Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-03-30

orally comes Ia e..o shape Of solilo-
guy. You find yourself saying to your
self: well, | ought not TO go on this
way about my mothers death. she had
suffered enough, Sho had borne other
peoples burdens long enough am glad
| that father and mother are together in
heaven, and tAey will be waiting to greet
US, and it will be only little while
anyhow, and God makes 10 mistakes. "
Or you soliloquize, saying: 1T is hard
to fose my property. l am sure worked
! hard enough for it. But God will take
care of Us, and, as to the children, the
money might have spoiled them, and We
| find that those who have to struggle for
themselves generally turn out best,
and it will all be we'll if this upsetting
of our worldly resources leads US to lay
up treasures in heaven. Or you solilo-
! quize. saying, 1T was hard to give up
that boy when the Lord took him. ex-
pected great things Of him, and, oh, how
we miss him ont of the house, and there
are so many things | come across that
make one think of him, and he was such
splendid fellow! But then what an
escape he has made from the tempta
tons and sorrows which come to all
who grow up, and it is grand thing to
have him safe from all possible harm,
and there arc all those Bible promises
| for parents who have lost children, and
We shall feel drawing heavenward that
we could not have otherwise expert.
enced. And after You have said that
| you get that relief which comes from an
outburst of tears. do not say to You,
as some say, do not cry. God pity peo-
pie i'll trouble who have the parched eye
ball and the dry eyelid and cannot shed
tear. That makes maniacs. To God S
people tears are the dews of the night
dashed with sunrise. | am SO glad you
Can weep. But you think these things
you say to yourself are only soliloquies.
| No, no; they are the Comforter, who is
the Holy Ghost.
| Help to the Preacher.
Notice also the Holy Ghost as the
preachers reinforcement You and
have known preachers encyclopedia in
knowledge, brilliant as an iceberg when
the sun smites it, and with Chesterfield
ian address and rhetorical hand uplifted
with diamond big enough to dazzle an
assembly and SO surcharged with vocab-
ulary that when they left this life it
might be said of each of them as De
Quincy said of another that in the act of
dying he committed a robbery, abscond-
ing with valuable polyglot dictionary,
yet no awakening or converting OF sane
| tifying result, while some plain man,
with humblest phraseology, has seen
audiences whelmed with religious infiu
ence. 1t was the Holy Ghost What a
useful thing it would be if every minis
ter would give the history of his SER
monsl Years ago at an outdoor meet
ing in the state of New York | preached
to many thousands. There had been
much prayer OH the grounds for great
outpouring of the Holy Ghost at that
service, and the awakening power ex
ceeded anything ever witnessed since
began to preach, with perhaps tho ex-
ception of two or three occasions. Cler
gymen and Christian workers by tho
score and hundreds expressed themselves
as having been blessed during the serv-
ice, That afternoon l took the train for
an outdoor meeting in the state of Ohio,
where l was to preach on the night Of
the next day. As the sermon had roved
SO useful the day before and the theme
was fresh i'll my mind, l resolved to re-
produce it. and did reproduce it as far as
| could, but the result was nothing at
all Never had | seemed to have any
thing to do with fiatter failure What
was the difference between the two sorv-
ices? Some will say, "You were tired
with long Journey No, | was not
tired at all. Some will say, 1.-The tenn
poral circumstances III the first case
were more favorable than i'll tho last :"
No, they were more favorable in the
last The difference was in the power
of the Holy Ghost-mightily present at
the first service, not seemingly present
at all at the second. | call upon the
ministers of America to give the history
of sermons, for | believe it will illus
trato as nothing else can tho truth of
that Scripture, Mot by might nor by
power, but By my Spirit, saith the
Lord
On the Sabbath Of the dedication Of
one of our churches in Brooklyn, at the
morning service, 1928 souls stood up to
profess Christ. They were the converts
in the Brooklyn Academy of Music,
where we had been worshiping. The re-
ception of so many members-and many
of them baptized by immersion-had
made it an arduous service, which con-
timed from half past 10 in the morn
ing until half past 2 in in the after
noon. From that service we went
home exhausted, because there is
nothing so exhausting as deep emo
ton. A messenger was sent out to
obtain preacher for that night, but
the search was unsuccessful. as all the
ministers were engaged for some other
place. With no preparation at all for
the evening service, except the looking
i'll Cruden's Concordance for text and
feeling almost too weary to stand up, |
began the service, saying audibly while
the opening song was being sung, al
though because of the singing no one but
Z oou ledIu IL. " LOTu, IDGu knOWGsG
my insufficiency for this serviee Come
down i'll gracious power upon this peo-
pie. - The place was shaken with the di-
1 vine presence AS far as we could find
out, over 400 persons were converted
that night. Hear it, all young men en-
tering the ministry; hear it. all Chris
tian workers. 1t was the Holy Ghost
In the Second Reformed church Of
Somerville N. j., in my boyhood days,
Mr.. Osborne. the evangelist, came to
hold special service. see him now as
I he stood in the pulpit Before he an
nounced his text and before he had ut
tered a word of his sermon strong men
wept aloud, and it was like the day of
judgment. 1t was the Holy Ghost.
A Wonderful Power.
In 1857 the electric telegraph bore
strange messages. One of them read,
My dear parents will rejoice to hear
chat l have found peace with God. .
Another read, Dear Mother, the work
continues, aud l, too, have been convert,
I'D. " Another read, "At last faith and