The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-03-29
TONGUES OF FIRE.
A Ghost Who is Omnipotent and Di.
vine and Everywhere Present
A Sin Against the Third Person of the God
Head win Never he Forgiven Even in
This World or the World to Come
Sermon of Rev. DIR. Talmage.

hGACClCu DClnR ACIS XIX. =. Have W
received the Holy Ghost?'
The word ghost, which means a soul
or spirit, has been degraded in common
parlance. We talk of ghosts as balefu
and frightful and in frivolous or su
perstitious way. But nay text speak.
of a Ghost who is omnipotent and di
vine and everywhere present and 81
times in the New Testament called the
Holy Ghost. The only time l ever
heard this text preached from was in
the opening days of my ministry, when
a glorious old Scotch minister came up
to help me in my village church.
On the day of my ordination and
installation he said: IF you get
into the corner of e Saturday
night without enough sermons for
Sunday. send for me and / will come
and preach for you" The fact ought
TO be known that the first three years
of pastors life are appallingly ardu-
Gus. No other profession makes the
twentieth part of the demand on a
young man. If secular speaker pre-
pares one or two speeches for a polit-
ical campaign, it is considered ardu-
GUS If lecturer prepares one lee
ture for a year. he is thought to have
done well But a young pastor mas
two sermons to deliver every Sabbath
before the same audience, besides all
his other work, and the most of min
listers never recover from the awful
nervous strain of the first three years.
BE sympathetic with all young minis
ters and withhold your criticisms.
My aged Scotch friend resounded to
my first call and came and preached
from the text that now announce.
remember nothing but the text. 1t
was the last sermon he ever preached.
OK the following Saturday he was
called to his heavenly reward. But l
remember 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 dis
course is to open a door, to unveil
Parsonage, TO introduce a 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, 9.
The Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters''-that is, as an al
batross or eaglsHspreads 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
unfedged state and warmed it into
life and fiuttered over it and set it
winging its way through immensity.
1t is the tip top of all beautiful and |
sublime suggestiveness. Can you not |
almost see the outspread 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 a great |
feast. Strangers speaking Il different /
languages were present from many
parts of the world. But in one house |
they heard what seemed like the COM
ing of a cyclone or hurricane. 1t made
the trees bend and the houses quake. /
The cry was, ''What is that?" 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
1t was neither cyclone nor conf1agra-
tion, 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
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 assembly felt that the sound
was supernatural and pentacostaL
Oh, what an infinite and almighty and
glorious parsonage is the Holy Ghost!
He brooded this planet into life, and
now that through sin it has become a
dead world. He will brood it the sec
ond time into life. Perilous attempt
would be a comparison between the
three persons of the Godhead.
They are equal. but there is some con-
which attaches itself to the
third person of the Trinity, the Holy
Ghost, that does not attach itself to
either 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 the Holy Ghost which shall
never be 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 / speak
of the Holy Ghost as Biblical interpre-
ter, as a human constructor, as solace
for the broken hearted, as preachers
Reinforcement
The Bible is a mass of contradictions,
an affirmation of impossibilities, unless
the Holy Ghost helps us to understand
1t. The Bible says of itself that the
Scripture is not for private interpre-
ia ton" but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy 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 arch@-
ologies, and ali the Bible dictionaries,
and all the maps of Palestine, and all
the international series of Sunday
school lessons. And if that is all you
will not understand the deeper and
grander meanings of the Bible so well
as that Christian mountaineer who,
Sunday morning, after having shaken
down the fodder for the cattle. comes