
secret of the power which attends the word
of God is in the operations of the spirit of
| truth which makes "the word of God living
and powerful, sharper than any two edged
sword, piercing to the dividing assunder Of
the soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow and discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart" He also quickens the
faculties of men and enables them to appre-
hend the truth and make it their own.
The spirit of truth is the divine instructor
| of every member of the race who looks to
Him for guidance while this promise was
made primarily to the twelve we are not to
suppose that His promised help is for the few
only, but for the many. If God has spoken
| to any in the book we call the Bible it is the
duty of every one to find out what lie has
said And his efforts to know the truth of
God by obeying the command to search the
scriptures will ever be aided by the guiding
spirit whose help is pledged to all who look
for it. The failures and blunders which men
have made along this line have been owing
chiefly to their failure to obtain that personal
endowment which is essential, to all alike in
order to an understanding of spiritual things.
1t would be serious reflection on the
wisdom of God 20 suppose that He would
speak to his children in a language they
cannot understand-earthly parents know
better than this.
The spirit of truth" is the interpreter OF
truth to the consciousness of the believer
To the unspiritual man the things of God are
foolishness-he cannot know them. But he
that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he
himself is judged of no man. Christ had
many things to say which the disciples were
not able to bear so He promised that the
spirit of truth should guide them into all
truth. This He did when He inspired them
to write the gospels and epistles, and this He
still does when He unfolds their meaning tt
those who read them.
God is still speaking to His people and re
vealing unto them, by His guiding spirit
things both new and old out of the treasury
of His word. As the various problems of lif,
arise in new and novel forms and we wonde,
how to meet them, new light flashes from tn,
word of God; some obscure truth which ha
been awaiting its time comes from its hiding
place and we learn the mind Of the spirit anC
find our pathway cleared. This is the secre
of the development of conscience with ref
erence to slavery, missionary and Temperance
work that has taken place in modern times
We wonder now at the views formerly hell
upon these and kindred questions at a pas
age The field of truth which lies unex
plored before us may be vaster than we think
but little by little the guiding spirit viii
spread it all out before us and we shall know
even as also we are known.
|