Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1895-03-29
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
WORD ABOUT GHOSTS A. FOUND
~ THE sCRIPTI
Subject. roague. of Fire."

frightful and in q frivolous or superstitious
way But my text speaks Of a Ghost who Il
omnip0tent and divine and everywhere pres
enf and ninety-One times Ia the New Iesta-
ment called the Holy Ghost. The only time
ever heard this text preached from was In
the opening DAYS Of my ministry. when a
glorious old Scotch minister came up 10 help
me In my village church. On the dayof my
ordination and installation he said, "lf
you get into the corner Of n Saturday
night without enough sermons for Sunday,
send for me. aud viii come and preach
for yOu" The fast ought 20 be known
that the first three years OF pastors life
are appallingly ariuous. No other profess
sion makes the twentieth part OF the demand
on young man. II a secular preacher
prepares one or Two speeches for polti-
cal campaign IL Is considered arduOus. IL
"A lecturer prepares one lecture for Il year,
he is thought 10 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 ner-
vous strain Of the first three years. De
sympathetic with all young ministers and
withhold your criticisms.
NV aged Scotch friend responded to my
first call and came aud preached from the
text that now announce. i remember moth
ing but the text Ii was the last sermon he
ever pftAtiltu. On Tue lohOWiLH
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 aud 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 door, TO unvell Person
age. to introduce q. force not sufficiently rec
ognized. He is as great rs God. He is God.
The second verse of the first chapter OF the
Bible Introduces Him--Genesis l., 2. The
Spirit of God moved upon the lace oil the
waters"-that is. rs an albatross or eagle
spreads her wings over her young and warns
them into life aud teaches them TO fly, so the
Eternal Spirit spread His great, broad,
radiant wings over this earth in its callow
and unfle iged state and warmed it into life
and fiuttered over it and set il winging its
way through immensely. 1t is the tip top oil
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 great feast. Strangers
speaking seventeen different languages were
present from many parts of the world. But
in one house they heard what seemed like the
coming of a cyclone or hurricane. Ii made
the trees bend and the houses quake. The
cry was, 'What is that2" And then forked
fame of fire tipped each forehead, and what
with the blast OF wind and the dropping fire
a panic took place, until Peter explained that
it was neither cyclone nor conflagration, but
the brilliance and amounting and baptismal
power of the Holy Ghost.
That scene was partially repeated in a
forest when Rev. John Easton was preach
ing. There was the sound OF 4 rushing,
mighty wind. and the people looked to the
sky to see II there We're any signs OF storm,
but II was q 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 SUI
pernatural aud pentecostal. Oh, what an
infinite and almighty and glorious person.
age is the Holy Ghost! He brooded this
planet into life, and now that through sin II
has become dead world He will brood it
the second time into life. Perilous attempt
would be a comparison between the three
persons Of the Godhead. They are equal,
but there is some consideration which at
taches itself to the third person of the Trim
| ity, the Holy Ghost, that does not attach
itself to either God the Father or God the
| Son. We may grieye God the Father and
| grleve God the Son and be forgiven, but we
| are directly told that there is sin against
! the Holy Ghost which shall never be for
| given either in this world or in the world to
| come. And 1t is wonderful that while on the
HITCtI YOU near tNt nhlt VI bOu anu JESUS
| Christ used in profanity you never hear the
| words Holy Ghost. This hour 1 speak Of the
Holy Ghost as Biblical interpreter, as a hu-
man constructor, as-a solaee for the broken
hearted, rs q preachers reinforcement.
| The Bible Is u mass of contradictions, an
affirmation of imposslbilities, unless tho
| Holy Ghost helps us to understand 1t. The
Bible says Of itself that the Scripture is not
for 'private Interpretation, but "holy men
nfn nl-a tTglh Nfh oil
! Ghost"-that is, not private Interpretation,
| but Holy Ghost Interpretation. Pile on your
| study table all the commentaries Of the Bible
| Matthew Henry and Scott and Adam Clarke
and Albert Barnes and Bush and Alexander,
and all the archaologies, and all the Bible
dictionaries, and all the maps of Palestine,
and all the international series of Sunday
| school lessons. And ii that is all you will not
understand the deeper and grander mean
ings of the Bible 50 well as that Christian
mountaineer who, Sunday morning, after
having shaken down the fodder for the cat
| tie, comes into his cabin, takes up his well
worn Bible, and with prayer that stirs the
heavens asks for the Holy Ghost to unfold
the book.
No more unreasonable would be if I
should take up The Novoe Vremya of St.
Petersburg, all printed in Russian, and say
| "There is no sense In this newspaper for |
umns," than for any man to take up the
Bible, and without getting Holy Ghost il
Elimination as to Its meaning say: This
Book insults my common sense. l cannot
underestimate it. Away with the incongruity."
No one but the Holy Ghost, who inspired
the Scriptures, can explain the Scriptures
Fully realize that and you will be as enthu-
siastic lover Of the old book as my veneer
able friend who told me in Philadelphia last
week that he was reading the Bible through
the ffty-ninth time, and it became more at
| tractiye and thrilling every time he went
through it. In the saddlebags that hing
across my horses back as l rode from Jeru-
salem down to the Dead Sea and up to Da-
mascus had all the books about Palestine
that could carry, but many a man on his
knees, in the privacy OF his room. has had
flashed upon him more vivid appreciation Of
the word of God than many man who has
visited all the scenes Of Christ's birth, and
Paul's eloquenee and Peters imprisonment,
and Joshua's prowess. and Eliiah's ascen-
sion. do not depreciate any OF the helps
for Bible study, but do say that they all
together come infinitely short without di-
rect communication from the throne of God
in response to prayerful solicitation. We
may find many interesting things about the
Bible without especial illumination, as how
many horses Solomon had in his stables, or
how long was Noah's ark, or who was the
only woman whose full name is given in the
Scriptures, or which is the middle verse OF the
Bible, and all that will you no more good
than to be able to tell how many beanpoles
there are in your neighbor's garden.
The learned Earl of Chatham heard the
famous Mr.. Cecil preach about the Holy
Ghost and said to friend on the way home
from church: II could not understand it,
and do you suppose anybody understood it,?
ooh, yes" said his Christian friend, "there
were uneducated women and some little
children present who understood it." war
rant you that the English soldier had under
supernal influence read the book, for after
the battle of Inkermann was over he was
found dead with his hand glued to the page
of the open Bible by his own blood, and the
words adhered to his hands as they buried
him ar am the resnrractinn and the life. he