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Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers
Strange Fire
When the speaker shall, in a haphazard way, strike in anywhere,
as the fancy takes him, when he talks politics to the people, he is
mingling the common fire with the sacred. He dishonors God. He
has not real evidence from God that he is speaking the truth. He does
his hearers a grievous wrong. He may plant seeds which may strike
their fibrous roots deep, and they spring up and bear poisonous fruit.
How dare men do this? How dare they advance ideas when they do
not know certainly whence they came, or that they are the truth?
The Kind of Sermons Needed
Will our brethren bear in mind that we are living amid the perils
of the last days? Read Revelation in connection with Daniel. Teach
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these things. Let discourses be short, spiritual, elevated. Let the
preacher be full of the word of the Lord. Let every man who enters
the pulpit know that he has angels from heaven in his audience. And
when these angels empty from themselves the golden oil of truth into
the heart of him who is teaching the word, then the application of
the truth will be a solemn, serious matter. The angel messengers will
expel sin from the heart, unless the door of the heart is padlocked
and Christ is refused admission. Christ will withdraw Himself from
those who persist in refusing the heavenly blessings that are so freely
offered them.
The Holy Spirit is doing its work on the hearts. But if the minis-
ters have not first received their message from heaven, if they have
not drawn their own supplies from the refreshing, life-giving stream,
how can they let that flow forth which they have not received? What
a thought, that hungry, thirsty souls are sent away empty! A man
may lavish all the treasures of his learning, he may exhaust the moral
energies of his nature, and yet accomplish nothing, because he him-
self has not received the golden oil from the heavenly messengers;
therefore it cannot flow forth from him, imparting spiritual life to the
needy. The tidings of joy and hope must come from heaven. Learn,
oh, learn of Jesus what it means to abide in Christ!
If the Christian minister receives the golden oil, he has life; and
where there is life, there is no stagnation, no dwarfed experience.
There is constant growth to the full stature of Christ Jesus. If we