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Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers
It is sad that every soul is not praying for the vital breath of the Spirit,
for we are ready to die if it breathe not on us.
We are to pray for the impartation of the Spirit as the remedy for
sin-sick souls. The church needs to be converted, and why should we
not prostrate ourselves at the throne of grace, as representatives of
the church, and from a broken heart and contrite spirit make earnest
supplication that the Holy Spirit shall be poured out upon us from
on high? Let us pray that when it shall be graciously bestowed
our cold hearts may be revived, and we may have discernment to
understand that it is from God, and receive it with joy. Some have
treated the Spirit as an unwelcome guest, refusing to receive the rich
gift, refusing to acknowledge it, turning from it, and condemning it
as fanaticism. [
See appendix.
]
When the Holy Spirit works the human agent, it does not ask us
in what way it shall operate. Often it moves in unexpected ways.
Christ did not comes as the Jews expected. He did not come in a
manner to glorify them as a nation. His forerunner came to prepare
the way for Him by calling upon the people to repent of their sins,
and be converted, and be baptized. Christ’s message was, “The
kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
The Jews refused to receive Christ, because He did not come in
accordance with their expectations. The ideas of finite men were
held as infallible, because hoary with age.
This is the danger to which the church is now exposed—that
the inventions of finite men shall mark out the precise way for the
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Holy Spirit to come. Though they would not care to acknowledge
it, some have already done this. And because the Spirit is to come,
not to praise men or to build up their erroneous theories, but to
reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment,
many turn away from it. They are not willing to be deprived of the
garments of their own self-righteousness. They are not willing to
exchange their own righteousness, which is unrighteousness, for
the righteousness of Christ, which is pure, unadulterated truth. The
Holy Spirit flatters no man, neither does it work according to the
devising of any man. Finite, sinful men are not to work the Holy
Spirit. When it shall come as a reprover, through any human agent
whom God shall choose, it is man’s place to hear and obey its voice.