The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-03-27
TONGUES OF FIRE.
A Ghost Who 10 omnipotent and Di-
vine and Everywhere Present
A Sin ASaiDat the Third Person OF the God
Head VIII Never BE Forgiven Even In
This World or the EVorld to Ceme-
Sermon OF Rev. DIR. Talmago.

4
DIR. TalnHage took for his subject last
Sunday Tongues of Fire" the text
selected being Acts xix, 2, Have ye
gaceived the Holy Ghostf'
The word ghost, which means soul,
or spirit, has beendegraded in common
padlance. We talk of ghosts as baleful
and frightful and ia frivolous or SUI
perstitious way. But my text speaks
of Ghost who is omnipotent and di.
vine and everywhere present and 81
times in the New Testament called the
Holy Ghost. The only time / ever
heard this text preached from was in
the opening daysof 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: 'Jf you get
into the corner of Saturday
night without enough sermons for
Sunday, send for me and will come
and preach for you" The fact ought
to be known that the first three years
of pastors life are appallingly ardu-
Gus. No other profession makes the
twentieth part Of the demand on a
young man. If a secular speaker pre-.
pares one or two speeches for polit-
ical campaign, it is considered ardu-
GUS. If a lecturer prepares one lee
ture for year, he is thought to have
done well. But young pastor has
two sermons to deliver every Sabbath
before the same audience, besides all
his other work, and the most of min
listers never recover from the awful
nervous strain Of the first three years.
BE sympathetic with all young minis
ters and withhold your criticisms.
My aged Scotch friend resounded to
my first call and came and preached
from the text that now announce.
remember nothing but the text. 1t
was the last sermon he ever preached.
On the following Saturday he was
called to his heavenly reward. But
remember 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 We received the Holy
Ghost?" The office of this present dis
course is to open a door, to unveil a
Parsonage, to introduce 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, 2.
''The Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters"-that is, as an al
batross or eagle spreads her wings over
her young and warns them into life
and teaches them to fly, so the Eternal
Spirit spread his great, broad, radiant
wings over this earth in its callow and
unfledged state and warmed it into
life and fluttered over it and set it
winging its way through immensity.
1t is the tip top of all beautiful and
sublime suggestiveness 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 a great
feast. Strangers speaking II different
languages were present from many
parts of the world. But in one house
they heard what seemed like the COM
ing of a cyclone or hurricane. 1t made
the trees bend and the houses quake.
The cry was, What is that?" And
then forked flame of fire tipped each
forehead, and what with the blast of
wind and the dropping fire panic
took place, until Peter explained that
it was neither cyclone nor confiagra-
ton, but the brilliance and amounting
and baptismal power of the Holy
Ghost.
That scene was partially repeated in
forest when Rev. John Easton was
preaching, There was the sound of a
rushing, mighty wind, and the people
looked to the sky to see if there were
any signs of storm, but it was clear
sky, yet the sound of the wind was so
great that horses, frightened, broke
loose from their fastenings, and the
whole assembly felt that the sound
was supernatural and pentacostal.
Oh, what an infinite and almighty and
glorious parsonage 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 sec
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would be comparison between 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
either 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 n
sin against the Holy Ghost (which shall
never be forgiven either in this world
or in the world to come. And it 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 l speak
of the Holy Ghost as Biblical interpre-
ter, as a human constructor, as solace
for the broken hearted, as preachers
reinforcement, Yf&Is
The Bible is a 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"
-thatis not private Interpretation, but
Holy Ghost Interpretation. Pile on your
study table all the commentaries of the
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