The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-03-29

quJ' iou uuu yOurS6lI saying TO your
,, self: well, l ought not to go on thi
,, way about my mother death. She hat
, suffered enough. She had borne othe
peoples burdens long enough. l am glat
that father and mother are together il
heaven, and they will be waiting to gree
us, and it will be only little while
anyhow, and God makes no mistakes ,
Or you soliloquize saying: cit is hare
to lose my property. 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 fol-
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, "It was hard to give uI
that boy when the Lord took him. l ex-
pected great things of him, and, oh, how
we miss him out of the house, and there
are SO many things I come across that
make one think of him, and he was such
splendid fellowl But then what an
escape he has made from the tempta-
| ulOho auu pOlIoWo w Hull OOlO W oil
who grow up, and it is grand thing to
have him safe from all possible harm,
and there are 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
| Of do 70
as some say, do not cry. God pity peo-
pie in trouble who have the parched eye
ball and the dry eyelid and cannot shed
tear. That makes maniaos. 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 I
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 thew 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 robbery, abscond-
ing with valuable polyglot dictionary,
yet no awakening or converting or sane
tifying result, while some plain man,
with humblest phraseology, has seen
audiences whelmed with religious infu
enoe 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 l preached
to many thousands. There had been
much prayer on 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 the ex-
ception of two or three occasions. Cler
gymen and Christian workers by the
score and hundreds expressed themselves
as having been blessed during the serv-
ice. That afternoon 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 proved |
so useful the day before and the thome
was fresh in my mind, resolved to re-
produce it, and did reproduce it as far as |
could, but the result was nothing at |
all. Never had l seemed to have any
thing to do with fiatter failure What
was the difference between the two serv
ices? Some will say, "You were tired
with a long Journey" No, was not
tired at all. Some will say, 'The tenn
poral circumstances in the first case
were more favorable than in the 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. l call upon the
ministers of America to give the history
of sermons, for / believe it will illus
trate as nothing else can the truth of
that Scripture, ''Not 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
service, 1923 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 mbers-and many
Of them baptized by immersion-had
made it an arduous service, which con-
tinued from half past 10 in the morn
ing until half past 2 in in the after
noon. From that service we went
nome exhausted, because there is
nothing SO exhausting as deep emo
ion. A messenger was sent out to {
obtain a preacher for that night, but !
he search was unsuccessful, as all the
minister's were engaged for some other 6
,lace. With no preparation at all for
he evening service, except the looking I
n Cruden's Concordance for text and I
ceiling almost too weary to stand up, 9
'egan the service, saying audibly while {
he opening song was being sung, al
hough because of the singing no one but I
Tod heard it: 80 Lord, thou knowest
ny insufficiency for this servicel Come
own in gracious pc wer upon this peo-
le " The place was shaken with the di o
inc presence. AS far as we could find a
ut, over 400 persons were converted o
hat night. Hear it, all young men en- "
aring the ministry: hear it, all Chris "