The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-03-26
At The Cumberland
Presbyterian Church

Al the morning hour the pastor
spoke on the subject The Descent of
he Holy Ghost using as a scrip
tural text Luke 3:32. And the Holy
Ghost descended in a bodily SHAPE
like dove upon him. and 4 voice
came from heaven which said. Thou
are my beloved son; i'm thee ! am
well pleased" lie said. Il have chos-
On this text because | feel il fitting
and proper that this note should be
sounded repeatedly during thes"
times that are trying mems souls in
rany ways
When call attention to the des-
cont of the Holy Chest al this par
ticuiar time do not do SC as an un-
Irecedented act, for it had happened
at many other times and places.
I There was never time when cir
crmstances demanded its descent but
that il came: however, among all
these times. | consi Ter this the most
Important. In fact consider this
sentence one of the most significant
in the entire Bible. We do not be-
lisvc that God has faild in any plan.
lie beholds the plan perfected before
He ever puts it into action. Some say
they cannot understand how the
heavens opened and where the voice
came from. do not attempt OF give
a satisfactory reply to this, only that
/. was the power of the Holy Ghost
Gods ways are past finding out; it is
not intended that we understand
them. for He says. My thoughts are
not your Thoughts; but when His
voice comes to us through any of His
creation we should take it as ccming
from Him.
nave HtdIu, II 10 odihs ~" ~
with the idea of Gods giving = man
a sermon; man simply evolves 1t
from his own mind and inspiratie n
This is mere nonsense dare NOT
enter my pulpit without first going
to God on Bonded knee and asking
lin to give me message. II men
cannot hear Gods voice today al Is
vain. | firmly believe it can be
heard as audibly today as il was
beard by those people upon the banks
Of the river Jordan.
AS | said, do not, nor ever eN-
moot 70 understand il all. hut we can
not refuse to accept those things
which we do not understand. But |
call attention to the fact that the
HOLY Ghost descended in bodily form.
in the shane of dove and lighted
upon the Lord The dove has always
been the emblem of peace and purity
in the world. It'might show unto
the world the desire of God for the
human race. do not believe that
cod ever willed the suffering OF HIS
roople nor that they should be pun
ished I do believe that in thou
sands of instances He has delivered
us from trouble we have broueht up
ON ourselves. and we have often wad-
Cd through trouble in order to bet
fer see God. His desire for His pee
ple is that they might have peace
and purity as far as possible. As an
example of this He sent his son as
the embodiment of all that is pure
eff we had heard the words and
seen the descent of the dove that
day I wonder IL IL would have meant
more TO us than 1t did to the peopls
who witnessed it, The voice Il God
speaks to us today as 1t did then
II comes in various ways. l have seer
examples of the spirit of God reach
ing hardened sinners through tbs
touch of child's hand and have
seen wicked hearts yield to Coo
Through such influence. May Goo
help us to hear, understand and full,