Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, June 21, 1941.

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”

Without faith it is impossible to please God. He that cometh to God must believe that God is. Believe also that He is able to work out His plan in your life. He will work mightily through you, if you believe. Great possibilites are within your reach if you dare to believe.

Evil spirits can have no more control, if I believe that God is, that He is living and active; and I do. I know I am free from all the powers of darkness, free from all the powers of evil, and it is a wonderful thing to be free. Christ said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Because you are free you step into the liberty of freed men and claim the possessions of God.

This is the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. It is 33 years since God filled me with the Holy Ghost. The fire burned in my bosom then and it is still burning, producing more activity for God than 33 years ago. The Holy Spirit is not played out.

God is waiting for people who dare to believe, and when you believe all things are possible.

Only believe, only believe;

All things are possible, only believe.

Only believe, only believe;

All things are possible, only believe.

God wants to sweep away all unbelief from your heart and for you to dare to believe His Word. It is the Word of the Spirit. If you allow anything to come in between you and the Word, it will poison your whole system, and you will have no hope. One bit of unbelief against that Word is poison. It is like the devil putting a spear into you. The Word of Life is the breath of heaven, the quickening power by which your very life is changed, and you begin to bear the image of the heavenly.

A young man in South Africa, who was dying of consumption, read my book, “Ever-Increasing Faith.” He was saved and then God healed him. This young man grew so in the knowledge of God that he was made a pastor. When I arrived in South Africa, five years ago, he came up to me like a son to a father, and said, “If you like, I will go with you all the way over South Africa.” He bought the best car for the job. If you go to South Africa you must have a car to go through the ploughed fields, one that will jump the hedges, jump in the river and jump out again. That young man drove us 5,000 miles through all the territories, right among the Zulus, and God took us through everything. Talk about life, why this is overcoming life.

When I arrived in Capetown a man was there whose deathly face was filled with the very devil’s manifestation of cancer. I said to the people, “There is a man in the place suffering with a tremendous thing. He does not know I am talking about him at all. You can have the choice. If you desire me to deliver that man, so that he can enjoy the meeting, I will go down in the name of the Lord and deliver him, or I will preach.” They said, “Come down.” I went down and the people saw what God can do, saw that man shouting, raving, for he was like a man that was intoxicated. He was shouting, “I am free! I have been bound.” It was a wonderful thing to see that man changed.

One man after laying out $4,500 upon his wife for operation after operation, year by year, brought her helpless to the the meeting. I went to her and said, “Look here, this is the greatest opportunity of your life. I will give an altar call tonight. There will be fifty people come up, and when you see them loosed, you believe, and you, will be loosed like them, and then we shall have a testimony from you.” They came and my hands were laid upon them in the name of the Lord. I said, “Testify,” and they testified. This woman saw their faces, and when all these people were through I said, “Do you believe?” She said, “I cannot help but believe.” There is something in the manifestation of faith. I laid hands upon her in the name of Jesus and the power af God went right through her. I said, “In the name of Jesus, arise and walk.” An impossibility? If you do not venture, you remain ordinary as long as you live. If you dare the impossible then God will abundantly do far above all you ask or think. As if a cannon had blown her up, she rose. I thought her husband would go mad with joy and excitement because he saw his wife mightily moved by the power of God and made free. She was in the first meeting afterwards to glorify God.

The divine plan is so much greater than all human thought. When we are willing to yield to His sovereign will, when we have no reserve, how wonderful God is, always willing to open the door till our whole life is filled with the fragrance of heaven. Jesus is the substance and fullness of the divine nature, and He dwells in our hearts. Oh, this wonderful, fascinating Jesus! What a wonderful Jesus we have! Something about Him kindles fire in the darkest place. Something about our Lord makes all darkness light. When we have Him we have more than we can speak about or think about. God’s Son can set the world ablaze and bring heaven right into the place where we live. Dare to believe God, and nothing shall be impossible to you.

Labels: 1941, Pentecostal Evangel

Preached August 1939.
Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, December 30, 1939.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Hebrews 11:1-3.

Faith is a reality, and God wants to I bring us to the fact of it. He wants us to know that we have something greater than we can see or handle, because everything we can see and handle is going to pass away. The heavens are going to be wrapped up and the earth melt with fervent heat, but the word of the Lord shall abide for ever.

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” God spoke the word and made the world, and I want to impress upon you this wonderful word which made the world. I am saved by the incorruptible word, the word that made the world, and so my position by faith is to lay hold of the things which cannot be seen, and believe the things which cannot be understood.

Faith lives in a commanding position where you know God will work the miracle, if you dare to stand upon the Word.

Paul related his conversion many times over, and I believe it is good to rehearse what God has done for you. I have been privileged to be in many parts of the world, and have seen that God has arranged a plan for me. I said to our people, “The Lord is moving me to go out through the States and Canada.” When the Lord told me I said, “Lord, you have three things to do; you have to find money for home; and find money to go; and you have to give me a real change, for you know that sometimes my mind or memory is no good at all to me.” Straight away money came from all over and I said, “It is true God is sending me. I have already $250.” I went to Liverpool and a man said, “Here is $25 for you.” When I was on the ship a lady, poorly dressed, gave me a red sugar bag; and when the ship went I opened the red sugar bag and there was $250. Just as I was getting on the ship a man came and gave me a book and said, “There is a leaf for every day in the year.” The Lord said to me, “Put down everything that takes place in the month.” I did so, and I had a memory like an encyclopedia. You see, I never learned geography, and God sent me all over the world to see it.

The Lord has a way of making you equal to live in a place of command in the power of the Holy Ghost so long as you have learned the lesson needed. God will make us know how to live. I went to a Quakers’ meeting, quiet and still, and there was such a silence that I was moved. You know it is of faith, and so I jumped up and I had the time of my life. All these Quakers came round me. They said, “You are the first man that we have ever seen in this place who was so quickly led by the Spirit.” John says it is the unction of the Holy One, and you need no man to teach you, it is the Holy Ghost who teaches. It is simplicity itself.

When the ship began to move I said to the people, “I am going to preach on this ship on Sunday. Will you come and hear me preach?” They said no. Later they came around again and said, “We are going to have an entertainment and we would like you to be in it.” So I said, “Come in a quarter of an hour and I will tell you.”

They came round again and said, “Are you ready?” “Yes,” I told them, “I have got a clear witness that I have to be in the entertainment.” They said, “Well, what can you do?” I replied, “I can sing.” They said, “Now we want to know what position you would like to have on the program.” I answered, “Tell me what you are going to have on the program.” They said, “Recitations, instruments and many things.” I asked, “What do you finish up with?” “A dance,” they replied. “Well, put me down just before the dance.”

I went to the entertainment and when I saw the clerical gentlemen trying to please the people it turned me to prayer. Every hour had been bathed in prayer. When they had all done their pieces, my turn came and I went up to the piano with my “Redemption Song.” A lady who was rather less than half dressed, when she saw the music said, “I cannot play this kind of music.” I said, “Be at peace, young lady, I have music and words inside.” So I sang:

If I could only tell Him as I know Him,

My Redeemer who has brightened all my way;

If I could tell how precious is His presence,

I am sure that you would make Him yours today.

Could I tell it, Could I tell it,

How the sunshine of His presence lights my way,

I would tell it, I would tell it,

And I’m sure that you would make Him yours today.

God took it up, and from the last to the greatest they were weeping. They did not have a dance hut they had a prayer meeting, and six young men were saved by the power of God in my cabin.

Every day God was saving people on that ship. I never can forget a young man and woman who came to me. They were paid to look after a lady and gentleman in the first class. They said, “Our lady is in great distress. She is a Christian Scientist and she gets no relief. She has brought a doctor and he gives her no hope, and now she is in despair and we have told her about you.” They brought me to the door which they opened and I went in and stood at the door just inside. I looked at the lady who was in a poor state of health, and said, “I am not going to preach, I am going to stand here and pray, and I believe as I pray you will be perfectly healed.” While I was praying God healed her, and she shouted. She said, “This is something new; come over, will you?” I had the opportunity of bringing that woman into the fulness of redemption. God delivered her and she said she would not rest until she had gone through all England in Christian Science and had told them about the blood of Jesus.

Live in the Acts of the Apostles and you will see every day some miracle wrought by the power of the living God. Do not fail to claim your holy position so that you will overcome the power of the devil. The best time you have is when you have the most difficult position. Sometimes the strangest things happen for the furtherance of the gospel. I was at Southampton station and there were four men to see me into the train. They knew everything and I knew nothing, only I soon found that I was in the wrong carriage. There was a man in the carriage, and I said to him, “I have been to Bournemouth before, but I do not seem to be on the way. Where are you going?” He said, “I am going to South Wales.” I said, “Well, if I am wrong I am right. I have never once been wrong in my life only when I have been right.”

I asked, “What is the Lord Jesus Christ to you? He is my personal Friend and Saviour.” He replied, “I do not thank you to speak to me about these things.” The train stopped and I said to the porter, “Am I right for Bournemouth? How many stops?” He said, “Three.” I said to the man, “It has to be settled before I leave the train; you are going to hell.” That man wished he had never met me. The train stopped and I had to get out. I said, “What are you going to do?” He answered, “I will make Him my own.”

We are born of the incorruptible Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever, which made the world and brought into existence things that were not there, and there was nothing made but what He made, and so I realize I am made twice. I was made first by the creation of God. The next time I was begotten in a moment of time, eternally begotten, and if you believe in your heart you can begin to say, and whatsoever you say will come to pass if you believe in your heart.

A man came to me with two people assisting him. He said, “Can you help me?” He had a cancer in his chest, and when they operated they found the cancer entwined about the swallow. They took away the cancer and the only way to save his life was to take away the swallow. Now they knew he could never eat again, so they made a hole in his stomach with a tube. So for three months before he came to me he was feeding himself with different juices made by his wife, and they were pouring the liquid in. He was just a shadow of what life ought to be.

Could I help him? For faith is a fact, and as you live in the glorious possession of God’s wealth, you will find how wonderful it is. When this man stood before me I believed what Jesus said in Mark 11.23, “Believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith.” I said to him, “Listen, you shall eat a good supper.” He answered, “I cannot swallow.” I said, “Listen, you shall eat a good supper. Take him home.” His wife asked, “What has happened?” He said, “Nothing! You know I cannot swallow, but he has told me I shall eat a good supper tonight in the name of Jesus.”

He was ravenously hungry and he ate all his wife could give him. I had no need to go. All I had to do was to believe. As he chewed and chewed, God made his swallow as perfect as ever it was, and the food went down until he was full up. They had such joy, and when they woke the next morning they began to talk about the remarkable thing. He looked down to see the hole that the doctors had made, but God had closed it up. He had been a policeman in Switzerland, and as he went round again the people came out and said, “Let us go out and look at -----.” He said, “I am just full to overflowing with praises to God for the faith that works impossibilities.”

Ask God to give you the grace to use the faith you have. Peter had like precious faith. When you were saved it was by the like precious faith, wonderful faith.

Labels: 1939, Pentecostal Evangel

Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, January 17, 1942.

In the first chapter of Mark we read of John the Baptist who was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb. Because of this mighty infilling there was a mighty message on his lips. It was foretold of John by the prophet Isaiah, that be would be the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He was to lift up his voice with strength, and cry to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

And so we find John as he pointed to Jesus, crying out, “Behold the Lamb of God,” proclaiming Him the One of whom Abraham prophesied when he said to his son Isaac, “The Lord will provide Himself a lamb”—the Lamb of God and God the Lamb.

John was so filled with the Spirit of God that the cry he raised moved all Israel. This shows that when God gets hold of a man and fills him with the Spirit, he can have a cry, a message, a proclamation of the gospel that will move people. The man who does not have the Spirit of the Lord may cry for fifty years and nobody take notice of him. The man who is filled with the Spirit of God needs to cry out but once and people will feel the effect of it.

This should teach us that there is a necessity for everyone of us to be filled with the Spirit of God. It is not sufficient just to have a touch or to have usually a desire. There is only one thing that will meet the needs of the people today, and that is to be immersed in the life of God—God taking you and filling you with His Spirit, until you live right in God and God lives in you; so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, it shall be all for the glory of God. In that place you will find that all your strength and all your mind and all your soul are filled with zeal, not only for worship, but to proclaim the gospel message, a proclamation that is accompanied by the power of God which must defeat Satanic power, discomfit the world, and redound to the glory of God.

The reason the world today is not seeing Jesus is because Christian people are not filled with the Spirit of Christ. They are satisfied with going to church, occasionally reading the Bible, and sometimes praying. Beloved, if God lays hold of you by the Spirit, you will find that there is an end to everything of the old life. All the old things will have passed away, and all things will have become new—all things are of God. You will find that as you are wholly yielded to God, your whole being will be transformed by the divine indwelling. He will take you in hand so that you may become a vessel unto honor.

Our lives are not to be for ourselves, for if we live for self, we shall die. If we seek to save our lives we shall lose them, but if we lose our lives we shall save them. If we through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live, live a life of freedom and joy and blessing and service, a life that will bring blessing to others. God would have us to see that we must be filled with the Spirit, every day live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, and be continually renewed in the Spirit.

Study the life of Jesus. It was quite a natural thing for Him after He had served a whole day among the multitude, to want to go to His Father to pray all night. Why? He wanted a renewing of divine strength and power. He wanted fellowship with His Father. His Father would speak to Him the word that He was to bring to others, and would empower Him afresh for new ministry. He would come from those hours of sweet communion and fellowship with His Father, clothed with His holy presence and Spirit, and anointed with the Holy Spirit and power He would go about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the enemy.

When He met sickness it had to leave. He came from that holy time of communion with power to meet the needs of the people, whatever they were. It is an awful thing for me to see people who profess to be Christians lifeless and powerless. The place of holy communion is open to us all. There is a place where we can be daily refreshed and renewed and re-empowered.

In the 4th chapter of Hebrews we are told, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works.” Oh, what a blessed rest that is, to cease from your own works, to come to the place where God is now enthroned in your life, working in you day by day to will and to do His good pleasure, working in you an entirely new order of things.

God wants to bring you forth as a flame of fire, with a message from God, with a truth that shall defeat the powers of Satan, with an unlimited supply for every needy soul. So, just as John moved the whole of Israel with a mighty cry, you too by the power of the Holy Ghost will move the people so that they repent and cry, “What shall we do?”

This is what Jesus meant when He said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God... that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” If we only knew what these words mean to us, to be born of God! An infilling of the life of God, a new life from God, a new creation, living in the world but not of the world, knowing the blessedness of that word, “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” How shall we reach this place in the Spirit? By the provision of the Holy Spirit that He makes. If we live in the Spirit we shall find all that is carnal swallowed up in life. There is an infilling of the Spirit which quickens our mortal bodies.

Give God your life, and you will see that sickness has to go when God comes in fully. Then you are to walk before God, and you will find that He will perfect that which concerns you. That is the place where He wants believers to live, the place where the Spirit of the Lord comes into your whole being. That is the place of victory.

Look at the disciples. Before they received the Holy Spirit they were in bondage. When Christ said, “One of you shall betray Me,” they were all doubtful of themselves and said, “Is it I?” They were conscious of their human depravity and helplessness. Peter said, “Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee.” The others declared the same; yet they all forsook Him, and fled. But after the power of God fell upon them in the upper room, they were like lions to meet difficulty. They were bold. What made them so? The purity and power that is by the Spirit.

God can make you an overcomer. When the Spirit of God comes into your surrendered being He transforms you. There is a life in the Spirit that makes you free, and there is an audacity about it, and there is a personality in it—it is God in you.

God is able to so transform you and change you, that all the old order has to go before God’s new order. Do you think that God will make you to be a failure? God never made man to be a failure. He made man to be a son, to walk the earth in the power of the Spirit, master over the flesh and the devil, until nothing arises within him except that which will magnify and glorify the Lord.

Jesus came to set us free from sin, to free us from sickness, so that we should go forth in the power of the Spirit and minister to the needy, sick and affiicted. Through the revelation of the Word of God, we find that divine healing is solely for the glory of God, and that salvation is walking in newness of life so that we are inhabited by Another, even God.

Labels: 1942, Pentecostal Evangel

Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, May 28, 1932.

Jesus saith, “Be not afraid, only believe.” The people in whom God delights are the ones who rest upon His word without wavering. God has nothing for the man who wavers, for “let him that wavereth expect nothing from God.” Therefore I would like us to get this verse deep down into our hearts, until it penetrates every fibre of our being:

“Only believe! Only believe! All things are possible—ONLY BELIEVE.”

God has a plan for this meeting, beyond anything that we have ever known before. He has a plan for every individual life, and if we have any other plan in view, we miss the grandest plan of all! Nothing of the past is equal to the present, and nothing of the present can equal the things of tomorrow, for “tomorrow” should be so filled with holy expectations that we will be “living flames” for Him. God never intended His people to be ordinary, or commonplace; His intentions were that they should be on fire for Him, conscious of His divine power, realizing the glory of the Cross that foreshadows the Crown.

God has given us a very special scripture for this service:

“And in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint unto this business ... and the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip...”

During the time of the inauguration of the Church the disciples were hard pressed on all lines; the things of natural order could not be attended to, and many were complaining concerning the neglect of their widows. The disciples therefore decided upon a plan, which was to choose seven men to do the work—men who were “full of the Holy Ghost.” What a divine thought! No matter what kind of work was to be done, however menial it may have been, the person chosen must be filled with the Holy Ghost. The plan of the Church was that everything, even of natural order, must be sanctified unto God, for the Church had to be a Holy Ghost Church. Beloved, God has never ordained anything less! There is one thing that I want to stress in these meetings; that is, no mater what else may happen, first and foremost I would emphasize the question—

“Have you received the Holy Ghost since you belived?” “Are you filled with divine power?”

This is the heritage of the Church, to be so endued with power that God can lay His hand upon any member at any time to do His perfect will. There is no stop in the Spirit-filled life: we begin at the Cross, the place of ignominy, shame, and death, and that very death brings the power of resurrection life; and, being filled with the Holy Spirit, we go on “from glory to glory.” Let us not forget that possessing the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, means there must be an “ever-increasing” holiness. How the Church needs divine unction—God’s presence and power so manifest that the world will know it. The people know when the tide is flowing; they also know when it is ebbing.

The necessity that seven men be chosen for the position of “serving tables” was very evident. The disciples knew that these seven men were men ready for active service, and so they chose them. In the 5th verse, we read: “And the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip...” There were others, of course, but Stephen and Philip stand out most prominently in the Scriptures. Philip was a man so filled with the Holy Ghost that a revival always followed wherever he went. Stephen was a man so filled with divine power, that although serving tables might have been all right in the minds of the other disciples, yet, God had a greater vision for him—a baptism of fire, of power and divine unction, that took him on and on to the climax of his life, until he saw right into the open heavens.

Had we been there with the disciples at that time, I believe we should have heard them saying to each other, “Look here! neither Stephen nor Philip are doing the work we called them to. If they do not attend to business, we shall have to get someone else!” That was the natural way of thinking, but divine order is far above our finite planning. When we please God in our daily ministration, we shall always find in operation the fact “that everyone who is faithful in little, God will make faithful in much.” We have such an example right here—a man chosen to “serve tables,” having such a revelation of the mind of Christ and of the depth and height of God, that there was no stop in his experience, but a going forward with leaps and bounds. Beloved, there is a race to be run, there is a crown to be won; we cannot stand still! I say unto you, Be vigilant! Be vigilant! “Let no man take thy crown!”

God has privileged us in Christ Jesus to live above the ordinary human plane of life. Those who want to be ordinary, and live on a lower plane, can do so; but as for me, I will not! for the same unction, the same zeal, the same Holy Ghost power is at our command as was at the command of Stephen and the apostles. We have the same God that Abraham had, that Elijah had, and we need not come behind in any gift or grace. We may not possess the gifts, as abiding gifts, but as we are full of the Holy Ghost and divine unction, it is possible, when there is need, for God to manifest every gift of the Spirit through us. As I have already said, I do not mean by this that we should necessarily possess the gifts permanently, but there should be a manifestation of the gifts as God may choose to use us.

This ordinary man Stephen became mighty under the Holy Ghost anointing, until he stands supreme, in many ways, among the Apostles—“And Stephen full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.” As we go deeper in God, He enlarges our conception and places before us a wide-open door; and I am not surprised that this man chosen to “serve tables” was afterwards caIled to a higher plane. “What do you mean?” you may ask. “Did he quit this service?” No! but he was lost in the power of God. He lost sight of everything in the natural, and steadfastly fixed his gaze upon Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith,” until he was transformed into a shining light in the kingdom of God, Oh that we might be awakened to believe His word, to understand the mind of the Spirit, for there is an inner place of whiteness and purity where we can “see God.” Stephen was just as ordinary a man as you and I, but he was in the place where God could so move upon him that he, in turn, could move all before him. He began in a most humble place, and ended in a blaze of glory. Beloved, dare to believe Christ!

As you go on in this life of the Spirit, you will find that the devil will begin to get restless and there will be a stir in the synagogue; it was so with Stephen. Any amount of people may be found in the “synagogue,” who are very proper in a worldly sense—always correctly dressed, the elite of the land, welcoming into the church everything but the power of God. Let us read what God says about them:

“Then there arose certain in the synagogue, which is called the Synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians ... disputing with Stephen, and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.”

“The Libertines” could not stand the truth of God. With these opponents, Stephen found himself in the same predicament as the blind man whom Jesus healed. As soon as the blind man’s eyes were opened they shut him out of the synagogue. They will not have anybody in the “synagogue” with their eyes open; as soon as you receive spiritual eyesight, out you go! These Libertines, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, rose up full of wrath in the very place where they should have been full of the power of God, full of love divine, and reverence for the Holy Ghost; they rose up against Stephen, this man “full of the Holy Ghost.” Beloved, if there is anything in your life that in any way resists the power of the Holy Ghost and the entrance of His word into your heart and life, drop on your knees and CRY ALOUD for mercy! When the Spirit of God is brooding over your heart’s door, do not resist Him but open your heart to the touch of God, There is a resisting “unto blood” striving against sin, and there is a resisting of the Holy Ghost that will drive you into sin.

Stephen spoke with marked wisdom; where he was, things began to move. You will find that there is always a moving when the Holy Spirit has control. These people were brought under conviction by the message of Stephen, but they resisted, they did anything and everything to stifle that conviction. Not only did they lie, but they got others to lie against this man, who would have laid down his life for any one of them. Stephen was used to heal the sick, perform miracles, and yet they brought false accusations against him. What effect did it have on Stephen?

“And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.”

Something had happened in the life of this man, chosen for menial service, and he became mighty for God. How was it accomplished in him? It was because his aim was high; faithful in little, God brought him to full fruition. Under the inspiration of divine power by which he spoke, they could not but listen,—even the angels listened, as with holy prophetic utterance he spoke before that council. Beginning with Abraham and Moses, he continued unfolding the truth. What a marvelous exhortation! take your Bibles and read it, “listen in” as the angels listened in. As light upon light, truth upon truth, revelation upon revelation, found its way into their calloused hearts, they gazed at him in astonishment; their hearts perhaps became warm at times, and they may have said, “Truly, this man is sent of God,”—but when he hurled at them the truth:

“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers; who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.”—then what happened? These men were moved; they were “pricked to the heart, and gnashed upon him with their teeth.”

There are two marvelous occasions* in the Scriptures where the people were “pricked to the heart.” In the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, 37th verse, after Peter had delivered that inspired sermon on the Day of Pentecost, the people were “pricked to the heart” with conviction, and there were added to the Church three thousand souls. Here is Stephen, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and the men of this council being “pricked to the heart” rise up as one man to slay him. As you go down through this chapter, from the 55th verse, what a picture you have before you. As I close my eyes, I can get a vision of this scene in every detail—the howling mob with their vengeful, murderous spirit, ready to devour this holy man, and he “being full of the Holy Ghost,” gazed steadfastly into heaven. What did he see there? From his place of helplessness, he looked up and said:

“Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

Is that the position that Jesus went to take? No! He went to “sit” at the right hand of the Father; but in behalf of the first martyr, in behalf of the man with that burning flame of Holy Ghost power, God’s Son stood up in honorary testimony of him who, called to serve tables, was faithful unto death. But is that all? No! I am so glad that it is not all. As the stones came flying at him, pounding his body, crashing into his bones, striking his temple, mangling his beautiful face, what happened? How did this scene end? With that sublime, upward look, this man chosen for an ordinary task but filled with the Holy Ghost, was so moved upon by God that he finished his earthly work in a blaze of glory, magnifying God with his latest breath. Looking up into the face of the Master, he said:

“Lord Jesus, forgive them! Lay not this sin to their charge!” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Friends, it is worth dying a thousand deaths to gain that spirit. My God! what a divine ending to the life and testimony of a man that was “chosen to serve tables.”

*Actually one. Wigglesworth misquotes Acts 7:54.

Labels: 1932, Pentecostal Evangel