The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-09
SYMBOLS OF CHRIST
SIXTH SERMON BY REV. MIR. OsTROu
ON "THE HOLY SPIRIT"
Are Now Used in Public Schools to
Teach More ImpressiveIy.

yesterday afternoon there was a large
crowd at the revival services at Roberts
Park Church. These meetings began on
Dec "a and will close next Sunday. MIR.
Ostrom, the evangelist, and Mr. Crowell,
the singer, will be in the city until Jan. I3.
Mr.. Ostrom began a series of seven SER
mons on 1.-The Holy Spirit" last Thursday.
yesterday he preached the sixth of the
series on symbols of the Holy Spirit"
Inc first symbol he spoke of was the
symbol OF the wind, and said: 1T is very
nara TO take great truth and mold it in
human language. Perhaps large share of
the dlHerences which exist among people
IN their beliefs is due to narrowness of
language. The truth may be in your mind
ana In your heart. but when you come to
tell IL, what a poor, lame instrument YOUR
Tongue is. This difficulty to express great
truth In human language has given rise 10
variety or methods of expression, and
one OF these, very choice in the heart of
God, is expressing truth to man in the
use of symbols or figures or characters,
picture lesson to help the soul out in the
hard problem. Nowadays the public
schools sen are adopting what they call teach
ing by objects. Children are taught to
count by using balls, and sticks, and apples
and they call this teaching by objects This
IS said 10 be the modern way of teaching.
ana FOR centuries people did not think of
teaching in this way, but 1t Is Gods own
way The great first Teacher has always
made this His way, and when He came in
Jesus he was wont TO teach In parallels
L think IL is time for the church to wake
up to believe In the Holy Spirit and be-
lieve and assert herself and cleanse away
the dark. mysterious undertakings of vice
and to produce for us a daylight pureness
and realization of the divine so that If
there do develop any forces which may be
hypnotism or spiritism, then people who
VIII be the surest to understand anything
that may develop will be the people whose
hearts are clean and who believe in the
Holy Ghost. a great deal has been said in
these latter days about theosophy and we
have had Madame Blavatsky and a
ters falling down out of trees in Hindo-
stan and of teacups being dug up out of the
ground and called miracles.
The symbol of the wind is the symbol
used especially in speaking of the Holy
Spirit to Nicodemus. Ezekiel used this
symbol when he prayed that there might
come wind upon the dry bones, and on
Pentecostal day there came a sound as of
a rushing of a mighty wind. The Holy
Spirit is represented to us by this symbol,
and 1 suppose just as the wind has the
power TO clean out the foul atmosphere,
the Holy Spirit has the great potency to
purge out the foul atmosphere of the
loon, the. brothel. governmental trickery,
and the harsh spirit of criticism between
man and man. and the line fence quarrels
between nations
THE next symbol is that of fire. the
der the symbol of the tongue of fire. Fire.
too. purges away violence. 1t is said the
great London plague was eradicated by the
London fire. The fire came and burned out
the disease germs and cleared out the
surrounding ruins and left a healthful
condition. The Holy Ghost and fire! What
fire is to the cold, There is no power in
this world that will warm the hearts Of
humanity but the divine spirit. Put fire
under six inches of iron, and if there is
yrfl1 ~ no CIR
you cannot keep ii down. Put fire in the
earth and leave il so it will have draft
and cover it with several feet of earth
and ii will come to the surface. Let the
Holy Spirit be welcomed in a mans life
and he will tell il, he will rejoice TO let it
be known in his efforts to do other people
burn out to the surface. May it come
upon us, NAV ii come within us nightly
and truly. Moses's face. IL is said, did
out on the surface. He visit not that it
lid shine If he did | am afraid he would
have been conceited The fire, he knew, was
within him, and God knew that the shine
was upon him.
The next is the symbol sealing. What
does it mean? Just as the old Romans
would make a government document, they
put the wax upon IL and put the seal in
the hot wax. II was called sealed sigma
ture, SO the Holy Spirit. Gods greatest,
fullest brightest representation of him
SELF is to seal us, put the stamp of God
upon US. Notice. before they could seal
the document the wax had to be hot
Otherwise when they put the seal in IL ii
would crumble 1t must be hot wax. Why
am not sealed says some one? The wax
has never been hot; the soul has never
been plastic enough. When the Old Romans
put the seal down the picture that was on
the seal was left on the wax. When the
Holy Spirit seals us the picture of the
Christ is upon us. and we live the Christ
life beyond the self life.
az think ii not a rash thing to say that
II ! am ever going TO call Christ all in
all in heaven, IL / am ever going to be
awakened in His likeness TO be all His
and always His; | ought to begin TO get
Ghost. May He find our hearts so passive
that He can STAMP the Christ image upon
our characters and shall be sealed. BY
and by, the figure, the SYMBOL, shall not
be needed. for we shall be no longer little
children in the first grades of the school.
but we shall graduate, and John says.
We shall not be ashamed In His presence
. my soul. can II be? We shall not be
ashamed of His presence