For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who believe.
This gospel, if it is received as the word of God, comes with power. Ay, do not let us be misunderstood; the power we mean is by no means a common thing! It is not the force of persuasion, nor the energy of rhetoric; it is divine power the finger of God. There is still in the world a miraculous force the divine energy of the Holy Ghost. It does not give us to speak with tongues, neither do we hear it in rushing, mighty wind; but it is as unmistakable to those who have it as if it did come with such extraordinary signs. Sometimes a truth has been borne in upon my soul and I doubt not you can say the same with an inward evidence which is beyond all argument for force and certainty. Though it is not logic, we are more sure than if conquered by reasoning. We prefer it to the demonstrations of mathematics so far as our own assurance is concerned. In my own case, I could not see, but I did more than see: my inner soul without eyes beheld the essential principle of truth. I did not touch it, and yet my inner soul handled it, tasted it, fed on it. It went into the secret spring,-head and well-spring of my being, and became one of its first principles. If any man said that the Lord Jesus was not able to save, and that his gospel was not true, I snapped my fingers at him. I could not stop to answer him, because he seemed to be wilfully denying self-evident fact, and there is no answering such folly. For a man to tell me that the gospel is not true, when the Spirit seals it on my heart, is all in vain. He might as well tell me that there was no light when I stood gazing on a landscape in the brightness of the sun, or assure me that there was no such thing as air when the strong north wind was on my cheeks. He might as well tell me that there was no nutriment in food when I had just lost my hunger, and felt refreshed by what I had eaten. There are some things that we have no patience to argue about, we have done with discussion concerning them.
