/ v-
 
 IBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 THE INSTITUTE 
 
 FOR THE STUDY OF 
 
 AMERICAN RELIGION
 
 ; J
 
 
 All former looks issued in Mr. Moody's name have 
 *een mere compilations, issued without his consent and 
 notwithstanding his protest. The following are the only 
 
 AUTHORIZED PUBLICATIONS BY 
 
 D. L. MOODY. 
 
 SECRET POWER or the Secret of Success in Christian 
 life and Christian work. "A book of intense interest and 
 practical suggestion." Cloth, 60 cents ; paper, 30 cents. 
 
 TWELVE SELECT SERMONS, by D. L. MOODY. 
 Carefully revised, and containing those gospel addresses 
 most blessed in Kvangelistic work. 128 pp., cloth, rich gilt 
 stamp, 60 cents; paper edition, 30 cents. Ready May i it. 
 
 HEAVEN- JfA*r it is; It* Inhabitants and ho^v to 
 Get There, by D. L. MOODY. Cloth, rich gold stamp, 112 
 pp. ,60 cents; paper covers, 30 cents, aytk thousand. 
 
 The clear, scriptural, common-sense treatment of this 
 subject by Mr. Moody has been commended in the highest 
 terms by leading theologians in Europe and America, 
 while the common people have heard them everywhere 
 with gladness. 
 
 How to Study the Bible. By D. L. MOODY. Revised. 
 A valuable little work, which should be carefully read and 
 studied by all who desire to enjoy the study of the Word. 
 Papercover, 10 cents; per doz.,<i.oo. Cloth, flexible, 15 cts. 
 
 The Way and the Word. By D. L. MOODY. Paper 
 cover, 15 cents ; cloth, 25 cents. 
 
 This is a neat little volume, containing a treatise on Mr. 
 Moody's favorite topic, Regeneration; together with his 
 thoughts on Bible study; the whole prefaced with a personal 
 introduction by Mr. Moody. 
 
 The Second Coming of Christ. By D. L. MOODY. Re- 
 vised from original notes. 32 pages and cover. Price, 10 
 cents. Per dozen, $1.00. 
 
 Should be widely circulated, calling attention to this 
 important subject and most precious truth. 
 
 For sale by all Booksellers, or will be sent post free by 
 return Mail on receipt of price by the publisher. 
 F H. REVELL, 148 and 150 Madison St., Chicago
 
 OR, 
 
 THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IN CHRISTIAN LIFE 
 AND CHRISTIAN WORK.. 
 
 BY D L. MOODY. 
 \\ 
 
 ' YE SHALL RECEIVE POWER." 
 
 ACTS 1: 8. 
 
 CHICAGO : 
 F. H. REVELL, 148 150 MADISON STREET, 
 
 PUBLISHER OF EVANGELICAL LITEBATURE.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1881, by 
 
 F. H. REVELL. 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ONE man may have "zeal without knowledge," while 
 another may have knowledge without zeal. If I could 
 have only the one, I believe I should choose the first ; 
 but, with an open Bible, no one need be without knowl- 
 edge of God's will and purpose ; and the object of this 
 book is to help others to know the source of true power, 
 that both their zeal and their knowledge may be of 
 increased service in the Master's work. 
 
 Paul says, "all Scripture is given by inspiration of 
 God, and is profitable ;" but I believe one portion, and 
 that the subject of this book, has been too much over- 
 looked, as though it were not practical, and the result 
 is lack of power in testimony and work. If we would 
 work, "not as one that beateth the air," but to some 
 definite purpose, we must have this power from on 
 high. Without this power, our work will be drudgery. 
 With it, it becomes a joyful task, a refreshing service. 
 
 May God make this book a blessing to many. This 
 
 is my prayer. 
 
 D. L. MOODY. 
 
 NORTHFIELD, MASS., May 1st, 1881.
 
 CHAPTER 1. 
 
 POWER -ITS SOURCE
 
 In vain do the inhabitants of London go to their conduits for sup- 
 ply unless the man who has the rnaster-key turns the water on; and 
 in vain do we think to quench our thirst at ordinances, unless God 
 communicates the living water of His Spirit. Anon. 
 
 It was the custom of the Roman emperors, at their triumphal 
 entrance, to cast new coins among the multitudes; so doth Christ, in 
 His triumphal ascension into heaven, throw the greatest gifts for the 
 good of men that were ever given. T. Goodwin. 
 
 To unconverted persons, a great part of the Bible resembles a letter 
 written in cipher. The blessed Spirit's office is to act as God's deci- 
 pherer, by letting His people into the secret of celestial experience, 
 as the key and clew to those sweet mysteries of grace which were 
 before as a garden shut up, or as a fountain sealed, or as a book 
 written in an unknown character. Toplady. 
 
 The greatest, strongest, mightiest plea for the Church of God in 
 the world is the existence of the Spirit of God in its midst, and the 
 works of the Spirit of God are the true evidences of Christianity. 
 They say miracles are withdrawn, but the Holy Spirit is the standing 
 miracle of the Church of God to-day.* I will not say a word against 
 societies for Christian evidences, nor against those weighty and learned 
 brethren who have defended the outworks of the Christian Church. 
 They have done good service, and I wish them every blessing, but as 
 to my own soul, I never was settled in my faith in Christ by Paley's 
 Evidences, nor by all the evidence ever brought from history or else- 
 where; the Holy Spirit has taken the burden off my shoulders, and 
 given me peace and liberty. This to me is evidence, and as to the 
 externals which we can quote to others, it was enough for Peter and 
 John that the people saw the lame man healed, and they needed not 
 to speak for themselves. Spurgeon.
 
 POWER ITS SOURCE. 
 
 "Without the soul, divinely quickened and inspired, the observ- 
 ances of the grandest ritualism are as worthless as the motions of a 
 galvanized corpse." Anon. 
 
 I QUOTE this sentence, as it leads me at once to the 
 subject under consideration. What is this quickening 
 and inspiration ? What is this power needed ? From 
 whence its source ? I reply : The Holy Spirit of God. 
 I am a full believer in "The Apostles' Creed," and 
 therefore "I believe in the Holy Ghost." 
 
 A writer has pointedly asked: ''What are our souls 
 without His grace ? as dead as the branch in which the 
 sap does not circulate. What is the Church without 
 Him ? as parched and barren as the fields without the 
 dew and rain of heaven." 
 
 There has been much inquiry of late on the subject of 
 the Holy Spirit. In this and other lands thousands of 
 persons have been giving attention to the study of this 
 grand theme. I hope it will lead us all to pray for 
 a greater manifestation of His power upon the whole 
 Church of God. How much we have dishonored Him 
 in the past-! How ignorant of His grace, and love and 
 presence we have been ? True, we have heard of Him 
 and read of Him, but we have had little intelligent 
 knowledge of His attributes, His offices and His rela- 
 tions to us. I fear He has not been to many professed 
 Christians an actual existence, nor is He known to them 
 as a personality of the Godhead.
 
 10 SECRET POWER. 
 
 The first work of the Spirit is to give life ; spiritual 
 life. He gives it and He sustains it. If there is no life, 
 there can be no power; as Job says: "A living dog is 
 better than a dead lion." When the Spirit imparts this 
 life, He does not leave us to droop and die, but con- 
 stantly fans the flame. He is ever with us. Surely we 
 ought not to be ignorant of His power and his work. 
 
 IDENTITY AND PERSONALITY. 
 
 In John v, 7, we read: " There are three that bear 
 record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy 
 Ghost, and these three are one." By the Father is 
 meant the first Person, Christ, the Word is the second, 
 and the Holy Spirit, perfectly fulfilling His own office 
 and work in union with the Father and the Son, is the 
 third. I find clearly presented in my Bible, that the 
 One God who demands my love, service and worship, 
 has there revealed Himself, and that each of those 
 three names of Father, Son and Holy Ghost has' person- 
 ality attached to them. Therefore we find some things 
 ascribed to God as Father, some to God as Saviour, and 
 some to God as Comforter and Teacher. It has been 
 remarked that the Father plans, the Son executes, and 
 the Holy Spirit applies. But I also believe they plan 
 and work together. The distinction of persons is often 
 noted in Scripture. In Matt, iii, 16-17, we find JESUS 
 submitting to baptism, the SPIRIT descending upon Him, 
 while the FATHER'S voice of approval is heard saying : 
 "This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." 
 Again in John xiv, 16, we read: "I (i. e. Jesus) will 
 pray the Father, and He shall give you another Com-
 
 PO WEE ITS SO URGE. 11 
 
 forter." Also in Eph. i, 18: "Through Him (i. e. 
 Christ Jesus) we both (Jews and Gentiles) have access 
 by one Spirit unto the Father." Thus we are taught 
 the distinction of persons in the Godhead, and their 
 inseparable union. From these and other scriptures 
 also we learn the identity and actual existence of the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 If you ask do I understand what is thus revealed in 
 Scripture, I say "no." But my faith bows down before 
 the inspired Word and I unhesitatingly believe the great 
 things of God when even reason is blinded and the 
 intellect confused. 
 
 In addition to the teaching of God's Word, the Holy 
 Spirit in His gracious work in the soul declares His own 
 presence. Through His agency we are "born again," 
 and through His indwelling we possess superhuman 
 power. Science, falsely so called, when arrayed against 
 the existence and presence of the Spirit of God with 
 His people, only exposes its own folly to the contempt of 
 those who have become "new creatures in Christ 
 Jesus." The Holy Spirit who inspired prophets, and 
 qualified apostles, continues to animate, guide and com- 
 fort all true believers. To the actual Christian, the per- 
 sonality of the Holy Spirit is more real than any theory 
 science has to offer, for so-called science is but calcula- 
 tion based on human observation, and is constantly 
 changing its inferences. But the existence of the Holy 
 Spirit is to the child of God a matter of Scripture rev- 
 alation and of actual experience. 
 
 Some skeptics assert that there is no other vital energy 
 in the world but physical force, while contrary to their 
 assertions, thousands and tens of thousands who can not
 
 12 SECRET POWER. 
 
 possibly be deceived have been quickened into spiritual 
 life by a power neither physical or mental. Men who 
 were dead in sins drunkards who lost their will, blas- 
 phemers who lost their purity, libertines sunk in beast- 
 liness, infidels who published their shame to the world, 
 have in numberless instances become the subjects of the 
 Spirits power, and are now walking in the true nobility 
 of Christian manhood, separated by an infinite distance 
 from their former life. Let others reject, if they will, at 
 their own peril, this imperishable truth. I believe, and 
 am growing more into this belief, that divine, miracu- 
 lous creative power resides in the Holy Ghost. Above 
 and beyond all natural law, yet in harmony with it, 
 creation, providence, the Divine government, and the 
 upbuilding of the Church of God are presided over by 
 the Spirit of God. His ministration is the ministration 
 of life more glorious than the ministration of law, (2 
 Cor. iii, 6-10). And like the Eternal Son, the Eternal 
 Spirit having life in Himself, is working out all things 
 after the counsel of His own will, and for the everlast- 
 ing glory of the Triune Godhead. 
 
 The Holy Spirit has all the qualities belonging to a 
 person ; the power to understand, to will, to do, to call, 
 to feel, to love. This can not be said of a mere influence. 
 He possesses attributes and qualities which can only be 
 ascribed to a person, as acts and deeds are performed by 
 Him which can not be performed by a machine, an in- 
 fluence, or a result. 
 
 AGENT AND INSTRUMENT. 
 
 The Holy Spirit is closely identified with the words of 
 the Lord Jesus. " It is the Spirit that quickened^ ; the
 
 POWER ITS SOURCE. 13 
 
 flesh profiteth nothing, the words that I speak unto you, 
 they are spirit and they are life." The Gospel proc- 
 lamation can not be divorced from the Holy Spirit. 
 Unless He attend the word in power, vain will be the 
 attempt in preaching it. Human eloquence or persua- 
 siveness of speech are the mere trappings of the dead, if 
 the living Spirit be absent ; the prophet may preach to 
 the bones in the valley, but it must be the breath from 
 Heaven which will cause the slain to live. 
 
 In the third chapter of the First Epistle of Peter, it 
 reads, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the 
 just for the unjust, that Pie might bring us to God, being 
 put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." 
 
 Here we see that Christ was raised up from the grave 
 by this same Spirit, and the power exercised to raise 
 Christ's dead body must raise our dead souls and quicken 
 them. No other power on earth can quicken a dead 
 soul, but the same power that raised the body of Jesus 
 Christ out of Joseph's sepulcher. And if we want that 
 power to quicken our friends who are dead in sin, we 
 must look to God, and not be looking to man to do it. 
 If we look alone to ministers, if we look alone to Christ's 
 disciples to do this work, we shall be disappointed ; but 
 if we look to the Spirit of God and expect it to come 
 from Him and Him alone, then we shall honor the Spirit, 
 and the Spirit will do His work. 
 
 SECRET OF EFFICIENCY. 
 
 I can not help but believe there are many Christians who 
 want to be more efficient in the Lord's service, and the 
 object of this book is tC take up this subject of the Holy 
 Spirit, that they may see from whom to expect this power.
 
 14 SECRET POWER. 
 
 In the teaching of Christ, we find the last words recorded 
 in the Gospel ot'Matthew, the 28th chapter and 19th verse, 
 " Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost." Here we find that the Holy Spirit and 
 the Son are equal with the Father are one with Him, 
 "teaching them in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Christ was now handing 
 His commission over to His Apostles. He was going to 
 leave them. His work on earth was finished, and He 
 was now just about ready to take His seat at the right 
 hand of God, and He spoke unto them and said : "All 
 power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth." All 
 power, so then He had authority. If Christ was mere 
 man, as some people try to make out, it would have 
 been blasphemy for Him to have said to the disciples, 
 go and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, 
 and in His own name, and in that of the Holy Ghost, 
 making Himself equal with the Father. 
 
 There are three things : All power is given unto Me ; 
 go teach all nations. Teach them what? To observe 
 all things. There are a great many people now tliat are 
 willing to observe what they like about Christ, but the 
 things that they don't like they just dismiss and turn away 
 from. But His commission to His disciples was, "Go 
 teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever I have 
 commanded you." And what right has a messenger 
 who has been sent of God to change the message ? If 
 I had sent a servant to deliver a message, and the serv- 
 ant thought the message didn't sound exactly right a 
 little harsh and that servant went and changed the 
 message, I should change servants very quickly; he could
 
 PO WER ITS SO URGE. 1 5 
 
 not serve me any longer. And when a minister or a 
 messenger of Christ begins to change the message be- 
 cause he thinks it is not exactly what it ought to be, 
 and thinks he is wiser than God, God just dismisses 
 that man. 
 
 They haven't taught "all things." They have left 
 out some of the things that Christ has commanded us to 
 teach, because they didn't correspond with man's reason. 
 Now we have to take the Word of God just as it is ; and if 
 we are going to take it, we have no authority to take out 
 just what we Tike, what we think is appropriate, and let 
 dark reason be our guide. 
 
 It is the work of the Spirit to impress the heart and 
 seal the preached word. His office is to take of the 
 things of 'Christ and reveal them unto us. 
 
 Some people have got an idea that this is the only 
 dispensation of the Holy Ghost ; that He didn't work 
 until Christ was glorified. But Simeon felt the Holy 
 Ghost when he went into the temple. In 2d Peter, i, 
 21, we read : "Holy men of old spake as they were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost." "We find the same Spirit 
 in Genesis as is seen in Revelation. The same Spirit that 
 guided the hand that wrote Exodus inspired also the 
 epistles, and we find the same Spirit speaking from one 
 end of the Bible to the other. So holy men in all 
 ages have spoken as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 HIS PERSONALITY. 
 
 I was a Christian a long time before I found out that 
 the Holy Ghost was a person. Now this is something a 
 great many don't seem to understand, but if you will 
 just take up the Bible and see what Christ had to say
 
 16 SECRET POWER. 
 
 about the Holy Spirit, you will find that He always 
 spoke of Him as a person never spoke of Him as an 
 influence. Some people have an idea that the Holy 
 Spirit is an attribute of God, just like mercy just an 
 influence coming from God. But we find in the four- 
 teenth chapter of John, sixteenth verse, these words : 
 "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you 
 another Comforter that He may abide with you for- 
 ever." That He may abide with you forever. And, 
 again, in the same chapter, seventeenth verse: "Even 
 the Spirit of Truth, 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." Again, in the twenty-sixth verse of the same 
 chapter: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy 
 Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He 
 shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
 remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." 
 
 Observe the pronouns "He" and "Him." I want 
 to call attention to this fact that whenever Christ spoke 
 of the Holy Ghost He spoke of Him as a person, not a 
 mere influence ; and if we want to honor the Holy 
 Ghost, let us bear in mind that He is one of the Trin- 
 ity, a personality of the Godhead. 
 
 THE RESERVOIK OF LOVE. 
 
 We read that the fruit of the Spirit is love. God is 
 love, Christ is love, and we should not be surprised to 
 read about the love of the Spirit. What a blessed at- 
 tribute is this. May I call it the dome of the temple of 
 the graces. Better still, it is the crown of crowns worn 
 by the Triune God. Human love is a natural emotion
 
 PO WER TTS SO URCE. 17 
 
 which flows forth towards the objeet of our affections. 
 But Divine love is as high above human love as the 
 heaven is above the earth. The natural man is of the 
 earth, earthy, and however pure his love may be, it is 
 weak and imperfect at best. But the love of God is 
 perfect and entire, wanting nothing. It is as a mighty 
 ocean in its greatness, dwelling with and flowing from 
 the Eternal Spirit. 
 
 In Romans v, 5, we read: "And hope maketh not 
 ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our 
 hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us." Now 
 if we are co-workers with God, there is one thing we 
 must possess, and that is love. A man may be a very 
 successful lawyer and have no love for his clients, and 
 yet get on very well. A man may be a very successful 
 physician and have no love for his patients, and yet be 
 a very good physician ; a man may be a very successful 
 merchant and have no love for his customers, and yet 
 he may do a good business and succeed ; but no man 
 can be a co-worker with God without love. If our serv- 
 ice is mere profession on our part, the quicker we re- 
 nounce it the better. If a man takes up God's work as 
 he would take up any profession, the sooner he gets out 
 of it the better. 
 
 We can not work for God without love. It is the only 
 tree that can produce fruit on this sin-cursed earth, that 
 is acceptable to God. If I have no love for God nor for 
 my fellow man, then I can not work acceptably. I am 
 like sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. We are told 
 that "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by 
 the Holy Ghost." Now, if we have had that love shed 
 abroad in our hearts, we are ready for God's service ; 
 2
 
 18 SECRET POWEtt. 
 
 it' \vi- havo not, we are not ready. It is so easy to reach 
 a man when you love him ; all barriers are broken down 
 and swept away. 
 
 Paul when writing to Titus, second chapter and first 
 verse, tells him to be sound in faith, in charity, and in 
 patience. Now in this age, ever since I can remember, 
 the Church has been very jealous about men being un- 
 sound in the faith. If a man becomes unsound in the faith, 
 they draw their ecclesiastical sword and cut at him ; but 
 he may be ever so unsound in love, and they don't say 
 anything. He may be ever so defective in patience ; he 
 may be irritable and fretful all the time, but they never 
 deal with him. Now the Bible teaches us, that we are 
 not only to be sound in the faith, but in charity and in 
 patience. I believe God can not use many of his serv- 
 ants, because they are full of irritability and impatience; 
 they are fretting all the time, from morning until night. 
 God can not use them ; their mouths are sealed ; they 
 can not speak for Jesus Christ, and if they have not love, 
 they can not work for God. I do not mean love for 
 those that love me ; it don't take grace to do that ; the 
 rudest Hottentot in the world can do that ; the greatest 
 heathen that ever lived can do that ; the vilest man that 
 ever walked the earth can do that. It don't take any 
 grace at all. I did that before I ever became a Christ- 
 ian. Love begets love ; hatred begets hatred. If I 
 know a man loves me first, I know my love will be going 
 out towards him. Suppose a man comes to me, saying, 
 "Mr. Moody, a certain man told me to-day that he 
 thought you were the meanest man living." "Well, if I 
 didn't have a good deal of the grace of God in my heart,, 
 then I know there would be hard feelings that Would
 
 POWER ITS SOURCE. 19 
 
 spring up in my heart against that man, and it 
 would not be long before I would be talking against 
 him. Hatred begets hatred. But suppose a man 
 comes to me and says, "Mr. Moody, do you know 
 that such a man that I met to-day says that he 
 thinks a great deal of you?" and though I may never 
 have heard of him, there would be love springing 
 up in my heart. Love begets love ; we all know that ; 
 but it takes the grace of God to love the man that lies 
 about me, the man that slanders me, the man that is 
 trying to tear down my character ; it takes the grace of 
 God to love that man. You may hate the sin he has 
 committed ; there is a difference between the sin and the 
 sinner ; you may hate the one with a perfect hatred, but 
 you must love the sinner. I can not otherwise do 
 him any good. Now you know the first impulse of a 
 young convert is to love. Do you remember the day 
 you was converted ? "Was not your heart full of sweet 
 peace and love ? 
 
 THE EIGHT OVERFLOW. 
 
 I remember the morning I came out of my room after 
 I had first trusted Christ, and I thought the old sun 
 shone a good deal brighter than it ever had before ; I 
 thought that the sun was just smiling upon me, and I 
 walked out upon Boston Common, and I heard the birds 
 in the trees, and I thought that they were all singing a 
 song for me. Do you know I fell in love with the birds ? 
 I never cared for them before ; it seemed to me that I 
 was in love with all creation. I had not a bitter jeling 
 against any man, and I was ready to take all men to my 
 heart. If a man has not the love of God shed abroad
 
 20 SECRET POWER. 
 
 in his heart, he has never been regenerated. If you hear 
 a person get up in prayer-meeting, and he begins to 
 speak and find fault with everybody, you may know that 
 his is not a genuine conversion ; that it is counterfeit ; 
 it has not the right ring, because the impulse of a con- 
 verted soul is to love, and not to be getting up and com- 
 plaining of every one else, and finding fault. But it is 
 hard for us to live in the right atmosphere all the time. 
 Some one comes along and treats us wrongly, perhaps 
 we hate him ; we have not attended to the means of 
 grace and kept feeding on the word of God as we ought ; 
 a root of bitterness springs up in our hearts, and per- 
 haps we are not aware of it, but it has come up in our 
 hearts; then we are not qualified to work for God. The 
 love of God is not shed abroad in our hearts as it ought 
 to be by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 But the work of the Holy Ghost is to impart love. 
 Paul could say, "The love of Christ constraineth me." 
 He could not help going from town to town and preaching 
 the Gospel. Jeremiah at one time said : "I will speak 
 no more in the Lord's name ; I have suffered enough ; 
 these people don't like God's word. They lived in a 
 wicked day, as we do now. Infidels were creeping up 
 all around him, who said the word of God was not true ; 
 Jeremiah had stood like a wall of fire, confronting them, 
 and he boldly proclaimed that the word of God was 
 true. At last they put him in prison, and he said : "I 
 will keep still ; it has cost me too much." But a little 
 while after, you know, he could not keep still. His 
 bones caught fire ; he had to speak. And when we are so 
 full of the love of God, we are compelled to work for 
 God, then God blesses us. If our work is sought to be
 
 POWER ITS SOURCE. 21 
 
 accomplished by the lash, without any true motive 
 power, it will come to nought. 
 
 Now the question comes up, have we the love of God 
 shed abroad in our hearts, and are we holding the truth 
 in lave? Some people hold the truth, but in such a 
 cold stern way that it will do no good. Other people 
 want to love everything, and so they give up. much oi 
 the truth ; but we are to hold the truth in love ; we are 
 to hold the truth even if we lose all, but we are to hold 
 ir in love, and if we do that, the Lord will bless us. 
 
 There are a good many people trying to get this love ; 
 they are trying to produce it of themselves. But therein 
 all fail. The love implanted deep in our new nature will 
 be spontaneous. I don't have to learn to love my children. 
 I can not help loving them. I said to a young miss some 
 time ago, in an inquiry meeting, who said that she could 
 not love God ; that it was very hard for her to love Him 
 I said to her, "Is it hard for you to love your moth- 
 er ? Do you have to learn to love your mother?" 
 And she looked up through her tearls, and said, 
 " No ; I can't help it ; that is spontaneous." "Well," 
 I said, " when the Holy Spirit kindles love in your heart, 
 you can not help loving God; it will be spontaneous." 
 When the Spirit of God comes into your heart arid mine, 
 it will be easy to serve God. 
 
 The fruit of the Spirit, as you find it in Galatians, be- 
 gins with love. There are nine graces spoken of in the 
 sixth chapter, and of the nine different graces Paul puts 
 love at the head of the list ; love is the first thing the 
 first in that precious cluster of fruit. Some one has put 
 it in this way : that all the other eight can be put in the 
 word love. Joy is love exulting ; peace is love in re-
 
 22 SECRET POWER. 
 
 pose ; long suffering is love on trial ; gentleness is love in 
 society ; goodness is love in action ; faith is love on the 
 battlefield ; meekness is love at school; and temperance 
 is love in training. So it is love all the way ; love at 
 the top ; love at the bottom, and all the way along down 
 these graces ; and if we only just brought forth 
 the fruit of the Spirit, what a world we would have ; 
 there would be no need of any policemen ; a man could 
 leave his overcoat around without some one stealing it ; 
 men would not have any desire to do evil. Says Paul, 
 "Against such there is no law;" you don't need any 
 law. A man who is full of the Spirit don't need to be 
 put under law ; don't need any policemen to watch him. 
 We could dismiss all our policemen ; the lawyers 
 would have to give up practicing law, and the courts 
 would not have any business. 
 
 THE TRIUMPHS OF HOPE. 
 
 In the fifteenth chapter of Komans, thirteenth verse, 
 the Apostle says : " Now the God of hope fill you with 
 all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in 
 hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." The next 
 thing then is hope. 
 
 Did you ever notice this, that no man or woman is 
 ever used by God to build up His kingdom who has lost 
 hope ? Now, I Irave been observing this throughout 
 different parts of the country, and wherever I have 
 found a worker in God's vineyard who has lost hope, I 
 have found a man or woman not very useful. Now, 
 just look at these workers. Let your mind go over the 
 past for a moment. Can you think of a man or woman 
 whom God has used to build Ilis kingdom who has lost
 
 Po WER ITS so URGE. 
 
 hope? I don't know of any ; I never heard of such an 
 one. It is very important to have hope in the Church ; 
 and it is the work of the Holy Ghost to impart hope. 
 Let Him come into some of the churches where there 
 have not been any conversions for a few years, and let 
 Him convert a score of people, and see how hopeful the 
 Church becomes at once. lie imparts hope ; a man 
 filled with the Spirit of God will be very hopeful. He 
 will be looking out into the future, and he knows that it is 
 all bright, because the God of all grace is able to do 
 great things. So it is very important that we have 
 hope. 
 
 If a man has lost hope, he -is out of communion with 
 God ; he has not the Spirit of God resting upon him for 
 service ; he may be a son of God, and disheartened so 
 that he can not be used of God. Do you know there is 
 no place in the Scriptures where it is recorded that God 
 ever used even a discouraged man. Some years ago, in 
 my work I was quite discouraged, and I was ready to 
 hang my harp on the willow. I was very much cast 
 down and depressed. I had been ^for weeks in that 
 state, when one Monday morning a friend, who had a 
 very large Bible class, came into my study. I used to 
 examine the notes of his Sunday-school lessons, which 
 were equal to a sermon, and he came to me this morning 
 and said, "Well, what did you preach about yesterday ? " 
 and I told him. I said, " What did you preach about ?" 
 and he said that he preached about Noah. " Did you 
 ever preach about Noah?" "No, I never preached 
 about Noah." "Did you ever study his character?" 
 "No, I never studied his life particularly." "Well," 
 says he, "he is a most wonderful character. It will do
 
 24 SECRET POWER. 
 
 you good. You ought to study up that character." 
 When he went out, I took down my Bible, and read 
 about Noah ; and then it came over me that Noah 
 worked 120 years and never had a convert, and yet he 
 did not get discouraged; and I said, "Well, I ought 
 not to be discouraged," and I closed my Bible, got up 
 and walked down town, and the cloud had gone. I 
 went down to the noon prayer-meeting, and heard of a 
 little town in the country where they had taken into the 
 church 100 young converts; and I said to myself, I 
 wonder what Noah would have given if he could have 
 heard that; and yet he worked 120 years and didn't get 
 discouraged. And then a man right across the aisle got 
 up and said, u My friends, I wish you to pray for me ; I 
 think I'm lost ;" and I thought to myself, " I wonder 
 what Noah would have given to hear that." He never 
 heard a man say, " I wish you to pray for me ; I think I 
 am lost," and yet he didn't get discouraged ! Oh, 
 children of God, let us not get discouraged ; let us ask 
 God to forgive us, if we have been discouraged and cast 
 down ; let us ask God to give us hope, that we may be 
 ever hopeful. It does me good sometimes to meet some 
 people and take hold of their hands ; they are so hope- 
 ful, while other people throw a gloom over me because 
 they are all the time cast down, and looking at the dark 
 side, and looking at the obstacles and difficulties that 
 are in the way. 
 
 THE BOON OF LIBERTY. 
 
 The next thing the Spirit of God does is to give us 
 liberty. He iirst imparts love ; lie next inspires hope, 
 and then gives liberty, and that is about the last thing
 
 POWER ITS SOURCE. 25 
 
 we have in a good many of our churches at the present 
 day. And I am sorry to say there must be a funeral in 
 a good many churches before there is much work done, 
 we shall have to bury the formalism so deep that it will 
 never have any resurrection. The last thing to be 
 found in many a church is liberty. 
 
 If the Gospel happens to be preached, the people crit- 
 icise, as they would a theatrical performance. It is 
 exactly the same, and many a professed Christian never 
 thinks of listening to what the man of God has to say. 
 It is hard work to preach to carnally-minded critics, 
 but " Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 
 
 Very often a woman will hear a hundred good 
 things in a sermon, and there may be one thing that 
 strikes her as a little out of place, and she will go home 
 and sit down to the table and talk right out before her 
 children and magnify that one wrong thing, and not say 
 a word about the hundred good things that were said. 
 That is what people do who criticise. 
 
 God does not use men in captivity. The condition of 
 many is like Lazarus when he came out of the sepulcher 
 bound hand and foot. The bandage was not taken off 
 his mouth, and he could not speak. He had life, and if 
 you had said Lazarus was not alive, you would have told 
 a falsehood, because he was raised from the dead. There 
 are a great many people, the moment you talk to them 
 and insinuate they are not doing what they might, they 
 say : "I have life. I am a Christian." Well, you can't 
 deny it, but they are bound hand and foot. 
 
 May God snap these fetters and set His children 
 free, that they may have liberty. I believe He comes to 
 set us free, and wants us to work for Him, and speak for
 
 26 SECRET POWER. 
 
 Him. How many people would like to get up in a 
 social prayer-meeting to say a few words for Christ, but 
 there is such a cold spirit of criticism in the Church that 
 they dare not do it. They have not the liberty to do it. 
 If they get up, they are so frightened with these critics 
 that they begin to tremble and sit down. They can not 
 say anything. Now, that is all wrong. The Spirit of 
 God comes just to give liberty, and wherever you see 
 the Lord's work going on, you will see that Spirit of 
 liberty. People won't be afraid of speaking to one 
 another. And when the meeting is over they will not 
 get their hats ainl see how quick they can get out of the 
 church, but will begin to shake hands with one another, 
 and there will be liberty there. A good many go to 
 the prayer-meeting out of a mere cold sense of duty. 
 They think "I must attend because I feel it is my 
 duty." They don't think it is a glorious privilege to meet 
 and pray, and to be strengthened, and to help some one 
 else in the wilderness journey. 
 
 What we need to-day is love in our hearts. Don't 
 we want it? Don't we want hope in our lives ? Don't 
 we want to be hopeful ? Don't we want liberty ? Now, 
 all this is the work of the Spirit of God, and let us 
 pray God daily to give us love, and hope, and liberty. 
 We read in Hebrews, " Having, therefore, brethren, 
 boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of 
 Jesus." If you will turn to the passage and read the 
 margin it says: "Having, therefore, brethren, lib- 
 erty to enter into the holiest." We can go into the 
 holiest, having freedom of access, and plead for this 
 love and liberty and glorious hope, that we may not rest 
 until God gives us the power to work for Him.
 
 POWER-ITS SOURCE. 27 
 
 If I know my own heart to-day, I would rather die 
 than live as 1 once did, a mere nominal Christian, and 
 not used by God in building up His kingdom. It seems 
 a poor empty life to live for the sake of self. 
 
 Let us seek to be useful. Let us seek to be vessels 
 meet for the Master's use, that God, the Holy Spirit, 
 may shine fully through us. 
 
 " Know, my soul, thy full salvation; 
 Rise o'er sin, and fear, and care; 
 Joy to find, in every station. 
 Something still to do or bear. 
 
 " Think what Spirit dwells within thee; 
 
 Think what Father's smiles are thine; 
 Think that Jesus died to win thee: 
 Child of heaven, canst thou repine? 
 
 " Haste thee on from grace to glory, 
 
 Armed by faith, and winged by prayer, 
 Heaven's eternal day 's before thee: 
 God's own hand shall guide thee there. 
 
 " Soon shall close thy earthly mission, 
 Soon shall pass thy pilgrim days, 
 Hope shall change to glad fruition, 
 Faith to sight, and prayer to praise."
 
 "jt AM so weak, dear Lord! T can not stand 
 
 One moment without Thee; 
 J But oh, the tenderness of Thy enfolding. 
 
 And oh, the faithfulness of Thine upholding, 
 And oh, the strength of Thy right hand ! 
 That strength is enough for me. 
 
 " I am so needy, Lord! and yet I know- 
 All fullness dwells in Thee; 
 And hour by hour that never-failing treasure 
 Supplies and fills in overflowing measure 
 My last and greatest need. And so 
 Thy grace is enough for me. 
 
 " It is so sweet to trust Thy word alone! 
 
 1 do not ask to see 
 
 The unveiling of Thy purpose, or the shining 
 Of future light on mysteries untwining; 
 Thy promise-roll is all my own 
 
 Thy word is enough for me. 
 
 " There were strange soul-depths, restless, vast and broad, 
 
 Unfathomed as the sea, 
 An infinite craving for some infinite stilling; 
 But now Thy perfect love is perfect filling! 
 Lord Jesus Christ, my Lord, my God, 
 
 Thou, Thou ait enough for me! " 
 
 28
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 POWER "IN" AND "UPON:
 
 You remember that strange, half-involuntary "forty years" of 
 Moses in the " wilderness " of Midian, when he had fled from Egypt. 
 You remember, too, the almost equally strange years of retirement in 
 " Arabia " by Paul, when, if ever, humanly speaking, instant action 
 was needed. And pre eminently you remember the amazing charge 
 of the ascending Lord to the disciples, "Tarry at Jerusalem." 
 Speaking after the manner of men, one could not have wondered if 
 out-spoken Peter, or fervid James, had said: "Tarry, Lord! How 
 long? " " Tarry, Lord! is there not a perishing world, groaning for 
 the ' good news? ' ' " Tarry! did we hear Thee aright, Lord? Was 
 the word not haste? '' Nay; " Boing assembled together with them, 
 He commanded them that they should not d-'pnrt from Jerusalem, 
 but wait for the promise of the Father." (Acts 1: 4.)Grosart.
 
 POWER "IN" AND "UPON." 
 
 THE Holy Spirit dwelling in us, is one thing; I think 
 this is clearly brought out in Scripture ; and the 
 Holy Spirit upon us for service, is another thing. Now 
 there are only three places we find in Scripture that are 
 dwelling-places for the Holy Ghost. 
 
 In the 40th chapter of Exodus, commencing with the 
 33d verse, are these words: 
 
 "And he (that is Moses) reared up the court round 
 about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hang- 
 ing of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. 
 
 "Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, 
 and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 
 
 "And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of 
 the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and 
 the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." 
 
 The moment that Moses finished the work, the mo- 
 ment that the tabernacle was ready, the cloud came, 
 the Shekinah glory came and filled it so that Moses was 
 not able to stand before the presence of the Lord. I 
 believe firmly, that the moment our hearts are emptied 
 of pride and selfishness and ambition and self-seeking, 
 and everything that is contrary to God's law, the Holy 
 Ghost will come and fill every corner of our hearts ; 
 but if we are full of pride and conceit, and ambition 
 and self-seeking, and pleasure and the world, there is 
 
 31
 
 32 SECRET POWER. 
 
 no room for the Spirit of God ; and I believe many a 
 man is praying to God to fill him when he is full 
 already with something else. Before we pray that God 
 would fill us, I believe we ought to pray Him to 
 empty us. 
 
 There must be an emptying before there can be a 
 filling; and when the heart is turned upside down, and 
 everything is turned out that is contrary to God, then 
 the Spirit will come, just as He did in the tabernacle, 
 and fill us with His glory. We read in 2d Chronicles, 
 5th chapter and 13th verse: "It came even to pass, as 
 the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one 
 sound, to be heard in .praising and thanking the Lord, 
 and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets 
 and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the 
 Lord, saying, For He is good ; for His mercy endureth 
 forever ; that then the house was tilled with a cloud, 
 even the house of the Lord. So that the priests could 
 not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the 
 glory of the Lord had filled the house of God." 
 
 PRAISING WITH ONE HEART. 
 
 We find, the very moment that Solomon com- 
 pleted the Temple, when all was finished, they were 
 just praising God with one heart the choristers and 
 the singers and the ministers were all one ; there was 
 not any discord ; they were all praising God, and the 
 glory of God came and just filled the Temple as the 
 Tabernacle. Now, as you turn over into the New Tes- 
 tament, you will find, instead of coming to Tabernacles 
 and Temples, believers are now the Temple of the 
 Holy Ghost. When, on the day of Pentecost, before
 
 POWER "IN" AND ' JPON:' 33 
 
 Peter preached that memorable sermon, as they were 
 praying, the Holy Ghost came, and came in mighty 
 power. We now pray for the Spirit of God to come, 
 and we sing: 
 
 " Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove, 
 With all thy quickening power; 
 Kindle a flame of heavenly love 
 In these cold hearts of ours." 
 
 I believe, if we understand it, it is perfectly right; but 
 if we are praying for Him to come out of heaven down 
 to earth again, that is wrong, because He is already 
 here ; He has not been out of this earth for 1800 years; 
 He has been in the Church, and He is with all believ- 
 ers; the believers in the Church are the called-out 
 ones ; they are called out from the world, and every 
 true believer is a Temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell 
 in. In the 14th chapter of John, 17th verse, we have 
 the words of Jesus : 
 
 "The Spirit of Truth, whom the 'world can not re- 
 ceive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him ; 
 but ye know Him, for He dwelleth in you." 
 
 " Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the 
 world." If we have the Spirit dwelling in us, He 
 gives us power over the flesh and the world, and over 
 every enemy. "He is dwelling with you, and shall be 
 in you." 
 
 Head 1st Corinthians iii, 16 : " Know ye not that ye 
 are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God 
 dwelleth in you?" 
 
 There were some men burying an aged saint some 
 time ago, and he was very poor, like many of God's peo- 
 ple, poor in this world, but they are very rich, they have 
 3
 
 34 SECRET POWER. 
 
 all the riches on the other side of life they have them 
 laid up there where thieves can not get them, and where 
 sharpers can not take them away from them, and where 
 moth can not corrupt so this aged man was very rich 
 in the other world, and they were just hastening him off 
 to the grave, wanting to get rid of him, when an old 
 minister, who was officiating at the grave, said, " Tread 
 softly, for you are carrying the temple of the Holy 
 Ghcst." Whenever you see a believer, you see a temple 
 of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 In 1 Cor. vi, 19, 20, we read again: "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." Thus 
 are we taught that there is a divine resident in every 
 .child of God. 
 
 I think it is clearly taught in the Scripture that every 
 believer has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him. He may be 
 quenching the Spirit of God, and he may not glorify 
 God as he should, but if he is a believer on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost dwells in him. But 
 I want to call your attention to another fact. I be- 
 lieve to-day, that though Christian men and women have 
 the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, yet He is not dwelling 
 within them in power ; in other words, God has a great 
 many sons and daughters without power. 
 
 WHAT IS NEEDED. 
 
 Nine-tenths, at least, of the church members never 
 think of speaking for Christ. If they see a man, 
 perhaps a near relative, just going right down to
 
 POWER "IN" AND "UPON." 35 
 
 ruin, going rapidly, they never think of speaking 
 to him about his sinful course and of seeking to 
 win him to Christ. Now certainly there must be 
 something wrong. And yet when you talk with them 
 you find they have faith, and you can riot say they are 
 not children of God ; but they have not the power, they 
 have not the liberty, they have not the love that real 
 disciples of Christ should have. A great many people 
 are thinking that we need new measures, that we need 
 new churches, that we need new organs, and that we 
 need new choirs, and all these new things. That is not 
 what the Church of God needs to-day. It is the old power 
 that the Apostles had ; that is what we want, and if we 
 have that in our churches, there will be new life. Then 
 we will have new ministers the same old ministers re- 
 newed with power; filled with the Spirit. I remem- 
 ber when in Chicago many were toiling in the work, and 
 it seemed as though the car of salvation didn't move on, 
 when a minister began to cry out from the very depths 
 of his heart, "Oh, God, put new ministers in every 
 pulpit." On next Monday I heard two or three men 
 stand up and say, "We had a new minister last Sunday 
 the same old minister, but he had got new power," 
 and I firmly believe that is what we want to-day all over 
 America. We want new ministers in the pulpit and new 
 people in the pews. We want people quickened by the 
 Spirit of God, and the Spirit coming down and taking 
 possession of the children of God and giving them 
 power. 
 
 Then a man filled with the Spirit will know how to 
 use "the sword of the Spirit." If a man is not filled with 
 the Spirit, he will never know now to use the Book. We
 
 36 SECRET POWER. 
 
 are told that tins is the sword of the Spirit ; and what is 
 an army good for that does not know how to use its 
 weapons? Suppose a battle going on, and I were a 
 general and had a hundred thousand men, great, able- 
 bodied men, full of life, but they could not one of them 
 handle a sword, and not one of them knew how to use 
 his rifle, what would that army be good for? Why, one 
 thousand well-drilled men, with good weapons, would 
 rout the whole of them. The reason why the Church 
 can not overcome the enemy is, because she don't know 
 how to use the sword of the Spirit. People will get up and 
 try to fight the devil with their experiences, but he 
 don't care for that, he will overcome them every time. 
 People are trying to fight the devil with theories 
 and pet ideas, but he will get the victory over them 
 likewise. What we want is to draw the sword of the 
 Spirit. It is that which cuts deeper than anything 
 else. 
 
 Turn in your Bibles to Eph. vi, 14 : "Stand, there- 
 fore, having your loins girt about with truth, and hav- 
 ing on the breastplate of righteousness ; and your feet 
 shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace ; above 
 all (or over all), taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye 
 shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 
 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the 
 Spirit, which is the Word of God." 
 
 THE GREATEST WEAPON. 
 
 The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, and what 
 we need specially is to be filled with the Spirit, so we shall 
 know how to use the Word. There was a Christian man 
 talking to a skeptic, who was using the Word, and the
 
 POWER "/#" AND "UPON." 37 
 
 skeptic said, " I don't believe, sir, in that Book." But 
 the man went right on and he gave him more of the 
 Word; and the man again remarked, " I don't believe 
 the Word," but he kept giving him more, and at last the 
 man was readied. Ai.d the brother added, "When I 
 have proved a good sword which does the work of 
 execution, I would just keep right on using it." That 
 is what we want. Skeptics and infidels may say they 
 don't believe in it. It is not our work to make them 
 believe in it ; that is the work of the Spirit. Our work 
 is to give them the Word of God ; not to preach our 
 theories and our ideas about it, but just to deliver the 
 message as God gives it to us. We read in the Scrip- 
 tures of the sword of the Lord and Gideon. Suppose 
 Gideon had gone out without the Word, he would have 
 been defeated. But the Lord used Gideon ; and I think 
 you find all through the Scriptures, God takes up and 
 uses human instruments. You can not find, I believe, a 
 case in the Bible where a man is converted without God 
 calling in some human agency using some human 
 instrument ; not but what He can do it in His indepen- 
 dent sovereignty ; there is no doubt about that. Even 
 when by the revealed glory of the Lord Jesus, Saul of 
 Tarsus was smitten to the earth, Annanias was used to 
 open his eyes and lead him into the light of the Gospel. 
 I heard a man once say, if you put a man on a mountain 
 peak, higher than one of the Alpine peaks, God could 
 save him without a human messenger ; but that is not 
 His way ; that is not His method ; but it is " the sword 
 of the Lord and Gideon"; arid the Lord and Gideon 
 will do the work ; and if we are just willing to let the 
 Lord use us, He will.
 
 38 SECRET POWER. 
 
 NONE OF SELF. 
 
 Then you will find all through the Scriptures, when 
 men were tilled with the Holy Spirit, they preached 
 Christ and not themselves. They preached Christ and 
 Him crucified. It says in the first chapter of Luke, 
 C7th verse, speaking of Zucharias, the father of John 
 the Baptist : 
 
 "And his father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy 
 Ghost, and prophesied, saying: Blessed be the Lord 
 God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His 
 people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us 
 in the house of His servant David. As He spake by 
 the mouth of His Holy prophets, which have been since 
 the world began." 
 
 See, he is talking about the Word. If a man is filled 
 with the Spirit, he will magnify the Word ; he will 
 preach the Word, and not himself; he will give 
 this lost world the Word of the living God. "And 
 thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest ; 
 for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to pre- 
 pare His ways. To give knowledge of salvation unto 
 His people by the remission of their sins, through 
 the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day-spring 
 from on high hath visited us. To give light to them 
 that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide 
 our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew and 
 waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the 
 day of his showing unto Israel." And so we find again 
 that when Elizabeth and Mary met, they talked of 
 the Scriptures, and they were both filled with the Holy 
 Ghost, and at once began to talk of their Lord.
 
 POWER "IN" AND "UPON." 39 
 
 We also find that Simeon, as he came into the temple 
 and found the young child Jesus there, at once began to 
 quote the Scriptures, for the Spirit was upon him. And 
 when Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost, and 
 preached that wonderful sermon, it is said he was filled 
 with the Holy Ghost, and began to preach the Word to 
 the multitude, and it was the Word that cut them. It 
 was the sword of the Lord and Peter, the same as it 
 was the sword of the Lord and Gideon. And we find it 
 says of Stephen, "They were not able to resist the spirit 
 and wisdom by which he spake." Why? Because he 
 gave them the Word of God. And we are told that 
 the Holy Ghost came on Stephen, and none could resist 
 his word. And we read, too, that Paul was full of the 
 Holy Spirit, and that he preached Christ and Him cruci- 
 fied, and that many people were added to the Church. 
 Barnabas was full of faith and the Holy Ghost ; and if 
 you will just read and find out what he preached, you 
 will find it was the Word, and many were added to the 
 Lord. So that when a man is full of the Spirit, he 
 begins to preach, not himself, but Christ, as revealed 
 in the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 The disciples of Jesus were all filled with the Spirit, 
 and the Word was published ; and when the Spirit of 
 God comes down upon the Church, and we are anointed, 
 the Word will be published in the streets, in the lanes, 
 and in the alleys ; there will not be a dark cellar nor a 
 dark attic, nor a home where the Gospel will not be 
 carried by some loving heart, if the Spirit comes upon 
 God's people in demonstration and in power.
 
 40 SECRET POWER. 
 
 SPIRITUAL IRRIGATION. 
 
 It is possible a man may just barely have life and be 
 satisfied ; and I think that a great many are in that con- 
 dition. In the 3d chapter of John we find that Nico- 
 demus came to Christ and that he received life. At first 
 this life was feeble. You don't hear of him standing up 
 confessing Christ boldly, and of the Spirit coming upon 
 him in great power, though possessing life through 
 faith in Christ. And then turn to the 4th chapter of 
 John, and you will find it speaks of the woman coming 
 to the well of Samaria, and Christ held out the cup of 
 salvation to her and she took it and drank, and it became 
 in her " a well of water springing up into everlasting 
 life." That is better than in the 3d chapter of John ; 
 here it came down in a flood into her soul ; as some one 
 has said, it came down from the throne of God, and 
 like a mighty current carried her back to the throne of 
 God. Water always rises to its level, and if we get the 
 soul filled with water from the throne of God it will 
 bear us upward to its source. 
 
 But if you want to get the best class of Christian life 
 portrayed, turn to the 7th chapter and you will find that 
 it says he that receiveth the Spirit, through trusting in 
 the Lord Jesus, "out of him shall flow rivers of living 
 water." Now there are two ways of digging a well. I 
 remember, when a boy, upon a farm, in New England, 
 they had a well, and they put in an old wooden pump, 
 and I used to have to pump the water from that well 
 upon wash-day, and to water the cattle ; and I had to 
 pump and pump and pump until my arm got tired, 
 many a time. But they have a better way now ; they
 
 POWER "IN" AND "UPON." 
 
 don't dig down a few feet and brick up the hole and 
 put the pump in, but they go down through the clay and 
 the sand and the rock, and on down until they strike 
 what they call a lower stream, and then it becomes an 
 artesian well, which needs no labor, as the water rises 
 spontaneously from the depths beneath. 
 
 Now I think God wants all His children to be a sort 
 of artesian well ; not to keep pumping, but to flow right 
 out. Why, haven't you seen ministers in the pulpit 
 just pumping, and pumping and pumping ? I have, many 
 a time, and I have had to do it, too. I know how it is. 
 They stand in the pulpit and talk and talk and talk, and 
 the people go to sleep, they can't arouse them. What 
 is the trouble ? Why, the living water is not there ; 
 they are just pumping when there is no water in the 
 well. You can't get water out of a dry well ; you have 
 to get something in the well, or you can't get anything 
 out. I have seen these wooden pumps where you had 
 to pour water into them before you could pump any 
 water out, and so it is with a good many people ; you 
 have to get something in them before you can get any- 
 thing out. People wonder why it is that they have no 
 Spiritual power. They stand up and talk in meeting, 
 and don't say anything ; they say they haven't any- 
 thing to say, and you find it out soon enough ; they 
 need not state it; but they just talk, because they feel it 
 is a duty, and say nothing. 
 
 Now I tell you when the Spirit of God is on us for 
 service, resting upon us, we are anointed, and then 
 we can do great things. " I will pour water on him that 
 is thirsty," says God. O, blessed thought " He that 
 hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be tilled.!"
 
 42 SECRET POWER. 
 
 OUTFLOWING STREAMS. 
 
 I would like to see some one just full of living water ; 
 so full that they couldn't contain it ; that they would 
 have to go out and publish the Gospel of the grace of 
 God. When a man gets so full that he can't hold any 
 more, then he is just ready for God's service. 
 
 When preaching in Chicago, Dr. Gibson remarked in 
 the inquiry meeting, "Now, how can we find out who is 
 thirsty ?" Said he, " I was just thinking how we could 
 find out. If a boy should come down the aisle, bringing 
 a good pail full of clear water, and a dipper, we would soon 
 find out who was thirsty ; we would see thirsty men and 
 women reach out for water ; but if you should walk down 
 the aisle with an empty bucket, you wouldn't find it out. 
 People would look in and see that there was no water, 
 and say nothing." So said he, ' % I think that is the 
 reason we are not more blessed in our ministry ; we are 
 carrying around empty buckets, and the people see that 
 we have not anything in them, and they don't come for- 
 ward." I think that there is a good deal of truth in 
 that. People see that we are carrying around empty 
 buckets, and they will not come to us until they are 
 filled. They see we haven't any more than they have. 
 We must have the Spirit of God resting upon us, and 
 then we will have something that gives the victory over 
 the world, the flesh, and the devil ; something that gives 
 the victory over our tempers, over our conceits, and 
 over every other evil, and when we can trample these 
 sins under our feet, then people will come to us and say, 
 "How did you get it? I need this power; you have 
 something that I haven't got ; I want it." O, may God
 
 PO WER "IN" AND " UPON." 43 
 
 show us this truth. Have we been toiling all night? 
 let us throw the net on the right side ; let us ask God 
 to forgive our sins, and anoint us with power from on 
 high. But remember, He is not going to give this power 
 to an impatient man ; He is not going to give it to a 
 selfish man ; He will never give it to an ambitious man 
 whose aim is selfish, till first emptied of self; emptied 
 of pride and of all worldly thoughts. Let it be God's 
 glory and not our own that we seek, and when we get 
 to that point, how speedily the Lord will bless us for 
 good. Then will the measure of our blessing be full. 
 Do you know what heaven's measure is ? Good meas- 
 ure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. 
 If we get our heart filled with the Word of God, how 
 is Satan going to get in ? How is the world going to 
 get in, for heaven's measure is good measure, full meas- 
 ure, running over. Have you this fullness ? If you 
 have not, then seek it ; say by the grace of God you 
 will have it, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give 
 us these things. He wants us to shine down in this 
 world ; He wants to lift us up for His work ; He wants 
 us to have the power to testify for His Son. He has 
 left us in this world to testify for Him. What did He 
 leave us for ? Not to buy and sell and to get gain, but 
 to glorify Christ. How are you going to do it without 
 the Spirit ? That is the question. How are you to do 
 it without the power of God ? 
 
 WHY SOME FAIL. 
 
 We read in John xx, 22: "And when He had said 
 this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Re- 
 ceive ye the Holy Ghost. ' '
 
 44 SECRET PO I r/;/?. 
 
 Then see Luke xxiv, 49 : " And, behold, I send the 
 promise of my Father upon you ; but tarry ye in the city 
 of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on 
 high." 
 
 The first passage tells us He had raised those pierced 
 and wounded hands over them and breathed upon them 
 and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." And I haven't 
 a doubt they received it then, but not in such mighty 
 power as alterward when qualified for their work. It 
 was nut in fullness that He gave it to them then , but 
 if they had been like a good many now, they would 
 have said, "I have enough now; I am not going to 
 tarry ; I am going to work." 
 
 Some people seem to think they are losing time if 
 they wait on God for His power, and so away they go 
 and work without unction ; they are working without 
 any anointing, they are working without any power. 
 But after Jesus had said " Receive ye the Holy Ghost," 
 and had breathed on them, He said: "Now you tarry 
 in Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on 
 high." Read in the 1st chapter of Acts, 8th verse: 
 "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost 
 is come upon you." 
 
 Now, the Spirit had been given them certainly or 
 they could not have believed, and they could not have 
 taken their stand for God and gone through what 
 they did, and endured the scoffs and frowns of their 
 friends, if they had not been converted by the power 
 of the Holy Ghost. But now just see what Christ 
 said: 
 
 "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost 
 is come upon you ; and ye shall be witnesses unto me
 
 POWER "IN" AND "UPON." 45 
 
 both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, 
 and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." 
 
 Then, the Holy Spirit IN us is one thing, and the Holy 
 Spirit ON us is another ; and if these Christians had 
 gone out and went right to preaching then and there, 
 without the power, do you think that scene would have 
 taken place on the day of Pentecost ? Don't you think 
 that Peter would have stood up there and beat against 
 the air, while these Jews would have gnashed their 
 teeth and mocked him ? But they tarried in Jerusa- 
 lem ; they waited ten days. What ! you say. What, 
 the world perishing and men dying ! Shall I wait ? 
 Do what God tells you. There is no use in running be- 
 fore you are sent ; there is no use in attempting to do 
 God's work without God's power. A man working 
 without this unction, a man working without this 
 anointing, a man working without the Holy Ghost upon 
 him, is losing his time after all. So we are not going 
 to lose anything if vte tarry till we get this power. 
 That is the object of true service, to wait on God, to 
 tarry till we receive this power for witness-bearing. 
 Then we find that on the day of Pentecost, ten days 
 after Jesus Christ was glorified, the Holy Spirit de- 
 scended in power. Do you think that Peter and Jumes 
 and John and those apostles doubted it from that very 
 hour ? They never doubted it. Perhaps some question 
 the possibility of having the power of God now, and 
 that the Holy Spirit never came afterward in simi- 
 lar manifestation, and will never come again in such 
 power.
 
 46 SECRET POWER. 
 
 FRESH SUPPLIES. 
 
 Turn to Acts iv, 31, and you will find He came a 
 second time, and at a place where they were, so that the 
 earth was shaken, and they were filled with this power. 
 The fact is, we are leaky vessels, and we have to keep 
 right under the fountain all the time to keep full of 
 Christ, and so have a fresh supply. 
 
 I believe this is a mistake a great many of us are 
 making ; we are trying to do God's work with the grace 
 God gave us ten years ago. We say, if it is necessary, 
 we will go on with the same grace. Now, what we 
 want is a fresh supply, a fresh anointing and fresh 
 power, and if we seek it, and seek it with all our hearts, 
 we will obtain it. The early converts were taught to 
 look for that power. Philip went to Samaria, and news 
 reached Jerusalem that tluere was a great work being 
 done in Samaria, and many converts; and John and 
 Peter went down, and they laid their hands on them, 
 and they received the Holy Ghost for service. I think 
 that is what we Christians ought to be looking for, the 
 Spirit of God for service that God may use us might- 
 ily in the building up of His Church and hastening 
 His glory. In Acts xix we read of twelve men at 
 Ephesus, who, when the inquiry was made if they had 
 received the Holy Ghost since they believed, an- 
 swered: "We have not so much as heard whether 
 there be any Holy Ghost." I venture to say there are 
 very many, who, if you were to ask them, ''Have you 
 received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" would 
 reply, "I don't know what you mean by that." They 
 would be like the twelve men down at Ephesus, who
 
 POWER "IN" AND "UPON." 47 
 
 had never understood the peculiar relation of the Spirit 
 to the sons of God in this dispensation. I firmly be- 
 lieve that the Church has just laid this knowledge aside, 
 mislaid it somewhere, and so Christians are without 
 power. Sometimes you can take one hundred members 
 into the Church, and they don't add to its power. Now 
 that is all wrong. If they were only anointed by the 
 Spirit of God, there would be great power if one hun- 
 dred saved ones were added to the Church. 
 
 GREEN FIELDS. 
 
 When I was out in California, the first time I went 
 down from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and dropped 
 into the Yalley of the Sacramento, I was surprised to 
 find on one farm that everything about it was green 
 all the trees and flowers, everything was blooming, and 
 everything was green and beautiful, and just across the 
 hedge everything was dried up, and there was not a 
 green thing there, and I could not understand it ; I 
 made inquiries, and I found that the man that had 
 everything green, irrigated ; he just poured the water 
 right on, and he kept everything green, while the fields 
 that were next to his were as dry as Gideon's fleece 
 without a drop of dew ; and so it is with a great many 
 in the Church to-day. They are like these farms in Cal- 
 ifornia a dreary desert, everything parched and deso- 
 late, and apparently no life in them. They can sit next 
 to a man who is full of the Spirit of God, who is like a 
 green bay tree, and who is bringing forth fruit, and yet 
 they will not seek a similar blessing. Well, why thit5 
 difference? Because God has poured water on him that 
 was thirsty ; that is the difference. One has been seek-
 
 4S SECRET POWER. 
 
 ing this anointing, and lie has received it ; and when we 
 want this above everything else God will surely give 
 it to us. 
 
 The great question before us now is, Do we want it ? 
 I remember when I first went to England and gave 
 a Bible reading, I think about the first that I gave in 
 that country, a great many ministers were there, and 
 I did'nt know anything about English theology, and I 
 \\ as afraid I should run against their creeds, and I was 
 a little hampered, especially on this very subject, about 
 the gift of the Holy Spirit for service. I remember 
 particularly a Christian minister there who had his head 
 bowed on his hand, and I thought the good man was 
 ashamed of everything I was saying, and of course 
 that troubled me. At the close of my address he took 
 his hat and away he went, and then I thought, "Well, 
 I shall never sec him again." At the next meeting I 
 looked all around for him and he wasn't there, and 
 at the next meeting I looked again, but he was ab- 
 sent ; and I thought my teaching must have given him 
 offense. But a few days after that, at a large noon 
 prayer meeting, a man stood up and his face shone as if 
 he had been up in the mountain with God, and I looked 
 at him, and to my great joy it was this brother. He 
 said he was at that Bible reading, and he heard there 
 was such a thing as having fresh power to preach the 
 Gospel ; he said he made up his mind that if that was 
 for him lie would have it ; he said he went home and 
 looked to the Master, and that he never had such a bat- 
 tle with himself in his life. He asked that God would 
 show him the sinfulness of his heart that he knew noth- 
 ing about, and he just cried mightily to God that he
 
 POWER "IN" AND "UPON." 49 
 
 might be emptied of himself and filled with the Spirit, 
 and he said, "God has answered my prayer." I met 
 him in Edinburgh six months from that date, and he 
 told me he had preached the Gospel every night during 
 that time, that he had riot preached one sermon but 
 that some remained for conversation, and that he had 
 engagements four months ahead to preach the Gospel 
 every night in different churches. I think you could 
 have fired a cannon ball right through his church and 
 not hit any one before he got this anointing ; but it 
 was not thirty days before the building was full and 
 aisles crowded. He had his bucket filled full of fresh 
 water, and the people found it out and came flocking 
 to him from every quarter. I tell you, you can't 
 get the stream higher than the fountain. What we 
 need very specially is power. There was another man 
 whom I have in my mind, and he said, "I have heart 
 disease, I can't preach more than once a week," so he 
 had a colleague to preach for him and do the visiting. 
 He was an old minister, and he couldn't do any visiting. 
 He had heard of this anointing, and said, " I would 
 like to be anointed for my burial. I would like before I 
 go hence to have just one more privilege to preach the 
 Gospel with power." He prayed that God would fill 
 him with the Spirit, and I met him not long after that, 
 and he said, "I have preached on an average eight 
 times a week, and I have had conversions all along." 
 The Spirit came on him. I don't believe that man broke 
 down at first with hard work, so much as with using 
 the machinery without oil, without lubrication. It is 
 not the hard work breaks down ministers, but it is the 
 toil of working without power. Oh, that God may 
 4
 
 50 SECRET POWER. 
 
 anoint His people ! Not the ministry only, but every dis- 
 ciple. Do not suppose pastors are the only laborers 
 needing it. There is not a mother but needs it in her 
 house to regulate her family, just as much as the minis- 
 ter needs it in the pulpit or the Sunday-school teacher 
 needs it in his Sunday-school. We all need it together, 
 and let us not rest day nor night until we possess it ; 
 if that is the uppermost thought in our hearts, God will 
 give it to us if we just hunger and thirst for it, and say, 
 "God helping me, I will not rest until endued with 
 power from on high." 
 
 MASTER AND SERVANT. 
 
 There is a very sweet story of Elijah and Elisha, and 
 I love to dwell upon it. The time had come for Elijah 
 to be taken up, and he said to Elisha, "You stay here 
 at Gilgal, and I will go up to Bethel." There was a 
 theological seminary there, and some young students, 
 and he wanted to see how they were getting along ; but 
 Elisha said, " As the Lord liveth, and thy soul liveth, 
 I will not leave thee." And so Elisha just kept close to 
 Elijah. They came to Bethel, and the sons of the 
 prophets came out and said to Elisha, "Do you know 
 that your master is to be taken away?" And Elisha 
 said, "I know it; but you keep still." Then Elijah 
 said to Elisha, "You remain at Bethel until I go to 
 Jericho." But Elisha said, "As the Lord liveth and 
 my soul liveth, I will not leave thee." " You shall not 
 go without me," says Elisha; and then I can imagine 
 that Elisha just put his arm in that of Elijah, and they 
 walked down together. I can see those two mighty 
 men walking down to Jericho, and when they arrived
 
 POW-ER "IN" AND "UPON." 51 
 
 there, the sons of the prophets came and said to Elisha, 
 " Do you know that your master is to be taken away ?" 
 "Hush! keep still," says Elisha, " 1 know it." And 
 then Elijah said to Elisha, " Tarry here awhile ; for the 
 Lord hath sent me to Jordan." But Elisha said, "As 
 the Lord liveth and my soul liveth, I will not leave 
 thee. You shall not go without me." And then Elisha 
 came right close to Elijah, and as they went walking 
 down, I imagine Elisha was after something ; when they 
 came to the Jordan, Elijah took off his mantle and 
 struck the waters, and they separated hither and thither, 
 and the two passed through like giants, dry-shod, and 
 fifty sons of the prophets came to look at them and 
 watch them. They didn't know but Elijah would be 
 taken up right in their sight. As they passed over 
 Jordan, Elijah said to Elisha, " Now, what do you 
 want?" He knew he was after something. "What 
 can I do for you. Just make your request known." 
 And he said, "I would like a double portion of thy 
 Spirit." I can imagine now that Elijah had given him 
 a chance to ask; he said to himself, "I will ask for 
 enough." Elisha had a good deal of the Spirit, but, 
 says he, "I want a double portion of thy Spirit." 
 "Well," says Elijah, "if you see me when I am taken 
 up, you shall have it." Do you think you could have 
 enticed Elisha from Elijah at that moment? I can almost 
 see the two arm in arm, walking along, and as they 
 walked, there came along the chariot of fire, and before 
 Elisha knew it, Elijah was caught up, and as he went 
 sweeping towards the throne, the servant cried, " My 
 Father ! My Father ! The chariot of Israel and the 
 horsemen thereof!" Elisha saw him no more. He
 
 52 SECRET POWER. 
 
 picked up Elijah's fallen mantle, and returning with that 
 old mantle of his master's, he came to the Jordan and 
 cried for Elijah's God, and the waters separated hither 
 and thither, and he passed through dry-shod. Then the 
 watching prophets lifted up their voices and said, "The 
 Spirit of Elijah is upon Elisha;" and so it was, a double 
 portion of it. 
 
 May the Spirit of Elijah, beloved reader, be upon us. 
 If we seek for it we will have it. Oh, may the God of 
 Elijah answer by fire, and consume the spirit of world- 
 liness in the churches, burn up the dross, and make us 
 whole-hearted Christians. May that Spirit <;ome upon 
 us ; let that be our prayer in our family altars and in our 
 closets. Let us cry mightily to God that we may have a 
 double portion of the Holy Spirit, and that we may not 
 rest satisfied with this worldly state of living, but let us, 
 like Sampson, shake ourselves and come out from the 
 world, that we may have the power of God.
 
 CHAPTER III.
 
 A man may as well hew marble without tools, or paint without 
 colors or instruments, or build without materials, as perform any ac- 
 ceptable service without the graces of the Spirit, which are both the 
 materials and the instruments in the work. Alleine. 
 
 If we do not have the Spirit of God, it were better to shut the 
 churchi's, to nail up the doors, to put a black cross on them, and say, 
 "God have mercy on us! " If you ministers have not the Spirit of 
 God, you had better not preach, and you people had'better stay at 
 home. I think I speak not too strongly when I say that a church in 
 the land without the Spirit of God is rather a curse than a blessing. 
 If you have not the Spirit of God, Christian worker, remember that 
 you stand in somebody else's way; you are as a tree bearing no fruit 
 standing where another fruitful tree might grow. This is solemn 
 work; the Holy Spirit or nothing, and worse than nothing. Death 
 and condemnation lo a church that is not yearning after the Spirit, 
 and crying and groaning until the Spirit has wrought mightily in her 
 midst. He is here; He has never gone back since He descended at 
 Pentecost. He is often grieved and vexed, for He is peculiarly 
 jValous and sensitive, and tho one sin never forgiven has to do with 
 His blessed person; therefore let us be very tender towards Him, walk 
 humbly before Him, wait on Him very earnestly, and resolve that 
 about us there should be nothing knowingly continued which should 
 prevent Him dwelling in us, and being with us henceforth and for- 
 ever. Brethren, peace be unto you and your spirit! Spurgeon.
 
 WITNESSING IN POWER. 
 
 THE subject of witness-bearing in the power of the 
 Holy Ghost is not sufficiently understood by the Church. 
 Until we have more intelligence on this point we are 
 laboring under great disadvantage. Now, if you will 
 take your Bible and turn to the 15th chapter of John 
 and the 26th verse, you will find these words : " But 
 when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you 
 from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which pro- 
 ceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me ; and 
 ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with 
 me from the beginning." Here we find what the Spirit 
 is going to do, or what Christ said He would do when 
 He came; namely, that He should testify of Him. And 
 if you will turn over to the second chapter of Acts you 
 will find that when Peter stood up on the day of Pente- 
 cost, and testified of what Christ had done, the Holy 
 Spirit came down and bore witness to that fact, and men 
 were convicted by hundreds and by thousands. So then 
 man can not preach eifectively of himself. He must 
 have the Spirit of God to give ability, and study God's 
 Word in order to testify according to the mind of the 
 Spirit. 
 
 WHAT IS THE TESTIMONY? 
 
 If we keep back the Gospel of Christ and do not bring 
 Christ before the people, then the Spirit has not the oppor-
 
 56 SECRET POWER. 
 
 tunity to work. But the moment Peter stood up on the 
 day of Pentecost and bore testimony to this one fact, 
 that Christ died for sin, and that He had been raised 
 again, and ascended into heaven the Spirit came down 
 to bear witness to the Person and Work of Christ. 
 
 He came down to bear witness to the fact that Christ 
 was in heaven, and if it was not for the Holy Ghost bear- 
 ing witness to the preaching of the facts 01" the Gospel, 
 do you think that the Church would have lived during 
 these last eighteen centuries ? Do you believe that 
 Christ's death, resurrection and ascension would not 
 have been forgotten as soon as His birth, if it had 
 not been for the fact that the Holy Spirit had come ? 
 Because it is very clear, that when John made his 
 appearance on the borders of the wilderness, they had 
 forgotten all about the birth of Jesus Christ. Just thirty 
 short years. It was all gone. They had forgotten the 
 story of the Shepherds ; they had forgotten the wonder- 
 ful scene that took place in the temple, when the Son of 
 God was brought into the temple and the older prophets 
 and prophetesses were there ; they had forgotten about 
 the wise men coming to Jerusalem to inquire where He 
 was that was born King of the Jews. That story of His 
 birth seemed to have just faded away ; they had for- 
 gotten all about it, and when John made his appearance 
 on the borders of the wilderness it was brought back to 
 their minds. And if it had not been for the Holy Ghost 
 coming down to bear witness to Christ, to testify of 
 His death and resurrection, these facts would have been 
 forgotten as soon as His birth.
 
 WITNESSING IN POWER. 57 
 
 GREATER WORK. 
 
 The witness of the Spirit is the witness of power. 
 Jesus said, " The works that I do shall ye do also, and 
 greater works than these shall ye do because I go to the 
 Father." I used to stumble over that. I didn't under- 
 stand it. I thought, what greater work could any man 
 do than Christ had done? How could any one raise a 
 dead man who had been laid away in the sepulcher for 
 days, and who had already begun to turn back to dust ; 
 how with a word could he call him forth ? But the 
 longer I live the more I am convinced it is a greater 
 thing to influence a man's will ; a man whose will is 
 set against God ; to have that will broken and brought 
 into subjection to God's will or, in other words, it is 
 a greater thing to have power over a living, sinning, 
 God-hating man, than to quicken the dead. He who 
 could create a world could speak a dead soul into life ; 
 but I think the greatest miracle this world has ever 
 seen was the miracle at Pentecost. Here were men 
 who surrounded the Apostles, full of prejudice, full 
 of malice, full of bitterness, their hands, as it were, 
 dripping with the blood of the Son of God, and yet an 
 unlettered man, a man whom they detested, a man 
 whom they hated, stands up there and preaches the Gos- 
 pel, and three thousand of them are immediately con- 
 victed and converted, and become disciples of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and are willing to lay down their lives for 
 the Son of God. It may have been on that occasion 
 that Stephen was converted, the first martyr, and some 
 of the men who soon after gave up their lives for Christ.
 
 58 SECRET POWER. 
 
 This seems to me the greatest miracle this world has ever 
 seen. But Peter did not labor alone ; the Spirit of God 
 was with him ; hence the marvelous results. 
 
 The Jewish law required that there should be two wit- 
 nesses, and so we find that when Peter preached there 
 was a second witness. Peter testified of Christ, and 
 Christ says when the Holy Spirit comes He will testify of 
 Me. And they both bore witness to the verities of our 
 Lord's incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection, 
 and the result was that a multitude turned as with one 
 heart unto the Lord. Our failure now is, that preachers 
 ignore the Cross, and veil Christ with sapless sermons 
 and superfine language. They don't just present Him to 
 the people plainly, and that is why, I believe, that the 
 Spirit of God don't work with power in our churches. 
 What we need is to preach Christ and present Him to a 
 perishing world. The world can get on very well with- 
 out you and me, but the world can not get on without 
 Christ, and therefore we must testify of Him, and the 
 world, I believe, to-day is just hungering and thirsting 
 for this divine, satisfying portion. Thousands and thou- 
 sands are sitting in darkness, knowing not of this great 
 Light, but when we begin to preach Christ honestly, 
 faithfully, sincerely and truthfully ; holding Him up, not 
 ourselves ; exalting Christ and not our theories ; present- 
 ing Christ and not our opinions ; advocating Christ and 
 not some false doctrine ; then the Holy Ghost will come 
 and bear witness. He will testify that what we say is 
 true. When He comes He will confirm the Word with 
 signs following. This is one of the strongest proofs that 
 our Gospel is Divine ; that it is of Divine origin ; that 
 not only did Christ teach these things, but when leaving
 
 WITNESSING IN POWER. 59 
 
 the world He said, "He shall glorify Me," and "He 
 will testify of Me." If you will just look at the second 
 chapter of Acts to that wonderful sermon that Peter 
 preached the thirty-sixth verse, you read these words: 
 '' Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly 
 that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye crucified, 
 both Lord and Christ." And when Peter said this the 
 Holy Ghost descended upon the people and testified of 
 Christ bore witness in signal demonstration that all 
 this was true. And again, in the fortieth verse, "And 
 with many other words did He testify and exhort, say- 
 ing, Save yourselves from this untoward generation." 
 With many other words did He testify, not only these 
 words that have been recorded, but many other words. 
 
 THE SUKE GUIDE. 
 
 Turn to the sixteenth chapter of John, in the thir- 
 teenth verse, and read: " Howbeit, when He, the Spirit 
 of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth ; for 
 He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He 
 shall hear that shall He speak ; and He will show you 
 things to come." He will guide you into all truth. Now 
 there is not a truth that we ought to know but the Spirit 
 of God will guide us into it if we will let Him ; if we 
 will yield ourselves up to be directed by the Spirit, 
 and let Him lead us, He will guide us into all truth. It 
 would have saved us from a great many dark hours if 
 we had only been willing to let the Spirit of God be our 
 counsellor and guide. 
 
 Lot never would have gone to Sodom if he had been 
 guided by the Spirit of God. David never would have
 
 60 SECRET POWER. 
 
 fallen into sin and had all that trouble with his family if 
 he had been guided by the Spirit of God. 
 
 There are many Lots and Davids now-a-day. The 
 churches are full of them. Men and women are in total 
 darkness, because they have not been willing to be 
 guided by the Spirit of God. "He shall guide you 
 into all truth. He shall not speak of Himself." He 
 shall speak of the ascended glorified Christ. 
 
 What would be thought of a messenger, entrusted by 
 an absent husband with a message for his wife or mother 
 who, on arrival, only talked of himself, and his conceits, 
 and ignored both the husband and the message ? You 
 would simply call it outrageous. What then must be 
 the crime of the professed teacher who speaks of him- 
 self, or some insipid theory, leaving out Christ and His 
 Gospel ? If we witness according to the Spirit, we must 
 witness of Jesus. 
 
 The Holy Spirit is down here in this dark world to 
 just speak of the Absent One, and He takes the things 
 of Christ and brings them to our mind. He testifies of 
 Christ ; He guides us into the truth about Him. 
 
 EAPPINGS IN THE DARK. 
 
 I want to say right here, that I think in this day a great 
 many children of God are turning aside and committing 
 a grievous sin. I don't know as they think it is a sin, 
 but if we examine the Scriptures, I am sure we will find 
 that it is a great sin. We are told that the Comforter is 
 sent into the world to "guide us into all truth," and if 
 He is sent for that purpose, do we need any other guide? 
 Need we hide in the darkness, consulting with mediums, 
 who profess to call up the spirits of the dead ? Do you
 
 WITNESSING IN POWER. 61 
 
 know what the "Word of God pronounces against that 
 fearful sin ? I believe it is one of the greatest sins we 
 have to contend with at the present day. It is dishon- 
 oring to the Holy Spirit for me to go and summon up 
 the dead and confer with them, even if it were possible. 
 
 I would like you to notice the 10th chapter of 1st 
 Chronicles, and 13th verse : "So Saul died for his trans- 
 gression which he had committed against the Lord, 
 even against the Word of the Lord, which he kept not, 
 and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar 
 spirit, to inquire of it ; and inquired not of the Lord : 
 therefore He slew him, and turned the kingdom unto 
 David the son of Jesse." 
 
 God slew him for this very sin. Of the two sins that 
 are brought against Saul here, one is that he would not 
 listen to the Word of God, and the second is that he 
 consulted a familiar spirit. He was snared by this great 
 evil, and sinned against God. 
 
 Saul fell right here, and there are a great many of 
 God's professed children to-day who think there is no 
 harm in consulting a medium who pretends to call up 
 some of the departed to inquire of them. 
 
 But how dishonoring it is to God who has sent the 
 Holy Spirit into this world to guide us "into all truth." 
 There is not a thing that I need to know, there is not a 
 thing that is important for me to know ; there is not a 
 thing that I ought to know but the Spirit of God will 
 reveal it to me through the Word of God, and if I turn 
 my back upon the Holy Spirit, I am dishonoring the 
 Spirit of God, and I am committing a grievous sin. 
 You know we read in Luke, where that rich man in 
 the other world wanted to have some one sent to his
 
 62 SECRET POWER. 
 
 father's house to warn his five brothers, Christ said 
 They have Moses and the prophets, and if they will not 
 hear them, they will not hear one though he rose from 
 the dead. Moses and the prophets, the part of the 
 Bible then completed, that is enough. But a great 
 many people now want something besides the Word of 
 God, and are turning aside to these false lights. 
 
 SPIRITS THAT PEEP AND MUTTER. 
 
 There is another passage which reads, "And when 
 they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have fa- 
 miliar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and mutter: 
 Should not a people seek unto their God ? for the living 
 to the dead?" What is that but table-rapping, and 
 cabinet-hiding ? If it was a message from God, do you 
 think you would have to go into a dark room and put 
 out all the lights ? In secret my Master taught nothing. 
 God is not in that movement, and what we want, as chil 
 dren of God, is to keep ourselves from this evil. And 
 then notice the verse following, quoted so often out 
 of its connection. "To the law and to the testimony; 
 if they speak not according to this word, it is because 
 there is no light in them." Any man, any woman, who 
 comes to us with any doctrine that is not according to 
 the law and the testimony, let us understand that they 
 are from the evil one, and that they are enemies of right- 
 eousness. They have no light in them. Now you will 
 find these people who are consulting familiar spirits, first 
 and last, attack the Word of God. They don't believe it. 
 Still a great many people say, you must hear both sides 
 but if a man should write me a most slanderous letter 
 about my wife, I don't think I would have to read it;
 
 WITNESSING IN POWER. 63 
 
 I should tear it up and throw it to the winds. Have I 
 to read all the infidel books that are written, to hear 
 both sides ? Have I to take up a book that is a slan- 
 der on my Lord and Master, who has redeemed me with 
 His blood? Ten thousand times No ; I will not touch it. 
 ' ' Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter 
 times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to 
 seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." 1 Tim., iv, 
 1. That is pretty plain language, isn't it? "Doctrines 
 of devils." Again, "speaking lies in hypocrisy; hav- 
 ing their consciences seared with a hot iron." There-- 
 are other passages of Scripture warning against every 
 delusion of Satan. Let us ever remember the Spirit 
 has been sent into the world to guide us into all truth. 
 We don't want any other guide; He is enough. Some 
 people say, "Is not conscience a safer guide than the 
 Word and the Spirit?" No, it is not. Some people 
 don't seem to have any conscience, and don't know what 
 it means. Their education has a good deal to do with 
 conscience. There are persons who will say that their 
 conscience did not tell them that they had done wrong 
 until after the wrong was done ; but what we want, is 
 something to tell us a thing is wrong before we do it. 
 Very often a man will go and commit some awful crime, 
 and after it is done his conscience will wake up and lash 
 and scourge him, and then it is too late, the act is done. 
 
 THE UNERRING GUIDE. 
 
 I am told by people who have been over the Alps, that 
 the guide fastens them, if they are going in a danger- 
 ous place, right to himself, and he just goes on before; 
 they are fastened to the guide.
 
 64 SECRET POWER. 
 
 And so should the Christian be linked to His unerr- 
 ing Guide, and be safely upheld. Why, if a man was 
 going through the Mammoth Cave, it would be death to 
 him if he strayed away from his guide if separated 
 from him, he would certainly perish ; there are pitfalls 
 in that cave and a bottomless river, and there would be 
 no chance for a man to find his way through that cave 
 without a guide or a light. So there is no chance 
 for us to get through the dark wilderness of this world 
 alone. It is folly for a man or woman to think that they 
 can get through this evil world without the light of 
 God's Word and the guidance of the Divine Spirit. 
 God sent Him to guide us through this great journey, 
 and if we seek to work independent of Him, we shall 
 stumble into the deep darkness of eternity's night. 
 
 But bear in mind the Words of the Spirit of God ; if 
 you want to be guided, you must study the Word ; 
 because the Word is the light of the Spirit. In the 14th 
 chapter of John and 26th verse, we read : 
 
 "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom 
 the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all 
 things, and bring all things to your remembrance, what- 
 soever I have said unto you." 
 
 Again in John xvi, 13 : 
 
 "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth^ is come, He 
 will guide you into all truth : for He shall not speak of 
 Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He 
 speak : and He will show you things to come." 
 
 "He will show you things to come." A great many 
 people seem to think that the Bible is out of date, that 
 it is an old book, and they think it has passed its day. 
 They say it was very good for the dark ages, and that
 
 WITNESSING IN POWER. 65 
 
 there is some very good history in it ; but then it was 
 not intended for the present time ; that we are living in 
 a very enlightened age, and that men can get on very 
 well without the old book ; that we have outgrown it. 
 They think we have no use for it, because it is an old 
 book. Now you might just as well say that the sun, 
 which has shone so long, is now so old that it is out of 
 date, and that whenever a man builds a house he need 
 not put any windows in it, because we have got a newer 
 light and a better light ; we have gaslight and this new 
 electric light. These are something new ; and I would 
 advise people, if they think the Bible is too old and 
 worn out, when they build houses, not to put any win- 
 dows in them, but just to light them with this new electric 
 light ; that is something new, and this is what they 
 are anxious for. People talk about this Book as if they 
 understood it ; but we don't know much about it yet. 
 The press gives us the daily news of what has taken 
 place. This Bible, however, tells us what is about to 
 take place. This is new ; we have the news here in 
 this Book ; this tells us of the things that will surely 
 come to pass ; and that is a great deal newer than any- 
 thing in the newspapers. It tells us that the Spirit 
 shall teach us all things ; not only guide us into aU 
 truth, but teach us all things ; He teaches us how to 
 pray, and I don't think there has ever been a prayer 
 upon this sin-cursed earth that has been indicted by the 
 Holy Spirit but was answered. There is much praying 
 that is not indicted by the Holy Spirit. In former years 
 I was very ambitious to get rich ; I used to pray for one 
 hundred thousand dollars ; that was my aim, and I used 
 to say, "God does not answer my prayer; He does not 
 5
 
 66 SECRET POWER. 
 
 make me rich." But I had no warrant for such a 
 prayer ; jet a good many people pray in that way ; 
 they think that they pray, but they do not pray accord- 
 ing to the Scriptures. The Spirit of God has nothing 
 to do with their prayers, and such prayers are not the 
 product of His teaching. 
 
 It is the Spirit who teaches us how to answer our 
 enemies. If a man strikes me, I should not pull out a 
 revolver and shoot him. The Spirit of the Lord don't 
 teach me revenge ; He don't teach me that it is neces- 
 sary to draw the sword and cut a man down in order to 
 defend my rights. Some people say, You are a coward 
 if you don't strike back. Christ says, turn the other 
 cheek to him who smites. I would rather take Christ's 
 teaching than any other. I don't think a man gains 
 much by loading himself down with weapons to defend 
 himself. There has been life enough sacrificed in this 
 country to teach men a lesson in this regard. The 
 Word of God is a much better protection than the 
 revolver. We had better take the Word of God to 
 protect us, by accepting its teaching, and living out its 
 precepts. 
 
 AN AID TO MEMORY. 
 
 It is a great comfort to us to remember that another 
 office of the Spirit is to bring the teaching of Jesus to 
 our remembrance. This was our Lord's promise, " He 
 shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
 remembrance." Jno. xiv, 26. 
 
 How striking that is. I think there are many Christ- 
 ians who have had that experience. They have been 
 testifying, and found that while talking for Christ ihe
 
 WITNESSING IN POWER. 67 
 
 Spirit has just brought into mind some of the sayings 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, and their mind was soon filled 
 with the Word of God. "When we have the Spirit rest- 
 ing upon us, we can speak with authority and power, 
 and the Lord will bless our testimony and bless our 
 work. I believe the reason why God makes use of so few 
 in the Church, is because there is not in them the power 
 that God can use. He is not going to use our ideas, but 
 we must have the Word of God hid in our hearts, and 
 then, the Holy Spirit inflaming us, we will have the 
 testimony which will be rich, and sweet, and fresh, and 
 the Lord's Word will vindicate itself in blessed results. 
 God wants to use us ; God wants to make us channels 
 of blessing ; but we are in such a condition He does not 
 use us. That is the trouble ; there are so many men 
 who have no testimony for the Lord ; if they speak, 
 they speak without saying anything, and if they pray, 
 their prayer is powerless ; they do not plead in prayer ; 
 their prayer is just a few set phrases that you have 
 heard too often. Now what we want, is to be so full of 
 the Word, that the Spirit coming upon us shall bring 
 to mind bring to our remembrance the words of the 
 Lord Jesus. 
 
 In 1 Cor. ii, 9, it is written: "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." 
 
 We hear that quoted so often in prayer many a man 
 weaves it into his prayer and stops right there. And 
 the moment you talk about Heaven, they say, "Oh, we 
 don't know anything about Heaven ; it hath not entered 
 into the heart of man ; eye hath not seen ; it is all
 
 68 SECRET POWER. 
 
 speculation; we have nothing to do with it;' and they 
 say they quote it as it is written." " 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." What next "but God hath revealed 
 them unto us by His Spirit." You see the Lord hath 
 revealed them unto us: "For the Spirit searches all 
 things yea, the deep things of God." That is just 
 what the Spirit does. 
 
 LONG AND SHORT SIGHT. 
 
 He brings to our mind what God has in store for us. 
 I heard a man, some time ago, speaking about Abra- 
 ham. He said "Abraham was not tempted by the well- 
 watered plains of Sodom, for Abraham was what you 
 might call a long-sighted man ; he had his eyes set on 
 the city which had foundation 'whose Builder and 
 Maker is God.'' But Lot was a short-sighted man; 
 and there are many people in the Church who are 
 very short-sighted ; they only see things right around 
 them they think good. Abraham was long-sighted ; he 
 had glimpses of the celestial city. Moses was long- 
 sighted, and he left the palaces of Egypt and iden- 
 tified himself with God's people poor people, who 
 were slaves ; but he had something in view yonder ; he 
 could see something God had in store. Again there are 
 some people who are sort of long-sighted and short- 
 sighted, too. I have a friend who has one eye that is 
 long-sighted and the other is short-sighted; and I think 
 the Church is full of this kind of people. They want 
 one eye for the world and the other for the Kingdom 
 of God. Therefore, everything is blurred, one eye
 
 WITNESSING IN POWER. 69 
 
 is long and the other is short, all is confusion, and they 
 " see men as trees walking." The Church is filled with 
 that sort of people. But Stephen was long-sighted ; he 
 leaked clear into heaven ; they couldn't convince him 
 even when he was dying, that Christ had not ascended to 
 heaven. "Look, look yonder," he says, "I see Him 
 over there ; He is on the throne, standing at the right 
 hand of God;" and he looked clear into heaven ; the 
 world had no temptation for him ; he had put the world 
 under his feet. Paul was another of those long-sighted 
 men ; he had been caught up and seen things unlawful 
 for him to utter ; things grand and glorious. I tell you 
 when the Spirit of God is on us the world looks very 
 empty ; the world has a very small hold upon us, and we 
 begin to let go our hold of it. When the Spirit of God 
 is on us we will just let go the things of time and lay 
 hold of things eternal. This is the Church's need to-day ; 
 we want the Spirit to come in mighty power, and con- 
 sume all the vile dross there is in us. Oh ! that the Spirit 
 of fire may come down and burn everything in us that is 
 contrary to God's blessed Word and Will. 
 
 In John xiv, 16, we read of the Comforter. This is 
 the first time He is spoken of as the Comforter. Christ 
 had been their Comforter. God had sent Him to com- 
 fort the sorrowing. It was prophesied of Him, "The 
 Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed 
 me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent me 
 to heal the broken-hearted." You can't heal the broken- 
 hearted without the Comforter ; but the world would not 
 have the first Comforter, and so they rose up and took 
 Him to Calvary and put him to death ; but on going 
 away He said, "I will send you another Comforter; you
 
 70 SECRET POWER. 
 
 shall not be comfortless; be of good cheer, little flock; 
 it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the king- 
 dom." All these sweet passages are brought to the 
 remembrance of God's people, and they help us to rise 
 out of the fog and mist of this world. O, what a com- 
 forter is the Holy Spirit of God ! 
 
 THE FAITHFUL FRIEND. 
 
 The Holy Spirit tells a man of his faults in order to 
 lead him to a better life. In John xvi, 8, we read : 
 "He is to reprove the world of sin." Now, there area 
 class of people who don't like this part of the Spirit's 
 work. Do you know why ? Because lie convicts them 
 of sin; they don't like that. What they want is some 
 one to speak comforting words and make everything 
 pleasant; keep everything all quiet; tell them there 
 is peace when there is war ; tell them it is light when it 
 is dark, and tell them everything is growing better; 
 that the world is getting on amazingly in goodness ; that 
 it is growing better all the time ; that is the kiiid of 
 preaching they seek for. Men think they are a great 
 deal better than their fathers were. That suits human 
 nature, for it is full of pride. Men will strut around 
 and say, " Yes, I believe that; the world is improving; 
 I am a good deal better man than father was ; my father 
 was too strict ; he was one of those old Puritanical men 
 who was so rigid. O, we are getting on ; we are more 
 liberal ; my father wouldn't think of going out riding on 
 Sunday, but we will ; we will trample the laws of God 
 under our feet ; we are better than our fathers." 
 
 That is the kind of preaching which some dearly love,
 
 WITNESSING IN POWER. 71 
 
 and there are preachers who tickle sueh itching ears. 
 When you bring the Word of God to bear upon them, 
 and when the Spirit drives it home, then men will 
 say: "I don't like that kind of preaching; I will 
 never go to hear that man again;" and sometimes 
 they will get up and stamp their way out of church 
 before the speaker gets through ; they don't like it. 
 But when the Spirit of God is at work he convicts 
 men of sin. "When He comes He will reprove the 
 world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment; of sin " 
 not because men swear and lie and steal and get 
 drunk and murder " of sin because they believe not on 
 Me." 
 
 THE CLIMAX SIN. 
 
 That is the sin of the world. Why, a great many peo- 
 ple think that unbelief is a sort of misfortune, but do not 
 know, if you will allow me the expression, it is the 
 damning sin of the world to-day ; that is what unbelief 
 is, the mother of all sin. There would not be a drunk- 
 ard walking the streets, if it were not for unbelief; there 
 would not be a harlot walking the streets, if it were not 
 for unbelief; there would not be a murderer, if it was 
 not for unbelief ; it is the germ of all sin. Don't think for 
 a moment that it is a misfortune, but just bear in mind 
 it is an awful sin, and may the Holy Spirit convict evc'ry 
 reader that unbelief is making God a liar. Many a man 
 has been knocked down on the streets because some one 
 has told him he was a liar. Unbelief is giving God the 
 lie ; that is the plain English of it. Some people seem 
 to boast of their unbelief; they seem to think it is quite
 
 72 SECRET POWER. 
 
 respectable to be an infidel and doubt God's "\Vord, and 
 they will vainly boast and say, " I have intellectual dif- 
 ficulties; I can't believe." Oh that the Spirit of God 
 may come and convict men of sin! That is what we 
 need His convicting power, and I am so thankful that 
 God has not put that into our hands. We have not to 
 convict men ; if we had I would get discouraged, and 
 give up preaching, and go back to business within the 
 next forty-eight hours. It is my work to preach and 
 hold up the Cross and testify of Christ ; but it is His 
 work to convict men of sin and lead them to Christ. 
 One thing I have noticed, that some conversions don't 
 amount to anything ; that if a man professes to be 
 
 converted without conviction of sin, he is one of those 
 
 & 
 
 stony-ground hearers who don't bring forth much fruit. 
 The first little wave of persecution, the first breath of 
 opposition, and the man is back in the world again. Let 
 us pray, dear Christian reader, that God may carry on 
 a deep and thorough work, that men may be convicted 
 of sin so that they can not rest in unbelief. Let us 
 pray God it may be a thorough work in the land. I 
 would a great deal rather see a hundred men thoroughly- 
 converted, truly born of God, than to see a thousand pro- 
 fessed conversions where the Spirit of God has not con- 
 victed of sin. Don't let us cry " Peace, peace, when there 
 is no peace." Don't go to the man who is living in sin, 
 and tell him all he has to do is to stand right up and 
 profess, without any hatred for sin. Let us ask God 
 first to show every man the plague of his own heart, 
 that the Spirit, may convict them of sin. Then will the 
 work in our hands be real, and deep, and abide the fiery 
 trial which will try every man's labor.
 
 WITNESSING IN POWER. 73 
 
 Thus far, we have found the work of the Spirit is to 
 impart life, to implant hope, to give liberty, to testify of 
 Christ, to guide us into all truth, to teach us all things, 
 to comfort the believers, and to convict the world of 
 sin. 
 
 " Holy Spirit, faithful guide, 
 Ever near the Christian's side; 
 Gently lead us by the hand, 
 Pilgrims in a desert land; 
 Weary souls for e'er rejoice, 
 While they hear that sweetest voice, 
 Whisp'ring softly, wanderer come! 
 Follow Me, I'll guide thee home. 
 
 " Ever present, truest Friend, 
 Ever near Thine aid to lend, 
 Leave us not to doubt and fear, 
 Groping on in darkness drear, 
 When the storms are raging sore, 
 Hearts grow faint, and hopes give o'er; 
 Whisp'ring softly, wanderer come! 
 Follow Me, I'll guide thee home. 
 
 " When our days of toil shall cease, 
 Waiting still for sweet release. 
 Nothing left but heaven and prayer, 
 Wond'ring if our names were there, 
 Wading deep the dismal flood, 
 Pleading nought but Jesus' blood; 
 Whisp'ring softly, wanderer come! 
 Follow Me, I'll guide the home.
 
 H! Spirit of God, whose voice I hear, 
 Sweeter than sweetest music, appealing 
 In tones of tenderness and love; 
 
 Whose comforts delight my soul, and 
 
 Fills the temple of my heart with joy beyond compare. 
 
 I need Thee day by day, and each day'* moment, Lord. 
 
 I sigh for greater likeness 
 
 To Him who loved me unto death, and loves me still. 
 
 'Tis Thine to lead me to Him ; 'tis Thine to ope the eye, 
 
 To manifest His royal glories to my longing heart; 
 
 'Tis Thine the slumbering saint to waken 
 
 And discipline this blood-touched ear 
 
 To hearken to my heavenly Lover's voice, 
 
 And quickly speed His summons to obey. 
 
 Oh! Spirit of the Mighty God, uplift my faith 
 
 Till heaven's precious light shall flood my soul, 
 
 And the shining of my face declare 
 
 That I have seen the face of God." 
 
 7!
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 POWER IN OPERATION.
 
 " Ye are not your own. 11 " Your bodies are the temples of the Holy 
 Ghost." Is that an unmeaning metaphor, or an over-worded ex- 
 pression? When the Holy Spirit enters the soul, heaven enters with 
 Him. The heart is compared to a temple. God never enters without 
 His attendants; repentance cleanses the house; faith provides for the 
 house; watchfulness, like the porter, takes care of it; prayer is a 
 lively messenger, learns what is wanted, and then goes for it; faith 
 tells him where to go, and he never goes in vain; Joy is the musician 
 of this temple, tuning to the praises of God and the Lamb; and this 
 terrestrial temple shall be removed to the celestial world, for the 
 trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised. Rowland Hill.
 
 POWER IN OPERATION. 
 
 THE power we have been considering is the Presence of 
 the Holy Spirit. He is omnipotent. Power in opera- 
 tion is the actions of the Spirit or the fruit of the Spirit. 
 This we shall now consider. Paul writes in Gal. v, 16, 
 etc.: 
 
 " This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 
 fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth 
 against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh ; and 
 these are contrary, the one to the other ; so that ye can 
 not do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of 
 the Spirit, ye are not under the law. " * * * But 
 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffer- 
 ing, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; 
 against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's 
 have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 
 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 
 Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one 
 another, envying one another." 
 
 Now there is a life of perfect peace, perfect joy, and 
 perfect love, and that ought to be the aim of every 
 child of God ; that ought to be their standard ; and 
 they should not rest until having attained to that posi- 
 tion. That is God's standard, where He wants all His 
 children. These nine graces mentioned in this chapter 
 in Galatians can be divided in this way : Love and 
 
 77
 
 '8 SECRET POWER. 
 
 peace and joy are all to God. God looks for that fruit 
 from each one of His children, and that is the kind of 
 fruit which is acceptable with Him. Without that we 
 can not please God. He wants, above everything else 
 that we possess, love, peace and joy. And then the 
 next three goodness, long-suffering and gentleness 
 are towards man. That is our outward life to those 
 that we are coming in contact with continually daily, 
 hourly. The next three faith, temperance, meekness 
 are in relation to ourselves ; and in that way we can just 
 take the three divisions, and it will be of some help to us. 
 The first thing that meets us as we enter the king- 
 dom of God, you might say are these first three graces, 
 
 LOVE, PEACE, AND JOY. 
 
 "When a man who has been living in sin turns from 
 his sins, and turns to God with all his heart, he is 
 met on the threshold of the divine life by these sister 
 graces. The love of God is shed abroad in his heart by 
 the Holy Ghost. The peace of God comes at the same 
 time, and also the joy of the Lord. We can all put the 
 test to ourselves, if we have them. It is not anything 
 that we can make. The great trouble with many is that 
 they are trying to make these graces. They are trying 
 to make love ; they are trying to make peace ; they are 
 trying to make joy. But they arc not creatures of 
 human planting. To produce them of ourselves is im- 
 possible. That is an act of God. They come from 
 above. It is God who speaks the word and gives the 
 love ; it is God who gives the peace ; it is God who 
 gives the joy, and we possess all by receiving Jesus 
 Christ by faith into the heart ; for when Christ comes
 
 POWER IN OPERATION. 79 
 
 by faith into the heart, then the Spirit is there, and if 
 we have the Spirit, we will have the fruit. 
 
 If the whole Church of God could live as the Lord 
 would have them live, why Christianity would be the 
 mightiest power this world has ever seen. It is the low 
 standard of Christian life that is causing so much 
 trouble. There are a great many stunted Christians in 
 the Church ; their lives are stunted ; they are like a tree 
 planted in poor soil the soil is hard and stony, and the 
 roots can not find the rich loamy soil needed. Such be- 
 lievers have not grown in these sweet graces. Peter, in 
 his second epistle, 1st chapter and 5th verse, writes: 
 
 "And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your 
 faith virtue ; and to virtue knowledge ; and to know- 
 ledge temperance ; and to temperance patience ; and to 
 patience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherl}' kind- 
 ness ; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these 
 things be in you and abound, they make you that ye 
 shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 Now, if we have these things in us, I believe that we 
 will be constantly bringing forth fruit that will be ac- 
 ceptable with God. It won't be just a little every now 
 and then, when we spur ourselves up and work ourselves 
 up into a certain state of mind or into an excited condi- 
 tion, and work a little while and then become cold, and 
 discouraged, and disheartened, but we shall be neither 
 unfruitful nor barren, bringing forth fruit constantly, we 
 will grow in grace and be filled with the Spirit of God. 
 
 WHAT WINS. 
 A great many parents have inquired of me how to win
 
 80 SECRET POWER. 
 
 their children. They say they have talked with them, 
 and sometimes they have scolded them and have lec- 
 tured them, and signally failed. I think there is no 
 way so sure to win our families and our neighbors, and 
 those about whom we are anxious, to Christ, than just 
 to adorn the doctrine of Jesus Christ in our lives, and 
 grow in all these graces. If we have peace and joy 
 and love and gentleness and goodness and temperance ; 
 not only being temperate in what we drink, but in what 
 we eat, and temperate in our language, guarded in our 
 expressions ; if we just live in our homes as the Lord 
 would have us, an even Christian life day by day, we 
 shall have a quiet and silent power proceeding from us, 
 that will constrain them to believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. But an uneven life, hot to-day and cold to- 
 morrow, will only repel. Many are watching God's 
 people. It is just the very worst thing that can 
 happen to those whom we want to win to Christ, 
 to see us, at any time, in a cold, backslidden state. This 
 is not the normal condition of the Church ; it is not 
 God's intention ; He would have us growing in all these 
 graces, and the only true, happy, Christian life is to 
 be growing, constantly growing in the love and favor of 
 God, growing in all those delightful graces of the Spirit. 
 Even the vilest, the most impure, acknowledge the 
 power of goodness ; they recognize the fruit of the 
 Spirit. It may condemn their lives and cause them to 
 say bitter things at times, but down deep in their hearts 
 they know that the man or woman who is living that 
 kind of life, is superior to them. The world don't satisfy 
 them, and if we can show the world that Jesus Christ 
 does satisfy us in our present life, it will be more power-
 
 POWER IN OPERATION. 81 
 
 ful than the eloquent words of professional reformers. 
 A man may preach with the eloquence of an angel, but 
 if he don't live what he preaches, and act out in his 
 home and his business what he professes, his testimony 
 goes for naught, and the people say it is all hypocrisy 
 after all ; it is all a sham. Words are very empty, if 
 there is nothing back of them. Your testimony is poor 
 and worthless, if there is not a record back of that testi- 
 mony consistent with what you profess. What we need 
 is to pray to God to lift us up out of this low, cold, for- 
 mal state that we have been living in, that we may live 
 in the atmosphere of God continually, and that the Lord 
 may lift upon us the light of his countenance, and that we 
 may shine in this world, reflecting His grace and glory. 
 The first of the graces spoken of in Galatians, and the 
 last mentioned in Peter, is charity or love. We can not 
 serve God, we can not work for God unless we have 
 love. That is the key which unlocks the human heart. 
 If I can prove to a man that I come to him out of pure 
 love ; if a mother shows by her actions that it is pure 
 love that prompts her advising her boy to lead a differ- 
 ent life, not a selfish love, but that it is for the glory of 
 God, it won't be long before that mother's influence will 
 be felt by that boy, and he will begin to think about this 
 matter, because true love touches the heart quicker than 
 anything else. 
 
 POWER OF LOVE. 
 
 Love is the badge that Christ gave His disciples. 
 
 Some put on one sort of badge and some another. Some 
 
 put on a strange kind of dress, that they may be known 
 
 as Christians, and some put on a crucifix, or something 
 
 6
 
 82 SECRET POWER. 
 
 else, that they may be known as Christians. But love 
 is the only badge by which the disciples of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ are known. " By this shall all men know that ye 
 are My disciples, if ye have love one toward another." 
 
 Therefore, though a man stand before an audience 
 and speak with the eloquence of a Demosthenes, or of the 
 greatest living orator, if there is no love back of his 
 words, it is like sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. 
 I would recommend all Christians to read the thirteenth 
 chapter of First Corinthians constantly, abiding in it day 
 and night, not spending a night or a day there, but just 
 go in there and spend all our time summer and winter, 
 twelve months in the year, then the power of Christ and 
 Christianity would be felt as it never has been in the 
 history of the world. See what this chapter says : 
 
 "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of an- 
 gels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding 
 brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift 
 of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowl- 
 edge ; and though I have all faith, so that I could 
 remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." 
 
 A great many are praying for faith ; they want extra- 
 ordinary faith ; they want remarkable faith. They 
 forget that love exceeds faith. The CHARITY spoken 
 of in the above verses, is LOVE, the fruit of the Spirit, 
 the great motive-power of life. What the Church of 
 God needs to-day is love more love to God and more 
 love to our fellow-men. If we love God more, we will 
 love our fellow-men more. There is no doubt about 
 that. I used to think that I should like to have lived 
 in the days of the prophets; that I should like to have 
 been one of the prophets, to prophesy, and to see the
 
 POWER IN OPERATION. 83 
 
 beauties of heaven and describe them to men ; but, as I 
 understand the Scriptures now, I would a good deal rather 
 live in the thirteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians and have 
 this love that Paul is speaking of, the love of God burn- 
 ing in my soul like an unquenchable flame, so that I may 
 reach men and win them for heaven. 
 
 A man may have wonderful knowledge, that may 
 unravel the mysteries of the Bible, and yet be as cold 
 as an icicle. He may glisten like the snow in the sun. 
 Sometimes you have wondered why it was that certain 
 ministers who have had such wonderful magnetism, who 
 have such a marvelous command of language, and who 
 preach with such mental strength, haven't had more con- 
 versions. I believe, if the truth was known, you would 
 find no divine love back of their words, no pure love in 
 their sermons. You may preach like an angel, Paul says, 
 " with the tongues of men and of angels, "but if you have 
 not love, it amounts to nothing. "And though I bestow 
 all rny goods to feed the poor," a man may be very 
 charitable, and give away all his goods ; a man may 
 give all he has, but if it is not the love of God which 
 prompts the gift, it will not be acceptable with God. 
 "And though 1 give my body to be burned, and have 
 not charity" have not love "it profiteth me noth- 
 ing." A man may go to the stake for his principles ; he 
 may go to the stake for what he believes, but if it is not 
 love to God which actuates him, it will not be accept- 
 able to God. 
 
 LOVE'S WONDERFUL EFFECTS. 
 
 "Charity suffereth long, and is kind ; charity envieth 
 not ; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.
 
 84 SECRET POWER. 
 
 "Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her 
 own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil." 
 
 That's the work of love. It is not easily provoked. 
 Now if a man has no love of God in his heart, how easy 
 it is to become offended ; perhaps with the church 
 because some members of the church don't treat him 
 just right, or some men of the church don't bow to him 
 on the street, he takes offense, and that is the last you 
 see of him. Love is long-suffering. If I love the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, these little things are not going to separate 
 me from His people. They are like the dust in the bal- 
 ance. Nor will the cold, formal treatment of hypocrites 
 in the church quench that love I have in my heart for 
 Him. If this love is in the heart, and the fire is 
 burning on the altar, we will not be all the time finding 
 fault with other people and criticising what they have 
 done. 
 
 CRITICS BEWARE. 
 
 Love will rebuke evil, but will not rejoice in it. Love 
 will be impatient of sin, but patient with the sin- 
 ner. To form the habit of finding fault constantly, 
 is very damaging to spiritual life ; it is about the low- 
 est and meanest position that a man can take. I 
 never saw a man who was aiming to do the best 
 work, but there could have been some improvement ; 
 I never did anything in my life, I never addressed an 
 audience, that I didn't think I could have done better, 
 and I have often upbraided myself that I had not done 
 better ; but to sit down and find fault with other people 
 when we are doing nothing ourselves, not lifting our
 
 POWER IN OPERATION. 85 
 
 hands to save some one, is all wrong, and is the op- 
 posite of holy, patient, divine love. 
 
 Love is forbearance ; and what we want is to get this 
 spirit of criticism and fault finding out of the Church 
 and out of our hearts ; and let each one of us live as if 
 we had to answer for ourselves, and not for the com- 
 munity, at the last day. If we are living according to 
 the 13th chapter of Corinthians, we will not be all the 
 time finding fault with other people. " Love suffereth 
 long, and is kind." Love forgets itself, and don't dwell 
 upon itself. The woman who came to Christ with that 
 alabaster box, I venture to say, never thought of 
 herself. Little did she know what an act she was per- 
 forming. It was just her love for the Master. She for- 
 got the surroundings, she forgot everything else that 
 was there ; she broke that box and poured the ointment 
 upon Him, and filled the house with its odor. The act, 
 as a memorial, has come down these 1800 years. It is 
 right here the perfume of that box is in the world to- 
 day. That ointment was worth $4-0 or $50 ; no small sum 
 of those days for a poor woman. Judas sold the Son of 
 God for about $15 or $20. But what this woman gave 
 to Christ was everything that she had, and she became 
 so occupied with Jesus Christ that she didn't think what 
 people were going to say. So when we act with a sin- 
 gle eye for the glory of our Lord, not find-ing fault with 
 everything about us, but doing what we can in the 
 power of this love, then will our deeds for God speak, 
 and the world will acknowledge that we have been with 
 Jesus, and that this glorious love has been shed abroad 
 in our hearts. 
 
 If we don't love the Church of God, I am afraid it
 
 86 SECRET POWER. 
 
 won t do us much good ; if we don't love the blessed 
 liible, it will not do us much good. What we want, 
 then, is to have love for Christ, to have love for His 
 word, and to have love for the Church of God, and when 
 we have love, and are living in that spirit, we will not 
 be in the spirit of finding fault and working mischief. 
 
 AFTER LOVE, WHAT? 
 
 After love comes peace. I have before remarked, a 
 great many people are trying to make peace. But that 
 has already been done. God has not left it for us to 
 do ; all that we have to do is to enter into it. It is 
 a condition, and instead of our trying to make peace 
 and to work for peace, we want to cease all that, and 
 sweetly enter into peace. 
 
 If I discover a man in the cellar complaining because 
 there is no light there, and because it is cold and damp, 
 I say: "My friend, come up out of the cellar. There 
 is a good warm sun up here, a beautiful spring day, and 
 it is warm, it is cheerful and light; come up, and enjoy 
 it." Would lie reply. tk O. no. sir; I am trying to 
 see if I can make light down here ; I am trying to 
 work myself into a warm feeling." And there he is 
 working away, and he has been at it for a whole week. 
 I can imagine my reader smile ; but you may be smiling 
 at your own- picture ; for this is the condition of many 
 whom I daily meet who are trying to do this very thing 
 they are trying to work themselves into peace and joy- 
 ful feelings. Peace is a condition into which we enter ; 
 it is a state; and instead of our trying to make peace, 
 let us believe what God's Word declares, that p?ace 
 has already been made by the blood of the Cross.
 
 POWER IN OPERATION. 87 
 
 Christ has made peace for us, and now what He de- 
 sires is that we believe it and enter into it. Now, the 
 only thing that can keep us from peace is sin. God 
 turneth the way of the wicked upside down. There is 
 no peace for the wicked, saith my God. They are 
 like the troubled sea that can not rest, casting up 
 filth and mire all tne while ; but peace with God by 
 faith in Jesus Christ peace through the knowledge of 
 forgiven sin, is like a rock ; the waters go dashing and 
 surging past it, but it abides. When we find peace, we 
 shall not find it on the ground of innate goodness ; it 
 comes from without ourselves, but into us. In the 16th 
 chapter of John and the 33d verse we read: "These 
 things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have 
 peace." In me ye might have peace. Jesus Christ is 
 the author of peace. He procured peace. His gospel is 
 the gospel of peace. " Behold I bring you good tidings 
 of great joy which shall be unto all people ; for unto 
 you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour," 
 and then came that chorus from heaven " Glory to God 
 in the highest; peace on earth." He brought peace. 
 " In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good 
 cheer, I have overcome the world." 
 
 How true that in the world we have tribulation. Are 
 you in tribulation ? Are you in trouble ? Are you in 
 sorrow ? Remember this is our lot. Paul had tribula- 
 tion, and others shared in grief. Nor shall we be 
 exempt from trial. But within, peace may reign undis- 
 turbed. If sorrow is our lot, peace is our legacy. Jesus 
 gives peace ; and do you know there is a good deal of 
 difference between His peace and our peace ? Any one 
 can disturb our peace, but they can't disturb His peace.
 
 88 SECRET POWER. 
 
 That is the kind of peace He has left us. Nothing can 
 offend those who trust in. Christ. 
 
 NOT EASILY OFFENDED. 
 
 In the 119th Psalm and the 165th verse, we find 
 " Great peace have they who love Thy law ; and noth- 
 ing shall offend them." The study of God's Word will 
 secure peace. You take those Christians who are rooted 
 and grounded in the Word of God, and you find they 
 have great peace; but it is these who don't study their 
 Bible, and don't know their Bible, who are easily 
 offended when some little trouble comes, or some little 
 persecution, and their peace is all disturbed ; just a little 
 breath of opposition, and their peace is all gone. 
 
 Sometimes I am amazed to see how little it takes to 
 drive all peace and comfort from some people. Some 
 slandering tongue will readily blast it. But if we have 
 the peace of God, the world can not take that from 
 us. It can not give it ; it can not destroy it. We have 
 to get it from above the world ; it is peace which Christ 
 gives. "Great peace have they which love Thy law, 
 and nothing shall offend them." Christ says "blessed 
 is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me." Now, if 
 you will notice, wherever there is a Bible-taught Christ- 
 ian, one who has the Bible well marked, and daily feeds 
 upon the Word by prayerful meditation, he will not be 
 easily offended. 
 
 Such are the people who are growing and working all 
 the while. But it is these people who never open their 
 Bibles, these people who never study the Scriptures, who 
 become offended, and are wondering why they are having 
 such a hard time. They are the persons who tell you
 
 POWER IN OPERATION. 89 
 
 that Christianity is not what it has been recommended 
 to them ; that they have found it was not all that we 
 claim it to be. The real trouble is, they have not done 
 as the Lord has told them to do. They have neg- 
 lected the Word of God. If they had been studying the 
 Word of God, they would not be in that condition. If 
 they had been studying the Word of God, they would 
 not have wandered these years away from God, living 
 on the husks of the world. But the trouble is, they have 
 neglected to care for the new life ; they haven't fed it, 
 and the poor soul, being starved, sinks into weakness 
 and decay, and is easily stumbled or offended. 
 
 I met a man who confessed his soul had fed on noth- 
 ing for forty years. "Well, "said I, "that is pretty 
 hard for the soul giving it nothing to feed on ! " 
 And that man is but a type of thousands and tens of 
 thousands to-day ; their poor souls are starving. This 
 body that we inhabit for a day, and then leave, we take 
 good care of; we feed it three times a day, and we 
 clothe it, and take care of it, and deck it, and by and 
 by it is going into the grave to be eaten up by the 
 worms ; but the inner man, that is to live on and on, and 
 on forever, is lean and starved. 
 
 SWEET WORDS. 
 
 In the 6th chapter of Numbers and 22d verse we 
 read : 
 
 "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Speak 
 unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, on this wise ye 
 shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them : 
 The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make His 
 face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The
 
 90 SECRET POWER. 
 
 Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee 
 peace." 
 
 I think these are about as sweet verses as we find in 
 the Old Testament. I marked them years ago in my 
 Bible, and many times I have turned over and read 
 them. "The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, 
 and give thee peace." They remind us of the loving 
 words of Jesus to his troubled disciples, "Peace, be 
 still." The Jewish salutation used to be, as a man 
 went into a house, "Peace be upon this house," and 
 as he left the house the host would say, " Go in peace." 
 
 Then again, in the 14th chapter of John and the 27th 
 verse, Jesus said : "Peace I leave with you, my peace 
 I give unto you ; not as the world giveth give I unto 
 you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be 
 afraid." This is the precious legacy of Jesus to all His 
 followers. Every man, every woman, every child, who 
 believes in Him, may share in this portion. Christ has 
 willed it to them, and His peace is theirs. 
 
 This then is our Lord's purpose and promise. My 
 peace I give unto you. I give it, and I am not going to 
 take it away again ; I am going to leave it to you. 
 "Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let. not 
 your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." But 
 you know, when some men make their wills and deed 
 away their property, there are some sharp, shrewd law- 
 yers who will get hold of that will and break it all to 
 pieces ; they will go into court and break the will, and 
 the jury will set the will aside, and the money goes into 
 another channel. Now this will that Christ has made, 
 neither devil nor man can break it. He has promised to 
 give us peace, and there are thousands of witnesses who
 
 POWER IN OPERATION. 91 
 
 can say : "I have m y part of that legacy. I have peace ; 
 I came to Him for peace, and I got it ; I came to Him 
 in darkness ; I came to Him in trouble and sorrow; I 
 was passing under a deep cloud of affliction, and I came 
 to Him and He said, ' Peace, be still. ' And from that 
 hour peace reigned in my soul." Yes, many have 
 proved the invitation true, "Come unto Me all ye that 
 labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest." They found rest when they came. He is 
 the author of rest, He is the author of peace, and 
 no power can break that will ; yea, unbelief may ques- 
 tion it, but Jesus Christ rose to execute His own will, 
 and it is in vain for man to contest it. Infidels and 
 skeptics may tell us that it is all a myth, and that there 
 isn't anything in it, and yet the glorious tidings is ever 
 repeated, "Peace on earth, good will to man," and the 
 poor and needy, the sad and sorrowful, are made par- 
 takers of it. 
 
 So, my reader, you need not wait for peace any 
 longer. All you have to do is to enter into it to-day. 
 You need not try to make peace. It is a false idea ; 
 you can not make it. Peace is already made by Jesus 
 Christ, and is now declared unto you. 
 
 PEACE DECLARED. 
 
 When France and England were at war, a French 
 vessel had gone off on a long voyage, a whaling voy- 
 age ; and when they came back, the crew were short of 
 water, and being now near an English port, they wanted 
 to get water ; but they were afraid that they would be 
 taken if they went into that port ; and some people in the 
 port saw them, saw their signal of distress, and sent word
 
 92 SECRET POWER. 
 
 to them that they need not be afraid, that the war was 
 over, and peace had been declared. But they couldn't 
 make those sailors believe it, and they didn't dare to go 
 into port, although they were out of water ; but at last they 
 made up their minds that they had better go in and sur- 
 render up their cargo and surrender up their lives to their 
 enemies than to perish at sea without water ; but when 
 they got in, they found out that peace had been declared, 
 and that what had been told them was true. So there 
 are a great many people who don't believe the glad tid- 
 ings that peace has been made. Jesus Christ made 
 peace on the Cross. He satisfied the claims of the law; 
 and this law which condemns you and me has been ful- 
 filled by Jesus Christ. He has made peace, and now He 
 wants us just to enjoy it, just to believe it. Nor is 
 there a thing to hinder us from doing it, if we will. We 
 can enter into that blessing now, and have perfect 
 peace. The promise is: "Thou wilt keep him in per- 
 fect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee. Trust ye in 
 the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting 
 strength." Now, as long as our mind is stayed on our 
 dear selves, we will never have peace. Some people 
 think more of themselves than of all the rest of the 
 world. It is self in the morning, self at noon, and self 
 at night. It is self when they wake up, and self when 
 they go to bed; and they are all the time looking at 
 themselves and thinking about themselves, instead of 
 u looking unto Jesus." Faith is an outward look. 
 Faith does not look within ; it looks without. It is not 
 what I think, nor what I feel, nor what I have done, but 
 it is what Jesus Christ is and has done, and so we 
 should trust in Him who is our strength, and whose
 
 POWER IN OPERATION. 93 
 
 strength will never fail. After Christ rose from the 
 grave, three times, John tells us, He met His disciples 
 and said unto them, "Peace be unto you." There is 
 peace for the conscience through His blood, and peace 
 for the heart in His love. 
 
 SECRET OF JOY. 
 
 Remember, then, that love is power, and peace is 
 power; but now I will call attention to another fruit of the 
 Spirit, and this too is power the grace of JOY. It is 
 the privilege, I believe, of every Christian to walk in the 
 light, as God is in the light, and to have that peace which 
 will be flowing unceasingly as we keep busy about His 
 work. And it is our privilege to be full of the joy of the 
 Lord. We read, that when Philip went down to Samaria 
 and preached, there was great joy in the city. Why ? 
 Because they believed the glad tidings. And that is the 
 natural order, joy in believing. When we believe the 
 glad tidings, there comes a joy into our souls. Also we 
 are told that our Lord sent the seventy out, and that 
 they went forth preaching salvation in the name of Jesus 
 Christ, and the result was that there were a great many 
 who were blessed ; and the seventy returned, it says, 
 with great joy, and when they came back they said that 
 the very devils were subject to them, through His name. 
 The Lord seemed to just correct them in this one thing 
 when He said, "Rejoice not that the devils are subject 
 to you, but rejoice that your names are written in 
 heaven." There is assurance for you. They had some- 
 thing to rejoice in now. God don't ask us to rejoice 
 over nothing, but He gives us some ground for our joy. 
 What would you think of a man or woman who seemed
 
 94 SECRET POWER. 
 
 very happy to-day and full of joy, and couldn't tell you 
 what made them so ? Suppose I should meet a man on 
 the street, and he was so full of joy that he should get 
 hold of both my hands and say, "Bless the Lord, I am 
 so full of joy ! " "What makes you so full of joy?" 
 " Well, I don't know." " You don't know ?" " No, I 
 don't ; but I am so joyful that I just want to get out of 
 the flesh." " What makes you feel so joyful ? " " Well, 
 I don't know." Would we not think such a person un- 
 reasonable ? But there are a great many people who 
 feel who want to feel that they are Christians before 
 they are Christians ; they want the Christian's experi- 
 ence before they become Christians ; they want to have 
 the joy of the Lord before they receive Jesus Christ. 
 But this is not the Gospel order. He brings joy when 
 He comes, and we can not have joy apart from Him ; 
 there is no joy away from Him ; He is the author of it, 
 and we find our joy in Him. 
 
 JOY IS UNSELFISH. 
 
 Now, there are three kinds of joy; there is the joy of 
 one's own salvation. I thought, when I first tasted that, 
 it was the most delicious joy I had ever known, and that 
 I could never get beyond it. But I found, afterward, 
 there was something more joyful than that, namely, the 
 joy of the salvation of others. Oh, the privilege, the 
 blessed privilege, to be used of God to win a soul to 
 Christ, and to see a man or woman being led out of 
 bondage by some act of ours toward them. To think 
 that God should condescend to allow us to be co-work 
 ers with Him. It is the highest honor we can wear. It 
 surpasses the joy of our own salvation, this joy of seeing
 
 POWER IN OPERATION. 95 
 
 others saved. And then John said, He had no greater 
 joy than to see His disciples walking in the truth. Every 
 man who has been the means of leading souls to Christ 
 understands what that means. Young disciples, walk 
 in the truth and you will have joy all the while. 
 
 I think there is a difference between happiness and 
 joy. Happiness is caused by things which happen 
 around me, and circumstances will mar it, but joy flo\vs 
 right on through trouble ; joy flows on through the 
 dark ; joy flows in the night as well as in the day ; joy 
 flows all through persecution and opposition ; it flows 
 right along, for it is an unceasing fountain bubbling up 
 in the heart ; a secret spring which the world can't see 
 and don't know anything about ; but the Lord gives His 
 people perpetual joy when they walk in obedience to 
 Him. 
 
 This joy is fed by the Divine Word. Jeremiah says 
 in chapter xv, 16: "Thy words were found, and I 
 did eat them ; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and 
 rejoicing of my heart ; for I am called by Thy name, O 
 Lord." 
 
 He ate the words, and what was the result ? He said 
 they were the joy and rejoicing of his heart. Now 
 people should look for joy in the Word, and not in the 
 world ; they should look for the joy which the Scrip- 
 tures furnish, and then go work in the vineyard; 
 because a joy that don't send me out to some one else, 
 a ioy that don't impel me to go and help the poor 
 drunkard, a joy that don't prompt me to visit the 
 widow and the fatherless, a joy that don't cause me 
 to go into the Mission Sunday-school or other Christian 
 work, is not worth having, and is not from above ; a joy
 
 96 SECRET POWER. 
 
 that does not constrain me to go and work for the Mas- 
 ter, is purely sentiment and not real joy. 
 
 JOT IN PERSECUTION. 
 
 Then it says in Luke vi, 22 : " Blessed are ye when 
 men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you 
 from their company, and shall reproach you and cast 
 out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. 
 Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy, for behold 
 your reward is great in heaven ; for in like manner did 
 their fathers unto the prophets." 
 
 Christians do not receive their reward down here. 
 We have to go right against the current of the world. 
 "We may be unpopular, and we may go right against 
 many of our personal friends if we live godly in Christ 
 Jesus ; and at the same time, if we are persecuted 
 for the Master's sake, we will have this joy bubbling 
 up ; it just comes right up in our hearts all the while 
 a joy that is unceasing that flows right on. The world 
 can not choke that fountain. If we have Christ in the 
 heart, by and by the reward will come. The lo*nger I 
 live the more I am convinced that godly men and women 
 are not appreciated in our day. But their work will live 
 after them, and there will be a greater work done after 
 they are gone, by the influence of their lives, than when 
 they were living. Daniel is doing a thousand times 
 more than when he was living in Babylon. Abraham is 
 doing more to-day than he did on the plain with his tent 
 and altar. All these centuries he has been living, and 
 so we read, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, 
 from henceforth ; yea saith the Spirit, that they may 
 rest from their labors, and their works do follow them."
 
 POWER IN OPERATION. 97 
 
 Let us set the streams running that shall flow on after 
 we have gone. If we have to-day persecution and oppo- 
 sition, let us press forward, and our reward will be great 
 by and by. Oh ! think of this ; the Lord Jesus, the 
 Maker of heaven and earth, who created the world, 
 says, " Great shall be thy reward. " He calls it great. 
 If some friend should say it is great, it might be very 
 small ; but when the Lord, the great and mighty God, 
 says it is great, what must it be ? Oh ! the reward that 
 is in store for those who serve Him ! We have this joy, 
 if we serve Him. A man or woman is not fit to work 
 for God who is cast down, because they go about their 
 work with a tell-tale face. " The joy of the Lord is your 
 strength." What we need to-day is a joyful church. A 
 joyful church will make inroads upon the works of Satan, 
 and we will see the Gospel going down into dark lanes 
 and dark alleys, and into dark garrets and cellars, and 
 we will see the drunkards reached and the gamblers and 
 the harlots come pressing into the kingdom of God. It 
 is this carrying a sad countenance, with so many wrinkles 
 on our brows, that retards Christianity. Oh may there 
 come great joy upon believers everywhere, that we may 
 shout for joy and rejoice in God day and night. A joy- 
 ful church let us pray for that, that the Lord may make 
 us joyful, and when we have joy, then we will have suc- 
 cess ; and if we don't have the reward we think we 
 should have here, let us constantly remember the reward- 
 ing time will come hereafter. 
 
 Some one has said, if you had asked men in Abra- 
 ham's day who their great man was, they would have 
 said Enoch, and not Abraham. If you had asked in 
 Moses' day who their great man was, they would not 
 7
 
 98 SECRET POWER. 
 
 have said it was Moses ; he was nothing, but it would 
 have been Abraham. If you had asked in the days of 
 Elijah or Daniel, it wouldn't have been Daniel or Eli- 
 jah ; they were nothing ; but it would have been Moses. 
 And in the days of Jesus Christ if you had asked in 
 the days of Jesus Christ about John the Baptist or the 
 apostles, you would hear they were mean and contempt- 
 ible in the sight of the world, and were looked upon 
 with scorn and reproach ; but see how mighty they 
 have become. And so we will not be appreciated in 
 our day, but we are to toil on and work on, possessing 
 this joy all the while. And if we lack it, let us cry : 
 "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold 
 me with Thy free Spirit ; then will I teach transgressors 
 Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee." 
 
 Again, the 15th chapter of John, and llth verse, 
 reads : " These things have I spoken unto you, that my 
 joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be 
 full." And in the 16th chapter and 22d verse: "And 
 ye now therefore have sorrow ; but I will see you again, 
 and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh 
 from you." 
 
 1 am so thankful that I have a joy that the world can 
 not rob me of; I have a treasure that the world can not 
 take from me ; I have something that it is not in the 
 power of man or devil to deprive me of, and that is the 
 joy of the Lord. "No man taketh it from you." In 
 the second century, they brought a martyr before a 
 king, and the king wanted him to recant and give up 
 Christ and Christianity, but the man spurned the propo- 
 sition. But the king said : '"If you don't do it, I will 
 banish you." The man smiled and answered : " You
 
 POWER IN OPERATION. 99 
 
 can't banish me from Christ, for He says He will never 
 leave me nor forsake me." The king got angry, and 
 said: "Well, I will confiscate your property and take 
 it all from you." And the man replied: "My treas- 
 ures are laid up on high ; you can not get them." The 
 king became still more angry, and said : "I will kill 
 you." " Why," the man answered, " I have been dead 
 forty years ; I have been dead with Christ ; dead to the 
 world, and my life is hid with Christ in God, and you 
 can not touch it." And so we can rejoice, because we 
 are on resurrection ground, having risen with Christ. 
 Let persecution and opposition come, we can rejoice 
 continually, and remember that our reward is great, 
 reserved for us unto the day when He who is our Life 
 shall appear, and we shall appear with Him in glory.
 
 ' HE Spirit, oh, sinner, 
 
 In mercy doth move 
 Thy heart, so long hardened, 
 
 Of sin to reprove; 
 Resist not the Spirit, 
 Nor longer delay; 
 God's gracious entreaties may end with to-day. 
 
 " Oh, child of the kingdom, 
 From sin service cease; 
 Be filled with the Spirit, 
 
 With comfort and peace. 
 Oh. grieve not the Spirit, 
 
 Thy Teacher is He, 
 That Jesus, thy Saviour, may glorified be. 
 
 " Defiled is the temple, 
 Its beauty laid low, 
 On God's holy altar 
 
 The embers faint glow, 
 By love yet rekindled, 
 
 A flame may be fanned ; 
 Oh, quench not the Spirit, the Lord is at hand! " 
 
 P. P. Bliss. 
 
 100
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 POWER HINDERED. 
 
 Wl
 
 The strokes of the " Sword of the Spirit" alight only on the con- 
 science, and its edge is anointed with a balm to heal every wound it 
 may inflict. Dr. J. Harris, 
 
 Every vain thought and idle word, and every wicked deed, is like 
 so many drops to quench the Spirit of God. Some quench Him with 
 the lust of the flesh; some quench Him with cares of the mind; 
 some quench Him with long delays, that is, not plying the motion 
 when it cometh, but crossing the good thoughts with bad thoughts, 
 and doing a thing when the Spirit saith not. The Spirit is often 
 grieved befort; He be quenched. H. Smith. 
 
 In times when vile men held the high places of the land, a roll of 
 drums was employed to drown the martyr's voice, lest the testimony 
 of truth from the scaffold should reach the ears of the people, an 
 illustration of how men deal with their own consciences, and seek to 
 put to silence the truth-telling voice of the Holy Spirit. Arnot. 
 
 102
 
 POWER HINDERED. 
 
 ISRAEL, we are told, limited the Holy One of Israel. 
 They vexed and grieved the Holy Spirit, and rebelled 
 against His authority, but there is a special sin against 
 Him, which we may profitably consider. The first 
 description of it is in Matthew xii, 22d verse : 
 
 THE UNPARDONABLE SIN. 
 
 "Then was brought unto Him one possessed with a 
 devil, blind and dumb ; and He healed him, insomuch 
 that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all 
 the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of 
 David ? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, 
 This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub 
 the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, 
 and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against 
 itself is brought to desolation ; and every city or house 
 divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast 
 out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then 
 his kingdom stand ? And if I by Beelzebub cast out 
 devils, by whom do your children cast them out ? there- 
 fore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils 
 by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come 
 unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong 
 man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind 
 the strong man ? and then he will spoil his house. He 
 
 103
 
 104 SECRET POWER. 
 
 that is not with me is against me ; and he that gathereth 
 not witli me, scattereth abroad. Wherefore I say unto 
 you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven 
 unto men ; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost 
 shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speak- 
 eth a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven 
 him ; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, 
 it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither 
 in the world to come." That is Matthew's account. 
 Now let us read Mark's account in chapter iii, 21, etc.: 
 
 "And when His friends heard of it, they went out to 
 lay hold on Him, for they said : He (that is Christ) is 
 beside Himself. And the scribes which came down 
 from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the 
 prince of the devils casteth He out devils." 
 
 The word Beelzebub means the Lord of Filth. They 
 charged the Lord Jesus with being possessed not only 
 with an evil spirit, but with a filthy spirit. 
 
 "And He called them unto Him, and said unto them 
 in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan ? And if a 
 kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom can not 
 stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that 
 house can not stand. And if Satan rise up against him- 
 self, and be divided, he can not stand, but hath an end. 
 No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil 
 his goods, except he will first bind the strong man ; and 
 then he will spoil his house. Verily I say unto you, all 
 sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blas- 
 phemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But 
 he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath 
 never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damna- 
 tion."
 
 POWER HINDERED. 105 
 
 Now, if it stopped there, we would be left perhaps in 
 darkness, and we would not exactly understand what the 
 sin against the Holy Ghost is; but the next verse of this 
 same chapter of Mark just throws light upon the whole 
 matter, and we need not be in darkness another minute if 
 we really want light ; for observe, the verse reads : 
 "Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit." 
 
 Now, I have met a good many atheists and skeptics 
 and deists and infidels, both in this country and abroad, 
 but I never in my life met a man or woman who ever 
 said that Jesus Christ was possessed of an unclean 
 devil. Did you ? I don't think you ever met such a per- 
 son. I have heard men say bitter things against Christ, 
 but I never heard any man stand up and say that he 
 thought Jesus Christ was possessed with the devil, and 
 that he cast out devils by the power of the devil ; and I 
 don't believe any man or woman has any right to say 
 they have committed the unpardonable sin, unless they 
 have maliciously, and wilfully and deliberately said 
 that they believe that Jesus Christ had a devil in Him, 
 and that He was under the power of the devil, and that 
 He cast out devils by the power of the devil. Because 
 you perhaps have heard some one say that there is such 
 a thing as grieving the Spirit of God, and resisting the 
 Spirit of God until He has taken His flight and left you, 
 then you have said " That is the unuardonable sin." 
 
 WHAT IT IS NOT. 
 
 I admit there is such a thing as resisting the Spirit of 
 God, and resisting till the Spirit of God has departed ; 
 but if the Spirit of God has, left any, they will not be 
 troubled about their sins. The very fact that they are
 
 106 SECRET POWER. 
 
 troubled, shows that the Spirit of God has not left them. 
 If a man is troubled about his sins, it is the work of the 
 Spirit; for Satan never yet told him he was a sinner. 
 Satan makes us believe that we are pretty good ; that 
 we are good enough without God, safe without Christ, 
 and that we don't need salvation. But when a man 
 wakes up to the fact that he is lost, that he is a sinner, 
 that is the work of the Spirit ; and if the Spirit of God 
 had left him, he would not be in that state ; and just 
 because men and women want to be Christians, is a sign 
 that the Spirit of God is drawing them. 
 
 If resisting the Spirit of God is an unpardonable 
 sin, then we have all committed it, and there is 
 no hope for any of us; for I do not believe there 
 is a minister, or a worker in Christ's vineyard, who 
 has not, some time in his life, resisted the Holy 
 Ghost ; who has not some time in his life rejected 
 the Spirit of God. To resist the Holy Ghost is one 
 thing, and to commit that awful sin of blasphemy 
 against the Holy Ghost, is another thing; and we want 
 to take the Scripture and just compare them. Now, 
 some people say, " I have such blasphemous thoughts; 
 there are some awful thoughts that come into my mind 
 against God," and they think that is the unpardonable 
 sin. We are not to blame for having 
 
 BAD THOUGHTS 
 
 come into our minds. If we harbor them, then we are 
 to blame. But if the devil comes and darts an evil 
 thought into my mind, and I say, "Lord help me," 
 sin is not reckoned to me. Who has not had evil thoughts
 
 POWER HINDERED. 107 
 
 come into his mind, flash into his heart, and been called 
 to fight them ! 
 
 One old divine says, "You are not to blame for the 
 birds that fly over your head, but if you allow them to 
 come down and make a nest in your hair, then you are 
 to blame. You are to blame if you don't fight them 
 off." And so with these evil thoughts that come flash- 
 ing into our minds; we have to fight them, we are not 
 to harbor them ; we are not to entertain them. If I 
 have evil thoughts come into my mind, and evil desires, 
 it is no sign that I have committed the unpardonable 
 sin. If I love these thoughts and harbor them, and 
 think evil of God, and think Jesus Christ a blasphemer, 
 I am responsible for such gross iniquity ; but if I charge 
 Him with being the prince of devils, then I am com- 
 mitting the unpardonable sin. 
 
 THE FAITHFUL FKIEND. 
 
 Let us now consider the sin of " Grieving the Spirit." 
 Resisting the Holy Ghost is one thing, grieving Him 
 is another. Stephen charged the unbelieving Jews in 
 the 7th chapter of Acts, "Ye do always resist the Holy 
 Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye." The world has 
 always been resisting the Spirit of God in all ages. 
 That is the history of the world. The world is to-day 
 resisting the Holy Spirit. 
 
 " Faithful are the wounds of a friend." The Divine 
 Spirit as a friend reveals to this poor world its faults, and 
 the world only hates Him for it. He shows them the 
 plague of their hearts. He convinces or convicts them of 
 sin, therefore they fight the Spirit of God. I believe 
 there is many a man resisting the Holy Ghost ; I believe
 
 108 SECRET POWER. 
 
 there is many a man to-day fighting against the Spirit 
 of God. 
 
 In the 4th chapter of Ephesians, in the 30th, 31st, 
 and 32d verses, we read : 
 
 "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby 
 ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bit- 
 terness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil 
 speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And 
 be ye kind, one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one 
 another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven 
 you." 
 
 Now, mark you, that was written to the Church at 
 Ephesus. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby ye 
 are sealed unto the day of redemption." I believe to- 
 day the Church all over Christendom is guilty of griev- 
 ing the Holy Spirit. There are a good many believers 
 in different churches wondering why the work of God is 
 not revived. 
 
 THE CHURCH GRIEVES THE SPIRIT. 
 
 I think that if we search, we will find something in 
 the Church grieving the Spirit of God; it may be a 
 mere schism in the church ; it may be some unsound 
 doctrine ; it may be some division in the Church. 
 There is one thing I have noticed as I have traveled 
 in different countries ; I never yet have known the 
 Spirit of God to work where the Lord's people were 
 divided. There is one thing that we must have if we arc 
 to have the Holy Spirit of God to work in our midst, and 
 that is unity. If a church is divided, the members 
 should immediately seek unity. Let the believers come 
 together and get the difficulty out of the way. If the
 
 POWER HINDERED. 109 
 
 minister of a church can not unite the people, if those 
 that were dissatisfied will not fall in, it would be bet- 
 ter for that minister to retire. I think there are a good 
 many ministers in this country who are losing their 
 time ; they have lost, some of them, months and years ; 
 they have not seen any fruit, and they will not see 
 any fruit, because they have a divided church. Such a 
 church can not grow in divine things. The Spirit of 
 God don't work where there is division, and what we 
 want to-day is the spirit of unity amongst God's chil- 
 dren, so that the Lord may work. 
 
 WORLDLY AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 Then, another thing, I think, that grieves the Spirit, 
 is the miserable policy of introducing questionable 
 entertainments. There are the lotteries, for instance, that 
 we have in many churches. If a man wants to gam- 
 ble, he doesn't have to go to some gambling den ; he 
 can stay in the church. And there are fairs bazaars, 
 as they call them where they have .raffl ings and grab- 
 bags. And if he wants to see a drama, he don't need to 
 go to the theater, for many of our churches are turned into 
 theaters ; he may stay right in the church and witness 
 the acting. I believe all these things grieve the Spirit 
 of God. I believe when we bring the Church down to 
 the level of the world to reach the world, we are losing 
 all the while and grieving the Spirit of God. 
 
 But some say, if we take that standard and lift it up 
 high, it will drive away a great many members from 
 our churches. I believe it, and I think the quicker 
 they are gone the better. The world has come into the 
 Church like a flood, and how often you find an ungodly
 
 110 SECRET POWER. 
 
 choir employed to do the singing for the whole congre- 
 tion ; the idea that we need an ungodly man to sing 
 praises to God! It was not long ago I heard of a 
 church where they had an unconverted choir, and the 
 minister saw something about the choir that he didn't 
 like, and he spoke to the chorister, but the chorister 
 replied: "You attend to your end of the church, and 
 I will attend to mine." You can not expect the Spirit of 
 God to work in a church in such a state as that. 
 
 UNCONVERTED CHOIRS. 
 
 Paul tells us not to speak in an unknown tongue, and 
 if we have choirs who are singing in an unknown 
 tongue, why is not that just as great an abomination ? 
 I have been in churches where they have had a choir, 
 who would rise and sing, and sing, and it seemed as if 
 they sung five or ten minutes, and I could not under- 
 stand one solitary word they sung, and all the while the 
 people were looking around carelessly. There are, per- 
 haps, a select few, very fond of fine music, and they 
 want to bring the opera right into the church, and so 
 they have opera music in the church, and the people, who 
 are drowsy and sleepy, don't take part in the singing. 
 They hire ungodly men, unconverted men, and these 
 men will sometimes get the Sunday paper, and get 
 back in the organ loft, and the moment the minister 
 begins his sermon, they will take out their papers 
 and read them all the while that the minister is preach- 
 ing. The organist, provided he does not go out for 
 a walk if he happens to keep awake, will read his 
 paper, or, perhaps, a novel, while the minister is 
 preaching; and the minister wonders why God don't
 
 POWER HINDERED. Ill 
 
 revive His work ; he wonders why he is losing his hold 
 on the congregation ; he wonders why people don't 
 come crowding into the church; why people are run- 
 ning after the world instead of coming into the church. 
 The trouble is that we have let down the standard ; we 
 have grieved the Spirit of God. One movement of God's 
 power is worth more than all our artificial power, and 
 what the Church of God wants to-day is to get down in 
 the dust of humiliation and confession of sin, and go 
 out and be separated from the world ; and then see if 
 we do not have power with God and with man. 
 
 WHAT IS SUCCESS? 
 
 The Gospel has not lost its power ; it is just as power- 
 ful to-day as it ever has been. We don't wan't any new 
 doctrine. It is still the old Gospel with the old power, 
 the Holy Ghost power; and if the churches will but 
 confess their sins and put them away, and lift the stand- 
 ard instead of pulling it down, and pray to God to lift 
 us all up into a higher and holier life, then the fear of 
 the Lord will come upon the people around us. 
 
 It was when Jacob put away strange gods and set his 
 face toward Bethel that the fear of God fell upon the 
 nations around. And when the churches turn towards 
 God, and we cease grieving the Spirit, so that He may 
 work through us, we will then have conversions all the 
 while. Believers will be added to the Church daily. It 
 is sad when you look over Christendom and see how 
 desolate it is, and see how little spiritual life, spiritual 
 power, there is in the Church of God to-day, many of 
 the church members not even wanting this Holy Ghost 
 power. They don't desire it; they want intellectual
 
 112 SECRET POWER. 
 
 power; they want to get some man who will just draw; 
 and a choir that will draw ; not caring whether any one 
 is saved. With them that is not the question. Only fill 
 the pews, have good society, fashionable people, and 
 dancing ; such persons are found one night at the theater 
 and the next night at the opera. They don't like the 
 prayer-me.etings ; they abominate them ; if the minister 
 will only lecture and entertain, that would suit them. I 
 said to a man some time ago, " How are you getting on 
 at your church?" "Oh, splendid." "Many conver- 
 sions? " "Well well, on that side we are not getting 
 on so well. But," he said, "we rented all our pews 
 and are able to pay all our running expenses ; we are 
 getting on splendidly." That is what the godless call 
 "getting on splendidly;" because they rent the pews, 
 pay the minister, and pay all the running expenses. 
 Conversions ! that is a strange thing. There was a man 
 being shown through one of the cathedrals of Europe ; 
 he had come in from the country, and one of the men 
 belonging to the cathedral was showing him around, 
 when he inquired, "Do you have many conversions 
 here ? " " Many what ? " " Many conversions here ? " 
 "Ah, man, this is not a Wesleyan chapel." The idea 
 of there being conversions there ! And you can go into 
 a good many churches in this country and ask if they 
 have many conversions there, and they would not know 
 what it meant, they are so far away from the Lord ; 
 they are not looking for conversions, and don't expect 
 them. 
 
 SHIPWRECKS. 
 
 Alas ! how many young converts have made ship- 
 wreck against such churches. Instead of being a harbor
 
 POWER HINDERED. 113 
 
 of delight to them, they have proved false lights, alluring 
 them to destruction. Isn't it time for us to get down on 
 our faces before God and cry mightily to Him to forgive 
 us our sins. The quicker we own it the better. You 
 may be invited to a party, and it may be made up of 
 church members, and what will be the conversation ? 
 Oh, I got so sick of such parties that I left years ago ; 
 I would not think of spending a night that way ; it is 
 a waste of time ; there is hardly a chance to say a 
 word for the Master. If you talk of a personal Christ, 
 your company becomes offensive ; they don't like it ; 
 they want you to talk about the world, about a popular 
 minister, a popular church, a good organ, a good choir, 
 and they say, "Oh, we have a grand organ, and a su- 
 perb choir," and all that, and it suits them; but that 
 don't warm the Christian heart. When you speak of a 
 risen Christ and a personal Saviour, they don't like it ; 
 the fact is, the world has come into the church and taken 
 possession of it, and what we want to do is to wake up 
 and ask God to forgive us for "Grieving the Spirit." 
 
 Dear reader, search your heart and inquire, Have I 
 done anything to grieve the Spirit of God ? If you have, 
 may God show it to you to-day ; if you have done any 
 thing to grieve the Spirit of God, you want to know it 
 to-day, and get down on your face- before God and ask 
 Him to forgive you and help you to put it away. I 
 have lived long enough to know that if I can not have 
 the power of the Spirit of God on me to help me to 
 work for Him, I would rather die, than live just for the 
 sake of living. How many are there in the church 
 to-day, who have been members for fifteen or twenty 
 years, but have never done a solitary thing for Jesus 
 8
 
 114 SECRET POWER. 
 
 Christ ? They can not lay their hands upon one solitary 
 soul who has been blessed through their influence ; they 
 can not point to-day to one single person who has ever 
 been lifted up by them. 
 
 QUENCH WOT. 
 
 In 1st Thessalonians, 5th chapter, we are told not to 
 Quench the Spirit. Now, I am confident the cares of 
 the world are coming in and quenching the Spirit with a 
 great many. They say : "I don't care for the world ;" 
 perhaps not the pleasures of the world so much after all 
 as the cares of this life ; but they have just let the cares 
 come in and quench the Spirit of God. Anything that 
 comes between me and God between my soul and God 
 quenches the Spirit. It may be my family. You 
 may say : "Is there any danger of my loving my family 
 too much ?" Not if we love God more ; but God must 
 have the first place. If I love my family more than 
 God, then I am quenching the Spirit of God within me ; 
 if I love wealth, if I love fame, if I love honor, if I 
 love position, if I love pleasure, if I love self, more 
 than I love God who created and saved me, then I am 
 committing a sin ; I am not only grieviqg the Spirit of 
 God, but quenching Him, and robbing my soul of His 
 power. 
 
 EMBLEMS OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 But I would further call attention to the emblems of 
 the Holy Spirit. An emblem is something that rep- 
 resents an object ; the same as a balance is an emblem 
 of justice, and a crown an emblem of royalty, and a 
 scepter is an emblem of power ; so we find in the 17th
 
 POWER HINDERED. 115 
 
 chapter of Exodus and 6th verse, that water is an 
 emblem of the Holy Spirit. You find in the Smitten 
 Rock, in the wilderness, the \vork of the Trinity illus- 
 trated. 
 
 " Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock 
 in Horeb ; and thou shall smite the rock, and there 
 shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. 
 And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel." 
 
 Paul declares, in Corinthians, that the rock was Christ ; 
 it represented Christ. God says : "I will stand upon 
 the rock," and as Moses smote the rock the water came 
 out, which was an emblem of the Holy Spirit ; and it 
 flowed out along through the camp ; and they drank of 
 the water. Now water is cleansing; it is fertilizing; 
 it is refreshing ; it is abundant, and it is freely given ; 
 and so the Spirit of God is the same : cleansing, fer- 
 tilizing, refreshing, reviving, and He was freely given 
 when the smitten Christ was glorified. Then, too, fire 
 is an emblem of the Spirit ; it is purifying, illuminating, 
 searching. We talk about searching our hearts. We 
 can not do it. What we want is to have God search 
 them. O that God may search us and bring out the 
 hidden things, the secret things that cluster there 
 and bring them to light. The wind is another 
 emblem. It is independent, powerful, sensible in its 
 effects, and reviving ; how the Spirit of God revives 
 when He comes to all the drooping members of the 
 Church. Then the rain and the dew fertilizing, refresh- 
 ing, abundant ; and the dove, gentle what more gentle 
 than the dove ; and the lamb ? gentle, meek, innocent, 
 a sacrifice. We read of the wrath of God; we read of 
 the wrath of the Lamb, but nowhere do we read of the
 
 116 SECRET POWER. 
 
 wrath of the Holy Spirit gentle, innocent, meek, lov- 
 ing; and that Spirit wants to take possession of our 
 hearts. And He comes as a voice, another emblem 
 speaking, guiding, warning, teaching; and the seal 
 impressing, securing, and making us as His own. May 
 we know Him in all His wealth of blessing. This is 
 my prayer for myself for you. May we heed the words 
 of the grand Apostle: "My speech and my preaching 
 was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in 
 demonstration of the Spirit, and -of power: that your 
 faith should not stand IN THE WISDOM OF MEN, BUT IN THE 
 
 I'OWEB OF GOD." 
 
 THE END.
 
 A SELECTION FROM THE CATALOGUE OF 
 
 EVANGELICAL BOOKS, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 IF. HE. IRIE^riELILj, 
 
 14* AND 150 MADISON STREET, CHICAGO. 
 
 FULL CATALOGUES FREE ON APPLICATION. 
 
 " Grace and Truth " Under Twelve Different Aspects ; By W. P. 
 Mackay, M. A. Forty-second thousand. The English edition has reached 
 a sale of over one hundred and twenty thousand. 
 
 "Designed especially to awaken tbe indifferent and lead the inquirer 
 into light. It is particularly valuable to those who have to deal with anx- 
 ious souls." 
 
 Mr. D. L. Moody says of this work : " I know of no book in print 
 better adapted to aid in the work of him who would be a winner of 
 souls, or to place in the hands of the unconverted I wish I could pre- 
 sent a copy to every minister of the Gospel in the United States." 
 
 I2mo, 270 pages, clear type, cloth, fine, 750. 
 
 Cheap edition, in stiff paper cover, 35c. 
 
 The Prayer-Meeting, and its Improvement. By Rev. LEWIS O. 
 THOMPSON, with an Introduction by Rev. A. E. KITTREDGE, D. D. 
 Sixth thousand, enlarged and revised. 
 
 From the Methodist Protestant : " If you want new inspiration on 
 this subject, if in town country, your prayer service is neglected and 
 without power for good, and you are anxious to know how to make it at- 
 tractive, buy this book by all means." 
 
 One handsome volume, price, $1.25. 
 
 Symbols and System in Bible Reading. By Rev. W. F. CRAFTS, 
 giving a plan of Bible Reading, with fifty verses definitely assigned for 
 each day. The Bible also being arranged IN THE ORDER OF ITS EVENTS, 
 the entire symbolism of the Bible is also explained concisely and clearly. 
 One hundred hints on Bible Marking and Bible Reading are added. 
 
 64 pages, 250.
 
 Henry Moorhouse, Evangelist, Recollections of, by GEO. C 
 \EKDHAM. being a record of the life, conversion and work of this well- 
 known evangelist. 
 
 210 pp., cloth, neat, $i. 
 
 Henry Moorhouse, Bible Readings. A series of eleven sermons 
 of comment and exposition, by one pre-eminently the man of one book ; 
 an incessant, intense, prayerful student of the Bible. 
 
 Cloth, i6mo. 124 pages. 75C. Paper edition, 400. 
 
 Ruth, the Moabitess. A series of Bible Readings on the Book of 
 Ruth. By HENRY MOORHOUSE. I. Ruth Deciding. II. Ruth Glean- 
 ing. III. Ruth Resting. IV. Ruth Rewarded. 
 
 Tinted covers, 2OC ; cloth, limp, 4OC. 
 
 Fifty Years and Beyond ; or, Old Age, and How to Enjoy it. A 
 book of incalculable value, as well as interest to all who have passed the 
 meridian of life, containing many valuable chapters by various well 
 known authors. 
 
 Beautiful type, one large I2mo volume, 400 pages. Price, $i. 
 
 Woman's Ministry, with other Expository Addresses. By MRS. 
 GEO. C. NEEDHAM. 146 pages, cloth, neat, gilt stamp. 
 
 Price, 75 cents. 
 
 " We regard it as the best defense of the right of woman to preach 
 we have seen, and the book is valuable as giving all that can be adduced 
 from Scripture in support of its position. Other articles in the volume are 
 well worthy a perusal." Illustrated Christian Weekly. 
 
 Clifton Springs Bible Readings. Containing the Bible Readings 
 and addresses given at the Conference of Believers, at Clifton Springs, N. 
 Y., by Messrs. Brookes, Erdman, Whittle, Needham, Parsons, Clarke, 
 Marvin, and others. 
 
 140 pp., sq. i6mo, cloth, fine, 50 cts. Paper covers, 25 cts. 
 
 Christian's Secret of a Happy Life (The). By H. W. S. (Mrs. 
 R. Pearsall Smith), author of Record of a Happy Life. 
 I2mo, cloth, neat, $i ; Paper covers, 50 cts. 
 
 Notes and Suggestions for Bible Readings. By S. R. BRIGGS 
 and J. H. ELLIOTT. Acknowledged to be the very best help for Bible 
 Readings in print. Containing, in addition to twelve introductory chap- 
 ters on plans and methods of Bible Study and Bible Readings, over six 
 hundred Bible Readings and Bible Studies by some of the most eminent 
 Bible students of the day. 
 
 This volume is without doubt the most complete and satisfactory, at 
 well as the largest and cheapest book of Bible Readings published. 
 
 262 pages, large I2mo, with complete index. Paper cover, 5OC. 
 Cloth flexible, 750. Cloth, boards, $i. 
 
 Future Punishment. A test case, by Rev. H. L. HAMMOND. An 
 admirable dissection and exposure of a plausible and popular delusion ; 
 good thing to have scattered abroad by thousands. 
 
 32 pp. and cover, neat, 10 cents.
 
 May Christians Dance ? By JAMES H. BROOKES, D. D. 
 
 144 pp., i6mo, 25 cents: Cloth, 50 cents. 
 
 The subject of this small volume is again creating considerable com- 
 ment and controversy throughout the religious press. The author has 
 handled the subject carefully ajid deliberately, but very decidedly, mak- 
 ing charges especially against the contaminating influences of the round 
 dance. The book should be largely circulated. The Watchman. 
 
 How to be Saved, OR THE SINNER DIRECTED TO THE SAVIOR. 
 By J. H. BROOKES, D. D. 
 
 1 20 pp., paper, 25 cents. Cloth, 50 cents. 
 
 The Scientific and Religious Discoveries in the Great Pyra- 
 mid, recently made by Prof. PIAZZI SMYTH, Astronomer Royal for Scot- 
 land, and by other noted scholars. Compiled by WM. H. WILSON. Il- 
 lustrated with several diagrams. 
 
 64 pp. sq., i6mo, 25 cents. Cloth, 50 cents. 
 
 To say that the facts herein set forth are wonderful is far below the 
 truth. Many are so marvelous, and the deductions from them are so im- 
 portant, that no Christian can afford to pass them by. Many will reject 
 the conclusions of the writers. None can resist the facts, and they should 
 be known. 
 
 Life and Light. By an Evangelist. A book for anxious ones and 
 young converts, being outlines of a few addresses, and the substance of 
 conversations and correspondence with inquirers, and an exposition of 
 many difficult passages. 
 
 Second edition, revised and enlarged. 124 pp., i6mo, 25 cents. 
 One of the best books we have ever issued. 
 
 Notes by C. H. M. GENESIS, 750.; EXODUS, 750.; LEVITICUS, 
 75c.; NUMBERS, 75c.; DEUTERONOMY, VOL. i, 750. The set of five vol- 
 umes sent postpaid for $3.75 . 
 
 The Notes on each book are complete in one volume, and are most 
 precious and edifying expositions. 
 
 Mr. D. L. Moody says of these books : " Some years since, I had my 
 attention called to C. H. M.'s notes, and was so much pleased, and, at 
 the same time, profited by the way they open up the Scripture truths, that 
 I secured at once all the writings of the same author, and, if they could 
 not be replaced would rather part with my entire library, excepting my 
 Bible, than with these writings. They have been to me a very key to the 
 Scriptures." 
 
 Maj. D. W. Whittle says : " Under God they have blessed me more 
 than any books, outside of the Bible itself, that I have ever read, and have 
 led me to a love of the Bible that is proving an unfailing source of profit." 
 
 Any book in this list sent post-free to any address on receipt of price. 
 
 F. H. REVELL, PUBLISHER. 
 148 and 150 Madison Street. CHICAGO.
 
 AUTHORIZED WORKS BY D. L. MOODY. 
 
 Twelve Select Sermons. Carefully revised, and containing 
 those Gospel addresses most blessed in evangelistic work. 
 
 128 pp., cloth, rich gilt stamp, 60 cts. Paper edition, 80 cts. 
 
 Heaven Where it is; Its Inhabitants, and How to Get 
 There, by D. L. MOODY. 
 
 Cloth, rich, gold stamp, 112 pp., 60 cts. Paper covers, 30 cts. 
 
 The clear, Scriptural, common-sense treatment of this subject by 
 Mr. Moody, has been commended in the hignest terms by leading 
 theologians in Europe and America, while the common people have 
 heard them everywhere with gladness. 
 
 Secret Power, or the Secret of Success in Christian Life and 
 Christian Work. Contents: I. Power; its source. II. Power, in 
 and upon. III. Witnessing in Power. IV. Power in Operation. 
 V. Power Hindered. 
 
 Cloth, 116 pages, 60 cts. .Paper cover, 80 cts. 
 
 How to Study the Bible. By D. L. MOODY. Revised. A valu- 
 able little work, which should be carefully read and studied by all 
 who desire to enjoy the study of the Word. 
 
 Paper cover, 10 cts.; paper cover, perdoz., $1; Cloth, flexible, 
 15 cts. each. 
 
 The Way nad the Word. By D. L. MOODY. 
 
 Paper, 15 cts. Cloth, 25 cts. 
 
 This is a neat little volume, containing a treatise on Mr. Moody's 
 favorite topic, Regeneration; also his thoughts on Bible stuiiy; the 
 whole prefaced by a personal introduction by Mr. Moody. 
 
 The Second Coming of Christ. By D. L. MOODY. Revised 
 from original notes. 
 
 32 pages and cover. Price 10 cts. ; per dozen, $1. 
 
 Inquiry Meetings. By Messrs. MOODY and WHITTLE. Com- 
 prising " How to Conduct Inquiry Meetings,*' by D. L. Moody, and 
 "The Use of the Bible in Inquiry Meetings," by. D. W. Whittle. 
 
 40 pages and cover. Price, 15 cts.; per dozen $1 50. 
 
 Gems from Northficld, containing the choicest of the good 
 things contributed at D. L. Moody's Northfleld Conference. Edited 
 by T. J. SHANKS 
 
 Dr. Bonar's sermons and talks are those of a master in Israel. 
 St. Louit Pretbyterian. 
 
 ' We can commend the book as a record of earnest Christian 
 intercourse and a stimulus to spiritual thinking and conduct. 
 Congregationalist. 
 
 216 pages, 12mo., cloth neat Price, $1.
 
 -J13&Z 2-NsSs^r .T^^SCr^s^/^^/Jk^^a^ 
 
 University of California 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 Return this material to the library 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 IOOM 1 1 /86 Serin 9412 
 
 ' " - 
 
 .!'(