And now, dear friends, let me counsel you. The grand thing the church wants in this time, is God’s Holy Spirit. You all get up plans and say, “Now, if the church were altered a little bit, it would go on better.” You think if there were different ministers, or different church order, or something different, then all would be well. No, dear friends, it is not there the mistake lies, it is that we want more of the Spirit. It is as if you saw a locomotive engine upon a railway, and it would not go, and they put up a driver, and they said, “Now, that driver will just do.” They try another and another. One proposes that such-and-such a wheel should be altered, but still it will not go. Some one then bursts in amongst those who are conversing and says, “No, friends; but the reason why it will not move, is because there is no steam. You have no fire, you have no water in the boiler: that’s why it will not go. There may be some faults about it; it may want a bit of paint here and there, but it will go well enough with all those faults if you do but get the steam up.” But now people are saying, “This must be altered, and that must be altered; but it would go no better unless God the Spirit should come to bless us. You may have the same ministers, and they shall be a thousand times more useful for God, if God is pleased to bless them. You shall have the same deacons, they shall be a thousand times more influential than they are now, when the Spirit is poured down upon them from on high. That is the church’s great want, and until that want be supplied, we may reform, and reform, and still be just the same. We want the Holy Spirit, and then whatever faults there may be in our organization, they can never materially impede the progress of Christianity, when once the Spirit of the Lord God is in our midst.
But I beseech you be earnest in praying for this. Do you know that there is no reason to day, why I should not have preached to day, so that every soul in the place was converted, if God the Holy Spirit had been pleased to manifest himself. There is not any solitary shadow of a reason why every soul that has been within the sound of my lips should not have been converted by something said to-day if God the Holy Spirit had been pleased to bless the word. Now I will repeat, there, is not a humble Primitive Methodist, nor a poor insignificant preacher of any sort on earth, but who, if he preaches the truth, God the Spirit may not make as useful in conversion, as any of the great departed, who are now before God’s throne. All we want is the Spirit of God. Dear Christian friends, go home and pray for it; give no rest until God reveals himself, do not tarry, here you are, do not be content to go on in your everlasting jog-trot as you have done; do not be content with the mere round of formalities. Awake, O Zion; awake, awake, awake! Put on thy strength, O Jerusalem, start ye from your slumbers, arouse ye from your lethargy, and cry unto God and say unto him, “Awake, awake! put on thy strength, O arm of the Lord, as in the ancient days,” then when he shall do it, you will find that while it is not by might, nor by power, it is by God’s Spirit.
And now I conclude with a brief address that shall not occupy a moment. Sinner, unconverted sinner, thou hast often tried to save thyself, but thou hast often failed. Thou hast, by thine own power and might, sought to curb thy evil passions and licentious desires with thee, I lament that all thine efforts have been unsuccessful. And I warn thee, it will be unsuccessful, for thou never canst by thine own might save thyself; with all the strength thou hast, thou never canst regenerate thine own soul; thou canst never cause thyself to be born again, And though the new birth is absolutely necessary, it is absolutely impossible to thee, unless God the Spirit shall do it. I pray for thee that God the Spirit may convince thee of sin, and if thou art already convinced, I bid thee believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, for he has died for thee, hath washed away thy sins; thou art forgiven. Believe that; be happy, and go thy way rejoicing; an, God Almighty be with thee until thou diest.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
