11 - Chapter 11
CHAPTER XI. The attitude the Church in its varied organizations should take with relation to this Baptism of the Spirit.
PROFESSORS OF THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES.
We will begin with the Professors in our Theological seminaries. Brethren, we have a profound respect for you and your calling and an ideal of possibilities of usefulness before you, it will be difficult fully to express. We believe God has put within your reach the power to quadruple the influence of the next generation of missionaries and preachers of the Gospel. Into your hands God has placed the power of moulding the men, intellectually and spiritually, who, going forth from the seminary, year by year, are to break the bread of life to the Churches and the people of the world. The mark of your hand will be upon them and their work so long as they live. Their Theology will, with an exception here and there, be your Theology. Your conception of Christ, their conception. Your views of the Holy Spirit’s work, their views. And your experience of his power to sanctify, empower for work and fill with the fullness of God, will go forth with them into their fields and be the living model present and impressive, all their days! Nor will your influence in this respect, terminate with them, but will travel on, transmitted from hand to hand, to generations unborn. And if there be a class in the Church of God, more important than any other, around which our Churches should gather to offer up special prayer in their behalf, that class is made up of the Professors in our Theological seminaries. Possibly some may deny that their influence and power is so great. To this we reply. If it is not, it ought to be. Yes, and it can be and will be if the Professor is filled with the Spirit as it is his privilege to be. Who ever spent an hour in Finney’s Theological lecture room and was not impressed with the power of his prayer, and the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit there? Brethren of the seminary, the actuality of your influence is one thing, the possibilities are quite another! Suffer the writer to make some suggestions as to your duty in relation to this Baptism of the Spirit.
1st. You need it personally in the fulness of its power. You sit in Moses’ seat. You need the power which rested on him, and you can have it in largest measure if you will. Your communion with God may be so blissful, that when you come from the closet before your classes as Moses from the Mount, so will your face shine, that you will need to vail an experience too bright to utter. Moody said the experience of this Baptism he had in New York, was too rich and sacred for specific description. So it may be with you. And if any need to know, in largest measure what this blessed Baptism is, they are the successors of Peter and John and Paul, who like them are to hand down to generations below them, the Gospel in its fullness of experience and doctrine and power. If Peter and Paul needed this baptism, can you do without it? If Jesus must have it, can you dispense with its aid?
2nd. Let it be a cardinal doctrine of the Seminary, that the Holy Ghost is the Great Instructor in your school, presiding over every study every lecture, every session! So important is this doctrine of the Spirit’s teaching and illumination of the inspired Word, that in the writer’s estimation, especial attention to the matter should be among the first doctrines taught, and deeply impressed upon students as they enter the school. Let your school be emphatically the school of the Holy Ghost.
3d. May the writer urge upon you special lectures and studies upon this topic, so that your graduates may no more come forth from the Seminary, with no definite opinions or views regarding it, as has heretofore been true. It is too great a matter to be thus ignored and pushed into the back ground.
4th. Insist upon the indispensableness of this baptism as a qualification for preaching the Gospel. And do not recommend a man for licensure or ordination till he gives evidence of having been ordained and endued with power from on high. Suffer the advice of your brother thus far, and when the chariots shall come to take you up, may Elijahs mantle fall from the shoulders of each of you upon the sons of the Prophets. A WORD WITH THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS. The attitude of the Theological students of our country in relation to the subject we are discussing, stands next in importance to that occupied by their Professors and teachers. Indeed, they are soon to take their places and teach Theology to another and a larger generation. It is the hope of the writer, and indeed his expectation, that they will be more devout than their fathers, will have a larger experience of the Spirit’s power, and do an immense work in leading our Churches up into the higher life. We cannot be far off from the millennium that perennial hope of the Church, and you, the Theological students of the twentieth century, and the last decade of the nineteenth, may have the golden privilege as well as responsibility, of completing the conquest of the world for Christ. But depend upon it, brethren, institutions of learning will never do it, nor logic, nor eloquence, nor any and all possible organized institutions and societies of men. Nay, without the Holy Ghost inspiring them, they may hinder the Gospel more than help it. Witness the Theological Seminaries of Germany and other parts of the world. Your own personal experience has doubtless taught you that victory over besetting sins is not insured by favoring circumstances, nor yet by dint of the human will. Nothing brings victory in that warfare, but the Holy Spirit coming to our aid. Just so is it with the larger warfare, between the Church and the world. Unless the Holy Ghost goes forth with the people of God, they are as surely defeated, as were the Israelites when Jehovah went not forth with their armies. What then is the great thing you need? It is the indwelling Holy Spirit. And you need Him in richest measure. And the burden of this appeal to you is that you seek His indwelling and bestowments in Pentecostal fullness. That you give the Holy Spirit possession of the whole house. Don’t turn Him off with a room or two. Nor like Israel, rest on your arms, while there remain large territories of the land of promise yet unoccupied and unsubdued. If you have read carefully the considerations brought forward in chapter 5th, adduced to prove that a Baptism of the Holy Ghost, like that bestowed at Pentecost was designed for the modern Church as well as the Apostolic in all essential elements, I am persuaded you must believe there are great gifts in store for God’s people, sadly ignored, neglected and unsought. But should you fail to agree with us there, we shall surely be at one in the admission of the duty and privilege of being "filled with the Spirit. " May the Lord show you how much that implies, and pour upon you the Spirit from on high till with David you say, " My cup runneth over! " Were the Thelogical students of the world thus to seek and thus to find, what life and power would be imparted to our Churches and revivals would fill the land!
Suffer me again to call your attention to that sample seeking of the Spirit, which at Pentecost brought the blessing upon the Apostles and their brethren. Our Lord was crucified on Friday. On Sunday, which was the second day of the passover week, he arose early from the dead. That was the day when the first sheaf of the opening harvest was waived before the Lord. Leviticus 23:11. Fifty days from that waiving came the Passover festival. Leviticus 23:16. We are told that after his resurrection, Christ was seen of the disciples for 40 days. Acts 1:3. Then he led them out as far as Bethany, where he was parted from them and ascended up into heaven. This leaves ten days before the feast of Pentecost. Among his last words were these "Behold I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." This power was that which accompanied the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit. The disciples returned to Jerusalem, and at once went up into an upper room, and began a meeting of prayer for the great blessing. Did it come at once? No! not in answer to the first prayer, and not at the end of the first day of prayer. Will it come tomorrow the second day? The Master has not said. They pray on and talk over the matter till the sun has set, and still the blessing lingers. A third day of prayer and conference over the matter and it does not come! a fourth! a fifth! a sixth! a seventh! and still it is withheld! What can it mean? No doubt the faith of some is weak and faltering. Perhaps some of the faint-hearted suggest there must be some misunderstanding of Christ’s words, and they had best give up the so far unsuccessful search. But stronger faith of others held them to the promise. Meantime in their talk over the situation their small numbers the power of their foes their personal imperfections the artifices of the world, the flesh, and the Devil, all arrayed against them more and more the sense of need pressed upon them, and more and more they could appreciate the value of the gift when it should come. They were ripening for the reception. The ground was being broken up and prepared for the shower which was gathering. Thus they entered on another week of prayer. Three days pass in it, but it has not reached them! But it is coming! The pressure of an inward importunity gives assurance that it is at the doors. Early on the morning of the tenth day they hasten to that upper room and with one accord lift up their voices to God! It is enough! Their faith has been sufficiently tried. The gift comes down and they are all filled with the Holy Ghost and speak the word with a power unknown before. Let me call your attention specially to the length of time occupied in this prayer meeting for this blessing before it came. It was a long prayer meeting. Few have been like it. Who knows of one in the history of the modern Church? How puerile beside it, the usual preparation for a revival! Perhaps the long course of preparation inaugurated by Rev. B. Fay Mills in the cities where he is subsequently to hold revival meetings, resembles it; as did similar preparatory meetings insisted upon by Rev. John T. Avery and other evangelists. But those latter imitations come far short of the original in intensity of purpose and in the time actually spent in fervent prayer for the gift. Yet those ten days were the most profitable of all in their past history. Perhaps of their future also. What changes they wrought in the men and women who were there! Changes in experiences and in power to do good! What if they had faltered and ceased to pray for the gift at the end of the first week? Then Pentecost to them had never come! And at the end of the ninth day of fervent seeking and patient waiting, had they given it up as a fruitless search, how sad the failure! No doubt they were tempted to do so before the Lord saw fit to crown with glory that ten days probation of prayer! What an example, rare and suggestive, our Lord holds up before those who in the after ages should set their hearts on the reception of the same great gift. It suggests the holding of some such prayer meetings in our modern Theological Seminaries for the like endowment! Conducted aright, I believe they would be followed by surprising results. If held once in a year, in all our Churches and colleges, and seminaries, I believe this world would be essentially evangelized, and the millennium brought in, in an hundred years.
Brethren of the Seminary, Students and Professors, allow me to suggest a program of topics to be prayed over and considered during those ten days. I would suggest two daily sessions forenoon and afternoon, and the evening spent by each in his room alone with God, in private prayer, heart-searching, and meditation.
Day 1st. A solemn convocation of Students and’ Professors, and spent largely in prayer for the Holy Spirit to make those ten days blessed and eventful like those which preceded the day of Pentecost..
Day 2nd. The passages relating to the Baptism of the Holy Ghost in the Old Testament and the new, carefully read, considered and prayed over. Very likely this to be satisfactory, would occupy the sessions of two days and perhaps more.
Day 3d. Personal experiences and testimony given, of answers to prayer, and helps received from the Holy Ghost with the view of ascertaining, how much larger help we may hopefully seek from him, in these and other lines.
Day 4th. Personal confessions of besetting sins, not yet conquered advice asked and given as to the way to victory.
Day 5th. Extracts read and considered relating to the baptism of the Spirit, found in the biographies of such men as Wesley, Finney, Taylor, Spurgeon, Madame Guion, Tennant, Brawnwell and others.
Day 6th. Sermons from preachers who have definite views and experiences relating to it. ,
Day 7th. The Spiritual experiences and measures of the Spirit a man must have to be an effective preacher of the Gospel.
Day 8th. What constitutes a call to preach the Gospel and on what principles shall one make choice of his field of labor?
Day 9th. ’Revivals, by what means brought about, and how converts and church members can be kept from backsliding.
Day 10th. Review of the meetings testimonies given as to their value, and helps received therefrom. Of course, brethren, you will regard the above on]y as a rough and suggestive outline, and to be varied as maturer thought or circumstances may suggest. What the writer desires is that you in your seminary try once, at least, the result of following the Apostolic example. He has never known but one such, or nearly such prayer meeting. And of that he will give an account as he remembers it. During his Theological course, a special vacation of one week was given the students. Some took a limited outing and others stayed at home. Of the latter, there were a few, who, dissatisfied with their religious condition, agreed to spend the week in an effort to draw near to , God and seek a baptism of the Spirit and an elevation to a higher plane of holy living. I think there were half a dozen or so of such, who on the first day of vacation, quietly went into the Theological lecture room to pray. They were in earnest and God met them. As they began te pray, the Holy Ghost helped them to a vivid view of their great necessities. And they prayed, consciously aided by a power from above, with an importunity which could not be denied. And this power in prayer fell upon all. When the noon bell rang they rose and went out, but how softly they walked! In the afternoon there were perhaps twenty, who heard of the meeting and were drawn there by a mysterious power. And now the power of God was more manifest still! The spirit of prayer carried all before it. The next day the room was crowded and mingled with agonizing prayers and struggles for deliverance, there were voices of joy and gladness, almost shoutings of deliverance, from men who but yesterday were clanking the chains of sin. I had been out some fifteen miles with a friend. But news reached us of the great work of God among our school mates and I hastened back, to see a sight Pentecostal and astonishing! Indeed, it lacked little of a literal repetition of that noted day! For they were all of one accord. We -were astonished at the unwonted power with which they spoke and praised God as the Spirit gave them utterance. They spoke as with tongues of fire! And miracles of deliverance from the bondage of sin, were performed by the mighty Spirit which was there. The work continued through the week, when the usual studies were resumed. But the influence of that prayer meeting long remained. My class mates, who at that meeting gained deliverance from sins, which had long annoyed and clung tenaciously to them, carried their credentials of emancipation all their days. Two of them whom I now have in mind, received the tongue of fire. Thenceforth they spoke as men whose hearts were full. Full of love to God and zeal for souls. They have gone home now. But being dead, they yet speak. Brethren of the seminary, the ten days prayer meeting over the topics suggested is quite in the line of your studies. The time thus spent would not be thrown away. It might bring blessings as great as did that memorable Apostolic prayer meeting. The bare possibility of it, is an ample warrant for following the great example. TO THE MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL.
1st. Brethren : I have somewhat to say to you the angels of the Churches the embassadors of the Lord Jesus. Having myself been a preacher for the space of half a century, I know somewhat of your needs, your heart yearnings and your trials. Of your needs, in order to greatest efficiency, that which I mention first is this reception of a double portion of the Divine Spirit. Comparatively fruitless were the Apostles, though endowed with miraculous powers, until they received the Holy Baptism at Pentecost. After that, a converting and sanctifying power attended their labors, which made them ten fold more effective than before. So it was with Moses and Joshua and Elijah and David and Sampson and all the prophets of the Old Testament. But when the Spirit of the Lord came upon them there was an immense augmentation of their power. So it has been from Pentecost down to our era. Men and women like Madame Guion, Mrs. Kogers, Luther, Wesley, Whitfield, Finney, Spurgeon, Moody and Mills, sought this larger endowment; some of them, if not all with strong crying and tears, and they obtained it, many of them with an experience too sacred to be specifically described. Thenceforth their labors were attended with wonderful success. Let me call your attention to a single passage of Scripture, where success is strongly promised. John 7:38-39, " He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water! This spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given. " This remarkable passage gives promise of an immense influence for good, possible to the believer. Elvers of living waters flowing from him! Not a mere rill of the water of life! Not a brook! nor rivulet, but a river! And not one only, but rivers of living waters! Brother preacher, this is an assurance for your encouragement. It was intended to make you dissatisfied with small results and to inspire in you a hunger and thirst after such an additional endowment, that you should go and bear much fruit. " Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. " But did Jesus mean that this immense, this royal fruit bearing, set forth under the figure of " rivers of water " flowing from the believer, should attend the steps of Christians only partially endowed as were the Apostles when these words were spoken?
Far from it! For inspiration adds, " This spake he of the Spirit which they should receive who believe on Him, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because the Son of man was not yet glorified. " That is, this promise of enlarged usefulness was to characterize those and those only, who should receive the Holy Ghost in the rich measures bestowed on the day of Pentecost! The cases of the Apostles, of Moody, of Millls and Spurgeon illustrate this. But on what condition did the Apostles receive the great endowment which made them so fruitful? They sought it. They prayed ten days for it. Their persistency of prayer and waiting for it so long, showed their earnestness and importunity and faith in Him who had promised It is safe to say they never would have received it, had that importunity, that faith and that seeking definitely for this blessing been wanting.
Brethren, have you thus sought this endowment of power foretold by Joel and promised by our Lord? Have you heeded the lesson taught by the Pentecostal object lesson God has hung up in the vestibule of the Christian temple? If not, is it strange that only rills flow from you, instead of rivers of living waters, as was true of Christ’s own disciples before Pentecost and its baptism. Heed not the idea that this great gift is not de%i4rily to be sought. Go up into that upper’ room and listen to those earnest prayers. "What is it they are praying for? It is for power. Don’t imagine yourself equipped for preaching by years of study in college or in the seminary. No, not even had you miraculous power added thereto and such piety and measures of the Spirit, as the Apostles had before Pentecost. " Tarry in Jerusalem till ye be endued with power from on high. " Advice that higher than that of your Theological Professor. I beseech you heed it. Like David say, " I will not give sleep to mine eyes nor slumber to my eyelids till I have found a place for the Lord, a habitation for the God of Jacob" a place in my heart where his Spirit in fullness can dwell and through me do all his pleasure. So shall the Holy Ghost enter and his train shall fill the temple. Thenceforth shall flow forth from you rivers of living waters. One shall flow through your family, refreshing it and making it like a watered garden! Another shall run through your Church and Congregation, strengthening Christians, converting sinners, and repressing sin.
Through your correspondence shall flow another river. And through the ecclesiastical body with which you associate will flow yet another, and all these shall roll onward, long after the man who set them in motion has passed away, thus bringing to pass the saying "He that abideth in me the same bringeth forth much fruit."
2nd. The next thing that we as Preachers need, in order to success, is a Church in like manner endowed and cooperating with us. All successful Evangelists and winners of souls to Christ . have felt this. But how shall we lead the flock, except we first, like Joshua, go over into the promised land, and thus become qualified to conduct our brethren there? So did Peter, and John, and Phillip, and Stephen, and Paul, and thus were qualified to lay their hands on their brethren and they also received the Holy Ghost. The husbandman that laboreth must first be partaker of the fruits.
3d. Let me ask you brethren, are you satisfied with the Spiritual Condition of our Churches? Do the meagre results of preaching and labor in them, as reported in the Annual Statistics, satisfy you? Many of our Churches hardly keeping up with the depletions by deaths and removals, and the entire denomination adding on an average, scarce half a dozen to a Church! Vast is the machinery employed, but small the output!
Alas! Where is the success of the early Church? Where is Pentecost? Where the Baptism of the Holy Ghost? To come nearer home brethren, does your personal success fill out your ideal of the power which should attend Christ’s Embassador? Do you feel that power fills your study, fills your desk, fills your heart and the house of God where you preach the Gospel? Have you in your Church Aarons and Hurs whose hearts follow you in pastoral visitation, in the preparation of your discourses; and while you preach, do you see heads bow in prayer for you, that the Spirit of God may carry home your words? Have you instructed your people into their high privileges under Pentecostal endowments? Have you ever preached to them one sermon on the Baptism of the Holy Ghost? If not, is it not high noon day for opening before them this great matter? Oh! How we each need a rich personal experience of the blessing to lead others there!
Say not I am alone and have no helpers to aid me in rising to these Gospel heights! Quite possibly, even in your Churches there may be hidden ones, who like the two holy women Moody speaks of as aiding him so much, are praying for you, that you may be endowed with the power. Seek them out and ask them to pray for you that you may obtain the double portion and pray for you also when you preach. No helpers! Where is the Holy Ghost? Where the arm of the Lord? And where the exceeding great and precious promises? O! for some Elijah at our side > to pray, ." Lord open this man’s eyes that he may see I And the -Lord opened the young man’s eyes and he saw and behold the whole mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elijah! " With helps so mighty, let us rise to our privileges and take possession. TO OUR BAPTIST BRETHREN.
We bear you record, brethren, that you have an especial zeal for what you believe to be the proper mode of baptism, and the proper subjects. But there are two kinds of Baptism that of water and that of the Holy Ghost. The one a Symbol, the other is the Substance. The one a great reality, the other only its shadow! Man administers one, God the other. The difference in their value and relative importance, no tongue can tell.
John the Baptizer is held in high repute by our Baptist friends. Let us hear what he has to say on this important matter. Matthew 3:11. " I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. Bat he that, cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am unworthy to bear. He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Following Matthew, each of the other Evangelists repeats in his Gospel this most emphatic testimony of John, to the infinitely superior importance of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost And the intent of thus putting John’s words in all the Gospels was, that no one who should read but one of them, should ever question the superior importance of being baptised with the Holy Ghost over that of a baptism of water. The Apostles, before Pentecost had been baptised with water, and doubtless at the hands of Jesus Himself. But that did little towards making them in heart or hand what they needs must be to do the work before them. That was accomplished in the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And brethren, the promise of that baptism, in all its essential richness, .is to you and to your children and all that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call. How much you need it to sanctify your heart and life and to give you power in speech and prayer! How much your membership in the Church needs it also! Yet, how have you treated it? You have honored John’s baptism; how have you treated Christ s? You have preached on water baptism, many, many times! Did you ever preach one sermon on that of the Holy Spirit? You have urged men to be immersed, that is, the body. How much did you ever urge upon them the importance of that great Pentecostal Baptism, in which the souls are cleansed and filled with all the fullness of God, so that thence onward, God shall dwell in them and walk in them? I will not reprove you for your zeal for what you regard as the proper mode of water baptism. But Oh! this neglect of the other! This practical ignoring and pushing into the background, that which God intended should be foremost and overshadowing, has been a sin reprehensible and inexcusable.
Let me ask you to begin a just reform, by preaching at lest three sermons on the baptism of the Holy Ghost where you do one on the baptism of water. And further, be as sure that you and your brethren are baptised by the Holy Ghost in latter day fullness, as you are that you have been totally immersed in the water, which is at best only its material shadow! What is the shadow to the substance and what is the husk to the corn? A WORD WITH MY METHODIST BRETHREN.
Beloved I am a Congregationalist, naturally such, and such by education. I was converted in that Church, have worked in its harness all my life thus far, and expect to unto the end. But my heart is full of tender feeling towards my Methodist brethren. I admire your strong adhesiveness one to another, your laborious and self-denying preachers, your aggressive work among the poor and helpless. I rejoice in your wonderful growth, and at the bold and advanced stand your great conferences have taken against the saloon curse, and the political parties which pander to it. But most of all I admire your pronounced belief in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as a latter day blessing, as well as Apostolic. Your honored founder, John Wesley the Paul of modern times who from Jerusalem round about to Illyricum fully preached the Gospel, gave an emphasis to this doctrine, equaled by no other man within the last 1,000 years. Honoring this great feature of Christ’s dispensation, God honored him. The Holy Ghost, whose baptismal power he preached, wrought wonderfully with him. Souls were converted wherever he went. Nor was that all. In almost every gathering of converts large enough to form a class, there was raised up some one suitable to be a class-leader. On him he laid his hands and prayed that he might receive the Holy Ghost. And forth-with he developed a power in counsel, speech and prayer, which was not of Earth! So in larger circles of classes, exhorters and local preachers were raised up, who well supplied the local want. Then in the larger circles of Churches, itinerant preachers, elders and bishops arose, each anointed for his specific work, and usually wonderfully adapted for it. In all these gradations of leadership, the one great and indispensable thing insisted upon by Wesley, was that the man must have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, or be deemed unfit for the place. No learning or power of oratory was allowed as a substitute for this super-natural gift. This was Apostolic. This was of the Holy Ghost. And this doctrine, brethren, with its attendant realization, has in my opinion been the source of your wonderful growth and prosperity. But while your growth is wonderful, not less so in my estimation, have been the vast numbers of men, who from obscurity and the vales of ignorance, have been raised up and endowed with powers of persuasion and eloquence, not unlike that possessed by the primitive Church. Especially have they been successful in the great work of the Church, that of converting men. Not infrequently, a simple class-leader, being more efficient in that line than a Professor of Theology! And indeed knowing more than he, about Christ as a Saviour from sin and sinning! But brethren, while your past has been glorious, your future is dangerous Suffer a friend to suggest some of its sources.
1st. You are greatly in danger of filling your Churches with unworthy members. I have noticed that in your conferences a premium seems to be offered for the report of largest numbers added to the Church. So that he who presents the largest list is counted worthy of the most desirable appointments. I do not say this is universal, but in my observation it has been so general, that a great temptation is placed before the preacher, to report as large a list as possible. Accordingly, not a few confidently pronounce those who came forward in their meetings for prayer, converted, and rush their names on the class books. And when the probation has passed, receive them into full membership, unless something special turns up against them, or they voluntary withdraw. In protracted meetings I have held with my Methodist brethren, I have often been shocked by the reckless proclamation as converts, of people who had simply come forward for prayer and had said in a whisper or aloud, that they felt some degree of relief. Oh! it is wicked to help people to a false hope to encourage them to build their house upon the sand!
2d. You are in danger of becoming proud and boastful over your numbers. Already you have surpassed all other denominations of Protestants in this country, and are yearly adding enormously to your membership. Satan will take advantage of this and tempt you as he did David, to number Israel. I fear he is doing it now. Let me warn you against this pride of numbers and may the Lord preserve in your ranks the humility of your early days, while He increases your list a thousand fold.
3d. Another danger I must not fail to warn you against, is that of denominational selfishness. Denominations are as liable to be selfish in their policy and their work, as are the individuals who compose them. We the Evangelical Christians of different names are all brethren. And all the tribes of our Israel are dear to the Lord. And we are to love one another and seek each others prosperity as the brothers and sisters of the same family. But when we become selfish and seek to push our denomination ahead of all others, and delight in our own advancement, however it may affect others, we may not only bring reproach upon Christianity, but offend the Master also. In remonstrating some years since with a Presiding Elder, for some such work of selfishness, he replied, “I intend to start a Methodist Sabbath school, wherever I can get fifteen scholars to join it.” “And Abraham said to Lot, let there be no strife between me and thee and between my herd-men and thy herd-men, for we are brethren! Is not the whole land before thee? If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. "
4th. Another danger and that the greatest of ail, is that becoming great and renowned, honored and respected, for your eloquent orators, your learned men, your colleges and seminaries, the number of your houses of worship and the vast population to which you minister, that by a slow but gradual process, your reliance will imperceptibly be transferred from the Holy Ghost to these great forces, as that by which you expect to advance and conquer. "Jessuran waxed fat and kicked. " Prosperity to a Church is more dangerous than poverty and much more to be feared. This was the rock on which the early Church was wrecked. When that Church was small in number, poor in purse, destitute of scholars and learned men, and surrounded by foes fierce and implacable, then it looked upward with steadfast eye to the Holy Ghost. On Him they depended. They sought the great baptism and they received it. And God was manifest in them, alike in prayer meetings and at the martyrs stake! These were the days of most rapid growth. Not because " the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, " but because the Church ivas illuminated! The Holy Spirit shone through it, revealing human selfishness and God’s salvation. And when they spoke it was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and with power. But alas! When they had grown great in numbers, had built great Churches, had schools of Theology and of science, and had otherwise become renowned and influential, they began to rely on their earthly power and less and less on the Spirit. Farther and farther they wandered, as less and less became their conscious dependence on the Spirit of God. And that, brethren, is your danger; that you become proud of your numbers, boastful of your schools, your great men, your missions, and your money. May the Lord save you from the demoralizing influences prosperity so often brings! May he keep you ever humble; not by stripes, but by loving and suggestive influences, such as he much prefers to the rod. Continue to proclaim as on the housetop, that we live under the administration of the Holy Ghost! that he is as ready now as in Apostolic days to descend in Pentecostal power, and sanctify his people. Let the Churches seek the great blessing as they did in the days of the sainted Wesley, and your final success will be assured. Suffer this word of friendly warning, brethren. And may the twentieth century look down upon a sanctified Methodist Church, in every important locality on the face of the earth.