The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-03-27

/ should take up The Novoe Vremya OF
st. Petersburg, all printed in Russian,
and say, ''There is no sense in this
newspaper for / can not understand
one line of all it's columns" than for
any man to take up the Bible, and
without getting Holy Ghost illumi-
nation as to its meaning say: This
Book insults my common sense. /
can not understand it. Away with
the incongruity!' No one but
the Holy Ghost, who inspired
the Scriptures, can explain the
Scriptures. Fully realize that,
and you will be as enthusiastic
a lover of the old book as my
venerable friend who told me in
Philadelphia last week that he was read
ing the Bible through the fifty-ninth
time, and 1T became more attractive and
thrilling every time he went through it,
In the saddlebags that hung across my
horses back as l rode from Jerusalem
down to the Dead sea and up to Damas-
Gus had all the books about Palestine
that ! could carry, but many man on
his knees, in the privacy of his room,
has had flashed upon him more vivid ap.
| probation OF the word of God than
many man who has visited all the
scenes of Christ's birth, and Paul's elo-
quence, and Peters Imprisonment, and
Joshua's proves, and Elijah's ascen-
! sion. do not depreciate any of the
helps for Bible study, but | do say
that they altogether come infinitely
short without a direct communication
from the throne of God in response to
prayerful solicitation. We may find
many interesting things about the BIZ
BILE without especial illumination, as
how many horses Solomon had in his
stables, or how long was Noah's ark,
or who was the only woman whose full
name is given in the Scriptures or
which is the middle verse of the Bible,
and all that will do you no more good
than TO be able to tell how many bean
poles there are in your neighbours gar
den.
The learned earl of Chatham heard
the famous Mr.. Cecil preach about the
Holy Ghost and said to friend on the
way home from church: II could not
understand it, and do you suppose any
body understood it?'' "Oh, yes," said
his Christian friend, there were uned-
ucated women and some little children
present who understood it," l warrant
you that the English soldier had under
supernal influence read the book, for
after the battle of Iukermann was over
he was found dead with his hand glued
to the page of the open Bible by his
own blood, and the words adhered to
his hands as they buried him: II am
the resurrection and the life; he that
believeth in me, though dead, yet shall
he live"
Next consider the Holy Ghost as a
human reconstruction. We must be
made over again. Christ and Nicode-
mus talked about it. Theologians call
it regeneration. / do not care what
you call it, but we have to be recon.
structed by the Holy Ghost. We be-
come new creatures, hating what we
once loved and loving what we once
hated. If sin were luxury, it must
become detestation. If we preferred
bad associations, we must prefer good
associations. In most cases it is such
complete change that the world no.
tices the difference and begins
to ask: what has come over
that man? Whom has he
been with? What has so affected
him? What has ransacked his entire
nature? What h0e turned him square
about?" Take two pictures of Paul
one on the road to Damascus to kill.
the disciples of Christ, the other on
the road to Ostia to die for Christ.
Come nearer home and look at the man
who found his chief delight in low
class of club-rooms, hiccoughing
around card table and then STUN
bling down the front steps after mid
night and staggering homeward, and
that same man, one week afterward,
with his family on the way to prayer
meeting. What has done it? 1t must
be something tremendous. 1t must be
God. 1t must be the Holy Ghost.
Notice the Holy Ghost as the solacer
of broken hearts. Christ calls him the
Comforter. Nothing does the world SO
much want as comfort. The most peo-
pie have been abused, misrepresented,
cheated, lied about, swindled, bereft.
What is needed is balsam for the
wounds, lantern for dark roads, rescue
from maligning pursuers, lift from
the marble slab of tombstones. Life
to most has been semi-iailure. They
have not got what they wanted.
They have not reached that which they
started for. Friends betray. Change
of business stand loses old customers,
and does not bring enough custom to
make up for the loss. Health becomes
precarious when one most needs strong
muscle and steady nerve and clear
brain. Out of this audience Of thou
sands and thousands, if should ask
all those who have been unhurt in the
struggle of life to stand up, or all
standing to hold up their right hands,
not one would move. Oh, how much
we need the Holy Ghost as comforterl
He recites hesweet gospel promises to
the hardy bestead. He assures of
mercy mingled with the seventies. He
consoles with thoughts of coming re-
lease. He tells of a Heaven where tear
is never wept and burden is never car
ried and injustice is never suffered.
Comfort for all the young people
who are maltreated athome, or receive
insufficient income, or are robbed of
their schooling, or kept back from po-
sitions they earned by the putting for