Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-09

or anything of that sort No! They
began without thought of plans or of
methods and they looked to Him for
guidance, and there was no visible leao-
| er OF that meeting.
Now. listen, and we will find out what
! they did. They went looking for two
great things. and they were not dsap-
pointed They went first to receive the
| Holy Ghost. and second to receive
power. But please remember the re-
ceiving of the Holy Spirit always pre-
cedes mower.
hear people pray God for power
when their lives are so directly OPP
posed 20 God that God can't answer tina
prayer. and he won't answer it, and yet
they are inclined to turn around and
blame God when the blame is upon
themselves, for they care not living i'm
a way that God could give them the
Holy Spirit And il is your fault and
not the Lords. If God provides food
and you are too lazy to cook it. if you
starve to death it is up TO YOU an"
not the Lord.
GO TO CHURCH FOR REAL
REASON, NOT TO KILL TIME.
/ think we would have better pray
er meetings and church services if the
people only went there looking. 70"
something. and nor go simply because
ii is Sunday morning and they rang
the bell and opened the door. 60 there
looking for something; not simply 20
Kill" time. And you often get nothing
because YOU expect nothing. Well, you
are no, disappointed, never in the world.
And they can make prapers but they
seemingly don't expect them to be an
swered.
But they expected something, for they
went standing on the promises OF God,
which are immutable, Interchangeable, ir-
revocable and as enduring as Gibral-
tar. Now, the disciples were certain Of
another thing: They knew that TO
them was committed the work of car
rying on the gospel, and they were chos-
en- by God TO do that very work. An
other thing, we would be more in ear
nest If we only realized that our mis-
sion is a God-given mission. And un-
derstand it now, our call today is just
as Enthusiastically clear as was their call
If God is being represented by anybody
on earth today, he is being represent
ed by the church, and ! have just as
much right TO demand OF the preachers
and the church their cooperation as
the President and Congress HAS 20 de-
mand the cooperation Of the people at
a time like this, and the only differ
ence is. if you don't cooperate they
Will SEM out "a COHSCTlpllOH anu LhSy
will make you do IL.
The government has the power, and
Il ought to have the power and the
right to make you do it if 1t needs to
be done, but if you are not willing to
volunteer TO do Gods work, God never
will send out any CONSUMPTION, but you
can go to the devil, That is the diff
ference between the two propositions.
So l have got a perfect right to ask
your cooperation, absolutely. So II
God is being represented by anybody
today He is being represented by the
church. and if we are not doing il, who
is? Tell me and ! will turn to them.
Do the breweries represent Christ? Do
you want me to turn to the Liquor Deal
eEs' association? DO you want me to
turn to the distillers and the barkeep-
ers? Do you want me to go to the red
light district and let them line up their
bunch? Where would Il go if | can't
turn to the church? And if the church
doesn't represent Jesus Christ, who
does? DO the politicians, the CONNER
cial clubs. the businesses, the societies,
the literaries? Where? No! | turn to
God because your God is represented in
the world, and we are expected to do
the work of the Lord, and if we are
not Gods witnesses, where are the
Lords witnesses? We have the same
commission to keep this world in a per
petual state of revival that the disc-
Piles had, and our call is just as clearly
from God as their call, to do i'm our day
and generation what they did in theirs.
1t is up to us, and if we don't do it,
il won't be done. And had they been
like a great many church members
there would have been no waiting ten
days. They would have said: Well,
the way to do this thing right is. to
scatter iF all directions like a shotgun,
and one hundred and twenty would have
rolled up their sleeves and they would
have gotten busy before breakfast,
they would have tarried in Jerusalem
for ten days Why. that is waste of
time! But the Bible teaches me that
God has an order and a way of doing
things-he has in nature. he has, my
friends. in spiritual things. Sow in the
spring; reap in the fall!
WORK AND PRAY;
THAT GETS RESULTS.