the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This message was originally preached on June 20th in the year 1858 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The text for today comes from the book of Acts, Acts chapter 10, verse 44. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.

The Bible is a book of the revelation of God, the God whom the heathen blindly searched after and for whom reason gropes in darkness, is plainly revealed here to us in the pages of divine authorship, so that he who is willing to understand as much of the Godhead as man can know may learn here if he is not willingly ignorant and willfully obstinate.

The doctrine of the Trinity is especially taught in Holy Scripture. The word Trinity certainly does not occur in the Bible, but the three divine persons of the one God are frequently and constantly mentioned, and Holy Scripture is very careful that we should all receive and believe that great truth of the Christian religion, that the Father is God, that the Son is God, that the Spirit is God. And yet there are not three gods, but one God. Though each of them is the absolute God of the absolute God, yet three in one and one in three is the Jehovah whom we worship.

You will notice in the works of creation how carefully the scriptures assure us that all the three divine persons took their share. In the beginning, Jehovah created the heavens and the earth. And in another place we are told that God said, let us make man, not one person, but all three taking counsel with each other with regard to the making of mankind. We know that the Father had laid the foundations and fixed those solid beams of light on which the blue arches of the sky are sustained. But we know with equal certainty that Jesus Christ, the eternal Lagos, was with the Father in the beginning, and without him nothing was made that had been made. Moreover, we know with equal certainty that the Holy Spirit had a hand in creation. For we are told that the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And brooding with his dove-like wing, he brought out of the egg of chaos this mighty thing, the wonderful round world.

We have the similar proof of the three persons in the Godhead in the matter of salvation. We know that God the Father gave his son. We have abundant proof that God the Father chose his people from before the creation of the world. That he did invent the plan of salvation and has always given his free, willing, and joyous consent to the salvation of his people.

with regard to the share that the Son had in salvation, that is readily apparent to everyone. For men and women, and for our salvation, Jesus came down from heaven. He was incarnate in a mortal body. He was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into the earth. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven. He sits at the right hand of God where he also makes intercession for us.

As to the Holy Spirit, we have equally sure proof that the Spirit of God works in conversion. For everywhere we are said to be born of the Holy Spirit. Continually it is declared that unless a man is born again from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. All the virtues and the graces of Christianity are described as being the fruits of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit does work in us from first to last.
The Holy Spirit works and carries out that which Jesus Christ has beforehand worked for us in his great redemption. which also God the Father has designed for us in his great predestinating scheme of salvation. Now it is the work of the Holy Spirit that I will this morning especially direct your attention. And I may as well mention the reason why I do so. It is this. We have continually received fresh confirmations of good news from a far country. which has already made glad the hearts of many of God's people. In the United States of America, there is certainly a great awakening. No sane living man could think of denying it. There may be something of furious excitement mixed up with it, but that good, lasting good has been accomplished, no rational man can deny. 250,000 persons, That is a quarter of a million professed who have been regenerated since last December. They have made a profession of their faith and have united themselves with different sections of God's Church. The work still progresses, if anything, at a more rapid rate than before. And that which makes me believe the work to be genuine is this. that the enemies of Christ's holy gospel are very angry over it. When the devil roars at anything, you may rest assured there is some good in it. The devil is not like some dogs we know of. He never barks unless there is something to bark at. When Satan howls, we may rest assured he is afraid his kingdom is in danger. Now this great work in America has been obviously caused by the outpouring of the Spirit, for no one minister has been a leader in it. All the ministers of the gospel have cooperated in it, but none of them have stood in the forefront. God himself has been the leader of his own host. It began with a desire for prayer. God's people began to pray. Their prayer meetings were better attended than before. It was then proposed to hold meetings at times that had never been set apart for prayer. These also were well attended. And now, in the city of Philadelphia, at the hour of noon, every day in the week, 3,000 persons can always be seen assembled together for prayer in one place. Men of business, in the midst of their toil and labor, find an opportunity of running in there and offering a word of prayer, and then return to their occupations. And so, throughout all the United States, prayer meetings, larger or smaller in number, have been convened. And there has been real prayer. Sinners beyond all count have risen up in the prayer meeting and have requested the people of God to pray for them thus making public to the world that they had a desire after Christ. They have been prayed for, and the Church has seen that God truly does hear and answer prayer. I find that the Unitarian ministers, those who believe in universal salvation, for a little while took no notice of it. Theodore Parker snarls and rages tremendously at it, but he is evidently in a maze. He does not understand the mystery and acts towards it as swine are said to react to pearls. While the Church was found to be asleep and doing very little, the Socinian, basically a Unitarian who also denies the divinity of Christ, these Socinians could afford to stand in their pulpits and sneer at evangelical religion. But now that there has been an awakening, the Sassanian looks like a man that has just awakened out of his sleep. He sees something, he does not know what it is. The power of religion is that which will always puzzle the Unitarian, for he knows very little about that. About the form of religion, he is not too amazed. For he can, to an extent, endorse that himself. But the supernaturalism of the gospel, the mystery, the miracle, the power, the demonstration of the Spirit that comes with the preaching is what such men cannot comprehend. And they gaze in wonder and then become filled with wrath. But still they have to confess there is something there they cannot understand. a mental phenomenon that is far beyond their philosophy, a thing which they cannot reach with all their science, nor understand by all their reason. Now, if we want to have the same effect produced in this land, the one thing we must seek is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And I thought, perhaps this morning, In preaching upon the work of the Holy Spirit, that text might be fulfilled. Those who honor me, I will honor. My sincere desire is to honor the Holy Spirit this morning, and if He will be pleased to honor His church in return, unto Him will be the glory forever. While Peter was still speaking these words, The Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. In the first place, I will endeavor to describe the method of the Spirit's operation. Secondly, the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit's influence if we would see men converted. And then in the third place, I will suggest the ways and means by which under divine grace we may obtain a light coming down of the Spirit on our churches. In the first place, I will endeavor to explain the method of the Holy Spirit's operations. But let me guard myself against being misunderstood. We can explain what the Spirit does, but how He does it no man must pretend to know. The work of the Holy Spirit is the special mystery of the Christian religion. Almost every other thing is clear, but this must remain an inscrutable secret into which it would be wrong for us to attempt to pry. Who knows where the winds come from? Who knows, therefore, how the Spirit works? for he is like wind. The wind blows wherever it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. In the Holy Scripture, certain great secrets of nature are mentioned as being parallel with the secret working of the Spirit. The procreation of children is given as an example of a parallel wonder. For we do not understand the mystery of conception. Therefore, how can we expect to know the more secret and hidden mystery of the new birth and new creation of man in Christ Jesus? But let no one be overwhelmed at this. For there are mysteries in nature, the wisest man will tell you, There are depths in nature into which he cannot dive, and heights to which he cannot soar. He who pretends to have unraveled the knot of creation has made a mistake. He may have cut the knot by his rough ignorance and by his foolish conjectures, but the knot itself must remain beyond the power of man's unraveling until God himself will explain the secret. There are marvelous things that, as yet, men have sought to know in vain. They may, perhaps, discover many of them, but how the Spirit works no man can know. But now I wish to explain what the Holy Spirit does, although we cannot tell how He does it. I take it that the Holy Spirit's work in conversion is twofold. First, it is an awakening of the powers that man already has. And secondly, it is the implanting of powers which he never had at all. In the great work of the new birth, the Holy Spirit first of all awakens the mental powers. For it must be remembered that the Holy Spirit never gives any man new powers. The Holy Spirit first of all awakens the mental powers, for we must remember that the Holy Spirit never gives any man new mental powers. Take, for instance, reason. The Holy Spirit does not give men reason, for they had reason prior to their conversion. What the Holy Spirit does is to teach our reason right reason. to set our reason in the right track, so that we can use it for the high purpose of discerning between good and evil, between the precious and the vile. The Holy Spirit does not give man a will, for man had a will before, but he makes the will that was in bondage to Satan free to the service of God. The Holy Spirit does not give man the power to think, or the organ of belief. For man has power to believe or think as far as the mental act is concerned. But he gives that belief, which is already there, a tendency to believe the right thing. And he gives to the power of thought the propensity to think in the right way, so that instead of thinking erratically, we begin to think as God would have us think. and then our mind desires to walk in the steps of God's revealed truth. There may be here this morning a man with great understanding of political things, but his understanding is darkened with regard to spiritual things. He sees no beauty in the person of Christ. He sees nothing desirable in the way of holiness. He chooses the evil and forsakes the good. Now the Holy Spirit will not give him a new understanding, but he will cleanse his old understanding so that he will discern between things that differ and he will discover that it is harmful, harmful to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and to discard the eternal glory that far outweighs them all. There may be a man here also who is desperately set against religion. and will not come to God, no matter what we say or do. We are not able to persuade him to change his mind and turn to God. The Holy Spirit will not make a new will in that man, but he will turn his old will. And instead of willing to do evil, he will make him will to do right. He will make him will to be saved by Christ. He will make him willing in the day of his power. Remember, there is no power in man so fallen that the Holy Spirit cannot raise it up. However debased a man may be, in one instant, by the miraculous power of the Spirit, all his faculties may be cleansed and purged. Improper reason may be made to judge rightly. Stout, obstinate wills may be made to run willingly in the ways of God's commandments. Evil and depraved affections may in an instant be turned to Christ, and old desires that are tainted with vice may be replaced by heavenly desires. The work of the Spirit on the mind is the transforming of it, the reshaping of it, He does not bring new materials to the mind. It is in another part of the man that he puts up a new structure. But he puts the mind that had fallen out of order into its proper shape. He builds up pillars that had fallen down and erects the palaces that had crumbled to the earth. This is the first work of the Holy Spirit upon the mind of man. Besides this, The Holy Spirit gives to men powers which they never had before. The Holy Spirit gives to men powers which they never had before. According to scripture, I believe man is constituted in a threefold manner. He has a body. By the Holy Spirit, that body is made the temple of the Lord. He has a mind by the Holy Spirit. That mind is made like an altar in the temple. But man by nature is nothing higher than that. He is mere body and soul. When the Spirit comes, he breathes into him a third higher principle, which we call the Spirit. The Apostle describes man as man, body, soul, and spirit. Now if you search through all the writings of the intellectual authors, you will find they all declare there are only two parts, body and mind, and they are right, for they deal with unregenerate man. But in regenerate man, there is a third principle as much superior to mere mind as mind is superior to dead animal matter. That third principle is that with which a man prays. It is that with which he believes unto salvation, or rather it is that which compels the mind to perform their acts. It is that which operating on the mind makes the same use of the mind as the mind does of the body. When after desiring to walk I make my legs move, it is my mind that compels them, and so my spirit when I desire to pray compels my mind to think the thought of prayer and compels my soul also. Likewise, if I desire to praise, I then think the thought of praise and that thought lifts my soul upwards towards God. As the body without the soul is dead, so the soul without the spirit is dead. And one work of the Spirit is to awaken the dead soul by breathing into it the Living Spirit. As it is written, the first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam a life-giving spirit. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so will we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. That is, we must have in us if we would be converted, the life-giving Spirit, which is put into us by God the Holy Spirit. I say again, the Spirit has powers which the mind never has. It has the power of communion with Christ, which to a degree is a mental act, but it can no more be performed by man without the Spirit than the act of walking could be performed by man if he were destitute of a mind to suggest the idea of walking. The spirit suggests the thoughts of communion which the mind obeys and carries out. There are times, I think, when the spirit leaves the mind altogether, times when we forget everything of earth and one almost ceases to think, to reason, to judge, to weigh or to will. Our souls are like chariots being drawn swiftly onwards without any powers of volition. We lean on the breast of Jesus and in rhapsody divine and in celestial ecstasy, we enjoy the fruits of the land of the blessed and pluck the clusters of grapes from Eskol before entering into the land of promise. I think I have clearly put these two points before you. The work of the Spirit consists first in awakening powers already possessed by man, but which were asleep and out of order, and in the next place, in putting into man powers which he did not have before. And to make this simple to the humblest mind, let me suppose man to be something like a machine. All the gears are out of order. The gears do not strike each other at the right time in the right place. The gears do not turn regularly. The rods will not act. The order is gone. Now the first work of the spirit is to put these gears in the right place, to fit the gears on the axles, to put the right axle to the right gear, then to put gear to gear so that they may act on each other. But that is not all his work. The next thing is to add fire and steam so that these things will go to work. He does not install new gears. He simply puts the old gears in the proper sequence. And then he puts the motive power, which is to move the whole machine. First, he puts our mental powers into their proper order and condition. and then he puts a living life-giving spirit so that all these will move according to the holy will and law of God. But note this, that this is not all the Holy Spirit does. For if he were to do this and then leave us, none of us would get to heaven. If any of you would be so near to heaven that you could hear the angels singing over the walls, If you could almost see within the pearly gates, still, if the Holy Spirit did not help you to take the last step, you would never enter there. All the work is through His divine operation. Therefore, it is the Spirit who keeps the gears in motion and who takes away that defilement of our original sin and the many sins thereafter, which has covered the machine and puts it out of order. He takes this away and keeps the machine constantly going without injury until finally he removes man from the place of defilement to the land of the blessed, a perfect creature, as perfect as he was when he came from the mold of the maker. And I must say before I leave this point that all the former part of what I have mentioned is done instantaneously. When a man is converted to God, it is done in a moment. Regeneration is an instantaneous work. Conversion to God, the fruit of regeneration, occupies all of our life. But regeneration itself is effected in an instant. A man hates God. The Holy Spirit makes him love God. A man is opposed to Christ. He hates his gospel, does not understand it, and will not receive it. The Holy Spirit comes, puts light into his darkened understanding, takes away the chains of bondage from his will, gives liberty to his conscience, gives life to his dead soul, so that the voice of conscience is heard and the man becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus. And all this is done, listen, all this is done by the instantaneous supernatural influence of God the Holy Spirit, working as he wills among the sons of men. Having thus dwelt upon the method of the Holy Spirit's work, I will now turn to the second point, the absolute necessity of the Spirit's influence in order to bring about conversion." In our text we are told that, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The Holy Spirit came on Peter first, or else he would not have come on his listeners. There is a necessity that the preacher himself, if we are to have souls saved, must be under the influence of the Spirit. I have constantly made it my prayer that I might be guided by the Spirit even in the smallest and least important parts of the service. For you cannot know that possibly the salvation of a soul may depend on the simple reading of a hymn or on the selection of a chapter. Two persons have joined our church recently and made a profession of being converted simply through my reading of a hymn. I read, Jesus, lover of my soul. They did not remember anything else in the hymn but those words, Jesus, lover of my soul. Those words made such a deep impression on their minds that they could not help repeating them for days afterwards. And then the thought arose, do I love Jesus? And then they considered what strange ingratitude it was that he should be the lover of their souls and yet they should not love him. Now I believe the Holy Spirit led me to read that hymn, and many persons have been converted by some striking saying of the preacher. But why was it that the preacher uttered that saying? Simply because he was led to do so by the Holy Spirit. Rest assured, beloved, that when any part of the sermon is blessed to your heart, the minister said it because he was ordered to say it by his master. I might today preach a sermon which I preached on Friday, and which was useful then, and there might be no good whatever come from it today, because it might not, it might not be the sermon which the Holy Spirit would have delivered today. But if with sincerity of heart I have sought God's guidance in selecting the topic, and He rests on me in the preaching of the word, there is no fear but that it will be found adapted to your immediate wants. The Holy Spirit must rest on your preachers. Let them have all the learning of the wisest men and all the eloquence of such men as Demosthenes and Cicero. Still the Word cannot be blessed to you unless, first of all, the Spirit of God has guided the minister's mind in the selection of his subject and in the discussion of it. But if Peter himself were under the hand of the Spirit, that would fail unless the Spirit of God also came upon the listeners. And I will now endeavor to show you the absolute necessity of the Spirit's work in the conversion of men. Let us remember what kind of thing the work is, and we will see that other means are altogether out of the question. It is quite certain that men cannot be converted by physical means.
The Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Rome, thought that she could convert men by means of armies. So she invaded countries and threatened them with war and bloodshed unless they would repent and embrace her religion. However, it accomplished little, and men were prepared to die rather than leave their faith. She then tried those beautiful things. stakes, racks, dungeons, axes, swords, fire. And by these things, she hoped to convert men. You have heard of the man who tried to wind up his watch with a pickaxe. That man was extremely wise compared with the man who thought to touch the mind using matter. All the machines you like to invent cannot touch the mind. All the king's armies that ever existed, and all the warriors clothed with armor, with all their ammunition, could never, never touch the mind of man. That is an impregnable castle which is not to be reached by physical means. Nor can man be converted by moral argument. Man cannot be converted by moral argument. Well, says one, I think he can. Let a minister preach earnestly, and he may persuade men to be converted. Ah, beloved, it is only because you don't know any better that you say such a thing. Many young preachers think so, but you know what they say after they have tried it? Old Adam is too strong for this young preacher. So will every preacher find out if he thinks his arguments can ever convert man? Let me give you a parallel case. Where is the logic that can persuade an Ethiopian to change the color of his skin? By what argument can you induce a leopard to renounce his spots? Likewise, can he that is accustomed to doing evil be persuaded to do good? But if the Ethiopian skin is to be changed, it must be by a supernatural process. And if the leopard spots are to be removed, he that made the leopard must do it. Even so it is with the heart of man. If sin were only an external thing, we could induce man to change it. For instance, you may induce a man to leave drunkenness or swearing. Because those things are not part of his nature, he has added that vice to his original depravity. But the hidden evil of the heart is beyond all moral persuasion. I dare say a man might argue enough within himself to induce him to hang himself. But I am certain no argument will ever, ever induce him to hang his sins. to hang his self-righteousness, and to come and humble himself at the foot of the cross. For the religion of Christ is so contrary to all the propensities of man, that it is like swimming against the stream to approach it. For the stream of man's will and man's desire is exactly the opposite of the religion of Jesus Christ. If you wanted a proof of that, at the lifting of my finger There are thousands in this hall who would rise to prove it. For they would say, I have found it to be true, sir, in my experience. I hated religion as much as any man. I despised Christ and his people. And I do not know to this day how it is that I am what I am, unless it was the work of God. I have seen the tears run down a man's cheeks when he has come to me in order to be united to the church of the living Christ. And he has said to me, sir, I wonder how it is that I am here today. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would think as I now think and feel as I now feel, I would have called him a born fool for his thoughts. I used to say I never would be one of those Christians. I like to spend my Sunday in pleasure, and I did not see why I was to be cooping myself up in the house of God listening to a man talk. Did I pray, sir? No, not me. I said the best providence in all the world was a good strong pair of hands and to take care of what you got. If any man talked to me about religion, why, I would slam the door in his face and pretty soon put him out. But the things that I loved then, I now hate. And the things that then I hated, now I love. I cannot do or say enough to show how total is the change that has been created in me. It must have been the work of God. It could not have been shaped by me, I feel assured. It must be someone greater than myself who could turn my heart in such a way. I think these two things are proofs that we need something more than nature. And since physical agency will not do, and mere moral persuasion will never accomplish it, then there must be an absolute necessity for the Holy Spirit. But again, if you will just think for a minute what the work is, you will soon see that no one, no one but God can accomplish it. In the Holy Scripture, conversion is often spoken of as being a new creation. If you talk about creating yourselves, I would feel obliged to ask you that you would create a fly first. Create a gnat. create a grain of sand, and when you have created that, you may talk about creating a new heart. Both are alike, impossible, for creation is the work of God. But still, if you could create a grain of dust, or even create a world, it would not be half the miracle, for you must first find a thing which has created itself. Could that be? Suppose you had no existence. How could you create yourself? Nothing cannot produce anything. Now how can man recreate himself? A man cannot create himself into a new condition when he has no existence in that condition, but is as yet a thing that is not.

Then again, the work of creation is said to be like the resurrection. We are raised alive from the dead. Now, can the dead in the grave raise themselves? Let any minister who thinks he can convert souls go and raise a corpse. Let him go and stand in one of the cemeteries and beg the tombs to open their mouths wide and make room for those once buried there to awaken, and he will have preached in vain.

But if he could do it, that is not the miracle. It is for the dead to raise themselves, for an inanimate corpse to kindle in its own breast the spark of new life. If the work is a resurrection, a creation, Does it not strike you that it must be beyond the power of man? It must be created in him by no one less than God himself.

And there is yet one more consideration, and I will have concluded this point. Beloved, even if a man could save himself, I would have you remember how averse he is to it. If we could make our listeners all willing, the battle would be accomplished. Well, says one, if I am willing to be saved, can I not be saved? Assuredly you can, but the difficulty is we cannot cause men to be willing.

That shows, therefore, that there must be a constraint put upon their will. There must be an influence exerted on them. which they do not have in themselves in order to make them willing in the day of God's power. And this is the glory of the Christian religion. The Christian religion has within its own heart the power to spread itself. We do not ask you to be willing first. We come and tell you the news and we believe that the spirit of God working with us will make you willing.

If the progress of the Christian religion depended on the voluntary assent of mankind, it would never go an inch further. But because the Christian religion has with it an omnipotent influence constraining men to believe it, it is therefore that it is and must be triumphant. Till like a sea of glory, it spreads from shore to shore.

Now I will conclude by bringing one or two thoughts forward with regard to what must be done at this time in order to bring down the Holy Spirit on our churches. What must be done at this time in order to bring down the Holy Spirit on our churches? It is quite certain, beloved, if the Holy Spirit willed to do it that every man, woman, and child in this place might be converted right now.

If God, the sovereign judge of all, would be pleased now to send out His Spirit, every inhabitant of this city of a million people could be brought at once to turn unto the living God. Without instrumentality, without the preacher, without books, without anything God has it in his power to convert men and women. We have known of persons going about in their business, not thinking about religion at all, who have had a thought injected into their heart.

And that thought has been the prolific mother of a thousand meditations. And through these meditations, they have been brought to Christ. Without the aid of the minister, the Holy Spirit has thus worked. and today he is not restrained. There may be some men, great in their wickedness, staunch in their opposition to the cross of Christ, but without asking for their consent, the Holy Spirit can pull down the strong man and make the mighty man bow himself.

For when we talk of the omnipotent God, there is nothing too great for him to do, but beloved, God has been pleased to put great honor on instrumentality. He could work without it if he pleased, but he does not do so. However, this is the first thought I want to give you. If you would have the Holy Spirit exert himself in our midst, you must first of all look to him and not to instrumentality.

When Jesus Christ preached, there were very few converted under him. And the reason was because the Holy Spirit was not abundantly poured forth. Jesus had the Holy Spirit without measure in himself, but on others, the Holy Spirit was not as yet poured out. Jesus Christ said, anyone who has faith in me will do what I've been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father in order to send the Holy Spirit." And remember that those few who were converted under Christ's ministry were not converted by Him, but by the Holy Spirit that rested on Him at that time.

Jesus of Nazareth was anointed by the Holy Spirit. If Jesus Christ, the great founder of our religion, needed to be anointed by the Holy Spirit, how much more must our own ministers also need to be anointed? And if God would always make the distinction between His own Son as an instrument and the Holy Spirit as the agent, How much more ought we to be careful to make the same distinction between poor puny men and the Holy Spirit?

Never let us hear you say again, so many persons were converted by so-and-so. They were not. If they were converted, they were not converted by man. Instrumentality is to be used, but the Spirit is to have the honor of it. Do not pay any reverence to man. Do not think any longer that God is tied to your plans and to your agencies. Do not imagine that just having many more city missionaries will therefore cause so much more good to be done. Do not say, many preachers, many sermons, therefore many souls saved. Do not say, many Bibles, many tracts, therefore much good will be done. Not so. Use these things. But remember, it is not in that proportions the blessing comes. It is, always, the more of the Holy Spirit, then the more souls will be gathered in.

If we would have the Spirit, beloved, we must each of us try to honor Him. If we would have the Spirit, we must each, each of us try to honor Him. There are some churches around, if you were to enter there, you would never know that there was a Holy Spirit. Mary Magdalene said of old, They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." And the Christian might often say the same thing, for there is nothing said about the Lord until they come to the end of the service, and then there is just the benediction, or else you would not know that there were three persons and one God at all. Until our churches honor the Holy Spirit, we will never see him abundantly manifested in our midst.

Let the preacher always confess before he preaches that he relies on the Holy Spirit. Let him burn his manuscript and depend on the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit does not come to help him, let him be still and let the people go home and pray. Pray that the Spirit will help him next Sunday. And do you also, in the use of all your agencies, always honor the Spirit? We often begin our religious meetings without prayer. It is all wrong. We must honor the Spirit. Unless we put Him first, He will never make crowns for us to wear. He will get victories. but he will not have the honor of them. And if we do not give to him the honor, he will never give to us the privilege and success.

And best of all, if you would have the Holy Spirit, let us meet together earnestly to pray for him. Remember the Holy Spirit will not come to us as a church unless we seek him. We purposed, during the coming week, to hold meetings of special prayer, to supplicate for a revival of Christianity. On Friday morning, I opened the first prayer meeting at Trinity Chapel, and I think at seven o'clock, we had as many as 250 persons gathered together. It was a pleasant sight. During the hour, nine brethren prayed, one after the other, And I am sure there was the spirit of prayer there. Some persons present sent up their names, asking that we should offer special petitions for them. And I do not doubt that the prayers will be answered.

At the Park Street Church on Monday morning, we will have a prayer meeting from eight to nine. Then during the rest of the week, there will be a prayer meeting in the morning from seven to eight. On Monday evening we will have the usual prayer meeting at seven and I hope there will be a large number attending. I find that my brother, Baptist Noel, has commenced morning and evening prayer meetings and they have done the same thing in Norwich and in many towns where, without any pressure, the people are found willing to come. I certainly did not expect to see so many as 250 persons at such an early hour in the morning meeting together for prayer. I believe it was a good sign. The Lord has put prayer into their hearts and therefore they were willing to come.

Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Let us meet and pray. And if God does not hear us, it will be the first time he has broken his promise. Come, let us go up to the sanctuary. Let us meet together in the house of the Lord and offer solemn supplication. And I say again, if the Lord does not bear his arm in the sight of all of his people, it will be the reverse of all his previous actions. It will be contrary to all of His promises and contradictory to Himself. We have only to try Him and the result is certain. By dependence on His Spirit, if we only meet for prayer, the Lord will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear Him.

O Lord, lift Yourself up because of Your enemies. Take Your right hand from the folds of Your garment. O Lord our God, for Christ's sake, amen.