The Penn's Grove record., 1895-03-29
Rev. DR. TAIMAGR
FHn HRooKLYN DTvME,s SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "rongues of Fire."

-AcuS XIX, a.
Tho 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 q Ghost who Il
omnfpotent and divine and everywhere pres
emit and ninety-one times In the New Testa-
g called the Holy Ghost. The only time
/ ever heard this text preached from was in
the opening days Of my ministry, when q
glorious old Scotch minister came up to help
me In my village church. On the day Of my
ordination and installation he said, s1i
you get into the corner of a Saturday
night without enough sermons for Sunday,
send for me, and I will come and preach
for you" The fact ought to be known
that the first three years OF q pastors life
are appallingly arduous. No other profes1
sion makes the twentieth part of the demand
on q young man. II a secular preacher
prepares n or two speeches for Q politi-
cal campaign 1t is considered arduous. II
a lecturer prepares n lecture for q year,
he is thought to have done well. But q
young pastor has two sermons TO deliver
every Sabbath before the same audience, be-
sides all his other work, n the most oil
ministers never recover from the awful ner-
yous strain OF the first three years. Do
sympathetic with all young ministers and
withhold your criticisms.
= nj 1BDo ~ UAlACuu LCbpVuuCa W 1hN
hrst call and anne and preached from the
text that I now I remember moth
Ing but the text. 1t was the last sermon he
ever preached. On the following Saturday hs
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 and electric force asked them, In tht
words Of my text, "Have We received the
Holy GhostY' The office Of this present dis
course IL to open a door, to unveil 0 Person.
age, to introduce ayforce not sufficiently rec.
ognized. He Is as great as God. He is God.
The second verse Of the first chapter of the
Bible introduces Him-Genesis l., 2. "Tht
Spirit of God moved upon the face Of the
w~aters"-that is, as IN 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 callow
and unfiedged state and warmed 1t into life
and fluttered over 1t and set 1t winging ii
way through immensely. 1t Is the tip top OF
all beautiful and sublime suggestiveness. Car
you not almost see the outspread wings ovel
the nest Of young worlds? 1.-THE Spirit Of
God moved upon the face Of the waters.'
Another appearance Of the Holy Ghost wa
at Jerusalem during a 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. 1t made
the trees bend and the houses quake. The
cry was, ssWhat Is that?" And then a forked
fame OF fire tipped each forehead, and what
with the blast OF wind and the dropping fire
o panic took place, until Peter explained that
1t was neither cyclone nor oonfiagration, but
the brilIianee and amounting and baptismaI
power of the holy Ghost.
That scene was partially repeated In .
A~~HY uhan Row ynhn Eoof0n ne nraa oN.
ing. There was the sound Of a rushing,
mighty wind, and the people looked to the
sky to see IL there were any8signs Of a storm,
but 1t was q clear sky, yet the sound of the
wind was 30 great that horses, frightened,
broke loose from their ~fastenings, and the
whole assembly felt that the sound was SUI
.pernatural and pentecostal. Oh, b 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 II
the second time into life. Perilous attempt
would be q 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
lily, 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 Ia q sin against
the Holy Ghost, which shall never DO for
given either in this world or In the world to
come. And 1t Is wonderful that while On the
street you hear the name Of God and Jesus
Christ used in profanity you never ear the
words Holy Ghost. This hour I speak Of the
Holy Ghost as Biblical interpreter, as a hui
man constructor, as a solace for the broken
hearted, as a preachers reinforcement.
The Bible Is q mass of contradictions, az
affirmation of impossibilities, unless the
Holy Ghost helpa US to understand it. The
Bible says of itself that the Scripture is not
for 'private Interpretation" 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
Henry and Scott and Adam Clarke
and Albert Barnes and Bush and Alexander,
and all the archmologies, 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 wiunot
the deeper and grander mean
ings of the Bible 80 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 q prayer that stins the
heavens asks for the Holy Ghost to unfold
the book.
No more unreasonable would I be II I
should take up The Novoe Vremya Of St
all printed in Russian, and say,
f'There Is no sense in this newspaper, for ]
cannot understand one line OF all its col
nmns," than for any man to take up the
Bible, and without getting Holy Ghost IL
luminstion IS to It's meaning say; "This
Book insults my common sense. cannot
II. Away with the tn~congruity!n /
No ons but the Holy Ghost, who inspired
the Scriptures, can explain the Scriptures,
Fully realize that, and you will be as enthu-
a lover Of the old book as my veneer. |
able friend who told me tn.PhiIadelphis last
week that he was reading the Bible through
the ffty-ninth time, and 1t became more at
and thrilling every time he went
it. In the saddlebags that HING
across my horses back a. l rode from Jeru-
salem down to the Dead Sea and up to Da- |
I had all the books about Palestine
hat ! could carry, but many o 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 a man who has
Paul's eloquencs. and Peters i-mprisonmentA
Joshua's prowess, and Hlijah's ascen-
ZION, ! do not deproctate any OF the helps !
Tor Bible study, but I do say that they all
come infinitely short without a d.
communication from the throne Of God
n response to prayerful solicitation We
nay find many Interesting things about the
Bible without especial illumination, as how
nany horses Solomon had In his stables, or
now long was Noah's ark, or who was the
My woman whose full name Is given in the
Scriptures, or which is the middle verse Of the
Bible, and all that will do you no moro good
han tsbe able to tell how many ~beanpoles
here are in your neighbours garden.
The learned Earl Of Chatham heard thu
iamous Mr.. Cecil preach about the Holy
1host and said to Q friend on the way homt
ehurchi II could not understand 1t,
md do you suppose anybody understood it9'
s0h, yes said his Christian friend, ssthert
we're uneducated women and some little
present who understood It," war
you that the English soldier had under
u~pcfnal influence read the book, for sftei
battle OF Inkenmann was over he wa
ound dead with his hand glued to the page
Il the open Bible by his own blood, and the
gords adhered to his hands as they buried
aim, II am tho resurrection and the life; he
hat beiieyeth u Me, though dead. yet shall
be live
Next consider ths Holy Ghost as a human
re~constructor. We must be made over again. \
Christ and Nicodemus talked about It |
r~heoiogians cali ii regeneration. / do moi
,are what You call II, but we have to be ne !
constructed by the Holy Ghost. We become
aew creatures, hating what we once loved
nd loving what We once hated. II sin wert
!, luxury, II must become g defcstation. Il
- ---H---U 49,