The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-07-15
WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
SUBJECT OF THE SERMON BY THE
 REF. ". M,NICHOLL YESTERDAY.

Sermon Preache cd tn West Haven Yester-
 day Wasan Interesting One-Christian
 Science, Etc, He AscrIbcd to Lack of
 Dependenceont on the Holy Spirit
 The Rev. W. McNicholl, pastor of the 1 West Haven M. F. church, preached
 yesterday morning on "The Personality
 and Work of the Holy Spirit His
 text was taken from John xvi, 1914,
 ''Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth,
 is come He will guide you into all truth,
 for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He l speak; and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of mine and shall shaw it unto you"
 After reminding the congregation that Jesus throughout His public min l istry laid great emphasis on the minis try of the Holy Spirit as the teacher the guide. the comforter and the re- prover of the ungodly the preacher re-
 marked that only an avowed sceptic
 could fail to see that the personality of
 the Holy Spirit was the great truth the
 Saviour enunciated In His last address
 to the disciples previous to His death.
 He said that the Pharisees committed
 blasphemy against the Holy Ghost and
 that Ananias and his wife had lied unto
 the same divine person. He proved the
 doctrine of the Trinity from the Old
 and New Testaments, and in proof of the personality of the Holy Ghost show ed that the names, attributes, works and prerogatives of God are applied and attributed to the Holy Spirit, who created the material universe. regener- ates and sanctifies the believer, com forts in sorrow and affords gracious as- sistance in prayer. He inspired the prophets and apostles to reveal the will ! of God. He bestowed miraculous gifts ! on the founders of Christianity He 1 calls men to the work of the Christian | ministry and gives them the necessary | spiritual equipment.
 The preacher reminded his hearers | that in this age there was strong ten- dency in the church to underestimate the work of the Holy Spirit and to give the Bible a secondary place In the set clement of moral and theological ques- tions, and said that this was grievous which would prove disastrous in the end, as the Holy Spirit was in the world to render effectual the sac rifice of our Lord upon the cross, and the written and spoken word was the agency He employed in the regenera- ton of the soul.
 He referred to the impositions of Spiritualism and character it as form of inidelity in disguise which people should avoid as they would the fangs of a rattlesnake or a plagtle- stricken city. Premllennialism, he be- iieved, offered an insult to the Holy Spirit in the implication that He cam not abolish the wickedness of the world without the aid afforded by the visible appearance of Jesus and the saints Christian Science, Splritualism, Unita- 'ianism, Universalism, Bablsm, meta physical healing, the repudiation of the element in the Bible, ;neering at the doctrine of prayer, rul- ns; out hell as a relic of barbarism, the of doctrines of devils, he lscribed to the lack of dependence on !. he Holy Spirit and loss of faith in ' he Holy Scriptures as the revelation 1 f God to mankind. He closed by show 1 ng how the Holy Spirit would inspire I Christian workers and make them feel with their lot in life. He aid: "The Holy Spirit Is the inex- austible fountain of joy, purity and ower. Be vessels unto honor conse rated and meet for the Masters use, nd you will get strength for every T urden, comfort in every affliction and e n abundant entrance at last into the | eavenly Kingdom