Connecticut western news., 1895-03-28
TOUCHED AS BY FIRE.
REV. DR. TAlMAGE BREACHES IN NEW
 YORK ON THE HOLY GHOST.


 YORK ON THE HOLY GHOST. Another Great Throng Turned Away From = tho Academy of Music-The Wonderful
 Tongues of Fire.
 NEW YORK, March 24.-When Dr. Talmage ascended the platform of the Academy of Music this afternoon, he faced a. audience, quito as large as any that had assembled ill the great build ing since these services began, while several thousand others were outside un- able to secure seats or even standing room. He took for his subject Tongues of Fire" :" the text selected being Acts xix, 3, Have ye received the Holy Ghost?'
 The word ghost, which means soul, or spirit, has been degraded in common parlanoe We talk of ghosts as baleful and frightful and in frivolous or su- perstitious way. But my text speaks of a Ghost who is omnipotent and divine and everywhere present and 91 times in the New Testament called the Holy Ghost. The only time I ever heard this text preached from was In the opening days of my ministry, when glorious old Scotch minister came up to help me in my village church. On the day of my ordination and installation he said, "If you get into the corner of Saturday night without enough sermons for Sum- day, send for mo, and will come and preach for you.' The fact ought to be known that the first three years of pas tors life are appallingly arduous. No other profession makes the twentieth part of the demand on a young man. If secular speaker prepares one or two speeches for a political campaign, it is considered arduous. If a lecturer pre- pares one lecture for a year, he is thought to have done we'll. But young pastor has two sermons to deliver every Sabbath before the same audience, be- sides all his other work, and the most of ministers never recover from the awful nervous strain of the first three years. Be sympathetic with all young ministers and withhold your criticisms.
 The Holy Ghost.
 MY dR6O oCOtCA T6SpOuucu bO my first call and came and preached from the text that I now announce l remember nothing but the text. It was the last sermon he ever preached. On the following Saturday he was called to his heavenly reward. But remem- Der just how he appeared as, leaning over the pulpit, he looked into the face of the audience, and with earnestness and pathos and electric force asked them, in the words of my text. Have ye received the Holy Ghost?" The office of this present discourse is to open door, to unveil Parsonage, to intro- duce force not sufficiently recognized. He is as great as God. He is God. The second verse of the first chapter of the Bible introduces him-Genesis i, 3. 'The Spirit of God moved upon tho face of the waters''-that is, as an albatross or eagle spreads her wings over her young and warns them into life and teaches than to fly, so tho Eternal Spirit spread his great, broad, radiant wings over this earth in it's callow and un- dedged state and warmed it into life and fluttered over it and set it winging it's way through immensity. It is the tip top of all beautiful and sublime sug- gestiveness. Can you not almost see the outspread wings over the nest of young worlds? "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
 Another appearance of the Holy Ghost was at Jerusalem during great feast. Strangers speaking IF different lan- guages were present from many parts of the world. But in one house they heard what seemed like the coming of Q cyclone or hurricane. It made the trees bend and the houses quake. The cry was, What is that?" And then forked flame of fire tipped each fore head, and what with the blast of wind and the dropping fire a panic took place, until Peter explained that it was neither cyclone nor oonhagration, but the bril- liance and amounting and baptismal pow CT of the Holy Ghost.
 That scene was partially repeated in @ forest when Rev. John Easton was preaching. There was the sound of rushing, mighty wind, and the people looked to the sky to see if there were any signs of storm, but 1t was clear sky, yet the sound of the wind was so great that horses, frightened, broke loose from their fastenings, and the whole as- sembly felt that the sound was supernat- ural and pentecostal. Oh, what an in- finite and almighty and glorious person. age is the Holy Ghost He brooded this planet into life, and now that through sin it has become dead world he will brood it the second time into life. Peril ous attempt would be comparison be- tween the three persons of the Godhead. They are equal, but there is some con- sideration which attaches itself to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, that does not attach itself to ei- ther God the Father or God the Son. We may grieve God the Father and grieve God the Son and be forgiven, but we are directly told that there is sin against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven either in this world or in the world to come. And 1t is wonderful that while on the street you hear the name of God and Jesus Christ used in profanity you never hear the words Holy Ghost. This hour I speak of the Holy Ghost as Biblical interpreter, as human constructor, as a solace for the broken hearted, as a preachers re-en- forcement
 Better Than a Concordance.
 The Bible is mass of contradictions, an affirmation of impossibilities, unless the Holy Ghost helps us to understand it. The Bible says of itself that the Scripture is not for "private interpre- tation," but ''holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" . that is, not private interpretation, but Holy Ghost interpretation. Pile on your study table all the commentaries of the BibleAMatthew Henry and Scott and Adam Clarke and Albert Barnes and Bush and Alexander. and all the arche- ologies, and all the Bible dictionaries,