in separation and schism, has hewn out its own little cistern, to hold its own narrow, shallow, stinted measure; but all such efforts have failed. Either these self-hewn cisterns could not hold the living stream and let it filter and run away;-or else it became stagnant; and stagnation only breeds corruption, and is the forerunner of death. Stagnant air, or blood, or water, only brings forth poison, death, or filthy abominations. All nature rejoices in the free unimpeded circulation of the vital energies and forces of life, through her appropriate channels and organs; ah! and so does God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost rejoice,-in the free, growing, onward flow-of regenerate life in Christ;-with the fresh and living streams of the Holy Spirit's Baptism, irrigating and refreshing it. Jno. vii. 38, 39.- The Church must "thirst," before she will come to her risen Saviour to drink. The Baptism of the Holy Ghost flows from Him-ONE RIVER. Yet it quenches the thirst of myriads who drink thereat. The Church coming unto Christ to drink, must be willing to drink from the streams through which His fulness is distributed, administered, and conveyed. No one man can drink the river. The largest vessels in the house of God, do but drink of and at the stream,—and contain a measure of its fulness. Christ contains the fulness of God; and the whole body of Christ-the living and the dead receive of His fulness. Each has but his own peculiar measure: yet it is a measure of the one infinite Spirit of Jehovah. "He that believeth on Jesus" is entitled to drink— from the day of Pentecost, until the seventh trumpet sounds. Jesus Christ our God—is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. The faith of His people changes, He changes not. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit-given at Pentecost and afterwards distributed and diffused through Apostles, is no stagnant stream. Out of his belly (who partakes thereof) shall flow rivers of living water. These then are its effects upon the Church and upon her members, REFRESHMENT, VIGOUR, ENERGY, POWER! Why then refuse it? The Church is dry and parched with thirst, within and without, --while ignorant of, and refusing the enjoyment of this heavenly gift. What Eden would have been without her one stream parted with its four heads-watering and refreshing the garden, such is the church-the paradise of God; without the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Ceasing to trust in Christ, and to desire the full flow of this blessed Baptism,-" given to the faithful because Jesus was glorified," she has trusted in man and made flesh 66 66 66 her arm of strength and power-and has experienced its curse. She has been like the heath in the desert, she could not see when good cometh-she has been inhabiting the parched places of this wilderness world: in a salt and barren land, unfruitful, uncultivated, and uninhabited. But if she will trust again in the Lord Jesus Christ, her one Anointer, and make Him her hope, she shall again know the blessing. He will make her like the tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, "and (she) shall not see when heat cometh; but her leaf shall be 'green, and she shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither “shall cease from yielding fruit." Jer. xvii. 5-8. Need we wonder at our spiritual barrenness and emptiness? We have known the year of drought. We have known the pining, pinching misery of a spiritual famine; and hungry and thirsty our souls have fainted in us, and we have run hither and thither to satisfy our spiritual cravings and wants. The Church has been like the widow of Zarephath, during the three and a half years of dearth, in the days of Elijah's testimony before Jezebel and Ahab; "her handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruise," have remained and supported her till the showers of heaven descended again;-her ordinances remaining-however small and short coming, have just held her soul in life. But what has she been engaged in? Has she been preparing for passing into life eternal, when the fiery Baptism from heaven descends? No. All she is doing is thus expressed; "Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it,— AND DIE."-1 Kings xvii., 13. Her calling is, through the Spirit, to be mortifying the deeds of the body, in order that SHE MAY LIVE-in order that death may be swallowed up of life-in order that she may overcome, and get the victory over death. BUT SHE IS JUST EATING AND DRINKING AS A PRELIMINARY FOR DYING. Ah! but God, by an "Elias," again sent to restore all things lost-as well as to strengthen what remains, and so guide Israel to a glorious future,—will not only keep her soul in life, but by a living witness, restore to life again things, as dear to her as the only son of her bosom. Now when all mere Pastoral effort of church life has failed to open heaven again-now when all mere EVANGELICAL effort has failed also in drawing down the needed showers-yea, now when all mere Prophetic effort has proved equally ineffectual for this end-now the third season of scarcity has passed -God, by the hand of an APOSTLESHIP, CALLED, SEPARATED, AND SENT FORTH BY HIM TO ALL HIS PEOPLE AGAIN 66 ISRAEL-WILL ERECT THE TWELVE-FOLD ALTAR - WILL FILL THE FOUR BARRELS WITH WATER FOR A LIBATION-WILL PUT THE SACRIFICE WHICH HE CAN ACCEPT IN ORDER UPON THE ALTAR-AND WILL GIVE AN ANSWER BY FIRE!! The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire shall be manifested—and pass from its Pentecostal earnest, into the full harvest of her Eternal inheritance. Ah, then shall the Priests of the groves and of Baal be put to silence! Then shall a mocking, blaspheming Priesthood, fallen from heaven to earth, be judged! When they shall see the fire of "the Lord fall, and consume the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and "the stones, and the dust, and lick up all the water in the trench." Ah, then shall be heard the sound of abundance of rain, and then shall the living witnesses of God hear the voice from heaven, "Come up hither." Rev. xi.-"Come my beloved, come away: "hide thyself, as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast," and the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible; and they the faithful witnesses of the Lord, shall be changed—and like Elias of old-shall ascend in the fiery chariot of their resurrection bodies of glory and power,-TO MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR!! SUCH SHALL BE GOD'S ANSWER THROUGH RESTORED APOSTLES-THE ELIAS TO THIS DISPENSATION; AS JOHN THE BAPTIST WAS OF THE OLD!! SUCH THE EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT REVIVED AND MINISTERED AGAIN THROUGH APOSTLES. NOTE. The writer had more especially in his eye in the reference made to "Spirits who peep and mutter,"-those spiritual manifestations which are now appearing in England and other Continental Nations-first imported from America-among Mormonites and "Rappists." If he mistake not, Marshalled hosts of these lying, unclean spirits, are now rising from the pit. They are spiritual judgments from God, upon a people called to be heavenly and spiritual. They fly like a spiritual epidemic vitiating the very breath of spiritual life, or like locust hordes, eating out all remaining vestiges of the grace of regenerate nature. They sting, with their spiritual venom into frenzy, whole multitudes of the Baptized! Mesmerism Phreno-Mesmerism ElectroBiology-Clairvoyance, &c., &c., appear to have been the means by which the enemy deposited the spawn (with many other forms of spiritual manifestations in the Roman Catholic Church) under cover of science-which, after a very brief season, he is about to hatch: and forth have come those unclean spirits of Devils (doing wonders with strong delusions to gain credence to their lies), like frogs from a Euphratean quagmire. They work in apparent opposition, but really in secret concert; whether it be for spiritual, ecclesiastical, or political ends. Well may we be warned, and be on our guard. Behold the thousands that have left these shores expecting to meet the Lord in the deserts of America. Thirty thousand persons it is asserted in America at this moment boast of being media, for receiving communications from-and for communicating with "Spirits, "-who call themselves Spirits! Spirits—who are speaking all sorts of lies in hypocrisy. They are philosophical with the learned and scientific, sensual with the poor and ignorant, religious with the religious-and Infidel with Infidels.-They have their votaries in England, France, Belgium, Spain, Prussia, and Austria. They have enlisted the High Priest of Socialism in this Country into their service, and given him a World-wide Mission and Ministry. At this moment, in the City of London, religious people are to be found bending the knee, singing Psalms, and giving thanks to Spirits -well may we cry for the Baptism of the Spirit by which alone "we can know all things-the truth-and the lie." |