Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-04-10
REV. DR. TALMAGE,
FHH BROOKLYN DIvINE,0 SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "rongues OF Fire."
Text: Shave ye received the Holy Ghost

Subject: srongues OF Fire.n
Text: "Have ye received the Holy Ghost.
Acts xix, 2.
The word ghost, which means a soul, OF
spirit, has been degraded In common par.
lance. We talk of ghosts as baneful and
frightful and in a frivolous or superstition!
way. But my text speaks Of a Ghost who i!
omnipotent and divine and everywhere pres
ent and ninety-one times in the New Testa-
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 to help
me in my village church. On the day Of my
ordination and installation he said, 'Il
you get into the corner Of 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 a pastors life
are appallingIy arduous. No other profes,
sion makes the twentieth part Of the demand
on young man. If secular preacher
prepares one or two speeches for a politi-
cal campaign it is considered arduous. II
lecturer prepares one lecture for q year,
he is thought to have done well. But a
young pastor has two sermons to deliver
every Sabbath before the same audience. be.
sides all his other work, and the most oi
ministers never recover from the awful ner-
vous strain Of the first three wears. Be
sympathetic with all young ministess and
withhold your criticisms.
My aged Scotch friend responded to my
first call and came and preached from the
text that now announce. I remember moth
ing but the text. 1t was the last sermon he
ever preached. On the following Saturday he
was called to his heavenly reward. But
remember Just how he appeared as, leaning
over the pulpit, he looked into the face o!
the audience, and with earnestnes5 and
pathos and electric force asked them, in the
words OF my text, "Have ye received tht
Holy Ghost?" The Office of this present dis
course is to open door, to unveil a Person.
age, to introduce asforce not sufficiently rec.
oSniZed. He is as great as God. He g G ID.
The second verse of the first chapter OF the
Bible Introduces Him-Genesis j., 2. "The
Spirit of God moved upon the face Of the
waters"-that 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 calloN
and uni!eiged state and warmed it into life
and iluttered over it and set it winginS it;
way through ;mmensity. 1t is the tip top o.
all beautiful and sublime suggestiveness. Car
you not almost see the outspread wings ovei
the nest of young worlds? "rhe Spirit OF
God moved upon the face of the waters"
Another appearance Of the Holy Ghost va
at Jerusalem during n great feast. Strangers
speaking seventeen different languages were
present from many parts of the world. Bu;
in one house they heard what seemed like the
coming 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 conflagration, but
the briliiance and amounting and baptisma
power of the Holy Ghost.
That scene was partially repeated in .
forest when Rev. John Easton was preach
ing. There was the sound of a rushin'-,
mighty wind. and the people looked to t-,s
but it was a clear sky, yet the sound of tine
wind was SO great that horses, frightened,
broke loose from their fastenings, and the
whole assembly felt that the sound was su-
pernatural and 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 q 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 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 for
given 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 interpreter, as a hui
man constructor, as solace for the broken
hearted. as preachers reinforcement.
The Bible is mass of contradictions, al
affirmation of impossibilities, unless the
Holy Ghost helps us to understand it. The
Bible says of itself that the Scripture is not
for "private Interpretation" but 'holy men
of God spaSe 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 arch8alogies, and all the Bible
dictionaries, and all the maps of Palestine.
and all the international series OF Sunday
school lessons. And il that is all you will not
understand the deeper and grander mean
ings of the Bible so well rs 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 I be II I
BpOuiu tdae up Inc NOVOo NTeulyb Oi ot'
Petersburg, all printed in Russian, and say,
''There is no sense in this newspaper, for
cannot understand one line of all its col
umns," than for any man to take up the
Bible, and without getting Holy Ghost il.
Illumination as to its meaning say: "This
Book insults my common sense. l cannot
understand it. Away with the incongruityr'
No one but the Holy Ghost, who inspired
the Scriptures, can explain the Scrip. lures.
Fully realize that, and you will be as enthu-
siastic lover of the old book as my vener-
able friend who told me in Philadelphia last
week that he was reading the Bible through
the fifty-ninth time, and it became more at
tractive and thrilling every time he went
through it. In the saddlebaSs that hnnS
across my horses back as I rode from Jeru-
salem down to the Dead Sea and up to Da-
mascus 1 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 oil
the word Of God than many a man who has
visited all the scenes of Christ's birth, and
Paul's elOquence. and Peters Imprisonment,
and Joshua's prowess, and lijah's ascen-
sion. do not depreciate any of the helps
for Bible study, but do say that they oil
together come infinitely short without a 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
AAaAy uOISeS III Ills SttOlcs, Of
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 tine
Bible, and all that will do you no more good
than to be able to tell how many beanpoles
there are in your neighhor's garder.
The learned Earl of Chatham heard th'
famous Mr.. Cecil preach about the Hol,
Ghost and said to a friend on the way hoIn'
from church: Il could not understand it;
and do you suppose anybody understood 1T!
"Oh, yes, said his Christian friend, "ther5
were uneducated women and some little
children present who understood it." war
rant you that the English soldier had under
sIpcrnai influence read the book, for afte:
the battle Of Inkermann was over he wa
found dead with his hand glued to the page
of the open Bible by his own blood, and til.
words adhered to his hands as they buried
nim, '1 an tho resurrection and the life; he
that believeth IN Me. though dead. yet shall
he live."
Next consider fhs Holy Ghost as a human
,econstructor. We must be made over again.
Christ and Nicodemus talked about it.
Theologians call it regeneration. do moi
care what you call it, but we have to be 10