se of My Father upon you_; but tarry ye
in the city of Jerusalem until ye be _endued with power from on
high_."--ST. LUKE xxiv. 49.

"Ye shall receive _power_, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you."--ACTS i. 8.

To-day we are celebrating the last of the series of historical festivals
which mark the springtime of our Christian year. And without this one
the rest would leave us with a sense of incompleteness; for we should be
without its gift of the abiding and indwelling Spirit, and the fulfilment
of the last promise.

What, then, are we learning of its practical lessons, and gathering into
our life? We have read the Pentecostal narrative, and others that
illustrate it. We have sung Pentecostal hymns. We have joined in
special prayer for the light of the Holy Spirit to shine in our hearts,
giving us a right judgment; and if we are led to ask, "To what purpose is
all this?" the answer is to be seen in the texts I have just read to you,
the burden of which is the gift of power from on high. Do we not
recognise this as the end of the New Testament revelation? And do we not
acknowledge that this revelation fails, so far as we are concerned, if it
gives us no such _power_? It is, indeed, in considering this power of
the Spirit that we touch to the quick the real influence of religion in
the practical life of men; for experience shows that it is possible for a
man to be endowed with almost every other gift and yet to lack this
one--this indwelling gift of the Holy Ghost the Comforter.

Our life is filled with almost everything we could ask or require to
enlighten us or to guide and direct, and yet it fails sometimes.

It may be failing in some of us here to-day, just from want of this
Divine spark, this influence of a Spirit from above taking up His abode
in us, burning and shining in our hearts so as to purge our affections
from sinful taint and purify our tastes, lifting up and enlarging our
capacities, and rousing our energies--in one word, fusing all our life
into a new form with its refining power.

And the question of all questions for each of us to consider is, "How am
I to make my life the home and embodiment of this power from above?" If
we turn to our Lord's own example, or to the life of Paul or any other of
His followers, or to any life we have known and felt to breathe around it
this same power of the Spirit, some things become at once very obvious
and clear to us.

That supreme e