The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1895-06-15

In most cases it is such
q complete change that the world no.
tees the difference and begins
to ask: what has come over
man? Whom has he
been with? What has so affected
him? What has ransacked his entire
nature? What has turned him square
Take two pictures of Paul
one on the road to Damascus to kill
the disciples of Christ, the other on
the road to Ostia TO die for Christ. |
Come nearer home and look at the man
who found his chief delight in q low
of club-rooms, hiccoughiug
a card table and then STUN
bling down the front steps after mid
night and staggering homeward, and
that same man, one week afterward,
with his family on the way to q prayer
meeting. What has done it? It must
be something tremendous. II must be
God. 1t must be the Holy Ghost
Notice the Holy Ghost IS the solacer
of broken hearts. Christ calls him the
Comforter. Nothing does the world 50
much want as comfort. The most peo-
pie have been abused, misrepresented,
cheated, lied about, swindled, bereft.
What IL needed is balsam for the
wounds, lantern for dark roads, rescue
from maligning pursuers, Q lift from
the marble slab Of tombstoneA- Life
to most has been q semi-failure. They
have not got what they wanted.
They have not reached that which they
started for. Friends betray. Change
of business stand loses old customers,
and does not bring enough custom to
make up for the loss. Health becomes
~precarious when one most needs strong
muscle and steady nerve and clear
brain. Out Of this audienoe Of thou
sands and Thousands, il shapld ask
all those who have been unhurt in the
struggle of life to stand up, or all
standing to hold up their right hands,
not one would move. Oh, how much
we need the Holy Ghost ss comforter!
He recites the sweet gospel promises to
the hardy bestead. He assures Of
mercy mingled with the seventies. He
consoles with thoughts Of coming re-
lease. He tells of . Heaven where tear
il never wept and burden Is car
ried and injustice is suffered.
Comfort for all the young people
who are maltreated ut home, or receive
insufficient income, or are robbed of
their schooling, or kept back from DO.
sitions they earned by the putting for
ward of others less worthy. Comfort
for all these men and women midway
in the path of life. worn out with what
they have already gone through, and
with no Frightening future. Comfort
for these aged nj amid many innrm-
tiles and who feel themselves TO be in
the way in the home or business which
themselves established with their ewp
grit.
The Holy Ghost comfort, I think, gen.
orally comes in the shape of . solilo-
guy. You find yourself saying to your
self: "Well, l ought not to GO ON this
way about my mothers death. She had
peoples burdens long enough. l am
glad that father and mother are to-
gether In Heaven, and they will BE-
waiting to greet US, and It will b
only q little while anyhow, and God
makes no mistakes" Or you solilo-
quize, saying: ut Is hard to lose my
property. am sure ! worked hard
enough for 1t. But God will take ARE
Of ns, and, as to the children, the mon
ey might have spoiled them, and we ind
that those who have to struggle for
themselves generally turn out best,
and 1t will all be well il this upsetting
OF u worldly resources leads ~ to
lay up treasures in Heaven" Or you
soliloquise. saying: ut was hard to
give up hat boy when the Lord took
him. expected great things of him,
and, oh, how we miss him out Of the
house, and there are 20 many things I
come across that make one think Of
him, and he was such . splendid fell
lowi But then what an escape he has
made from the temptations and sor-
rows which come to all who grow up,
and 1t is Q 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 Heaven
ward that we could not otherwise
have experienced" And after you
have said that you get that relief
which comes from an outburst of tears.
l do no say to you, as some say. do
not cry. God pity people in trouble
who have the parched eyeball and dry
eyelid and can not shed q tear. That
makes maniacs. To Gods people tears
are the dew of the night dashed with
sunshine. I am SO glad you can weep.
Rpt you think these things you say to
yourself are only soliloqpies. No, nc;
they are the Comforter who is the
Holy Ghost.
Notice also the Holy Ghost as the
preachers re, enforcement. You and !
have known preachers encyclopedia in
knowledge, brilliant as an iceberg
when the sun smites it, and with Ches-
terfeldian address and rhetorical hand
uplifted with diamond big enough to
dazzle an assembly and SO surcharged
with vocabulary that when they left
this life 1t might be said of each OF
them as De Quincy said of another
that in the act Of dying he committed
q robbery, abscondiRg with Q valuable
polyglot dictionary, yet NO awakening
or converting or sanctifying result,
while some plain man, with humblest
phraseology, has seen audiences whelm-
ed with religious Influence. 1t was
the Holy Ghost. What q useful
thing It would be II every minis.
ter would give the history of his SER
mons! 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 q great
outpouring of the Holy Ghost at that
service. and the awakening power ex-
ceeded anything l eve witnessed since
/ began to preach, with perhaps the ex-
eeption Of two or three occasions. Cler-
gymen snd Christian workers by the
score and hundreds expressed thomu
selves as having been blessed
during the service. That after
noon l took the train for an out
door meeting in the state o fOhio, where
] was to preach on the night of the
next day. As the sermon had proved
SO useful the day before and the theme
was fresh in my mind, ! resolved to ps-
produce it, and did reproduce it as far
as / could, but the result was Aothing
~ al Navar had saamad ~ hava