§9 
 
 H 
 
 ■ 
 
 ^ 
 
 8^M 
 
<\y '^ 
 
 
 & y 
 
 s-y 
 
 •*■ 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - ^ % 
 
 Kp 
 
 
 c v 
 
 * * * 7 , > 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■A > 
 
 V- V 
 
 W 
 
 ^ "7", 
 
 x ^. 
 
 a \ \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 $% 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o o 
 
 
 
 . ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 .OCK 
 
 1 
 
$ K 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \° °x. 
 
 '". 
 
 
 
 
Eilr?- ByA.H.-Bir.r'hif 
 
 ^-zr^^ ^i^La^ 
 
THE 
 
 TONGUE OF FIRE 
 
 OR 
 
 THE TRUE POWER OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM ARTHUR, A.M. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE SUCCESSFUL MERCHANT ", " ITALY IN TRANSITION 
 AND " THE POPE, THE KINGS, AND THE PEOPLE " 
 
 WITH A 
 
 NEW PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 AND AN 
 
 Introduction by the Rev. William M. Taylor, D.D. 
 
 
 NEW, YORK 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 
 
 1880 
 
 f- 
 
M 
 
 \ 
 
 ^o 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 
 
3 
 
 "■7 
 
 ► 
 
 P 
 
 b 
 
 TO THE 
 
 REV. BISHOP SIMPSON 
 
 AXD THE 
 
 REV. DR. McCOSH 
 
 TWO DIVINES WHO WELL ILLUSTRATE 
 
 THE LABORS AND THE STUDIES OE THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY IN AMERICA 
 
 TWO FRIENDS WHOM I LOYE AND HONOR 
 
 THE NEW AMERICAN EDITION IS 
 
 SDebicateb 
 
PREFACE TO THE NEW AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 The American publishers request from me some 
 introduction or supplement to a new edition of 
 this volume — an edition called for, in part, by the 
 fact that the work has been placed on the list of 
 studies of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific 
 Circle. This request reaches me in the city of 
 New York, where, nearly five- and -twenty years 
 ago, under the hospitable roof of Mr. W. E. Dodge, 
 Senior, I employed in correcting the sheets sent 
 to me from England a good portion of the si- 
 lent days passed during convalescence from an 
 attack of fever. It is to that attack, and to my 
 journey of 1855 in the United States, that allusion 
 is made in the Preface to the Original Edition, 
 when it is said that "the work has been inter- 
 rupted by travel and sickness, and at one, time 
 seemed likely to be cut short by death." For 
 
VI PREFACE TO THE NEW AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 live weeks, at TTrbana, in Ohio, I had lain ill in 
 the home of the late Dr. Mosgrove, who, having 
 been called to the bedside of a perfect stranger, 
 with a view simply to professional aid, had insist- 
 ed on removing that stranger in order to tend 
 him under his own roof. During the five weeks, 
 he, with his excellent wife, and his son Dr. James 
 Mosgrove, lavished upon the patient such care as 
 might have been bestowed on a son of the house. 
 When the fever was already coming on I had, 
 at Sandusky, before the Conference of North Ohio, 
 preached on the theme of the book, and thus were 
 its thoughts and images the last that followed me 
 from the active world into the silence of the sick- 
 room. Naturally, while in that room, my mind 
 often turned to the partly written volume, of 
 which, while the earliest pages were in type, oth- 
 er portions were in manuscript, and yet others 
 still lying undisclosed in the hidden yet conscious 
 springs of thought. Often, when revolving what 
 I seemed to have to say, did it appear to me as if 
 the Disposer of life and death would spare me to 
 say it ; and I have been told by my companion on 
 that tour, Dr. Robinson Scott, who for some twen- 
 ty days or so watched by my bedside, that I said 
 
PREFACE TO THE NEW AMERICAN EDITION. Vll 
 
 to him, "The Master has yet work for me to 
 do." 
 
 Before the volume had been long issued, illness 
 in another form drove me away from England. 
 While wandering in Egypt, Arabia Petraea, and 
 Palestine, with slender hope of again preaching 
 or speaking in public, more than once, as if sent 
 to cheer me, came intimations that here and there 
 my gracious Master was deigning to employ the 
 book as His instrument of doing some good to my 
 fellow -servants. Subsequently, on various jour- 
 neys in the United Kingdom or on the continent 
 of Europe, persons have greeted me, declaring that 
 they felt constrained to acknowledge that the 
 reading of the Tongue of Fire had been to them 
 a means of blessing. These testimonies some- 
 times reached me in places where I should least 
 have expected them, and occasionally came from 
 persons whom I should have supposed little likely 
 to read any book of mine. In the course of my 
 present journey on this continent I have not been 
 in any part of the United States or Canada with- 
 out being made glad by similar testimonies. To 
 these it might, perhaps, sometimes appear that I 
 listened coldly, just because the things said were 
 
Vlll PREFACE TO THE NEW AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 of a nature to compel me to hide my feelings be- 
 hind a veil of silence in order that I might in- 
 wardly thank God. More precious, perhaps, than 
 testimonies addressed to me personally have been 
 those which came from mission fields that I had 
 never visited, or from distant portions of Africa 
 or Australasia which I cannot hope ever to see. 
 Touching as such testimonies have been when 
 proceeding from a soldier, a sailor, or a busy 
 man of commerce, they have been more touching 
 when proceeding from a minister who thought 
 that either in his preparatory studies or in the 
 course of his labors the Tongue of Fire had 
 helped him to serve with more success, and yet 
 more touching still when proceeding from a mis- 
 sionary whose toils it had helped to cheer or stim- 
 ulate. But, above all, when some fruitful winners 
 of souls, alluding to revivals of religion witnessed 
 in their own spheres of labor, have declared their 
 belief that the influence of this work had more or 
 less contributed to the blessed result, my cup has 
 run over. 
 
 I am not able, with accuracy, to state what is 
 the number of lan^ua^es into which the vol- 
 ume has been translated ; but I believe that the 
 
PREFACE TO THE NEW AMERICAN EDITION. IX 
 
 Welsh, Kafir, Italian, and French are not the only 
 ones. 
 
 If the work has been in any degree useful in 
 the past, no reason can exist why it should not be 
 equally or even more so in the future. The Lord, 
 who has graciously granted to it his blessing, will 
 not now withdraw that blessing. Its theme is 
 one of interest as enduring as are the relations of 
 the spirit of man to the spirit of God. May this 
 new edition go forth with a fresh mandate of use- 
 fulness from Him who worketh all good. May 
 every one who shall peruse these pages rise from 
 them refreshed for his task in the Church; and 
 may he, endued with new power, seek and behold 
 triumphs of our Redeemer's kingdom such as will 
 cause him to rejoice with exceeding great joy. 
 
 Nkw York, June 18th, 1880. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 John the Baptist, the greatest of the prophets, 
 gathered together the scattered rays of Old Tes- 
 tament prediction into these two sayings, which 
 will be forever associated with his name, "Be- 
 hold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin 
 of the world!" and "He shall baptize you with 
 the Holy Ghost, and with fire." The first is the 
 Gospel of atonement; the second is the Gospel of 
 regeneration ; and both' together give a compre- 
 hensive summary of all that Jesus brings to men. 
 The one describes what Christ has done for us, in 
 giving Himself a sacrifice for human guilt ; the 
 other depicts what He does in us, in the renova- 
 tion and energization of human character. The 
 first was completed, " once for all," upon the cross ; 
 the other is repeated by Him in the case of every 
 new convert whom He creates unto good works, 
 " which God hath before ordained that he should 
 walk in them." Naturally, therefore, we might 
 suppose that the second would have the greatest 
 prominence, and the highest appreciation in the 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 present clay. But, though we are living under 
 the dispensation of the Spirit, it is remarkable 
 that the work of the Holy Ghost has not received 
 anything like the attention which it demands and 
 deserves. Few sermons are preached upon it — 
 few treatises are written upon it — it does not enter 
 as it ought to do into the thoughts and prayers 
 of the people of God ; and in this, perhaps, more 
 than in most other things, we may find the expla- 
 nation of the comparative feebleness, and ineffi- 
 ciency of modern piety. Whatever, therefore, 
 tends to turn the eyes of the members of the 
 Church of Christ to the great Pentecostal Gift, 
 which has never been revoked, and which is still 
 as available for us as it was for those on whom it 
 was first bestowed, must be fraught with blessing 
 both to believers generally and to the world at 
 large. And as sometimes the design of a painter 
 may be better seen from his first outline than from 
 his finished work, so we may perhaps obtain a 
 simpler view of the nature of the Spirit's work 
 from the words of the Baptist than from the full- 
 er revelations of the Evangelists and Apostles. 
 
 " He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and 
 with fire." The two expressions refer to one and 
 the same thing. Some, indeed, with Neander, 
 would affirm that the Holy Ghost is, so to say, 
 the element for the baptism of believers, and that 
 the fire is that for the baptism of unbelievers ; as 
 if the Baptist had said, "When the Messiah 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI U 
 
 cometh, he will baptize all men ; those who re- 
 ceive Him he will baptize with the Holy Ghost, 
 and those who reject Him he will baptize with 
 fire." But, though that view receives apparent 
 confirmation from the words," Whose fan is in his 
 hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and 
 gather his wheat into the garner; but he will 
 burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire," there 
 is one insuperable objection to it in the fact that 
 John's language fairly implies that all those who 
 were to be baptized were to be baptized both with 
 the Holy Ghost and with fire. He explains the 
 one blessing by the two clauses — the one literal, 
 and the other figurative. As in his conversation 
 with Nicodemus the Lord says, "Except a man be 
 born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter 
 into the kingdom of God," so John describes the 
 one experience by the two expressions. The fig- 
 ure is added to give definiteness to our concep- 
 tion of the reality ; and thus, like the pictures in 
 the stereoscope, the two expressions are blended 
 into one finely relieved and beautifully distinct 
 representation of that which they set before us ; 
 to wit, that the gift of the Holy Ghost is a bap- 
 tism, and that it is a baptism with fire. 
 
 It is a baptism, and so marks our initiation into 
 the kingdom of God; for whatever other ideas 
 may be associated with baptism, there is no doubt 
 that, as practised by John, it marked the begin- 
 ning: of a new course. So regeneration is needed 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 for entrance into the new life. The great law is, 
 ^ "Ye must be born again." Oh that must! How 
 i it levels all human pride ! How it cuts at the 
 t root of all mere externalism, and lays open the 
 depravity that is working like leaven in every 
 heart ! And yet how comforting it is also ! for 
 " must " implies " may." If I must be born again, 
 I may be born again ; and he who uttered the aw- 
 ful and humiliating sentence is ready to bestow 
 upon me the Holy Ghost, so that the great work 
 shall be accomplished in me. 
 
 It is a baptism, and so marks our consecration 
 4^ to the Lord. Under the ancient law, the things 
 which were specially set apart to the service of 
 Jehovah were washed with water, and, in like 
 manner, the Christian who has received the Holy 
 Ghost regards himself as not his own but God's. 
 Where that Spirit dwells, he marks everything 
 with the name of Jehovah. Where he abides, self- 
 ishness dares not enter. Where he is enshrined in 
 the heart, the conscience responds with eager sen- 
 sitiveness to Paul's appeal — "What! know ye not 
 that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost 
 which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye 
 are not your own? For ye are bought with a 
 price: therefore glorify God in your body, and 
 in your spirit, which are God's." 
 
 But it is a baptism " with fire," and that im- 
 plies, in the first place, that it purifies the soul. 
 It might seem, indeed, that the figure of water 
 
 V 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 is enough to bring out before us this cleansing 
 efficacy of the Holy Ghost. But there are two 
 characteristics of His work which can properly be 
 symbolized only by fire. The first is its search- 
 ingness. Fire finds out every thing that is inflam- 
 mable, and consumes it forthwith ; so the Holy 
 Spirit burns up every thing that is impure. Noth- 
 ing escapes his ordeal. Whatever of " wood, hay, 
 or stubble" there may be in the character or heart 
 is not merely charred, but destroyed by His flame. 
 He spares no darling lust. He misses no treasured 
 secret. He passes by no hidden pride. In the 
 proportion in which He is in the soul, sin is burned 
 out of it. Furthermore, the continuousness of His 
 work is suggested to us by the element of fire. 
 One washes, and forthwith he is clean ; but the op- 
 eration of fire is not momentary but constant, and 
 so the work of the Holy Spirit goes on while life 
 in the believer lasts. He burns while He blesses ; 
 nay, He burns in order to bless; and so it is a 
 solemn thing to receive this heavenly gift. 
 
 And, to mention no more, it is a baptism with 
 fire, and so marks the communication of energy 
 to the soul. "Ye shall be endued with power 
 from on High ;" and again, " Ye shall receive pow- 
 er after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you ;" 
 thus did the Lord himself translate to his disci- 
 ples the language of the Baptist. And we can 
 not wonder that fire is taken for a symbol of pow- 
 er. Who that has looked upon a terrible confla- 
 
XVI JNTKODUCTION. 
 
 gration as it marches on in its devouring way, but 
 has felt overwhelmed by the presence of an agent 
 so much mightier than himself? So when, on the 
 Day of Pentecost, "cloven tongues like as of fire" 
 sat upon each of the disciples, the meaning was 
 that, by the burning earnestness and fiery force • j 
 of their speech, they should be the means of car- 
 rying forward the work of God in the world in 
 the face of fiercest opposition. Their words 
 would be " in demonstration of the Spirit and of 
 power;" not the power of miracles, for that was 
 only a temporary possession in the Church ; not 
 the power of stately rhetoric or scholastic logic, 
 for their speech never was " with enticing words 
 of man's wisdom ;" not the power that is wielded 
 by those who have imperial authority at their 
 command, for "the princes of this world" have 
 been among the most implacable enemies of the 
 Gospel of Christ; no, but " power from on high" 
 the power of characters moulded by the Holy 
 Spirit after the likeness of Christ ; the power of 
 hearts in closest union to the Holy Ghost, yea, 
 the power of the Holy Ghost himself working 
 in them, and through them, and with them. 
 Thus we account for the triumphs achieved by 
 the apostles, who were, for the most part, " un^ . S 
 learned and ignorant men." Thus we explain the 
 wondrous things which are told regarding the re- 
 sults produced by the sermons of the Reformers. 
 Thus we find an adequate cause for the effects 
 
INTRODUCTION-. XV11 
 
 that followed the discourses of Whitefield and 
 Wesley at a later date. We read them now, and 
 they seem in no way remarkable to us. We can not 
 understand how they wrought such results; and, 
 indeed, it is unaccountable unless we concede that 
 the men themselves were "filled with the Holy 
 Ghost," and so robed with that power from on 
 high whereof the ascending Saviour spoke. And 
 if w T e are to have similar success in these days, 
 we must seek for it through the same instrumen- 
 tality. 
 
 To help forward such a consummation is the 
 design of the treatise which we now introduce 
 to the reader. The " Tongue of Fire " has taken 
 its place among modern Christian classics, and it 
 ought to be in the hands of every minister of the 
 Gospel, and every one engaged in any department 
 *of evangelistic work. It is distinguished by sim- 
 plicity, directness, fervor, and unction; and is it- 
 self an illustration of the principles on which it in- 
 sists. Our own copy of it came into our hands 
 many years ago as the gift of a Christian layman, 
 , who presented it to all the students of Divinity 
 in the Scottish seminaries of the time, and its pe- 
 rusal stirred our heart to its depths, and gave 
 an impulse to our soul which has not spent itself 
 even now. We are delighted to learn that it is 
 to be studied in the Chautauqua course ; and if the 
 members of theological seminaries of higher grade 
 
 and of loftier pretensions throughout the land 
 
 2 
 
XV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 could be induced to pore and pray over its pages, 
 the results would be speedily apparent in revived 
 churches, and in a wider diffusion among us of the 
 Gospel of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 William M. Taylor. 
 
 New York, May 17th y 1880. 
 
PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION. 
 
 The following pages are the fruit of meditations 
 entered upon with the desire to lessen the dis- 
 tance painfully felt to exist between my own life 
 and ministry and those of the primitive Chris- 
 tians. This fact may, in some measure, account 
 for the plan of the work. Many topics which 
 would have been fully discussed in a treatise on 
 the work of the Holy Spirit, or on the charac- 
 ter and usages of the primitive Christians, are 
 passed by, or very slightly touched : while some 
 others have greater prominence than would have 
 been given to them in such a work. 
 
 As to the mode of conceiving of events and 
 characteristics, nothing has been adopted with- 
 out deliberation. In several cases I should have 
 felt interest in discussing other modes of con- 
 ceiving them; but this would have diverted me 
 
Xll PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION. 
 
 from the direct practical aim with which I set 
 out. 
 
 The work has been interrupted by travel and 
 sickness; and, at one time, seemed likely to 
 be cut short by death. Spared to complete it, 
 though feeling how for it falls short even of 
 my own ideal, I humbly trust it may not be 
 useless. 
 
 Kensington, April 2ith, 185G. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 The Promise of a Baptism of Fire 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Waiting for the Fulfillment. . . . 12 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 The Fulfillment of the Promise 31 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 Effects which immediately followed the Baptism 
 
 of Fire il 
 
 Section I. — Spiritual Effects 41 
 
 Section II. — Miraculous Effects c>7 
 
 Section III. — Ministerial Effects 88 
 
 Section IY. — Effects upon the World 106 
 
 CHAPTEE Y. 
 Permanent Benefits resulting to the Church 150 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 Practical Lessons 297 
 
 \ 
 
THE TONGUE OF FIRE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PROMISE OF A BAPTISM OF FIRE. 
 
 When Jolm the Baptist was going round Judea, 
 shaking the hearts of the people with a call to re- 
 pent, they said, " Surely this must be the Messiah 
 for whom we have waited so long." " No," said 
 the strong-spoken man, " I am not the Christ ;* but 
 One mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose 
 shoes I am not worthy to unloose : He shall baptize 
 you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."f 
 
 This last expression might have conveyed some 
 idea of material burning to any people but Jews ; 
 but in their minds it would awaken other thoughts. 
 It would recall the scenes when their father Abra- 
 ham asked Him who promised that hi. should inherit 
 the land wherein he was a stranger, " Lord, whereby 
 shall I know that I shall inherit it?" The answer 
 
 * John L 20, f Luke m - 1S - 
 
2 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 came thus: he was standing under the open sky at 
 night, watching by cloven sacrifices, when, "behold 
 a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed 
 between those pieces" of the victims.* It would 
 recall the fire which Moses saw in the bush, which 
 shone, and awed, and hallowed even the wilderness, 
 but did not consume ; the fire which came in the 
 day of Israel's deliverance, as a light on their way, 
 and continued with them throughout the desert 
 fourney ; the fire which descended on the Tabernacle 
 in the day in which it was reared up, and abode upon 
 it continually ; which shone in the Shekinah ; which 
 touched the lips of Isaiah ; which flamed in the vis- 
 ions of Ezekiel ; and which was yet again promised 
 to Zion, not only in her public but in her family 
 ehrines, when the Lord will create upon every 
 dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon all her as- 
 semblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining 
 pf a flaming fire by night." 
 
 In the promise of a baptism of fire they would at 
 once recognize the approach of new manifestations 
 of the power and p resence of God ; for that was 
 ever the purport of this appearance in " the days of 
 the right hand of the Most High." 
 
 Among the multitude who flocked to John came 
 one strange Man, whom he did not altogether know ; 
 yet he knew that He was full of grace and wisdom, 
 
 * Gen. xv. 17. 
 
TEE PROMEbE OF A BAPTISM OF F1KE. 3 
 
 and in favor with God and man. lie felt that him 
 self rather needed to be baptized of one so pure 
 than to baptize Him ; but he waived his feeling, and 
 fulfilled his ministry. As they returned from the 
 water side, the heavens opened : a bodily shape, as 
 of a dove, came down and rested on the stranger. 
 At the same time a voice from the excellent glory 
 said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am weD 
 pleased : hear ye Him." 
 
 John said, " I knew Him not : but He that sent 
 me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, 
 Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, 
 and remaining on Him, the same is He which bap- 
 tizeth with the Holy Ghost." Therefore, when he 
 saw Him walking, he pointed his own disciples to 
 Him, and said, that this was He. They heard the 
 word, and pondered. The next day, again, John, 
 seeing Him at a distance, said, " Behold the Lamb 
 of God !" Now, two of his followers went after 
 the stranger, to seek at His hand the baptism which 
 John could not give — the baptism of fire. They 
 were joined by others. For months, for years, they 
 companied with Him. They saw His life : a life as 
 of the Only-begotten Son of God. They heard His 
 words : such words as " never man spake." They 
 saw His works : signs, and wonders, and great mira- 
 cles, before all the people. Yet they received not 
 the baptism of fire ! 
 
4. THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 He began to speak frequently of His departure 
 from them; but his mode of describing it was 
 strange. He was to leave them, and yet not to for- 
 sake them; to go away, and yet to be with them; 
 to go, and yet to come to them. They were to be 
 deprived of Him their Head, yet orphans they 
 should not be. Another was to come, yet not an- 
 other ; a Comforter from the Father, from Himself; 
 whom, not as in His case, the world could neither 
 know nor see, but whom they should k?iow, though 
 they could not see.* His own presence with them 
 was a privilege which no tongue could worthily tell. 
 Blessed were their eyes for what they saw, and 
 their ears for what they heard. Better still than 
 even this was to be the presence of the Holy Ghost, 
 who would follow Him as He had followed John. ' 
 
 " I tell you the truth," He said, when about to 
 utter what was hard to believe : " I tell you the 
 truth; It is expedient for you that I go away." 
 How could it be expedient ? Would they not be 
 losers to an extent which no man could reckon ? 
 The light of His countenance, the blessing of His 
 vrords, the purity of His presence, the influence of 
 His example, all to be removed ; and this expedient 
 for them ! " It is expedient for you that I go away 
 for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come 
 unto yoi > Well, but would they not be better 
 * John xiv. 11. 
 
IHE PEOMISE OF A BAPTISM OF FIKE. 5 
 
 with Himself than with the Comforter? No; just 
 the contrary. They would be better with the Com- 
 forter : He would lead them into all truth ; whereas 
 now they are constantly misapplying the plain words 
 of Christ. He would bring all things to their re- 
 membrance ; w r hereas now they often forget in a day 
 or two the most remarkable teaching, or the most 
 amazing miracles. He would take the things of 
 Christ, the things of the Father, and reveal them 
 unto them ; whereas now they constantly misappre- 
 hended His relation to the Father, and that of the 
 Father to Him, misapprehended His person, His 
 mission, and His kingdom. Again, He would con- 
 vince the icorld of sin, of righteousness, and of 
 judgment to come ; and this is not as one teacher 
 limited by a local personality, but as a Spirit dif- 
 fused abroad throughout the earth. And He would 
 abide with them forever, not for "a little while." 
 Whatever, therefore, Christ's personal presence and 
 teaching had been to them, the presence of the 
 Spirit would be more. * 
 * Having thus strongly pre-occupied their minds 
 with the hope ef a greater joy than even His own 
 countenance, the Master laid down His life. Stun- 
 ned, dispersed, and desolate, they felt themselves 
 orphans indeed. Their Master ignominiously exe- 
 cuted, and neither the word of John nor His own 
 word fulfilled : no Comforter, no baptism, no fire ! 
 
6 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 Soon He re-appeared, and, as they were met to 
 gether for the first time since His death, once more 
 stood in the midst of them. He breathed upon 
 them, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." 
 With that word, doubtless, both peace and power 
 were given; yet it was not the baptism of fire v 
 During forty days he conversed with them on the 
 things pertaining to the kingdom of God ; assign- 
 ing to them the work of proclaiming and establish- 
 ing that kingdom to the ends of the earth. One 
 injunction, however, He laid upon them, which 
 seemed to defer the effect of others. They were to 
 go into all the world, yet not at once, or uncondi- 
 tionally. " Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem till 
 ye be endued with power from on high." Appa- 
 rently more ready to interpret " power" as referring 
 to the hopes of their nation than to the kingdom of 
 grace, they asked, " Lord, wilt Thou at this time 
 restore again the kingdom to Israel ?"* 
 
 He had said nothing of a kingdom for Israel, or 
 in Israel. His speech had been on a higher theme, 
 and of a wider field: namely, "that repentance and 
 remission of sins should be preached in His name 
 among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And 
 ye are witnesses of these things." Such, in various 
 forms, are the words we find him uttering concern- 
 ing His kingdom during these forty days. When, 
 * Acts i. 6. 
 
THE PKOMISE OF A BAPTISM OF FIRE. 7 
 
 therefore, tliey asked if He would at this time re* 
 store again the kingdom to Israel, He shortly turned 
 aside their curiosity. What the Father's designs 
 were as to Israel nationally ; what the times when 
 they might again be a kingdom — were points not 
 for them. They had better work, and nearer at 
 hand. " It is not for you to know the times or the 
 seasons, which the Father hath put in His own 
 power."* " But," He continued, passing at once 
 from curious questions about the future of Israel, 
 and unfulfilled prophecy, to His own grand king- 
 dom : " But ye shall receive power, after that the 
 Holy Ghost is come upon you." What power ? of 
 princes, or magistrates ? Nay, quite another power, 
 for an unearthly work : " And ye shall be witnesses 
 unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and 
 in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the 
 earth." 
 
 In these words He traces the circles in whicl 
 Christian sympathy and activity should ever run : 
 first, Jerusalem, their chief city ; next, Judea, their 
 native land ; then Samaria, a neighboring country, 
 inhabited by a race nationally detested by their 
 countrymen; and finally "the uttermost parts of 
 the earth." They were neither to seek distant 
 spheres first, nor to confine themselves always at 
 home; but to carry the Gospel into all tho woild 
 * Acts i. 7. 
 
- 
 
 8 THE TONGUE OF FIEE. 
 
 as each country could be reached. This was what 
 He had before placed in their view — the filling all 
 the earth with the news of grace, news that repent- 
 ance and pardon were opened to men by the power 
 of His atonement. We have no hint that He ever 
 spake, during the forty days, of other kingdom, 
 % oyalty, or reign. Not to rule over cities ; not to 
 speculate on the designs of the Father and the des- 
 tinies of the Jew ; but to go into the whole world, 
 tell every creature the story of Christ, was to b<? 
 their princely work. To found a kingdom not over 
 men's persons, but "within" their souls ; a kingdom 
 not of provinces, but of " righteousness, and peace, 
 and joy in the Holy Ghost;" a kingdom to be ^ 
 spread not by the arms of a second Joshua, but by * % 
 the "witness" of the human voice; a kingdom, the 
 power of which would not lie in force or policy, or 
 signs observed in heaven, but in a spiritual power 
 imparted by the Holy Ghost, and operating in super- 
 human utterance of heavenly truth ; this was their 
 embassy. For this were they to be endued with 
 power from on high. But when was this power, so 
 long spoken of, to come? Would John's word 
 ever be fulfilled ? The Master has not forgotten it. 
 " John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be 
 baptized with the Holy Ghost not many day8 hence." 
 At length the promise is brought to a point, and its 
 fulfillment uear. 
 
THE PBOMISE OF A BAPTISM OF FIRE. 9 
 
 Already had He proclaimed Himself King, and 
 marked out the ministers and army, the weapon, 
 the extent, the badge of citizenship, the statute 
 law, the royal glory, and the duration of His king- 
 dom. With His disciples around Him, standing on 
 a, mountain top, heaven above and earth below, He 
 thus proclaimed His kingdom : " All power is given 
 to Me in heaven and in earth :" here was the King. 
 " Go :" here were the ministers and army — an em- 
 bassy of peace. " Teach :" here the weapon — the 
 word of God. " All nations :" here the extent. 
 " Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost :" here the 
 badge of citizenship. " Teaching them to observe 
 all things whatsoever I have commanded you :" 
 here the statute law. " And, lo, I am with you :" 
 here the royal presence and glory of the kingdom. 
 " Always, unto the end of the world :" here its 
 duration.* Now again He is rising a hill, convers- 
 ing with those who had heard this proclamation, as 
 to their part in the establishment of the kingdom. 
 He has clearly promised that, before many days, 
 the long looked-for baptism of fire will come. 
 That implies, that before many days He will de- 
 part ; for He ever said that He must first ascend. 
 He has answered, or rather rebuked, their curious 
 inquiry as to Israel ; has turned their thoughts 
 * Matt, xxviii. 19, 20 
 
10 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 again to the descent of the Spirit ; and is just tell- 
 ing them that, endued with this new power, they 
 shall bear witness to His glory not only at home 
 but abroad. " To the uttermost part of the earth," 
 is the last word on His lips* — a startling word foi 
 His peasant auditors, accustomed to limit their 
 range of thought within the Holy Land. But 
 He had already said that all power was given to 
 Him " in heaven and in eaitiu" Did not the faith 
 of some disciple reel under the Weighs of these 
 words ? 
 
 " In Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, 
 
 and tO THE UTTERMOST PART OF THE EARTH I" 
 
 This word is on His lips ; they are steadily watch- 
 ing Him : He lifts His hands, He pronounces His 
 blessing ; and in the actf lo, His body, which they 
 know " has flesh and bones" like their own, begins 
 to rise ! No wing, no hand, no chariot of fire ! 
 Upward it moves by its own power ; and in that 
 single action commands the homage of earth : for 
 our globe has no law so universal and irreversible 
 as that whereby it binds down all ponderous bodies 
 to its surface. Here this law gives way, and there- 
 by the whole mass of the globe yields to the powei 
 of Christ. This placid movement of that body, up 
 from the surface of earth into the heights of the 
 sky, is an open act of sovereignty over the highest 
 * Acts i. 8. f Luke xxiv. 50. 
 
THE PROMISE OF A BAPTISM OF FIRE. 11 
 
 physical law ; whereby Christ " manifested forth 
 
 His glory," as Lord and Maker of all physical laws. 
 
 His proclamation of kingship is thus acknowledged 
 
 by earth w T ith its highest homage. Now the 
 
 heaven adds its homage, stoops in luminous cloud, 
 
 and robes Him for His enthronement. The ever 
 
 lasting doors lift up their heads. The King of 
 
 Glory enters in. The First-begotten from the 
 
 dead, the Prince of the Kings of the earth, sits 
 
 down with the Father on His throne ; and from 
 
 Him receives the word, " Thy throne, O God, is 
 
 forever and ever ; a scepter of righteousness is the 
 
 scepter of Thy kingdom !" And again, " Let all 
 
 the angels of God worship Him." Within the vail 
 
 they worship the Lamb ; and down they speed to 
 
 His followers, and tell them that they need not 
 
 gaze. As they have seen Him go, so shall they see 
 
 Him come, even in the clouds, to judge that world, 
 
 of which and of its Princes He is King. Thus 
 
 triply is His kingship owned. Earth permits 
 
 Him to rise, heaven bows, the angels add their 
 
 testimony. All things own Him. Unbelief ia 
 
 now impossible. Doubt vanishes away. His word 
 
 ^ehall not pass unfulfilled The baptism of lire is at 
 
 hand. 
 
 3 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE WAITING FOIl THE FULFILLMENT. 
 
 It is on Thursday, probably in the evening, that 
 the disciples return to Jerusalem. Their Master 
 is no more at their head — indeed, no more on 
 earth ; and as yet His great promise is unfulfilled. 
 But the scene of the ascension is in their eye ; the 
 voice of angels in their ear. Jesus is King of 
 kings, and Lord of lords. The Comforter is 
 coming " not many days hence." Not with doubt 
 ing or weeping do they enter the city, but with 
 16 great joy ;" the joy of a triumph already sealed, 
 and of hope foreseeing triumphs to come. Most 
 probably that joy carries their first steps to the 
 temple.* Oft had they entered it with Him, but 
 never so triumphantly as now. There they are, 
 not mourning the absence of their Master, but 
 " praising and blessing God." Thence they go to 
 " an upper room." We know not in what street, 
 * Luke xxiv. 53. 
 
THE WAITING FOR T1IE FULFILLMENT. 13 
 
 or on what site ; but there '' abode" a few men 
 whose names were not then great, but whose 
 names will never more pass from the memory of 
 mankind. With them abode also a few women, 
 who had loved their Lord ; and for the last time 
 " Mary the mother of Jesus" is named as one of 
 the little company. Men and women, they now 
 began to pray, and they " continued with one 
 accord in prayer and supplication," for the baptism 
 of fire. 
 
 Did they expect to receive it that very night ? 
 This we know not ; but we do know that then 
 opened a new era in the intercourse of man with 
 heaven. As they began to pray, how would they 
 find all their conceptions of the Majesty on high 
 changed ! It no longer spread before and beyond 
 the soul's eyesight, as an unvaried infinity of glory 
 incomprehensible. The glory was brighter, the in- 
 comprehensibility remained; but the infinity had 
 now received a centre. Every beam of the glory 
 converged toward the person of " God manifest in 
 the flesh," now "received up into heaven:" the 
 glory not dissolving the person in its own tide, the 
 person not dimming the glory by any shade, 
 though appearing through it as the sun's body 
 through the light. Perhaps, indeed, the change 
 was such to their view, as would have struck the 
 eye of an observer of nature, had one lived on our 
 
14 THE TONGUE OF FIEE. 
 
 planet at the time when the sun was first set in the 
 firmament. The light which before had been a 
 wide and level mystery, now had to his eye a law, 
 a centre, and a spring. The indistinct view of a 
 material form amid the seemingly spiritual glory, 
 gave the feeling that some body akin to our own 
 globe lay at the center of illumination. This body 
 was not the cause of the light, not even of the same 
 nature, but around the body the " exceeding weight 
 of glory" seemed to hang. 
 
 O to feel as felt that heart which first discerned 
 human nature, in the person of Him who had been 
 " so marred," set down on the right hand of the 
 Majesty on high !" The glory of the Father en- 
 compasing a human form, and beaming from a 
 human brow ! " If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, 
 because I said, I go unto the Father ; for My 
 Father is greater than I" — was the word of Jesus. 
 Now that they had seen Him pass within the vail ; 
 seen the ushering angels attend His entrance, and 
 heard the music of their voices ; they would net 
 feel as if He had forsaken them, but as they hud 
 often felt when the High Priest passed from their 
 view into the holiest, bearing the blood of atone- 
 ment, to stand before the Pkesence. " He is out 
 of sight, but there before the Lord." The first 
 thought would be one of joy for Him. Peter! 
 how did thy breast heave when first thou didst be« 
 
THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILLMENT. 15 
 
 hold, by faith clear as sight, that countenance 
 which had looked round upon thee from the bar, 
 now looking down upon thee from the high and 
 Lofty throne ! Mary Magdalena, who wast bent 
 under the sevenfold power of the devil when first 
 that face beamed on thee, who didst fall at His feet 
 when, just arisen from the dead, He first appeared 
 to thee ! what was the flow of thy tears, what the 
 odor of thy joy, when the full truth burst on thy 
 view, that He had " overcome, and was set down 
 with the Father on His throne !" And thou, John! 
 what felt thy bosom when He on whose bosom thine 
 own head had leaned, appeared to thy mind no 
 more with such as thee ; but, as " in the beginning, 
 with God?" And thou, too, Mary the blessed, 
 through whose soul the sword had gone ! how did 
 thy " soul magnify the Lord !" how did thy " spirit 
 rejoice in God thy Saviour," when thy meek eye 
 saw the infinite accomplish x en t of Gabriel's word, 
 He shall be Great ! 
 
 Mingling with this first joy for the Master's 
 exaltation, and presently rising to the surface and 
 overspreading all their emotions, would be the feel- 
 ing, " He has entered for us within the vail ! He 
 bears our names upon His heart for a memorial 
 before the Lord ! He maketh intercession for us !" 
 — Tush ! which of the twelve is it that starts up aa 
 if a spirit had entered him, and, pointing upward, 
 
16 THE TONGUE OF FIRE, 
 
 says to the Brethren ? — " Let us ask the Father in 
 His name! He said to us, 'Whatsoever ye shall 
 ask the Father in My name, He will give it to 
 you. Hitherto ye have asked nothing in My name: 
 ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.' "* 
 The angels had often sung together when the 
 prayer of repenting sinners was heard on high. 
 Now, for the first time, they hear prayers from 
 human lips rising to the Throne authorized and ac- 
 credited by the name of the Only-begotten of the 
 Father. That name has just been set " above 
 every name :" and as it echoes through the host 
 above, with the solemn joy of a hundred believing 
 voices, " things in heaven" bow. Be man ever so 
 unworthy, " worthy is the Lamb ;" and His name 
 covers with justice every request to which it is set 
 by His authority. What must have been that 
 moment for the saints in Paradise, who had seen 
 the Saviour afar off, but never known the joy of 
 praying directly in His name! Father Abraham 
 had " rejoiced to see His day; and he saw it and 
 was glad." What would be his gladness now, that 
 earth and heaven were rejoicing in His name ! 
 David, to whom He was at once Lord and Son — 
 what would be " the things" which in that wonder- 
 ful moment his tongue would speak " touching the 
 King ?» 
 
 * John xvi. 2S 24. 
 
THE WATTING FOR THE FULFILLMENT. 1 
 
 h 
 
 From tho hour that sin entered into the world, 
 the Just One had never given man audience on 
 terms fit only for the innocent. An upright inferior 
 may approach Majesty, not without reverence, but 
 without shame or atonement. The admission of 3 
 criminal on the same footing w r ould be wrong. 
 Right in our governments is the imperfect reflec- 
 tion of a perfect right. Had the favor of the Al- 
 mighty crossed the line which divides innocence 
 from guilt, and smiled upon the latter, that smile 
 would have been a scathing flash, wherein all 
 morals would have blackened. Sinful man had not 
 been hopelessly banished from the presence of God; 
 but he had ever been taught to come displaying a 
 sign of wrath, of death, which is the wages of sin ; 
 thus declaring to the universe that he appealed not 
 to a justice which had never been offended ; but to 
 a justice which had been satisfied. 
 
 The altar had been the Patriarch's place of 
 prayer. The temple, where was the perpetual 
 offering, had been the center to which every pray- 
 ing Israelite turned. To approach the Eternal 
 Godhead as if no evil had been done, and no stroke 
 merited, was never yet the privilege of a creature 
 who had done wrong. It was wonderful, yea, 
 mysterious, that such could be allowed to approach 
 at all ; but the Lord would ever justify His permis- 
 sion, by demanding clear and express reference to 
 
18 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 that propitiation, which He has set forth to de- 
 clare His own righteousness, in that marvelous 
 act of lifting the guilty into the mansions of the 
 good. 
 
 How great the transition from these symbols of 
 the Atonement to the full view of its reality! 
 During the forty days Jesus had opened their 
 understanding, pointed out to them the Scriptures 
 which bore upon His death, and showed its con- 
 nection with remission of sins for mankind. They 
 now looked no more to temple or to altar. They 
 had before them the true sacrifice completed. He 
 had "purged their sins," and, in the same body 
 wherein He had done so, was standing before the 
 Father. 
 
 He had given them authority to use his name. 
 With that name their petitions carried the assent 
 of 'all the rational and moral creation. The eternal 
 Father in holding communion with beings who had 
 dene wrong, exposed no sinless being to doubts as 
 to whether right and wrong were equal. He had 
 " made peace through" Christ's " blood," had thus 
 44 reconciled all things to Himself' — to Himself in 
 the new and mysterious proceeding of government, 
 whereby the doers of wrong were spared the effects 
 of wrong-doing. " For it pleased the Father that 
 in Him should all fullness dwell ; and, having made 
 peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to 
 
THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILLMENT 19 
 
 reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, 
 whether they be things in earth, or things in 
 heaven."* So that creatures " in heaven," all 
 whose joy depended on their never doing wrong, 
 had no murmur to raise, and no temptation to 
 undergo, when they saw creatures " on earth," 
 who had followed ways which would make any 
 world sorrowful, received into the arms of Eternal 
 Mercy. The guilty He reconciled by forgiving 
 their sin, and recovering their hearts ; and the in- 
 nocent He reconciled to see offenders exalted, by 
 "setting forth" so conspicuously that all angels 
 desired to look into it, " a propitiation," which fully 
 "declared His righteousness," His strict care of 
 right ; which magnified law, magnified holiness, 
 magnified obedience, and, in the act of saving the 
 guilty, magnified beyond all previous conception 
 the heinousness of guilt. What sense of the dis- 
 tinction between right and wrong could have been 
 maintained among innocent creatures, had they 
 seen transgressors raised to favor and honor with- 
 out atonement ? 
 
 O the joy of that first hour of praying in the 
 name of Christ ! Was not Martha there ? As she 
 met the Master on that mournful day, w r hen Lazarua 
 lay in the tomb, though despairing, she said, " But 
 I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask 
 * Col. L, 19, 20. 
 
20 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 of God, God will give it thee." If such was her 
 confidence then, what would be her confidence now 
 s— He asking for her, and she asking in His name ! 
 How the souls of the disciples, following Him above 
 the sky, would soar, with a new wing, a new eye, 
 and a new song ! What simple and glowing col- 
 lects would they be which were uttered then ! 
 What words of joy and supplication would he pour 
 forth who first bethought him of putting the Lord 
 in remembrance of His own promises ! What 
 short and burning petitions would go up from the 
 lips which first quoted, u Whatsoever ye shall ask 
 the Father in My name, He shall give it you!" 
 How would he plead who first remembered, " Ask 
 what ye will, and it shall be done unto you !" How 
 would tones of desire and triumph mingle in the 
 first repetition of, "All things whatsoever ye ask 
 in prayer believing, ye shall receive !" None of 
 their prayers are recorded. We have ancient col- 
 lects, and beautiful they are ; but none of these 
 most ancient are preserved. The Spirit has not 
 seen it good to hand down the strong and tender 
 collects of these ten, or of the following days. 
 Then surely it is unlawful to impose good forms of 
 prayer upon all men because ancient saints wrote 
 them. 
 
 He w r ho wdll never use a form in public prayer, 
 casts away the wisdom of the past. He who will 
 
THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILLMENT. 21 
 
 ase only forms, casts away the hope of utterance 
 to be given by the Spirit at present, and even 
 shuts up the future in the stiff hand of the past. 
 Whatever Church forbids a Christian congregation, 
 no matter what may be their fears, troubles, joys, 
 or special and pressing need, ever to send up 
 prayer to God, except in words framed by other 
 men in other ages, uses an authority which was 
 never delegated. To object to all forms is narrow- 
 ness. To doom a Christian temple to be a place 
 wherein a simple and impromptu cry may never 
 arise to heaven, is superstition. 
 
 Does any one of the hundred and twenty, ever 
 in paradise, up to this moment forget the hour of 
 prayer that Thursday night, after they had returned 
 from Olivet ? 
 
 The Friday morning dawns. It was on Friday 
 the Lord had died. Would He not send His prom- 
 ised substitute to-day? O how His cross would 
 all day long stand before the eye of every disciple ! 
 Now came back all His w r ords about the death 
 " which He should accomplish ;" from the night 
 when He told Nicodemus that, as the serpent had 
 been lifted up, so must He, up to the night in which 
 He said, " The hour is come" — words dark at the 
 time, but pointed to-day as the steel of arrows. 
 What had been mysl ery, was mystery no longer, 
 
22 THE TOXGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 Now the only mystery was, "What manner of 
 love!" Was it on that day that John's fiery heart— 
 the heart which had rebuked the man who followed 
 not them, which washed to burn the inhospitable 
 villagers, and to be, with his brother, head of ah 
 — was it then this heart fully embraced the mean- 
 ing of the agony witnessed by him so close at 
 hand, as compared with the others, and written 
 upon it forever ? Was it then it first saw all 
 the import of the words, " God so loved the 
 world, that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that 
 whosoever belie veth in Him, should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life ?" and that the " son 
 of thunder" was transformed into the child of 
 charity ? 
 
 Never before had the thought of man alternated 
 between two such scenes, as those which divided 
 the eye of every soul in that praying company : a 
 cross, a drooping head, hands bleeding, feet bleed- 
 ing, heaven black, thieves on either side, gibes be- 
 low ; and a preternatural sorrow on the soul of the 
 sufferer, which cast over the whole an infinite dread- 
 fulness. On this the eye looks one moment, and 
 weeps. Then a throne, high and lifted up; the 
 glory of the Lord ; angels bowing ; angels singing ; 
 saints with palm, and harp, and voice acclaiming ; 
 and in the center of all might, majesty, and domin- 
 bii, the crucified body, living, but with its wounds, 
 
THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILLMENT. 23 
 
 * c as slain." On this the same eye looks, and weeps 
 again. O for the feelings of that day ! 
 
 Yet the Friday wears away, and no " baptism of 
 fire !" The Saturday sets in ; its hours are Med up 
 as before with prayyer ; but no answer. And now 
 dawns the first day of the week, the day whereon 
 He rose, the first Lord's day He had passed on His 
 throne of glory. How did they spend that day ? 
 Surely they would fully expect that the blessing 
 they sought would be delayed no longer. He said, 
 " Not many days:" this was the fourth day; it 
 must come to-day ! But the evening steals on, and 
 all their prayers might have risen into a Heaven 
 that could not hear. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 
 pass. Their faith does not fail ; still in the temple 
 " praising and blessing God," or in the upper room 
 in " prayer and supplication," they continue of one 
 accord. Though He tarry, yet will they wait for 
 Him. 
 
 This is waiting. Some speak of waiting for sal- 
 vation as if it meant making ourselves at ease, and 
 dismissing both effort and anxiety. Who so waits 
 for any person or any event ? When waiting, your 
 mind is sot on a certain point ; you can give your- 
 self to nothing else. You are looking forward, and 
 preparing; every moment of delay increases the 
 sensitiveness of your mind as to that one thing. A 
 servant waiting for his master, a wife waiting for 
 
24 THE T0KGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 the footstep of her husband, a mother waiting for 
 her expected boy, a merchant waiting for his richly 
 laden ship, ?„ sailor waiting for the sight of land, a 
 monarch waiting for tidings of the battle : all these 
 are cases wherein the mind is set on one object, and 
 can not easily give attention to another. 
 
 " To-morrow will be Thursday, a full week from 
 the ascension : that will be the day, the term of the 
 promise will not extend further. To-morrow the 
 Comforter will come ; to-morrow we shall be bap- 
 tized with fire, and fitted to do the works our Mas- 
 ter did, ' yea, greater works than these.' " So they 
 would probably settle it in their mind. The Thurs- 
 day finds them, as before, "of one accord in one 
 place ;" no Thomas absent through unbelief. How 
 the scene of that day week would return to their 
 view ! How they would over and over again in 
 mind repeat the walk from Jerusalem to Olivet; 
 each recalling what He said to the Master, and what 
 the Master said to him ; each thinking he had got 
 such a look as he never got before, and as he should 
 not forget so long as he lived ! How they would 
 repeat the last words ! " Ye shall receive potter, 
 after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." In 
 the repetition new faith would kindle. " Yes, we 
 shall; let us wait on; we shall 'be endued with 
 power from on high.' " Then another would re» 
 peat, " An 1 ye shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusa- 
 
THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILLMENT. 25 
 
 lern, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the 
 uttermost parts of the earth." This was vast Ian* 
 guage for them, whose thoughts were wont to move 
 only in the sphere of Palestine. Probably they did 
 not so much weigh the import of the terms as look 
 at the main promise. They should be endued with 
 the power of the Holy Ghost — that power which 
 had made Psalmists and Prophets ; had rendered 
 the words of Elijah stronger than the decrees of 
 Ahab, the words of Elisha stronger than the armies 
 of Syria, the words of Isaiah as coals from the altar, 
 and the words of Daniel mightier than the spitit of 
 & king and " a thousand of his captains." Baptized 
 with the same Spirit, they were to proclaim what 
 these foretold, but never saw : the Child born, the 
 Son given, the Prince cut off for sin, but not His 
 own, the Lamb on whom were laid the iniquities of 
 all. All this they had seen fulfilled in the person of 
 their glorious Lord. All this they had heard ex- 
 plained by His own lips before and after his death. 
 They were to go and prove to others, as He had 
 proved to them, that "thus it was written, and 
 thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again 
 the third day ; and that repentance and remission 
 of sins should be preached in His name among all 
 nations, beginning at Jerusalem." 
 
 Here again they encountered the intimation that 
 their message was for all, and their testimony to be 
 
26 THE TONGUE OF FIEE t 
 
 borne to the uttermost parts of the earth. Yet stiL 
 it seems not the sphere, but the purport, of their 
 commission now occupied their mind. They were 
 to go, and as He had preached, so would they, far 
 and wide, in cities and villages. In what tones 
 would they tell the people that as He used to say to 
 those who came to Him, "Be of good cheer, thy 
 sins be forgiven thee," so would He now say from 
 Heaven to all who lifted an eye to Him ! 
 
 But the day wears on, and no blessing. Is not 
 the delay long? " Not many days!" Does the 
 promise hold good ? They must have felt disap- 
 pointed as the evening fell, and no sign of an an- 
 swer to their oft-repeated prayer. Now is the hour 
 of trial. Will their faith fail ? Will some begin to 
 forsake the meetings which bring not the baptism 
 they seek ? Will some stay at home, or " go a fish- 
 ing," saying that they will wait the Lord's time, and 
 not be unwarrantably anxious about what, after all, 
 does not depend on them, but on the Lord? Will 
 no one say, "We have done our duty, and must 
 leave results. We can not command the fulfillment 
 of the promise. We have asked for it, asked sin 
 cerely, fervently, repeatedly : we can do more ?" 
 
 Or, what is equally probable, will they begin to 
 find out that the cause why they remain unblessed, 
 and yet " orphans," lies in the unfaithfulness of their 
 companions? Happily the spirit of faith and love 
 
THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILLMENT. 27 
 
 abides upon them. John does not turn upon Peter, 
 and say, "It is your fault; for you denied the Mas- 
 ter." Philip does not turn to John and say, " It is 
 your fault; for you and James wanted to lord it 
 over us all." Andrew does not turn to Thomas, and 
 say, " It is your fault ; for you would not believe, 
 even when we had declared it to you." The Sev- 
 enty do not say, "It is the fault of the Twelve; for, 
 after the Lord had lifted them above us all, one of 
 them sold Him, another denied Him, and a third 
 disbelieved Him." The Marys do not say, " It is the 
 fault of the whole company, a cold and unfaithful 
 company, professing to love the Master to His face, 
 but the moment He fell into the hands of His ene- 
 mies, ye all forsook Him, and fled !" 
 
 Well did they know that they had been slow of 
 heart; been unworthy of such a Teacher; often 
 grieved Him, and made Him ask, " How long shall 
 I be with you?" John would never forget the re- 
 buke, " Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are 
 of." Peter* would never forget, the third time, 
 " Lovest Thou Me ?" Philip would never forget, 
 " Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast 
 thou not known Me, Philip ?" And surely Thomas 
 would never forget, " Be not faithless, but believ- 
 ing." 
 
 Yet they knew He had not come to call the 
 righteous, but sinners to repentance. His own lips 
 
28 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 had said, " He that is whole hath no need of a phy^ 
 sicion, but he that is sick." Had He not taken to 
 His bosom the very head whose heats of ambition 
 and of vindictiveness He had rebuked? Had He 
 not said to Peter, " Feed my lambs ?" Had He not 
 said to Thomas, "Reach hither thy hand?" His 
 promise was not made because they were a Church 
 without spot or wrinkle ; but because they were 
 feeble, and, deprived of His own presence, would 
 be orphans indeed, did no other power cover them. 
 He knew every fault with which either of them 
 could charge the others ; yet the promise had passed 
 His lips, and the fire would fall even on them, un- 
 worthy as they were. Happy for them, that none 
 fancied he could fix upon others the cause of their 
 unanswered prayers ! 
 
 The Thursday is gone ; eight days ! The Friday 
 and the Saturday follow it, marked by the same 4 
 persistency in union, in praise, in prayer, and by the 
 same absence of encouragement. Ten days gone ! 
 the promise, " Not many days," is all but broken. 
 
 Peter was always warm and earnest. A thought 
 of his had hardly time to become a thought before 
 *t turned into either word or action. When once 
 his mind had embraced the glorious idea of stand- 
 ing up before the world a witness for his ascended 
 Master, it would seem as if the whole plan was to 
 be carried out in a day. One can not help imagin- 
 
 \ 
 
THE WAITLNTG FOR THE FULl^LLMEOT. 29 
 
 ing how lie bore the restraint of the ten days — the 
 days of prayer, of belief, of waiting — in which they 
 were not permitted to begin their work. 
 
 " Strange !" we almost hear him say, " Strange ! 
 The Lord has died that repentance and remission 
 of sins should be preached in His name among all 
 nations. He has finished the work, risen from the 
 dead, and led captivity captive. The Heavens have 
 received Him. The angels proclaim Him. Us He 
 took from our homes ; how He taught, and trained, 
 and practiced us ; all, as we now see, for this work 
 of proclaiming His love and the pardon it brings to 
 all mankind ! Here we are, unfitted for every other 
 calling. His commission is to us as a Prophet's call, 
 as a King's anointing. He said, 'Go into all the 
 world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.' 
 We want to go. Men stand in need : they are dy- 
 ing daily ; dying in unbelief. Why does He not 
 permit us to go ? Why is the first command so 
 long suspended by the other? c Tarry ye in the 
 city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power 
 from on high.' We have tarried ten days. Why 
 does our Master delay? The world needs the 
 sound of His Gospel; we are waiting to bear it 
 forth. He is exalted at God's right hand, and all 
 power is given unto Him in Heaven and in earth ; 
 yet does He look down upon the world sleeping a 
 Bleep unto death, and upon us waiting to blow the 
 
30 THE TOKGUE 0E FIKE. 
 
 trumpet ! Is not His instruction, His commission, 
 enough ? We are ordained, after much teaching : 
 may we not go? No; we must abide by His 
 word : ' Tarry until ye be endued with power from 
 on high.' " 
 
 The final proof given by Peter that he was wait- 
 ing indeed, making all preparations for the event, 
 was in calling upon his brethren to fill up the num- 
 ber of the Apostles. One had fallen. His place 
 was vacant ; and another was to take his " bishop- 
 ric." Peter concluded that they were to fill up this 
 vacancy, and called upon the company to select two 
 men. No one objected that it remained to be seen 
 whether they should be endued with power or not. 
 All acted as feeling the certainty that the Holy 
 Spirit was about to come, and the apostolic com 
 mission to be fulfilled to the ends of the earth. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FULFILLMENP OF THE PROMISE. 
 
 There was a day when death had struck a woefu! 
 stroke, and raised a nation's wail. "There was a 
 great cry in the land of Egypt : for there was not 
 a house where there was not one dead." That same 
 day the Lord, by the sprinkling of a pure lamb's 
 blood, averted death from the doors of Israel, and 
 then led them away from yoke and task-master 
 toward the goodly land. Fifty days afterward they 
 reached the Mount of God, where He manifested 
 Himself in the thunder of His power, with flame 
 and trumpet, and a voice, whereat all the tribes did 
 tremble. Then was the new dispensation formally 
 inaugurated w^ith the voice and the flame ; its cov- 
 enant sealed by sprinkling of blood, and its privi- 
 leges opened to the sprinkled by the vision of 
 glory, when the Elders "s'aw the God of Israel: 
 and there was under His feet as it were a paved 
 work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body 
 of heaven in his clearness."* 
 
 * E^od. xxiv. 10- 
 
32 THE TONGUE OF F1KE. 
 
 This time of note was come, the fifty days were 
 elapsed from the time when the Lamb was slain, and 
 captivity broken. Forty days He had been with 
 them after His resurrection ; the rest He had passed 
 within the vail. And was it not possible that in 
 saying, " Not many days," He pointed them forward 
 to the day which commemorated the opening of the 
 new dispensation of God to Israel by the hand of 
 His servant Moses ? Was it not probable that the 
 glorious dispensation of His Son would be opened 
 at this time ? Unbelief would have long ago ceased 
 to expect ; but faith would probably renew its an- 
 ticipations, and look to this day.* 
 
 On the morning of the resurrection, some — the 
 women — were early at the tomb ; but the othera 
 were sauntering into the country, or here and there, 
 with nothing to wait for, as they thought; yet 
 partly expecting something to come to their ears. 
 Even late in the day, when they did meet to hear 
 what some had seen and heard, Thomas was away. 
 Now, however, after ten days have elapsed, their 
 patience is not exhausted. They do expect, and 
 therefore will not cease to wait. They have no at- 
 tention for any thing else. The kingdom of God is 
 at hand. Did He not say, " Not many days ?" Ten 
 
 * Among the many writers on the temporal relation between 
 the Pentacost and the Passovar, no one is familiar or clearer 
 than Kuinop". 
 
THE FULFILLMENT OF THE PROMISE. 33 
 
 are gone ; and the conclusion is, not that of servants 
 too idle to wait : "Our Lord delayeth His coming 
 we may as well sit still. He will come in His own 
 good time." That is not waiting : it is idling. They 
 said, in their believing hearts, " Ten days are gone ; 
 therefore the day of our Lord draweth nigh. This 
 is the day of Pentecost ; and as the fire appeared 
 " on Sinai, in the presence of our fathers, when God 
 made His covenant by Moses, it may be that to-day 
 He will seal His covenant by the hand of the 
 Prophet whom Moses foresaw, baptizing us with 
 fire, according to the word wherein He hath made 
 His servants to hope." 
 
 No Thomas is absent now ! Not one heart has 
 failed ! " They are all in one place." No discord 
 or doubt have they permitted to arise : " they are 
 all with one accord in one place." Nor are they 
 slow or late. We are not told at what hour they 
 met, but it must have been very early ; for aftei 
 they had received the baptism, and filled all Jeru- 
 salem with the noise of their new powers, Peter re- 
 minded the multitude, who came together, that it 
 was only the third hour of the day — nine o'clock in 
 the morning. 
 
 Early, then, on the second Lord's day after the 
 Ascension, is the entire company met, with one 
 heart, to renew their oft-repeated prayer. We can 
 Qot go to the house where was that upper room ; 
 
34 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 nor to the site where it stood. These points are 
 left unnoticed, after the mode of Christianity, which 
 is in nothing a religion of circumstances, in every 
 thing a religion of principles. "We know not how 
 long they had that morning urged their prayer, nor 
 whose voice was then crying to Him w T ho had 
 promised, nor what word of the Master he was 
 pleading, nor what feelings of closer expectation 
 and more vivid faith were warming the breasts of 
 the disciples. But " suddenly there came a sound 
 from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind." Not, 
 mark you, a wind ; no gale sweeping over the city 
 struck the sides of the house, and rustled round it. 
 But "from heaven" directly downward fell "a 
 sound," without shape, or step, or movement to ac- 
 count for it — a sound as if a mighty wind were 
 rushing, not along the ground, but straight from 
 on high, like showers in a dead calm. Yet no 
 wind stirred. As to motion, the air of the room 
 was still as death ; as to sound, it was awful as a 
 hurricane. 
 
 Mysterious sound, whence comest thou ? Is it 
 the Lord again breathing upon them, but this time 
 from His throne ? Is it the wind of Ezekiel pre- 
 paring to blow ? Shaken by this supernatural sign, 
 we may see each head bow low. Then timidly 
 turning upward, John sees Peter's head crowned 
 with fire ; Peter sees James crowned with fire 
 
THE FULFILLIklEOT OF THE PROMISE. 35 
 
 James sees Nathanael crowned with fire ; N athan- 
 ael sees Mary crowned with fire ; and round and 
 round the fire sits " on each of them." The Lord 
 has been mindful of His promise. The word of the 
 Lord is tried. John was a faithful witness. Jesus 
 was a faithful Redeemer. He is now glorified ; for 
 the Holy Ghost is given. Jesus "being by the 
 right hand of God exalted, and having received of 
 the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath 
 shed forth this." 
 
 The instant effect of the descent of the Spirit en 
 the first Gentile converts in the house of Cornelius 
 was, that they began to "magnify God."* The 
 effect would be the same in this first case. That 
 bosom has yet to learn what is the feeling of moral 
 sublimity, which never has been suddenly heaved 
 with an emotion of uncontrollable adoration to God 
 and the Lamb — an emotion which, though no voice 
 told whence it came, by its movement in the depths 
 of the soul, further down than ordinary feelings 
 reach, did indicate somehow that the touch of the 
 Creator was traceable in it. They only who have 
 felt such unearthly joy need attempt to conceive 
 the outburst of that burning moment. Body, soul, 
 and spirit, glowing with one celestial fire, would 
 blend, and pour but their powers in a rapturous 
 "Glory be to God!" or "Blessed be the Lord 
 * See Baumgarten. 
 
36 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 God !" Modern believers — not those who nevef 
 unite in simple and fervent supplications at the 
 throne of grace, but those who meet and urge with 
 long-repeated entreaty their requests to God — can 
 recall times which help them to imagine what must 
 have been the peal of praise that burst from the 
 hearts of the hundred and twenty, when the bap- 
 tism fell upon their souls; times when they and 
 their friends have felt as if the place where they 
 met was filled with the glory of the Lord. 
 
 One word as to the mode of this baptism. In 
 this case we have the one perfectly clear account 
 contained in Scripture of the mode wherein the 
 baptizing element was applied to the person of the 
 baptized. The element here is fire ; the mode is 
 shedding down — " hath shed forth this." " It sat 
 upon each of them." Did baptism mean immer- 
 sion, they would have been plunged into the fire, 
 not the fire shed upon them. The only other case 
 in which the mode of contact between the baptizing 
 element and the baptized persons is indicated, is 
 this : "And were all baptized to Moses in the cloud 
 and in the sea." They were not dipped in the 
 cloud, but the cloud descended upon them ; they 
 were not plunged into the sea, but the sea sprinkled 
 them as they passed. The Spirit signified by the 
 water is never once promised under the idea of dip 
 
THE FULFILLMENT OF THE PROMISE. 37 
 
 ping. Such an expression as, " I will immerse yon 
 in My Spirit," " I will plunge you in My Spirit," or, 
 " I will dip you in clean water," is unknown to the 
 Scripture. But, "I will pour out My Spirit upon 
 you," u I will sprinkle clean water upon you," is 
 language and thought familiar to all readers of the 
 Bible. The word " dip," or " dipped," does not 
 often occur in the New Testament ; but when 
 it does, the original is never " baptize," or " bap- 
 tized."* 
 
 The fire is not a shapeless flame. It is not 
 Abram's lamp, nor the pillar of the desert, nor the 
 coal of Isaiah, nor the infolding flame of Ezekiel. 
 It is a tongue; yea, cloven tongues. On each 
 brow glows a sheet of flame, parted into many 
 tongues. Here was the symbol of the new dispen- 
 sation. Christianity was to be a Tongue of Fire. 
 It was a symbol of their " power," the power 
 whereby the new kingdom was to be built up ; the 
 power for which they had so long to tarry, and so 
 eagerly to pray, when all other things were pre- 
 pared ; for which the whole arrangement for tho 
 world's conversion was commanded to stand still. 
 The appearance of this one symbol was the signal 
 that former ones had waxed old, and were ready to 
 vanish away. Altar and cherubim, sacrifice and ir 
 * It is always Barrro, never Bair-ify. 
 
38 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 cense, ephod and breast-plate, Urim and Thummim 
 - — their work was done. Even of the most sacred 
 emblem of all, that which was the "pattern of 
 things in the heavens," the Ark itself, it had been 
 foretold, "They shall say no more, The Ark of 
 the Covenant of the Lord ; neither shall it como 
 to mind ; neither shall they remember it ; neither 
 shall they visit it ; neither shall it be magnified 
 any more." Of the temple itself the Master 
 had said, that not one stone should be left upon 
 another. 
 
 All the emblems of the old dispensation were 
 now forever superseded. In their room the Lord 
 had appointed only two ; and they chosen with a 
 singular aptness at once to suggest ideas, and to 
 avoid image representation : the water, wherein the 
 mind could see a symbol of the cleansing Spirit, but 
 the eye no attempted likeness : the bread and wine, 
 wherein the body and the blood are forcibly 
 brought to mind, but no personal similitude set be- 
 fore the eye. These two only were the unartistio 
 emblems which Christ had ordained for His Church. 
 His was to be a religion of the understanding and 
 the heart ; wholly resting on the convictions and 
 the principles, building nothing on sense, and per- 
 mitting nothi?ig to fancy. 
 
 In strict keeping with this spiritual stamp of 
 Christianity, was the symbol whi3h, once for all, 
 
THE FCTOTLLMENT OF THE PROMISE. 39 
 
 announced to the Church the advent of her con* 
 quering power — the power by which she was to 
 stand before kings, to confound synagogues, to 
 silence councils, to still mobs, to confront tho 
 learned, to illuminate the senseless, and to inflame 
 the cold — the power by which, beginning at Jeru- 
 salem, where the name of Jesus was a by-word, she 
 was to proclaim His glory through all Judea, 
 throughout Samaria, and throughout the uttermost 
 ^ v parts of the earth. The symbol is a tongue, the 
 only instrument of the grandest war ever waged : 
 a tongue — man's speech to his fellow man ; a mes- 
 sage in human words to human faculties, from the 
 understanding to the understanding, Irom the 
 heart to the heart. A tongue of fire — man's voice, 
 God's truth ; man's speech, the Holy Spirit's inspir- 
 ation ; a human organ, a superhuman power : Not 
 one tongue, but cloven tongues ; as the speech of 
 men is various, here we see the Creator taking to 
 Himself the language of every man's mother ; so 
 that in the very words wherein he heard her say, 
 " I love thee," he might also hear the Father of all 
 say, " I love thee." 
 
 How does that tire-symbol, shining on the brow 
 of the primitive Church, rebuke that system which 
 would force all men to worship God in one tongue, 
 and that not a tongue of fire, but a dead tongue, 
 wherein ro man now on earth can hear his mother's 
 
40 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 tones ! Cloven tongues sat on eacli of them ; so 
 that each had not only the fire-impulse to go and 
 tell aloud the message of reconciliation, but also 
 the fire-token that all mankind, of whatever nation, 
 kindred, people, or tongue, were heirs alike of the 
 Gospel salvation, and of the word whereby that 
 salvation is proclaimed. 
 
 Blessed be the hour when that Tongue of Firs 
 descended from the Giver of speech into a cold 
 world ! Had it never come, my mother might 
 have led me, when a child, to see slaughter for 
 worship, and I should have taught my little ones 
 that stones were gods. " Blessed be the Lord God, 
 the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things ! 
 And blessed be His glorious name forever : and let 
 the whole earth be filled with His glory ! Amen 
 and Amen !" 
 
CHAPTER I . 
 
 EFFECTS WHICII IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED THE 
 BAPTISM OF FIRE. 
 
 SECTION I. — SPIRITUAL EFFECTS. 
 
 The first effect which followed this baptism of 
 fire is thus described : " They were all filled with 
 the Holy Ghost." This expression is so clearly 
 joined with the record of the miracle, that we 
 easily suppose that it is itself intended to express 
 miraculous inspiration ; but this is not its constant, 
 nor even its most frequent, use in the New Testa- 
 ment. It is sometimes employed to describe an 
 inspiration antecedent to a miraculous manifesta- 
 tion, and sometimes one antecedent to a purely 
 moral manifestation. Examples of the latter occur 
 in several cases of "speaking the word of God 
 with boldness," when the circumstances were such 
 that human nature unassisted would have shrunk 
 from the danger. 
 
 John the Baptist wrought no miracle ; yet of 
 
42 TUB TONGUE OF FIREL 
 
 him it was said, that he should be " filled with the 
 Holy Ghost from his mother's womb." Here the 
 expression denotes some inward and spiritual ope- 
 ration, which may take place in the silence of an 
 infant's heart, and show its fruit in the quiet ways 
 of childhood. Had he been filled with the Holy 
 Ghost immediately before commencing to preach., 
 we should have connected the former with the 
 latter, as an official, rather than as an inward and 
 moral qualification. When men were required to 
 fill the office of Deacons — not to work miracles, not 
 to speak with tongues, but to promote the brother- 
 hood and good feeling of the Church, by a better 
 regulation of its daily relief to the poor — the quali- 
 fication demanded was, that they should be " men 
 full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom." Again, 
 Barnabas " was a good man and full of the Holy 
 Ghost and of faith." This is said of him, not as 
 accounting for any miracles or tongues, but in rela- 
 tion to the fact that, when he had seen the converts 
 at Antioch, "he was glad, and exhorted them all 
 that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto 
 the Lord." Again, when the Apostles were first 
 called to bear witness for Christ before the Rulers, 
 " Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto 
 them," etc. Here we have no working of miracles, 
 no speaking with foreign tongues ; but we find the 
 man who, when left to his own strength, denied his 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 43 
 
 Master, now filled with a moral power which makes 
 him bold to confess that Master's name, before the 
 rulers of his people, and with a wisdom to speak 
 according at once to the oracles of God, and th 
 exigency of the moment. 
 
 After this first persecution was reported to the 
 disciples generally, they, moved and distressed, ap- 
 pealed to the Lord in prayer, crying, " And now, 
 Lord, behold their threatenings ; and grant unto 
 Thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak 
 Thy word." The answer to this prayer is recorded 
 in terms more striking than in any other case, ex- 
 cept that of Pentecost : " And when they had 
 prayed, the place was shaken where they were as- 
 sembled together ; and they were all filled with the 
 Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with 
 boldness." Here, being " filled with the Holy 
 Ghost" was not followed by any miraculous effects 
 whatever, but was an inspiration, the result of 
 which is special moral strength — strength to con- 
 front danger and shame — strength to declare all the 
 Gospel, though, in so doing, they periled every 
 interest dear to them. 
 
 Our Lord had promised to His disciples mirac- 
 ulous light and power by the Spirit ; but it was 
 not as a miracle-working power that He had chiefly 
 foretold His coming. It was as a spiritual power, a 
 comforter, a guide unto all truth, a revealev of 
 
44 THE TONGUE OF PIKE. 
 
 the things of God, a remembrancer of the words 
 of Christ ; one who would convince the world of 
 sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; one who 
 would embolden the Lord's servants to bear wit- 
 ness before the most terrible adversaries, and 
 would guide their lips to wise and convincing 
 speech. Had it been His design that they should 
 expect the Holy Spirit chiefly as a miraculous power, 
 the leading promises would have had this aspect. 
 
 When He first clearly proclaims that the Com- 
 forter should come as a substitute for His own pres- 
 ence, he marks the classes wiio shall know Him, 
 and those who shall not. The distinction between 
 them lies not in apostleship or ministry, not in gifts 
 or powers, but in being of the world, and " not of 
 the world." "Whom the world can not receive, 
 because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: 
 but ye know Him ; for He dwelleth with you, and 
 shall be in you."* Not, " For He will work mira- 
 cles by you." That w T as not promised to all. Not, 
 "He will prophesy by you." That He did not 
 promise to all. But He did promise to all who are 
 "not of the world," that He should dwell with 
 them and be in them. Nor is this promise confined 
 to the apostolic age, or to the times immediately 
 succeeding. "That He may abide with you for- 
 ever," gives an interest hi the personal influences 
 * John xiv. It. 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 45 
 
 of the Comforter to the disciples of all ages, as well 
 as to those of the first days. 
 
 This promised substitute for the personal presence 
 of Christ, was one whom the world should not see— 
 who was to be invisible to the natural eye, undis- 
 cernible by the natural mind ; yet known and dis- 
 cerned by believers, though not seen ; known, not 
 by outward sign, but by inward consciousness. Our 
 Lord's expression is to be strictly noted: "The 
 world seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him ; but ye 
 know Him :" not, " Ye see and know Him." In one 
 respect the disciples and the world were to be alike ; 
 neither should see Him. Yet the disciples should 
 "know" Him; for "He dwelleth with you, and 
 shall be in you." Their knowledge of Him was to 
 come not by sense, but by consciousness. Was this 
 " being in them" to be an ordinary grace of be- 
 lievers, or to be coupled only with office or super- 
 natural endowments ? The want of it is made by 
 St. Paul conclusive against the claim of any man to 
 be considered even a member of Christ : " Ye are 
 not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the 
 Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have 
 not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." This 
 passage, however, like many others, expresses only 
 a participation of the Spirit in some degree, without 
 indicating what that degree might be ; leaving it 
 open to doubt, were there no other passages bearing 
 
46 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 upon the point, whether some might not be blessed 
 with the indwelling of the Spirit, who yet were tc 
 be debarred from the fuller privilege expressed in 
 the strong words, "filled with the Holy Ghost." 
 
 The Apostles themselves had doubtless received 
 the Spirit in some measure before the day of Pen- 
 tecost ; for our Lord had breathed upon them im- 
 mediately after His resurrection, and said, "Receive 
 ye the Holy Ghost." Yet in the time w^hich inter- 
 vened between that and Pentecost, whatever might 
 have been the advancement of their spiritual condi- 
 tion beyond what it was before, it rested far behind 
 that which immediately followed upon the baptism 
 of fire. It was only then that they were "filled 
 with the Holy Ghost." We find, however, that 
 even the expression, " be filled," is applied broadly 
 to ordinary believers ; and that, too, not merely as 
 describing the actual enjoyments of some individ- 
 uals, but as a precept applicable to all : " Be not 
 drunken with wine, wherein is excess, but be Jilled 
 icith the Sjoirit." Whatever is meant by being 
 " filled with the Holy Ghost" is, by these plain 
 words, laid upon us as our duty. Looking at it in 
 the aspect of a duty, and thinking of the moral 
 height which the expression indicates above our 
 ordinary life, we shrink. Can such an obligation 
 lie upon us ? Is it not commanding the purblind to 
 gaze upon the sun ? And yet, vtfiatever is the duty 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 47 
 
 of man must be the tcill of God. In this view, 
 then, the commandment seems to carry even a 
 Btronger encouragement than the promise — seems, 
 in fact, to sum up many promises in one conclusive 
 appeal, saying, "All things are now ready. The 
 Lord has provided ; the fountain is open ; the pure 
 river of the water of life, clear as crystal, is pro- 
 ceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb; 
 you are called to its banks, and with you it rests to 
 drink and be filled with the Spirit." 
 
 He who has not received the Holy Ghost has not 
 yet entered into the real Christian life, does not 
 know the "peace which passeth understanding," 
 has in no sense " Christ in Him the hope of glory." 
 He is still " in the flesh," in his natural and carnal 
 state ; for the Spirit of God does not dwell in him. 
 The difference between receiving the Spirit and 
 being filled w 7 ith the Spirit, is a difference not of 
 kind, but of degree. In the one case, the light of 
 heaven has reached the dark chamber, disturbing 
 night, but leaving some obscurity and some deep 
 shadows. In the other, that light has filled the 
 whole chamber, and made every corner bright. 
 This state of the soul — being " filled with the Holy 
 Ghost" — is the normal antecedent of true prophetio 
 or miraculous power, but may exist without it: 
 without it, in individuals who are never endow r ed 
 with the gift either of prophecy or of miracles; 
 
48 THE TOKGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 without it, in individuals who have such powers, but 
 in whom they are not in action, as in John the Bap- 
 tist before his ministry commenced. 
 
 Eyesight is the necessary basis of what is called 
 a painter's or a poet's eye ; the sense of hearing, 
 the necessary basis of what is called a musical ear : 
 yet eyesight may exist where there is no poet's or 
 painter's eye, and hearing where there is no musical 
 ear. So may the human soul be "filled with the 
 Holy Ghost," having every faculty illuminated, and 
 every affection purified, without any miraculous 
 gift. On the other hand, the miraculous power 
 does not necessarily imply the spiritual fullness; for 
 Paul puts the supposition of speaking with tongues, 
 prophesying, removing mountains, and yet lacking 
 charity, that love which must be shed abroad in 
 every heart that is full of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 "Filled with the Holy Ghost!" Thrice blessed 
 word ! thanks be to God, that e^er the tongues of 
 men were taught it ! It declares not only that the 
 Lord has returned to His temple in the human soul, 
 but that He has filled the house with His glory ; 
 pervaded every chamber, every court, by His man- 
 ifested presence. 
 
 "That ye might be filled with all the fullness of 
 God," is a prayer at which we falter. Is it not too 
 much to ask ? Is it not a sublime flight after the 
 impossible? Let us remember it is not, " That ye 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 49 
 
 might coDtaia all the fullness of God." That would 
 be more impossible than that your chamber should 
 contain all the light of the sun. But it can be filled 
 with the light of the sun— so filled that not a par- 
 ticle of unillumiu^d air shall remain within it. 
 When, therefore, the hand of the Apostle leads 
 you up toward the countenance of your Father ; 
 when you approach to see the light which outshines 
 all lights, "the glory of God in the face of Christ 
 Jesus," put away all thought of containing what 
 the heavens can not contain; but, humbly open- 
 ing thy heart, say, "Infinite Light, fill this little 
 chamber !" 
 
 Reason says, " It may be ;" Scripture says, " It 
 may be ;" but a shrinking of the heart says, " It 
 can not be ; we can never 4 be filled with all the 
 fullness of God.' " When Paul had uttered that 
 prayer, perhaps this same shrinking of heart had 
 almost come over him : how does he meet it ? 
 Glancing down at his wonderful petition, and uj) at 
 his Almighty King, he breaks out, " ISTow unto Him 
 that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all 
 that we ask or think, according to the power that 
 worketh in us; unto Him be glory in the Church 
 by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without 
 end. Amen." Yea, Amen, ten thousand thousand 
 times. The words of this doxology had been holy 
 and blessed in any connection ; but they are doubly 
 
50 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 blessed, closely following, as they do, the prayer 
 " That ye might be filled with the fullness of God. n 
 Nor should we forget that the power which Paul 
 here adores is not some abstract and unmoved 
 power of Deity, but " the power which worketh in 
 us." What is this power? The Holy Ghost — 
 " might by His Spirit in the inner man." 
 
 What a labor of expression do we find in 2 Cor 
 ix. 8, when Paul wants to convey his own idea of 
 the power of grace, as practically enabling men to 
 do the will of God ! " And God is able to make 
 all grace abound toward you ; that ye, always hav- 
 ing all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every 
 good work." Here w r e have " abound" twice, and 
 " all" four times, in one short sentence.* "Abound" 
 means not only to fill, but to overflow. The double 
 overflow, first of grace from God to us, then of the 
 same grace from us to " every good work," is a 
 glorious comment on our Lord's word : " He that 
 believeth Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his 
 belly shall flow rivers of water. But this spake 
 He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him 
 should receive : for the Holy Ghost was not yet 
 given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." 
 The believer's heart, in itself incapable of holy liv 
 ing, as a marble cistern of yielding a constant 
 
 * In the Greek irag occurs five times, the last being irav kpyov 
 ayadov, rendered, "every good work." 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 51 
 
 stream, is placed, like the cistern, in communication 
 with an invisible source ; the source constantly 
 overflows into the cistern, and it again overflows. 
 Happy the heart thus filled, thus overflowing with 
 the Holy Spirit ! Where is the fountain of those 
 living waters, that we may bring our heart3 
 thither ? " He showed me a pure river of water 
 of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne 
 of God and of the Lamb."* There is the fount, 
 there the stream 5 the Spirit proceeding from 
 the Father and the Son. To the throne of grace ! 
 to the mercy-seat! and you are at the fountain 
 of all life. Nor seek a scant supply at that 
 source. " Be filled with the Spirit," sounds in 
 your ears ; and, if you believe, not only will a well 
 " spring up within" you, but rivers shall flow out 
 from you. 
 
 The Spirit, as replenishing the believer with 
 actual virtues and practical holiness, is ever kept 
 before our eye in the apostolic writings. " That 
 ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleas- 
 ing, being fruitful in every good work, and in- 
 creasing in the knowledge of God ; strengthened 
 with all might, according to His glorious power, 
 unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfnl- 
 ness." 
 
 Putting these various expressions together, what 
 * Rev. xxii. 1 
 
52 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 a view do tLey give of the riches of grace ! — " all 
 sufficiency," " in all things," " always," " abound to 
 every good work," " fruitful in every good work," 
 " strengthened with all might," " according to Ilia 
 glorious pow T er," " according to the power which 
 worketh in us," " filled with all the fullness of God." 
 Eternal Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the 
 Son, answer and disperse all our unbelief by filling 
 our hearts with Thyself! 
 
 The expression, "filled with the Holy Ghost," 
 places before us the human spirit restored to its 
 original and highest fellowship. In many respects 
 that spirit is alone in this world. It finds here 
 nothing that is its own equal. Every thing upon 
 which it can look is its inferior in both nature and 
 powers. Earth and sky, beasts and birds, are the 
 instruments of its comfort, or the subjects of its 
 thoughts ; but never can share in its cares or affec- 
 tions. The fields never say, " We enjoy thy pres- 
 ence," nor the stars, "We return thine admira- 
 tion." The lower animals can take no part in its 
 deep movements of hope and fear ; can shed no 
 light on its problems of justice, pardon, and the 
 .world to come. In the spirit of its fellow-man 
 alone can it find an equal ; and communion with it, 
 though it often solaces, often both w T ounds and 
 defilos. Yet it is the nature of man to seek an ob- 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 53 
 
 ject kindred to himself, but superior. Probably 
 this is necessary to all natures which are at the 
 same time rational and finite. But where can man 
 find a being kindred to himself, and yet superior to 
 him ? Below the sky he is head, yet upward his 
 instincts turn — upward toward some one brighter 
 or greater than himself. 
 
 What can answer to those upward aspirations of 
 the soul ? Its Creator. After years spent in search 
 of happiness, the human spirit penitently returns 
 toward its God, and, trusting in the atonement of 
 His Son, finds forgiveness for the past. Then does 
 the great Comforter, the Witness of the Father's 
 love, the Spirit of adoption, give the manifestation 
 of the Divine favor which David delighted to call 
 " the light of Thy countenance." This manifesta- 
 tion may be gentle, or it may be rapturous ; but in 
 any case it is comforting. When gentlest, it 
 touches chords of satisfaction more delicate than 
 were ever reached by the most subtle joy of intel- 
 lect ; when most rapturous, it carries with it an as- 
 sent of the whole judgment such as no previous 
 enjoyment, however tranquil, commanded. The 
 thirst of the soul has no deeper seat than is now 
 reached. Wisdom has no remonstrance, expecta- 
 tion no disappointment, fear no warning. It may 
 be in a profound calm, it may be in an unspeakable 
 joy ; but it is with core-deep consciousness that the 
 
54 THE T0XGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 soul feels it has now touched, yea, tasted, its si* 
 preme good, and that, for time or for eternity, it 
 needs no more than to abide in this blessedness, and 
 i nprove this fellowship. The gloomy chamber of 
 which we spoke a little while ago was entered by 
 the sunbeams noiselessly and impalpably ; no hand 
 could feel, no ear could hear them as they came ; 
 nothing but an eye within that chamber could dis- 
 cern the great change. It remains the same 
 chamber, with the same contents ; yet every thing 
 is changed, even to the very air. So it is with the 
 soul of man when the Lord saith, " My Father will 
 love him, and We will come unto him, and make 
 Our abode with him." This is not only the presence 
 of God with the spirit of man, but a special and a 
 manifested presence. 
 
 How can that be special which is universal ? 
 God is not far from every one of us ; every man 
 who moves upon the earth moves in Him. How 
 then can He be specially present with one man 
 more than with another ? Strictly speaking, per- 
 haps it is more a question of manifestation than of 
 presence. Electric agency may be present every- 
 where ; but it rarely makes itself visible in a flash 
 Heat may be present everywhere ; but is not even- 
 where manifested by fire. Jude said, " Lord, how 
 is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and 
 not unto the world ?" God is with all, but is un- 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIEE. 55 
 
 seen by any eye, and, alas ! undiscerned by many 
 a spirit. He does not withdraw His presence 
 from any part of His universe, or His care from 
 any of His creatures ; but, as a human frame may 
 be moving amid the light of the sun, and see 
 no light, so may a soul be moving in that 
 universe which is fuller of God than the atmos- 
 phere at noontide is of sunbeams, and yet discern 
 no God. 
 
 All objects require a suitable faculty, or they are 
 unperceived : sound exists not to the eye ; light 
 exists not to the ear ; flavor exists not to the 
 touch. It is of no avail that an object is, unless 
 our nature has the special faculty whereby we can 
 descry its presence. A strong magnetic power 
 may be acting on the compass, whereon the steers- 
 man concentrates his attention ; but eye, ear, hand, 
 smell, taste, give no report of its presence to the 
 mind ; and he first learns that it was there, by the 
 crash of the ship on a coast which he thought was 
 far away. 
 
 Our Lord said, in reply to Jude, " If any man 
 love Me, he will keep My word; and My Father 
 will love him, and We will come unto him, and 
 make Our abode with him." This is more than 
 mere presence. Presence may be unfelt, and there- 
 fore forgotten ; may be with displeasure, and there- 
 fore joyless. But this is presence manifested — "We 
 
56 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 will come to him ;" gracious — the coining is from 
 " love ;" habitual and involving fellowship — both 
 of these ideas he in, " Make our abode with him." 
 
 Two men are walking upon the same plain, and 
 each turns his face toward the sky. The light of 
 the sun is shining upon both, but one sees no sun, 
 wmile the other sees not only light, but the tace of 
 the sun, and his eye is overpowered with as glory, 
 What makes the difference between the two ? Not 
 that one is in darkness, and the other in light ; not 
 that one is near the sun, and the other far away ; 
 not that one has an eye differently constituted from 
 the other ; but simply that there is a thin cloud be- 
 tween heaven and the one, and no cloud between it 
 and the other. The latter can not only trace evi- 
 dence that there is a sun, and that he is up, but has 
 the presence of that sun before his face, and his 
 glory filling his eye. So two men stand in relation 
 to the universal and all-present God. One believes, 
 infers, intellectually knows, that He is; ay, that Hg 
 is present ; yet he discerns Him not : it is a matter 
 of inference, not of consciousness ; and though be- 
 lieving that God is, and that He is present, he sins 
 Another spiritually discerns, feels His presence 
 and he learns to " stand in awe, and sin not." 
 
 Suppose the case of a cripple who had spent his 
 life in a room w r here the sun was never seen. He 
 has heard of its existence, he believes in it, and, in 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIBE. bl 
 
 deed, lias seen enough of its light to give him high 
 ideas of its glory. Wishing to see the sun, he is 
 taken out at night into the streets of an illuminated 
 city. At first, he is delighted, dazzled; but, after 
 h e has had time to reflect, he finds darkness spread 
 amid the lights, and he asks, "Is this the sun?" 
 He is taken out under the starry sky, and is en- 
 raptured ; but on reflection finds that night covers 
 the earth, and again asks, " Is this the sun ?" He 
 is carried out some bright day at noontide, and no 
 sooner does his eye open on the sky than all ques- 
 tion is at an end. There is but one sun. His eye 
 is content : it has seen its highest object, and feels 
 that there is nothing brighter. So with the soul : it 
 enjoys all lights; yet, amid those of art and nature, 
 is still inquiring for something greater. But when 
 it is led by the reconciling Christ into the presence 
 of the Father, and He lifts up upon it the light of 
 His countenance, all thought of any thing greatei 
 disappears. As there is but one sun, so there is but 
 one God. The soul which once discerns and know? 
 Him, feels that greater or brighter there is none, 
 and that the only possibility of ever beholding more 
 glory is by drawing nearer. 
 
 The operation of the Holy Spirit implies a quick- 
 ening of the nature of man by an impartation of 
 the Divine nature, and every increase of it implies 
 a fuller communion of the Eternal Father with His 
 
58 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 adopted child. When the soul of man is " filled 
 with the Holy Ghost," then has God that wherein 
 He does rejoice, " a temple not made with hands," 
 not reared by human art, of unconscio is and insen- 
 sible material ; a temple created by His own word, 
 and living by His own breath. In that living tem- 
 ple He displays somewhat of His glory. In the 
 Shekinah of the sanctuary He could manifest majesty 
 only. In this living temple He can manifest truth, 
 purity, tenderness, forgiveness, justice— the whole 
 round of such attributes as His children below the 
 sky are capable of comprehending. 
 
 Thus inhabited, not only is the soul of man un- 
 utterably blessed, but his body reaches dignity, the 
 thought of which might make even flesh sing. " Your 
 body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in 
 you, which ye have of God ; and ye are not your 
 own." Not your own, for purchase has been made : 
 " Ye are bought with a price ;" not your own, for 
 possession has been taken : " Know ye not that ye 
 are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God 
 dwetteth in you ^"* A holy man, whose presence 
 breathes an unworldly air around him, whose name 
 is identified with a constancy of godly actions, is a 
 visible monument and remembrancer of God. Each 
 member of his body is as a temple vessel. By it 
 hoJy works are done, and the will of the parent 
 * 1 Cor. iii. 16. etc. 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 59 
 
 Spirit on moral points expressed by material instru- 
 ments. His spirit is led by the Spirit of God, 
 His "mortal body" is quickened by the Spirit 
 "that dwelleth in him." He not only "lives in 
 the Spirit," but " walks in the Spirit" — his visible 
 acts, as well as his hidden emotions, being " aftei 
 the Spirit." The natural man has disappeared 
 from his life and actions. Another creature lives. 
 Thoughts, purposes, works, which his nature never 
 prompted, which, when prompted by revelation, his 
 nature could not attain to, now abound, as sweet 
 grapes on a good vine. This precept is embodied 
 in his life : " Neither yield ye your members as in 
 struments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield 
 yourselves unto God as those that are alive from 
 the dead, and your members as instruments of 
 righteousness unto God."* 
 
 In this the power of the Holy Ghost is practically 
 manifested by a reversal of the relations of the 
 human spirit and the flesh. To persons yet in the 
 body, the Apostle says, "Ye are not in the flesh, 
 but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell 
 m you." Not in the flesh, yet in the body ! The 
 unconverted man has a spirit, but it is carnalized ; 
 the play of its powers — the studies of the intellect, 
 the flights of the imagination, the impulses of the 
 heart, are dictated by motives which all range be* 
 
 * Rom, vi. 13. 
 6 
 
60 THE TONGUE OF FIEE. 
 
 low the sky and halt on this side of the tomb. The 
 spirit is the servant of the flesh ; and man differs 
 from perishing animals chiefly in this, that for carnal 
 purposes and delights he commands the service of 
 spiritual agent — his own soul. 
 
 The Holy Spirit, as man's regenerator, reverses 
 this state of things. He quickens the spirit, and 
 through it quickens the frame, so that instead of 
 spiritual powers being carnalized, a mortal body is 
 spiritualized ; instead of soul and spirit being sub- 
 jected by the flesh, flesh and blood become instru- 
 ments of the Spirit. Limbs move on works of 
 heavenly origin and intent. Thus a direct connec- 
 tion is established between the will of the Supreme 
 Spirit and the material organs of man. A purpose 
 originates in the mind of God ; by His Spirit it is 
 silently and swiftly transmitted to the spirit of His 
 child ; and by this to the " mortal body." Then, as 
 an iron wire, on the shore of the Crimea, expresses 
 the will of our Queen in London, so do the earthly 
 members of a mortal express, in the outward and 
 physical world, the purpose of the Holy One. This 
 is redemption achieved : this is adoption in its is- 
 sues : this is the new life : this is human nature re- 
 stored, man walking in the light ; " God dwelling 
 in him, and he in God." Then his life is a light, 
 and a light so pure, that it gives those on whom it 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIKE. 61 
 
 sliines, not the idea of " good nature," but of some- 
 thing heavenly. They see his good works, and 
 " glorify his Father which is in Heaven :" not extol 
 his character ; but feel that he is raised above hig 
 own character, and is " Gocfrs workmanship^ created 
 anew in Christ Jesus unto good works." 
 
 A piece of iron is dark and cold ; imbued with a 
 certain degree of heat, it becomes almost burning 
 without any change of appearance ; imbued with a still 
 greater degree, its very appearance changes to that 
 \ of solid fire, and it sets fire to whatever it touches. 
 A piece of water without heat is solid and brittle ; 
 gently warmed, it flows ; further heated, it mounts 
 to the sky. An organ filled with the ordinary de- 
 gree of air which exists everywhere, is dumb ; the 
 touch of the player can elicit but a clicking of the 
 keys. Throw in not another air, but an unsteady 
 current of the same air, and sweet, but imperfect 
 and uncertain, notes immediately respond to the 
 player's touch : increase the current to a full supply, 
 and every pipe swells with music. Such is the soul 
 without the Holy Ghost ; and such are the changes 
 which pass upon it when it receives the Holy Ghost, 
 and when it is " filled with the Holy Ghost." In the 
 latter state only is it fully imbued with the Divine 
 nature, bearing in all its manifestations some plain 
 resemblance to its God, conveying to all on whom 
 it acts some impression of Him, mounting heaven- 
 
62 THE TONGJE OF FIRE. 
 
 ward in all its movements, and harmoniously pour 
 ing forth, from all its faculties, the praises of the 
 Lord. 
 
 The moral change wrought in the disciples, by 
 the new baptism of the Spirit, is strikingly dis- 
 played in the case of one man. A difficult service 
 was to be performed in Jerusalem that day. Had 
 it been desired to find a man in London who would 
 have gone down to Whitehall a few weeks after 
 Charles was beheaded, and, addressing Cromwell's 
 soldiers, have endeavored to persuade them that he 
 whom they had executed was not only a King 
 and a good one, but a Prophet of God, and that, 
 therefore, they had been guilty of more than regi- 
 cide — of sacrilege ; although England had brave 
 men then, it may be questioned whether any one 
 could have been found to bear such a message to 
 that audience. 
 
 The service which had then to be performed in 
 Jerusalem w T as similar to this. It was needful that 
 some one should stand up under the shadow of the 
 temple, and braving Chief Priests and mobs alike, 
 assert that He whom they had shamefully executed 
 seven weeks ago, was Israel's long looked-for Mes- 
 siah ; that they had been guilty of a sin which had 
 no name ; had raised their hands against " God 
 manifest in the flesh ;" had, in words strango to 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIEE. 63 
 
 human ears, " killed the Prince of Life." Who 
 was thus to confront the rage of the mob, and the 
 malice of the Priests ? We see a man rising, filled 
 with a holy fire, so that he totally forgets his 
 danger, and seems not even conscious that he is 
 doing a heroic act. He casts back upon the mock- 
 ers their charge, and proceeds to open and to press 
 home his tremendous accusation, as if he were a 
 King upon a throne, and each man before him a 
 lonely and defenceless culprit. 
 
 Who is this man ? Have we not seen him be- 
 fore ? Is it possible that it can be Peter ? We 
 know him of old : he has a good deal of zeal, but 
 little steadiness ; he means well, and, when matters 
 are smooth, can serve well; but when difficulties 
 and adversaries rise before him, his moral courage 
 fails. How short a time is it ago since we saw him 
 tried ! He had been resolving that, come what 
 might, he would stand by his Master to the last. 
 Others might flinch, he would stand. Soon the 
 Master was 'n the hands of enemies. Yet his case 
 was by no means lost. The Governor was on his 
 side ; many of the people were secretly for Him ; 
 nothing could De proved against Him ; and, above 
 all, He who had saved others could save Himself. 
 Yet, as Peter saw scowling faces, his courage failed. 
 A servant-maid looked into his eye, and his eye fell 
 She said she thought he belonged to Jesus o* 
 
64 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 Nazareth ; his heart sank, and he said, u No," 
 Then another looked in his face, and repeated the 
 same suspicion. Now, of course, he was more 
 cowardly, and repeated his " No." A third looked 
 upon him, and insisted that he belonged to the ac- 
 cused Prophet. How his poor heart was all flut- 
 tering ; and, to make it plain that he had nothing 
 to do with Jesus of Nazareth, he began to curse 
 and swear. 
 
 Is it within the same breast where this pale and 
 tremulous heart quaked, that we see glowing a 
 brave heart which dreads neither the power of the 
 authorities, nor the violence of the populace ; 
 which faces every prejudice and every vice of 
 Jerusalem, every bitter Pharisee and every street 
 brawler, as if they were no more than straying and 
 troublesome sheep ? Is the Peter of Pilate's hall 
 the Peter of Pentecost, with the same natural 
 powers, the same natural force of character, the 
 same training, and the same resolutions ? If so, 
 what a difference is made in a man by the one cir- 
 cumstance of being filled with the Holy Ghost ! 
 
 O for high examples of God's moral " workman- 
 ship !" O for men instinct with the Spirit ; the 
 countenance glowing as a transparency with a lamp 
 behind it ; the eye shining with a purer, truer light 
 than any that genius or good-nature ever shed ; 
 limbs agile for any act of prayer, of praise, of zeal, 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 65 
 
 for any errand of compassion ; and a tongue of 
 fire ! O for men on whom the silent verdict of the 
 observer would be, " He is a good man, and full of 
 the Holy Ghost !" Never, perhaps, did earthly 
 eyes see more frequently than we see in our day 
 men with ordinary Christian excellences — men in 
 private life whose walk is blameless — men in the 
 ministry who are admirable, worthy, and useful. 
 But are not men " full of the Holy Ghost" a 
 rare and minished race? Are those whose entire 
 spirit bespeaks a walk of prayer, such as we would 
 ascribe to Enoch or to John ; whose words fall 
 with a demonstration of the Spirit, and a power 
 such as we conceive attended Paul or Apollos ; who 
 make on believers the impression of being imme- 
 diate and mighty instruments of God, and on unbe- 
 lievers the impression of being dangerous to come 
 hear, lest they should convert them : — are such men 
 often met with ? 
 
 Do not even the good frequently speak as if we 
 were not to look for such burning and shining 
 lights ? as if we must be content in our educated 
 and intelligent age with a style of holiness more 
 level and less startling ? Do not many make up 
 iheir minds never more to see men such as their 
 fathers saw ; men at whose prayer a wondrous 
 power of God was ever ready to fall, whether upon 
 two or three kneeling in a cabin, and wondering 
 
60 THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 
 
 how the unlearned could find such wisdom, 01 
 on the great multitude, wondering how the learned 
 could find such simplicity ? Never more see 
 such men ! The Lord forbid ! Return, O Power ? 
 of the Pentecost, return to Thy people ! Shed 
 down Thy flame on many heads ! To us, as to 
 our fathers, and to those of the old time before 
 them, give fullness of grace ! Without Thee we 
 can do nothing ; but filled with the Holy Ghost, the 
 excellency of the power will be of Thee, O God J 
 and not of us, 
 
 
CHAPTER IY. 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 SECTION II. — MIRACULOUS EFFECTS 
 
 " They began to speak with other tongues, aa 
 the Spirit gave thern utterance." It is not said, 
 " with unknown tongues." In fact, the expression, 
 " unknown tongues," was never used by an inspired 
 writer. In the Epistle to the Corinthians, it is 
 found in the English version ; but the word " un- 
 known" is in italics, showing that it is not taken 
 from the original. Speaking unknown tongues 
 was never heard of in the apostolic days. That 
 miracle first occurred in London some years ago. 
 On the day of Pentecost no man pretended to 
 speak unknown tongues ; but j list as if we in Lon- 
 don suddenly began to speak German, French, 
 Spanish, Russian, Turkish, and other foreign lan- 
 guages, so it was with them. Not one tongue was 
 spoken that day but a man was found in the streets 
 of Jerusalem to turn round, and cry, " This is my 
 own tongue, w f herein I was born !" The miracle 
 
68 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 lay in the power of speaking the tongues of adjacent 
 nations, from which individuals were in Jerusalem 
 at that very time. This is not only miraculous, but 
 a miracle in a very amazing form ; perhaps, as to 
 its form, the most amazing of all miracles. 
 
 Matter is a great and pregnant thing. To us its 
 properties are not only wonderful, but exceedingly 
 mysterious. When we see it flourishing while we 
 fade, towering in hills, or careering in waves, or 
 spread out in the firmament, we almost feel as if it 
 were greater than we. Yet are we ever proving 
 that, in spite of appearances, matter is less than 
 mind. Mind searches out matter, wields it, molds 
 it, makes it the servant of its will. Mind, then, 
 being the superior, it follows that a work wrought 
 in mind is greater than one wrought in matter. 
 Miracles in seas, mountains, the firmament, or the 
 human body, display a power which rules the frame 
 of nature and the frame of man. Yet, as the sphere 
 of these is matter, the whole order may be called 
 the physical miracle — works above nature, wrought 
 upon physical agents in attestation of the revelation 
 of God. But beyond this lies a higher miracle, of 
 which the sphere is mind ; and which, therefore, we 
 may call the mental miracle-— works above nature 
 wrought in mind in attestation of the revelation of 
 God. Of this order two forms had been witnessed 
 previously — inspiration and prophecy; but now a 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 69 
 
 new miracle in mind was to challenge the belief of 
 all Jerusalem. 
 
 This miracle, as to its moral impression, differed 
 totally from all physical miracles ; even from that 
 complex and most peculiar miracle, the raising of 
 the dead, wherein we see a power which matter and 
 spirit, animal life and mental illumination, equally 
 obey. That miracle stands alone; yet the chief 
 impression which it makes, and certainly the im- 
 pression which all purely physical miracles make, 
 is that of power. They suggest, also, indeed, the 
 idea of wisdom, else the power would not go so un- 
 erringly to its end ; and of goodness, else power so 
 irresistible would move, not to bless, but to de- 
 stroy ; yet the leading impression produced is un- 
 doubtedly that of power. In such miracles we 
 recognize chiefly "the high hand, and the stretched- 
 out arm." 
 
 In inspiration, we see the mind of man enabled 
 to sit down among the morning mists of things, and 
 to write a book w T hich will stand while the world 
 stands. In prophecy, we see the mind enabled to 
 look through a thousand years, and describe w 7 hat 
 lies beyond so plainly, that, when it is unfolded to 
 ordinary sight, it shall at once be recognized. Both 
 these miracles bring us, not so much into the pres- 
 ence of a Ruler, as into the presence of a Spirit. 
 
 In beholding a sea dried, or a wilderness strewn 
 

 10 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 with food, we feel ourselves near the Lord of nature 
 and the Stay of life. So here w r e feel ourselves 
 near the Fount of all mind, whose own knowledge 
 depends neither on material phenomena, nor on tho 
 lapse of time ; whose mode of acting on the human 
 mind is not by laws analogous to those whereby tho 
 latter acts on material organs, or on its kindred 
 minds through them. As, however, we watch the 
 miracle of tongues, a strange solemnity falls upon 
 us ; we feel as if we had left the region where mind 
 slowly and dimly learns through sense, had crossed 
 some invisible line into the land of spirits, and were 
 standing before the Original Mind. What knowl- 
 edge of mind so minute as that which scans every 
 sign whereby every mind expresses its ideas ? What 
 power over mind so unsearchable as that which can 
 fill it in an instant with new signs for all its ideas — ■ 
 signs never before present to it, yet answering ex- 
 actly to those which others had been trained from 
 childhood to use ? 
 
 A number of Galilean peasants issue from an upper 
 room into the streets of Jerusalem. A strange fire 
 is in every eye, a strange light on every countenance, 
 Each one looks joyful and benignant, as if he felt 
 that he was carrying the balm for the world's sores 
 in his breast. Each has plainly a world to say, and 
 wants listeners. Probably their steps turn toward 
 the temple, which during the ten days had divided 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 7l 
 
 their presence with the upper room. One meets 
 with an Arab, and addresses him ; another goes up 
 to a Roman, and in a moment they are deeply en- 
 gaged ; a third sees a Persian, a fourth an African 
 from Cyrene ; and, as they go along, each one at- 
 taches himself to some foreigner. He tells a strange 
 tale, strange in its substance, equally strange in its 
 eloquence; a new and unaccountable eloquence, 
 wonderful not for grace, expression, or sweet sound, 
 but for power. 
 
 One hearer in Latin, another in Coptic, another 
 in Persian, another in Greek, exclaims first at the 
 wonder of the story, and then at the wonder of the 
 narrator : " Art not thou a Galilean ? whence then 
 hast thou this fluency in Latin ?" He answers that 
 he has received it to-day by gift from God. A 
 smile curls on the lip of the Roman, and he turns 
 round to a neighboring group. There an Egyptian 
 has just been putting the same question, and re- 
 ceived the same answer. Yonder is an excited little 
 knot, where a Parthian declares that the tongue in 
 which a man has told him of the death, resurrec- 
 tion, and ascension of Jesus, is his mother tongue. 
 People from Jerusalem are mocking, and saying, 
 "The men are full of new wine ;" but the strangers, 
 on speaking one to another, find that they have all 
 been hearing precisely the same things in their 
 " own tongues/ 
 
72 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 Those faces of different complexions, on compar 
 ing their opinions, darkle with awe. They find that 
 in all this diversity of tongues the same tidings are 
 repeated, and thus see the unity of matter in the 
 variety of language : they find that the men who 
 speak are unschooled peasants, yet are all gifted 
 with the same unheard-of power ; and thus see in 
 the variety of speakers the unity of inspiration. 
 The tongues are the tongues of all mankind ; but 
 the impulse is one, and the message one ! From 
 what center do all these languages issue? The 
 same instinct which leads back the thought from 
 speech to a mind, leads it back from this universal 
 speech till it stands awe-struck in the presence of 
 the Central Intellect of the Spirit which " formeth 
 the spirit of man within him," of the Supreme 
 Mind, to which all mind is common ground — of the 
 Father of Thought ! 
 
 It would be impossible to conceive any form of 
 credential so w r ell framed to certify, that a doctrine 
 was the immediate issue of the mind of God. The 
 bare thought of such a miracle as that of tongues, 
 had it only been a thought, would have made in 
 itself an era in the history of man's intellect ; and 
 it may be fairly questioned whether such a thought 
 could have originated in any thing else than in the 
 fact. The leading feature of the new religion w T as 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. *3 
 
 to be a Divine teaching upon things invisible and 
 spiritual — on points of which the unaided powers 
 of man could give no conclusive solution. For such 
 a teaching no attestation could be so apposite as one 
 that accredited it as a message from the Spirit which 
 ' searcheth all things." The universal call to man 
 was worthily issued into the world by a sign which 
 showed that it came directly from the only wise 
 God, who gives understanding, and holds the keys 
 of thought. The command of all languages, by one 
 consentaneous impulse, proclaimed the new message 
 to be the "Word of God. 
 
 The great question for humanity is, Hath God 
 spoken ? Are we poor wanderers each left here to 
 his own light, and Heaven looking down in eternal 
 silence on all our straying and perplexity ? Hath 
 the Parent Spirit, whence these spirits of ours come, 
 surrounded them with His infinite presence at every 
 step of their stumbling and perilous journey, and 
 never once, from the day of Adam to our day, sig- 
 nified that He saw, and heard, and felt ? Has He 
 dealt with the soul of man as with "the spirit of a 
 beast" that could never bless Him, and never break 
 His law ? Are all words the words of erring man, 
 and all lights those doubtful and deceptive lights, 
 following which so many have miserably perished ? 
 Is all doctrine the guesses of thinkers, or the 
 
V4 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 juggling of priests? Has God never, ne^er 
 spoken ? 
 
 u GOD SPAKE ALL THESE WORDS, AS'D SAID !" 
 
 On the Pentecost of Israel, from out of the fire on 
 Sinai, came " a mighty voice," which, sweeping 
 down from the distant peak as if from a throne at 
 hand, filled the ears of three millions of people, or 
 more, as if they had been a little group. Ten 
 times the Voice sounded mysteriously over all that 
 awed and quivering host, till human nature, smitten 
 to the core, cried out, " We die, we die." The 
 Voice had uttered only gentle and wholesome laws, 
 laws binding man to God, and man to man, laying 
 sure paths to peace and blessedness ; but human 
 nature was already guilty under these laws, and the 
 Voice awoke only the response, "Let not God 
 speak with us, lest w r e die."* 
 
 Thus, in the old time, a whole nation could be 
 appealed to, that all words were not uncertain, nor 
 all questions open : " Ye came near and stood 
 under the mountain : and the mountain burned 
 with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, 
 clouds, and thick darkness. And the Lord spake 
 unto you out of the midst of the fire : ye heard 
 i he voice of the words, but saw no similitude ; 
 only ye heard a voice. And He declared unto you 
 His covenant which He commanded you to perform, 
 * Exod. xx. 19. 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIKE. 75 
 
 even ten commandments ; and He wrote th em 
 upon two tables of stone." 
 
 As in the Pentecost of Israel, so in the Pentecost 
 of Christianity, the Lord once more speaks " out of 
 the midst of the fire." Now, however, the accom- 
 panying tokens are not physical, but mental ; em- 
 ploying many human minds and human tongues as 
 His instruments, yet manifesting the unity of that 
 impulse whereby they are all moved, He makes not 
 merely the people of one nation, but the represent- 
 atives of all nations, feel that God hath spoken. 
 Yes, tell it wherever there are ears to hear, tell it 
 to the ends of the earth, God hath spoken ; man 
 has not been forgotten ; guesses are not all our 
 light ; there is a Gospel, & " speech of God ;" ques- 
 tions affecting salvation are settled ; and our way 
 to holy living and happy dying traced by the Hand 
 which rules both worlds. 
 
 With regard to the gift of tongues, some curious 
 questions have been raised, especially by the 
 learned. One is as to whether the miracle was 
 really in the speaker, and not in the hearei ; so 
 that although all that was spoken was in ona lan- 
 guage, the ordinary language of the disciples, yet 
 the hearers of different nations each heard in his 
 own tongue. For this opinion, as for all opinions, 
 it is possible to cite some considerable names. But 
 
76 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 had it been as here supposed, the symbol of the 
 miracle would not have been cloven tongues, but 
 manifold ears. The double declaration of the nar- 
 rative perfectly corresponds with the symbol. As 
 regards the speakers, it says that they " spake with 
 other tongues ;" as regards the hearers, that they 
 " heard every man in his own tongue." 
 
 When St. Paul finds fault with the use of the 
 gift of tongues in Corinth, he does not blame the 
 hearers for lacking an ear that would interpret their 
 own tongue into foreign ones but blames the speak- 
 ers for speaking " with the tongue words not easy 
 to be understood" by the unlearned ; and the only 
 reason he ever assigns why the auditors could not 
 understand is, that they were unlearned ; clearly 
 showing that a foreign language was employed, 
 which educattion might have enabled them to 
 understand, but for the understanding of which 
 miraculous power does not seem ever to have been 
 given. If the supposition of the miracle in hearing, 
 instead of in speech, has been resorted to with a 
 view to simplify the miracle, it defeats its own ob- 
 ject; for, to sustain that supposition, the miraculous 
 influence must have been exerted on a number of 
 persons, as much greater than in the other case, as 
 the hearers were more numerous than the speakers. 
 At the same time, the nature of the miraculous opera- 
 tion would be in every respect equally extraordinary 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FLEE. 77 
 
 Another question is as to whether the speaker? 
 understood what they said in the foreign languages 
 The doubt as to this is not raised upon the narrative 
 of the Pentecost, but on certain expressions used 
 by St. Paul in writing to the Corinthians. There 
 he says, " Let him that speaketh in an unknown 
 tongue pray that he may interpret ;" and again, 
 " If one speak in an unknown tongue, let one inter 
 pret." Hence it would appear that some could 
 speak with tongues, who could not render into their 
 own language that which they had spoken. This, 
 however, is not clear ; for he also says, " Greater is 
 he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with 
 tongues, except he interpret, that the Church may 
 receive edification." Here he supposes, that the 
 person who possesses the gift of tongues, does also 
 possess the power of interpreting into the common 
 language, that which he has uttered in a miraculous 
 way. 
 
 But, even granting that some were unable to 
 interpret, so as to edify the Church, that which 
 they had themselves spoken, it would appear that 
 this did not at all arise from their not understand- 
 ing what they had said, but from their being desti- 
 tute of the gift of prophecy, whereby only they 
 could edify believers. As to any doubt whether 
 the person speaking really understood his own ut- 
 terances, it is completely rem: ved by the text, 1 
 
78 THE T03TGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 Cor. xiv. 14-19: "For if I pray in an unknown 
 tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is 
 unfruitful. What is it then ? I will pray with the 
 spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also 
 I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the 
 understanding also. Else when thou shall bless 
 with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the 
 room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of 
 thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou say- 
 est ? For thou verily givest thanks well, but the 
 other is not edified. I thank my God, I speak 
 with tongues more than ye all : yet in the Church 
 I had rather speak five words with my understand- 
 ing, that by my voice I might teach others also, 
 than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." 
 Here, publicly praising " with the understanding" 
 is taken to be, so praising that a common man may 
 understand ; and publicly preaching " with the 
 understanding" is taken to be, so to speak as to 
 u teach others also." To praise and to preach in 
 public without these, is to act without understand 
 ino*. The words, "He understandeth not what 
 thou sayest," though "thou verily givest thanks 
 well," settle the whole matter. They take it for 
 granted — as, indeed, the Apostle does all through 
 —that the speaker clearly understands himself; 
 but the fault is, that he uses speech which was 
 never given for the sake of intercourse with God, 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIEE. 79 
 
 hut for that of intercourse with man, in a way that 
 defeats its own object. Speech is man's revelation 
 of his own spirit to his fellow man ; and when noth 
 ing is revealed, it becomes a mockery. Feelings 
 and thoughts are the language which God listens 
 to ; man hearkens in the air, God in the soul within. 
 To speak to Him we need no sounds ; sounds are 
 for human ears, and useful only when the ear can 
 recognize the meaning. The fact that some who 
 could not prophesy could yet speak with tongues, 
 is apparent in several parts of Scripture, and is a 
 singular proof at once of the generality and the 
 diversity of gifts. The lower gift, that of tongues, 
 was more generally diffused than the higher, that 
 of prophecy. 
 
 The miracle indicated not only the origin of the 
 new doctrine, but also its spheke. It was a mes- 
 sage from the Father of men to all men. National 
 diversities, instead of being a barrier before which 
 it stood still, were opportunities to display its uni- 
 versal adaptation. Each various tongue was made 
 an additional witness that it had come for " every 
 people under heaven." Our Lord's last words, "tfee 
 uttermost parts of the earth," had here a strange and 
 multiplying echo. A force was set in motion, which 
 claimed all humanity as its field ; a voice was lifted 
 up, which called upon every nation to join its audience. 
 
80 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 Again, this manifestation met and answered alJ 
 doubts which might have arisen as to the power of 
 our Lord to gift His servants with language and 
 utterance needful for their coming contest with the 
 whole world. He had told them that, when brought 
 before rulers and kings for His name's sake, it would 
 be given to them what they should say : " For it is 
 not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father 
 which speaketh in you."* He had evidently referred 
 to such Divine aid in speech, when He told them 
 that they should receive power after that the Holy 
 Ghost was come upon them, and that they should 
 be Sis witnesses, even " to the uttermost parts of 
 the earth." Moses had feared to plead before 
 Pharaoh, from a dread that utterance equal to the 
 gravity of the mission could not be given to him. 
 Jeremiah had feared on a similar ground. 
 
 Nothing is more natural than that one who feels 
 Hmself charged with a sublime truth, on the proper 
 delivery of which infinite interests depend, should 
 distrust his ability to frame suitable language. It is 
 very probable that such thoughts had troubled the 
 disciples in the contemplation of the great work 
 which lay before them. If so, what an answer did 
 they receive in the miracle of tongues ! He who 
 enabled their lips to pour forth the testimony in 
 words they had never spoken, and never heard, 
 
 * Matt, x 20, 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 81 
 
 sould surely give them every measure of propriety, 
 of clearness, of copiousness, of power, whereof 
 human speech was capable. All questions as to how 
 copious diction could be imparted to the unready, 
 and force to the feeble, how the slow could be made 
 impressive, and the tame eloquent, were here an- 
 swered. The old promise, "I will be with thy 
 mouth," received an unlooked-for commentary. The 
 effects which the Spirit of the Lord could produce 
 upon the human tongue, were shown to be illimita- 
 ble by any natural impediment. The ground of 
 confidence as to their success in preaching was con- 
 spicuously changed from talent, learning, office, or 
 credentials, to the working of the Holy Ghost. 
 Their power ceased to be a question of natural 
 ability, and became one of divine gift. The meas- 
 ure of the former might be greater or less, without 
 materially affecting the fruit of their work; but 
 this would exactly correspond with the degree of 
 the latter. 
 
 Andrew had heard the Baptist preach, had sien 
 how his words plowed up the rude feelings of the 
 soldier, and at the same time commanded the subtle 
 conscience of the scribe. He had heard the Lord 
 Himself, when every word struck the ear as a won- 
 der. Probably he had always thought it impossible 
 that such sword-edged sentences should ever come 
 r rom baa lips, or from those of "his own brother 
 
82 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 Simon." He might conceive that he should be able 
 to repeat the substance of the lessons which the 
 Lord had taught them, and that, when he stood be- 
 fore counselors and magistrates, he should be ena- 
 bled to assign a reason for his hope. Perhaps he 
 would think it possible that, when filled with that 
 new Comforter, who had been so often promised to 
 them, he could address a multitude with feeling. 
 But, as to words like fire, melting and burning the 
 spirits of men — words like hammers, breaking in 
 pieces the hearts of stone — words that should rush 
 on the congregation with a force too overwhelming 
 to be called eloquence — should win a conquest too 
 rapid and too complete to be called persuasion — 
 should make the speaker not only a prodigy, but a 
 power— his hearers not only an orator's audience, 
 but a Master's disciples — as to such words as these, 
 how was it possible that they should ever proceed 
 from him, or Simon ? So might he naturally reason ; 
 but when he finds himself fluently telling a man 
 from the shores of Cyrene the whole story of the 
 birth, and death, and resurrection, and ascension, in 
 a tongue which he had never heard before ; when 
 the African assures him that it was the tongue of 
 his native town, then, had you asked him, " Is it 
 now impossible that you or Simon should speak with 
 a voice mightier than the voice of a prophet, or that 
 the least of your company should be greater than 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 83 
 
 the thunder-tongued Baptist?" he Lad answered, 
 " With God nothing is impossible." 
 
 " And it sat upon each of them. And they were 
 all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak 
 with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utter- 
 ance." The tongue of fire rested upon each disci 
 pie, and all spoke with a superhuman utterance, 
 Not the Twelve only, the Lord's chosen Apostles ; 
 not the Seventy only, His commissioned Evange- 
 lists ; but also the ordinary believers, and even the 
 women. The baptism of the Spirit fell upon all, 
 and spiritual gifts were imparted to all — not equally; 
 for the expression, " As the Spirit gave them utter- 
 ance," seems to indicate a diversity of gifts, which 
 accords with other passages in the New Testament. 
 It is not probable that each one could speak every 
 language; for St. Paul says of himself, that he 
 " spake with tongues more than they all," clearly 
 implying a limit in that gift, and a different limit in 
 different persons. And it is certain that all had not 
 the gift of " prophesying" suited to a Jdress such 
 congregations as that soon about to meet, or even 
 publicly to teach in ordinary assemblies. As in His 
 later operations, so now, the blessed Spirit w r ould 
 doubtless show " diversities of operations," giving to 
 " one the word of wisdom, to another the word of 
 knowledge, to another prophecy," etc. But th« 
 
84 THE TONGUE OF FlliE. 
 
 cloven tongues sat upon each of them, and, by the 
 joint effect of spiritual life imparted and of spirit- 
 ual gifts bestowed, all were instantly set upon spir. 
 itual services ; all led to become active witnesses for 
 Christ and for His cross. 
 
 The fire did not fall on the Twelve to be by them 
 communicated to the Seventy, and by them again 
 to the ordinary flock. It came as directly on the 
 head of the disciple whose name we never heard, * 
 as on that of the beloved and honored John. It 
 did not confound John the Apostle in the promis- 
 cuous mass, or place his office at the disposal of the 
 multitude ; but confirmed it, and fitted him by new 
 gifts to adorn and make full proof of his ministry. 
 But it did not, on the other hand, leave the ordinary 
 believers as mere spectators to see the spiritual work 
 of the Lord committed wholly to the selected minis- 
 try ; their part being passively to receive spiritual 
 influences and illumination from those who had direct 
 access to Him with whom is the supply of the Spirit. 
 
 This original blessing meets beforehand the error, 
 which was likely to spring up, from looking on the 
 true religion in the light in which all false ones are 
 ever regarded — as a mystery to be confined to an 
 initiated few, on whose offices the multitude must 
 depend for acceptance with the invisible Power. 
 Here was a religion that did single out and lift up 
 some above their fellows, investing them with a high 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIKE. 85 
 
 and solemn ministry; but from their ministry it 
 swept away all seeming priesthood. 
 
 The usual idea of priesthood is that of a powei 
 standing between man and God, through which 
 alone we may draw near, and find mercy at His 
 hands. But so far from any such characteristic be- 
 longing to the ministry of the Gospel, it is distin 
 guished as being an office, the special labor of which 
 is to point each man direct to God, and to assure 
 him that between him and the throne of grace there 
 is no power, visible or invisible, and no mediator 
 but that One to whom alike Apostle, Evangelist, 
 and the humblest penitent must look. True, all 
 were not Apostles, all were not Evangelists, all 
 were not Prophets ; but, in the only sense in which 
 any were Priests, all were Priests. The one altai 
 of the Cross, the one sacrifice of the Lamb, the one 
 High Priest within the vail, were alone to be named 
 in any light of peace-making with God. To all, the 
 privilege of offering up the sacrifices of praise and 
 of prayer, of living bodies and of worldly goods, 
 was equally open. ISTo man was made a depository 
 or store-house wherein spiritual favors should be 
 laid up for the use of those who might purchase or 
 implore them at his hands. He was most honored 
 who could most successfully turn the trust of men 
 away from all other advocates, and fix it upon the 
 Son of God alone. 
 
86 THE TONGUE OF EIRE. 
 
 " They all began to speak.-' This shows that the 
 testimony of Christ was not borne by the Ministry 
 alone ; that this chief work of the Church was not* . 
 confined to official hands. The multitude of be 
 lievers w T ere not mere adhgrj©nts, but living, speak 
 ing, burning agents in the great movements for the 
 universal diffusion of God's message. Many feel as 
 if religion, on the part of the Ministry, was to be a 
 matter of bold and public testimony ; but on that 
 of ordinary Christians, a heart-secret between them- 
 selves and God. Let such sit down in sight of that 
 first Christian scene ; let them behold every counte- 
 nance lighted up with the common joy, and hear 
 every tongue speak under the common impulse, 
 and then ask Bartimeus, or Mary, if the private 
 disciple has not just as much cause to be a witness 
 that Jesus lives, and that Jesus saves, as either 
 James or John ? Let them ask if it is like their 
 religion that one lonely Minister shall, on the Lord'a 
 day, Lear witness before a thousand Christians, who 
 decorously hear his testimony as worthy of accept- 
 ance by all, and then go away, and never repeat tha 
 Btrain in any human ear ? 
 
 Looking on the universal movement of that Pente- 
 costal day, who could think that the new religion 
 was ever to come down to this ? that speaking of 
 its joys, its hopes, its pardon, its mercy for the wide 
 world, was to be considered a professional work 3 for ' 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 8 
 
 h 
 
 set solemnities alone, and not to be a daily joy 
 and heart's-ease, to ever-growing multitudes of 
 happy, simple men ? Cheerless is the work of that 
 Christian Minister, who, at set times, raises his 
 testimony in the ears of a people, all of whom 
 make* a practice of hiding it in their hearts ! 
 Blessed in his office is he who knows that, while 
 he in his own sphere proclaims the glad tidings, 
 hundreds around him are ready, each one in his 
 sphere, to make them their boast and their song ! 
 Spiritual office and spiritual gifts vary greatly in de- 
 gree, honor, and authority, and he who has the less 
 ought to reverence him who has the greater, re- 
 membering who it is that dispenses them ; but 
 the greater should never attempt to extinguish 
 the less, and to reduce the exercise of spiritual 
 gifts within the limits of the public and ordained 
 Ministry. To d) so is to depart from primitive 
 Christianity. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 SECTION III. MINISTERIAL EFFECTS. 
 
 In immediate connection with the gift of tongues, 
 was a gift less startling as a phenomenon, but more 
 influential as an instrument for the recovery of 
 mankind. Peter was soon called upon publicly to 
 deliver the Lord's great message. Then, undoubt- 
 edly, he spoke not in any foreign tongue, but 
 in his native dialect. He had often spoken before, 
 yet nothing remarkable is recorded of his preach- 
 ing, or its effects. He is now the same man, 
 with the same natural intellect, and the same 
 natural powers of speech ; and yet a new utterance 
 Is given to him, the effects of which are instantly 
 apparent. 
 
 * Never was such an audience assembled as that 
 before which this poor fisherman appeared : Jews., 
 with all the prejudices of their race — inhabitants of 
 Jerusalem, with the recollection of the part they 
 had recently taken in the crucifixion of Jesus of 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIEE. 89 
 
 Nazareth, met in the city of their solemnities, jeal- 
 ous for the honor of their temple and law : men of 
 different nations, rapidly and earnestly speaking in 
 their different tongues ; one in Hebrew, mocking 
 and saying, " These men are full of new wine ;" 
 another inquiring in Latin ; another disputing in 
 Greek ; another wondering in Arabic ; and an end- 
 less Babel beside expressing every variety of sur- 
 prise, doubt, and curiosity. Amid such a scene the 
 fisherman stands up; his voice strikes across the 
 hum which prevails all down the street. He has 
 no tongue of silver ; for they say, " He is an un- 
 learned and ignorant man." The rudeness of his 
 Galilean speech still remains with him ; yet, though 
 " unlearned and ignorant" in their sense — as to 
 polite learning — in a higher sense he was a scribe 
 well instructed. As respected the word of God, 
 he had been for three years under the constant 
 tuition of the Prophet of Nazareth, hearing from 
 His lips instruction in the law, in the Prophets, 
 and in all the " deep things of God." On what- 
 ever other points, therefore, the learned of Jerusa. 
 iem might have found Peter at fault, in the sacred 
 writings he was more thoroughly furnished than 
 tli3y ; for though Christ took His Apostles from 
 among the poor, He left us no example for those 
 who have not well learned the Bible, to attempt to 
 teach it. 
 
90 TITE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 Yet Peter had no tongue of silver, no tongue of 
 honey, no soothing, flattering speech, to allay the 
 prejudices and to captivate the passions of the mul- 
 titude. Nor had he a tongue of thunder ; no out- 
 bursts of native eloquence distinguished his dis 
 course. Indeed, some, if they had heard that dis 
 course from ordinary lips, would not have hesitated 
 to pronounce it dry — some of a class, too numerous, 
 who do not like preachers who put them to the 
 trouble of thinking, but enjoy only those who regale 
 their fancy, or move their feelings, without requir- 
 ing any labor of thought. Peter's sermon is no 
 more than quoting passages from the word of God, 
 and reasoning upon them ; yet, as in this strain he 
 proceeds, the tongue of fire by degrees burns its 
 way to the feelings of the multitude. The murmur 
 gradually subsides ; the mob becomes a congrega- 
 tion ; the voice of the fisherman sweeps from ^nd 
 to end of that multitude, unbroken by a single 
 sound ; and, as the words rush on, they act lik^ a 
 stream of fire. Now, one coating of prejudice 
 which covered the feelings is burned, and starts 
 aside : now, another and another : now, the fire 
 touches the inmost covering of prejudice, which 
 lay close upon the heart, and it too starts aside 
 Now, it touches the quick, and burns the very s*oul 
 of the man ! Presently, you might think that in 
 that throng there was but one mind, that of the 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 91 
 
 Preacher, which had multiplied itself, had possessed 
 
 itself of thousands of hearts, and thousands of 
 
 frames, and was pouring its own thoughts through 
 
 them all. At length, shame, and tears, and sobs 
 
 overspread that whole assembly. Here, a head 
 
 bows ; there, starts a groan ; yonder, rises a deep 
 
 sigh ; here, tears are falling ; and some stern old 
 
 Jew, who will neither bow nor weep, trembles with 
 
 the effort to keep himself still. At length, from 
 
 the depth of the crowd, the voice of the preacher 
 
 is crossed by a cry, as if one was " mourning for his 
 
 only son ;" and it is answered by a cry, as if one 
 
 was in " bitterness for his first-born." At this cry 
 
 the whole multitude is carried away, and forgetful 
 
 of every thing but the overwhelming feeling of the 
 
 moment, they exclaim, " Men and brethren, what 
 
 must we do ?" 
 
 No part of the proceedings of the day strikes us 
 
 with a deeper or more lasting impression than the 
 
 amazing change in Peter, which is here manifest. 
 
 We are continually prone to consider the power of 
 
 a Minister as a natural power, simply intellectual. 
 
 Here was a man who, in all probability, had passed 
 
 the period of life when eloquence is most forcible, 
 
 without having distinguished himself by any such 
 
 power. He comes forward with a most unwelcome 
 
 message, to address an unfavorable audience, him 
 
 Bell* unskilled in the arts of oratory ; and yet, such 
 8 
 
92 THE TONGUE OP FIliE. 
 
 is the power of utterance given to hir,i, that he 
 produces an effect, the like of which had never 
 been known before in the history of mankind. 
 Never has it been recorded in any other instance 
 that three thousand men Avere in an hour persuaded 
 by one of their own nation, of obscure origin and 
 uninfluential position, to forego the prejudices of 
 their youth, the favor of their people, and the 
 religion of their fathers. "I will be with thy 
 mouth," is more strikingly fulfilled here, in those 
 extraordinary effects of the speaking of an ordinary 
 man, than in any other form in which the power of 
 God could be displayed, through the instrument- 
 ality of a human tongue. There is no part of the 
 whole series of events which has a more direct 
 bearing upon the permanent work of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 This is the first example of prophesying in the 
 New Testament sense ; not the limited sense of 
 foretelling, but the more comprehensive sense of 
 delivering a message from God, under the impulse 
 of the Spirit of God, and by His aid. In this the 
 speaker has the double advantage of ascertained 
 truth to declare — truth which his own understand 
 ing has received, w T hich he can enforce by citing 
 the word of God — and of aid direct from the Spirit 
 in uttering it. This gift is conspicuously placed by 
 St. Paul above that of tongues : " Greater is he 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 93 
 
 that prophesieth than he that speaketh with 
 tongues." The gift of tongues was "for a sign 
 to them that believe not ;" and even to them only 
 under certain circumstances, when they were ad- 
 dressed in a tongue which they understood, and 
 that by one of whom they had proof, or what 
 amounted to strong probability, that he had not 
 learned it in a natural mode. For the union of 
 these two requisites nothing was so favorable as the 
 meeting of a number of foreigners in one city, and 
 hearing natives of the country speak all their dif- 
 ferent languages. A foreigner appearing in a city, 
 and professing to speak its language by miracle, 
 would lie under the suspicion of having learned it 
 before he came ; and persons speaking foreign 
 tongues in the presence of their own unlearned 
 countrymen, would seem to utter gibberish. This 
 Paul puts strongly to the Corinthians : " If the 
 whole Church be come together into one place, and 
 all speak with tongues, and there come in those 
 that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say 
 that ye are mad ?" 
 
 If a number of persons in Corinth had a gift in 
 Hebrew, or in Latin, and their fellow-townsmen, 
 who knew only Greek, came and heard a rush of 
 unmeaning sounds, and were told that it was a 
 miracle, it might be, but it was no miracle to them. 
 It they saw an African peasant speaking fluently in 
 
94 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 Greek, then, indeed, they would be startled ; and 
 if once assured by any means that he had not 
 learned it, they would recognize a miracle. 
 
 But the effect of persons resident in a place using 
 the gift of tongues could only be to satisfy the 
 learned of a miracle. For the unlearned it would 
 be simply bewildering. Suppose that, in the city 
 of Oxford, the stonemasons, joiners, and shoe- 
 makers heard a few of their own number utter- 
 ing something in Latin, they would only be im- 
 pressed with a belief that they had gone mad, 01 
 were amusing themselves with gibberish. But did 
 the learned men of the University find these 
 groups discoursing on the doctrines of the Gospel 
 in the language of ancient Rome, which it had been 
 the study and the labor of their lives to acquire 
 perfectly, they would be overwhelmed with a sense 
 of the prodigy. All through the fourteenth chap- 
 ter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul 
 admits that upon the learned the gift of tonguea 
 would make an impression ; but that the unlearned, 
 if believers, would be unedified, and, if unbelievers, 
 would be led to mock. 
 
 To the higher gift of prophecy he assigns two 
 offices which that of tongues could never fulfill. 
 One is the edifying of believers ; and on this score 
 he much urges the Corinthians to seek for that 
 gift. The other is its effect upon the unlearned 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 95 
 
 unbeliever. " If all prophesy, and there come in 
 one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is con- 
 vinced of all, he is judged of all : and thus are the 
 secrets of his heart made manifest ; and so falling 
 down on hi& face he will worship God, and report 
 that God is in you of a truth." Here is a man who 
 knows no language but one, and who has no faith 
 in the Divine mission of the Christians ; yet he en- 
 ters an assembly where men are speaking in his 
 own tongue : that tongue, as to its words, is familiar 
 to him from his childhood ; but its words now con- 
 vey new ideas, and those ideas are accompanied by 
 a strange power which pierces, lays open, and 
 searches his heart. He seems as if God had found 
 him out, and told another man all about him, his 
 hidden sins, his bosom pollutions, and covered 
 deeds which had been even forgotten, but which 
 now are brought strangely to his view again. An 
 unaccountable impression of God's presence, of a 
 message, a warning, a call from God, sinks down 
 into his soul. He feels, as he never felt before, 
 " God is in this place ;" and, falling down upon his 
 face, forgetful of appearances, and heedless of con- 
 sequences, periling his temporal peace, and expos- 
 ing himself to every manner of remark, he wor- 
 ships, in bitterness of penitence, an offended, but a 
 forgiving God, and goes forth to tell those with 
 whom he comes in contact, that the people whose 
 
96 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 words had searched his heart and made manifest ita 
 secrets must have God in the midst of them. This 
 was the gift of prophecy, as the term is generally 
 employed in the New Testament. It differs from 
 prophecy in the ordinary sense in this, that the gift 
 conveys no " revelation," either as to truth hitherto 
 un revealed, or as to future events. It differs from 
 the gift of tongues in this, that the intellect and or- 
 gans act according to natural laws, though under a 
 supernatural influence. It is that gift through 
 which the whole of man's nature works in co-oper^ 
 ation with the Holy Spirit, the intellect illuminated 
 with Divine light, the moral powers quickened by 
 Divine feeling, and the physical organs speaking 
 w r ith Divine power. This is placed by the Apostle 
 as the highest gift — the one wherein man stands 
 closest in communion with God as His intelligent 
 instrument for His most hallowed work — the work 
 of calling prodigal sons back to His arms, and of 
 training feeble children into strength and stedfast- 
 ness. This gift was that which had the most direct 
 utility, w r as capable of the most universal applica- 
 tion, and was destined to be permanent ; equally 
 needful for the converting of sinners and the edify- 
 ing of the Church ; and therefore to be ever kept 
 in view by the Church as a special subject of pray- 
 er : for, let this cease, and Christianity dwindles 
 into a natural agency for social improvement, 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 97 
 
 blessed with superhuman doctrines, but destitute 
 of a superhuman power. 
 
 If the preaching of the Gospel is to exercise a 
 great power over mankind, it must be either by en- 
 listing extraordinary men, or by the endowing of 
 ordinary men with extraordinary power. It does 
 often happen that men whose eloquence would affect 
 and sway, whatever might have been their theme, 
 give all their talents to the Gospel ; yet in such cases 
 it ever proves that the religious impression produced 
 upon mankind is never regulated by the brilliancy 
 or natural force of the eloquence, but always by the 
 extent to which the preacher is imbued with that 
 indescribable something commonly called the " unc- 
 tion," or the operation and power of the Spirit. 
 On the other hand, it often happens that a man in 
 whose natural gifts nothing extraordinary can be 
 discovered, produces moral effects which, for depth 
 at the moment, and for permanency, are totally dis- 
 proportioned to his natural powers. In hearing 
 such a man, and afterward discovering the effects 
 of his preaching, people often ask, " What is there 
 
 in Mr. to account for such effects ? We hear 
 
 many who are abler, profounder, better theologians, 
 more eloquent, more persuasive; yet this man's 
 preaching brings people to repentance and to God." 
 They can not discover the source of his power; and it 
 is precisely this fact which intimates that it is spiritual. 
 
98 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 On the day of Pentecost Christianity faced the 
 world, a new religion, and a poor one, without a 
 history, without a priesthood, without a college, 
 without a people, and without a patron. She had 
 only her two sacraments and her tongue of fire. 
 The latter was her sole instrument of aggression. 
 All that was ancient and venerable rose up before 
 her in solid opposition. No passions of the mob, no 
 theories of the learned, no interests of the politic* 
 favored her ; nor did she flatter or conciliate any 
 one of them. With her tongue of fire she assailed 
 every existing system, and every evil habit ; and 
 by that tongue of fire she burned her way through 
 innumerable forms of opposition. In asking what 
 was her power, Ave can find no other answer than 
 this one, " The tongue of fire." 
 
 With regard to one of her Deacons, Stephen, it 
 is said that his enemies could not resist the wisdom 
 and the power with which he spoke. It was not 
 every disciple who had the gift of prophecy, like 
 him, to pour out in clear and copious utterance the 
 testimony which could command the attention of 
 national councils, and confound the sophisms of a 
 college of disputers ; but, each in his own sphere 
 and style, the Christians of that happy day were 
 distinguished among their fellow-men by a strange 
 power of declaring the deep things of God. Many 
 of them would go, like Andrew, who went first to 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 99 
 
 " his own brother Simon," and tell their kinsmen of 
 Jesus, and forgiveness, and the resurrection of the 
 dead, and the world to come, in strains which, by 
 some unaccountable power, fixed the attention and 
 entered the heart. Others of them would go, as 
 did the brothers of Nathanael, telling the neghbors 
 and friends whom they met the great things of re- 
 demption, so that prejudices, even the strongest, 
 were often melted in the fire of their speech. True, 
 they did not always succeed, but how marvelous 
 their success was notwithstanding ! Had Christians 
 of the present day, in addressing those whose con- 
 science, creed, early impressions, all favor every 
 word they say, but that strange influence which 
 bore down the most rooted aversion, how rapid and 
 how glorious would be the spread of living religion 
 in the land ! 
 
 This power of utterance is ordinarily referred to 
 throughout the New Testament as at once the gift 
 of God and the great weapon of the Church. We 
 have already noticed how, when opposition first 
 threatened them, they went in earnest prayer to 
 God, and asked for power, that they might speak 
 His word with boldness. So when any one of them, 
 in critical circumstances, is enabled specially to de- 
 clare and magnify the Truth, we are told that he 
 does so, " being filled with the Holy Ghost ;" and 
 Paul, who, though he was not present on the day 
 
LOO THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 of Pentecost, received the tongue of fire in a very 
 remarkable degree, did not hold that gift as being 
 constitutional, like natural talents and aptitude of 
 speech. Among the subjects with regard to which 
 he entreats the prayers of his Christian brethren, he 
 specially mentions " utterance." " Praying always 
 with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and 
 watching thereunto with all perseverance and sup- 
 plication for all saints ; and for me, that utterance 
 may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth 
 boldly to make known the riches of the Gospel." 
 Again and again have we brought before us the 
 fact, that this utterance is the direct gift of God ; 
 nor are we without traces of the same fact in earlier 
 times than those of Christianity. In the cases of 
 Mary and Elizabeth, we hear them, under the influ- 
 ence of the Divine Spirit, uttering great and glori- 
 ous things. In the cases of Jeremiah and Isaiah, 
 wc find the Lord making Himself their strength in 
 regard to the message wherewith He charged 
 them ; and in the case of Moses, the gift of speech 
 was especially promised to him, but his faith failed, 
 and consequently another had to exercise that 
 power which, had he believed, he himself would 
 have fully possessed. 
 
 In all the history of the primitive Christians, we 
 find traces of the effect produced upon men by the 
 testimony they bore, even when bearing it undei 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 101 
 
 the constraint of pnblic persecution, and in the face 
 of impending danger. Without a press, without s 
 literature, without any of our modern means of in- 
 fluencing masses of men ; cast solely on the one in 
 strument of the tongue, and in that destitute of the 
 wisdom of the Greek, arid of the skill of the scribe 
 seldom favored with the opportunity of repeatedly 
 addressing numerous assemblies of the same indi- 
 viduals ; destitute of prestige, contemptible in num- 
 bers, rustic in manners, and thwarted by circum 
 stances ; strong only in the one peculiar attribute — 
 the unseen fire which filled them ; on they went, 
 and on, turning the hearts of their enemies, and 
 advancing the name of the Lord. 
 
 Religion has never, in any period, sustained itself 
 except by the instrumentality of the tongue of fire. 
 Only where some men, more or less imbued with 
 this primitive power, have spoken the words of the 
 Lord, not with " the words which man's wisdom 
 teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth," have 
 sinners been converted, and saints prompted to a 
 saintlier life. In many periods of the history of the 
 Church, as this gift has waned, every natural ad 
 vantage has come to replace it: — more learning, 
 more system, more calmness, more profoundness of 
 reflection, every thing, in fact, which, according to 
 the ordinary rules of human thought, would insure 
 to the Christian Church a greater command over 
 
102 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 the intellect of mankind, and would give her argu- 
 ments in favor of a holy life a more potent efficacy, 
 Yet it has ever proved that the gain of all this, 
 when accompanied with an abatement of the "fire," 
 has left the Church less efficient ; and her elaborate 
 and weighty lessons have transformed few into 
 saints, though her simple tongue of fire had contin- 
 ually reared up its monuments of wonder. This 
 has been not less the case in modern times than in 
 ancient. 
 
 If the amazing revival which characterized the 
 last century, be viewed merely as a natural pro- 
 gress of mental influence, no analysis can find ele- 
 ments of power greater than have often existed in a 
 corrupting and falling Church, or than are found at 
 many periods when no blessed effects are produced. 
 Men equally learned, eloquent, orthodox, instruct- 
 ive, may be found in many ages of Christianity. It 
 is utterly impossible to assign a natural reason whj 
 Whitfield should have been the means of convert- 
 ing so many more sinners than other men. With- 
 out one trace of logic, philosophy, or any thing 
 worthy to be called systematic theology, his ser- 
 mons, viewed intellectually, take an humble place 
 among humble efforts. Turning again to his friend, 
 Wesley, we find calmness, clearness, logic, theology, 
 discussion, definition, point, appeal, but none of 
 that prodigious and unaccountable power which the 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 103 
 
 human intellect would naturally connect with move* 
 ments so amazing as those which took place under 
 his word. Neither the logic of the one, nor the 
 declamation of the other, furnishes us with the se- 
 cret of his success. There is enough to account for 
 men being affected, excited, or convinced ; but that 
 does not account for their living holy lives ever 
 after. Thousands of pulpit orators have swayed 
 their audience, as a wind sways standing corn ; but, 
 in the result, those who were most affected, differed 
 nothing from their former selves. An effect of elo- 
 quence is sufficient to account for a vast amount of 
 feeling at the moment ; but to trace to this a moral 
 power, by which a man, for his life long, overcomes 
 his besetting sins, and adorns his name with Chris- 
 tian virtues, is to make sport of human nature. 
 
 Why should these men have done what many 
 equally learned and able, as divines and orators, 
 never did ? There must have been an element of 
 power in them which criticism can not discover. 
 What was that power ? It must be judged of by 
 its sphere and its effects. Where did it act ? and 
 what did it produce ? Every power has its own 
 sphere. The strongest arm will never convince the 
 understanding, the most forcible reasoning will 
 never lift a weight, the brightest sunbeam will never 
 pierce a plate of iron, nor the most powerful magnet 
 move a pane of glass. The soul of man has separate 
 
104 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 regions, and that which merely convinces the intel- 
 lect may leave the emotions untouched, that which 
 merely operates on the emotions may leave the un 
 derstanding unsatisfied, and that which affects both 
 may yet leave the morai powers uninspired. The 
 crowning power of the messenger of God is power 
 over the moral man ; power which, whether it ap- 
 proaches the soul through the avenue of the intel- 
 lect or of the affections, does reach into the soul 
 The sphere of true Christian power is the heart— 
 the moral man ; and the result of its action is not 
 to be surely distinguished from that of mere elo 
 quence by instantaneous emotion, but by subse- 
 quent moral fruit. Power which cleanses the 
 heart, and produces holy living, is the power of the 
 Holy Ghost. It may be through the logic of Wes- 
 ley, the declamation of Whitfield, or the simple 
 common-sense of a plain servant-woman or laboring 
 man; but whenever this power is in action, it 
 strikes deeper into human nature than any mere 
 reasoning or pathos. Possibly it does not so soon 
 bring a tear to the eye, or throw the judgment into 
 a posture of acquiescence ; but it raises in the 
 breast thoughts of God, eternity, sin, death, heaven, 
 and hell ; raises them, not as mere ideas, opinions, 
 or articles of faith, but as the images and echoes of 
 real things. 
 We may find in many parts oi the country, where 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 105 
 
 much has been done to dispel darkness and diffuse 
 true religion, that some of the first triumphs of 
 grace were entirely due to the wonderful effects 
 produced by the private and fire-side talking of 
 Borne humble Christians, who had themselves gone 
 o the throne of grace, and waited there until they 
 had received the baptism of fire. 
 
 In proportion as the power of this one instrument 
 is overlooked, and other means are trusted in to 
 supply its place, does the true force of Christian 
 agency decline ; and it may without hesitation be 
 said, that when men holding the Christian ministry, 
 habitually and constantly manifest their distrust in 
 the power of the Holy Ghost to give them utter- 
 ance, they publicly abjure the true theory of Chris- 
 tian preaching. It is, according to the authority of 
 its Author, delivering a message from God — a mes- 
 sage through man, it is true; but delivered not 
 with the excellency of man's speech, not under the 
 guidance of man's natural wisdom ; a message, the 
 effect of which does not rest upon the artistic ar- 
 rangement, choice, and order of words, but upon 
 the extent to which its utterance is pervaded by th/a 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
CHAPTER I?. 
 
 CONTINUED. 
 SECTION" IV. EFFECTS UPON THE WORLD. 
 
 When the promise of the Spirit was given, oui 
 Lord expressly intimated that His influence should 
 not be confined to the Church, but that He should 
 " convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, 
 and of judgment." It was only thus that the Church 
 could be extended beyond the number of the orig- 
 inal disciples. Through the gifts bestowed upon 
 Peter, the Spirit moved to the fulfillment of His 
 great office in the hearts of worldly men. Both the 
 miraculous and the ministerial gifts were made sub- 
 servient to this end. The former was a wonder 
 which raised curiosity and then amazement^ which 
 brought together a multitude, first excited, finally 
 awed. This, however, was all it did. Had the 
 events of the day ended with the pure effect of 
 the miracle, perhaps no Jew would have become 
 a Christian, and certainly no sinner would have 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIKE. 107 
 
 become a saint. The miracle prepared an audi* 
 ence for the preacher ; but it did not convert, and 
 did not even instruct them: no one there knew 
 the doctrine of the incarnation, and its glorious cor- 
 comitants, when Peter stood up to preach. All that 
 the gift of tongues did was to produce an impression 
 that these men were messengers of God. And even 
 this it did not produce on all ; for some mocked ; 
 probably people of the place, on whom the effect of 
 the foreign tongues was lost. 
 
 The entire advantage which Peter, as a preacher 
 of Christianity, derived from the evidences of his 
 religion, when he stood up on the day of Pentecost, 
 amounted to this : a large number of men were 
 congregated in a state of much agitation, fresh from 
 the impression of a prodigy before unimagined, and 
 with a strong suspicion that the preacher and hie 
 coadjutors were probably teachers from God. His 
 advantage, as compared with a modern preacher, 
 lay in the freshness of this feeling — in the opened 
 state of the mind just after an indisputable marvel 
 had forced a passage through all its prejudices. 
 His disadvantages lay in the comparative ignorance 
 of his hearers, in their disbelief of most of the points 
 wherewith he wished to impress them, in the 
 amount of religious and national prejudice which 
 fortified this belief, in the array of temporal inter- 
 ests which stood up against his appeal, in the dis- 
 9 
 
108 THE TONGUE OF FIEE. 
 
 credit attached to his position, the obscurity of his 
 person, and the rustic stamp of his speech. 
 
 Putting his single advantage on the one side, and 
 his many disadvantages on the other, we naturally 
 raise the question, Had he more advantage from tho 
 miracle of tongues than the modern preacher has 
 from the Christian evidences generally ? It would 
 be hard to exaggerate the value of that freshness of 
 impression under which he found his hearers ; yet, 
 taking the whole course of human nature, the mir- 
 acle, whether in the hand of Moses, the Prophets, 
 or the Lord Himself — however mighty as an instru- 
 ment of impression, as a credential of a Divine mis- 
 sion, never proved an instrument of moral regener- 
 ation to the people. 
 
 From the Pentecostal and other miracles, from 
 the whole array of the Christian evidences, tho 
 modern preacher derives the advantage of an audi- 
 ence who believe that every doctrine he propounds 
 is truly the word of God. Within their conscience 
 he has far more on his side than Peter had in the 
 consciences of his auditory. Peter had the advan- 
 tage of a fresh and excited feeling: the modern 
 preacher has that of standing closer home upon the 
 conscience. The latter often thinks how much might 
 be effected had he only some such supernatural 
 sign as arrested the multitude on the day of Pente- 
 cost : what would Peter have thought of his pros- 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIEE. 109 
 
 pects, if, instead of such an audience as he had, one 
 had been offered to him where all believed that his 
 Master was the Son of God, and that there was " no 
 other name given under heaven among men where- 
 by we must be saved ?" 
 
 The effect of the miracle was a general impression 
 in favor of the Divine origin of the message. At 
 this point the ministerial gift came into operation. 
 By an ability clearly to state and argue the truth, 
 Peter was enabled to put the understanding of his 
 hearers into possession of the great revelation, that 
 God had sent His Son to redeem them. By a sacred 
 pathos, he was enabled to engage their sympathies 
 in favor of each truth, as he presented it. Clear and 
 feeling utterance of the Gospel was his ministerial 
 gift : understanding and impression were its effects. 
 
 The united effect of the miraculous and ministerial 
 gift amounted to — favorable attention, understand* 
 ing of the truth, and inclination to embrace it. But 
 had no power beyond the testimony of the miracle, 
 and the appeal of the sermon, touched the souls of 
 the auditors, what single individual would have em- 
 braced truth so dangerous to his respectability and 
 comfort, however convinced that it was of heavenly 
 origin, and fraught with eternal advantages ? The 
 inclination toward such a step raised by Peter's 
 warmth, would have been counteracted by many 
 and potent inclinations of interest and of nature, 
 
110 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 Nothing is more common than for the human mind 
 to turn its back upon a truth, firmly believed to be 
 from God, deeply felt to carry eternal hopes, but 
 demanding the sacrifice of present gratifications, or 
 of the friendship of the world. Mere conviction 
 never carries a point of practical moral conduct. 
 
 Deeper than the judgment, deeper than the feel- 
 ings, lies the seat of human character, in that which 
 is the mystery of all beings and all things, in what 
 we call their " nature," without knowing where it 
 lies, what it is, or how it wields its power. All we 
 know is, that it does exert a power over external 
 circumstances, bending them all in its own direction, 
 or breaking its instruments against what it can not 
 bend. The nature of an acorn turns dews, air, soils, 
 and sunbeams to oak ; and though circumstances 
 may destroy its power, they can not divert it while 
 it survives. It defies man, beast, earth, and sky, to 
 make it produce elm. Cultivation may affect its 
 quality, and training its form ; but whether it shall 
 produce oak, ash, or elm, is a matter into which no 
 force from without can enter, a matter not of cir- 
 cumstances, but purely of nature. To turn nature 
 belongs to the Power which originally fixed nature. 
 
 In man feelings and intellect are related to na- 
 ture, as in a plant tissues and juices : they derive 
 their character from nature, and manifest its bent ; 
 but are not nature, though the means by which it 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. Ill 
 
 acts on the external world, and is reacted upon by 
 it. Nature does not decide the comparative excel 
 lence of character in the different members of the 
 same species: one oak may be much stronger than 
 another, one rose much sweeter; one man much 
 wiser, or more generous. The nature of man is es< 
 sentially moral ; and when intellect shoots up to 
 eminence, it depends on the moral nature whether 
 it is a blessing or a curse to the species, a joy or a 
 trouble to the individual. According to the moral 
 nature, are the intellectual powers directed ; and in 
 man often wastefully, often hurtfully — as to the 
 great majority, in ways far below their capability. 
 Just as in all other objects, so in man, his nature 
 eludes our analysis, lies out of sight, and defies our 
 direct influence. We approach it through the intel- 
 lect, or the feelings ; but always with uncertainty, 
 never knowing what unseen power may counter- 
 work our most careful endeavors. 
 
 It is the nature of fallen man to prefer present 
 pleasure to the prospect of eternal happiness, the 
 favor of the world to the favor of the Almighty ; 
 to love himself, and forget his Creator. In adults 
 this nature is fortified by its own developments ; by 
 habits and connections which all tend in its own 
 direction. When a man's nature in boyhood pro- 
 duced fruits of vice and trouble, when his advanc- 
 ing years have steadily answered the impulse of the 
 
112 THE TONGUE OF PIKE. 
 
 same nature, and his present associations are all 
 based upon an alienation from heavenly ties; to 
 bring him into immediate and permanent conformity 
 to a Divine ideal of life, requires the ultimate Power 
 of the universe, the Power which rules nature, and 
 through nature circumstances. Set before all the 
 wise and good of the world one man of thirty 
 years, or upward, whose life has been wicked or 
 worldly ; and tell them by a word, a warning, or an 
 appeal, infallibly to change him then and there to a 
 pure man, or to a pious man ; and they will each be 
 ready to exclaim, "Am I God that I should do 
 this?" 
 
 To say that man is the creature of circumstances 
 is as much as to say that he is destitute of a nature ; 
 for, where a nature is, there is a power, a power of 
 which circumstances are often the mere effect, but 
 are never the masters. Let all the circumstances 
 under heaven conspire against the force of nature, 
 as embodied in a seed of thorn, and they can never 
 defeat it: all the gardeners, manures, heats, and 
 waterings possible, would fail to make it produce 
 fir. Heap upon it every advantage which art and 
 creation can give, and it will steadily turn all to 
 thorn, hopelessly incapable of rising above its 
 nature. 
 
 Change your treatment, and endeavor to debase 
 tt> and the same superiority of nature to circunv 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 113 
 
 stances continues to manifest itself. You may 
 starve it to death, you may stunt or blight it, but 
 by no adversity will it degenerate to brier ; thorn 
 in spite of allurements upward, thorn in spite of 
 repulses downward : as it can never rise above, so 
 it can never sink below, its nature. Circumstances 
 are the creatures of natures, not natures of circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Human nature is said by many to be good : if so, 
 where have social evils come from ? For human 
 nature is the only moral nature in that corrupting 
 thing called " society." Every evil example set be- 
 fore the child of to-day is the fruit of human nature. 
 It has been planted on every possible field — among 
 the snows that never melt ; hi temperate regions, 
 and under the line ; in crowded cities, in lonely for- 
 ests ; in ancient seats of civilization, in new col- 
 onies ; and in all these fields it has, without once 
 failing, brought forth a crop of sins and troubles. 
 This is absolute and inexpugnable proof that human 
 nature, in the aggregate, is a seed which produces 
 sins and troubles. 
 
 But a proof lies nearer the breast of each man* 
 When you meant to do a wrong, and had made up 
 your mind upon it, did any instinct within you tell 
 you that you were unable, and must seek super- 
 natural help to carry out your intention ? Never. 
 You felt that to go forward was not only easy, but 
 
114 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 almost irresistible; was, in fact, yielding to na« 
 ture. 
 
 When you had made up your mind to overcome 
 wrong inclinations, and to do right, and only right, 
 did not an instinct as unfailing as that whereby an 
 infant searches for the breast of a mother, teach 
 you to seek help, inward help, help against your- 
 self? A decision to do wrong finds you strong in 
 your own strength ; a decision to conquer wrong, 
 and do right, sends you to your knees, or makes 
 you cry, " God help me !" If that be so, you need 
 consult no man's books as to what side your nature 
 is inclined to. 
 
 Man is the only being coming within our knowl- 
 edge who has a nature that is plainly unnatural. 
 This language is not paradoxical for the sake of 
 paradox, but for the sake of strictly describing a 
 mournful fact. Is a nature natural which can be 
 changed without destroying the identity ? That of 
 man can be changed, and not only leave his identity 
 perfect, but restore the course of a higher, and evi- 
 dently an older, nature than the one which had pre- 
 viously reigned. Is a nature natural which urges 
 toward courses which blight and ruin? Human 
 nature, when least affected by culture, in the lone- 
 liest and loveliest islands of unfrequented seas, urges 
 to courses of headlong ruin and destruction. In the 
 highest seats of civilization, it urges men to neglect 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIEE. 115 
 
 the God of all, though they believe that to Him 
 they are indebted for being, reason, and joy, and 
 on Hirn are dependent for their continuance; urges 
 them to neglect objects which they believe to be 
 truly noble and of eternal utility, for pleasures 
 which they can not help despising, and for gains 
 which they know are neither honorable nor lasting. 
 In proof of this more than enough is said by the 
 simple words, London, Paris, Rome. Yet, while 
 their nature is thus over-riding their true dignity, 
 true happiness, and true interest, a voice within, as 
 if of a friend who has survived from better days, 
 is ever protesting against this monstrous condi- 
 tion of things, and averring that this nature is not 
 nature. 
 
 There is not a beast of the field but may trust 
 his nature and follow it ; certain that it will lead 
 him to the best of which he is capable. But as 
 for us, our only invincible enemy is our nature ; 
 were it sound, we could hold circumstances as 
 lightly as Samson's withs ; but it is evermore be- 
 traying us. Often, when we honestly meant to be 
 good and noble, our miserable nature, at the first 
 favorable juncture of circumstances, betrayed us 
 again, and we found ourselves falling by our own 
 hands, and bitterly felt that we were our own ene- 
 mies. Heal us at the heart, and then let the world 
 come on ! we are ready for the conflict. Make 
 
116 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 us sound within, and we will stand in the evil 
 day. We can defy circumstances, and resist the 
 devil, if only our own breast become not a hold of 
 traitors ; if inclinations, silent, subtle, and strong as 
 nature, do not arise to beguile us into captivity to 
 evil. 
 
 You tell us to withstand these inclinations, not to 
 yield to our impulses, but to subject them to 
 reason ; that is, not to follow nature which is in- 
 ward and impulsive, but to be guided by external 
 indexes which Observation notes, Reason interprets, 
 and Will may apply to the control of nature. That, 
 in fact, is saying, " Do not live by your nature, but 
 resist your nature." What a world of appalling 
 truth comes in with that one admonition ! My 
 nature not a nature to live by ! Self-regard putting 
 me on the watch against nature ! A nature, and 
 that the highest nature in this terrestrial system, 
 self-injurious ! This is not Thy handiwork, O Eter- 
 nal Parent, Author of order, beauty, and love; 
 Creator of natures, each of which is in unison with 
 itself, and in harmony with all Thy other creat- 
 ures ! What has happ ened since man first left Thy 
 hand? 
 
 It was strange to see three thousand men, after 
 one hearing of a new and untried religion, accept it 
 as their faith, and publicly enrol themselves as its 
 disciples. It was especially strange, since the men 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 117 
 
 at whose hands they, with docility, took the sacra, 
 mental pledge of their conversion, were men with* 
 out repute, whom they had themselves previously 
 despised. But it is not till after some weeks have 
 elapsed that the highest wonder of this phenomenon 
 breaks upon us. 
 
 Human nature is liable to unaccountable illusions, 
 and multitudes to ungovernable impulses. It may 
 be that in a week or two we shall find those thou 
 sands of a thousand different views, as to what they 
 had heard from Peter on the day of Pentecost, 
 and as to the pardon and grace which he had pro- 
 fessed to declare to them. But, as day by day we 
 watch that throng, moral marvels come continually 
 into view. What was so rare in human nature is 
 now ordinary, a holy man. Persons who were aa 
 common-place in character as can be conceived, now 
 live before us, saints. The vile have become noble 
 the churl self-denying, the bitter gentle, the sensua* 
 wonderfully pure. A community drawn from Jews 
 of the ordinary standard, from persons of every 
 variety of character and of sinfulness, is a com* 
 munity so pure, so far beyond what human eyea 
 ever have seen before, that it seems as a commence- 
 ment of heaven upon earth. Raised suddenly into 
 saintship, they steadily maintain their moral ele- 
 vation • first astonishing and sweating those 
 
118 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 who look on, and then withstanding all the oppo- 
 sition which prejudice and power can bring to crush 
 them. 
 
 Day after day, month after month, year after 
 year, this new and glorious life goes on. These 
 men, lifted up from the ordinary level of sinners, 
 continue " steadfast in the Apostles' fellowship, and 
 in breaking of bread and prayers," " filled with the 
 Holy Ghost," rich in faith, overflowing with inward 
 consolation; not seeing their glorified Redeemer 
 with the eye, but more than seeing with the heart 
 — feeling, embracing Him, they "rejoice with joy 
 unspeakable and full of glory." Their close pros- 
 pect is immortality, their citizenship is in heaven, 
 their wealth lies where change can never reduce it, 
 nor moth corrupt, nor thief steal. Happy upon 
 earth, and inheriters of heaven, it is naught to 
 them that all mankind frown upon them; they 
 know that they " are of God, and the whole world 
 lieth in wickedness." Their saintliness spreads its 
 fame to the ends of the earth — a fame that hag 
 never died until our day ; and even upon our 
 homes and our hearts are now descending the mild 
 and holy influences of the first community called 
 into existence by the tongue of fire. 
 
 Three thousand men permanently raised from 
 death in sin to a life of holiness ! Three thousand 
 sinners converted into saints ! Three thousand 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 119 
 
 new-made saints enabled day by day to walk in the 
 fear of God, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost ! 
 Three thousand of our brethren, weak, sinful by 
 nature, open to the temptings of Satan even as we 
 are, maintaining a life in the body which almost 
 surpasses belief, so is it marked with goodness and 
 with purity ! 
 
 This, of all the spectacles of Pentecost, is the one 
 that speaks in deepest tones to the heart. On those 
 three thousand we gaze ; and our souls break out 
 with adoration. Glory, honor, salvation ! — for now 
 the word " salvation" may be boldly uttered by 
 human lips — salvation is come, is come to the race 
 of Adam ! Here, we see it, not in word, not in 
 promise, but in practical demonstration ; in human 
 beings redeemed ; in our nature recovered from 
 sin, and that not in a solitary convert, not in one 
 ardent youth, or in one exhausted worldling, but in 
 hundreds and thousands of men with ordinary 
 hearts, and wants, and employments, to whom 
 human life has become a fellowship with God, and a 
 straighc road to eternal joy. 
 
 We have already said that we may speak of a 
 physical miracle and of a mental miracle } and to 
 this we may add a moral miracle. Mind, we have 
 said, is greater than matter, and therefore a work 
 wrought in mind is greater than one wrought in 
 matter; it bespeaks not merely a power, but a 
 
120 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 spirit. Just as intellect sways matter, so does that 
 for which it is hard to find a name — the moral 
 nature, the self and substance of a man, the heart 
 — sway the intellect. We will use the word "heart," 
 not to signify the emotional nature, represented 
 in Scripture by the "bowels," but the moral na- 
 ture ; that is, so far as man is concerned, nature. 
 The heart commands the man. Give me a heart, 
 and you give me a man ; it carries both a mind and 
 a body with it. Heart is the greatest thing below 
 the sky ; the nearest to the government above, that 
 which sways intellect, and sways all things human. 
 A work, then, wrought upon heart, is the highest 
 order of operation to which human nature can 
 afford a sphere. Christianity professes to be a 
 system for that which has never been otherwise 
 professed — the renewing of bad hearts in the image 
 of the God of heaven. To this all its powers are 
 directed ; and until this is done, Christianity is but 
 a theory. All previous to this is but as the verbal 
 explanation of principles by a physical philosopher, 
 lacking his ocular demonstration. The problem of 
 our nature is how to make the bad good ; that is, 
 how to change nature, which, by natural power, ia 
 absolutely impossible. 
 
 In the physical miracle we see the God of nature 
 accrediting revelation; in the mental miracle we 
 see the God of mind accrediting revelation. I if 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 12 J 
 
 both these, nature is counter- worked, and a power 
 above nature manifested. It is a grand and mem 
 orable thing to see the sea dried up, or to see the 
 human mine illuminated with the lights of prophecy 
 or the gift of tongues ; but the highest manifesta- 
 tion of a power above nature, of a power acting 
 against and contrary to nature, is, when the bad 
 suddenly becomes good; the impure, pure; when 
 a clean thing is brought out of an unclean ; when 
 the earthly becomes heavenly; the sensual, spirit- 
 ual; the devilish, like God; when the Ethiopian 
 changes his skin, and the leopard his spots; when 
 instead of the thorn comes up the fir-tree, and in- 
 stead of the brier comes up the myrtle-tree. Here 
 is the Ruler, not of the physical universe over* 
 ruling physical nature, or of the mental universe 
 over-ruling mental nature, but the Ruler of the 
 moral universe over-ruling moral nature, in attesta 
 tion of the Gospel of His own grace. 
 
 This, though not in the technical language of 
 theology a miracle, is so in common sense. Is it 
 nature ? Is it reducible to natural law ? True, it is 
 what is to be ordinarily expected in Christianity 
 Lut expected as what ? as a fruit of natural agency? 
 or of supernatural power accompanying that agency, 
 and attesting it as from God ? Has any system of 
 religion ever embodied such a conception as an 
 evidence that God was in it, and working through 
 
122 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 it, which would admit of constant application, and^ 
 at the same time, would strike deeper into the 
 human soul than any other imaginable demonstra- 
 tion? This is the singular glory of the Gospel. 
 The recovery of nature from her fearful fall, the 
 creating anew of man in the image of God, the 
 presenting the fir instead of the thorn, the myrtle 
 instead of the brier, is the "everlasting sign, 
 
 WHICH SHALL NOT BE CUT OFF." 
 
 Other modes whereby the Lord attests and seals 
 His messengers, whereby His operation accredits 
 His word, have had their occasional and their glori- 
 ous field ; but this sign is equally adapted to all 
 time, claims as its sphere all humanity, and ad- 
 dresses not the judgment merely, but the con- 
 science of man, proclaiming to him the presence in 
 the earth of a Power that heals human nature, and 
 restores the like of himself to the image of God. 
 
 Each sinner transformed into a saint is a new 
 token of a redeeming power among men. That 
 token declares to observers, not that there is a 
 King in heaven, not that there is a "Father of 
 lights," but that there is a Saviour. And this is the 
 testimony which the world especially needs. There 
 are few things in religion which men doubt more 
 than whether it is possible for them, as individuals, 
 to escape from their sins. No declaration of that pos- 
 sibility goes so far to convince them, as seeing those 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 123 
 
 tfhom they have known as weak as themselves, as 
 addicted to evil as themselves, suddenly changed, 
 and enabled all their life long to walk " as seeing 
 Him who is invisible." This at once says to them, 
 "There is One who has power on earth to save 
 from sin ;" and when they know that their neigh 
 bor ascribes all to the cross of Christ, they feel 
 that in that cross must lie an efficacy by which, if 
 ever they are to find salvation, that salvation must 
 come. 
 
 The regeneration of a sinner is an evidence of 
 power in the highest sphere — moral nature ; with 
 the highest prerogative — to change nature; and 
 Operating to the highest result — not to create 
 originally, which is great; but to create anew, 
 which is greater : for, when nature has once be- 
 come evil, how infinite the glory of the act whereby 
 again it takes its place in the eye of the universe, 
 "very good!" The creation of saints out of sin- 
 ners is the demonstration whereby the divinity of 
 the Gospel is most shortly and most convincingly 
 displayed. Of all the Christian evidences it alone 
 proves that our religion does save from sin. 
 
 Again we look back to those three thousand, and 
 
 in the sight we glory. Our nature is not hopelessly 
 
 lost ! Redemption is wrought out ! Humanity may 
 
 be sanctified ! Communities of men may be reared 
 10 
 
124 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 who shall dwell in peace and love, and earth may 
 become a mirror of heaven ! Never, below the 
 skies — never, until the tragic history of Adam's 
 sons is ended, can we escape the death which sin 
 has brought upon us, and its correlative woes. But 
 sin itself has found a conqueror ; not sin in the ab- 
 stract, not sin in some philosophical impersonation, 
 not sin in the great prince of the powers of dark- 
 ness ; but sin in human hearts, sin in my nature, sin 
 girt round with flesh of my flesh, and bone of my 
 bone, flowing in veins like mine, and appealed to 
 by temptations of the mind and of the body, just 
 such as my own. Sin in living man, has been con- 
 quered, its Conqueror reigns, His redeeming power 
 is nigh ; and in those converts at Jerusalem I see a 
 pledge of my own deliverance, and can shout, " I, 
 too, shall be made free from the law of sin and 
 death !" 
 
 We see a pledge of the deliverance not only of 
 individuals, but of multitudes, not only of families, 
 but of thousands and tens of thousands. It has 
 been too much the fashion for Christians to look 
 upon pure and elevated religion as applicable only 
 to a few. At a time when Christianity and holiness 
 became different things, and true religion was look 
 ed upon as something not for life, but for a con- 
 dition secluded from life, amounting, for practical 
 purposes, to a burial before the time ; a style of 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 125 
 
 thinking crept in, which has never disappeared to 
 this day. In the Church of Rome we still find it 
 maintained, that deep holiness finds its best place 
 away from human life, in retreat and celibacy. 
 Among Protestants this error is rejected, yet prac- 
 tical religion is looked upon as something not to be 
 expected to gain thousands at a time, and to renew 
 communities by its sacred power, but rather to be 
 a select blessing for a few, scattered here and there, 
 and everywhere little discerned. 
 
 Look back to Pentecost. See Christianity at her 
 first step raising up her army by thousands. She 
 seeks not the wilderness ; she seeks not the few ; 
 she affects not little, dispersed, and hidden groups. 
 In the sight of Jerusalem, in the sight of the world, 
 she starts as the religion of the multitude ; the re- 
 ligion of fathers and mothers, of traders, landown 
 ers, widows, persons of all classes and of all occu- 
 pations. She takes in her hand, at the very first 
 moment, an earnest of every nation, and kindred, 
 and people, and tongue, of every grade and age, 
 as if to expand forever the expectations of her dis- 
 ciples, and impress us with the joyful faith that her 
 practical redemption was for the multitudes of 
 men. 
 
 In the case of the converts of Pentecost we are 
 struck first with the suddenness of their conviction, 
 
126 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 then with the sharpness of it, and then with the 
 permanence of the result. 
 
 When the humble fisherman began to preach, 
 many who had witnessed the miracle were mock- 
 ing ; none had become saints ; perhaps not a man 
 in the crowd believed in the mediation of Christ, or 
 in any other of the great doctrines of the Gospel, 
 They were adverse — not to say dogged, and on 
 system, enemies. His words were strangely edged : 
 a sword went through the very souls of these men 
 — a sword which told to the consciousness, that He 
 who wielded it was the Unseen and the Almighty. 
 As if the whole of life were recalled, as if eternity 
 had pressed itself with all its weight into one mo- 
 ment ; processes of thought that would have re- 
 quired long, long meditation, and yet longer de- 
 scription, flashed and reflashed across the soul; and 
 the man found himself a sinner in the midst of his 
 own sins, accused by the past, menaced by the fu- 
 ture, overwhelmed, confounded, discovered, and 
 unable to wrestle against the one thought, u What 
 must I do to be saved ?" 
 
 The sharpness of this conviction is equally amaz- 
 ng with its suddenness. Why could not the men 
 control themselves ? Why not go to their homes 
 and think? Why not take time to deliberate? 
 Why not avoid exposure to the public eye ? Why 
 but because, wounded to the very quick, they for 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 127 
 
 got all other considerations, and wanted to be heal- 
 ed ? They saw, they felt themselves fallen into the 
 hands of God ; and, for the moment, the eye, the 
 voice, the opinion of man was shut out from their 
 thoughts. 
 
 If a man really saw an angel, or one " risen from 
 the dead," we should expect that all consideration 
 of bystanders would forsake him in the awe of the 
 moment. And so, if in an instant a supernatural 
 power opens the unseen world to the soul, with ita 
 one eternal Light, its heaven and its hell, although 
 the view of these must be imperfect and confused, 
 yet if it is a view, a sudden view, it must shoot fear, 
 wonder, awe, through and through the soul, till 
 man and man's opinion are as little thought of, as 
 fashion by a woman fallen into a steamer's foaming 
 wake. 
 
 We find those who were affected by these sudden 
 impressions, going on and on, month after month, 
 sustaining in the ordinary walks of life the profes- 
 
 sion of saints, walking worthy, not only of them- 
 selves, not only of their teachers, but even of the 
 Lord, leading such a life that " He that sanctifieth, 
 and they which are sanctified, are all of one: for 
 which cause He is not ashamed to call them breth- 
 ren." This stedfastness in purity and piety, " in the 
 Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking 
 of bread, and in prayers," in liberality such as no 
 
128 THE TONGUE OF FIltE. 
 
 community had ever practiced, in "gladness and 
 singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor 
 with all the people ;" shows that the fountains of 
 life had been sweetened, the depths of the soul 
 reached ; that, in a word, nature had been touched 
 changed, renewed. 
 
 The permanence of the change shows that it is 
 one of nature ; its suddenness, that it is effected by 
 supernatural means. Indeed, natural means can 
 never change a nature, though they may greatly 
 modify its manifestations. When we want to pro- 
 duce any moral impression on humaji nature that 
 shall be permanent, we trust to slow and lengthen- 
 ed training. To turn a man from his ways, to turn 
 him against his own interests, to lead him to place 
 all he holds dear in continual jeopardy, purely for 
 the sake of goodness here and happiness hereafter, 
 is what, in any natural scheme, we must attempt by 
 beginning early and by laboring long. But if we are 
 to depend not on natural processes, but on the 
 power of God, then time ceases to be a matter of 
 account ; the Infinite One declares His presence by 
 accomplishing in a moment that upon which we had 
 gladly spent a life. Whatever reasons may be ad 
 vanced in favor of gradual awakenings rather than 
 sudden ones, this at least stands on the other side, 
 that the sudden conversion conveys to all bystand- 
 ers a much more striking impression of a power 
 
V 
 
 EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 129 
 
 above that of man. What is gradual may be read- 
 ily ascribed, by the ignorant or the unbelieving, to 
 the natural results of human processes. They may 
 say, " The wonder would be if, with so much teach* 
 ing, so many homilies, directed to the one end of 
 bringing man to consideration for his soul, he was not 
 gradually brought to it." But when, by some sin- 
 gle, and, perhaps, simple message, the work of con- 
 version is done in an instant, it looks like the raising 
 of the dead. As to bystanding sinners, it first stirs 
 their wonder, then moves their conscience ; and if 
 they see such cases multiplied, the feeling falls upon 
 them — " It is the mighty power of God !" 
 
 Christianity was established by the creation of 
 Christians. 
 
 In the words, " Continued steadfast in the Apos- 
 tles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of 
 bread, and in prayers," we see the effect of the re- 
 generation of individuals on the character of a com- 
 munity. From a number of good men at once 
 arose a united and fraternal society. Statesmen 
 and philanthropists, occupied with the idea of form- 
 ing happy nations, frequently look to good institu- 
 tions as the means of doing so ; but find that when 
 institutions are more than a certain distance in ad- 
 vance of the people, instead of being a blessing, 
 they become a snare and a confusion. The reason 
 
130 THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 
 
 of this is obvious : good institutions to a certain ex 
 tent pre-suppose a good people. Where the degree 
 of goodness existing in the people does not, in some 
 measure, correspond with that pre-supposed in the 
 institutions, the latter can never be sustained. As 
 the organ, embodiment, and conservators of indivi- 
 dual goodness, the value of good institutions is in- 
 calculable ; and he is one of man's greatest benefac- 
 tors, who makes any improvement in the joinings 
 and bearings of the social machine ; but as a means 
 of regeneration, political instruments are impotent. 
 Good institutions given to a depraved and unprin- 
 cipled people, end in bringing that which is good 
 into disrepute. In fact, it would be more correct 
 to say, that institutions which are good for a people 
 of good principles, are bad for a people destitute of 
 principle. The only way to the effectual regenera- 
 tion of society is the regeneration of individuals ; 
 make the tree good, and the fruit will be good ; 
 make good men, and you w T ill easily found and sus- 
 tain good institutions. Here is the fault of states- 
 men — they forget the heart of the individual. 
 
 On the other hand, have not those who see and 
 feel the importance of first seeking the regeneration 
 of individuals, too often insufficiently studied the 
 application of Christianity to social evils? When 
 the result of Christian teaching long addressed to a 
 people has raised the tone of conscience, when a 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 131 
 
 large number of persons embodying true Chris- 
 tianity in their own lives are diffused among all 
 ranks, a foundation is laid for social advancement ; 
 but it does not follow that, by spontaneous develop 
 ment, the principles implanted in the minds of the 
 people make to themselves the most fitting and 
 Christian embodiment. Fearful social evils may 
 co-exist with a state of society wherein many are 
 holy, and all have a large amount of Christian light. 
 The most disgusting slave-system, base usages 
 fostering intemperance, alienation of class from 
 class in feeling and interest, systematic frauds in 
 commerce, neglect of workmen by masters, neglect 
 of children by their own parents, whole classes 
 living by sin, usages checking marriage and encour- 
 aging licentiousness, human dwellings which make 
 . the idea of home odious, and the existence of mod- 
 esty impossible, are but specimens of the evils which 
 may be left age after age, cursing a people among 
 whom Christianity is the recognized standard of so 
 ciety, To be indifferent to these things is as un- 
 faithful to Christian morals on the one hand, as 
 hoping to remedy them without spreading practical 
 holiness among individuals, is astray from truth on 
 the other. 
 
 The most dangerous perversion of the Gospel, 
 viewed as affecting individuals, is, when it is looked 
 upon as a salvation for the soul after it leaves the 
 
132 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 body, but no salvation from sin while here. The 
 most dangerous perversion of it, viewed as affect- 
 ing the community, is, w^hen it is looked upon as a 
 means of forming a holy community in the world to 
 come, but never in this. Nothing short of the gen- 
 eral renewal of society ought to satisfy any soldier 
 of Christ ; and all who aim at that triumph should 
 draw much inspiration from the King's own words : 
 "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in 
 earth." Much as Satan glories in his power over 
 an individual, how much greater must be his glory- 
 ing over a nation embodying, in its laws and usages, 
 disobedience to God, wrong to man, and contamina- 
 tion to morals ! To destroy all national holds of evil, 
 to root sin out of institutions, to hold up to view 
 the Gospel ideal of a righteous nation, to confront 
 ail unwholesome public usages with mild, genial, 
 and ardent advocacy of what is purer, is one of the 
 first duties of those whose position or mode of 
 thought gives them an influence on general ques« 
 tions. In so doing they are at once glorifying the 
 Redeemer — by displaying the benignity of His in- 
 fluence over human society — and removing hinder- 
 ances to individual conversion, some of which act 
 by direct incentive to vice, others by upholding a 
 state of things the acknowledged basis of which 
 is, "Forget God." 
 
 Satan might be content to let Christianity turn 
 
 i 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 133 
 
 over the sub-soil, if he is in perpetuity to sow the 
 surface with thorns and briers ; but the Gospel is 
 come to renew the face of the earth. Among the 
 wheat, the tares, barely distinguishable from it, may 
 be permitted to grow to the last : but the field is 
 to be wheat, not tares; wheat, not briers; a fair, 
 fenced, plowed, sowed, and fruitful field, albeit 
 weeds, resembling the crop, be interspersed. 
 
 The same words, "The Apostles' doctrine and 
 fellowship, and breaking of bread, and prayers," in- 
 dicate the various exercises of religion, in which all 
 Churches and individual Christians ought to " con- 
 tinue stedfast." It was not a " preaching Church," 
 or a "praying Church," the one m opposition to the 
 other: they had both "doctrine," teaching, and 
 " prayers." The idea of separating these two, oi 
 of setting the one up above the other, is foreign tc 
 the religion of the New Testament. They are ne 
 ministers sent of God who have not the gift of 
 being "apt to teach." They may be good and 
 useful men ; but the proof that any one never was 
 designed by the Head of all for a certain position, 
 is, that He never qualified him for it. All the au- 
 thorities in the universe can not make him an em- 
 bassador for Christ, to whom Christ Himself has 
 given no power to beseech men to be reconciled to 
 God, no power to warn every man, and teach every 
 
134 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 man, that he may present every man perfect. The 
 pretense of a Christianity without ministers, served 
 by a priesthood who can manipulate, read prayers 
 that others wrote, organize solemnities, and keep 
 times and seasons, but who can not " rightly divide 
 the word of truth ;" can not " preach the Gospel 
 with demonstration of the Spirit, and with power ;" 
 can not do any thing but what the most senseless, 
 or the most wicked, of men could do, if drilled to 
 it; is one of those marvels of imposition before 
 which we are at once abashed and indignant — in- 
 dignant that, with the New Testament still living, 
 men dare palm this upon us for Christianity ; and 
 abashed, that human nature is ready to accept such 
 a travestv. 
 
 On the other hand, the gift of teaching was not 
 exercised to the exclusion, or even to the repres- 
 sion, of that of prayer. The disciples did not 
 come together only when some one was prepared 
 with a deep and weighty discourse on points of 
 essential doctrine. Prayer was one of their habit- 
 ual exercises ; not merely hearkening to the soli- 
 tary prayer of one gifted preacher, in the great 
 congregation, before or after his sermon ; but pray- 
 ers in frequent and familiar fellowship, prayers 
 prompted then and there, without book, and with- 
 out study; prayers of private disciples who had 
 no higher gift, but who could pour out their re 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 135 
 
 quests to God ; prayers by men with provincial 
 speech, and all the marks of being "unlearned 
 and ignorant ;" but also with clear signs that 
 the Spirit was helping their infirmities, and teach- 
 ing them what they should pray for as they 
 ought. 
 
 Suppose that Peter had some day stood up, and 
 said, " Brethren, all things must be done in order. 
 The use of vulgar tones and uneducated language 
 is unseemly. Henceforth none shall pray in our 
 assemblies but those who can do so without expos- 
 ing us to the ridicule of the respectable. Indeed, 
 to secure propriety, we have prepared proper 
 forms, and all our future praying shall be from 
 these Litanies and Collects written here, the lan- 
 guage of which is the most beautiful of human 
 compositions, and may, indeed, be called fault- 
 less." 
 
 Would not this have altered the history of the 
 primitive Church ? Were not prayers, simple, un- 
 premeditated, united ; prayers of the well-taught 
 Apostle ; prayers of the accomplished scholar ; 
 prayers of the rough but fervent peasant ; prayers 
 of the new but zealous convert ; prayers which im 
 portuned and wrestled with an instant and irrepress- 
 ible urgency ; — were they not an essential part of 
 that religion, which holy fire had kindled, and which 
 daily supplications alone could fan ? 
 
136 THE TONGUE OP FIKE, 
 
 Surely no Church can be entitled to call herself 
 a praying Church because, by a trained priesthood, 
 she often reads old and admirable forms of prayer 
 Against such forms, suitably mingled with the pub 
 lie services of the Church, we mean to say no word 
 we use, admire, and enjoy them: but, with the 
 Acts of the Apostles open, it is impossible to re- 
 press astonishment, that any man should imagine 
 that frequent and formal reading of the best forms 
 ever written, unmixed even by one outburst of 
 spontaneous supplication from Minister or people, 
 has any pretense to be looked on as the interceding 
 grace, the gift of supplication bestowed upon the 
 primitive Church. That in such modes holy and 
 prayerful hearts may and do pour themselves out to 
 God, we not only concede, but would maintain 
 against all who questioned it. That such prayers 
 are in many ways preferable to the one set prayer 
 of one dry man, long, stiff, and meager, wherewith 
 congregations are often visited, is too plain to need 
 acknowledgment. 
 
 But gifts of prayer are part of tlie work and 
 prerogative of the Holy Ghost ; are of the very 
 essence of a Church ; and to deliberately shut th 
 door against them, or so to frame ecclesiastical ar 
 rangements that they are practically buried except 
 when possessed by the Minister, the well-educated, 
 or the influential, is a plain departure from apostolic 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 137 
 
 Christianity. In no form is the tongue of fire more 
 impressive, more calculated to convince men that a 
 power above nature is working, than when poot 
 men, who could no more preach than they could 
 fly, and could not suitably frame a paragraph on 
 any secular topic, lift up a reverent voice, amid a 
 few fellow-Christians, and in strains of earnest trust, 
 perhaps of glorious emotion, and even of sublime 
 conception as to things Divine, plead in prayer with 
 their Redeemer. The Pentecostal Christianity was 
 not framed on the ideal of an accomplished circle ; 
 but on that of a Church, a Church including learned 
 and unlearned, the refined and the rustic, the 
 honored Evangelist, Prophet, or Apostle, and the 
 humble member without public gifts ; but all re» 
 joicing as members of one brotherhood, and each, 
 in fitting time and mode, taking his share accord- 
 ing to his gifts in the active work of mutual edifi- 
 cation. A Church, to be apostolic, must have 
 Ministers powerful in preaching, and members 
 mighty in prayer. 
 
 They continued stedfast "in breaking of bread;" 
 hence it is plain, that it was not a purely spiritual 
 system of worship, too spiritual to stoop to our 
 Lord's ordained symbols, or by the breaking of 
 bread to show forth His death. 
 
 Besides breaking of bread, and doctrine, and 
 
138 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 prayers, " fellowship" is distinctly named. It was 
 then not a Church where the "teaching" of the 
 Minister was taken for his fellowship with the 
 people, and their "breaking of bread" for their 
 fellowship one with another ; but where, in addi 
 tion to public teaching, sacraments, and prayers, 
 was another beauty of primitive Christianity, " fel- 
 lowship." Fellowship is family-life, forming a circle, 
 smaller or larger, to the members of which joys, 
 sorrows, interests, and undertakings are of common 
 concern and matter of common conversation. Be- 
 tween the life of man as an individual, and as a 
 member of a great community, lies a vast region of 
 affections, which can be filled up only by family re- 
 lations. In public, an individual does not indulge 
 his affections : the greater the multitude, the more 
 is the heart in privacy. The citizen who stands 
 honorably with the public, and yet has no wife, 
 child, or friend, to partake of his life, is lonely : his 
 place in the town council, or the national legislature, 
 may be filled, and all the relations therein involved 
 well sustained to him by others ; but he lives with- 
 out fellowship : if from bereavement, men compas- 
 sionate him ; if from choice, they turn cold at the 
 thought of him. 
 
 It would have been strange, had a Church meant 
 for man, in all his aspects, individual, domestic, 
 aational, left the space between the individual and 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 139 
 
 the public unoccupied ; so that Christian life must 
 have been divided into secret and solitary inter- 
 course with God, and public solemnities, wherein 
 each was a stranger to each ; no family life, nj 
 circles of interwoven hearts, no unbosoming of joys, 
 sorrows, and cares, no communication " one to an 
 other" as to the soul's health or progress. Had 
 such a cardinal omission been traceable in Chris- 
 tianity, it might have raised many a question as to 
 how the tenderest elements of our nature — the 
 social ones — had been disregarded in forming a 
 bond designed to unite all men in one loving bro- 
 therhood. 
 
 But the spiritual life of the primitive Church is 
 redolent of family feeling. You have not there the 
 solemn and solitary man, who has things passing 
 between himself and his Creator, of which he never 
 breathes a word, though he will take his place in 
 public assemblies, where his own heart is as effect- 
 ually concealed as if he were in a desert ; who re- 
 gards any approach toward fellowship of spirit as 
 an inroad on privacy; any inquiry for his soul's 
 health as a stranger's intermeddling ; any opening 
 of hearts as weakness ; who can live his religious 
 life alone, and loves to do so, except when he comes 
 into public ; who wants no friends, fellow-helpers, 
 or inner circle of companions ; and, indeed, who 
 
 loftily doubts whether socialitv in religious life is a 
 11 
 
140 THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 
 
 very good thing. That man who can find fellow 
 citizens among the children of God, but not family 
 friends, may be a very good Christian, but not of 
 the primitive stamp. 
 
 What a glow of family heartiness runs through 
 the New Testament ! Instead of stiff souls always 
 either dressed for the public eye, or shut up in 
 solitude ; you have brothers, sisters, friends, lovers, 
 who cling to each other by mutual attraction, and 
 between whom the common talk often runs on their 
 conversion, their conflicts, and their glorious fore- 
 taste of eternal joy. In writing to them, the 
 Apostles arc manifestly addressing persons to whom 
 one great e\ ent has occurred, the surpassing inter- 
 est of which keeps it in continual remembrance. 
 Once they weiv foolish, dark, wicked ; carried away 
 oy evil passions, without God, and without hope. 
 But a wonderful change has passed upon them — a 
 deliverance from the power of darkness, and a 
 translation into the kingdom of God's dear Son ; a 
 change as if from being aliens to be of the house- 
 hold of God ; as from darkness to light, as from life 
 to death. To this great salvation } accomplished for 
 and in them, the allusions made by their apostolic 
 teachers are so free, incidental, and frequent, as 
 clearly to show that it was a theme of unreserved 
 and joyful thanksgiving and wonder in their com 
 munications with one another. The dignity of thr 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIKE. 141 
 
 apostolic office does not prevent frank and touch- 
 ing allusions to personal conversion and to pro 
 vious character, as also to present attainments; 
 and, on the other hand, even the babe in Christ 
 is one whose happy experience is matter of open 
 congratulation : " I write unto you, little children, 
 because your sins are forgiven you, for His name's 
 sake." 
 
 The incidental proofs of the spirit which animated 
 the first Christians, as to fellowship with one an- 
 other, would be perfectly conclusive if they stood 
 alone ; but some important passages of the apostolic 
 letters are plainly meant to preserve this spirit for- 
 ever in the Church. "Let the word of Christ dwell 
 in you richly in all wisdom ; teaohing and admonish- 
 ing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual 
 songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the 
 Lord."* Here is an injunction, not to the Ministry, 
 but to ordinary Christians, to be well acquainted 
 with the word of God, with a view to the edifica- 
 tion of one another, by teaching and admonition ; 
 but teaching and admonition which, so far from 
 having the regularity of preaching, may even be, 
 and ought frequently to be, in " psalms, and hymns, 
 and spiritual songs." Such counsel could never be 
 given, had a system been adopted wherein every 
 word of teaching or admonition must fall from the 
 * Col. iii. 16. 
 
142 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 lips of the Minister. Throughout the New Testa- 
 ment the system of the Church is assumed to be 
 such as to call forth the gift of every member, no 
 matter of what order it might be; and the active 
 co-operation of each one is enjoined to promote the 
 edification of all. " From whom [Christ] the whole 
 body fitly joined together and compacted by that 
 which every joint supplieth, according to the effect- 
 ual working in the measure of every part, maketh 
 increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in 
 love."* Here " every joint" is to supply somewhat, 
 " every part" to perform its " effectual working ;" 
 and by this means the body is to increase, " edify- 
 ing itself" in love. No system can be made to ac 
 cord with this passage, any more than with the 
 general spirit of the New Testament, wherein the 
 pulpit is the sole provision for instruction, admoni- 
 tion, and exhortation ; the great bulk of the mem- 
 bers of the Church being merely recipients, each 
 living a stranger to the spiritual concerns of the 
 others, and no "effectual working" of every joint 
 and every part for mutual strengthening being 
 looked for. It is not enough that arrangements to 
 promote mutual edification be permitted, at the 
 discretion of individual Pastors or officers : means 
 of grace, w T herein fellow-Christians shall on set pur- 
 pose have " fellowship" one with another, " speak 
 * Eph. iv. 16. 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 143 
 
 often one to another, exhort one another, confess 
 their faults one to another," and " pray one for an- 
 other," shall teach and " admonish one another hi 
 psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs," are not 
 dispensable appendages, but of the essence of a 
 Church of Christ. f 
 
 Some make light of any " teaching" which could * 
 be gained by the mutual exercise of the gifts of 
 private members of the Church — not always either 
 educated or wise— and think that only well-prepared 
 addresses from the pulpit are instructive. The reg- 
 ular ministry of the word is undoubtedly the prime 
 source of teaching, and on its vigor and clearness 
 the life of all auxiliary agency will ever depend ; 
 but those who would reject the practical and home 
 teaching of free-hearted "fellowship," little consider 
 that to persons of simple mind, or slow heart — that 
 is, to the majority of mankind — the great problems, 
 " What must I do to be saved ? What is believing ? 
 Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit glory ? 
 Am I, or am I not, deceiving myself? How can I 
 overcome this temptation, the sorest that ever beset 
 a man ? How can I grow in grace ?" and such like, 
 have often more light shed upon them by the plain 
 statement of an individual as to how Divine mercy 
 solved them in his own case than by any general 
 explanation. In practical religion, as in all things 
 practical, instruction is miserably incomplete, even 
 
144 THE TONGUE OF FIEE. 
 
 though correct so far as it goes, if it does not bring 
 before the student or inquirer actual examples of 
 the process he hears described. A minister sur- 
 rounded by bands of lively members, who with glad 
 and single heart say as the Psalmist, " Come and 
 hear, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what 
 He hath done for my soul," has at hand " living 
 epistles" which he may send any inquirer to read, 
 has practical demonstrations of his pulpit doctrines, 
 by which he may at once convince and enlighten 
 the doubter. One who seeks no such auxiliaries, 
 who permits or encourages the frigid habit of walk- 
 ing each one with a sealed bosom, rests all his hopes 
 of success on the words of his own lips, and that 
 without scriptural sanction. 
 
 Some defend a plain departure from scriptural 
 religion by openly questioning the utility of Chris- 
 tian fellowship. One writer of note is so bold as 
 to say that the spiritual experience of believers is 
 " better never spoken about." Though this senti- 
 ment is completely alien to the spirit of both Old 
 and New Testament piety, it is the natural fruit of 
 the constitution of too many of our Protestant 
 Churches. In them the social element of religion 
 has been woefully overlooked. Provision is made 
 for doctrine, for prayers, for breaking of bread ; but 
 none for fellowship. A Christian may be a member 
 of a Church, and yet walk all his way alone, no one 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 145 
 
 knowing or caring to know of his conflicts or his 
 joys. If he is tempted, he may stand ; if over- 
 come, he may get restored ; if happy, he may hide 
 his peace among his secrets, and ask no one to re- 
 joice with him ; if he had lost his pearl, and has 
 found it again, he may be silent, for his neighbors 
 are not wont to be called together to take share in 
 another's cares and joys. There is something fear- 
 fully chilling in a state of things of which this is too 
 fair a description. Religion is a life to be lived in 
 fellowship; a conflict to be sustained, not singly, 
 but in bands ; a redemption, of which we are to 
 impart the joy ; a hope, an anticipation, of which 
 the comforts are to be gladly told to those who 
 " fear the Lord." We once heard a contrite inquirer 
 after spiritual comfort say, "It is ten years since I 
 was received a member of such a Church, and 
 during all that time no one has ever said a word to 
 me about my soul." And this is the case with tens 
 of thousands who are members of Churches which 
 provide only for public instruction and ordinances, 
 not for the social fellowship of saints. It is a 
 mournful example of the effect of overlooking any 
 one of the essential features of vital Christianity ; 
 and a fair comment on the ungenial notion that 
 religious experience had better never be spoken 
 about. 
 
 How would the Psalms be altered, could we ™. 
 
146 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 construct them on the principle that all about the 
 state of the soul, its joys, sorrows, temptations, 
 wanderings, and deliverances, had better be kept 
 in prudent reserve from the knowledge of our 
 brethren ! How would the apostolic letters lose in 
 dignity, tenderness, and power, as well as in instruc- 
 tion, could this frigid law of isolation once stiffen 
 them ! 
 
 If we turn from Religion in her own person, as 
 viewed in holy writ, to look at a reflection of her in 
 one of the best mirrors, the " Pilgrim's Progress," 
 how would Bunyan have handled pilgrims who 
 would stiffly or prudently close up their bosom ? A 
 Christian, a Faithful, a Hopeful, who had nothing to 
 say " one to another," as they traveled on, respect- 
 ing the beginning of God's work in their heart, 
 their escapes, solaces, temptations, and slips; a 
 Christiana, a Mercy, a Great-Heart, an Honest, a 
 Ready-to-Halt, who would interchange no experi- 
 ence ; holy damsels and genial Gaiuses who would 
 have no questions to ask on such matters — would 
 be a set of people whom Bunyan would not know 
 and whom, we suspect, he would castigate with 
 good will. Indeed, he has given such some cutting 
 stripes, as it is, in the person of Mr. Talkative, 
 who, though fluent on doctrines and such points, 
 was very reserved on experimental religion. Faith- 
 ful, wishing to know how he was to bring him to a 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 147 
 
 point, said to Christian, "What would you have 
 me to do ?" 
 
 " Why, go to him, and enter into some serious 
 discourse on the power of religion ; and ask him 
 plainly, when he has approved of it (for that he 
 will), whether this thing be set up in his heart, 
 house, or conversation?" 
 
 Faithful having described how a work of grace 
 " discovers itself when it is in the heart of a man," 
 puts the plain question, "Do you experience this 
 first part of the description of it ?" 
 
 Talkative at first began to blush, but, recovering 
 himself, thus replied : " You come now to experi- 
 ence, to conscience, and God ; and to appeal to Him 
 for justification of what is spoken. This kind of 
 discourse I did not expect ; nor am I disposed to 
 give an answer to such questions : because I count 
 not myself bound thereto, unless you take upon you 
 to be a catechizer ; and though you should do so, 
 yet I may refuse to make you my judge." How 
 many professedly religious men, who think them- 
 selves very different people from Mr. Talkative, and 
 in many respects are so, would, nevertheless, feel 
 much as he did, if any Faithful came as abruptly 
 close home on the question of personal experi- 
 ence ! 
 
 Banish from the " Pilgrim's Progress" the sociaj 
 element, the fellowship of hearts, the free recital of 
 
148 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 the Lord's dealings with each pilgrim, and yon 
 would cool its interest down to a point which, 
 doubtless, would be decorous in the eyes of some, 
 but would never touch the many. 
 
 " But is not what you call c fellowship,' the meet- 
 ing of the lay members of the Church for prayer, 
 praise, and recital of experience, liable to be abused?" 
 Most certainly; and that in several ways. But 
 is not preaching the Gospel liable to be abused, 
 so as to be merely the means of displaying a man's 
 talent, or of diffusing error ? And baptism, so as 
 to be put instead of the "renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost ?" And the Lord's Supper, so as to be put 
 instead of holy living ? When we want to learn 
 what is Christian, we never ask what is incapable 
 of being abused ; for we should find no answer : but 
 what accords with the Word of God ? 
 
 And it does accord with the Word of God, spirit 
 and letter, that " they who fear the Lord" should 
 " speak often one to another ;" that the forgiven 
 and happy sinner should have companions around 
 him, before whom he may celebrate the mercies of 
 his Redeemer ; that the weak should not droop un- 
 known, nor those whose love is waxing cold be left 
 to grow cold unwarned. A church wherein, from 
 the minister in the pulpit down, every man in his 
 own order, " according to the grace that is given 
 to" liim, is called to exercise his gift, and every 
 
EFFECTS FOLLOWING THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 149 
 
 member to lend his " effectual working" toward tho 
 general life and strength ; wherein hearts are open, 
 and fellowship is free ; can alone answer to the 
 New Testament ideal of a Church. How much of 
 the failure of the various Protestant Churches to 
 maintain religion at a high point of vitality for any 
 great length of time consecutively, or to diffuse it 
 generally among the nations which have come 
 under their spiritual care, is to be ascribed to their 
 neglect of the social element of scriptural piety, we 
 do not profess to determine. But let those Churches 
 who, as to this point, have been taught to seek after 
 primitive spirit and usage, faithfully and immov- 
 ably guard the inestimable treasure whish has been 
 committed to them. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PERMANENT BENEFITS RESULTING TO THE CHURCH. 
 
 Among the permanent benefits resulting from 
 Pentecost, we can not include the visible flame. Of 
 it we never again find any mention in the course of 
 the apostolical history ; it appears to stand related 
 to the Christian dispensation as the fires of Sinai did 
 to the Mosaic — the solemn token of supernatural 
 power upon its inaugural day. 
 
 Neither are we warranted in looking upon the 
 " gift of tongues" as one of the permanent privi- 
 leges of the Church. Only twice, throughout the 
 Acts of the Apostles, do we find any record that it 
 accompanied the first introduction of Christianity to 
 a place ; and both these instances are very peculiar. 
 The first was in the house of Cornelius, when Peter, 
 preaching to his Italian auditory, felt some misgiv- 
 ing whether he might not by possibility be doing 
 wrong, should he include them within the fold of 
 the Church ; but he saw a great change pass upon 
 the men before him, and heard them begin to speak 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH, 151 
 
 with other tongues, and thus saw that, as to them- 
 selves at the first, the Lord had now given a Pente- 
 cost to the Gentiles. The other case is that wherein 
 the disciples at Ephesus, who had been instructed 
 in the baptism of John, but had not so much as 
 " heard whether there was any Holy Ghost," receiv- 
 ed the word at the hands of Paul, and began to speak 
 with other tongues. These two cases excepted, we 
 never read of this miraculous gift immediately at- 
 tending conversions effected under the preaching of 
 the Apostles. It would not be just, from this cir- 
 cumstance, to infer that these were the only cases 
 in which the gift was bestowed ; but we may at 
 least infer, that it was not an invariable accompani- 
 ment of the first appearance of Christianity, even in 
 the apostolic days. 
 
 Considerable question, as to whether it was de- 
 signed to be a permanent gift of the Church, is 
 raised by St. Ffflfffid discourse on this particular 
 gift, in his letter to the Corinthians. It has been 
 already remarked, that he there shows it to be des- 
 titute of any power of edification for the Church, 
 and therefore not to be a gift likely to continue, 
 where all were convinced of the truth of Christian- 
 ity. " Tongues are for a sign, not to them that be- 
 lieve, but to them that believe not." The only 
 specific use assigned to the miracle is, that it is a 
 Bign to them who believe not. In any community, 
 
152 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 then, in which the whole population had become 
 believers, this sign ceased to be called for. 
 
 It seems to be frequently taken for granted, thai 
 the chief value of the gift of tongues was to enable 
 the possessors of it to preach the Gospel to the na- 
 tives of countries, whose language they did not 
 otherwise understand. But this is never set for- 
 ward, in the Acts of the Apostles, as a reason for 
 the gift. A solitary stranger, possessing the gift oi 
 tongues, and passing into a country, the language 
 of which was to him otherwise unknown, would 
 have a great advantage in that gift; but, as has 
 been already noted, not the advantage of there- 
 by impressing the people of the country with a 
 sense of the miracle — for they would probably be- 
 lieve that he had been taught their tongue — but of 
 ability at once to proceed with his work and mis- 
 sion. It is, however, to be remarked that we never 
 find this advantage quoted as one of the results of 
 the gift. Except in the case wherein the gift of 
 tongues was used as a sign to the disciples, that the 
 Gentiles were admitted into the dispensation and 
 community of the Spirit ; the gift was no sign " to 
 those who believe." Its one use was " a sign" to 
 unbelievers, and even to them not in ordinary cir- 
 cumstances; for then prophecy, and not tongues 
 was the profitable gift. Not adapted to edify the 
 Church, or to bring ignorant unbelievers to repent- 
 
PEBMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUECH. 153 
 
 ance, and fitted only to be a sign under exception 
 able circumstances, this gift does not seem clearly 
 designed to be either universal or perpetual. 
 
 We are not called upon to say that it will never 
 be restored to the Church ; for that is never said in 
 the word of God ; nor should we ridicule or talk 
 disrespectfully of the faith of any Christian who 
 devoutly expects its restoration. All we say is, 
 that we have not scriptural ground to claim it as 
 one of the permanent gifts of the Spirit ; and we 
 may add that, if it ever return to the Church, it 
 will be, not a mystification, but a miracle, a real 
 speaking with " other tongues," not a speaking in 
 some unheard-of, unknown tongue. 
 
 Having premised thus far, we come to the seri- 
 ous question, whether the Christian Church derives 
 any advantage whatever from the dispensation of 
 the Spirit, beyond that of looking back to a glori- 
 ous period of miracle and power at her origin — a 
 period which she may not regard as the dawn of a 
 long and brightening day, but as a wonderful time 
 of mysteries and portents, which were to have no 
 permanent place in the Church. It may seem 
 strange thus plainly to put the question, whether 
 Christianity really has any benefits permanently re- 
 sulting from Pentecost ; but it is necessary to do so, 
 in order honestly to meet, not so much well-digest- 
 
154 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 ed and formally expressed opinions, as a habit of 
 feeling, often prevailing among professed branches 
 and members of the Christian Church. 
 
 Nothing is more common than to find the whole 
 system of Christianity, as an organization for re- 
 covering mankind from their sinful condition, 
 spoken of, treated, and trusted in, as if it had 
 been clearly ascertained that it was neither more 
 nor less than a deposit of Divine doctrine cast upon 
 the earth, forsaken by the Divine Power, and left 
 to make such way among men as it might by the 
 inherent force of truth, and the permission of aus- 
 picious circumstances. Cases are stated in which 
 it is taken for granted that Christianity can make 
 no way, simply because natural difficulties exist, 
 such as natural agency can not in reason be ex- 
 pected to overcome. Any thing like a consistent 
 counting upon a superior power acting with the 
 truth, and making it triumph over difficulties, such 
 as on natural grounds are unconquerable, is jauntily 
 dealt with, as pertaining to those whose religion is 
 not entitled to the veneration which Christianity 
 has, by the lapse of ages, gained from mankind. 
 
 In every thing practice is in danger, if theory be 
 falsified ; and after the right theory has been aban- 
 doned, the maintenance of right practice is always 
 precarious, and never long continued. If it be the 
 true theory of Christianity, that the living power 
 
-I 
 
 PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 155 
 
 of tne Holy Ghost, additional to pastoral agency, 
 additional to Scriptural truth, additional to every 
 doctrine and every ordinance — a power by which 
 the truth is applied and the agent quickened for his 
 work, is not to be expected as continually resident 
 and active in the Church ; that theory ought to be 
 clearly stated and formally recognized on the part 
 of all Christians. If it be not the true theory, we 
 should take care that it do not color any of our 
 habits of thought. 
 
 A religion without tlie Holy Ghosts though it had 
 all the ordinances and all the doctrines of the Nero 
 Testament, woidd certainly not be Christianity. 
 In it the presence and power of the Spirit are ever 
 taken to be the vital element. Our world without 
 its atmosphere, though the same globe, with the 
 same physical characteristics, would be another 
 world ; and, if inhabited at all, must be inhabited 
 by a race governed by laws altogether dissimilar to 
 those under which human life is sustained. The 
 change from the Church of the New Testament to 
 a Church without the Holy Ghost, would certainly 
 not be less in its kind than this. 
 
 All who seriously handle Christianity must rec- 
 ognize the presence of the Spirit, as an integral 
 part of its system and power ; but if this presence 
 is to be in some occult and inconceivable manner 
 
 resident in an abstract Ch'irch ; not in the hearts 
 12 
 
156 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 of individual believers, not in the living temple of 
 animated bodies and sanctified souls, but in a holy 
 Church made up of unholy members, in a sacred 
 Ministry made up of secular persons, in holy houses 
 where worldly multitudes gather, and in holy books 
 which ungodly ecclesiastics handle ; if this is to be 
 the presence of the Spirit, then the debate as to 
 whether it is to be expected in perpetuity or not, 
 need excite little interest. 
 
 If His presence is to entitle men to promulgate 
 new doctrines contradictory to those already re- 
 vealed in His own word, and even to withhold that 
 word from the mass of their fellow-men, on the plea 
 of denying them a deceptive guide and substitut- 
 ing an infallible one, then would His presence be- 
 come a self-contradiction and a danger. In none 
 of these lights have we the slightest reason given 
 in the word of God to expect the presence of the 
 Spirit. We hear not of Him there as dwelling else- 
 where than in the bodies of believers, or ever yield- 
 ing to future ages the right to depart from the ancient 
 ways and the clear revelation of the Son of God. 
 
 Neither do we find the promise of His presence 
 so given that all action and effort on the part of 
 Christians is to be made at every moment dependent 
 on each person's own impression of the Spirit's 
 movement within him. 
 
 But while on the one hand, we do not expect the 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 157 
 
 permanent presence of the Spirit with the Church 
 in this Komish sense, or in the sense maintained by 
 estimable Christians of the Society of Friends, we 
 must, on the other hand, maintain, as we have said, 
 that without His presence and operation in the 
 hearts of believers, and in Christian agents, we can 
 not have the Christian religion. We do not expect 
 visible signs or miraculous gifts : for these were not 
 the substantial blessing and grace imparted at Pen- 
 tecost ; but were to them only as heralds and ush- 
 ers. The real grace and blessing lay in what we 
 have called the spiritual influence of the Holy Ghost, 
 acting on the believer's heart ; His ministerial influ- 
 ence, acting on the Church; His converting influ- 
 ence, acting on the world. These, we contend, are 
 necessary to the identity of the Christian religion, 
 and were bestowed for all ages, and will to the end 
 of the world be shed on those who perseveringly 
 " wait" for the baptism of fire. 
 
 Whence arises a persuasion which we seldom find 
 formally stated, but constantly trace in the words 
 of thoughtful men — that our mind is cut off from 
 communion with the Father Mind, and, though able 
 to draw knowledge from physical objects and from 
 the minds of men, is without any access to the 
 Source of spirit, or any recognizable lights from 
 Him ? On what inch of grour.d in all the realm of 
 
158 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 reason can we rest the notion, that the Spirit of 
 God does not communicate actively and directly 
 with the spirit of man ? Is it that we are so com- 
 pletely outcasts that, though without doubt capable 
 of being acted upon by the Divine Being for Divina 
 intents, He will not touch subjects so mean ? This 
 would be the death-knell of intellect and morals ; 
 for, if thus cut off from the Source of light, our 
 souls must be lost in the dark at last. The sense 
 of sin gives to the conscience a feeling of banish- 
 ment ; the only answer to which lies in redemption. 
 It is vain to answer it by mere reason ; for reason 
 offers no footing for the feeling, except on ground 
 which revelation first discovers, and then bridges 
 over by the Cross. 
 
 Is it that our mental perceptions are all derived 
 through physical organs, and that, none such exist- 
 ing as channels between God and the soul, no com- 
 munication can take place ? Few would be so bold 
 as to say this ; many are bold enough to assume it. 
 What ! no communication but through physical 
 organs ? They never explain communication, but- 
 only increase the mystery. Physical organs, it is 
 true, are only acted upon from without, by physic; \ 
 objects ; and all our sensations come through such 
 organs. But they never have sensations. The 
 organ receives an impulse from the light, the air, or 
 other outward object, and transmits that impulse to 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHTTKCFI. 159 
 
 the brain, producing a vibration there ; but what a 
 gulf between a vibration in a brain and a sensation 
 of a soul, or an idea of heaven, or an emotion of 
 
 joy! 
 
 It seems no mystery that two men should be able 
 to communicate, but a great one that they should 
 be able to do so through an iron wire, when they 
 are a thousand miles apart. One makes a secret 
 fire carry a thought from his mind through a wire 
 toward the mind of the other ; a sensation is given, 
 and both an idea and an emotion follow ; but the 
 wire feels none of them. The impulse passes along 
 it ; and the mind interprets that impulse, and 
 turns it into the image of a dying father, a new- 
 born babe, a ruined fortune, or a Sovereign saying, 
 " Well done !" All the sensation, perception, emo- 
 tion, lie within the mind, none of them in the wire. 
 It is just so with organs ; they transmit impulses, 
 but they know nothing, feel nothing, and explain 
 nothing. The power of communication is a mental 
 power. Spirit knows, and gives knowledge. The 
 wonder is not that a mind can impart its ideas to a 
 mind such as itself, but that, being shut up in a 
 silent chamber whence branch out wires incapable 
 of one thought or feeling, it can pour along these a 
 vivid and changeful fire which conveys its feelings 
 to another. 
 
 " No man," says Paul, touching on these things. 
 
160 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 u knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit ot 
 man which is in him." To you all minds are in 
 visible. True, the mind of your neighbor is in all 
 respects the fellow of your own ; yet you can not 
 tell what is within it. It may be forming plans for 
 your ruin or for your good ; but this is beyond 
 your eye, or ear, or heart's divining. Every man 
 dwells in the invisible, and often rejoices to look 
 out upon a race, no one of which can look in upon 
 him. Yet oftener does he rejoice to pour himself 
 into others, and multiply his own feelings in the 
 spirits around him. When the invisible " spirit 
 of man" wills to make known " the things of tho 
 man," it has easy, though mysterious, means at 
 command. 
 
 A man is seated in his chamber, and deep things 
 are passing in his mind. His mother sees that he is 
 thinking ; but ask her to tell his thoughts, and she 
 is at a loss. His wife looks into his eye, and knows 
 that he is feeling ; but ask her what is the spring 
 and course of his emotion, and she is in the dark. 
 His little daughter sees something lofty on her 
 father's brow, but what it is she knows not. Pres- 
 ently a thousand people are before him, and " the 
 spirit of the man" is opening itself. A stream 
 of thought is pouring from it ; thought which 
 ranges from the most familiar objects at hand, to 
 those which are hidden in the bosom of eternity, 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 161 
 
 Yet all these thoughts, mingled with suitable emo- 
 tion, pass straight from his unseen soul into the 
 souls of the thousand people. How is this accom- 
 plished ? 
 
 Between him and them is floating a something 
 which we call " sound." The keenest eye can not 
 see it ; the most delicate touch, or smell, or taste, 
 can find no trace of it. As it is rushing upon the 
 ear, both eye and hand search in vain for it. Yet 
 is it carrying invisible thought, from a soul invisible, 
 by channels invisible, into the silent places of many 
 souls, where the thoughts it raises are invisible to 
 the nearest neighbor, till expressed in looks or 
 words. The mind of the speaker pours a succes- 
 sion of impulses through hidden chords to his 
 tongue and lips : these strike the air, in which 
 the stroke makes a wave ; that strikes on the drum 
 of the ear, which causes a quivering of a nerve be- 
 hind, that a quivering of the brain ; and then the 
 soul inside sees an image of Stephen dying, or Paul 
 falling on the high-road, or Elijah ascending, or 
 Jesus at the right hand of the Father ! What con- 
 nection is there between a wave of air, a quiver of 
 the brain, and an idea of heaven or hell, of sin or 
 holiness ? That the connection exists, is plain ; but 
 how ? Make it plain how " the spirit of man," 
 which " knoweth the things of a man" can reveal 
 them within ether spirits All we can say is, God 
 
162 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 has appointed a channel of communication, giv<,j to 
 the spirit means of expression, and to its fellows 
 means of perception. 
 
 With this fact before us, illustrated not only in 
 the one form just cited, but in a thousand forms 
 every day, upon what pretext do we set up a cry 
 of mystery as to the communication of the Spirit 
 of God with man ? Absurdity can reach no limit 
 greater than that of supposing that the central intel- 
 lect knows no avenue to all intellect ; that is, is de- 
 fective in means of expression. Despair can hurl 
 humanity no lower than to say that God, able to 
 commune with it, enlighten, renew, and impel it, 
 yet distantly stands away. For, if no communica- 
 tion exists, the reason lies in Him. To say that the 
 defect is not in His power of expression, but in our 
 power of perception, changes nothing : if He can 
 not " reveal the things of God" to man, with 
 such powers of perception as man has, He can 
 not adapt the expression of His own will to our 
 state. 
 
 Many who shun the extreme of denying that God 
 does hold communion with human souls, yet covei 
 the truth with a soft but cold cloak — a cloak of 
 snow — by always speaking loudly of the mystery 
 What is the way of the Spirit ? How can man 
 recognize the voice, the eye, the countenance of 
 God? How is it possible to feel His anger or His 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 163 
 
 favor, His presence or His withdrawal ? Is it not a 
 mystery ? 
 
 Yes, it is a mystery ; but it is nothing more. A 
 mystery is a thing we are most accustomed to. I 
 know no one thing which I perfectly know. I know 
 ten thousand which are full of mysteries. The nail 
 of my finger is a mystery ; the fact is manifest, the 
 mode undiscoverable ; about my hand I can ask 
 more questions than all mankind can answer ; wrist, 
 arm, shoulder, all have mysteries ; as I approach the 
 heart, the brain, what crowds of questions rise and 
 are checked by the known impossibility of an an- 
 swer ! If " the way of the Spirit" were capable of 
 perfect explanation, the whole universe would be a 
 riddle ; for why should that which was so high be 
 fully known, and every common thing under our 
 eye contain mysteries ? The mystery involved in 
 the Lord's communicating with any of His creatures 
 is far less than that of our communicating one with 
 another. He is of infinite intelligence ; He planted 
 the ear ; He gave man speech : for Him, therefore, 
 to communicate with any spirit existing, must be 
 easier than for the sun to shine. 
 
 " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
 entered into the heart of man the things which God 
 hath prepared for them that love Him." The Apos- 
 tle does not say this of Heaven : he is not even al- 
 luding to it; for it is "the glory that is to be re« 
 
164 THE TONGUE OF FIEE. 
 
 vealed ;" whereas he says of the " good things' 1 
 here in view, " God hath revealed them unto us by 
 His Spirit." These good things, then, are not 
 teachings, for of them eye, ear, and mind take cog- 
 nizance; nor Heaven, for it is not yet revealed 
 but those blessings which " are prepared" for those 
 who come at the Lord's call — pardon, adoption, and 
 the favor of God. Anticipating the inquiry, " How 
 can those things be ? How can acts of mercy, 
 which pass in the invisible world, be revealed to 
 us ?" the Apostle gives this simple illustration : 
 " What man knoweth the things of a man, save the 
 spirit of man that is in him ? Even so the things 
 of God knoweth no man, save the Spirit." If the 
 things of God are beyond our eye, ear, or discern- 
 ment, so are those of a man : and if man can make 
 nis mind known, how much more the All-wise! 
 " Now we have not received the spirit that is of the 
 world, but the Spirit that is of God, that we might 
 know the things that are freely given to us of God." 
 Adoption is an act seen by no man ; and were no 
 communication of it made to him in whose favor it 
 hath passed, he could never by his senses or reason 
 discover it. Though adopted, he would lie in tho 
 spirit of bondage. But that we may not be ignor 
 ant on this essential change in our relation to our 
 heavenly Father, not ignorant of the things w^hich 
 His grace has bestowed, He has provided a Com 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUKCH. 165 
 
 forter, whose benign work it is to solace our hearts by 
 letting us " know" what the Lord hath done for us. 
 
 The belief that God does not commune with man, 
 is no result of reason. Reason has no footing for it. 
 It is, indeed, hardly a belief; it is a feeling, followed 
 by a sort of half-seen mental conclusion. A boy, 
 conscious of deserving his father's anger, somehow 
 thinks he will not be received at home. Men, con- 
 scious that they are aliens from God, recoil from the 
 thought that the very breast, wherein they have 
 caged things unclean, may be a shrine of His pres- 
 ence. A feeling of moral improbability, of unfit- 
 ness, leads the mind to shrink from such a hope. 
 Hope, indeed, it does not seem at first ; the boy 
 forgets the hopefulness of standing by his father's 
 side in the dread of coming under his eye ; forgets 
 the joy of regaining his favor in the heat of enmity 
 to his rule and restraints. 
 
 A natural difficulty to the Creator's communion 
 with His rational creatures never existed. A moral 
 one did ; and never was problem so deep as, How 
 could the Holy One take the impure to His arms, 
 and yet continue the Holy One ? That problem 
 has been solved. The Holy meets the unholy over 
 the blood of atonement. There is death for evil- 
 doing, wrath against iniquity — yet mercy for the 
 repenting. Sin is not encouraged, innocence is not 
 confounded with guilt, and yet the fallen are lifted 
 
106 THE TONGUE OF FIRE, 
 
 up. This moral difficulty being met, and no natural 
 one ever having existed, did the Lord not commune 
 with the soul of man as with His own " offspring," 
 the only reason must be that He pleased to cut him 
 off from such fellowship. To affirm this would be 
 to run into downright opposition to the whole scope 
 of revelation. 
 
 Not a few of those who, if formally expressing 
 their belief, would maintain that the Spirit is to 
 abide with the Church in all ages ; that the idea of 
 impossibility in His communing with man is absurd, 
 and the cry of mystery unmeaning ; nevertheless, 
 in practice, effectually shut out His agency from 
 their own view, and that of those who may be under 
 their influence, by continually speaking of the truth, 
 the truth only, as the power to renew this sinful 
 ivorld. Far be it from us to undervalue holy truth, 
 and above all, that truth which flows untainted 
 from the fount of inspiration; but a truth, even 
 when Divine, is never more than a declaration of 
 ichat is. It is not the power which renews the 
 human soul, but the instrument of that power ; not 
 the electric current, but the conductor along which 
 the current flows. It is necessary, as necessary as 
 the metal wire to the telegraph ; but, alone, it is as 
 inefficient as the wire when the hidden power doesi 
 not pervade it. ■ 
 
PEKMANEOT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 167 
 
 You may teach a man the holiest truths, and yet 
 leave him a wretched man. Many who learn in 
 childhood that " God is love," live disregarding, and 
 die blaspheming, God. Thousands who are carefully 
 taught, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 thou shalt be saved," neglect so great salvation all 
 their days. Some of the most wicked and misera- 
 ble beings that w r alk the earth are men into whose 
 conscience, when yet youthful and unsophisticated, 
 the truth was carefully instilled. Did the mere 
 truth suffice to renew, there are towns, districts, ay, 
 countries, where ail would be saints. 
 
 Unmindful of this, and not considering the dan- 
 ger of diverting faith from the power to the instru- 
 ment, however beautiful and perfect the instrument 
 may be, many good men, by a culpable inadvert- 
 ence, constantly speak as if the truth had an inher- 
 ent ascendancy over man, and would certainly pre- 
 vail when justly presented. We have heard this 
 done till we have been ready to ask, " Do they take 
 men for angels, that mere truth is to captivate them 
 so certainly?" ay, and even to ask, "Have they 
 ever heard whether there be any Holy Ghost ?" 
 
 On one occasion it was our lot to hear a preacher 
 of name, preaching before a great Missionary Soci- 
 ety, from the text, " I am come to send fire upon 
 earth." Choosing to interpret the fire referred to 
 in this passage as the power which would purify 
 
168 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 and renew the earth, he at once declared the trull 
 to be that power, and most consistently pursued his 
 theme, without ever glancing at any thing but the 
 instrument. Afterward, hearing the merits of the 
 sermon discussed by some of the most eminent min 
 isters of his own denomination, and finding no allu« 
 sion to its theology, we asked, " Did you not remark 
 any theological defect ?" No one remarked any, till 
 the minister of some obscure country congregation 
 broke silence, for the first time, by saying, " Yes ; 
 there was not one w T ord in it about the Holy 
 Spirit." 
 
 The belief that truth is mighty, and by reason of 
 its might must prevail, is equally fallacious in the 
 abstract, as it is opposed to the facts of human 
 history, and to the Word of God. We should 
 take the maxim, that truth must prevail, as per- 
 fectly sound, did you only give us a community of 
 angels on whom to try the truth. With every in- 
 tellect clear, and every heart upright, doubtless 
 truth would soon be discerned, and, when dis- 
 cerned, cordially embraced. But truth, in descend- 
 ing among us, does not come among friends. The 
 human heart offers ground whereon it meets error 
 at an immeasurable disadvantage. Passions, habits, 
 interests, ay, nature itself, lean to the side of error ; 
 and though the judgment may assent to the truth, 
 which, however, is not always the case, still error 
 
PEIUfANEOT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 16P 
 
 may gain a conquest only the more notable because 
 of this impediment. Truth is mighty in pure natures, 
 error in depraved ones. 
 
 Those who compliment Truth upon her might 
 have need of much self-possession. What world do 
 fliey dwell in, that they can utter such flattery 
 under the gaze of her clear and sober eye ? What 
 are these nations yet neglecting commercial and 
 political truth, though all their interests invite them 
 to embrace it ? What these " enlightened" popula- 
 tions that have had religious truth as;ain and as^ain 
 held up in their view, but have angrily rejected it, 
 though to the entailing upon themselves innumer- 
 able social disadvantages ? Where is the town 
 where truth always prevails, or the village where 
 error wins no victories ? Do they who know human 
 nature best, when they have a political object to 
 carry, trust most of all to the power of truth over a 
 constituency ? or would they not have far more con- 
 fidence in corruption and revelry ? The whole his- 
 tory of man is a melancholy reproof to those who 
 mouth about the mightiness of truth. " But," they 
 say, " truth will prevail in the long run." Yes, 
 blessed be God, it will ; but not because of its own 
 power over human nature, but because the Spirit 
 will be poured out from on high, opening the blind 
 eyes, and unstopping the deaf ears. 
 
 The sacred writings, while ever leading us Lo re- 
 
170 THE TONGUE OP EIKE. 
 
 gard the truth as the one instrument of the sinner's 
 conversion and the believer's sanctification, are very 
 far from proclaiming its power over human nature, 
 merely because it is truth. On the contrary, they 
 often show us that this very fact will enlist the pas- 
 sions of mankind against it, and awaken enmity in- 
 stead of approbation. We are ever pointed beyond 
 the truth, to Him who is the Source and Giver of 
 truth ; and, though we had Apostles to deliver the 
 Gospel, are ever led not to deem it enough that it 
 should be " in word only, but in demonstration of 
 the Spirit and in power." 
 
 We well know that many who speak of the truth 
 as accomplishing all, do not mean the truth without 
 the Spirit to apply it ; but what is meant ought to be 
 said. Hold fast the truth as an instrument divinely 
 adapted and altogether necessary ; but, in magnify- 
 ing the instrument, never forget or pass by the 
 agent. The Spirit in the truth, in the preacher, in 
 the hearer ; the Spirit first, the Spirit last, ought to 
 be remembered, trusted in, exalted, and not set 
 aside for any more captivating name. There should 
 never be even the distant appearance of wishing to 
 avoid avowing a belief in the supernatural, or to re- 
 duce Christianity to a system capable, at all points, 
 of metaphysical analysis. If no supernatural power 
 is expected to attend the Gospel, its promulgation 
 is both insincere and futile. 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUKCH. 171 
 
 In their reluctance to acknowledge any super* 
 natural element in religion, many take refuge in the 
 idea that, after all, we are not to expect w T hat the 
 primitive Christians enjoyed. If this means that w 
 are not to expect miracles, to it w'e have no possible 
 objection. If it means that we are to expect less 
 grace, we can give it no kind of credit. Nothing 
 can be more contrary to the w r hole spirit and genius 
 of revealed religion, than that the progress of years 
 and events should be coupled with a diminishing 
 amount of Divine life and grace among men. All 
 things promise us progress, not retrogression. No 
 principle of Christianity, and no passage of the 
 Christian Scriptures, warrant the expectation that 
 the system is to decline with age, and to grow dim 
 before its day ends. The mode of thinking to 
 which w r e now refer, seems to be closely connected 
 with the favorite idea of unbelief in the world — that 
 of the Almighty " leaving," as men express it, one 
 and another province of His territories to the care 
 of secondary principles and powers. 
 
 Limited as the human mind is, the idea of com- 
 bining attention to the general and to the particular 
 always presents to it an extreme difficulty. In its 
 own experience, when taking a general view, it nec- 
 essarily overlooks particulars ; w T hen minutely at- 
 tending to particulars, it necessarily overlooks gen- 
 
 erals. Unconsciously transferring the idea of its 
 13 
 
172 THE TONGUE OF FIEE. 
 
 own limitation to the Supreme Power, it would 
 ease Him of the incomprehensible task of at once 
 minutely caring for every atom, and gloriously 
 ruling the universe. But in the presence of the 
 universal, the distinction between the particular 
 and the general fades away. Artificial lights either 
 shine in one particular apartment, leaving the street 
 dim, or shine upon the street generally, leaving 
 each particular apartment of the houses dim. But 
 when the Universal Light arises, he knows no dis- 
 tinction between general illumination and particular. 
 Every little casement in the world is equally lighted 
 as the broad valley of the Ganges, and every soli- 
 tary daisy as well shone upon as if there was no 
 other thing upon earth to lighten. 
 
 " He leaves, He leaves, He creates and leaves, 
 leaves to the course of nature, leaves to general 
 laws." Such is the crude language we continually 
 hear from men who would transfer the small ideas 
 of human sense to the infinite sphere of the God- 
 head. The idea of the Omnipresent leaving, for- 
 saking any part of His ow^n dominions, putting a 
 limit to Himself, creating in fact the most incom- 
 prehensible of all incomprehensible things, a place 
 where there w r as not a Creator — the idea of His 
 presence being an effort, or His embrace and super- 
 intendence of nature being a task, is unworthy even 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUKCH. 173 
 
 of the dignity of physical science, much more of 
 the sweep of human thoughts. 
 
 On the wings of the wind — on the universal flow 
 of electric power — on the swift sunbeams, filling up 
 with a finite infinity the whole expanse of the solar 
 system at once — on the light of a fixed star present 
 with our eye, and at the same moment present 
 through space inconceivably immense at every 
 point from our eye to the star, and then away 
 as far beyond, and round and round again at all 
 conceivable points of the circumference on every 
 side — on these confessedly finite objects our thought 
 may rest, and rise step by step, till it easily springs 
 to the idea of a complete and consistent Infinite, a 
 presence literally everywhere, a power constant as 
 eternity, an activity to which inaction would be ef- 
 fort, an eye to which attention is but nature, and 
 slumber would be an interruption of repose. 
 
 Those who would exclude the Divine Being from 
 His own universe, have been often exclaimed 
 against, and justly; but how much more may they 
 be exclaimed against who would exclude Him from 
 His own Church, and from communion with His 
 children ? Had His power been exhausted by the 
 act of creating and establishing the Church, and 
 then had he committed its future course to the de- 
 velopment of natural laws and the inherent power 
 of the truth, Himsel^* retiring from all action in the 
 
174 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 great battle whereupon He had set His servants, 
 we might reasonably look upon Christianity as a 
 religion which, perhaps, w T as better than others, 
 more serviceable to the social interests of those 
 who embrace it, and more genial in its influence 
 upon the destiny of mankind ; but higher motives 
 than these for its propagation, or greater strength 
 for the men who undertake the task, could not be 
 calculated on. So far, however, from this being 
 the case, the express promise with regard to the 
 Spirit w T as, "He shall abide with you forever;" and 
 when about to leave the disciples as to his bodily 
 presence, the Saviour said, "And, lo, I am with 
 you alway, even unto the end of the world. 5 ' A 
 presence this, better than a bodily presence ; a 
 presence by His Spirit and His power, whereby the 
 souls of his children are made glad, and their 
 hearts made strong, not in some solitary village of 
 Galilee for the evening, but at the same hour all 
 over the earth, wherever two or three are gathered 
 together 1 " in His name. That presence will never be 
 withdrawn while there is a believer w T hose heart 
 embraces the promise ; and such believers will not 
 fail while the world stands. So far from any thing 
 in Scripture countenancing the idea that Christians 
 of all subsequent ages were to be deprived of that 
 Divine help which constituted the strength and 
 holiness of the primitive disciples, we have no inti- 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 175 
 
 mation that they were to be even inferior in spirit- 
 ual attainments. On the contrary, every thing 
 countenances the expectation that, as generation 
 succeeds generation, the influence of holy faith an<? 
 holy example will steadily tend to the elevation of 
 he standard. 
 
 As Christianity makes progress among a popula- 
 tion, every new household which becomes imbued 
 with it is an additional power toward elevating the 
 standard of character in that neighborhood. It is 
 impossible to calculate the influence exerted, even 
 in a country like our own, where religion has yet so 
 much to do, upon those who are still ungodly. In 
 many points their consciences have been trained, 
 by force of example and precept, to a tenderness 
 and activity which Christian doctrine alone could 
 give ; and, as age after age rolls on, and the pro- 
 portion between the saints and sinners becomes 
 altered, the latter diminishing, the former growing, 
 the image of God in man will be yet more and 
 more brightly seen, if not more conspicuously, in 
 some rare and blessed individuals, yet much more 
 generally, as a common ornament and glory of 
 human nature. For a Christian now to expect to 
 be made as holy by the grace of God as the saints 
 of the New Testament, so far from being presump- 
 tion, is scarcely a worthy measure of faith. It may 
 be fairly said that, if we are not better than those 
 
176 THE TONGCTE OF FIKE. 
 
 who went before us, we are not so good ; for the 
 very light of their example sheds upon us an influ- 
 ence to which nothing corresponding was shed upon 
 Aem, and thereby gives us a clear advantage, by 
 which, with a similar measure of grace, we ought 
 to present a character more complete. 
 
 Were it once proved that our moral strength in 
 the present day was natural, then, indeed, might 
 we reasonably limit our expectations, but not to 
 partial attainments and incomplete holiness ; for on 
 that ground the reasonable limitation w r ould be, 
 not, " We shall attain to much, though not as much 
 as the early Christians," but, " We shall attain to 
 nothing." Our Lord's w T ord is not, " Without Me 
 ye can do little," but, " Without Me ye can do 
 nothing." If it then be settled that in this age, as 
 in the first, our strength is not of nature, but of 
 the Lord, the reasonable range of our expectation, 
 now as then, is to be measured by His glorious 
 power. The question no longer is, Of what are we 
 capable in ourselves, or by ourselves ? but, What 
 can He perform ? and to what extent can He mani- 
 fest forth His glory by making us monuments of 
 His power, and mirrors to display His image ? 
 That grace of His which was shed so plentifully on 
 the believers of the first days, is not an intermittent 
 radiance, like the flash of a human eye, but is 
 steady as the g^ory which streams from the face 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUECH. 177 
 
 of the sun. Waning or exhaustion it does not 
 know; and from age to age, from generation to 
 generation, His saints will grow more and more 
 mature, human life will increasingly reflect the 
 glory of the Lord, and display His power to make 
 weak mortals, beset with temptation, meet to be 
 partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. 
 
 Some who gladly admit that the Church, gene- 
 rally, may advance in Christian virtues, yet hesitate 
 to believe that individual Christians in our day are 
 to enjoy the same comforts of the Spirit as were so 
 conspicuous in the primitive Christians. Among 
 these latter nothing is more noticeable than filial 
 confidence and joy: their reconciliation to the Lord, 
 their interest in the death and intercession of Christ, 
 their consciousness of regeneration, of deliverance 
 from sins once reigning over them, their clear fore- 
 taste of heaven, and their peace in the prospect of 
 death, shine throughout the New Testament, and 
 all the early records of the Church. This was the 
 natural " fruit of the Spirit," the natural effect of 
 guch a Comforter as the Redeemer had promised 
 dwelling in the heart. Take this characteristic 
 away, and they would at once fall from the level 
 of "children of light," of "heirs of God and joint 
 heirs with Christ," down to that of the votaries of 
 other religions, among whom personal "joy in 
 
178 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 God," and prospects of immortal bliss, are things 
 unknown. 
 
 As we said before, that a religion without the 
 Holy Spirit would not be Christianity, so we may 
 say, that religionists without the Spirit in their 
 hearts would not be Christians. "Ye are in the 
 Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. 
 Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he 
 is none of HisP It requires much of that cold 
 daring which men may acquire as to things spirit- 
 ual, for any one who even respects, though he 
 should not study, the record of Christianity at its 
 source, to teach that it is not a common privilege 
 of believers to enjoy a sense of their salvation, and 
 to walk in the light of God's forgiving countenance. 
 No scrap of holy writ even seems to favor this at- 
 tempt to sink modern Christians to a point almost 
 infinitely below that of ancient ones ; for who can 
 measure the distance between a soul which is sing- 
 ing, " We know that we have passed from death 
 unto life," and one that is saying, u I can not hope 
 to know, till death strikes me, whether or not I 
 shall escape dying forever ?" 
 
 A change more serious can hardly be imagined 
 in the relations of the Lord to His people, than 
 would take place under the Christian dispensation, 
 if, beginning by enabling believers to say, "We 
 have a building of God, a house not made with 
 
PERMAXEOT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 17^ 
 
 hands, eternal in the heavens," He ended by leaving 
 them in utter doubt as to their future destiny ; if, 
 beginning by giving them a sense of His favor, 
 clear as day, unspeakably joyful, He ended by leav- 
 ing them to serve Him throughout life, without 
 ever feeling conscious that He smiled upon them ; 
 if, beginning by holding communion with them,. He 
 ended by leaving them to doubt whether Pie was 
 even reconciled. It is trifling at once with a man's 
 common sense, and with his most sacred hopes and 
 fears, to tell him that he is called with the same 
 calling as the early believers, by the voice of the 
 same Redeemer, under the same covenant of grace, 
 and with the same promise of adoption ; but that, 
 while his brother, ages ago, had " peace with God," 
 and "joy unspeakable and full of glory," knew 
 himself to be a child and then an heir of God, and 
 daily felt that heaven was his home, he is to pro- 
 ceed on his pilgrimage without any of these com- 
 forts, and learn at the end whether or not his soul 
 is to perish. Who has given any man the right 
 to assert that such a change has taken place in 
 the relation of the adopting Father to His adopted 
 children, affirming Him to have grown, in our 
 age, too indifferent to soothe* their hearts, and 
 make them partakers of the joy which He spreads 
 among the angels when He declares that the u lost 
 is found ?" 
 
180 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 The change which the supposition we are com* 
 bating would require in the office, or, at least, in 
 the operation, of the Spirit Himself, under the very- 
 dispensation of the Spirit, is sufficiently grave, one 
 might imagine, to make the least careful pause, ere 
 he assumed that it had taken place. The act where- 
 in the everlasting Father absolves a guilty being 
 from his offenses, and recognizes him before the 
 angels, as an heir of His glory must ever be of deep 
 importance in the government of God. Of old time, 
 when that great act took place, heaven rejoiced ; 
 but the deed did not remain without effect upon 
 earth. The King had proclaimed a pardon, and 
 that proclamation must have effect. The Comforter 
 sped to the mourner's heart. " Where the Spirit 
 of the Lord is, there is liberty." With the presence 
 of the Comforter, the captive found " deliverance," 
 and he that was bound, an " opening of the prison ;' 
 and, tasting the liberty of the children of God, he 
 sang, " O Lord, I will praise Thee : though Thou 
 wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, 
 and Thou comfortedst me." 
 
 Are we, then, on the word of some men, without 
 one intimation of Scripture to support them, to be- 
 lieve that the Spirit has so essentially changed His 
 mode of dealing with a forgiven sinner, that now 
 the decree of pardon promulged above, and hailed 
 by angels, receives no effect in the soul of him 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUECH 181 
 
 whom it absolves ? that the Comforter abstains 
 from comforting, leaving the ransomed captive 
 still to mourn his captivity, without relieving 
 him of his load or of his chain ? O Dove o# 
 Peace, ancient Comforter of the pilgrims who 
 traveled this heavenward road before us ! they saj 
 that Thy wing has grown weary with the lapse of 
 time ! 
 
 How great a change would take place also in the 
 privilege of believers! "We are of God," "born 
 of God," " heirs of God," " followers of God, as 
 dear children," " fellow-citizens with the saints, and 
 of the household of God;" "once darkness, now 
 light in the Lord." Such was the sense of adoption 
 enjoyed in apostolic times. Of all the privileges 
 wherewith the soul of man ever has been blessed, 
 or ever can be blessed in this life, by far the most 
 consoling and elevating is the sense of adoption into 
 the family of God. No man can vead the New 
 Testament, and deny that this was an ordinary 
 characteristic of the believers then living, or that it 
 was a main element of their strength, kindling in 
 them a joy which made them ready to face reproach, 
 and emulate hio-h service. Where is the intimation 
 
 CD 
 
 that this privilege was to be denied to Christians in 
 succeeding ages ? 
 
 When Paul says, " But I obtained mercy, that in 
 
182 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long- 
 suffering, for a pattern to them which should here* 
 after believe on Him to life everlasting," does he 
 give any intimation that the believers of following 
 ages, though they should be believers just as he, 
 and should obtain "life everlasting" just as he, and 
 should have his case and his mercies before their 
 eyes, as " a pattern" whereby to measure their ex- 
 pectations from Jesus Christ's " long-suffering" were 
 yet to lose an essential portion of the believer's 
 joy; namely, the power of saying, "But I obtained 
 mercy ?" Even the Psalmist, under a dispensation 
 lower than our own, could say, "I said, I will con- 
 fess my transgressions unto the Lord, and Thou for- 
 gavest the iniquity of my sin." Does he hint that 
 this is a privilege to which only few can attain, and 
 from w T hich the children of God, in the better days 
 to come, shall be ordinarily debarred ? " For this 
 shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee, in a 
 time when Thou mayest be found" — conveying a 
 clear intimation, that, just as he, on confession of 
 his sins, found forgiveness, such forgiveness as healed 
 %he grief of soul which he describes a moment be- 
 fore, and enabled him to sing, as he here does, 
 " Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,"* 
 so would every godly-disposed person find an ac- 
 ceptable time, if he prayed to the same merciful 
 Psa'm xxxil 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUKCII. 183 
 
 Lord for like forgiveness. No godly man, no one 
 whose heart was seeking after God, in the day of 
 David, could read this without feeling that the 
 4 blessedness" of absolution was held out to him ag 
 his privilege. Indeed, all through the Psalms it is 
 taken for granted that the righteous man rejoices 
 in his forgiving God. And does the grace of our 
 blessed Redeemer grow narrower as time advances ? 
 Does He gradually withdraw the light of His coun- 
 tenance till upon us of the latter days complete dark- 
 ness settles, and we are doomed to grope our way 
 through life's temptations without the encourage- 
 ment of one smile from Him, and at the end to set a 
 doubtful foot on the threshold of eternity ? 
 
 The idea of any such deterioration in the privi- 
 lege of believers is totally groundless ; without one 
 prop in Scripture or in reason. It is a structure of 
 ice, formed in cold seasons, and melts away when 
 brought either into the sunlight of Scripture, or the 
 warmth of living Christian society. "We could not 
 easily believe in any accession to our privileges, be- 
 yond those of our brethren in early times, unless it 
 were clearly taught in the word oi God ; but if, 
 without Scripture proof, we must believe either in 
 an increase or in a diminution of them, we should 
 choose the former, as far more supported by the 
 analogy of the Lord's dealings with men. 
 
 "Pe^ce" was the Saviour's legacy to His follow 
 
184 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 ers ; peace to be imparted by the Comforter ; peace 
 which the world can not give, and which passeth 
 understanding. He leaves no hint that this legacy 
 was to be recalled before " the end of the w T orld." 
 Indeed, in both the Old Testament and the New,l 
 happiness is an essential part of religion ; that kind 
 of happiness which is called " joy in God through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." The reigning of such joy 
 in any human bosom clearly pre-supposes that the 
 individual is satisfied of the reconciliation of God 
 to him, notwithstanding his sins. Wherever this is 
 doubtful, distrust, fear, and gloom must ever accom- 
 pany the contemplation of the Most High; and 
 this gloom would settle most densely on the most 
 contrite spirit. Happiness is to be a feature of re- 
 ligion to the last. That odious caricature of Chris- 
 tianity, which offers to the view of the world a man 
 with all the doctrines of the Gospel on his lips, but 
 gloom on his brow, disquiet in his eye, and sourness 
 in his bearing, has done infinite injustice to our be- 
 nign religion, and infinite harm to those who never 
 knew its worth. Now, as in the days of Solomon, 
 " her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her 
 paths are peace." Now, as in the days of David, 
 she " puts gladness into the heart, more than in the 
 time that their corn and their wine increased." 
 Now, as in the days of Paul, she gives " joy and 
 peace in believing " Happiness is not a separable 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. J 85 
 
 appendage of true piety ; it is part of it, and an es- 
 sential part : " The joy of the Lord is your strength." 
 Some would regard happiness as if it were to relig- 
 ion what a fine complexion is to the human coun- 
 tenance — a great addition to its beauties, if present ; 
 but if not, no feature is wanting. In the sacred 
 writings, from first to last, it is regarded as a feature, 
 which we can not remove without both wounding 
 and defacing. The kingdom of God is not only 
 "righteousness," but "righteousness and peace and 
 joy in the Holy Ghost." 
 
 While that kingdom stands, this " joy in the Holy 
 Ghost" will be the privilege of the children of God ; 
 and let no man stand between the humblest believer 
 of this our day, and the full light of his Redeemer's 
 countenance. Let none take it for granted, that the 
 work of God in the soul of man has degenerated ; 
 that the merciful Father no more gladdens the 
 prodigal He accepts, by letting him know He loves 
 him; that Jesus no longer says, "Be of good cheer, 
 thy sins be forgiven thee ;" or that when a penitent 
 is accepted as a son, the gracious Comforter does 
 not now, as in the old time, hasten on His dove-like 
 message to diffuse heavenly peace in another trou- 
 bled bosom. 
 
 The assertion sometimes confidently made, that 
 the witness of the Spirit to our adoption is given to 
 some believers, years after their conversion, as tho 
 
186 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 reward of special holiness, has not even a pretext 
 of scriptural footing. The witness of the Spirit, so 
 far from being the reward of sanctification, is one 
 of its chief springs ; for without love there is no holi- 
 ness, and we only love because we feel that God 
 first loved us. "Because, ye are so?is, God hath 
 sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, 
 crying, Abba, Father." Not because you are old 
 and eminent among the sons of God, but because 
 you are sons: it i3 not a good-service reward, but a 
 birthright ; not a crown of distinction, but a joy 
 of adoption. " In whom ye also trusted, after that 
 ye heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your sal- 
 vation; in whom after that ye believed, ye were 
 sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." Here the 
 order is, " Ye heard, believed, w r ere sealed :" no 
 long period of doubt and labor intervenes between 
 the believing and the sealing. The father of the 
 prodigal does not keep him for years, working " as 
 one of his hired servants," before he prints the fath- 
 erly kiss of reconciliation on his cheek and on his 
 heart. 
 
 The hackneyed objection, that it is presumption 
 for any one to. say that he is a child of God, takes 
 too much for granted. It never is presumption to 
 acknowledge what you are. Had David never been 
 taken from the sheepcote and made king it would 
 nave been presumption in him to say that ne had ; 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 187 
 
 Dut, when it was the case, he was in gratitude 
 bound to own and to commemorate the mercy 
 showed to him. So, if a man has not been delivered 
 from the dominion of sin, and adopted into the fam- 
 ily of God, for him to say that such is the case is 
 presumption ; but if lie has, then not to praise his 
 Redeemer for it, would be ingratitude. Saying that 
 it is presumption for a?iy one to call himself the 
 child of God, takes it for granted that no one is; or 
 else it is absurd. Presumption has many forms; 
 and it is worth considering, whether a great and 
 good Being would most disapprove the presumption 
 which expected too much from His goodness, or the 
 presumption Avhich dared positively to disbelieve 
 His promise. 
 
 Many who readily admit that, to some extent at 
 least, the Church in all ages will enjoy the gifts and 
 graces of the Holy Spirit ; and who would not deny 
 that the first believers were favored with direct 
 manifestations of the favor of God, yet make a diffi- 
 culty of believing that, when sinners are forgiven in 
 the present age, they are comforted by the Spirit 
 manifesting Himself in their hearts, and crying, 
 " Abba, Father." They do not deny that, even in 
 our day, forgiven sinners are solaced with a confi- 
 dence that they are forgiven ; but they see pruden- 
 tial reasons against admitting that this is imparted 
 14 
 
188 THE TONGUE OF FIHE. 
 
 by the direct witness of the Spirit, and would ar 
 riv^e at it by a process which, however unwittingly 
 on their part, removes the office of sealing the 
 adopted children of God from the Spirit, and gives 
 it to the reason of man. They teach the seeker of 
 salvation that, instead of looking to the Cross for 
 mercy, till the Spirit, as the Comforter, " reveals 
 the Son of God in his heart ;" he is certainly to look 
 to the Cross, but not to expect that to bring any 
 si .ch manifestation ; on the contrary, he is only to 
 ?£arn what are the marks of a child of God, to com- 
 pare his life with them, and, if it and they agree, his 
 mind will arrive at the comfortable persuasion that 
 he is a child of God. 
 
 This is one instance of the common error of taking 
 part of a process for the whole. On the part of the 
 Christian, the comparison of the scriptural marks 
 of the regenerated with his own character, is not 
 only good, but absolutely necessary ; for, no matter 
 what may be his supposed comforts, joys, or revela- 
 tions, if, in his life, he is not led by the Spirit of 
 God, he is not a son of God. But because certain 
 evidence is essential as a corroboration, it does not 
 follow that it is the chief evidence of the fact, the 
 first ground of conviction. As a guard against delu- 
 sion, a strengthening of our confidence, and a con- 
 stant stimulus tc press forward to the things which 
 are before, a sober judgment passed upon our own 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 189 
 
 progress in grace is scriptural, rational, and indis- 
 pensable. As the mode of binding up the broken 
 heart of a penitent, of imparting to him the first feel- 
 ing of filial confidence in the Lord, it is neither scrip- 
 tural nor rational. It never can be the original 
 ground of consciousness in any soul, that, through 
 the abundance of grace, I, even I, am an adopted 
 child of God. 
 
 Yet this is the consciousness to be given, and 
 that not to the heart of one who is " whole," but 
 of one who is "sick;" not of a man who thinks 
 that he is good, who is ready to interpret every 
 thing in his own favor> and has no feeling that he is 
 vile, or that the Lord is angry with him ; but of 
 one who now feels what probably he believed all 
 his life, that he is a sinner, covered with dark and 
 filthy spots, the displeasure of the Lord hanging 
 over him for many unholy deeds, and his poor soul 
 both fitted for destruction and exposed to it. - Un- 
 til painfully sensible of his need of Christ, no man 
 flees to Him for refuge ; and one in this state of 
 feeling is soberly told, that his burden is to be re- 
 moved, and the sense of his salvation to be origin- 
 ated, by his being satisfied of the agreement of his 
 own life with the fruits of the Spirit, as stated in the 
 word of God. 
 
 What are those fruits ? "Love, joy, peace," etc, 
 or " righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy 
 
190 THE TONGUE OF FIEE. 
 
 Ghost." No enumeration of the fruits of the Spirit 
 
 will be found which excludes peace and joy, much 
 
 less love; and from these graces, if, indeed, not 
 
 from the last named alone, spring the various fruits 
 
 which unitedly constitute " righteousness." The 
 
 poor penitent, then, is not to be first relieved of his 
 
 load, and given to feel that God loves him ; but, 
 
 previous to obtaining such Divine comfort, he is to 
 
 become satisfied that his love, joy, peace, and other 
 
 graces, are such as to mark the children of God ! 
 
 that is, while yet feeling that the Lord is angry 
 
 with him, he is to love the Lord ; while yet feeling 
 
 that is soul is unsaved, he is to feel joy in the Holy 
 
 Ghost. If it be said that the feeling of the Lord's 
 
 wrath and his own danger is removed before the 
 
 filial affections appear, then a direct action of the 
 
 Comforter, antecedent to his satisfaction with his 
 
 own graces, is admitted ; and if that be denied, 
 
 there is no alternative but to conclude that, at the 
 
 same time and in the same heart, one can both feel 
 
 that he is under God's anger, and love God as a 
 
 forgiving Father ; can feel that he is in danger of 
 
 hell, and enjoy spiritual peace. If the sense of wrath 
 
 and danger is removed before the fruits of the 
 
 Spirit appear, there is a direct witness of the Spirit 
 
 Himself; if not till after, the totally incompatible 
 
 states of mind just mentioned must co-exist 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO TILE CIIUHCH. 191 
 
 The relation of the fruit of the Spirit to the wit- 
 ness of the Spirit is clearly indicated to us. John 
 says, "We love Him because He first loved ns." 
 Here the fruit, " We love," is made consequent on 
 our sense of the fact, " He first loved us." To say 
 that we first know that God loves us, because we 
 feel that we love Him, is to make the fruit of the 
 Spirit the foundation of the witness of the Spirit , 
 a relation totally repugnant to the principle an- 
 nounced in this text, and pervading the New Tes- 
 tament, as, indeed, also the Old. " Bless the Lord, 
 O my soul, and forget not all His benefits ; who for- 
 giveth all thine iniquities." The fact of forgiveness 
 ascertained is the ground of filial gratitude; not 
 filial gratitude the ground from w 7 hich the fact of 
 forgiveness is inferred. 
 
 Mental conclusions, as to spiritual truths, do not 
 govern the feelings. The marks of " a child of 
 wrath" are plainly laid down. Thousands know 
 that they bear them ; and yet this produces no con- 
 trition or distress, till the coming Spirit pierces 
 their hearts. As it is with convincing, so would it 
 be with comforting. A mental conclusion as to my 
 own spiritual attainments would never dispel a sense 
 of guilt from my conscience, or make my trembling 
 heart " rejoice in the Lord." Did an awakened 
 sinner conclude a hundred times that the marks in 
 the Bible and the traits in his character agreed, hia 
 
192 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 woundtd spirit having no other balm, all this con- 
 cluding would never heal his sore. The same voice 
 which spoke condemnation into his conscience, 
 must speak justification ; the same hand which 
 broke his hard heart must bind it up. 
 
 The deeper the penitence of any one, the slower 
 would he be t j take comfort from any good in 
 himself; therefore, on a theory which makes this the 
 foundation of comfort, the further would he be 
 from finding rest ; while, on the more evangelical 
 view, the very depth of his penitence would drive 
 him the more speedily to bring his burden to the 
 Cross, when it would fall off. 
 
 This allusion brings Bunyan and his Pilgrim onoe 
 more to our view. He does not set Christian to 
 undo his own burden by arguing, "I have fled 
 from the City of Destruction ; I have forsaken 
 house and friends, wife and children ; have resisted 
 temptations to return ; have knocked at the gate 
 and entered in, and am in the narrow path :" but, 
 with all this done, he brings him to " a place some- 
 what ascending," where stands a cross, and, "just 
 as Christian came up with the cross, his burden 
 loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his 
 back." He did not cast off the burden by a pro- 
 cess which could easily be explained ; but, when he 
 set his eye on the cross, it fell off itself; and " it 
 W r as very surprising to him *hat the sight of the 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 193 
 
 cross should thus ease him of his burden. 5 ' And so 
 it is to others ; but, however surprising, do thou, 
 my penitent brother, heed no other direction than 
 that which points thine eye straight to the Cross ; 
 for pardon, for escape from hell, for rest, and hope, 
 and purity, look thither, thither, only thither ! If 
 thy burden fall not at once, yet still look, look to 
 the Cross, and fall it will, far sooner, and far more 
 surely, than if thou attempt to untie it by thy ar- 
 guments ! 
 
 As Christian thus stood before the cross, wonder- 
 ing, the " Three Shining Ones came to him : the 
 first said, ' Thy sins be forgiven thee ;' the second 
 stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with 
 change of raiment ; the third, also, set a mark on 
 his forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal upon 
 it, w r hich he bid him look on as he ran, and that he 
 should give it in at the celestial gate." 
 
 This is unsophisticated Christianity. A burdened 
 sinner, after discouragements and wanderings, comes, 
 at last, to the foot of the Cross. He looks, and is 
 healed ; his pardon, freely given, is tenderly mani- 
 fested to him. The Father, Son, and Spirit unite 
 to assure his heart, and give him present and abid- 
 ing peace. He receives an evidence of acceptance, 
 where he may always 
 
 u Read his title clear 
 To mansions in the skies." 
 
194 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 After this, the more he " searches" his own self, 
 " and proves" his own self, " whether he be in the 
 faith," the better for his vigilance and progress. 
 But no such examining before w^ould have unloosed 
 his burden, or given him the roll. 
 
 The theory of an inferential comforting of be- 
 lievers, as a substitute for the scriptural mode of a 
 " witness" of the Spirit, is singularly hopeless ; for, 
 at every step, it is obliged to lean upon that which 
 it professes to dispense with and replace. It rests 
 all " quietness and assurance" for penitent hearts on 
 the fruits of the Spirit; and the very chief of those 
 fruits, " love," etc., pre-supposes the witness of the 
 Spirit by a necessity as clear as that by which re 
 pentance pre-supposes His convincing operation. 
 
 No ; the sealing and solacing of penitent be- 
 lievers is not left to mere reasoning, especially w 7 ith 
 a foundation so liable to be misapprehended as our 
 own attainments in grace. It is the work and office 
 of that "other Comforter" whom our dying Lord 
 promised ; and let no man take it out of His hand . 
 He it is who " cries" in the heart, "Abba, Father!" 
 Ho who seals, He who bears wdtness, He who sheds 
 abroad the love of God, He who enables us to know 
 the things that are freely given to us of God. Any 
 attempts to escape the mystery involved in the 
 Holy Spirit revealing the mercy of God to a human 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 195 
 
 oul only leads to contradictions and perplexities. 
 To the old question, " How can these things be ?" 
 the one sufficient answer is, " They are spiritually 
 discerned." "What the Lord spiritually reveals, the 
 soul can spiritually discern ; and a Divine presence, 
 or a Divine communication, may be assumed always 
 to carry its own evidence with it, first to the con- 
 sciousness, and then, by its fruits, to the reason. 
 "One thing I know: whereas I was blind, now 
 I see." 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that many who are 
 sincere, and even earnest, pass the days of their 
 pilgrimage in gloom, having no roll in their bosom 
 which they know can be presented " at the celestial 
 gate ;" no conscious title to enter into the city ; no 
 permanent "joy or peace in believing." Nothing is 
 more dangerous than to divert the eye from the one 
 object of faith. And if persons are not taught to 
 look, and look upon the Cross, until their sins are 
 blotted out, and the comforting Spirit Himself heals 
 their wounds, but to seek rest by noting their own 
 progress in the Christian graces, and are at the 
 same time left without any fellowship of saints, 
 through which they might learn by what steps of 
 fear and doubt, of despair, and hope, and faith, 
 others, whose whole spirit savors of the peace of 
 God, obtained that blessing ; is it not natural that 
 
198 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 they should walk in dim moonlight instead of walk* 
 ing in the sun? Yet, even amid those so dealt 
 with, the Lord oftentimes breaks up man's theories 
 by converting a sinner with such manifestation of 
 the Spirit that it would be equally impossible to 
 persuade him that his peace first came by contem- 
 plating his graces, and to keep him from telling 
 what the Lord had done for his soul. 
 
 The character of the Christian Church, as a whole, 
 must always be ruled by the character of individual 
 Christians ; for the Church is but the assembly and 
 aggregate of individuals. If, then, as the ages ad- 
 vance, the individual Christian degenerate, the 
 Church must gradually degenerate also, her minis- 
 try be debilitated, and her efforts upon the world 
 be less fruitful. All Christian character depends on 
 the relations of the soul w T ith its Creator: if these 
 be cold instead of being joyous, if they be gov- 
 erned by the feeling of a doubtful reconciliation in- 
 Btead of that of a happy sonship, then, of necessity, 
 the life is overcast with the shadows of not im- 
 probable perdition instead of being sunned with 
 cloudless hopes of glory, and service is rendered 
 as to an austere Master instead of to a most forgiv 
 ing and loving Father. Strike from the language 
 of the Christian the words, " Our fellowship is with 
 the Father and the Son,' 7 and at once we have a 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 197 
 
 race whose religion is not the religion of John, 
 whose heart-strength is not drawn from the same 
 sources as his. 
 
 Whether it be in comforts, in sensible communion 
 with the reconciled Deity, or in practical sanctifica- 
 tion of life, we contend that all Scripture holds out 
 to us disciples of this actual hour, poor and unde- 
 serving though we be, the same sources and the 
 same measure of grace as were open to our breth- 
 ren of former times. There has been no recall of 
 the Spirit, no curtailing of the " abundant pardon," 
 no abridging of the privileges of the adopted. The 
 promise of the Holy Spirit was not only to the first 
 converts; but, as Peter, addressing them, said, "to 
 us, and to our children, and to all that are afar off 
 even to as many as the Lord our God shall call." 
 However distant from that spot in Jerusalem, and 
 however distant from that moment of time, the calJ 
 might sound, it would carry with it the promise ; 
 even that promise, the fulfillment of which made 
 the early Church so holy and so victorious. The 
 flames, the tongues, the outward signs, were not 
 the saving grace of the Spirit. That was " within 
 you," in the soul of man, and was shown in " new 
 creatures." That saving grace of the Spirit, work- 
 ing in Christians now, constitutes their identity with 
 those of old. Without this, in apostolic times, 
 though one spoke with " the tongues of angels and 
 
*"nJ 
 
 198 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 of men," and could " work all miracles," he was 
 
 not a true disciple. With this, in our times, though 
 
 * 
 
 one work no miracle, and speak not with tongues, 
 he is a true disciple ; for, " as many as are led by 
 the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." 
 Miraculous gifts were not of the essence, but sepa- 
 rable attendants, of a real Christian ; and all that 
 was then essential remains to us, unimpaired and 
 free as ever it was to them. 
 
 Father, Son, and Spirit ! pardon the unbelief 
 which has imagined that Thou didst repent of 
 the exceeding abundance of grace once given to 
 Thy ransomed Church ! Afflict us not, on ac- 
 count of it, by a real withdrawal of Thy presence ! 
 Manifest forth Thy glory anew, by filling Thy 
 children with joy and light, that the world may 
 see that Thine ancient love and grace remain our 
 heritage ! 
 
 Next to the question, whether the privileges of 
 the modern Christian, as respects grace, are to be 
 equal with those of the primitive one, comes the 
 question, whether the Christian ministry is now es- 
 sentially the same institution as at first ? If be- 
 lievers are not now the same as formerly, it is im- 
 possible that the same religion should be preserved 
 in the world ; and if the Ministers be not the same, 
 it is highly improbable that the ordinary members 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 199 
 
 of the Church will be so. Few would take the 
 ground that our Lord founded His ministry on 
 an unstable basis, requiring essential changes to 
 render it capable of perpetuation in any age or 
 country to which Christianity might extend : and 
 all would admit the high probability that the prin- 
 ciples on which He established it were those best 
 adapted for its success under every future change 
 of circumstances. 
 
 When we look at the example of the New Testa- 
 ment, its spirit, usages, and principles, it is too 
 manifest to need more than assertion, that the 
 anointing of the Holy Spirit was the one thing es- 
 sential in the Minister of the Gospel. As w T e have 
 before said that a religion without the Holy Spirit 
 would not be Christianity, and that religionists with- 
 out the Holy Spirit would not be Christians, so we 
 may strongly say that teachers without the Holy 
 Spirit would not be Christian Ministers, according 
 to the original sense of that term, the only sense in 
 which we find it employed in the sacred writings. 
 Every arrangement respecting the training, or 
 labors, of Christian Ministers, which does not pro- 
 ceed upon the ground that they are certainly to be 
 men first regenerated, then gifted for the ministry, 
 and moved to it, by the operation of the Holy 
 Spirit — an operation not to be assumed without 
 proof, but to be tested by its fruits — must be as 
 
200 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 faulty iii theory, and as inefficient in practice im 
 fcny arrangement for the employment of fire-aiv\s, 
 which did not proceed on the ground that explosion 
 is the source of power. The bow was a mighty 
 weapon, and its combination of steel and timber 
 of cord and arm, of the strength of the vegetable, 
 the mineral, the animal, entitled it to the admira- 
 tion and confidence of many a host ; and, as all its 
 forces were mechanical, no question ever needed to 
 be raised but one lying within the limits of mecha- 
 nical inquiry. But the moment you adopt powder 
 as your impeller, the elasticity of yew, or the 
 strength of muscle, are considerations out of place. 
 You have left mechanics, and cast yourself upon 
 chemistry ; and all your calculations must pro- 
 ceed on the ground that you have but to provide 
 an instrument which will co-operate with an ex- 
 plosive agent. 
 
 The New Testament ministry rests not on mental, 
 emotional, or educational strength, but, using each 
 of these as occasion may serve, finds its own power 
 in a spiritual influence ; and all reasoning applied to 
 it, without being founded on this fact, is reasoning 
 on the rifle upon principles belonging to the bow. 
 
 The miraculous gifts imparted to many in the 
 early Church are carefully ranked and marked by 
 the hand of the Apostle as inferior to those gifts 
 which were " for edification, and exhortation 5 and 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUHCH. 201 
 
 comfort." "And God hath set some in the Church, 
 first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, thirdly Teach 
 ers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, 
 governments, diversities of tongues."* Here mira- 
 cle-working, healing, and speaking with divers 
 tongues, are set as inferior gifts to those whereby 
 men were constituted teachers or prophets. A 
 similar design is observed in Ephesians iv. 11 : 
 "And he gave some, Apostles ; and some, Prophets; 
 and some, Evangelists ; and some, Pastors and 
 Teachers." Here we do not find any miraculous 
 gifts even mentioned as part of the institution of 
 Christ "for the perfecting of the saints, for the 
 work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body 
 of Christ :" to this — the true end of the ministry — 
 the effects produced by miraculous gifts were only 
 auxiliary. True, the Apostles, Prophets, and Evan- 
 gelists, as, indeed, also the Pastors and Teachers, 
 possessed, and often exercised, miraculous gifts ; 
 but it was not by these they effected the " perfect- 
 ing of the saints, the work of the ministry, or the 
 edifying of the body of Christ." The essential 
 point with regard to every one proposed for the 
 sacred office is, to ascertain whether or not he is " a 
 man sent of God." 
 
 As the gift of the Spirit Himself is represented 
 &$ consequent upon the ascension of our Lord, so, 
 * 1 Cor. xJi. 23. 
 
202 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 in the passage in Ephesians to which we have just 
 alluded, the institution of the ministry also is repre- 
 sented as the result of His triumphant ascension. 
 " He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, 
 and gave gifts unto men;" and "He gave some, 
 Apostles ; and some, Prophets," etc. These were 
 the gifts which He, from His throne of mediation, 
 bestowed on His Church — men endued with power 
 by His Spirit, and also moved by the same Spirit to 
 spend their lives in the work of the ministry for the 
 edifying of the body of Christ. Whether we take 
 the Prophets under the old dispensation, or the 
 Lord's messengers under the new, we find that the 
 distinctive characteristics of a true Minister of God 
 lay in a call and a qualification. The qualification 
 involved a gift, a power, and a training. He who 
 had a call from God, a gift from God, and a powei 
 from God, and he only, was ever Prophet, Evange- 
 list, or Pastor and Teacher, in any scriptural sense. 
 The training varied with the age, dispensation, and 
 circumstances ; but no training ever did, or ever 
 can, make him a Minister who has no call, no gifts, 
 and no power sent upon his soul by the anointing 
 of the eternal Spirit. 
 
 The call pre-supposed grace, or the moral qualifi 
 cation, and implied a gift, or w 7 hat may be called the 
 mental qualification ; for, to call without imparting 
 a gift, would be leading an unarmed soldier into 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 203 
 
 oattle ; and to call and gift an unregenerate man^ 
 would be to commission and arm a rebel : these 
 two, therefore, call and qualification, can never be 
 looked upon as separable. "The love of Chris 
 constraineth us," is the language in which the apos- 
 tle expresses that which is essential in the internal 
 working of a call from God to spend and to be spent 
 for the salvation of men ; and he who, thus con- 
 strained by the love of Christ, finds himself pos- 
 sessed of a gift to speak to edification, or exhorta- 
 tion, or comfort, has, in that motion and in that 
 faculty, strong evidence that the Lord is calling 
 him into His vineyard. What he feels is not a mere 
 desire to enter the ministry as a good and useful 
 office, or to spend life in an honorable and happy 
 vocation ; but is a constraining movement of the 
 love of Christ, as if issuing from His heart into the 
 heart of His servant, and working there a strong 
 impulse to cry out and labor for the recovery of 
 Adam's lost children to the favor of their God, and 
 the rest of heaven. But, however strongly this de- 
 sire may exist, if it be not accompanied with a gift 
 for public teaching, that alone proves that the Lord 
 has not designed the operation of His love to con- 
 strain this particular individual to the public labors 
 of the ministry, but to other efforts for the same 
 end. Him whom God sends to any work, He qual- 
 ifies for that work. 
 15 
 
204 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 A person feeling a true impulse to labor fol 
 Christ, and misjudging his own gift, may conceive 
 himself to be called for the ministry when he is far 
 from being qualified for it ; and, on this point, the 
 onus of judgment can not properly be laid upon 
 him, but must rest upon the Church. He, and he 
 only, can judge as to the inward motive of his soul, 
 whether or not his heart is moved by the Holy 
 Ghost to undertake this work ; and the fact, that 
 the responsibility of declaring that he believes him- 
 self to be so moved is thrown upon the candidate 
 for the ministry by most Churches, if not by all, is a 
 public and solemn testimony that the operation of 
 the Holy Spirit in the heart is recognized as con 
 tinuing to be the one basis of qualification for the 
 ministry of the Gospel. Only one's own self can 
 tell what has passed between the soul and its Sav- 
 iour. No stranger intermeddleth with the question 
 whether the Spirit has, or has not, in holy prompt- 
 ings, moved one to consecrate his life to the sole 
 work of edifying and multiplying the flock of 
 Christ. If any come to offer his hand to the Church 
 for this high service, on his own soul it lies to say 
 whether or not he is led by an impulse from on 
 high, or by ordinary professional motives. 
 
 The Church, nevertheless, has her responsibility; 
 and before she seals the credentials of any, she is 
 bound to take note whether the Lord Himsolf has 
 
PEKMANEOT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 205 
 
 sealed them by the gifts of His Holy Spirit. As 
 much as the responsibility lies on the individual of 
 making or not making a solemn profession that he 
 is inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost, does the 
 responsibility lie upon the Church to see that he 
 has all the corroborative marks of such a call. Those 
 marks are grace, gifts, fruit. Does his whole life 
 testify that he has felt the repentance to which he 
 is to call sinners, exercised the faith to which he is 
 to encourage penitents, and experienced, in some 
 degree, that sanctification to which he is to lead on 
 believers ? If the evidence of this be not clear, the 
 Church sins a grievous sin in accrediting him to the 
 world as one qualified to "warn every man, and 
 teach every man, that he may present every man 
 perfect." No circumstance of time, age, nation, or 
 aught else, can authorize any Church to dispense 
 with the essential qualification that he who is to bo 
 a minister of God shall first be a child of God. Any 
 credentials given without full proof of this, are pre- 
 sumptuous and null. When our Lord was about to 
 restore to his beloved disciple Peter the commission 
 which his fall had seemed to forfeit, He puts to him 
 the question, "Lovest thou Me ?" and thrice repeats 
 it, searching him to the soul ; and, on the ground 
 that he does love Him, intrusts him anew with the 
 commission, " Feed My sheep," No man whose 
 true love to the Saviour is doubtful, who can not 
 
206 THE TONGUE OF FIRE, 
 
 appeal to Him who knoweth all things as witness 
 that he does love Him, has that qualification for o 
 commission which is most indispensable of all — loy 
 alty to the King. 
 
 " The same commit ihou to faithful men. v 
 " Who is that faithful and wise steward whom the 
 Lord will set over His house, to give to every man 
 a portion of meat in due season ?" In both of these 
 passages, as all through the Word of God, the spir- 
 itual qualification is set as a consideration anteced 
 ent to that of gifts : first of all " faithful ;" but not 
 merely " faithful." " The same commit thou to 
 faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." 
 The steward is to be not only " faithful," but " wise," 
 able to distribute to every one in due season. He 
 who is not apt to teach, ought never to be commis- 
 sioned as a teacher. The gifts of the Spirit are va- 
 rious. " To one is given the word of wisdom, to 
 another the word of knowledge, to another proph- 
 ecy." With regard to the servants of the Lord 
 Christ, according to the gift of each, so let his 
 sphere be. If " prophecy, let him prophesy accord- 
 ing to the proportion of faith ; or teaching, let him 
 wait on his teaching ; or he that exhorteth, on ex- 
 hortation." 
 
 When, therefore, any one comes forward to offer 
 himself as a laborer in the vineyard of the Lord, 
 before he can be rightly assigned to any sphere, the 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 20^ 
 
 question as to his spiritual character must bo favor- 
 ably decided, and then his sphere should be deter 
 mined by his gifts. Which of the various gifts of 
 the Holy Spirit have been conferred upon him 
 If none of them, who dare say that he is to be a 
 minister of God, and a teacher of the souls of men? 
 Surely this is not the Church of Christ, that is going 
 to lay hands upon a man, of whom no one knows 
 whether he has any gift whatever from God — a 
 man whose voice has never been raised in exhorta- 
 tion, teaching, preaching, or public prayer, who has 
 given no more evidence of gifts and fitness than a 
 thousand others who make no pretension to be fit 
 — going to set such an one over hundreds of pro- 
 fessed Christians as their teacher and pastor, as the 
 leader of their devotions, and the only instructor 
 of their souls! 
 
 It is a manifest inversion of Christian order, 
 when the commission of the Church is taken to 
 be the authority to commence the exercise of spirit- 
 ual gifts. In the New Testament the Church's 
 only warrant for issuing her commission is the 
 known possession of such gifts ; and this can only 
 be proved by their previous exercise. Her work 
 was not to create gifts, but from among the gifted 
 brethren to select those whom the Lord had, by 
 His own will and act, previously fitted for special 
 offices. The ordination of the Church to the min< 
 
208 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 istry was not a Christian's first authority to f reach 
 Christ ; for that, opportunity and ability were 
 authority enough ; but the special eminence and 
 usefulness of some among the company of preach- 
 ers was the Church's warrant for separating them 
 to the sole work of the ministry. If a commission 
 from the Church be held to supply the place either 
 of the Spirit's constraining call, or of His qualifying 
 gift, His office in perpetuating the ministry is super- 
 seded. To do this effectually, it is not necessary 
 to blot from creeds the expressions of right belief, 
 but only to adopt in practice such regulations as 
 will enable men without grace, or without gifts, by 
 the use of ordinary professional preparations, to 
 obtain a commission, and stand up as accredited 
 stewards of the mysteries of God. 
 
 The operation of the Spirit in fitting the minister 
 for the work of God is seen, in the Old Testament, 
 in connection, not with the priestly office, but with 
 that of the prophet. The former was a typical and 
 temporary office, existing only as the precursor and 
 type of the great High Priest, and terminating 
 at once and forever when He whom it foreshadow- 
 ed had made His offering, and passed within the 
 vail. The work of the priest was not to teach, 
 edify, warn, and forewarn, but to be the medium 
 of access to the presence of God on His mercy-seat. 
 As such, he has no earthly successor in Christianity : 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHXJKCH- 209 
 
 his office, we repeat, ended forever with the atone- 
 ment and ascension of our Lord. Then came a 
 change of the priesthood, that of Levi giving place 
 to that of Melchisedec, which was vested, not in a 
 succession of mutable men, but all in the Unchang- 
 ing One, whose sacrifice should never need repeti- 
 tion, whose years should never fail, and whose in- 
 finite tenderness should feel every infirmity of 
 every suppliant. 
 
 The office of the prophet was to warn, to re- 
 prove, to rebuke, to exhort, as well as to foreshow. 
 That office is not repeated in all its features in the 
 Christian " pastor and teacher," but as to its essen- 
 tials it is. Foretelling is the one function wherein 
 the two differ ; and that was appropriately the gift 
 of an age in which revelation was incomplete, and 
 all the hopes of believers turned to a light yet un- 
 risen. Indeed, it may be worth considering whether 
 the perpetuation of the foretelling gift would not 
 suppose an incomplete revelation, and whether the 
 closing of the canon of revealed truth does not nat- 
 urally carry with it the termination of that wonder- 
 ful gift by which, from age to age, additions had 
 been made to the previous stores of truth. 
 
 When St. Paul urges upon us to desire, and, in- 
 deed, to follow after, the " spiritual gift" of proph- 
 ecy, and holds out the inducement which should 
 lead us to covet it above all other gifts, he has not 
 
210 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 in his eye, and does not present to ours, the honoi 
 or the profit of foretelling. The only inducement! 
 he assigns are these : " He that prophesieth speak* 
 eth unto men to edification, and exhortation, and 
 comfort." " I would that ye all spake with tongues, 
 but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he 
 that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, 
 except he interpret, that the Church may receive 
 edifying * * * But if ail prophesy, and there 
 come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he 
 is convinced of all, he is judged of all : and thus are 
 the secrets of his heart made manifest ; and so, 
 falling down on his face, he will worship God, and 
 report that God is in you of a truth." Thus, in the 
 passages where the Apostle speaks most upon the 
 Christian gift of prophecy, he makes no allusion to 
 foretelling; and in the Acts of the Apostles we 
 read that "Judas and Silas, being prophets also 
 themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, 
 and confirmed them." We have no record any- 
 where of Silas foretelling, nor is there the least al- 
 lusion to the exercise of such a gift ; yet his ex- 
 hortation and that of Jude, with their confirming 
 arguments or appeals, are at once set down as the 
 exercise of the prophetic gift. 
 
 The highest oflice of the Spirit in the Prophet of 
 the old dispensation was to enable him to see and 
 to depict "the suflV'^ngs of Christ, and the glory 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 211 
 
 that should follow," as though they were before his 
 eye ; and the highest office of the same Spirit in 
 God's minister, in our day, is to enable him to des- 
 cry, by an inner eye, the glories and the grace of a 
 Lord whom he has never seen; and to descant 
 upon them as though his eye beheld Him, and his 
 ear was tingling with His voice. The same spirit- 
 ual light which made a future Redeemer present to 
 Isaiah, is needful to make a past Redeemer present 
 to the Christian preacher. Without it, the one 
 might have had an expectation, and the other 
 might have a belief; but neither could burn and 
 melt as in the presence of a living, loving, redeem- 
 ing Prince of Peace. The spirit of prophecy illu- 
 minated the future to the one, and illuminates the 
 past to the other — gave that which was a promise 
 the force of a thing done, and gives that which is a 
 record the force of a thing now doing. 
 
 The difference, within the soul of a man, between 
 merely cherishing an expectation or a belief, and 
 seeing, feeling, thrilling under the impression of a 
 present Friend and Deliverer, makes in his utter- 
 ance the difference between a tame declaration 
 which disturbs neither prejudice nor indifference, 
 and an overpowering force of speech that bears 
 men's hearts away. So far was the gift whereby 
 the Spirit enabled the servants of Christ to speak 
 as the oracles of God respecting the Master whom* 
 
212 THE TONGl T E OF PIKE. 
 
 chough "not having seen, they loved," from being 
 considered essentially different from that where- 
 with He had endued the ancient Prophets, that 
 fche same name is freely applied to it, even when,, 
 as we have seen, the idea of foretelling is not in- 
 cluded. 
 
 However decided might be the evidence, that an 
 individual was a child of God, and had a gift, an- 
 other element is ever kept in view as an attestation 
 that he is truly commissioned from the Father — the 
 power and anointing of the Holy One transfused 
 throughout his preaching, and giving it a moral 
 effect which ordinary speech, however wise, would 
 never carry. " Not in word only," however true 
 and scriptural that word might be, " but in power, 
 and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." 
 "The kingdom of God is not in word, but in 
 power." " The preaching of the Cross is to them 
 that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved 
 it is the power of God." "My speech and my 
 preaching were not with enticing words of man's 
 wisdom, but with demonstration of the Spirit and 
 of power, that your faith should not stand in the 
 wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Here 
 we see the most highly gifted of the Apostles clearly 
 recognizing the fact, that his success as an embassa- 
 dor to sinful men lay not in the perfectness of his 
 
PERMAISTENT BENEFI1S TO THE CHTTltCII. 213 
 
 intellectual perceptions, nor in the mode in which 
 he presented the truth to the intellectual view of 
 those whom he addressed, but in a spiritual element 
 of his preaching, as distinct from its intellectual 
 characteristics as they were from its physical eloca 
 tion, and as necessary, in addition to the intellectual 
 presentation of truth, as was the latter in addition 
 to a rush of words. Without clear intellectual pre- 
 sentation of truth, any flow of words would fail to 
 convince or to enlighten. Withcut the spiritual 
 power, any exposition or argument would fail to 
 awaken or regenerate. The work of Paul was 
 nothing short of a commission to " turn them from 
 darkness to light, and from the power of Satan 
 unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of 
 sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanc- 
 tified ;" and this he knew would never be effected 
 except by " power and by the Holy Ghost," work- 
 ing in and through whatever truth he might utter 
 as the bearer of God's great message. 
 
 Without this call from God, this gift from God, 
 and this power from God, no one can be recognized 
 as, in the scriptural sense, an embassador from God. 
 To dispense with any one of these essentials in the 
 qualification of a minister, is to introduce a radical 
 change into the institution of the ministry itself, 
 and to set it up on a basis for which there is no 
 scriptural precedent, The^p essentials being so. 
 
214 THE TONGUE OF EIRE 
 
 cured, the training is varied according to circun> 
 stances. In the case of the Apostles and the Sev- 
 enty, after our Lord had called them under the 
 p omise that He would make them fishers of men 
 He retained them near His own person, continually 
 instructing them in the oracles of God, giving them 
 the highest example of teaching and of a holy life ; 
 and this training ne continued for three years. 
 After the call of St. Paul, we find that three years 
 elapsed before He came up to Jerusalem, which 
 time he had spent in Arabia and Damascus, in what 
 manner we are not informed, but probably in study 
 of the Holy Scriptures, tending to give him a fuller 
 acquaintance with the revelation of God in Christ. 
 It is certain, however, that he was also exercising 
 his gifts ; for even in Damascus, immediately after 
 his conversion, he began to preach. The training 
 of Apollos lay first in such light as he received as a 
 disciple of John's baptism, next in the exercise of 
 his gifts, and then in the further instruction of 
 Aquila and Priscilla. The training of Timothy lay 
 in the early teaching of a holy mother and grand- 
 mother, the ordinary means of grace, study of the 
 word of God, and then personal fellowship with the 
 Apostle Paul and his fellow-laborers on their jour- 
 neys and in their toils. Whatever special training 
 individuals may have been favored with, that which 
 was essential in the training was common to all 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 215 
 
 namely, instruction in the Holy Scriptures, the ex- 
 ercise of their gifts in religious assemblies either of 
 the Church or of the synagogue, and the gradual 
 development of those gifts, until fitness for the 
 ministry was clearly proved. 
 
 Whatever value general education may have 
 held in the eyes of our blessed Lord, or of the 
 anointing Spirit, it is plain that even the Apostles, 
 in the height and glory of their Pentecostal preach- 
 ing, were not gifted with any power which would 
 cover the provincial peculiarities of their speech, or 
 enable them to conciliate the refined by graceful 
 enunciation. The educated ears of the Scribes 
 of Jerusalem at once recognized, in the workers of 
 miracles and the teachers of an increasing Church, 
 " unlearned and ignorant men." But, as we noticed 
 before, their want of learning related only to mat- 
 ters of polite education, not to the deep things of 
 the word of God, the doctrines, facts, and promises 
 of which they were commissioned to expound to 
 the world. The general education of Luke and 
 Paul was gained with a view to general purposes, 
 and turned to the service of the Church by the 
 grace which converted them. 
 
 We now come to the simple question, Are the 
 call, the gift, the power, and the training of the 
 Christian Minister to continue to the end of time, 
 
216 THE TOXaUE OF fike. 
 
 as to essentials, the same as in the apostolic age ? 
 Are we to expect identity, in these particulars, be- 
 tween the ministry of our day, and that of the first 
 century; or, dispensing with this, are we to be 
 contented simply with a lineal connection ? To put 
 out of sight the scriptural precedents and essentials 
 of ministerial qualification, to give up the spiritual 
 identity of the ministry, and be satisfied with a 
 lineal connection, is a lamentable abandonment of 
 the Church's hope. If she do not obtain for the 
 sacred office a succession of men able to teach, and 
 endued with the Holy Ghost, she can not preserve 
 to herself, or transmit to future ages, the primitive 
 and apostolic ministry. Though all the appendages 
 of the office be preserved, if the spiritual essentials 
 of the Minister be lost, the pith and sap of the 
 ancient tree are gone, though the bark and foliage 
 may survive. It is for the Church to see that un- 
 equivocal signs of grace, and gifts, and fruitfulness, 
 mark out every candidate for the sacred office as 
 one chosen of the Lord ; and not to accept instead 
 of these any substitute whatever, whether it be his 
 own profession, or some qualifications supposed to 
 replace the primitive ones. 
 
 Though no one formally professes that the Chris- 
 tian ministry has become a totally different institu- 
 tion from that which Christ founded — different in 
 the qualification it requires, in the mode of indue* 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 217 
 
 tion, and in the source and fruit of its efficacy — yet 
 all this is assumed in the current writings and 
 thoughts of many, and the assumption is wrought 
 into the framework and usages of different Churches. 
 For a call of God, delivered by the voice of the 
 Holy Ghost, in the silence of a believing heart, 
 and manifested by earnest efforts to save souls and 
 to promote holy works, a formal commission from 
 ecclesiastical authorities is relied upon. Instead 
 of a gift from God — a gift of sacred and impress- 
 ive speech, a "tongue of fire" — we have substi- 
 tuted a ritual; instead of a scriptural training, a 
 high education ; and instead of a power from God, 
 some substitute intellectualism, and others pro- 
 priety. 
 
 We are very far from decrying these things in 
 their right place. The commission is good and 
 needful as the Church's seal and recognition of the 
 Lord's call, but ridiculous and self-contradictory as 
 a substitute for it. Learning is invaluable when 
 associated with and adorning gifts from God, but 
 lower than pitiable when offered as a substitute for 
 the power of opening and enforcing the Divine 
 oracles. Propriety, intellectualism, and ritual, have 
 their honorable place , but when, instead of the 
 power which penetrates the soul, we have only 
 ceremony which fascinates the taste, or talent which 
 regales the intellect, then are we fallen from the 
 
218 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 region of Divine to that of human things, brought 
 down from " the power of God" to " the wisdom 
 of man." 
 
 For this substitution different classes are to be 
 blamed ; Church authorities, chiefly for covering 
 the want of a call and a gift from God by a com- 
 mission from man ; and the multitude of professed 
 Christians, chiefly for coveting not so much spiritual 
 power, as propriety or intellectualism. Did the 
 former adhere to the primitive idea of the ministry, 
 they would no more commission, as a Minister oi 
 God, a man who had not given proof, first of sincere 
 godliness, and then of ministerial gifts, than would 
 any naval Board accredit a man as a pilot who had 
 studied navigation and charts, but had never sailed 
 the particular channel on which he was to be in- 
 trusted with valuable lives ; or than would any 
 medical Board give a surgeon's diploma to a man 
 who had read and heard lectures, but had never 
 been in a hospital, or dealt with an actual patient. 
 To substitute education for the ministerial gift 
 (even when grace is possessed) is, in fact, to set 
 aside the question, Is this man called of God ? 
 And to substitute it for evidences of grace (even 
 when gifts are possessed) is equally to set that 
 question aside. True, it may be still retained in 
 words ; but if that is done, and yet, without proof 
 of both gifts and grace, a man be inducted into the 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 219 
 
 taiinistry upon the simple evidence of education, 
 the question is deliberately evaded, and the sin of 
 falsifying Christ's own institution is not mitigated 
 by the plea of forgetfulness, much less of ignor- 
 ance ; but, with both knowledge and memory 
 of what it originally was, another thing, differing 
 from it in the first and most essential qualities, 
 is hailed by its name, and invested with its func- 
 tions. 
 
 To constitute a Christian, three things are neces- 
 sary — faith, experience, and practice : to constitute 
 a Minister, four — faith, experience, practice, and 
 gifts. Without experience, knowledge or belief 
 can no more qualify a man to teaoh heart repent- 
 ance, and heart faith, and heart holiness, than book 
 knowledge, whatever might be its amount, would 
 qualify a man to train soldiers, if he had never him- 
 self passed through the process of military disci- 
 pline. Without gifts, education and experience 
 would be together as insufficient a qualification, as 
 if a soldier had ammunition and discipline, without 
 weapons. 
 
 It is difficult to describe the evil done, when the 
 Church overlays the essential qualification and train- 
 ing of the primitive ministry by exalting substitutes 
 for the active power of the Holy Spirit, and when 
 she further sets before all men a profession with 
 
 high prizes, the door to which will infallibly bo 
 16 
 
220 THE TONGUE OF EIRE. 
 
 opened by a certain course of education, unless 
 they disgrace themselves, and thus allures them to 
 make sacred professions from secular motives. On 
 each individual who makes such professions without 
 due care the guilt of voluntarily sinning must for- 
 ever lie ; but how far has the Church been his 
 tempter, when she makes overtures to him irrespect- 
 ive of qualifications which are clearly laid down in 
 the word of God, as those only which attest the 
 Divine sanction and call ? 
 
 It may be asked whether we are to expect that 
 in all ages a sufficient number of men will be raised 
 up, bearing the primitive marks of a call from God, 
 and of gifts from God ; and our reply would be, 
 simply, Remember the ten days. There we see 
 men whose commission had come from the lips of 
 the Lord Jesus, whose training had been under His 
 own eye, who have forsaken houses, and lands, and 
 all that could bind them to secular avocations, who 
 are ready to set forth upon the work of calling and 
 warning a world that is " lying in the wicked one ;" 
 and yet day after day the inhibition lies upon them, 
 that they are to tarry until they are endued with 
 power from on high. As we look at that spectacle 
 — sinners dying, time rolling on, the Master looking 
 down from His newly-ascended throne on the world 
 which He has redeemed, seeing death bear away its 
 thousands while His servants keep silence — there is 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 221 
 
 in that silence a tone which booms through all the 
 future, warning us that never, never, under the dis- 
 pensation of the Spirit, are men to set out upon the 
 embassy of Christ, be their qualifications or creden- 
 tials what they may, until first they have been en- 
 dued with power from on high, been baptized with 
 tongues of fire. Better let the Church wait ever 
 so long — better let the ordinances of God's house 
 be without perfunctory actors, and all, feeling sore 
 need, be forced to cry with special urgency for 
 fresh outpourings and baptisms of the Holy Ghost, 
 to raise up holy ministers, than that, by any man- 
 ner of factitious supply, substitutes should be fur- 
 nished — substitutes no more ministers of God, than 
 coals arranged in a grate are a fire ; or than a golden 
 candlestick with a wax candle, which flame has 
 never touched, is a light. 
 
 If it was the original design of the Lord to with- 
 draw from the Church the ministerial grace of the 
 Spirit, and to leave her to the care of pastors, all 
 whose qualifications were natural, or gained by nat- 
 ural acquisition, all whose authority was derived 
 from human commission, without any "manifesta- 
 tion of the Spirit," either in gifts or moral power ; 
 it was clearly His purpose that His religion should 
 essentially change its character, after its establish- 
 ment in the world. This change, also, would be not 
 in the direction of improvement, but of degeneracy ; 
 
222 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 not by progressive increase of communication with 
 His redeemed flock, but by progressive increase of 
 distance between it and Him ; not by bringing 
 earthly things nearer to heavenly, but by removing 
 them further away. It would imply a design, on 
 his part, to reduce the Christian dispensation lower, 
 as to ministerial grace, than even the Jewish : for in 
 it the prophetic spirit was constantly giving mani- 
 festation that there was a God in Israel ; not merely 
 that there was truth, order, priesthood, a Church, 
 but a God, a living Being, high, holy, and wise, 
 who dwelt amid the people, and actively moved, 
 through His servants, for the instruction, reproof> 
 and holiness of all ; — " rising up early and sending" 
 messenger after messenger. It w r ould, in fact, im- 
 ply, that while the dispensation of the Gospel was 
 the most favored as to truth, it would be the least 
 favored as to tokens of actual intercourse between 
 the Saviour and His people : for even the days of 
 the patriarchs were lighted with frequent manifesta- 
 tions of God. It is laid down as the principle of 
 our dispensation, that the manifestations of God are 
 to be by the operation and gifts of the Holy Spirit, 
 It is, therefore, consistent Christianity to expect no 
 supernatural manifestations but of this kind. But 
 is it consistent Christianity, or Christianity of any 
 kind, not to expect these at all ; not to count upon 
 direct gifts from above, upon such wonderful work- 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 223 
 
 ing of the Spirit through the mind and tongue ol 
 messengers, as would compel all to feel that their en- 
 dowments were not from nature only, but were indi- 
 cative of Divine power ? 
 
 If it be not alleged that the Lord did indeed 
 mean to withdraw ministerial grace, in every appre- 
 ciable and practical form ; on what other ground 
 can the notion that the ministry is to be supplied by 
 candidates, just as any other profession is supplied, 
 be rested ? and all that is necessary is, that fathers 
 should decide that their sons are to be ministers, 
 and not soldiers or lawyers ; and should educate 
 them; that then, after an examination in general 
 knowledge and theology, the candidate shall be in- 
 vested with an office which professes to be held by 
 commission from God ? On what other ground can 
 one avoid the conclusion, that the first movement 
 toward placing any one in the ministry, should re- 
 sult from proof given that the Holy Spirit had en- 
 dued him with pastoral dispositions and pastoral 
 gifts ; and that every subsequent step in the same 
 direction should be taken carefully, after confirma- 
 tory evidences of the same ? 
 
 It is easy to say that we must not expect such 
 clear cases to occur constantly; and must follow 
 some definite mode of preparation. Yes, we must 
 follow some definite mode ; but defined on princi- 
 ples of faith, not of unbelief. " We must not ex- 
 
224 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 peel a constant occurrence of clear cases!" On 
 what principles must we not ? On those of the 
 New Testament, or of modern writers ? On those 
 of the Church in the apostolic age, or of subsequent 
 and degenerate ages ? On those of Christ's uncor 
 rupted Christianity, or those of fallen Churches 
 On the principle of "I believe in the Holy 
 Ghost," or on the principle of " I believe only in 
 nature ?" 
 
 The definite mode of perpetuating the supply of 
 ministers should rest on the sole foundation of the 
 Christian faith, rejecting every idea of distrust as 
 resolutely as a chemist would reject every idea of 
 inconstancy in the affinities of elements ; rejecting 
 every idea of substituting other action for that of 
 the Holy Spirit as decisively as a gunner would re- 
 ject the idea of aiding his explosion with mechanical 
 force. If we have not the spirit to raise up agents, 
 we can not preserve Christ's Church alive ; if we 
 have Him, we may fully trust Him to do all that is 
 not made to depend on our own fidelity. To doubt 
 the supply of summer heat, and to set ourselves to 
 rear harvests in hot-beds, would not be doing more 
 violence to the laws of the physical kingdom, than 
 it is to the laws of the spiritual kingdom to doubt 
 the supply of the Spirit whereby laborers fit for the 
 field are raised up, and to set ourselves to furnish 
 others. 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 225 
 
 Firm in faith, the Church ought to set at the very 
 entrance of the pathway toward the ministry, a gate 
 which no family influence, no education could open ; 
 which none could pass but they whom a number of 
 serious and godly men — -not ministers alone, but also 
 laymen who had to hear, and feed, or starve, ac- 
 cording to the quality of the ministrations — would 
 deliberately conclude were worthy, at least, to be 
 admitted to probation for the work of the ministry. 
 Such a gate none could pass but one who was either 
 in earnest, or a studious and practiced hypocrite. 
 
 Where the primitive training is maintained, all 
 the members of the Church exercise such gifts as 
 the Spirit has distributed to them — prayer, and ex- 
 hortation, and teaching, and mutual speaking one to 
 another, and admonishing one another. Anions the 
 working believers of such a scriptural Church, a 
 suitable proportion will ever be raised up whose 
 gifts will fit them to lead in all the offices. This is 
 the real training school for Christian agents ; a fruit- 
 ful Chnrch is her own nursery. Meetings for fel- 
 lowship of saints, for free-hearted prayer, for exhort- 
 ation, are the legitimate means by which they whom 
 the Lord is fitting for His high ministry shall be led 
 to the development of their gifts. This training 
 must be held as indispensable, and of an essential 
 importance with which no other training has any 
 pretense to claim a comparison ; and then general 
 
226 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 education must be held to have the same relation to 
 the Christian ministry as a general education has to 
 any other profession ; and theological education the 
 same as special education has to the other profes- 
 sions. 
 
 Classics and mathematics, history and logic, are 
 of admirable use to a lawyer ; but if, qualified by 
 these, he is to attempt to conduct cases without 
 having been specially trained in pleading, alas for 
 his clients ! They are of great use to a physician ; 
 but if, by their light, and without study of diseases 
 and remedies, he undertake to heal, alas for the 
 families which put precious life in his trust ! To a 
 minister their value is quite as great as to either of 
 the others ; but study of theology is as indispens- 
 able to him, as study of law or medicine to them ; 
 and practical experience of that repentance, faith, 
 and holiness which he is to enforce, is as necessary 
 as practical treatment of disease in addition to 
 study ; or as practical acquaintance with a ship at 
 sea is needful for a mariner, in addition to the 
 science of navigation. 
 
 Were we forced to choose between two men, one 
 of whom is an accomplished scholar without prac- 
 tical godliness, the other a holy and gifted man 
 without refined scholarship ; to ask us the question, 
 which we should prefer for our minister, is about as 
 respectful to our faith as Christians, as it would be 
 
PERMANEOT BEIOIFITS TO THE CHURCH. 227 
 
 respectful to the common sense of a ship-owner, 
 soberly to ask whether he preferred, as a pilot for 
 his ships, a scholar from a nautical academy who 
 had never walked a deck, or a rough sailor who had 
 often sailed the very waters over which the precious 
 freight must be conveyed. Alas for those whoae 
 souls are watched over by unconverted scholars! 
 And even if converted and gifted, the minister of 
 Christ should not come to his office without havLig 
 been practiced in prayer, in exhortation, in preach- 
 ing, in all the art of healing souls, and that not in 
 books only, not in schools only, but also in the 
 lively meetings and labors of the Church. 
 
 We not only acknowledge, but gratefully belike 
 and record, that many of those who had been in* 
 vested with the ministry without sufficient test of 
 their fitness, have, in the event, become burmng 
 and shining lights. But if this, on the one hand, 
 deserves to be continually remembered as a proof 
 of God's tender mercy to His Church, it is, on the 
 other hand, not less to be noted, that He has ordi- 
 narily allowed such unauthorized appointments to 
 be followed by their natural consequences, until 
 whole nations have come under the curse of a min- 
 istry who either taught another Gospel than that 
 of the Apostles, or who, perfunctorily exhibiting 
 the shell of the truth, set the example of denying 
 its power; and that even where the Church had 
 
228 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 been reformed, although primitive Christianity had 
 not been generally revived. What England was a 
 century ago — what many Protestant Churches on 
 the Continent are at this moment, sufficiently shows 
 that if guards are not placed at the entrance to the 
 ministry, such as will hinder the admission of any 
 but spiritually-minded men, the course of Provi- 
 dence is to allow the sin to work out its own pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 While ecclesiastical authorities may be justly 
 blamed for too readily substituting a Church com- 
 mission for the genuine call and gift of God, the 
 multitude of professed Christians are no less ready 
 to accept, instead of the genuine moral power which 
 is the true pre-eminence of the Christian minister, 
 a substitute in either propriety or intellectualism. 
 A people whose idea of the ministry was formed 
 by inspirations from the New Testament, would 
 look and crave, with feelings amounting to hunger 
 and thirst, for men " endued with power" — the 
 true power of the Holy Ghost, awakening, con- 
 verting, edifying power; power under which hearts 
 would melt, lives would change, old men would 
 put off the evil ways of a lifetime, and youth put 
 on the wisdom of gray hairs, thoughtless revelry 
 would give place to benevolent associations, and 
 the whole neighborhood begin to breathe a purer 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 229 
 
 and a nobler spirit. Nothing could to them com 
 pensate for the absence of this. Though all pro 
 prieties gratified the taste, though the intellect 
 were charmed, yet would they pine and long for 
 that power which lies beyond the ken of the eye, 
 the taste, or the intellect; but which the moral 
 nature at once feels and responds to, either by a 
 stern moral resistance, felt to be a resistance to 
 the voice of the Spirit, or by contrite acqui- 
 escence, felt to be the surrender of the heart to 
 the constraining love of the Redeemer. 
 
 " Ye shall be endued," said our Lord, " with 
 power from on high" — robed with power. This is 
 the true robing and vestment of the minister of 
 God — an invisible garment of power, which sits not 
 upon his shoulders, but upon his spirit, shading him 
 over with a moral dignity, as if he held office from 
 the King of kings, and conveying to every con- 
 science before him the instinctive perception that 
 he comes commissioned to deal with it on the 
 things that affect its purity, and its relations with 
 Him w T ho planted it in man. 
 
 All power is indescribable, but at the same time 
 appreciable. What it is, where it is, how it came, 
 where it goes, its measure, movement, nature, form, 
 or essence, no human skill can discover. We may 
 ask the sunbeam which has such power to fly and 
 to illuminate, the lightning whuh has such powet 
 
230 THE TONGUE OF EIRE. 
 
 to scathe, the dew-drop that has power to refresh, 
 the magnet, the fire, the steam, the eye that can 
 see, the ear that can hear, the nerve that can con- 
 vey the messages of will — we may ask all the agents 
 we see exerting power to render us an account each 
 of its own power, and all will be dumb. Not the 
 cannon-ball on its flight, or the lion in his triumph, 
 not the tempest or the sea, not even pestilence itself, 
 can tell us what is power. If we ask Death who 
 has put all things under his feet, even he has no re- 
 ply ; and after we have passed the question, " What 
 is power ?" round a mute universe, we must say, 
 " God has spoken once, yea, twice have I heard this, 
 
 that POWER BELONGETH UNTO GOD." 
 
 Yet power, in itself so hidden and indescribable, 
 is ever manifest by its effects. An effect demon- 
 strates the presence of a power. "Where gun-powder 
 explodes, there must have been fire ; where water 
 shoots up through the atmosphere in steam, there 
 must have been heat; where iron moves without 
 mechanical force, a magnet must be; and the ab- 
 sence of the effect is conclusive evidence of the ab- 
 sence of the power from which the effect would 
 have followed. The intellect at once recognizes the 
 presence of intellectual power. The emotions, also, 
 faithfully tell whenever an emotional power is 
 brought to bear upon them; and no less surely 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUECH. 231 
 
 does the conscience of a man feel when a moral 
 power comes acting upon it. 
 
 In unconverted men a singular conflict goes on; 
 they share the admiration which every man feels for 
 moral power — an admiration which none can help 
 feeling, even though he be so wedded to his sins 
 that he is lashed into enmity when the action of 
 such a power makes him fear that, after all, he will 
 be converted into a saint ; yet this feeling is com- 
 bated by the natural aversion which men have for 
 every thing that crosses their earthly inclinations, 
 and tends to lead their affections to holy things. 
 On the one hand, they feel that the man who 
 preaches to them ought to be able to disturb them 
 in their evil ways, as by a voice and a call from 
 their Maker ; and they are drawn toward him who 
 has this character. On the other hand, they desire 
 to continue longer in worldly ways ; and it is com- 
 fortable to them, and welcome, when, instead of a 
 trumpet peal which wxmld break their slumbers, 
 they hear a pleasant song that will help them to 
 sleep on. With the great majority these latter feel- 
 ings prevail, and, according as their own inclinations 
 and training lead, they seek in the public ordinances 
 of God's house either what they call an intellectual 
 treat, or what they consider a well-performed and 
 creditable solemnitv. 
 
232 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 With one class, the highest ideal of a Chr ; sL»Hn 
 service seems to be, that nothing should pass that 
 could, by any possibility, offend the taste of any 
 human being who might look upon the whole scene 
 as an assembly for some dignified purpose. As to 
 the pulpit, their great desire is, that the pulpit 
 should " behave itself;" and in this country of oura 
 many a service may be found which is 
 
 " Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null." 
 
 That is, " faultless" in such eyes — " faultless," if the 
 idea of a Christian service be not a scene of peni- 
 tence, fervent prayer, bursting adoration; a triumph 
 of spiritual power ; an assembly the atmosphere of 
 which breathes of living souls and the present Spirit 
 of God, of transgressors awakening, and penitents 
 finding mercy, and saints standing truly nigh to the 
 countenance of their Father ; but, instead of all 
 this, a number of well-dressed people decorously 
 meeting, and celebrating something that affects no 
 one, and coolly listening to something not formed 
 to affect any one, and, above all, not formed to 
 offend any man, except him who wants to feel his 
 own soul, and see the souls of his neighbors, moved 
 to their depths as by a call from above. 
 
 The sanctuary of God ought, undoubtedly, to be 
 the highest scene and model of propriety; the pul- 
 pit to be its foremost and most shining example.. 
 
PERMAISTENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH, 233 
 
 lie who, under any pretext, introduces trifling, odd- 
 ity, or coarseness there, strikes fearfully at a main 
 support of power — true reverence. However offens- 
 ive want of propriety may be elsewhere, it is doubly 
 so in the house of God. But the united praying of 
 Christians, the delivering of a message from above, 
 and the mingling of thankful voices in praise to the 
 Most High, like all other peculiar actions, have a 
 propriety of their own ; and of all improprieties, 
 none is more thoroughly alien to them than that, 
 be it what it may — whether stiff form or elaborate 
 literature — which gives to the place a savor rather 
 of the wisdom of man than of the power of God. 
 At a marriage-feast the solemnity proper to a fu- 
 neral would be an impropriety. In a company of 
 friends the precision of military movement would 
 be improper. The noise of instruments is pro- 
 priety in a concert, the sound of grinding in a 
 mill, the clatter of shuttles in a factory, the ring 
 of hammers in a forge, the laughter of children in 
 a nursery. 
 
 And so the house of God has its own atmos- 
 phere ; whatever would extinguish the reverent 
 utterance of penitent or grateful emotion on the 
 part of the simple and the poor, of the newly 
 awakened or newly forgiven — whatever would train 
 all Christian feelings to move there, in God's owr 
 house and in the assembly of His people, as if unde 
 
234 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 the cold eye of a heathen world, is a more crying 
 impropriety than those departures from taste which 
 not only might flow, but must flow, from the utter- 
 ance of feelings, where any multitude, composed of 
 all classes, is deeply affected. When the noble idea 
 of Christian propriety gives place to the paltry 
 idea of properness — when intense reverence and 
 love and joy, meeting and stirring the breasts of a 
 multitude, are distasted, and men are set on having 
 every thing square, well cut, and arranged before 
 hand, then we have little right to expect the highest 
 of all proprieties — the breaking of sinful hearts as 
 if in pieces under the hammer of God's word, and 
 the cry of awakened sinners, " What must we do 
 to be saved ?" In fact, many, who call themselves 
 Christians, and whose claim we readily allow, would 
 regard the utterance of such a cry in the house of 
 God as not less improper than if raised in a theater. 
 The people may say, " Amen," if it be just by rule ; 
 many murmur a response, if just where good men, 
 long since dead, marked, "Respond here;" but 
 any thing like the pentecostal scene — any general 
 outburst of penitent emotion — would be intolerable; 
 and even to see a solitary man, " unlearned and un- 
 believing," feeling himself judged and condemned, 
 and "falling down upon his face and worshiping 
 God," would be a disturbance of propriety, for- 
 sooth, because it would make a fracture in that icy 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 235 
 
 properness wherein a long continuance of cold has 
 encased many a branch of Christ's Church. Yet 
 this scene is just as proper to the house of God, as 
 the crash of a falling tree is to the forest where th 
 woodman is clearing. 
 
 A class very different from those who worship 
 properness, set up intellectualism as the substitute 
 for power. We are far from wishing, in any way, 
 to undervalue that great gift of God, mental power. 
 Some measure of this is always implied in the com- 
 mission to preach the Gospel ; and the more of 
 sense, pathos, imagination, of any real talent, that 
 a Minister may possess, the more is he fitted to 
 give his office effect. The talk in which some good 
 people indulge as to the great benefit of having 
 weak instruments in the ministry, is without a tittle 
 of scriptural foundation, the Scriptures being fairly 
 applied to the case. 
 
 It is true that, to the wise of this world, the Crosa 
 in itself is " foolishness ;" but Christ never sent 
 fools to be its heralds. The institution of preach- 
 ing, as the means for regenerating mankind, is in 
 itself " foolishness ;" but none of the preachers sent 
 of God were simpletons. Though they were de- 
 cpised by the great, and were of no account with 
 the learned, every one of them was mighty through 
 God to strike home to the consciences of sinners 
 H 
 
236 THE TONGUE OF If IRE. 
 
 and to confound gainsayers; the evidence of Divine 
 power working with them being all the more con- 
 spicuous by reason of their natural or educational 
 defects. Men who have no gift to teach, warn, or 
 exhort, ought to betake themselves to whatever 
 honest calling their Maker has fitted them to fulfill, 
 and not pule about the Lord delighting to use fool- 
 ish instruments, while every day proves that He is 
 in no way using them, unless it be as an example to 
 all not to assume an office without having proved 
 their fitness. The men whom God sends may be 
 without the accomplishments of scholars, but never 
 without sense and utterance. They may be desti- 
 tute of the talent which would enable them to treat 
 secular subjects with oratorial or literary success 
 — to allure the fancy, or exhilarate the emotions, 
 to satisfy by logic, or illuminate by exposition, but 
 never, never without power to act upon the con- 
 science ; and this, in the absence of other endow- 
 ments, is often at once the scepter of a preacher's 
 command, and the mysterious seal of his commis- 
 sion. 
 
 He who speaks to us in the name of our God 
 may bring statement as lucid and nervous as that 
 of Moses or Matthew, wisdom as racy as that of 
 Solomon, pathos as overwhelming as that of Jere 
 miah or John, argument as cogent as that of Paul, 
 or imagination as gorgeous as that of David or 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 23? 
 
 Isaiah ; any powers, however lofty, may he bring- ~ 
 any eloquence, however poetic, refined, or bold ; 
 only let him make us feel, as we always do under 
 the hand of the Prophets and the Apostles, that all 
 his powers are put in operation but to bring us 
 nearer to our Redeemer. 
 
 Where the notion that the talent employed in 
 Christian preaching ought to lie within a limited 
 and humble range, without any high flights, any 
 deep soundings, any glowing language, any meta- 
 phorical illustrations, or any masculine argument, 
 can have originated, one would be at a loss to learn, 
 were the Bible alone — Old Testament and New — 
 the source of our information. There we see the 
 power of the Holy Spirit, not allying itself with one 
 order of mind, or with one stamp of composition, 
 tamed down to a standard of properness, conse- 
 crated by the aesthetics of some small and proper 
 men, but using every faculty that God ever gave to 
 the human soul — every faculty of thought, illustra- 
 tion, and speech — hallowing by its fire all genius, 
 all life, and all nature, touching every thing and 
 illuminating every thing ; so that there is not one 
 scene of domestic life, and not one object of God's 
 outer world, to which the tongue of Psalmist or 
 Prophet, or the Great Teacher Himself, has not 
 given a voice, and made it speak to us in sacred 
 poetry. From the grass beneath the mower's 
 
238 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 scythe, or the lily that a child has plucked — from 
 the bridegroom's beaming face, or nursing mo- 
 ther's bosom — up to the lightning, the sun, and 
 the stars, every thing is hallowed by a ray from 
 the Bible, and is hung round by its sacred associa- 
 tions. 
 
 We can not but believe that this is the inten- 
 tional model, and that men of all orders, with 
 talent of every possible shade, are meant to be 
 employed in God's holy ministry ; and that, there- 
 fore, any narrower view, founded either upon the 
 ideal of some prominent example in one class of 
 preaching, on the taste of a given age, or on any 
 notion whatever of classic style and propriety, is 
 but an invention to cramp and trammel that which 
 must everlastingly be free — the utterance of men 
 who come to speak to us of all things infinite. 
 
 On the other hand, that which now-a-days is 
 called intellectualism does not appear so much to 
 lie in the possession and exercise of superior powers, 
 as in the art of casting common things in elaborate 
 molds, and robing every familiar truth, which, in a 
 plain garb, all would recognize as an old friend, in 
 such array that those who do not look closely may 
 take it for a distinguished stranger. It is true that 
 thoughts which outgrow the ordinary stature will 
 naturally drape themselves nobly ; but all haze, 01 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 239 
 
 extravagance, in the style of wise men, will be in 
 spite of themselves. They will ever use their best 
 endeavors, first to clear their ideas in their own 
 minds, and then to render them clear to others ; 
 Often they will expend much labor in reducing 
 what gushed from their pregnant thoughts, from 
 its original splendor to something more simple and 
 perspicuous, something perhaps less calculated to 
 dazzle, but more calculated to enlighten. 
 
 Some intellects are, among ordinary ones, what 
 a hothouse is in a garden — a special shrine which 
 receives the beams of heaven, through a medium 
 of crystal, into an atmosphere of high temperature, 
 within which bloom fruits and flowers that would 
 not grow in the ordinary ground ; fruits and flow- 
 ers from brighter lands, and wondrous in our eyes, 
 which, however, though at first nursed there, may 
 in time, be naturalized, and become familiar beau 
 ties in the homesteads of thousands. It is mani- 
 festly the will of Providence to create such intel- 
 lects ; and even had we not the Bible to throw 
 light on His design, it would certainly seem vio- 
 lently improbable that He should create them only 
 to fringe with flowers the world's broad and down- 
 ward way. Some men always treat richness of 
 style as if it were the result of effort; just as if 
 deal, which always owes its color to art, were to 
 say to mahogany, or maple, or rosewood, " What 
 
240 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 labor it must have been to produce all these shad- 
 ings !" No labor whatever; it is all in the grain. 
 
 At the same time the inteliectualism of our day 
 is something so entirely apart from the exercise of 
 power of mind, that it seems to us more like an at- 
 tempt to invent great intellects, than like an honest 
 endeavor to put out to the best account such in- 
 tellect as God has given. The use of factitious 
 power is to make common things loom up in misty 
 grandeur, and the use of real power is to make 
 strong, new, rare, or vast conceptions clear to the 
 ordinary eye, or to bring what appeared cold in 
 tellectual abstractions home to the common heart 
 If viewed only as a specimen of natural power, how 
 wonderful the effect of that one stroke by which 
 the simplest man in Chistendom, from the time of 
 our Lord down to this day, has been enabled to 
 see in the fair drapery of a lily a pledge of provi- 
 dential care for his clothing, and to hear, in the 
 glee-chirp of a sparrow, a pledge of the same care 
 n feeding him and his children ! Whatever is used 
 with a view to clear Divine trnth to men's con- 
 ceptions, to enforce Divine law on the conscience, 
 or to commend Divine love to their hearts, that 
 will the Spirit work with and quicken ; but what- 
 ever is used merely to excite surprise or admiration 
 at the powers of the speaker, must be forsaken by 
 that sacred Power which moves, never to glorify 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 241 
 
 one man in the eye of another, but to reveal the 
 things of God to His wandering creatures. 
 
 It is very probable that not a few deceive them- 
 elves by Burke's idea of sublimity, to the effect 
 hat a clear idea is but another name for a littte 
 dea ; a notion which he supports by quoting the 
 vision of Eliphaz, and ascribing the sense of the 
 sublime which that description at once conveys, to 
 the haze and mystery wherewith the subject is in- 
 vested. But he loses sight of the cardinal fact, 
 that the mystery lies not in the medium, but in the 
 object. In language clear as the light of heaven, 
 that object is presented to the mind; and, gazing 
 through that pure and illuminated medium, we see 
 what can be seen of the object. That is only 
 enough to tell us that it is no ordinary thing, but 
 some mysterious being, an index of a whole world 
 of invisible spirits: and this it is which carries with 
 it the idea of the awful and infinite, and, therefore, 
 of the sublime. Had he said that complete com- 
 prehension in our mind argued a finite object, he 
 would undoubtedly have been correct ; but, in cr- 
 ier that our impression of the infinity of an object 
 nay be deep, some token of infinity must be clear. 
 
 Let those, then, who would wield a power over 
 us present to our minds objects so great, if they 
 will ? that we can only catch a glimpse of some lower 
 or hinder pai't, but let that glimpse be such as to 
 
242 THE TOXGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 convey to us an intimation of the whole as clearlj 
 as any stray flash of morning light carries with it 
 the whole idea of sun and sky. Let their great 
 thoughts be robed in any language, however simple, 
 or however gorgeous, provided only that it be 
 clear, that the medium obscure not our view of the 
 object to be seen, and so confuse our sense either 
 of its nature or dimensions ; and provided also it be 
 plain, that their ruling idea is not a literary but a 
 religious one, not to " acquit themselves well," and 
 please their audience, but to produce instant and 
 iasting religious impressions. Let them bring before 
 our souls the heights, the depths, the lengths, the 
 breadths of God's revealed glories ; and, whether 
 they be plain in style as the homeliest peasant who 
 passes our door, without one poetic idea in his 
 mind, or one poetic phrase in his vocabulary, ex- 
 cept those that his Bible has given to him — and 
 many such plain men will ever be employed in the 
 most eminent and glorious works of God — or 
 whether all their expressions have the glow of 
 sunerhuman fervor, or the luster of superhumai 
 imagination, rivaling, in its wealth of imagery, in 
 its purple, its scarlet, its gold, its precious stones, 
 its frankincense, and its myrrh, the Prophets of 
 old, they will produce upon us healthy effects, will 
 feed our spirits with angels' food, or enamor oui 
 contemplations with God's providence, His work of 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUECH. 243 
 
 grace, or His eternal mansions provided for those 
 who love Him. 
 
 We repeat it, that it is not from any peculiar 
 style, whether it be extreme plainness, or high 
 elaboration, or what else, that we expect the minis- 
 try to acquire a world-renewing power. Let the 
 style be ruled by every man's natural endowments ; 
 but, whatever these be, let them all be employed in 
 the one direction of carrying out an embassy from 
 God to the souls of sinful men. The greater the 
 variety of talent and of style, the more will the 
 pulpit be like the Bible — the more effectually will 
 its work be done; but let no form of talent be ever 
 accepted instead of power. For we must have 
 power — power which the godly will welcome as 
 meet to minister grace to the hearers — power which 
 the ungodly will fear as certain to make them un- 
 comfortable in their sins, or else force them to 
 harden their hearts, as if they were refusing the 
 voice of God. 
 
 Take away from the minister spiritual power, and, 
 though you give us the fairest deportment, the 
 richest eloquence, the most subtle and fascinating 
 speculation, you leave us without any sense that we 
 are hearkening to a man of God. Did the multi- 
 tudes of the Christian Church only set a due esti- 
 mate upon this, and rank propriety and intellectual- 
 ism in their proper place, the idea that a man could 
 
244 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 |pass creditably as a minister merely by carefully 
 Derforming a ceremony, or by weaving webs of 
 jurious and cunning language, would be as far from 
 (lien's minds as is now the idea that one can obtain 
 credit as a soldier without courage, as a painter 
 without skill of hand, or as a musician without an 
 instinct of tune. 
 
 The lowest effect (for less is no effect at all, or a 
 negative one) which a Christian minister can pro- 
 duce, is merely to please his audience ; next to that 
 ranks astonishing them : for both of these effects 
 terminate in himself; and when a certain amount 
 of admiration has been expended upon him, the 
 whole harvest of his labor is reaped — a poor and 
 scanty harvest, sufficing only to pass over the pres- 
 ent hour, but yielding no seed for future sowing, no 
 store for time to come. The creature who covets 
 and earns the reward of being counted " an accepta- 
 ble preacher" — a miserable praise, fit only for an 
 impotent and soulless discourser — but shakes no 
 sinner's heart, brings back to no father's arms a 
 prodigal son, cheers no mother's soul by the con- 
 version of her children, nor ever makes a believer 
 feel that his preaching has formed a new and happy 
 era in his spiritual life, may spin fine paragraphs for 
 the winding-sheet of souls that are dying under liia 
 hands ; may perform over dead souls the solemni- 
 ties of <( Christian burial;" but when the body dies 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 245 
 
 too, and then when the trumpet sounds, and the 
 graves are opened, what reward will crown his 
 resurrection ? 
 
 As no variety of talent is effectual for the end* 5 
 of the ministry without spiritual power, so, when 
 accompanied by that power, every form of talent 
 is. The refined are ready to demand a certain 
 chastened style, in which, above all things, there 
 shall be no extravagance cither in composition or in 
 delivery. On the other hand, the poor are slow to 
 recognize power unless it be accompanied by strength 
 of voice and physical vehemence. Some will admit 
 of little value in what is only exhortational or 
 declamatory ; others, again, can not imagine that 
 close argument, though it may enlighten, shall ever 
 awaken or convert : and thus most porcons are in 
 danger of forming a narrow ideal circle, within 
 which they would have the Spirit to co-operate 
 with the agency of man. 
 
 We are often told with great earnestness what is 
 the best style for preaching ; but the fact is, that 
 what would be the very best style for one man 
 would perhaps be the worst possible for another 
 In the most fervid declamation, the deej^st prin- 
 ciples may be stated and pressed home ; in the 
 calmest and most logical reasoning, powerful motives 
 may be forced close upon the feelings ; in discussing 
 come general principle, precious portions of the text 
 
246 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 of Scripture may be elucidated ; and in simple ex- 
 position, general principles may be effectively set 
 forth, Let but the powers given to any man play 
 with their full force, aided by all the stores of 
 Divine knowledge which continuous acquisitions 
 from its fountain and its purest channels can obtain 
 for him, the fire being present — the fire of the 
 Spirit's power and influence — spiritual effects will 
 result. 
 
 The discussion about style amounts very much 
 to a discussion whether the rifle, the carbine, the 
 pistol, or the cannon, is the best weapon. Each is 
 best in its place. The great point is, that every 
 one shall use the weapon best suited to him, that 
 he charge it well, and see that it is in a condition 
 to strike fire. The criticisms which we often hear 
 amount to this : We admit that such-an-one is a 
 good exhortational preacher, or a good doctrinal 
 preacher, or a good practical preacher, or a good 
 expository preacher ; but because he has not the 
 qualities of another — qualities, perhaps, the very 
 opposite of his own — we think lightly of him, 
 That is, we admit that the carbine is a good 
 carbine ; but because it is not a rifle, we condemn 
 it ; and because the rifle is not a cannon, we con- 
 demn it, 
 
 Nothing can more directly tend to waste of 
 power, than the attempt to divert th i mind from 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 247 
 
 rts natural course of action into one for which it is 
 unfitted. Instead of resorting to this with the idea 
 of forming ail after some pre-conceived model, it 
 would be better to teach all to recognize in the 
 variety of individual character another proof of the 
 manifold wisdom of God. 
 
 Sometimes it is remarkable how small an amount 
 of intellectual or literary power is combined w T ith 
 considerable, or even commanding, spiritual power. 
 A man who by natural talent would impress an 
 audience less than most men, yet by the superior 
 unction of the Spirit may produce religious impres- 
 sions, and raise up religious fruit, such as wiser and 
 greater men might envy. Possessing this, his other 
 defects are of comparatively little importance. A 
 general may have many defects in his character, 
 temper, and habits, without losing command over 
 his men : but if his defects be unsoldierly — if, above 
 all, he lacks courage, then inevitably does his con- 
 trol over them decline. So a statesman may have 
 a thousand defects not directly affecting statesman- 
 ship, and yet retain his ascendancy over the mind 
 of the nation ; but let him show a lack of political 
 sagacity, and at once his ascendancy is gone. So 
 if a Minister of the Gospel be justly described as 
 "dry;" that is, if he give godly and candid hearers 
 the impression that he habitually delivers Divine 
 truths without any unction which either moves bis 
 
248 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 own soul, or those of others ; the fault is fatal. It 
 is what cowardice is in a soldier, folly in a states- 
 man, or lameness in a runner. The hold of such 
 an one upon the conscience must hopelessly pass 
 away. Rather let us have the man of humblest 
 talent, or of plainest education, who can speak to 
 us a word at which the soul within us thrills, than 
 one who possesses no such power, though he can* 
 wrestle with every prejudice, or excite and fascinate 
 every faculty. 
 
 The power of which we speak being neither 
 more nor less than the co-operation of the Holy 
 Spirit with the preacher, that which is essential to 
 its presence must lie, first, in the state of the 
 preacher's heart ; secondly, in the staple of his dis- 
 course. There must be a soul itself in communion 
 with the Holy One, and there must be rays of truth 
 — God's own truth radiated from that soul to 
 others, along which the Spirit's secret influence 
 may be communicated from heart to heart. The 
 preacher must first imbibe the Divine fire, and then 
 hold it in his heart, as a Ley den jar will hold the 
 invisible electricity ; and, this done, he must havo 
 a conductor to communicate it to those who are be- 
 fore him. Unless the truth of God be uttered, and 
 aimed in the right direction, aimed at the auditory, 
 at their conscience, whether through the avenue of 
 the imagination, the understanding, or the emo 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHL r .RCH. 249 
 
 lions, even had he himself the power of the Spirit, 
 he could not convey it to others. There is but one 
 conductor, and that is the Word of Life. 
 
 Suppose that a person wishing to send a message 
 from London to Edinburg by lightning, knows 
 how to construct an electric battery ; but when he 
 comes to consider how he will transmit the impulse 
 through hundreds of miles, he looks at an iron wire, 
 and says, "This is dull, senseless, cold, has no sym- 
 pathy with light ; it is unnatural, in fact, irrational, 
 to imagine that this dark thing can convey a light- 
 ning message in a moment." From this he turns 
 and looks at a prism. It glows with the many- 
 colored sunbeam. He might say, " This is sym- 
 pathetic with light," and in its flashing imagine that 
 he saw proof that his message would speed through 
 it ; but when he puts it to the experiment, it proves 
 that the shining prism will convey nd touch of his 
 silent fire, but that the dull iron will transmit it to 
 the furthest end of the land. And so with God's 
 holy truth. It alone is adapted to carry into the 
 soul of man the secret fire which writes before the 
 inner eye of the soul a message from the unseen 
 One in the skies. Other proposed conductors may 
 riash more in the showy light, but they will not 
 convey the invisible fire. 
 
 Again we repeat, that this fire may b« romhinpd 
 
250 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 with any form of talent, and with any style of com/ 
 position. Who has not seen a tranquil man, whose 
 tones seldom rose to passion, and never went 
 beyond the severest taste ; whose thought, de- 
 meanor, phrases, all breathed a gentle and quiet 
 spirit ; and yet, with the placid flow of instruction 
 cr exposition, a heavenly influence silently stole 
 along, stole into the veins of the heart, diffusing a 
 sacred glow, a desire to be holier, a sense of near- 
 ness to God, a refreshing of all the good principles 
 within you, a check and a restraint on all the evil ? 
 Again, you have seen a man who begins by some 
 calm argument, passes to another point, closely 
 reasoned, which again leads him to another well- 
 pointed stroke at- some error or prejudice; no by 
 play of imagination, no home-thrust to your heart, 
 but one steady grapple with your intellect — a dis 
 course which would be pronounced " dry," were it 
 not for a mysterious power which accompanies it, 
 not in the sentences, not in the syllogisms, not in 
 the action, riot in the tones, but a spirit infusea 
 through it all, that makes reasoning turn into a 
 gpiritual power, and seems to put God's law into 
 your mind, and, at the same time, to write it upon 
 your heart. Again, you see a man who at once 
 begins wath pictures, and from history, from nature, 
 from the Bible, from science, he strikes up before 
 you a succession of bewitching or affecting scenes, 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO TDE CHUKCH. 251 
 
 playing with your fancy all the while as a poet 
 might play with it ; and yet every picture carries 
 some sacred impulse to your soul, and leaves a 
 moral lesson and moral strength behind. Another 
 man moves simply on in a straightforward state- 
 ment of some great doctrine, opening out its 
 various branches, defining, setting guards upon his 
 definition, shading from possible misconception, 
 setting up fine distinctions, and seeming occupied 
 principally with putting a truth into a compact and 
 portable shape in your mind ; but somehow this 
 one truth, which he thus explains and defines, rouses 
 within your breast the voices of all other truths, 
 and evokes an appeal from every sacred thing you 
 ever knew in favor of holy living. Another as- 
 sumes that you know all that need be known ; and, 
 seizing upon the truths that are within you, upon 
 your conscience with its light, upon your fear, or 
 hope, or love, on your instinct of self-preservation, 
 or on some other of the deathless principles of your 
 nature, he pours upon you a succession of fervid 
 declamation, exhorting you to that which is right ; 
 giving nothing to enlarge your knowledge, nothing 
 to feed or even to exercise your reasoning power?, 
 nothing to enrich the stores of your fancy, or to 
 perfect your conceptions of truth ; and yet his 
 declamation brings a holy power which commands 
 
 you more than the might of strong-minded men ; 
 18 
 
252 THE TONGUE OF FIRE, 
 
 and good resolutions and hopes that have often 
 been vanquished in days gone by, rise up again at 
 the voice of this simple man, and you follow him to 
 the feet of the Saviour. 
 
 Come, then, with what voice thou wilt come, thou 
 power-clad messenger of my Redeemer ! Come 
 with thunder on thy tongue, or with a sweet "harp 
 of ten strings ;" come to us simple as a little child, 
 or wise as a scribe instructed of God ; but, O ! let 
 us only feel that fire in thy message which lies not 
 in sentences, nor in tones, but in a heart itself in- 
 flamed from above, and pouring fire into our hearts ! 
 
 Just as we find all these types of men imbued 
 with Divine power, so do we find every one of them 
 destitute of it. You have the gentle man, far away 
 from any thing extravagant, never bringing upon 
 himself one word of blame, or giving to his audi- 
 tory one feeling of trouble ; but, O ! how drearily 
 years and years pass over him ! — precious j ears, yet 
 no souls are converted, no flocks grow larger ; the 
 field where he labors is never white unto the har- 
 vest, and it is always sowing time with him ! Very 
 Drobably he is content with this, and will tell you 
 that in his sphere, though there is nothing extra- 
 ordinary going forward, things are encouraging. 
 Placidly does he pass on, although he knows well, 
 and all who mark his course know well, that foi 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 253 
 
 long, long years it would be hard to say what spir- 
 itual life has flourished under his hand. So, again, 
 you may find the reasoner, clear, cogent, and forc- 
 ible, enlisting you on his side, perhaps exciting you 
 against every thing which opposes his system ; but 
 no sinners are turned into saints by his reasoning ; 
 yet he reposes well pleased upon the miserable re- 
 sult of having argued his point ably — an advocate 
 who .has shown the jury that he is a master of law, 
 but has lost his client's life. And you may find the 
 expositor, who will open up paragraph after para- 
 graph with rare subtlety of analysis, while his audi- 
 tory learn something of the Word of God, and so 
 far become more prepared to be good Christians, if 
 once converted; but with his exposition no con- 
 verting power ever comes : perhaps, indeed, he does 
 not think that it is his calling to convert sinners. 
 You may also find the man of imagination, who 
 plays brilliantly upon the various instruments of na- 
 ture and science. His auditory are dazzled, per- 
 !;aps enraptured ; but who among them goes home 
 to his closet to seek his Saviour, or rises up in after 
 life to bless the preacher ? He was sent to fight, 
 1 ut he played off fireworks before the enemy, and, 
 instead of flying or failing, they only said, " How 
 grand !" The declaimer you may hear, too, whose 
 exhortations run apparently to the one point of pro- 
 ducing a practical result; you have vociferation, 
 
254 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 ant 1 the swell and throe of great vehemence ; but 
 it is like the hollow report of a cannon without 
 shot. 
 
 This absence of power is sometimes so clear that 
 the soul that has come to the house of God seeking 
 bread, painfully feels that it is getting but a stone; 
 and never is that feeling so painful as when all that 
 ought to attend upon spiritual power is there — the 
 truth, well understood and well stated — all the lin- 
 eaments and outward form that would lead us to 
 expect life ; but, when we draw near, there is no 
 breath in it. Sometimes one may see that this soul- 
 less thing is not a wax figure which never breathed, 
 but a corpse from which the life has gone. The 
 truths, now uttered with such impotence, once 
 thrilled through men as they fell from those lips ; 
 the appeals which now grate, like a chime of cracked 
 bells, once carried multitudes before them. In days 
 gone by many rose up to bless this man as a mes- 
 senger of God ; to-day his words are as a tale twice 
 told. Perhaps, conscious of the loss cf the real 
 power, he endeavors to compensate for it by a 
 greater force of physical oratory, spurring himself 
 o impetuosity, or swelling to lofty and solemn im- 
 pressiveness ; but it is only as when a ship in a calm 
 makes her sails bulge by rolling ; they flap and rus- 
 tle, but there is no strength in them, as when filled 
 by the silent wind they bore the vessel onward. 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CD BOH. 255 
 
 Every one of the effects flowing from the opera, 
 tion of spiritual power in the ministry is indescrib- 
 ably precious ; and it must be grievous to God, as 
 it is manifestly injurious to man, to underrate any 
 kind of fruit. One professes to be so bent on attain- 
 ing progress in the spiritual life, that preaching 
 which is effectual only to the conversion of sinners, 
 is to him elementary and poor. Another is so ex- 
 clusively occupied with the dark condition of tho 
 unsaved, that preaching which tends only to ripen 
 the holiness of those already converted, is to him 
 beside the mark. One specially looks for preaching 
 which will tell upon the young ; and another for 
 what w T ill content men of years and experience. 
 But every one ought to learn that each variety of 
 usefulness is far too estimable to be lightly dealt 
 with. He w T ho is in any way used as an instrument 
 to benefit the souls of any of my fellow-pilgrims 
 here, ought to be cherished by my heart as a pre- 
 cious friend of my own. 
 
 Where real spiritual power exists, it will not be 
 wholly confined to one class of effects. He who 
 leads on believers to brighter holiness, will surely 
 lead sinners to see somewhat of the sinfulness of 
 their sins ; and he who is the means of turning a 
 sinner from the error of his ways, is the means, in 
 that very act, of aiding the progress of all those 
 around him : for each one detached from the world 
 
256 THE TONGUE OF FLEE. 
 
 and ranked on the side of godliness, becomes a help 
 to the general cause of Christianity in the land. 
 
 In our own age and nation, we feel no hesitation 
 in saying, that the particular form of spiritual power 
 for which we have most crying need, is that where- 
 by men who know the truth are brought to the 
 point of deciding for God, and setting out in earn- 
 est on the way to heaven. We are in danger of 
 laboring as if the ground still needed to be sown ; 
 while the fields are white unto the harvest, and need 
 but a reaper. We are in danger of preaching as it 
 the people were either all serving God, or were all 
 so far away from the possibility of being converted 
 soon, that they must be approached as from a dis- 
 tance, and principles laid down and left to work 
 which may bring forth fruit after some long time. 
 Whereas the fact is, that everywhere the ground is 
 sown. We meet with comparatively few men in 
 whose minds there is not enough of truth to awaken 
 their conscience and point them toward the Cross, 
 were that truth only brought home to their hearts 
 with power. Men fitted as instruments to use what 
 the people believe and know, in order to bring them 
 to a decision for God, are those whom the interests 
 of our generation most loudly call for. Taught by 
 Christianity, but led captive by sin, men are going 
 downward by thousands and tens of thousands — at 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 257 
 
 once in the light and in the dark, knowing their 
 Master's will, but doing it not — downward to the 
 punishment of many stripes. He, then, who can 
 bring those multitudes to stop and think, to feel 
 what they believe, to act on w r hat they feel, to cry, 
 " Lord, save me, I perish," he is most distinguished 
 and most blessed of all the servants w r hom the Mas- 
 ter honoreth. 
 
 To heal the leper, to open the eyes of the blind, 
 to make the lame walk, and the paralytic strong, 
 were great and blessed works; but all these suf- 
 ferers were living men ; and great as was the work 
 of healing them, to raise the dead was greater far. 
 Blessed are ye among men, whom our Lord and 
 Master honors to help or heal, or restore any of 
 those souls which are living, but not in perfect 
 soundness ; but trebly blessed art thou, my brother, 
 w r hose joyful lot it is to stretch thy soul over a soul 
 that is dead, as Elisha stretched himself over the 
 dead son of the Shunamite, and to raise it up 
 breathing and calling upon God! O for a thou- 
 sand men imbued with converting power! Bet- 
 ter they than ten thousand times the number, 
 however gifted, however learned, however pleas- 
 ing, who are destitute of that crowning grace of 
 the messenger of God ! 
 
 Our Lord said, " He that beiieveth on Me, tho 
 works that I do shall he do also ; yea, and greater 
 
258 THE TONGUE Ol FlfUL. 
 
 works than these shall he do, because I go to M^ 
 Father." By " greater works" He could not meai? 
 more wonderful miracles ; for the wonders wrought 
 by His own hands had reached the limits of pos- 
 sibility. Greater miracles than raising the dead, 
 and making the winds and the seas obey Him, were 
 not to be performed. Besides, the " greater works" 
 to be done are shown to have some special charac- 
 ter from this, that they are to exist in connection 
 with a new order of things, " Because I go to My 
 Father." We are at no loss as to that which was 
 specially dependent on His ascension. It was the 
 baptism of the Holy Spirit. And we may therefore 
 reasonably conclude, that the a greater work" than 
 all the other works which could be done, was that 
 work which Pie Himself from heaven announced to 
 His servant Paul, as the purpose of his mission, 
 " To open their eyes, and to turn them from dark- 
 ness to light,' and from the power of Satan unto 
 God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and 
 inheritance among them which are sanctified by 
 faith that is in Me." This was the end of His 
 own life and death, this was the crown of His own 
 glory : " Thou shalt call His name Jesus ; for H<s 
 shall save His people from their sins." Only in 
 men actually saved from their sins did His soul, 
 afflicted and smitten, foresee the fruit of its travail, 
 wherewith it should be satisfied. Only in men 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THF, CHUECH. 259 
 
 actually saved from their sins while in the flesh, 
 while surrounded by temptation, could He foresee 
 the possibility of glorifying His Father upon earth, 
 by His own branches bearing much fruit, by Hip 
 own life, " the life of Christ, being manifest in mor- 
 tal bodies." Only by this could He see that which 
 he so dearly purchased, a holy Church formed out 
 of Adam's fallen sons. Only by this could His own 
 especial joy, the joy set before Him, the joy of 
 "bringing many sons to glory," ever be secured. 
 To this one result His whole work pointed ; upon 
 this all the interests of His kingdom turned. 
 
 No glory of the Eternal One is higher than this, 
 " Mighty to save ;" no name of Godhead more 
 adorable than that of u Saviour ;" no place among 
 the servants of God can be so glorious as that of 
 an instrument of salvation. " He that winneth 
 souls is wise." "They that turn many to right- 
 eousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever." 
 Under the new dispensation, the Lord's messengers, 
 abundantly replenished with the Spirit, having the 
 Cross for their theme and the baptism of fire foi 
 their impulse, were to go forth as men with whom 
 God would w r ork, and would accompany His word 
 with signs following it. It was great to cast out 
 devils from the body; it is greater to cast them out 
 of souls and out of society. It was great to heal 
 the sick or to feed the poor ; it is greater to heal 
 
260 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 the sources of disease and want, by turning sinful 
 hearts to purity. He around whom are continually 
 springing up new converts from sin to holiness — he, 
 the sound of whose voice many bless as having been 
 to them the trump of God, who at the great day 
 will have for his crown of rejoicing tens, or hun- 
 dreds, or thousands, to whom many others were 
 " teachers," but only he a " father" — he rises to 
 such joy and dignity that he may look back upon 
 the best and most honored of God's ancient serv- 
 ants, and feel that, in comparison with them, he has 
 only to be thankful for his own more blessed lot. 
 He need not envy Moses his rod, or David his harp, 
 or Elijah his mantle, or Solomon his wisdom ; for 
 iis own crown and his own prize are the highest to 
 which man may aspire. How close the servant is 
 brought to the Master ! The Master is Saviour, 
 the servant the instrument of saving ! 
 
 When we speak of ministerial power, we are 
 Qever to be understood as implying that any amount 
 of power in the minister will necessarily subdue his 
 hearers. What may be fully relied upon as the re- 
 sult of power dwelling in the minister, is that he 
 will make every hearer feel that a spiritual power is 
 grappling with him, and bringing him either to 
 yield to the voict that wains him, or to set up a 
 conscious resistance " Almost thou persuadest me," 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHU5CH. 261 
 
 is the language of one who can scarcely prevent 
 himself from yielding to the force that is impelling 
 him toward Christ. Felix trembled, and said, " Go 
 thy way for this time; when I have a conven- 
 ient season, I will call for thee." Here is a man 
 consciously under the impulse of a power which is 
 urging him to a result that he dreads; and, to es- 
 cape its influence, he adopts the ordinary plan of 
 " putting off for a while." But the very awaken- 
 ing of this conscious resistance, the setting-up of 
 this struggle in the breasts of men, is in itself a 
 proof of power ; and he who can do this, although 
 he will have his Agrippas and his Felixes over whom 
 to mourn, will undoubtedly have numbers of others 
 over whom to rejoice. 
 
 A farmer who all his life-time has been sowing, 
 but never brought one shock of corn safe home ; a 
 gardener who has ever been pruning and training, 
 but never brought one basket of fruit away : a mer- 
 chant who has been trading all his life, but never 
 concluded one year with clear profit ; a lawyer who 
 has had intrusted to him, for years and years, the 
 most important causes, and has never carried one ; 
 the doctor who has been consulted by thousands in 
 disease, and has never brought one patient back to 
 health ; the philosopher who has been propounding 
 principles all his life, and attempting experimenl i 
 every day, but has never once succeeded in a d. 
 
262 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 monstraf ion ; — all these would be abashed and ha. 
 miliated men. They would walk through the world 
 with their heads low, they would acknowledge 
 themselves to be abortions, they would not dare to 
 look up among those of their own professions ; and 
 as for others regarding them with respect, pity 
 would be all they could give. Yet, alas ! are there 
 not cases to be found wherein men whose calling it 
 is to heal souls, pass years and years, and seldom, if 
 ever, can any fruit of their labors be seen ? Yet 
 they hold up their heads, and have good reasons to 
 give why they are not useful ; and those reasons 
 generally lie, not in themselves, but somewhere* 
 else — in the age, the neighborhood, the agitation or 
 the apathy, the ignorance or the over-education, the 
 want of Gospel light or the commonness of Gospel 
 light, or some other reason why the majority of 
 those who hear them continue unconverted, and 
 why they should look on in repose, without smiting 
 upon their breasts, and crying day and night to 
 God to breathe a power upon them whereby they 
 might awaken those that sleep. Probably they 
 have wise things to say about the undesirableness 
 of being too anxious about fruit, and about the ad- 
 vantage of the work going on steadily and slowly, 
 rather than seeking for an excitement, and a rush 
 of converts. But while they are thus dozing, sin- 
 ners are going to hell. 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUKCH. 263 
 
 It is pitiable to see a minister who has all his life, 
 uhen judged by die fruit of his labor, been destitute 
 of the power of the Spirit ; but there is something 
 c even more touching to see, as, alas ! sometimes we 
 do see — one who in his early days had truly a gift 
 of God in him, becoming w r eak, like other men, 
 without unction, and without fruit. The gift, not 
 stirred up, has passed away; the power, not re- 
 newed and renewed again by fresh supplies, has for- 
 saken him. Perhaps, desirous of more efficiency, he 
 has heaped up knowledge — not too much knowl- 
 edge, for none can have too much ; but he has not 
 maintained a due proportion between his acquisi- 
 tions of knowledge and his acquisition of spiritual 
 power. He is like one who would pour coals upon 
 a feeble fire w r ith the idea of making a great one, 
 until the few live coals were smothered under a 
 black mass. Perhaps another has gone just to the 
 opposite extreme ; and, fearing to damp his lively 
 fire, has allowed it to flame on, without constantly 
 feeding it with truth, and knowledge, and experi 
 ence, and thought; and his fire has burned out. 
 Perhaps another, beginning to distrust his simple 
 weapon, which had no adornments, and could only 
 strike right home, has got for himself a jeweled 
 sword with a golden blade, but finds that the edge 
 is turned by the least resistance. Perhaps another, 
 who used to thunder as a second Baptist, and make 
 
264 THE TONGUE OF FIXE, 
 
 the truths of the eternal law, of the resurrection, of 
 judgment, and of the world to come, ring in tho 
 ears of slumbering souls with a supernatural and 
 awakening power, begins to desire something more 
 alluring, less distressing to the sensitive, more ac- 
 ceptable to the sedate, more " attractive," as tho 
 phrase is ; and now you may find him an absurd 
 combination of strength and feebleness — a gunner 
 working heavy guns, but with silver barrels, and 
 scented powder, and balls of frozen honey. 
 
 In the progress of a man's life it will often 
 happen that great variations appear in his useful- 
 ness ; but, if he walk with God, maintain his in- 
 tegrity, and make steady progress in knowledge 
 and in faith, although the form of his usefulness 
 may change, it will never change into uselessness. 
 When the flush and glow of youthful ardor disap- 
 pear, they will be replaced, not by vapidness 01 
 lameness, but by more of the unction that elevates 
 and hallows. There is a bw of mechanics, the 
 moral counterpart of which we see in such men, 
 that what is lost in velocity is gained in power. 
 And yet such men, though they may be blessed 
 with great usefulness, if they see not conversions 
 such as rejoiced their earlier days, will ever look 
 back with yearning and humiliation. I^ever will 
 they fail to honor, above all their brethren, those 
 whom God honors by making them the instruments 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUKCH. 265 
 
 of many conversions, or to covet, with a coveting 
 more eager than they could feel for any other dis- 
 tinction, or joy, or gift, the restoration to them oi 
 the power to persuade sinners to be reconciled to 
 God. 
 
 A more pitiable thing can not be than to see a 
 man who, himself destitute of ministerial power, 
 not only is unconscious how miserable a creature 
 he is, but is even ready to make light of the useful- 
 ness of others ; and, in his ordinary conversation, to 
 set down those whom the Lord honors as the in- 
 struments of converting sinners, below what he 
 calls " intellectual" men, fine soliloquizers, or curi- 
 ous speculators, who deal out dainties from the pul- 
 pit, but do no work that will live when they are 
 dead. This style of depreciating the useful and the 
 earnest, painful in any one, becomes appalling when 
 it falls from the lips of a man who at one stage of 
 his own life was remarkably useful, but who has lost 
 his fire; and who, instead of mourning, and seeking 
 to recover it, can even make light of those who 
 have retained theirs. " It is not hard to convert 
 servant-maids," and such depreciating expressions, 
 may lightly drop from an unthinking lip, but they 
 will affect hearers, and will be remembered in the 
 great day; and how differently will the two men 
 appear — the one whose humble labor has been the 
 means of converting servant-maids, and the one 
 
266 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 whose envy and whose wit were vented in making 
 light of the work ! 
 
 O, let those of us whose history too plainly tells 
 that no extraordinary power of God has rested 
 upon us; who can look back to years of labor 
 which, if not absolutely barren, yet, in comparison 
 with what others have reaped, must be called 
 years of barrenness — let us not fail to bless and to 
 honor, in our own hearts, those who have been in 
 the mean time doing us good by the news that has 
 reached us, every now and then, of the fruit of 
 their labor. Above all, let us look back on our 
 years of barrenness with most tender and contrite 
 humiliation, crying earnestly to God to take away 
 our reproach from among men, and to give us 
 many, many children ! 
 
 A minister can never be responsible for success, 
 but he is responsible for power ; responsible not 
 only for presenting the truth to the people — in 
 which many seem to think that their responsibility 
 terminates — -but responsible also for this, that the 
 truth he presents be not dry, but accompanied with 
 some energy of the Spirit. If the Spirit be in the 
 man, shining upon his soul with the light of God, 
 more or less of holy fire will go with the word. A 
 frame having muscular strength, without nervous 
 energy — a countenance with linear grace, without 
 expression — a needle for the compass, without mag- 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THJ2 CHURCH. 267 
 
 netism, are not more defective than is the state 
 ment of religious truth without the accompanying 
 power of the Holy Spirit, This power was pre- 
 supposed in the man's first entrance on the ministry 
 Ho stands there by virtue of his solemn declaration 
 before God and men that he felt it in his heart ; and 
 he is bound to stir up the gift of God within him, 
 to keep his lamp trimmed, and his light burning, 
 and evermore to be replenishing with holy oil. 
 
 This power has but one source — the Spirit of 
 God in the soul of man. It is the one thing that 
 can not be feigned. A hypocrite may possess the 
 truth, and clearly explain, and powerfully urge, and 
 passionately apply it. He may feign tenderness, 
 feign ardor, feign all the passions, but he can not 
 feign the power that searches the conscience, that 
 makes men feel, " God is in you of a truth," that 
 leads them in the silence of their own closets to wet 
 their couch with their tears, and spend long nights 
 in repenting before God. You may as well attempt 
 to feign life in a dead eye, or music in a cracked 
 voice, as to feign the power of the Holy Spirit in a 
 soul that does not habitually wait at the throne of 
 grace, until endued with power from on high. 
 
 Those of us who are manifestly not endued with 
 
 great power, who can not flatter ourselves that any 
 
 oue looks upon us as blessed messengers of God, 
 19 
 
268 THE TONGUE OF FIKE, 
 
 or in any light higher than that of weli-meaning and 
 useful men, by whose ministry, perhaps, now and 
 then, at rare intervals, such a thing may be heard 
 of as a sinner being converted, and who yet feel dis- 
 inclined to take any blame to our own heart on ac- 
 count of our barrenness, can best judge how much 
 time has been spent in our closets, in deploring the 
 state of the souls that are perishing under our sight, 
 in strong crying and tears to God for their deliver- 
 ance, in importuning and imploring that we might 
 be robed with power, and made mighty to blow an 
 awakening blast, and rescue multitudes from the 
 grasp of the devil. 
 
 We can, each one for himself, best tell whether 
 or not the results of our labors do very fairly cor- 
 respond with the depth, intensity, and continuity 
 of our secret search after the co-working fire of the 
 Spirit. If on a review it should appear clear to us 
 that far, far more might have been done in our pri- 
 vate w^alk with God toward having our own souls 
 imbued with the Spirit of Christ and of Christ's 
 Apostles, then let each of us conclude for himself, 
 whether much more might or might not have been 
 done to " save those that hear him." And should 
 tne conclusion on our mind be clear that more 
 might have been done, much more — that it ought 
 to have been done — that we are very guilty by rea- 
 son of supineness, of unbelief, of feeble and inetlbc 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 269 
 
 tual prayer, of duplicity in our aim, or of any other 
 defect in the keeping our own souls as God's embas- 
 sadors, let our penitence be deep, our cry for for- 
 giveness pressing and earnest ; but not for one mo- 
 ment let it take that form which strangely unnerves 
 and debilitates a man, namely, the state of mind in 
 which one takes pleasure in talking of his own 
 feebleness and unworthiness, or, at least, finds suffi- 
 cient relief in talking of it. Rather let us feel sur& 
 that the God of grace and mercy will hearken to 
 our voice, will answer our prayer, will forgive our 
 past unfaithfulness, will draw near to us with new 
 and gracious power, will enable us to go forth as 
 giants refreshed with new wine, to bear away from 
 the arms of the adversary, in triumph and with 
 shouting, many a lamb that is ready to be torn to 
 pieces. 
 
 We can not be content to look upon the minister 
 of this actual hour as any thing less, in the intention 
 of our God and Saviour, than an instrument " of the 
 mighty power of God" — the power which is unto 
 salvation. We do not expect the gift of tongues or 
 of miracles, because these were not essential to the 
 work of the ministry ; but the active co-operation, 
 the abiding unction of the Holy Spirit is. If we 
 were forced to believe either that all the primitive 
 manifestations of the Spirit were now attainable, or 
 that all had now passed away, we could a thousand 
 
270 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 times rather look for the tongues and the miracles, 
 with the gift of prophesying, than dismiss the hope 
 of this last with, that of the other gifts. Better the 
 excess of faith, a thousand times better and more 
 rational, than unbelief in any promise that stands 
 clearly for all generations. Better to suppose that 
 the Lord designed every sign and every token of 
 His presence to continue with His Church to tho 
 last ; than suppose that they were all to be called 
 back, and that the Christians of the latter day were 
 to suffer a total privation of the Holy Spirit's minis- 
 terial gifts. 
 
 We will covet, earnestly covet, the Lord's good 
 gift of prophesying ; and we will covet, also, the 
 " manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal," not 
 only in the pastors of the Church, but in the mem 
 bers, giving to one the word of wisdom, to anothe; 
 the word of knowledge, to another the spirit o( 
 grace and of supplications, that men with fire ii? 
 their hearts may go everywhere, and publicly or 
 privately preach the word, the Lord working with 
 them, and confirming the word by signs following, 
 Let us look up and hope to see, not one, or two, or 
 three, not merely an occasional and extraordinary 
 man, shining in the churches as with a light from 
 on high ; but let us soberly, and steadily, and in 
 prayer, expect companies of preachers, each differ- 
 ing from his brethren, yet all of them manifesting is 
 
TEEMAKENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 271 
 
 some form or another that ail anointing from the 
 Holy One abides upon them, teaches them in all 
 things, and enables them to appear before men, not 
 only saying in words, but by their commending 
 fruits saying to the conscience, " Now, then, we are 
 embassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech 
 you by us : we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye " 
 reconciled to God." One such man is better than 
 a thousand, and two of them will put ten thousand 
 to flight. 
 
 Intimately connected with the question of minis- 
 terial power is another vital question — whether or 
 not the Church is to retain the converting influ- 
 ence of the Holy Spirit on any thing like the original 
 scale. Here, again, we do not confine ourselves to 
 combatting formally stated opinions, but deal with 
 vague, undefined, unexpressed, or but half express 
 ed, sentiments, not embodied in the creed of any 
 Church, but perceptible in the ordinary tone equally 
 of religious conversation, literature and preaching. 
 Is it not a prevalent state of feeling, that to look for 
 a very large number of conversions at once is ex- 
 travagant ; that for any minister to expect a great 
 many to be converted while he is delivering the 
 sermon then in hand, argues a mind scarcely bal- 
 anced ; that sudden conversions have much to be 
 said against them ; that we ought to be content if 
 
272 ' THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 the work of God proceed slowly, and to be elated 
 if the good men of any community bear some re- 
 spectable proportion to the numbers who forget 
 God? 
 
 It is manifest that the conversions effected by the 
 primitive Church were very numerous, compared 
 with her agencies and facilities ; varying greatly in 
 different times and places, but, in the main, going 
 onward with accumulative power. The difference 
 between the conversion of a Jew to the faith and 
 holiness of the Gospel, and the conversion of a nom- 
 inal Christian to the same faith and holiness, is a 
 difference, not of kind, but of degree ; and the de 
 gree is not so great as might at first sight be sup- 
 posed. The Jew believed the oracles of God, and 
 the truths therein contained, as far as he knew 
 them. So does the nominal Christian. Both hold 
 the truth in unrighteousness — the unrighteousness 
 of frank rebellion, or of Pharisaical self-righteous- 
 ness. Both are brought to learn God's love in re- 
 deeming man, to repent, to believe on the crucified 
 Messiah as their Saviour, and to walk in fellowship 
 with the Father and the Son. 
 
 The conversion of a heathen involved much more 
 of intellectual enlightenment, and, on the whole, 
 presented a greater difficulty, and a greater change ; 
 but we do not find that the Apostles ever point out 
 any difference in the operation of the Spirit in the 
 
PERMA^TE^T BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 2 1 3 
 
 conversion of a Jewish scribe, and of a heathen 
 necromancer, of a Roman centurion, and of a widow 
 in Jerusalem. The same mighty power convinced 
 them all of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, 
 and brought them to a level by the wounds of a 
 smitten spirit : then — like those with various malar- 
 dies, who all came to Christ, and were all healed- - 
 came barbarian and Scythian, bond and free, Jew 
 and Greek, learned and unlearned. 
 
 If we take the hundred and twenty disciples of 
 whom the Church consisted on the Day of Pente- 
 cost, and then take the number of Christians before 
 -ihe first century was ended, we see how " mightily 
 grew the word of God, and prevailed." Then sup- 
 pose, for one moment, the possibility that, by the 
 same spiritual power, the Church had multiplied her 
 converts in equal ratio: few ages would have 
 elapsed before the whole earth would have been 
 renewed in righteousness. But the saint-making 
 power abated ; and crowds of Christians became 
 little better, though still better, than crowds of 
 heathen. Was this loss of efficiency owing to the 
 unfaithfulness of men, and, therefore, capable of 
 )eing recovered by a return to the original means 
 of importunate prayer and strong faith ? or was it 
 owing to a design of the Head of the Church, and 
 therefore irrecoverable ? 
 
 On a question so ^ital to the interests of man- 
 
274 THE TOKGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 kind, no mind ought to float on the prevailing cur. 
 rent without adopting a deliberate conviction, 
 Was the conversion of thousands in Jerusalem, of 
 crowds in Ephesus, in Samaria, Antioch, Corinth, 
 Rome, and elsewhere, a proof, once for all, of what 
 God could do toward the saving of this lost world, 
 which He designed never to repeat, and which His 
 children would be presumptuous in expecting to 
 see again ? Were those multitudes, so speedily 
 gathered out of the world, to represent, in future 
 ages, only small companies of true believers, to 
 whom accessions were to be very gradual, and who 
 were never to gain the overwhelming majority t 
 If so, then the Christian dispensation w T as deliber 
 ately planned above to begin in sunrise, but, instead 
 of shining more and more to the perfect day, speed- 
 ily to pale into twilight; and then darken to a long, 
 long night, in w T hich stars would thinly spangle a 
 wide space of gloom. 
 
 Would not many who recoil from this conclusion 
 stare at a man having a congregation of a thousand 
 people before him, any one of whom would feel 
 perplexed if you asked him, " Could you confi- 
 dently lay your hand on fifty persons in this congre- 
 gation who are living like heirs of heaven ?" — if he, 
 simply telling them their state, would go on to say, 
 that they might all that very morning become 
 children of God, and live for " the rest of their 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS 10 THE CHUKCH. 275 
 
 time" a new and blessed life ? Were it done with 
 the official formality which at once indicated that it 
 was just a thing proper to be believed, and even to 
 he said now and then, very probably it would excite 
 no remark ; but if it were done with the downright 
 air of a man who thoroughly meant what he said, 
 and was then and there looking for corresponding 
 results, would not many be startled ? But why ? 
 If it be not true that God has withdrawn from 
 Christianity the converting power of the Holy 
 Ghost, why ? Either affirm your principle, or 
 abandon the habit of thought which you have 
 formed on the assumption of that principle. If 
 you see that there is death to the Church, or death 
 to souls, in the principle, why not see that there is 
 death, too, in assuming it, and acting upon it, as 
 clearly announced, without affirming it ? 
 
 Some who would be gratified to see an expecta- 
 tion of one conversion, or of a few, would never- 
 theless be disturbed by the manifest expectation of 
 a great number. Why should this be ? If the 
 Minister of the Gospel is not now to go before a 
 multitude with a frank and earnest assurance that 
 every one of them who will only repent and believe 
 may " receive the gift of the Holy Ghost," it must 
 be because our dispensation has been fearfully 
 changed since its opening. The first multitude who 
 stood before a preacher of Christianity can never 
 
276 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 be regarded as representing itself alone. When 
 the cry arose from it, " What must we do ?" it was 
 not the men then present only who inquired. It 
 was you, and I, and every man who ever comes to 
 a preacher of the Gospel to hear what he has to 
 say on the great subject of our salvation. The 
 answer which Peter rendered to that multitude was 
 not to them alone, but to us and to our children, to 
 all of every age and every nation who put the 
 question which they put. That answer was, " Re 
 pent, and be baptized, every one of you in the 
 name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and 
 ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." He 
 does not promise them that they should be admitted 
 as members of the Church merely, accounted Chris- 
 tians merely, or that after death they shall inherit 
 eternal happiness ; but, in plain strong words, he 
 tolls them that they shall receive that blessing which 
 constitutes the substance of the Gospel : " Ye shall 
 receive the gift of the Holy Ghost ;" and this, not 
 " some of you," but " every one of you," with no 
 condition whatever but that they " repent, and be 
 baptized." 
 
 Is it to be supposed that Peter would have altered 
 this reply, had you, and I, and our children been 
 there? or that, had the image of future generations 
 risen to his eye as standing behind those he ad- 
 dressed and represented by them, h^ would have 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 277 
 
 qualified his grand promise, and taken care to falter 
 something guarded, instead of plainly saying, 
 " Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost ?" 
 Let those who fear to regard this promise as 
 equally applicable to us as to them, only read tl.is 
 words with which he follows it up : " For the 
 promise is unto you, and to your children, and to 
 all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our 
 God shall call. On the next occasion when he ad- 
 dresses a multitude, he holds this language : "Unto 
 you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent 
 Ilim to bless you, in turning aicay every one of yon 
 from his iniquities." Here the converting grace 
 of Christ is without hesitation proclaimed to all who 
 stand before him. 
 
 It is to be remarked that what he here states to 
 be Christ's mode of blessing men lies in conversion 
 itself, in the " turning away" of a man " from his 
 iniquities." Whatever the Gospel may do indirectly 
 for the enlightenment and elevation of a man, so long 
 as he continues the servant of sin, it has conferred 
 upon him no eternal advantage. " His servants ye 
 are to whom ye obey," is a word that must stand 
 forever. He that is still doing the work of Satan 
 is his servant, and with him must take his rew r ard. 
 And it is also notable that he speaks of Jesus hav 
 ing been sent to bless them after He had been 
 raised ; thus announcing a mission of Christ suhae- 
 
278 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 quent to His resurrection, yet having already taken 
 place in those days. This must he that presence 
 of Christ which He promised them when Pie wag 
 about to depart from them, saying, in the very ac 
 of leaving them, "I am with you alway, even untc 
 the end of the world." 
 
 6; With them," no longer in that body which con 
 fined Him to the very spot in which the Twelve 
 were, but " with them" by the power of His Spirit, 
 which is represented in the Apocalypse as the 
 " eyes of the Lamb." " And I beheld, and lo, in 
 the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and 
 in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had 
 been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, 
 which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into 
 all the earth."* Here we have the Lamb en- 
 throned, yet " as slain," with the tokens of death 
 and. atonement upon Him ; yet, again, " having 
 seven horns," the signs of universal kingship, " and 
 seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent 
 forth into all the earth." Majesty, mediation, and 
 spiritual presence " throughout all the earth," are 
 here gloriously set before us ; and the Lamb, though 
 no longer bodily present with one group of dis- 
 ciples, is present with all, by His Spirit, which 
 is moving in the hearts of those who serve Him, 
 as if it were the glance of the Lord. He ascended 
 . * Eev v 6. 
 
PEEMA^TENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 279 
 
 that He might be with us all and with us always, 
 just as a Prince, on the eve of the battle, would 
 retire from any one division of his army, and go 
 bove them, that he might be present with all; 
 for he would be present with every battalion 
 that he had under his sight. And as that Prince 
 would dart his own spirit by his eye into the 
 breast of every follower, so does our King dart 
 His into the breast of all who wait before His 
 throne. 
 
 The one blessing, then, which the exalted Medi- 
 ator has to confer on this world is, in " turning men 
 from their iniquities," in converting sinners from 
 the error of their ways, in bringing those who are 
 afar off from God nigh to Him, and making those 
 .who are now living in sin to be "heirs of God, and 
 joint-heirs with Christ ;" restoring, in fact, the image 
 of God upon earth, manifesting the Divine ideal of 
 humanity in our " mortal bodies," rearing up com- 
 munities who shall be properly called, "the children 
 of our Father who is in heaven" — communities, 
 whose ruling nature shall not be that of fallen 
 Adam, but who shall have that mind in them which 
 was also in Christ, being made partakers of the 
 Divine nature, and, in proof thereof, loving those 
 that hate them, blessing those that curse them, 
 praying for those that despitefully use them and 
 pasecute them ; and thus, by returning good feel- 
 
280 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 ings for bad feelings, good words for bad words, 
 good deeds for bad deeds, showing themselves 
 the children of their Father in heaven. The 
 triumph and glory of Christ lies in so renewing 
 the face of the earth, that this image of God 
 shall be the prevalent characteristic of humanity 
 that peace and good-will shall take hold of na 
 tions, righteousness and truth flourish in the homes 
 of all. 
 
 The accomplishment, to a considerable extent, of 
 this great purpose formed the singular glory of the 
 early Church. To a community in the city of Rome 
 it could be said, " Ye were the servants of sin. * * * 
 But now, being made free from sin, and become 
 servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, 
 and the end everlasting life." To another company 
 in the city of Corinth it could be said, after describ 
 ing the various classes of sinners who could not sec 
 the kingdom of God, " Such were some of you ; 
 but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are 
 justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
 Spirit of our God." To some in the city of Ephesus 
 it could be said, *' And you hath He quickened who 
 were dead in trespasses and sins ; wherein in times 
 past ye walked according to the course of this 
 world, according to the prince of the power of tho 
 air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of 
 disobedience: among whom also we all had our 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 281 
 
 conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, 
 fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind ; 
 and were by nature the children of wrath, even as 
 others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His 
 great love wherewith He loved us, even when we 
 were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with 
 Christ (by grace are ye saved) ; and hath raised us 
 up together, and made us sit together in heavenly 
 places in Christ Jesus : that in the ages to come He 
 might show the exceeding riches of His grace in 
 His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."* 
 To some in the city of Colosse it could be said, 
 a Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made 
 us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the 
 saints in light : who hath delivered us from the 
 power of darkness, and hath translated us into the 
 kingdom of His dear Son."f To some in Thessa- 
 lonica it could be said, " And ye became followers 
 of us, and of the Lord, having received the word 
 in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so 
 that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Mace- 
 donia and Achaia."J And when our Lord looked 
 down from Heaven upon the Seven Churches of 
 Asia, even His eyes of flame, looking upon the 
 Church of Sardis itself, saw there were "some 
 names in Sardis which had not defiled their gar* 
 merits." 
 
 « Eph. ii. 1-7. f Col. L 12, 13. X l Thess - *■ e > 1 
 
282 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 To suppose that this power to regenerate man, 
 and thereby to ameliorate human society, has been 
 withdrawn from the Church by the will and ap- 
 pointment of her adorable Head, is to suppose, in 
 fact, that the one practical end of Christianity has 
 been voluntarily abandoned— that end which lies in 
 glorifying God upon the earth, and in saving the 
 souls of men. If Christianity can not renew men 
 in the image of God, she ceases to have any special 
 distinction above other religions, except the one of 
 more wisdom and more virtue. Her mission here 
 was to overcome Satan in the realm in which he 
 had hitherto triumphed, to re-establish the empire 
 of God over the hearts and lives of a race that had 
 wandered from Him, and to prepare out of the 
 children of that race heirs meet for a pure and an 
 immortal kingdom. 
 
 Not only would this practical end be abandoned, 
 but the standing evidence to Christianity would be 
 discontinued. The miracles and prophecies of the 
 past time are an evidence to Christianity as a sys- 
 tem of truth ; but if she be only a system of truth, 
 and not also a power unto salvation, she but adds 
 to the guilt of men here by increasing their light, 
 and to their misery hereafter by increasing their 
 stripes. No miracles, no prophecies, no accumula- 
 tion of arguments under heaven can demonstrate to 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 283 
 
 our neighbors at this moment that Christianity Is a 
 power which can actually make men superior to 
 their own circumstances aud their own sins ; which 
 can take men of this nineteenth century, men with 
 sin in their blood, sin in their bones, sin in their 
 habits, sin in their down-sitting and their uprising, 
 sin against God, sin against their neighbor, sin 
 against themselves, sins of self-interest and sins 
 against self-interest, sins for happiness, and sins that 
 wreck happiness — and out of these men, still living 
 in the very circumstances wherein their past time 
 has been spent, make " servants of God, free from 
 sin, having their fruit unto holiness, and the end 
 everlasting life." 
 
 The evidence of this, the only real and effective 
 evidence, is living men who have been regenerated, 
 and whose good works plainly declare them to be 
 of our Father who is in Heaven. We, too, can say, 
 that "God has sent His Son Jesus to bless" our 
 neighbors, "in turning away every one of them 
 from his iniquities ;" but how unimpressive would 
 be our saying it, were there none to whom we 
 coald point them, and add, "These are our epistles, 
 known and read of all men !" 
 
 Peter, recurring again to the kingly state of the 
 
 Saviour, said, "Him hath God exalted with His 
 
 right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give 
 
 repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And 
 20 
 
284 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 we are His witnesses of these things ; and 30 is al» J 
 the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that 
 obey Him."* Here is the double evidence, that of 
 Apostles and that of the Spirit in living converts. 
 We of this day are also Christ's witnesses that He 
 is " exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repent- 
 ance and forgiveness of sins;" but our witness 
 must be corroborated by those who, having re- 
 ceived the Holy Ghost, live in the Spirit and walk 
 in the Spirit. 
 
 Peter, in speaking of the witness which the 
 Prophets bore to Christ, sums it up thus: "To 
 Him give all the Prophets witness, that through 
 His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive 
 remission of sins ." When we bear this witness, 
 we ought to expect the same attestation of it whicJ 
 Peter saw in his Gentile audience, and which he 
 afterward used to prove that they also had received 
 salvation as well as the Jews ; namely, God " put 
 no difference between us" (the first Jewish con- 
 verts) "and them, purifying their hearts by faith." 
 Wherever men can be pointed to, whose hearts 
 have been purified by faith, whose lives are a man- 
 ifest example of salvation from sin, there is the 
 standing evidence that Christianity is "the power 
 of God unto salvation ;" and no other description 
 of evidence, as we befora said, can prove this. Is 
 * Acts 7. 3 A . 32 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUKOH. 285 
 
 it supposable that Christ has withdrawn from His 
 Church or diminished that power which would 
 show continually that He " saves His people from 
 their sins ?" 
 
 The converting power is also the Churches great 
 attraction. It is true that some would attract men 
 by ceremonies, or talent, or the charms of arch- 
 itecture or music — attract them that they may con- 
 vert them ; whereas the true order is, Convert, that 
 you may attract. The one is the order of the char- 
 latan, who trusts to factitious allurements for at- 
 tracting the public in the hope that he may cure 
 some ; the other, the order of the true physician, 
 who trusts to the fact of his curing some as the 
 means of attracting others. Whenever the Church 
 sends into a family one new convert glowing with 
 love and joy, she kindles a light which will, in all 
 probability, give light to all that are in the house. 
 Whenever she is the means of making one shop- 
 man turn from his sins, and exhibit to his comrades 
 a picture of holy living, in all probability she will 
 6oon have others from that shop at her altars. 
 Whenever she brings one factory-girl to sit, like 
 Mary, at the feet of Jesus, very probably in a little 
 while other Marys will be with her. 
 
 In every situation, new converts are the most 
 powerful attraction that ever acts on those who are 
 
286 THE TONGUE OF FIEE. 
 
 still in the world. There seems a peculiar spiritual 
 power connected with the first love, and an im~ 
 pressiveness in the words, of new converts, enforced 
 bv the manifest change in them, which nothing else 
 can exert. That house of God which becomes noted 
 in a neighborhood as a place in which many sinners 
 have been " transformed by the renewing of their 
 minds," will, by a certain instinct of our redeemed 
 humanity, soon become a center of attraction, not 
 only to those who, with scarcely any light, are 
 groping after the truth, but even to men who are 
 still hardily going on in sin. The greatest fame of 
 Christianity is the fame of the cures she works, her 
 greatest glory the glory of the saints she trains, her 
 own unshared renown the renown of sinners renewed 
 in the image of God ; and wherever works of this 
 kind are noised abroad in any community, there the 
 preacher will not want hearers, there the sower will 
 not be without a field. 
 
 • The converting power is also the principal lever 
 which Christianity can use for raising the standard 
 of morals in nations. Instruction is the basis of aU 
 
 noral operation ; but instruction in morals, like in- 
 struction in science, is of little force unless backed 
 by experiment. Say all you can to men about the 
 duty of returning good for evil, they will scarcely 
 iiave a clear conception of it, until they see some 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 287 
 
 man deliberately benefiting one from whom he has 
 received deliberate injury. One tradesman con- 
 verted, and manfully taking ground among his com- 
 panions against trade tricks once used by himself, 
 casts greater shame upon their dishonesty than all 
 the instructions they ever heard from pulpits ; or, 
 rather, gives an edge, a power, and an embodiment 
 to them all. One youth whom religion strengthens 
 to walk purely among dissipated companions sends 
 lights and stings into their consciences which mere 
 instruction could not give, because it shows them 
 that purity is not, as temptation says, unattainable. 
 And so with all the virtues ; it is but by embodying 
 them in the persons of men that . they become 
 thoroughly understood in the public mind. 
 
 It is but too well known that there are nations 
 of the highest civilization, in which all that need be 
 said about truthfulness has been said for ages, till 
 the word " truth" is on the lips of every one ; yet 
 it is next to impossible to find one being who has 
 any thing like a just conception of what manly, 
 consistent, continual truth-telling is. 
 
 Just in proportion as the number of converted 
 men is great or small, will be the amount of con- 
 science in the community generally. Viewed in 
 this light, each conversion facilitates future con- 
 versions. Each new convert adds somewhat to the 
 moral influence existing among men, and each ad 
 
28S THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 ditional thousand greatly improves the public con- 
 science, and weakens the ties which bind men to 
 sin. Where no one is godly, moderately correct 
 persons are almost ashamed of their lack of bad- 
 ness; where a tenth of the adults are godly, evea 
 ordinary sinners are ashamed of their lack of good- 
 ness ; and where a fifth, or a third of the adults are 
 godly, the hinderances to the conversion of the rest 
 are as nothing, compared with those that exist 
 where the great masses are still living in their sins. 
 
 The converting power is also the only means 
 whereby Christianity raises up agents for her oion 
 propagation. That which is wanted in an agent, 
 above all, is zeal — zeal for God, burning desire to 
 save sinners. This zeal is never a matter of mere 
 conviction, but always a matter of nature. It is 
 " Christ in you." It is " the love of Christ con- 
 straining you." It is the Divine nature, which de- 
 lights to communicate, to bestow, to purify, to save, 
 breathed into the soul of man, and impelling it in 
 the same course wherein Christ Himself moved 
 Agents with this nature we can have only by suc- 
 cessive outpourings of the Spirit of God, by con- 
 stant accessions of new converts. 
 
 When they who have been great sinners are 
 themselves converted to God, having been forgiven 
 much, they love much, and frecuently become 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 289 
 
 mighty instruments of winning others to Christ. 
 For the high work of the ministry, either we must 
 content ourselves to make ministers by a factitious 
 process, or we must look to see them springing up 
 from amid multitudes of new converts, who in 
 youth turn to the Lord, and devote themselves to 
 do His will. When conversions are not few, but 
 many — when " numbers turn to the Lord" — when 
 the inhabitants of one town say to those of another, 
 " Come, let us go speedily to seek the Lord, and to 
 pray before the Lord of hosts" — when there are 
 many repenting, and many rejoicing, saying, " We 
 have redemption in His blood, even the forgiveness 
 of sins" — then will assuredly appear some with plain 
 marks that the spirit of the prophets is in them, and 
 that they are called to spread, far and wide, the 
 glorious salvation of which they themselves partake, 
 
 Nothing so re-animates the zeal of old Christians 
 as witnessing the joy and simplicity, the gratitude 
 and fervor, of those who have been lately born of 
 God. While the old disciple is to the young one 
 an example of moderation and strength, the young 
 is to the old an example of fervor ; the one shed- 
 ding upon the other a steadying influence, while he 
 receives in return a cheering and an impelling one. 
 
 It is also wonderful how much the occurrence of 
 conversions heightens the efficiency of men already 
 employed in the ministry, or in other departments 
 
290 THE TONGUE OF EIRE. 
 
 of the work of God. The preacher preaches witt 
 new heart, the exhorter exhorts with revived feel* 
 ing, he that prays has double faith and fervor ; 
 and the joy of conquest breathes new vigor into all 
 the Lord's host. 
 
 While the importance^ and in fact the necessity, 
 of the converting power of the Spirit may be ad- 
 mitted in the abstract, all its practical value may be 
 set aside by cherishing dislike to the idea of sudden 
 conversions, or numerous conversions. It is deemed 
 sober to expect conversions some time, but not so 
 to expect them now ; and as the " row" perpetuates 
 itself on, and on, and on through the lifetime of a 
 generation, the time to look for their conversion 
 never comes, and the next generation succeed to 
 the same chill law of unbelief; each one living in 
 the doomed " now" when the converting power i$ 
 not to be looked for without fanaticism. 
 
 The preference so carefully and even ostenta 
 tiously displayed by many good men for what are 
 called gradual conversions over sudden ones, may 
 have some foundation — but not in Scripture. All 
 the conversions we find mentioned in the New Tes- 
 tament are sudden. That of Lydia is the only one 
 that is ever cited as being gradual, and yet it took 
 place under one sermon. The expression, "The 
 Lord opened her heart," can not imply, at the very 
 most, more than that the action upon her heart was 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 291 
 
 a gentle one ; the door was opened, not burst in ; 
 but it did not take three months to open it — it was 
 done in a day. The sudden conversion is an opera- 
 tion manifestly Divine. It brings with it a token 
 of something supernatural ; and when the after-life 
 attests its genuineness, there is in the very fact of 
 its suddenness a perpetual memento of " the mighty 
 power of God." The natural aversion of the heart 
 to every thing which forces upon it the conscious- 
 ness of a spiritual and supernatural power moving 
 in this present life, sufficiently accountsfor the tend- 
 ency we all feel to prefer some mode of operation 
 which would appear less supernatural than the sud- 
 den, not to say miraculous, transformations from 
 sin to godliness, which form the common-place 
 chronicles of the early Church. 
 
 As to the question, whether those who are sud- 
 denly converted are or are not as stable as those 
 upon whom the work is more gradual, few are in a 
 good position to judge ; for every one who is sud- 
 denly converted is sure to have many eyes upon 
 him, and if he draw back, the notice of all these is 
 excited; whereas many who gradually take up a 
 religious profession gradually drop it again, and 
 scarcely any notice is taken. But, be the question 
 of stability settled as it may, it is certain that the 
 scriptural examples of conversion are sudden, and 
 equally certain that, if we are to look only for 
 
292 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 gradual conversions, we must deliberately make' tip 
 our minds to see millions upon millions of our 
 countrymen die impenitent, who, if sudden con 
 versions are multiplied, may yet be brought to God 
 before they end their days. The jailor was found 
 at the extremity of sinfulness, just in the act of 
 suicide ; yet that very night salvation was preached 
 to him, embraced by him, and filled his heart with 
 holy joy. 
 
 Some would not so much object to sudden con- 
 versions, if many of them did not take place at a 
 time. But there is something unaccountable in the 
 feeling with which even godly men look upon any 
 movement in which it would seem, that a large 
 number of sinners have been simultaneously turned 
 to God. First, .they can hardly believe that the 
 work is real, they begin to prophesy that it will 
 not be lasting. Then, if they find that it has lasted, 
 they still incline to think that they had better not 
 look for any thing so extraordinary among their 
 own neighbors, but go on steadily, as they say, 
 gaining by degrees. 
 
 One simple objection to this theory of "going on 
 steadily" (that is, slowly) is, that it coolly consigns 
 whole generations to hell, and leaves us with the 
 dreadful feeling, that the best progress of the work 
 of God is a progress which leaves the great majority 
 
PERJtfANEOT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 293 
 
 of those now alive hopelessly in their sins. Another 
 objection to this "going on steadily" is, that it is 
 not Pentecostal; it is not primitive ; it is not after 
 the example of " the mighty power of God." In 
 the early Church conversions were by the hundred 
 and the thousand ; the word spread, not with the 
 moderation deal* to small and proper men, who are 
 always afraid of being charged with extravagance, 
 but with the sweep and power of a Divine movement, 
 the agents in which were borne onward as on the 
 wings of the wind, willing to be a laughing-stock to 
 men, willing to hear an outcry from the world which 
 they were turning upside down. 
 
 When conversions are very numerous, in propor- 
 tion to the human instruments, the agency of God 
 is much more strikingly manifested than when they 
 are few. Although the man who, by his own ex- 
 perience, knows what it is to pass from darkness to 
 light, will see an evidence of the power of the Holy 
 Ghost in any and every true conversion ; those who 
 have no such experience, easily avoid concluding 
 that a supernatural power is in action, so long as 
 they can trace an imagined proportion between the 
 agency and the results. If a few people are turned 
 from their sins by many preachers, it seems no more 
 than natural ; if a few holy men are found in a 
 multitude, it is only another proof, they think, of 
 the fact that there will always be a certain nurabei 
 
294 TILE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 of good people among the wicked. But if a lar^o 
 number of thoughtless youths, or confirmed sinners, 
 become devoted to God through the instrumentality 
 of some one preacher, and if this extend to neigh 
 borhood after neighborhood, a feeling falls upon 
 spectators that it is not to be accounted for by reas- 
 oning about proportion, but by the operation of a 
 superior power. 
 
 Let but the results of preaching as to the number 
 ind suddenness of the conversions pass a certain 
 point — let the number be thousands, and the time 
 one day — and the idea of attributing this to the 
 power of some men would not enter the mind. 
 Who ever thought, on reading that three thousand 
 Jews were converted on the day of Pentecost, and 
 lived holy lives afterward, of exclaiming, " What a 
 preacher Peter was !" The magnitude of the effect 
 at once suggests a superhuman cause. Had the 
 result been small, the man would have been glori- 
 fied ; but when it took such proportions, he was 
 thrown into the shade, and " the mighty power of 
 God" alone occupies the mind. When a flash of 
 light falls on our path in the street in the evening, 
 we should at once think of a lamp, because the sur- 
 face illuminated in itself indicates some such origin. 
 But if we see a light fall upon a hill, and sweep over 
 successive hills until a whole country-side is bright- 
 ened, we think of the sun. 
 
PERMANENT BENEFITS TO TilL CHURCH. 295 
 
 Too many conversions now take place, too many 
 really converted men are to be found, to permit any 
 one to believe that the converting power of the 
 Spirit has been wholly withdrawn from the Church. 
 His presence in the midst of us is attested by many 
 witnesses ; but the practical question for us is, Is it 
 contrary to the design of God that true believers 
 now should multiply themselves as rapidly, in pro- 
 portion, as they did after the day of Pentecost ? 
 If it be, then, no matter what means may be 
 used, that result can not be obtained ; but, if it 
 be not, then we are bound to hope that, the same 
 means being used — the same prayer, faith, and 
 zeal being put forth on the part of the Church 
 — the same blessing of the Holy Spirit will be 
 vouchsafed. 
 
 On the whole question as to what permanent 
 benefits remain to the Church from the dispensa- 
 tion of the Spirit, we contend that every thing 
 substantial implied in the gift of the Holy Ghost 
 remains unimpaired. Whatever is necessary to the 
 holiness of the individual, to the spiritual life and 
 ministering gifts of the Church, or to the conversion 
 of the world, is as much the heritage of the people 
 of God in the latest days as in the first. We do 
 not see that the miraculous effects which followed 
 the Pentecost are promised to all ages and all p^o- 
 
296 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 pie, and therefore we do not look for them to re- 
 appear ; but we feel satisfied that he who does ex- 
 pect the gift of healing, and the gift of tongues, or 
 any other miraculous manifestation of the Holy 
 Spirit, in addition to those substantial blessings of 
 which these were, as we have said, the ushers and 
 the heralds, has ten times more scriptural ground 
 on which to base his expectation, than have they 
 for their unbelief who do not expect supernatural 
 sanctifying strength for the believer, supernatural 
 aid in preaching, exhortation, and prayer, for 
 Pastors and gifted members, and supernatural con- 
 verting power upon the minds of those who are yet 
 of the world, 
 
 
CHAPTER YI. 
 
 PRACTICAL LESSONS. 
 
 At one lime we meant to dwell at considerable 
 length upon practical lessons connected with our 
 subject ; but this book is already larger than we 
 wished it to be, and we will therefore touch only- 
 three topics. We may learn a lesson on the source 
 of power ; one on the way to obtain powep ; 
 and one on the scale on which our expectations 
 of success should be framed. 
 
 In the application of any instrument, no error 
 can be more fatal than one that affects the source 
 of power. To recur to an illustration before used, 
 any reasoning upon explosive weapons which as- 
 sumed elasticity to be the source of power, must 
 lead completely astray. If this is to be noted in 
 all things, it is especially to be noted in what affects 
 the regeneration of the world. In merely natural 
 processes, persons proposing to affect the sentiments 
 of mankind, must depend largely on their influence, 
 
208 THE TCLNGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 their wealth, and their facilities. Christians fre- 
 quently permit themselves to fall into a state of 
 mind in which the want of all or any of these is 
 taken to be fatal to their prospects of success, and 
 the acquisition of them to be the first step toward 
 making any impression. But wealth, influence, and 
 facilities, however great, never yet secured results 
 in the spiritual conversion of men ; while the most 
 notable triumphs of Christianity have often been 
 gained in the total absence of them all. 
 
 Others, or the same men at different times, would 
 rather allow their hopes to rest on order, talent, or 
 truth. But neither are these the source of power. 
 Order is as necessary in Christianity as are bones, 
 ligaments, and skin in a man ; talent is as necessary 
 as brain, and truth as blood. But you may have 
 all these, and have a paralytic ; ay, have them all, 
 and have but a corpse. You must have both the 
 breathing spirit and that indescribable something 
 that we call " power." Indeed, the order of the 
 Christian Church ought to be such, her outward 
 framework so constructed, that she shall not be as 
 a building, which, though it looks more cheerful 
 when there is life within, yet will stand when there 
 is none ; but rather as a body, whi ih falls the mo- 
 ment the spirit forsakes it, and tends to decomposi- 
 tion. Wo Church ought to be otherwise construct- 
 ed, than in entire dependence on the presence of 
 
PRACTICAL LESSORS. 2P9 
 
 the living Spirit in all her ministerial arrangements. 
 Her frame ought to answer to no definition that 
 would suit an inorganic body ; but to answer ex- 
 actly to the celebrated definition of an organic one; 
 namely, " that wherein every part is mutually means 
 and end." The pervading presence of the Spirit 
 should be assumed, so that, if it be absent, the pains 
 of death shall instantly take hold upon her, and the 
 cry be extorted, " Lord, save, or I perish !" 
 
 We must again recall to mind that most wonder- 
 ful silence of ten days — that long, long pause of the 
 commissioned Church in sight of the perishing 
 world. Never should the solemnity of that silence 
 pass from the thoughts of any of God's people. It 
 stands in the very fore-front of our history — the 
 Lord's most memorable and affecting protest before- 
 hand — that no authority under heaven, that no 
 training, that no ordination could qualify men to 
 propagate the Gospel, without the baptism of the 
 Holy Ghost. Each successive day of those solemn 
 and silent ten, the perishing world might have 
 knocked at the door of the Church, and asked, 
 ' fi What waitest thou for, O bride of the ascended 
 Bridegroom? Why dost thou not say, 'Come?' 
 Why leavest thou us to slumber on uncalled, un- 
 warned, unblessed, whilst thou, with thy good tid- 
 ings, art tarrying inactive there ? What waitest 
 
 thou for ?" and every moment the answer would 
 21 
 
300 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 have been, " We are waiting to be ' endued with 
 power from on high;' we are waiting to be bap 
 tized with the Holy Ghost and with fire.' " 
 
 This is the one and the only source of our power 
 Without this, our wealth, influence, facilities, are 
 ships of war and ammunition without guns or men 
 our order, talent, truth, are men and guns, without 
 fire. We want in this age, above all wants, fire, 
 God's holy fire, burning in the hearts of men, stir- 
 ring their brains, impelling their emotions, thrilling 
 in their tongues, glowing in their countenances, 
 vibrating in their actions, expanding their intellec* 
 tual powers more than can ever be done by the 
 heats of genius, of argument, or of party ; and fusing 
 all their knowledge, logic, and rhetoric into a burn- 
 ing stream. Every accessory, every instrument of 
 usefulness, the Church has now in such a degree and 
 of such excellence as was never known in any other 
 age; and we want but a supreme and glorious bap- 
 tism of fire to exhibit to the world such a spectacle 
 as would raise ten thousand hallelujahs to the glory 
 of our King. 
 
 Let but this baptism descend, and thousands of 
 us who, up to this day, have been but common- 
 place or weak ministers, such as might easily pass 
 from the memory of mankind, would then become 
 mighty. Men would wonder at us, as if we had 
 been made anew; and we should wonder, not at 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 301 
 
 ourselves, l>ut at the grace of God which could 
 thus transform us. 
 
 Suppose we saw an army sitting down before a 
 granite fort, and they told us that they intended to 
 batter it down: we might ask them, "How?" 
 They point to a cannon-ball. Well, but there is no 
 power in that ; it is heavy, but not more than half 
 a hundred, or perhaps a hundred, weight : if all the 
 men in the army hurled it against the fort, they 
 would make no impression. They say, " No ; but 
 look at the cannon." Well, there is no power in 
 that. A child may ride upon it, a bird may perch 
 in its mouth; it is a machine, and nothing more. 
 " But look at the powder." Well, there is no 
 power in that ; a child may spill it, a sparrow may 
 peck it. Yet this powerless powder, and powerless 
 ball, are put into the powerless cannon ; — one spark 
 of fire enters it ; and then, in the twinkling of an 
 eye, that powder is a flash of lightning, and that 
 ball a thunderbolt, which smites as if it had been 
 sent from heaven. So is it with our Church ma- 
 chinery at this day : we have all the instruments 
 ^necessary for pulling down strongholds, and O for 
 the baptism of fire ! 
 
 As to the watt m WHICH Tills Powek may be 
 obtained, here we have only to recall the lesson of 
 the Ten Days — " They continued with one accord 
 
302 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 in prayer and supplication." Prayer earnest, prayer 
 united, and prayer persevering, these are the con- 
 ditions ; and, these being fulfilled, we shall assuredly 
 be " endued with power from on high." We 
 should never expect that the power will fall upon 
 us just because we happen once to awake and ask ft r 
 it. Nor have any community of Christians a right 
 to look for a great manifestation of the Spirit, if 
 they are not all ready to join in supplication, and, 
 " with one accord," to wait and pray as if it were 
 the concern of each one. The murmur er who al- 
 ways accounts for barrenness in the Church by the 
 faults of others, may be assured that his readiest 
 way to spiritual power, if that be his real object, 
 lies in uniting all, as one heart, to pray without 
 ceasing. 
 
 Above all, we are not to expect it without perse- 
 vering prayer. Prayer which takes the fact that 
 past prayers have not yet been answered, as a rea- 
 son for languor, has already ceased to be the j)rayer 
 of faith. To the latter, the fact that prayers remain 
 unanswered, is only evidence that the moment of the 
 answer is so much nearer. From first to last, tin 
 lessons and example of our Lord all tell us that 
 prayer which can not persevere, and urge its plea 
 importunately, and renew, and renew itself again, 
 and gather strength from every past petition, is not 
 the prayer that will prevail. 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. SOS 
 
 When John in the Apocalypse saw the Lamb on 
 the throne, before that thro?ie were the seven lamps 
 of fire burning, "which are the seven Spirits of God 
 gent forth into all the earth;" and it is only by 
 waiting before that throne of grace that we become 
 imbued with the holy fire ; but he who waits there 
 long and believingly will imbibe that fire, and come 
 forth from his communion with God, bearing tokens 
 of where he has been. For the individual believer, 
 and, above all, for every laborer in the Lord's vine- 
 yard, the only way to gain spiritual power is by se- 
 cret waiting at the throne of God for the baptism 
 of the Holy Spirit. Every moment spent in real 
 prayer is a moment spent in refreshing the fire of 
 God within the soul. We said before, that this fire 
 can not be simulated ; nothing else will produce its 
 effects. No more can the means of obtaining it be 
 feigned. Nothing but the Lord's own appointed 
 means, nothing but u waiting at the throne," noth- 
 ing but keeping the heart under " the eyes of the 
 Lamb," to be again, and again, and again pene- 
 trated by His Spirit, can put the soul into that con- 
 dition in which it is a meet instrument to impart 
 the light and power of God to other men. 
 
 When a lecturer on electricity wants to show an 
 example of a human body surcharged with his fire, 
 he places a person on a stool with glass legs. Tt e 
 glass serves to isolate him from the earth, because it 
 
304 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 will not conduct the fire — the electric fluid : were it 
 not for this, however much might be poured into 
 his frame, it would be carried away by the earth ; 
 but, when thus isolated from it, he retains all that 
 enters him. You see no fire, you hear no fire ; but 
 you are told that it is pouring into him. Presently 
 you are challenged to the proof — asked to come 
 near, and hold your hand close to his person ; when 
 you do so, a spark of fire shoots out toward you. 
 If thou, then, wouldst have thy soul surcharged 
 with the fire of God, so that those who come nigh 
 to thee shall feel some mysterious influence pro- 
 ceeding out from thee, thou must draw nigh to the 
 source of that fire, to the throne of God and of the 
 Lamb, and shut thyself out from the world — that 
 cold world, which so swiftly steals our fire away. 
 Enter into thy closet, and shut to thy door, and 
 there, isolated, " before the throne," await the bap- 
 tism; then the fire shall fill thee, and when thou 
 comest forth, holy power will attend thee, and thou 
 ehalt labor, not in thine own strength, but " with 
 demonstration of the Spirit, and with power." 
 
 As this is the only way for an individual to ob- 
 tain spiritual power, so is it the only way for 
 Churches. Prayer, prayer, all prayer — mighty, im- 
 portunate, repeated, united prayer; the rich and 
 the poor, the learned and the unlearned, the fathers 
 and the children, the pastors and the people, the 
 
PRACTICAL JLESSONS. 305 
 
 gifted and the simple, all uniting to cry to God 
 above, that He would come and affect them as in 
 the days of the right hand of the Most High, and 
 imbue them with the Spirit of Christ, and warm 
 them, and kindle them, and make them as a flame 
 of fire, and lay His right hand mightily on the sin- 
 ners that surround them, and turn them in truth to 
 Him. Such united and repeated supplications will 
 assuredly accomplish their end, and " the power of 
 God" descending will make every such company as 
 a band of giants refreshed with new wine. 
 
 If the source of our power, and the way to ob- 
 tain it, be so plain, how can it be that the " tongue 
 of fire" is so rare ? What are the hinderances ? 
 Is it because, as many would seem to think, nothing 
 is so difficult to obtain as the grace of the Holy 
 Spirit ? We often hear it said, All effort must be 
 unsuccessful without the blessing of God, without 
 the accompanying power of the Spirit ; and the 
 tone used indicates that it is therefore proper not to 
 look for any great results, as if the accompanying 
 power of the Spirit was the only thing not to be 
 counted upon. The recognition of our impotency 
 without the Spirit, and of the absolute necessity of 
 His presence and His power, is as needful as the 
 recognition of the fact that, without sunshine and 
 rain, all labor and all skill would fail to preserve the 
 
300 THE 10NGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 human race for one season. But the sunshine and 
 the rain are precisely the things which cost nothing, 
 and on which we may constantly depend. So it is 
 with the baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit. 
 Freer than the air we breathe, freer than the rich 
 sunbeams, freer than any of God's other gifts, be- 
 cause it is the one which has cost Him most, and 
 which blesses His children most, that gift is ever at 
 hand ; and when we have done what the Lord lays 
 upon us to do, it is dishonoring to Him to cherish a 
 secret feeling as if He, being good, not evil, was 
 backward to pour out His Spirit, and to do good to 
 His children. 
 
 This feeling of unbelief, wherever cherished, must, 
 on the principles of the Gospel, be fatal to all power. 
 He alone who magnifies the freeness, the fullness, 
 and the present efficacy of the Lord's grace, can by 
 the Holy Ghost accomplish wonder. Trust, firm 
 trust, straightforward, child-like trust, is the ever- 
 lasting condition of all co-operation with God. He 
 will not use, He will not bless, He will not inhabit 
 the heart that, at the moment when it offers Him a 
 request, says, " I doubt Thee." 
 
 In this age of faith in the natiral, and disinclin- 
 ation to the supernatural, we want especially to 
 meet the whole world with this crecta, " I believe in 
 the Holy Ghost." I expect to see saints as lovely 
 as any that are written of in the Scriptures — be- 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 307 
 
 cause I believe in the Holy Ghost. I expect to see 
 preachers as powerful to set forth Christ evidently 
 crucified before the eyes of men, as powerful to 
 pierce the conscience, to persuade, to convince, to 
 convert, as any that ever shook the multitudes of 
 Jerusalem, or Corinth, or Rome — because I believe 
 in the Holy Ghost. I expect to see Churches the 
 members of which shall be severally endued with 
 spiritual gifts, and every one moving in spiritual 
 activity, animating and edifying one another, com- 
 mending themselves to the conscience of the world 
 by their good w 7 orks, commending their Saviour to 
 it by a heart-engaging testimony — because I believe 
 all in the Holy Ghost. I expect to see villages where 
 the respectable people are now opposed to religion, 
 the proprietor ungodly, the nominal pastor worldly, 
 all that take a lead set against riving Christianity 
 — to see such villages summoned, disturbed, divided, 
 and then re-united, by the subduing of the whole 
 population to Christ — because I believe in the Holy 
 Ghost. I expect to see cities swept from end to 
 end, their manners elevated, their commerce puri- 
 fied, their politics Christianized, their criminal pop- 
 ulation reformed, their poor made to feel that they 
 dwell among brethren — righteousness in the streets, 
 peace in the homes, an altar at eve*y fireside — be- 
 cause I believe in the Holy Ghost. I expect the 
 world to be overflowed with the knowledge of 
 
3 OS THE TOGGLE OF FIRE. 
 
 God ; the day to come when no man shall need tc 
 gay to his neighbor, " Know thou the Lord ;" but 
 when all shall know Him, " from the least unto the 
 greatest ;" east and west, north and south, uniting 
 to praise the name of the one God, and the one 
 Mediator: — because I believe in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Unbelief and neglect of prayer generally go to- 
 gether as preventives of spiritual power. Let all 
 of us who are painfully conscious that the results 
 just indicated, will never be attained by the instru- 
 mentality of men, in the condition in which we are, 
 simply ask ourselves, How long, how often, how im- 
 portunately have we waited at the throne of the 
 Saviour for the outpouring of the Spirit ? Let our 
 closets answer. " The eyes of the Lamb," that are 
 looking through us now, have noted. O ! is it any 
 wonder that ofttimes we have been powerless, and 
 ofttimes have had but " a little strength ?" 
 
 Want of true faith and neglect of prayer are sure 
 to make place for faith in the instrument, instead 
 of in the power. When we are not living near the 
 throne, our minds become occupied with questions 
 of order, of talent, or of truth; or, if we sink into 
 yet a lower state, with questions of facility, or influ- 
 ence, or wealth. This Church reform will be follow- 
 ed by great good ; the clear development of such or 
 guch a doctrine would bring us revival ; more luster 
 or strength of talent in the ministry would insure 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 309 
 
 progiess. We only wait the removal of such anc 
 such hinderances to open this door ; for the supply 
 of pecuniary means, and we shall see good done 
 there ; or for the accession to the Church of some 
 person of influence, and God's work will prosper 
 yonder. Faith is sadly wasted when bestowed on 
 such things. Give them their right value — never 
 underrate them — place them where God has placed 
 them ; but the fact that you trust in them showtf 
 that your heart is wrong. Wait not for these — for 
 the power is not in them — but for the baptism of fire. 
 
 Among the hinderances which will preverio any 
 one from having the " tongue of fire," none acts 
 > more directly than any misuse of the " tongue" it- 
 self. If the door of the lips be not guarded, if un- 
 charitable or idle speech be indulged, if political or 
 party discussion be permitted to excite heats, if 
 foolish "talking or jesting" be a chosen method ot 
 display, it is not to be supposed that the same 
 tongue will be the medium wherein the sacred fire 
 of the Spirit will delight to dwell. Who has ever 
 worn at the same time the reputation of a trifler and 
 of a man powerful to search consciences ? 
 
 Another fatal hinderance is any kind of sensual in- 
 dulgence. Whatever gives the least ascendancy to 
 the body over the spirit musfc gradually subdue, and 
 
310 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 ultimately extinguish the fire in the heart. This ap- 
 plies to all sloth, to every luxurious habit, every 
 artificial appetite, and all the pleasures of the table. 
 L is not a little remarkable that while, at the Day 
 of Pentecost, the people, on seeing the excitement 
 and animation of the Christians, said, " They are 
 filled with new wane," Paul himself says to us, " Be 
 not drunk with wine, wherein is excess ; but be filled 
 with the Spirit." In both these cases there is a 
 suggestion, however indirect, yet unquestionably a 
 suggestion of some analogy between the condition 
 of beino- " drunk w T ith wine" and that of bein^ 
 " filled with the Spirit." 
 
 Nor do w r e need to seek far for the grounds of 
 that analogy. To men of the world wine is a re- 
 sort when they want something above their natural 
 strength of mind or body, and in it they seek three 
 things — strength, cheering, and mental elevation. 
 Under its influence they will do more work than 
 they could otherwise, they will cast off their cares, 
 and their mental powers will reach a state which 
 they themselves call " inspiration." That worldly 
 orators, even of the highest reputation, often seek 
 in wine such animation of their powers as is neces- 
 sary to great success, is only too well known. The 
 physical tendency to seek elevation in such a source 
 can not be even slightly yielded to, without fatally 
 affecting the " t)ngue of fire." 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 311 
 
 Every Christian who wishes to retain the life of 
 God in his soul, must hold all the enjoyments of the 
 table under a strict law of regard to health and to 
 emperance. For strength, for cheering, and for 
 mental elevation, such as an extraordinary affliction 
 or public effort may demand, he must look alone to 
 power from on high, to the strength, and comfort, 
 and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The bare idea 
 of seeking any of these in wine implies a heart al- 
 ready far fallen into the bondage of the flesh, 
 Even without going so far, one may easily pass the 
 bounds of moderation, and drink not for health, 
 but for pleasure. If the man who drinks to intoxi- 
 cation is miserable and pitiable, he who has learned 
 the bad secret of " how far he can go, 5 ' and who 
 even acts upon it, although he may never be drunk, 
 is daily intemperate. In one aspect, his social influ- 
 ence is the most dangerous of all ; for, while one 
 who totally abstains, and one w T ho drinks under a 
 rigid rule of regard for health and moderation, may 
 each contend that they are setting the wisest ex- 
 ample that can be set, and while the drunkard may 
 truly say that his very excess is a warning to all 
 about him, he who habitually shows that he drinks 
 as much as is safe, is a lure and an enticement to 
 push indulgence as far as It can be done vithcut 
 wreck of character. 
 
312 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 Another fatal hinderance is what may be called 
 " aiming at literary effect." When preaching, 
 praying, or any other religious exercise of the 
 tongue, is ruled by the idea of composition, it loses 
 the character of a Divine gift. Under that idea, 
 utterance especially is by the aid of the Holy Spirit. 
 With those who look at Christian preaching as an 
 exercise of natural talent, we enter into no discus- 
 sion. We speak only to those who are seeking the 
 " tongue of fire," who believe that real Christian 
 preaching is effected only by the help of God. To 
 them, and to ourselves, we say, that nothing will 
 more surely steal away the fire from our sentences 
 than anxiety to deliver them just as they were pre- 
 composed, or to pre-compose them with studious re- 
 gard to literary grace. Study of style, of words, of 
 the force, forms, and laws of language, we of course 
 recommend. Efforts on the part of every one to 
 gain the best style of which his nature admits — the 
 tersest, strongest, clearest, briefest — we equally 
 recommend. Seeking, like Bunyan, for "picked 
 and packed words," is the instinct of a teacher 
 Even the study of the art of speaking, against 
 which the vulgar prejudice is so strong, we would, 
 with Wesley and Whitfield, encourage. Mouth 
 ing elocutionists may have brought it into dis 
 repute, but that is no reason why hundreds of us 
 should be maimed in health before mid-life by pub. 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 313 
 
 lie speaking, when we might have done as much 
 work, and done it better, without the least injury, 
 had we availed ourselves of the science of those 
 who have philosophically studied and taught upon 
 the voice.* 
 
 While, however, we contend that it is the duty 
 of all who take any part in teaching, to labor to 
 the uttermost for every qualification helpful to their 
 work, two things are to be forever and guardedly 
 shut out. The one is, aiming at giving intellectual 
 pleasure, instead of producing religious impression ; 
 the other, being careful about words in the pulpit, 
 so as to interfere with dependence upon God for 
 utterance. In the study, attention to style ought 
 to be with a view, not to beauty, but to power. 
 In the pulpit, all thought of style is thought 
 wasted, and even worse. The gift of prophesying 
 
 * It is often assumed, that speaking is a natural exercise, 
 and therefore, needs no instruction. The word "speaking' J 
 covers a fallacy. Conversation in a moderate tone, and at short 
 intervals, is a natural exercise of the voice ; public speaking, 
 in an elevated tone, and for an hour together, is an artificial 
 one. Except in very rare cases of persons singularly favored 
 by nature, this artificial exercise is never performed with tho 
 ease of the natural one ; and how often it impairs, and even 
 destroys health, is too notorious to need any mention. Such 
 writers as Mr. Cull, and Dr. Rush, show that under proper 
 training public speaking may become as easy and as healthy 
 for persons of sound organs as singing is ; and to the neglect 
 of this we owe the loss, in their prime, of many of the best and 
 ablest preachers that ever lived. 
 
314 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 in its very ideal excludes relying for utterance* 
 upon a manuscript or upon memory. It is the 
 delivery of truth by the help of God. The feeling 
 of every man standing up in the Lord's name ought 
 to be, " I am not here to acquit myself well, nor 
 to deliver a good discourse ; but after having 
 made my best efforts to study and to digest the 
 truth, I am here to say just what God may enable 
 me to say, to be enlarged or to be straitened, ac- 
 cording as He may be pleased to give me utterance 
 or not." 
 
 With this feeling of the preacher all appearances 
 ought to correspond. It ought to be manifest that, 
 Avhile he has done what in him lies to be thoroughly 
 furnished, he is trusting for utterance to help from 
 above, and not insuring it by natural means — either 
 a manuscript or memory. We put these two to- 
 gether, because we do not see that any distinction 
 really exists between them. The plea that the 
 manuscript is more honest than memoriter preach- 
 ing, has some force, but certainly not much ; for he 
 that reads from his memory is, to the feeling and 
 instinct of his hearers, as much reading as he who 
 reads from his manuscript. In neither case are the 
 thoughts and feelings gushing straight from the 
 mind, and clothing themselves as they come. The 
 mind is taking up words from paper or from mem- 
 ory, and doing its best to animate them with feel 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 315 
 
 mg. Even intellectually, the operation is essen- 
 tially different from speaking, and the difference is 
 felt by all. For literary purposes, for intellectual 
 gratification, both have a decided advantage over 
 speaking ; but for the purposes of pleading, en- 
 treating, winning, and creating a sense of fellow- 
 ship, for impelling and arousing, for doing good — 
 speaking is the natural, this is the Creator's, instru 
 raent. 
 
 We never say, nor think of saying, that God will 
 not bless sermons read, either from the manuscript 
 or from the memory ; for we are sure that both 
 these modes are resorted to by holy and earnest 
 servants of His, who seek His blessing, and obtain 
 it to the saving of many souls. All we say of read- 
 ing, either from the manuscript or the memory, is, 
 that it is not scriptural preaching. It is not minis- 
 tering after the mode of Pentecostal Christianity ; 
 it is a departure from scriptural precedent, an adop- 
 tion of a lower order of public ministration, and a 
 solemn declaration that security of utterance gained 
 by natural supports, is preferred over a liability to 
 be humiliated by trusting to the help of the Lord. 
 It has its clear advantages, and its clear losses. It 
 secures a gain of elegance, at the cost of ease — of 
 finish, at the cost of freedom — of precision, at that 
 of power — and of literary pleasure, at that of relig- 
 ious impressivene.ss. 
 22 
 
316 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 A literary ideal of preaching is vicious. Half 
 educated people pride themselves on admiring what 
 they consider intellectual, or "splendid." To men 
 of real mind, and real education, aiming at literary 
 effect is as distasteful, on the one hand, as are traces 
 of carelessness, looseness, or vulgarity, on the other. 
 Men of great talent or refinement, when speaking 
 great truths, under holy inspiration, must be elo- 
 quent, or pleasing. But an " intellectual treat" is 
 far from being the ideal of preaching. We have 
 heard efforts of this kind greatly praised, even by 
 aged and venerable ministers, which, when we look 
 back upon them, after years have elapsed, we feel 
 ought not to have been called sermons at all. They 
 were discourses which showed how a certain subject 
 could be treated ; but which were never meant to 
 do any work. An acute and profound philosopher, 
 looking upon the pulpit from the Chair of the His- 
 torical Professor, treats this point in the following 
 remarkable words : 
 
 "Compare, I pray you, gentlemen, the sacred 
 eloquence of the sixth century with modern pulpit 
 eloquence, even in its most palmy days in the 
 seventeenth century. I said just now, that in the 
 seventh and eighth centuries the character of liter- 
 ature had been that it ceased to be a literature — - 
 that it had become in fact a power, that in writing 
 and speaking men concerned themselves only with 
 
PRACTICAL LESSORS. 31 7 
 
 positive and immediate results, that they sought 
 neither science nor intellectual pleasure, and that on 
 this account the age had produced nothing but ser- 
 mons or similar works. This fact, which shows 
 itself in literature in general, is imprinted upon the 
 sermons themselves. Those of modern times have 
 a character evidently more literary than practical. 
 The orator aspires much more after beauty of lan- 
 guage, after the intellectual satisfaction of his aud- 
 itory than to act upon the deeps of their souls, to 
 produce real effects, notable reforms, efficacious 
 conversions. Nothing of this sort — nothing of the 
 literary character in the sermons of which I have 
 just been speaking to you; not one thought of ex- 
 pressing themselves nicely, of combining images 
 and ideas with art. The orator goes to the point ; 
 ' he wants to do a work ; he turns, and turns again in 
 the same circle ; he has no fear of repetition, of 
 familiarity, not even of vulgarity. He speaks 
 briefly, but recommences every morning. This is 
 
 NOT SACKED ELOQUENCE ; IT IS RELIGIOUS POWER.' 5 * 
 
 Whenever we are tempted to think that fruitful- 
 ness is only to be looked for in connection with 
 superior attainments, the image of Peter preaching 
 in Jerusalem, and of that vast multitude in tears 
 
 * Guizot's " Histoire de la Civilisation? vol. ii. ; p. 24. SixtJ? 
 Paris Edition 
 
318 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 before him, should rise into our view. With trbtf 
 reverence, not unmixed with sorrow, do we often 
 look back on preachers of days now gone, perhaps 
 on some whom our own ears have blessed when we 
 heard them ; but more on those of whose mighty 
 voices we have caught faint echoes, sounding in the 
 bosoms of hoary men who heard them in their 
 youth, and have never ceased to hear them, though 
 their tongues have long been silent ! When noting 
 our own poor efforts ; when seeing how tamely the 
 precepts of Sinai or the songs of Bethlehem have 
 fallen upon men from our lips ; seeing that, after our 
 closest thinking, we have seemed as those who beat 
 the air ; that, after seeking converts, we have only 
 gained credit ; that, when looking for multitudes to 
 be seized with the thought, "What must I do to 
 be saved ?" we have only sent them away to dis- 
 cuss our faults or our merits, with perchance here 
 and there a heart touched and contrite; — when 
 years have thus passed away, and no stronghold of 
 sin brought down, no province completely con 
 quered from the Prince of darkness, no great 
 awakening to shew that there was a power and a 
 God in the midst of the Church ; — when we have 
 seen all this, and much more alike thereto, has not 
 our disposition often been to open a calculation a9 
 to our own abilities and the difficulties before us, 
 concluding, on the whole, that such as we need not 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 3i9 
 
 expect to do things which only the mighty could 
 do? How could lips like ours move mankind? 
 True, Apostles and Prophets moved them. True, 
 Whitfield and Wesley, and hundreds of their co- 
 adjutors, near to our days, and in our own country, 
 moved them. But then they were the wonders of 
 their age, the seraphim of earth. But what made 
 them seraphim ? They were once no mightier than 
 others as to converting souls. TTnbaptized with fire 
 or but slightly touched, their tongues might have 
 charmed, fascinated, set the world discussing their 
 gifts and extolling their abilities ; but they would 
 
 ♦ never have shot fires into the souls of men, burned 
 by which the stolid would roar, and the stoical melt, 
 the sedate smite upon his breast, and the corrupt 
 cleanse himself "from all filthiness of the flesh and 
 of the spirit." Perhaps without the baptism of fire 
 
 , they would never have gained even the airy fame 
 of orators. Their very eloquence may have come 
 chiefly from the Spirit of God. At all events, it 
 was that fire which raised the orator into the Apos- 
 tle, and made their words sound as if Christ's first 
 messengers were risen from the dead. 
 
 The spectacle of Peter preaching at Jerusalem 
 answers ten thousand arguments of unbelief. Who 
 is that Galilean peasant, and who are that group 
 beside him ? They are men of like passions with 
 ourselves. In nature, in gifts, in early opportuni 
 
320 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 ties, they can not be ranked above the average of 
 mankind. Even though they have been favored 
 with the personal teaching and society of Christ for 
 three whole years, they had not, up to this period, 
 shown any extraordinary superiority of character. 
 They have not been even without faults ; they have 
 had their disputes among themselves, their unbelief, 
 their faint-heartedness, their strifes about the things 
 of the world, their "false brethren;" yet are they 
 endued with a power of speech which passes all 
 previously conceived reach of eloquence. 
 
 Is it rational, when looking up to the Spirit which 
 wrought this in them, to doubt whether or not it is 
 within His power to baptize His servants now living 
 with such a baptism as would change the ordinary 
 into the extraordinary, the feeble into the mighty ? 
 Whether is it easier for Him to say, " Speak with 
 many tongues," or to say, " I will give thee a mouth 
 and wisdom which all thine adversaries shall not be 
 able to gainsay or to resist ?" The former He has 
 said, and common men at once received the power ; 
 the latter He has said, and the same common men 
 received the power. The former power we do net 
 seek ; but all of us who have any heart for our Mas- 
 ter's service, any real intention to bear a part in the 
 battle for the rescue of mankind, do desire in our 
 very hearts, yea, long with mournful longing for a 
 tongue of fire to tell of the love of the Saviour, and 
 
PRACTICAL LESSORS. 321 
 
 of the woe of sin, in such tones that the dead ear 
 shall tingle. Is He not able to give the gift now as 
 He gave it then ? Is the distrust of His power in 
 this respect, which we find so common ; this count- 
 ing on our own impotence as a life-long companion ; 
 this speaking of what we ought to expect, as if our 
 power must halt where our natural abilities halt ; 
 this thinking it really humble to expect little or no 
 fruit ; this thinking it meek to be happy without 
 fruit ; — is all this a fit answer to the baptism and 
 a fit memorial of the tongues of fire ? Do we not 
 there see the Spirit answering forever all doubts as 
 to what ordinary men can be made, and proclaiming 
 to all who would bear a message from God, that if 
 they will only wait until they are "endued w T ith 
 power from on high," the effect which of all others 
 will show the working of that power within them 
 will be this — that they shall be raised above them 
 selves, and made to speak with a mouth and wis- 
 dom which, all who know them will know, were 
 not within their natural enowments or attain 
 ments ? 
 
 As TO THE SCALE OX WHICH OUR EXPECTATIONS 
 
 should be framed. In out age invention by aid 
 of natural science often seems to leap almost within 
 the bounds of the supernatural. The impossibilities 
 rf our fathers are disappearing, one becoming a 
 
322 THE TOSTGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 traffic and another a pastime. This has produced a 
 state of mind in which nothing seems impossible to 
 natural science. Concurrently with this has arisen 
 a tendency to bring spiritual progress and action 
 within natural bounds. We are proud of our 
 knowledge of the laws of the natural kingdom, and 
 impatient of any phenomena which can not be 
 judged by them. Yet we do not object to judging 
 the vegetable kingdom by laws totally different 
 from those which we apply to the mineral, and the 
 .animal by laws totally different from what we apply 
 to the vegetable, and the pTY f riy p fln'rl - * V y laws 
 different from those we apply to any of those thre< 
 kingdoms. To shrink from the marvels of vegetable 
 life because they are unaccountable on chemical 
 principles, or from those of instinct because they are 
 unfathomable mysteries on botanical principles, or 
 from those of intellect because they are inexplicable 
 by the laws of natural history, or from the mysteries 
 of light because they can not be metaphysically an- 
 alyzed and conditioned, would not be more unrea- 
 sonable than to shrink from marvels in the spiritual 
 kingdom, because they can not be judged by the 
 laws of the natural. The supernatural has its own 
 laws, and there is a, supernatural. 
 
 * Water, air, light, electricity, etc., which can not be conve- 
 niently classed under any of the three divisions — vegetable, min 
 eral, and animal — usually taken to comprise all natural objects. 
 
PHACTICAL LESSONS. 323 
 
 jfostead of seeking to keep down spiritual move* 
 ments to the level of natural explanation, in an age 
 when natural marvels reach almost to miracles, we 
 ought rather to be impelled to pray that they may 
 put on a more striking character of supernatural 
 manifestation. To-day more by far is necessary to 
 carry into the mind of the multitude a clear convic- 
 tion, " It is the hand of God," than was necessary 
 in other ages. When men saw few wonders from 
 natural science, they readily ascribed each wonder 
 to Divine agency ; but now that they are accus- 
 tomed to see them daily, moral wonders must swell 
 beyond all pretext of natural explanation, before 
 they are felt to be from God. Is our footing firm ? 
 Do we stand, or do we tremble ? Is Christianity to 
 seat herself in the circle of natural agency, or to 
 arise from the dust, and prove that there is a God 
 in Israel ? Are we to shrink from things extraor 
 dinary ? Are we to be afraid of any thing that 
 would make skeptical or prayerless men mock? 
 Are we to desire that the Spirit shall use us and 
 work in us just to such a degree as will never bring 
 a sneer upon us — to pray, as a continental writer 
 represents some as meaning, " Give us of the Holy 
 Spirit ; but not too much ; lest the people should 
 gay that we are full of new wine ?"* 
 
 To Christianity this is pre-eminently the age of 
 * Pasteur Augustin Bost. 
 
3J4 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 opportunity. Never before did the world offer to 
 her any thing like the same open field as at this 
 moment. Even a single century from the present 
 time, how much more limited was her access to the 
 minds of men ! Within our own favored country a 
 zealous preacher would then have been driven away 
 from many a sphere, where now he would be hailed. 
 On the continent of Europe, the whole of France 
 has been opened to the preaching of the word, 
 though under some restraints. In Belgium, Sar- 
 dinia, and other fields, it may now be said, that the 
 word of God is not bound. A century ago the 
 Chinese empire, the Mahommedan world, and Af- 
 rica, containing between them such a preponderat- 
 ing majority of the human race, were all closed 
 against the Gospel of Christ. China is open at sev- 
 eral points. The w r hole empire of the Mogul is one 
 field where opportunity and protection invite the 
 evangelist. Turkey itself has been added to the 
 spheres wherein he may labor. Around the wild 
 shores of Africa, and far into her western, eastern, 
 and southern interior, outposts of Christianity have 
 been established. Wide realms beyond invite her 
 onward. In the South Seas, several regions which 
 a hundred years ago had not been made known by 
 the voyages of Cook, are now regularly occupied. 
 Could the Churches of England and America send 
 forth to-mori ow a hundred thousand preachers of 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 326 
 
 the Gospel, each one of them might find a sphere, 
 already opened by the strong hand of Providence, 
 where a century ago none of them could have come 
 without danger. 
 
 The age, if not so remarkable for agency as for 
 opportunity, is yet very remarkable in this respect, 
 when compared with any that has preceded it. 
 While, on the one hand, we may well humble our- 
 selves that, after so long a lapse of time, Christian 
 men are so few, and Christian operations so feeble, 
 yet, measuring our own day with that of the gener- 
 ation that went before us, we may devoutly magnify 
 our God. Any one of the three great divisions of 
 Christians in England — the Established Church, the 
 Methodists, or the Dissenters — can this day furnish 
 a number of faithful ministers teaching the truth in 
 the fear of God, and wishful to be the instruments 
 in saving souls, supported by a number of spirit- 
 ually-minded laymen ready for every good work, 
 such that, could they have been presented to John 
 Wesley as the entire force of godly men in the coun- 
 try, would have made him feel as if the army for the 
 whole world's conquest was already raised. Scot- 
 land alone could now produce a host of loyal sol- 
 diers ready and able to wage the Redeemer's war, 
 such as in his day would have appeared to him al- 
 most sufficient to conclude the conquest. Ireland l 
 too, would offer in this respect an amazing advance 
 
326 THE TONGUE OF FIKE. 
 
 In France, where, at the conclusion of the great 
 Peace, scarcely any earnest preachers could be 
 found, they may now be counted by hundreds ; and 
 in Germany, notwithstanding all its mists and its 
 blights, not a few are growing up in vigor. 
 
 Whether for the direct labors of the pulpit, for 
 united movements of enlightenment, or the minis- 
 tering of gentle relief to the wants of human so- 
 ciety, never, never did the sun shine upon so much 
 agency, so much organization, so much liberty, so 
 much earnest effort. Could we indulge ourselves 
 by forming our own world, and only think of al ! 
 the good men, good societies, and good works, or 
 which the eye may rest, we might rejoice with un- 
 broken joy, proclaim the full advent of the king 
 dom of God, and feel ourselves launched on a be- 
 nign and brotherly age. But alas ! alas ! the vast 
 world rolls on, a turbid and a freezing streari. 
 When we look first at our own little land, then at 
 the broad earth, we find, for one who fears God and 
 works righteousness, there are thousands who for- 
 get God and work wickedness. Christian agency is 
 not, therefore, as some amiable theorists would seem 
 to think, chiefly for training those who are born 
 Christians, or made Christians in baptism, and who 
 need nothing more than Church ordinances, and an 
 open heaven when they die. It is an agency raised 
 up to carry out the great work of conversion which 
 
PRACTICAL LESSORS. 327 
 
 the Lord has begun within the lands of Christen- 
 dom, and then bear onward the banner until every 
 nation under heaven bows under it. 
 
 It is also an age of progress, as much as of op- 
 portunity or of agency. What an advance haa 
 Christianity made, as to the impress upon our na- 
 tional manners, within the last century ! On our 
 highest classes and on our lowest, on those who 
 love God and those who love Him not, she has im- 
 posed many restraints. The vices which remain are 
 every day made more hideous to the public eye. 
 How different the amount of piety in officers and 
 men developed by the horrors of the late war, from 
 what was ever known in an English army before ! 
 How different the spiritual condition of many of our 
 rural and manufacturing districts from what they 
 were a century ago ! What a change in the moral*" 
 of the Court, in the temperance of private enter- 
 tainments ! How much more promising the aspect 
 of Ireland ! How much more animated the religion 
 of Scotland ! What an incalculable advance in 
 America! And within that time the West Indies, 
 Australia, New Zealand, the Society Islands, the 
 Sandwich Islands, the Friendly Islands, the Navi- 
 gator's Islands, a considerable part of Feejee, and 
 tracts of Southern and Western Africa, may be 
 written down as provinces added to Christendom. 
 Though in some of these places much ungodliness 
 
328 THE TONGUE OP HUE. 
 
 remains, yet in most of them a far more promising 
 state of things exists than was known in any coun- 
 try between the first days of Christianity, and the 
 last century. 
 
 In other countries, beginnings have been made 
 and first-fruits gathered; as, for instance, in India 
 China, and Northern Africa. At the same time, 
 every system of religion not calling itself Chris- 
 tian has decayed. Mohammedanism, Brahmanism, 
 Buddhism, and Paganism, have lost territory, adher- 
 ents, and power. Altogether it maybe questioned, 
 whether even the progress of the first century has 
 not been equaled, as to positive amount, by that of 
 the last. But, when we look at the agents, means, 
 and facilities enjoyed during the last century com- 
 pared with the first, and at the rapidity with which 
 believers have multiplied themselves in both pe- 
 riods, we at once feel that, as to propagating 
 power, in the face of adverse circumstances and 
 small resources, there is no comparison between 
 them. 
 
 It is, on the one hand, as wrong and as danger 
 ous to overlook the success which God has given to 
 His word in the last age, or the unparalleled open 
 ings which promise to the Church future conquest, 
 as it is, on the other, to repose on our present pos- 
 sessions, as if the conquest was achieved. What 
 has been done is enough to excite our liveliest 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 329 
 
 gratitude ; but if we dwell on it alone, we become 
 enervated and careless. What remains to be done 
 is enough to excite our deepest solicitude; but if 
 we look at it alone, we become dispirited and 
 powerless. Even in England every thing is stained ; 
 our commerce corrupt; our politics earthy; our 
 social manners chiefly formed after the will of " the 
 god of this world ;" our streets crying shame upon 
 us ; our hamlets, many of them, dark, ignorant, and 
 immoral ; our towns debauched and drunken. 
 
 Amid this much good exists, in which we do re- 
 loice, yea, and will rejoice ; but O ! the evil, the 
 evil is, day by day, breaking thousands of hearts, 
 ruining thousands of characters, and destroying 
 thousands of souls ! Looking abroad beyond the 
 one little sphere of Britain and America, which we 
 proud boasters of the two nations are prone to look 
 upon as being nearly the whole world — though we 
 are not one-twentieth of the human race — how 
 dreary and how lonely does the soul of the Chris- 
 tian feel, as it floats, in imagination, over the rest 
 of the earth ! That Europe, so learned, so splendid, 
 so brave — what misery is by its fireside ! what stains 
 upon its conscience ! what superstition, stoicism, or 
 despair around its death-beds ! And yonder bright 
 old Asia, where the " tongue of fire" first spoke — 
 how rare and how few are the scenes of moral 
 beauty which there meet the eye ! Instead of the 
 
330 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 family, the seraglio; instead of religion, superst* 
 tion ; instead of peace, oppression ; instead of enter- 
 prise, war ; instead of morals, ceremonies ; instead 
 of a God, idols ; instead of refinement and growth, 
 corruption and collapse: here, there, thinly sown 
 and scarcely within sight one of the other, a school, 
 a book, a man of God — one star in a sky of dark- 
 ness. And poor Africa ! what is to become of the 
 present generation of her sons ? Thinly around her 
 coasts are beginnings of good things ; but O ! the 
 blood and darkness, and woe, the base superstition, 
 and the miserable cruelties, under which the major- 
 ity of her youth are now trained, amid which her 
 old men are going down to the grave ! 
 
 All this existed a century ago, but was not then 
 known as we know it now. The world is not yet 
 explored by the Church, much less occupied ; but 
 the exploration at least is carried so far, that we 
 know its plagues as our fathers knew them not ; 
 and if our hearts were rightly affected, we should 
 weep over them as they never wept ; for, al- 
 though the spread of Christianity has greatly 
 multiplied the number of Christians, the increase 
 of population has been such, that more men are 
 sinning and suffering now, than were a hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 Taking the forces of the Church, comparing 
 them with the length and breadth of the world, 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 331 
 
 and then asking, " Are these ever to be the mean* 
 of converting all ?" we feel that only the promise 
 of God could inspire such a hope. But that pro- 
 mise is so confirmed, illustrated, and exalted by tre 
 success of the past century, that when we look 
 back to the few faithful men in this country and in 
 America, men in different circumstances and of dif- 
 ferent views, who then began in earnest to call the 
 Churches to their work, and see how far their 
 labors and those of their spiritual sons have ad- 
 vanced the kingdom of Christ beyond where it 
 stood then, we are led to say, " Suppose that all 
 the good men, now loving God and desiring His 
 glory, were but to be multiplied in equal ratio 
 during the next century, as those few have been 
 during the last century ; what an amazing stride 
 would be made toward the conversion of the whole 
 world !» 
 
 Is this too much to expect ? Are we to con- 
 clude, that the force of the animating Spirit is 
 spent, and that an age of feebleness must succeed 
 to one of power ? To do so is fearfully to disbe 
 lieve at once the goodness and the faithfulness ot 
 our God. Some say that, because populations bav« 
 become familiarized with the truths of the Gospel, 
 we are not to expect the same converting effects as 
 when those truths were new. If this be so, we 
 had better make way for a generation of rationalists 
 23 
 
332 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 and formalists, to prepare the ground again for 
 spiritual cultivation ! Some say that, because the 
 age is so educated, intellectual, scientific, and in- 
 quisitive, men are not so susceptible of the influence 
 of Christianity. Then shall we wait for an age less 
 enlightened and less educated ? Some say that the 
 age is so unduly active, forcing enterprise and com- 
 merce to the point of absorbing every man, till 
 religion is pushed aside. Must we then wait for a 
 duller and more lethargic time ? Some say that 
 the Lord does not give us great success lest we 
 should be uplifted. Is it His way to promote humil- 
 ity by giving small results to great agencies, or by 
 giving great results to small ones ? And would 
 not results after the Pentecostal scale make any of 
 our agencies seem small ? These are miserable 
 withs wherewith to bind the giant Church of God. 
 Away with them every one ! After going round 
 all the reasons which one hears ordinarily assigned 
 for the greater direct success of Preachers in the 
 last century than now, our mind finds rest only in 
 that one reason, w T hich carries a world of rebuke 
 and of humiliation to ourselves : they produced 
 greater effects, simply because of the greater power 
 of God within them. 
 
 Every ray of Gospel truth that exists in any man 
 is on our side. All intelligence, all intellectual 
 activity, all vigor of character, are more for us than 
 
PKAOTIOAJ, LESSONS. 333 
 
 their opposites would be. In fact, they are very 
 much the fruit, the indirect and secondary fruit, of 
 the past triumphs of religion ; for it is impossible 
 that true godliness shall spread among any people, 
 without stimulating their intellectual and social 
 energies. It is hard to imagine a satire on the 
 Gospel more bitter than that it should be powerful 
 when new to men, and impotent when familiar ; 
 that it should be good for the half barbarous, but 
 not for those whom itself had refined ; capable of 
 captivating the inert, but incapable of commanding 
 the masculine and the energetic. We expect ages 
 not less instructed in Christian doctrine, bat far 
 more instructed ; not intellectually duller, but more 
 active ; not darker as to science and literature, but 
 inconceivably brighter ; not slower as to invention, 
 enterprise, and progress, but more vigorous by far. 
 And am I to return to " the glorious Gospel of the 
 blessed God," whereto I feel that I and mine, my 
 kindred, my country, the race from which I have 
 sprung, the lands in which I have traveled, are all 
 indebted for their purest and brightest things — and 
 say to it, " When these bright ages come, thou 
 ghalt lag behind, perhaps recollected as one of the 
 infantine instructors of the world, but distanced by 
 the progress of man ?" Let those who assign 
 reasons for our want of fruitfulhess which fairly 
 sow the seeds of rationalism, prepare to render an 
 
334 THE TONGUE OF FTRE. 
 
 account when the fruit of their sowing comes to be 
 reaped. 
 
 There is a natural tendency in any movement to 
 lose intensity as it gains surface. When godliness 
 becomes the habit of large numbers, it is not ac- 
 cording to the laws of human nature that it should 
 retain, in every individual, all the fervor which it 
 must maintain, in order to exist at all, when it is 
 the peculiarity of an extremely few. But if this 
 fact is to be recognized, it must be remembered 
 that the disadvantage w T hich it presents is easily 
 overcome by the power of grace ; and, indeed, a 
 natural counterpoise to this subduing tendency, in 
 practical religion, is offered in an equally natural ac- 
 cumulative tendency. That decrease of distinction 
 between the Church and the world which is so often 
 noticed, does not wholly arise from the Church be- 
 coming less Christian, but partly also from the 
 world becoming less wicked. The testimony of a 
 large number of decided men gradually and silently 
 imposes on the world a respect for Christian princi- 
 ples, till the world tacitly accepts many of its moral 
 aws and social standards at the hands of the Church. 
 Every concession of this kind is an advantage to 
 those Christians who mean to conquer all; while 
 it is a seduction to those who repose in the idea of 
 converting a small section of the people, leaving the 
 rest to live in sin. 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 335 
 
 Put the ungodly in a minority, then vice becomes 
 a social as well as a spiritual blemish, and religion 
 an outward as well as an inward comfort. As the 
 multitude of Christians goes on increasing, there ia 
 accumulative power of example, accumulative power 
 of teaching, accumulative power of prayers, accu- 
 mulative power of Christian training in families, ac- 
 cumulative power of purity in habits, all tending in 
 the one direction — to bring the public sentiment 
 under the dominion of Christ. Towns and villages 
 exist in this country where, within the memory of. 
 living men, very few godly persons were to be 
 found; but now one-tenth, one-seventh, and even 
 one-fifth in some cases, of their adult population, 
 are professing to follow Christ, and living more or 
 less worthily of that profession. Can any man help 
 feeling that the unconverted people in such a town 
 are much more likely to be converted than those 
 living where the proportion of the godly is not 
 more than one in a hundred, or one in a thousand ? 
 Who could not feel— who would not practically ac- 
 knowledge the feeling — of the accumulative power 
 of Christian progress, if he had to decide in which 
 of two towns his unconverted son should settle for 
 life — one with a believer to every thousand of the 
 population, or one with a believer to every ten ? 
 He would instantly say, " In the latter place the 
 prospects of my son's conversion are vastly greatei 
 
336 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 than in the other." What we should feel in an in* 
 dividual case, we ought to feel on the great scale — 
 to gather strength and hope, not feebleness, from 
 past successes, and to become especially impatient 
 of the continuance of sinners in those fields where 
 notable triumphs of grace have already been achieved. 
 What the Canaanites were to the Israelites of old, 
 the unconverted dwelling in our towns and villages 
 are to us at this day. They confuse and weaken us, 
 they allure, they in snare us, they lead our children 
 astray, they rob us of the fruit of our schools, they 
 damp the zeal of our young converts, they entice 
 families into worldly practices, they tempt our 
 tradesmen, they infect our churches; and never, 
 until they are totally extirpated, can peace and 
 righteousness flourish in our coasts. Impatient of 
 their obstinacy everywhere, we ought to be espe 
 cially so where victories, won by those who have 
 preceded us, leave us comparatively little to do: for 
 the up-hill fight has been fought, the vantage- 
 ground gained, and now for the power to complete 
 the triumph! The entire converson of England 
 and America, within the next fifty years, would not 
 be so great a work for the Christians now existing, 
 as the progress made within the last hundred years 
 has been for the Christians then existing. Is it 
 rational to believe that God will less bless His serv- 
 ants in this nineteenth century that in the one that 
 
PEACTICAL LESSORS. 337 
 
 J3 gone, if they be equally faithful ? or that He will 
 shower on this generation of ours less marked bene- 
 dictions than He did on the one to whom we are 
 ndebted for so much ? 
 
 The single consideration of past progress suffices 
 to prove that, on the ground of experience, we are 
 not warranted to conclude that the conversion of 
 the whole world is impossible. Much as may be 
 argued from the slowness of the past progress of 
 Christianity, the last century has so changed the as- 
 pect of affairs as now to cast the weight of the argu- 
 ment from experience decisively into the scale of 
 hope. Many, however, w T ill continue to look upon 
 any consistent expectation of the general conversion 
 of men as illusory; the objections of some resting 
 on their views of the constancy of human nature, 
 certain, they think, hereafter as heretofore, to pre- 
 sent great numbers of unconquerable opponents to 
 holiness ; while others take higher ground, and be- 
 lieve that the general conversion of our race is con 
 traiy to the purpose of God. 
 
 When the question, " Is the conversion of the 
 whole world possible ?" is fairly put, the plain an- 
 swer to it is obviously this : " It is possible, unless 
 it be contrary to the will of God." If He has or- 
 dalned that it is not to be, an infinite obstacle op 
 poses it ; if He has not so ordained, the obstacles 
 
338 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 which oppose it are finite, and therefore conquer 
 able. Christians can overcome all things but a de* 
 cree of God. 
 
 Has He, then, given us any declaration that He 
 does not intend to renew the earth, as a whole, in 
 righteousness ? We do not mean to hold any con- 
 troversy with those who have deliberately adopted 
 the view, that the Christian dispensation is a kind 
 of interlude between the Lord's lifetime upon 
 earth, and a future earthly reign, meanwhile, bear- 
 ing witness in His name ; a witness, for the conver- 
 sion of a few, and the condemnation of the many. 
 We leave them with the praise of being perfectly 
 consistent, in expecting small results from the 
 preaching of the Gospel ; and with the responsibil- 
 ity of looking on that Gospel in a light which war- 
 rants little faith. 
 
 We deal with those who regard the Gospel as 
 bond fide " good news" for every creature — " good 
 news" which those who heard it before me were 
 bound to tell to me — " good news" which I am 
 bound to tell to every creature living, according to 
 the extent of my opportunities — " good news" 
 to the effect that " the grace of God, which bring, 
 eth salvation to all men, hath appeared" — news 
 which could not be told to me as good, if it left 
 any doubt whether it was or was not for me — 
 " good news" to every creature, " a Gospel for thee." 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 339 
 
 We take the first two aim oun cements by a 
 preacher under the Christian dispensation, to audi- 
 ences of sinners, as intended for our instruction and 
 jmitation : " Repent, and be baptized every one 
 of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remis- 
 sion of sins ;" " God, having raised up His Son 
 Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away 
 every one of you from his iniquities." Declara- 
 tions less direct, personal, or comprehensive than 
 these, we have no manner of authority to deliver. 
 We are to " command all men everywhere to re- 
 pent," to call upon every one of them to believe, to 
 assure every one of them that Christ is "sent to bles? 
 him in turning him away from his iniquities." 
 
 Nor are we to make such proclamations under the 
 feeling that, although it is our duty to do it, there 
 is no intention on the part of God to second our 
 testimony and give it effect. Hope in the result 
 sustained the Apostle in his work, according to his 
 own avowal ; for. he says, " Therefore we both 
 labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the 
 living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially 
 of those that believe." This trust in the God and 
 Saviour of all was enough to animate any man in 
 labor and under reproach ; and such a trust we 
 should never cast away. 
 
 The question, whether or not the conversions of 
 the first ages ought to be looked back to by us,* as a 
 
340 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 standard at which to aim, is settled by one of the 
 passages already quoted. After joyfully describing 
 the conversion of the Church in Ephesus, where 
 " the word of the Lord" so " mightily grew and 
 prevailed," St. Paul says, that God has done this, 
 
 u THAT IX THE AGES TO COME He MIGHT SHOW THE 
 
 Exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness 
 toward as through Christ Jesus." We are living in 
 what were, then, " the ages to come." On us the 
 light of those " exceeding riches of grace" is shin- 
 ing — shining for our encouragement — shining that 
 we may believe that in heathen cities, where great 
 Dianas are adored, we also shall see " the word of 
 God mightily grow and prevail," heathen rites aban- 
 doned, bad books consumed, and the craft of idol- 
 makers destroyed. 
 
 While this collective number of conversions is 
 given to us as an encouragement, the most remark- 
 able of all individual conversions is placed before us 
 in the same light. " Howbeit," says St. Paul, " for 
 this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus 
 Christ might show forth all long-sufferin g,for a pat- 
 tern to them which should hereafter believe on Him 
 to life everlasting?'' Thus we are deliberately fore- 
 warned to take the most singular conversion that 
 ever occurred in the early Church, not as a dis- 
 couragement because of its speciality, but as an in- 
 tentional manifestation of the wonderful grace oi 
 
PKACT1CAI LESSORS. 341 
 
 the Keaeemer, by which every shmei in all ages 
 who would fain " find mercy," may encourage him 
 self. The persecutor Paul, converted and forgiven 
 is for a pattern to individual believers in " the ages 
 to come." The great multitude of "children of 
 wrath" in Ephesus who were made to " sit in heav- 
 enly places in Christ Jesus," are also to us, of " the 
 ages to come," a pattern of the " exceeding riches 
 of grace." Whether our faith be tried in respect to 
 the possibility of the conversion of an individual as 
 unlikely as Saul, or of a number as great as the 
 Church of Ephesus, in either case we should believe 
 that the ancient grace is free and mighty this day. 
 Thus trusting in " God, who is the Saviour of all 
 men," we shall both cheerfully " labor and suffer re- 
 proach." 
 
 The same relation which we have shown to exist 
 between hope and labor, is also pointed out to us, 
 as existing between hope and prayer. " I exhort, 
 therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, 
 intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all 
 men." Here no one doubts that w^e are literally 
 commanded to pray for every human being ; but if 
 we did not carefully attend to the context, we 
 might run away with a vague idea, that we wera 
 only to pray as an expression of good-will, and that 
 for temporal and national blessings, especially as 
 allusion is made to "kings, and all that are in 
 
342 THE TONOUE OF FIRE. 
 
 authority ;" — that, in fact, the " prayers, and suppli- 
 cations, and intercessions, and giving of thanks, for 
 all men," do not mean that we are to pray, suppli- 
 cate, and intercede, that all men may be saved and 
 come to the knowledge of the truth ; for that 
 would only be asking what God wills should never 
 be, and therefore what could not be acceptable to 
 Him. But, as if expressly to anticipate this unbe- 
 lief, the Apostle adds, " For this is good and ac- 
 ceptable in the sight of God our Saviour ; who will 
 have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowl- 
 edge of the truth. For there is one God, and one 
 Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ 
 Jesus ; who gave Himself a ransom for all, a testi 
 mony* in due time." 
 
 Here our encouragement in prayer, supplication, 
 and intercession for all men, is grounded first on the 
 clear declaration that such prayer is " good and ac- 
 ceptable in the sight of God our Saviour ;" — " our 
 Saviour" giving intensity to the expression, as if re- 
 minding us that He who has saved us, must be one 
 to whom it is good and acceptable, that we should 
 seek the salvation of all. It is further grounded on 
 the express declaration of His will regarding others^ 
 that He " will have them to be saved, and to come 
 unto the knowledge of the truth." Here is not 
 
 * "We give the marginal reading, which is a literal transla* 
 tion ; the other is, " to be testified in due time." 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 343 
 
 only the assurance that we are right in praying that 
 they may be saved, but right in praying that the 
 truth may be brought to all, and that they may be 
 Baved thro ugh its instrumentality ; praying, in fact 
 for the universal diffusion of Christ's Gospel, and 
 the universal salvation of men in consequence. It 
 is further supported on the ground of the unity of 
 God, the unity of the Mediator between God and 
 men, and the unity of man as regarded by His me- 
 diating atonement : " One God, and one Mediator be- 
 tween God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave 
 Himself a ransom for all, a testimony in due time." 
 We have, then, the clear example of the first 
 preachers, the express declaration that the early 
 conversions were as a pattern for the ages to come, 
 the statement that trust in God as the Saviour of all 
 men was the animating strength under apostolic toil 
 and shame, the command to pray for all, and the 
 most formally stated warrant for such prayers bold- 
 ly to lay hold upon the promises of God. 
 
 Many who will admit that the scriptural argu- 
 ment points in this direction, yet, looking at human 
 nature, the present condition of mankind, the pro* 
 portion of Christian agency to population, and the 
 past career of man, will, on the whole, conclude 
 that the conversion of the world is not to be ex- 
 Dected. They will also ask us how w^ can recon- 
 
344 TUE TONGUE OF FIRE 
 
 cile such an expectation with the free agency oi 
 man. We will no further answer them than by re- 
 calling the fact, that every additional conversion to 
 some extent, however slight, changes the condition 
 of society, and, in so doing, affects the motives 
 which act upon the unconverted, throwing a great- 
 er weight upon the side of goodness. A few more 
 decided advances on the part of the Church, in 
 some countries of Christendom, would cast a pre- 
 ponderating weight of social motives on the side 
 of godliness, leaving little to be contended against 
 but the natural depravity of man's heart, which, 
 even in the purest condition of society, would be 
 enough to demand the most zealous care for the 
 conversion of each human being. 
 
 This bears first on the general question of nat- 
 ural motives, next on the particular one as to rec- 
 onciling faith, for the general regeneration of men, 
 with their free agency. We readily admit that, 
 logically, we can not reconcile them, and certainly 
 we are not anxious to attempt it. All the diffi- 
 culties which meet us in soberly expecting the con- 
 version of the entire world, equally meet us in so* 
 berly expecting the conversion of an entire family 
 Every question of free agency, motives, human na- 
 ture, past experience, which enters into the one, 
 enters into the other, though on a smaller scale. 
 But it is only the scale that differs, the elements are 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 345 
 
 the same. Yet who that has felt the faith and love 
 of Christ within him, and has kindred dear to his 
 own heart, has not again and again pleaded that 
 they might all appear, "no wanderer lost, a family 
 iii heaven ?" Who does^ot feel that to exercise 
 faith that such a prayer shall bo answered, is good 
 and wise, and acceptable to God ? In fact, all the 
 difficulty exists as to faith for the conversion of any 
 one individual. 
 
 The difference between preaching the Gospel 
 with a full expectation of doing no more than sav- 
 ing small companies of saints from amid multitudes 
 of sinners, on whose shipwreck no influence is to be 
 exercised beyond holding them a light to sink by, 
 and of looking upon eve. y converted man as one 
 rescued from a common d anger, who is immediately 
 to join in rescuing the re^t — is such, that in the one 
 case, when a little is accomplished, it is looked upon 
 as what the Gospel was sent to do ; while, in the 
 other case, every little is taken as but an earnest of 
 the great, and the great as an earnest of the uni- 
 versal. While we aim at few, we shall win but 
 few ; for, that our successes shall take their proper 
 tions from our faith, is the universal law of the 
 service of Christ. 
 
 Should we be wrong in our views — should it be 
 contrary to the design of our Lord to concert alJ 
 
346 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 our race by the preaching of His word, and the out- 
 pouring of His Spirit — should it be His purpose to 
 leave the earth much as it is until He concludes its 
 mournful story in thunder-claps of judgment — 
 should that consummation be nigh, and. the last 
 trumpet be already beginning to fill with the breath 
 of the archangel, yet surely, if we, under the illusion 
 of our belief, are found panting, praying, laboring, 
 if by any means we might save some, that blast 
 might cause us a pang for the multitudes whom it 
 found unwarned ; but no pang because we had been 
 busy in warning, exhorting, entreating ; no pang 
 because we had done so in faith, that our Lord 
 willed all men to come to the knowledge of the 
 truth. 
 
 Suppose, on the other hand, that there is even a 
 possibility of our being right, that the grace of God 
 which has appeared to us really is " good tidings" 
 for every creature ; that the truth so precious to 
 our nation and to our own souls is not decreed 
 away from any part of the human family by the 
 great Saviour above us ; that He does mean that 
 literally every creature should hear it from the lips 
 of His servants, that literally the whole earth 
 should be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, 
 that literally " the ages to come" should take the 
 early conversions as the type of their expectations, 
 and should embrace all men in their supplications 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 347 
 
 and their labors; should all this be true, and we 
 spend our strength in observing the clouds, and the 
 judgments, and the trumpets, telling those who are 
 calling the nations that they may call, but they will 
 accomplish little thereby — as far as in us lies steal- 
 ing the nerve from their arm and the fire from 
 their voice ; should we in the midst of this die, and 
 find " ages to come" yet advancing, then, perhaps, 
 we might feel as if the Scripture had been neglect- 
 ed by us, which says, " He that observeth the wind 
 shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds 
 shall not reap." Futurity, judgments, and provi- 
 dential designs, lie within the unshared province of 
 God ; and none need make it his chief concern to 
 settle or to ascertain them. A world of sinning and 
 suffering men, each one of them my own brother, 
 calls on me for work, work, work. I may trust the 
 future, and the time of restoring Israel, to better 
 hands than mine. 
 
 In hope, or without hope, let us be up and doing. 
 Encouragements are on every hand, and so are 
 menaces. The enlightened, the true, the zealous, 
 are many ; the wicked and the slothful are fearfully 
 more. The number of the former has been grow- 
 ing by conversions, the number of the latter grow- 
 ing faster by the natural increase of population. 
 The appliances for Christian propagation are vast ; 
 
 the faith of many in their efficacy feeble. The 
 24 
 
348 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 doctrines of Christianity are known and prized by 
 multitudes who never knew them before ; but, on 
 the other hand, there are few of the Churches, in 
 the very heart of which those doctrines are not be- 
 trayed. One would rob us of the incarnation of 
 God, another of the Spirit of God, another of aa 
 atonement, another of providence, another of 
 prayer ; some of regenerating grace, some of min- 
 isterial unction, some of primitive fervor, some of 
 a Lord's day ; some would launch us on a sea of 
 thought without an inspired guide ; others on a 
 moral universe without punishment for wrong ; 
 thus nearly every truth that distinguishes the sys- 
 tem of Christianity from earthly inventions, is at- 
 tacked by mining or by battery. We are not sure 
 but truth is sometimes spoken when little good 
 ensues ; we are sure that error is never issued into 
 the world without doing harm ; and there are- 
 strong men now doing work over which, unless 
 others, made stronger by the might of God, undo 
 it, generations to come will have reason to weep. 
 For all who can not bear to see the Cross betrayed, 
 the Holy Ghost grieved, the oracles of God de- 
 graded, the work of the Spirit in the human soul 
 reduced to a process of motives and emotions, and 
 every Divine tie that connects us, as a redeemed 
 race, with a redeeming Father, skillfully cut asunder ; 
 — for those who are not prepared to see the 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 349 
 
 Churches of England and America pass through 
 blights such as have befallen the Churches of Swit- 
 zerland, Germany, and other Protestant regions of 
 the Continent, this is a moment when the air seems 
 full of trumpet-notes, when every step taken on 
 doctrinal ground raises the echo of warning. And, 
 alas ! many w T ho dogmatically repel error evaporate 
 in intellectualism ; others decay, under a silvered 
 mildew of respectability ; and others, professing to 
 seek the old Christianity, content themselves with 
 garnishing the sepulcher in which the Middle Ages 
 buried her, instead of seeking that her first preach- 
 ers, in the persons of other men, but in the " spirit 
 and power" of Peters and Pauls, should be raised 
 up once more ! 
 
 We will bless every laborer for any service done 
 toward the maintenance and advance of the truth, 
 for every good word spoken, every sound argument 
 uttered from the pulpit, every page of evangelical 
 truth written, and every rebuke administered in 
 any way to those who would falsify our faith ; but, 
 et them be assured that more than all other 
 services, turning many away from iniquity will 
 counterwork and confound attempts to reduce 
 Christianity from a Divine to a human system. 
 This is the practical answer to difficulties and 
 objections. Let us only have multitudes of new 
 born Christians, fervent in faith and hope, full of 
 
350 THE TONGUE OF MKE. 
 
 love and of good works, and rationa lists may ac« 
 count for the phenomenon as they will ; but the 
 common conscience of mankind will feel that 
 God is in it. " Beholding the man which was 
 healed standing with them, they could say nothing 
 against it." 
 
 The one reason for being zealous for Christian 
 doctrine which so far surpasses all others that beside 
 it they become as nothing, is that given by St. 
 Paul to Timothy: "Take heed unto thyself, and 
 unto the doctrine ; continue in them : for in doing 
 this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that 
 hear thee." What a motive ! Saving, first, our- 
 selves — then, those that hear us : the sublime can 
 go no further ! Here we have set before our hearts, 
 soliciting us onward, motives which we acknowledge 
 have already moved the very heart of the Godhead. 
 To save ! as an instrument, it is true ; but O, how 
 infinitely glorious, even as an instrument, to save ! 
 and that, not only ourselves, but others ! While, 
 on the one hand, guarding " the doctrine" is the 
 only means of retaining saving power in the Church ; 
 on the other, no guard upon the doctrine will ever 
 be effectual unless we can raise up a succession of 
 saved men. 
 
 Creeds, Catechisms, Confessions, are not to be 
 treated as is now the fashion in many quarters to 
 treat them ; but, when kept in their proper place, 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 351 
 
 as human and fallible, and strong only when they 
 accord with God's holy oracles, have a high utility 
 But the idea of relying upon these for conserving 
 the truth in any Church, is as well-founded as would 
 be the idea of relying on a good military code for 
 defending a nation. An army of cowards would 
 interpret any code down to their own level, and 
 Churches and unconverted men will equally lower 
 any confession of faith. For rescuing souls, for 
 rebuking blasphemy, for building up God's holy 
 Church, for glorifying the Saviour's name on earth, 
 for our own joy and crown of rejoicing, for the 
 bliss of covering a multitude of sins, for the eternal 
 delight of having saved a soul from death, let us 
 aim at one work — bringing sinners from dark- 
 ness to light. Of all the records of praise which 
 our merciful Lord will give His servants, w T ho 
 would not most covet that his record should be ? — 
 ■ ■ The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity 
 was not found in his lips. He walked with Me in 
 peace and equity, and did turn many away from 
 iniquity !" 
 
 Ye that are lights and fathers in the ministry, 
 whose very name is a power, whose tone decides 
 that of many young evangelists, whose standard of 
 faith and success regulates the practical expectations 
 of many humble Christians — O, show us the w r ay 
 to victory, lead us to downright conquests ovej 
 
352 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 this cold and sinful world ! What if, ere ye go 
 hence, ye should leave to your successors a glorious 
 tradition of multitudes broken under the power of 
 the word, of notorious sinners suddenly transformed 
 into bright examples of grace, of throngs of in 
 quirers asking the way to heaven with tears, of 
 Churches once dying easily, roused, through your 
 instrumentality, to apostolic zeal ? If ye but leave 
 behind you such traditions to be told, and told 
 again, to children, and to children's children, your 
 " tongue of fire" will be multiplying itself in the 
 homesteads of your people, when your voice has 
 long been silent ; and the fruit of your labor will go 
 on propagating itself, until the trump of the arch- 
 angel sounds. 
 
 Ye who are but entering on the work of the 
 ministry, or are as yet young in its ranks, choose, 
 among all those who have gone before you, whose 
 fame you would prefer. Take the host of those 
 who have trifled with the Cross, with inspiration, 
 with the fall and the redemption of man, with the 
 work of the Spirit, or any of the other vital doc- 
 trines of our religion ; and if you find among them 
 one man whose name, after ages, is dear to a nation, 
 sacred in the homesteads of thousands to whose 
 ancestors he was a blessing — then follow him. If 
 you find among those who gave themselves to 
 intellectual pleasures, and were above the plain 
 
PRACTICAL LESSONS. 353 
 
 rough work of revivals and awakenings, one who 
 has left a memory which is to this day blessed, rais- 
 ing up even now spiritual children to perpetuate 
 his fruits to other generations — you may follow 
 him. But surely you would never think of follow- 
 ing in the track of those whose labors have been 
 succeeded by a blight, or whose names, if remem- 
 bered at all, are remembered, not as a blessing to 
 the world, but simply as an example of talent ? 
 Surely you would wish rather to be one of those 
 whom grandsires shall speak of, to their grand- 
 children, as having been the means of saving such 
 a man, of kindling such a revival, of introducing a 
 new religious era into the history of such a village, 
 or of first carrying the Gospel to some people to 
 whom Christ was a stranger ? You will find that 
 all those upon whose memories the blessings of liv- 
 ing men rest, were those who most gave themselves 
 to accomplish the salvation of sinners, w T ho gloried 
 in the Cross, who trusted in the Holy Ghost, and 
 who, whether their tongue was that of a Boanerges, 
 or that of a Barnabas, ever took care, by solitary 
 waiting before the Redeemer's throne, to have it so 
 imbued with the Holy Ghost, that it was, at least, a 
 " tongue of fire." 
 
 "We do not feel that we have said what we had 
 to say. In looking over this little book, we can 
 
354 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 
 
 hardly believe that it is all that the feelings 
 and thoughts with which we began it have pro- 
 duced. But, such as it is, let it go out to the world, 
 to be rebuked where it errs, to be unheeded where 
 it is feeble, to be blessed where it is true and 
 strong. 
 
 And now, adorable Spirit, proceeding from 
 the Father and the Son, descend upon all the 
 Churches, renew the Pentecost in this our age, 
 and baptize Thy people generally — O, baptize them 
 yet again with tongues of fire ! Crown this nine- 
 teenth century with a revival of " pure and undo 
 filed religion" greater than that of the last century, 
 greater than that of the first, greater than any 
 " demonstration of the Spirit" ever yet vouchsafed 
 to men ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
BOOKS BY THE ABBOTTS. 
 
 THE FRANCOMA STORIES. 
 
 By Jacob Abbott. In Ten Volumes. Beautifully Illus- 
 trated. 16mo, Cloth, 90 cents per Vol. ; the set complete* 
 in case, $9 00. 
 
 1. Malleville. 6. Stuyvesant. 
 
 2. Mary Bell. 7. Agnes. 
 
 3. Ellen Linn. 8. Mary Erskine, 
 
 4. "Wallace. 9. Rodolphus. 
 
 5. Beechnut. 10. Caroline. 
 
 MARCO PAUL SERIES. 
 
 Marco Paul's Voyages and Travels in the Pursuit of 
 Knowledge. By Jacob Abbott. Beautifully Illustrated. 
 Complete in 6 Volumes, 1 6mo, Cloth, 90 cents per Volume. 
 Price of the set, in case, $5 40. 
 
 In New York. In Boston. 
 
 On the Erie Canal. At the Springfield Arm« 
 
 In the Forests of Maine. ory. 
 
 In Vermont. 
 
 RAINBOW AND LUCKY SERIES. 
 
 By Jacob Abbott. Beautifully Illustrated. lGmo, 
 Cloth, 90 cents each. The set complete, in case, $4 50. 
 
 Handie. Selling Lucky. 
 
 Rainbow's Journey. Up the River. 
 
 The Three Pines. 
 
 YOUNG CHRISTIAN SERIES. 
 
 By Jacob Abbott. In Four Volumes. Richly Illus- 
 trated with Engravings, and Beautifully Bound. 12mo, 
 Cloth, $1 75 per Vol. The set complete, Cloth, $7 00; in 
 Half Calf, $14 00. 
 
 1. The Young Christian. 
 
 2. The Corner Stone. 
 
 3. The Way to Do Good. 
 
 4. Hoaryhead and M'Donner. 
 
Boohs by the Abbotts, 
 
 HARPER'S STORY BOOKS. 
 
 A Series of Narratives, Biographies, and Tales, for the In- 
 struction and Entertainment of the Young. By Jacob Ab- 
 bott. Embellished with more than One Thousand beauti- 
 ful Engravings. Square 4 to, complete in 12 large Volumes, 
 or 86 small ones. 
 
 "Haeper's Story Books" can be obtained complete in Twelve 
 Volumes, bound in blue and gold, each one containing Three Sto- 
 ries, for $21 00, or in Thirty-six thin Volumes, bound in crimson and 
 gold, each containing One Story, for $32 40. The volumes may be 
 had separately— the large ones at $1 75 each, the others at 90 cents 
 each. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 BRUNO ; or 7 Lessons of Fidelity, Patience, and Self-De- 
 
 nial Taught by a Dog. 
 WILLIE AND THE MORTGAGE : showing How 
 
 Much may be Accomplished by a Boy. 
 THE STRAIT GATE; or, The Rule of Exclusion from 
 
 Heaven. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 THE LITTLE LOUVRE ; or, The Boys' and Girls' 
 
 P ic ture-G allery . 
 PRANK ; or, The Philosophy of Tricks and Mischief. 
 EMMA ; or, The Three Misfortunes of a Belle. 
 
 VOL. III. 
 
 VIRGINIA ; or, A Little Light on a Very Dark Saying. 
 
 TIMBOO AND JOLIBA ; or, The Art cf Being Useful. 
 
 TIMBOO AND FANNY; or, The Art of Self-Instruc- 
 tion. 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 THE HARPER ESTABLISHMENT ; or, How the 
 Story Books are Made. 
 
 FRANKLIN, the Apprentice-Boy. 
 
 THE STUDIO ; or, Illustrations of the Theory and Prac- 
 tice of Drawing, for Young Artists at Home. 
 
 VOL. V. 
 THE STORY OF ANCIENT HISTORY, from the 
 
 Earliest Periods to the Fall of the Roman Empire. 
 THE STORY OF ENGLISH HISTORY, from the 
 
 Earliest Periods to the American Revolution. 
 THE STORY OF AMERICAN HISTORY, from 
 
 the Earliest Settlement of the Country to the Establish* 
 
 ment of the Federal Constitution. 
 
Books by the Abbotts. 
 
 VOL. VI. 
 JOHN TRUE ; or, The Christian Experience of an Hon- 
 est Boy. 
 ELFRED ; or, The Blind Boy and his Pictures. 
 THE MUSEUM ; or, Curiosities Explained. 
 
 VOL. VII. 
 THE ENGINEER ; or, How to Travel in the Woods. 
 RAMBLES AMONG THE ALPS. 
 THE THREE GOLD DOLLARS ; or, An Account of 
 the Adventures of Eobin Green. 
 
 VOL. VIII. 
 THE GIBRALTAR GALLERY: being an Account 
 
 of various Things both Curious and Useful. 
 THE ALCOVE : containing some Farther Account of 
 
 Timboo, Mark, and Fanny. 
 DIALOGUES for the Amusement and Instruction of 
 
 Young Persons. 
 
 VOL. IX. 
 THE GREAT ELM ; or, Robin Green and Josiah Lane 
 
 at School. 
 AUNT MARGARET ; or, How John True kept his 
 
 Resolutions. 
 VERNON ; or, Conversations about Old Times in Englind. 
 
 VOL. X. 
 CARL AND JOCKO; or, The Adventures of the Little 
 
 Italian Boy and his Monkey. 
 LAPSTONE ; or, The Sailor turned Shoemaker. 
 ORKNEY, THE PEACEMAKER; or, The Various 
 
 Ways of Settling Disputes. 
 
 VOL. XI. 
 JUDGE JUSTIN; or, The Little Court of Morningdate. 
 MINIGO ; or, The Fairy of Cairnstone Abbey. 
 JASPER ; or, The Spoiled Child Recovered. 
 
 VOL. XII. 
 
 CONGO ; or, Jasper's Experience in Command. 
 VIOLA and her Little Brother Arno. 
 LITTLE PAUL ;* or, How to be Patient in Sickness and 
 Pain. 
 
 Some of the Story Books are written particularly for girls, and 
 some for Boys, and the different Volumes are adapted to various 
 ages, so that the work forms a Complete Library of Story Boohs for 
 all the Children of the Family and the Sunday-School. 
 
Boohs by the Abbotts. 
 
 ABBOTTS' ILLUSTRATED HISTORIES. 
 
 Biographical Histories. By Jacob Abbott and John S. 
 C.Abbott. The Volumes of this Series are printed and 
 bound uniformly, and are embellished with numerous Engrav- 
 ings. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00 per volume. Price of the set (32' 
 vols.), $32 00. 
 
 A series of volumes containing severally full accounts of the lives, 
 characters, and exploits of the most distinguished sovereigns, po- 
 tentates, and rulers that have been chiefly renowned among man- 
 kind, in the various ages of the world, from the earliest periods to 
 the present day. 
 
 The successive volumes of the series, though they each contain 
 the life of a single individual, and constitute thus a distinct and in- 
 dependent work, follow each other in the main, in regular historical 
 order, and each one continues the general narrative of history down 
 to the period at which the next volume takes up the story ; so that 
 the whole series presents to the reader a connected narrative of the 
 line of general history from the present age back to the remotest 
 times. 
 
 The narratives are intended to be succinct and comprehensive, and 
 are written in a very plain and simple style. They are, however, not 
 juvenile in their character, nor intended exclusively for the young. 
 The volumes are sufficiently large to allow each history to comprise 
 all* the leading facts in the life of the personage who is the subject 
 of it, and thus to communicate all the information in respect to him 
 which is necessary for the purposes of the general reader. 
 
 Such being the design and character of the works, they would 
 seem to be specially adapted, not only for family reading, but also 
 for district, town, school, and Sunday-school libraries, as well as for 
 text-books in literary seminaries. 
 
 The plan of the series, and the manner in which the design has 
 been carried out by the author in the execution of it, have been high- 
 ly commended by the press in all parts of the country. The whole 
 series has been introduced into the school libraries of several cf the 
 largest and most influential states. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln's Opinion of Abbotts' Histories. — In a con* 
 versation with the President just before his death, Mr. Lincoln said: "1 
 want to thank you and your brother for A bbotts? series of Histories. 1 
 have not education enough to appreciate the profound works of volu* 
 Tninous historians ; and if I had, I have no time to read them. Exit 
 your series of Histories gives me, in brief compass, just that knowledge 
 of past men and events which I need. I have read them with the great* 
 est interest. To them I am indebted for about all the historical knowl- 
 edge 1 have." 
 
Books by the Abbotts. 
 
 CYRUS THE GREAT. 
 
 DARIUS THE GREAT 
 
 XERXES. 
 
 ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
 
 ROMULUS. 
 
 HANNIBAL. 
 
 PYRRHUS. 
 
 JULIUS CffiSAR. 
 
 CLEOPATRA. 
 
 NERO. 
 
 ALFRED THE GREAT. 
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 
 
 RICHARD I. 
 
 RICHARD II. 
 
 RICHARD III. 
 
 MARY QUEEN OP SCOTS. 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 CHARLES I. 
 
 CHARLES II. 
 
 JOSEPHINE. 
 
 MARIA ANTOINETTE. 
 
 MADAME ROLAND. 
 
 HENRY IV. 
 
 PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 GENGHIS KHAN. 
 
 KING PHILIP. 
 
 HERNANDO CORTEZ. 
 
 MARGARET OF AN JO U. 
 
 JOSEPH BONAPARTE. 
 
 QUEEN HORTENSE. 
 
 LOUIS XIV. 
 
 LOUIS PHILIPPE. 
 
Books by the Abbotts. 
 
 THE LITTLE LEARNER SERIES. 
 
 A Series for Very Young Children. Designed to Assist in 
 the Earliest Development of the Mind of a Child, while under 
 its Mother's Special Care, during the first Five or Six Years 
 of its Life. By Jacob Abbott. Beautifully Illustrated. 
 Complete in 5 Small 4to Volumes, Cloth, 90 cents per Vol. 
 Price of the set, in case, $-4 50. 
 
 LEARNING TO TALK ; or, Entertaining and Instruct- 
 ive Lessons in the Use of Language. 1 70 Engravings. 
 
 LEARNING TO THINK: consisting of Easy and En- 
 tertaining Lessons, designed to Assist in the First Unfold- 
 ing of the Reflective and Reasoning Powers of Children. 
 120 Engravings. 
 
 LEARNING TO READ ; consisting of Easy and En- 
 tertaining Lessons, designed to Assist Young Children in 
 Studying the Forms of the Letters, and in beginning to 
 Read. 160 Engravings. 
 
 LEARNING ABOUT COMMON THINGS; or 
 
 Familiar Instruction for Children in respect to the Ob- 
 jects around them that attract their Attention and awaken 
 their Curiosity in the Earliest Years of Life. 120 En- 
 gravings. 
 
 LEARNING ABOUT RIGHT AND WRONG; or, 
 
 Entertaining and Instructive Lessons for Young Children 
 in respect to their Dutv. 90 Engravings. 
 
Books by the Abbotts. 
 
 KINGS AND QUEENS ; or, Life in the Palace : con- 
 sisting of Historical Sketches of Josephine and Maria Lou- 
 isa, Louis Philippe, Ferdinand of Austria, Nicholas, Isa- 
 bella II., Leopold, Victoria, and Louis Napoleon. By 
 John S. C. Abbott. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 
 
 A SUMMER IN SCOTLAND : a Narrative of Ob- 
 servations and Adventures made by the Author during a 
 Summer spent among the Glens and Highlands in Scot- 
 land. By Jacob Abbott. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF SPANISH HISTORY. By 
 
 John S. C. Abbott. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 THE TEACHER. Moral Influences Employed in the 
 Instruction and Government of the Young. By Jacob 
 Abbott. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 
 
 GENTLE MEASURES IN TRAINING THE 
 YOUNG. Gentle Measures in the Management and 
 Training of the Young ; or, The Principles on which a 
 Firm Parental Authority may be Established and Main- 
 tained without Violence or Anger, and the Bight Devel- 
 opment of the Moral and Mental Capacities be Promoted 
 by Methods in Harmony with the Structure and the Char- 
 acteristics of the Juvenile Mind. A Book for the Parents 
 of Young Children. By Jacob Abbott. Illustrated. 
 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 
 
By JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. 
 
 CHILD AT HOME. 
 
 The Child at Home ; or, the Principles of Filial Duty famil* 
 iarly Illustrated. By John S. C. Abbott. Woodcuts. 
 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 
 
 The duties and trials peculiar to the child are explained and il- 
 lustrated in this volume in the same clear and attractive manner 
 in which those of the mother are set forth in the " Mother at Home." 
 These two works may be considered as forming a complete manual 
 of filial and maternal relations. 
 
 MOTHER AT HOME. 
 
 The Mother at Home ; or, the Principles of Maternal Duty 
 familiarly Illustrated. By John S. C. Abbott. Engrav- 
 ings. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 
 
 This book treats of the important questions of maternal responsi- 
 bility and authority ; of the difficulties which the mother will ex- 
 perience, the errors to which she is liable, the methods and plans 
 she should adopt ; of the religious instruction which she should 
 impart, and of the results which she may reasonably hope will fol- 
 low her faithful and persevering exertions. These subjects are 
 illustrated with the felicity characteristic of all the productions of 
 the author. 
 
 PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Practical Christianity. A Treatise specially designed for 
 Young Men. By John S. C. Abbott. 16mo, Cloth, 
 
 $1 00. 
 
 It is characterized by the simplicity of style and appositeness of 
 illustration which make a book easily read and readily understood. 
 It is designed to instruct and interest young men in the effectual 
 truths of Christianity. It comes down to their plane of thought, 
 and, in a genial, conversational way, strives to lead them to a life 
 of godliness.— Watchman and Reflector. 
 
 It abounds in wise and practical suggestions.— N. Y. Commercial 
 Advertiser, 
 
,0 
 
 
 ,0 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 ,0 S 
 
 * **' 
 
 
 o 
 
 "o (N* 
 
 K , v> 
 
 
 
 
 ^- 
 
 
 %4 
 

 O0 v 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 **. 
 
 
 
 *f>, 
 
 x v r > 
 
 c*v *. 
 
 
 
 '/ 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 ** 
 
 
 ""- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^- V *b N 
 
 
 k o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
lAi 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 021 066 103 7 
 
 nm 
 
 M 
 
 1 
 
 
 V 
 
 «■&§» 
 
 H 
 
 l»