Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-03-25
TOUCHED AS BY FIRE.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE breaches IN NEW
YORK on THE HOLY GHOST.

NEW YORK, March 24-Whcn DR..
Talmage assembled the platform of the
Academy of Music this afternoon, he
faced an audience quite as large as any
that had assembled in the great build
ing since these services began, while
several thousand others were outside IN
able to secure seats or even standing
room. He took for his subject Tongues
of Fire, !" the text selected being Acts
xix, 2, "Have ye received the Holy
Ghost?"
The word ghost, which means e soul,
or spirit, has been degraded in common
parlance. 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 81 times in
the New Testament called the Holy
Ghost. The only time ever heard this
text preached from was in the opening
days of my ministry, when q glorious old
Scotch minister came up to help me in
my village church. On the day Of my
ordination and installation he said, eff
you get into the corner Of q Saturday
night without enough sermons for Sun
day, send for me, and I 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
a secular speaker prepares one or two
speeches for political campaign, it is
considered arduOus. If lecturer pre-
pares one lecture for a year, he is
thought to have done well. But q 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.
Ny aged Scotch friend responded to
my first call and came and preached
from the text that / 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 I 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
We received the Holy Ghost?" The office
of this present discourse is to open
door, to unveil a Parsonage, to intro
duce Il 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
1.-The Spirit of God moved upon the face
of the waters is, as an albatross
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 un-
f1edged state and warmed it into life
and futtered over it and set it winging
its way through immensely. It is the
tip top of all beautiful and sublime sug-
gestiveness. Can you not almost see the
cutspread wings over the nest Of young
worlds? 1.-THE Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. -
Another appearance of the Holy Ghost
was at Jerusalem during q great feast.
Strangers speaking II different Ian
guages were present from many parts
of the world. But in one house they
heard what seemed like the coming Of
a 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 confagration, but the bril-
lance and amounting and baptismal pow
er of the Holy Ghost.
That scene was partially repeated in
a 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 it was clear
sky, yet the sound of the wind was SO
great that horses, frightened, broke loose
from their fastenings, and the whole as
sembiy felt that the sound was supernat-
ural and pentecostal Oh, what an in
finite and almighty and glorious person
age is the Holy Ghostl He brooded this
planet into life, and now that through
sin it has become a dead world he will
brood it the second time into life. Peril
Gus attempt would be comparison be-
tween the three persons of the Godhead.
They are equal, but there is some oen-
sideration which attaches itself to the
third person of the Trinity, the Holy
Ghost, that does not attach itself to eli
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
no al nI, I,o1 Io
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 interpreter, az