h thus established is of
immeasurable importance. Is it not glorious to be able to go literally
around the world and face audiences of believers all over the United
States, in the Sandwich Islands, in Australia and Tasmania and New
Zealand, in China and Japan and India, in England and Scotland, Ireland,
Germany, France and Switzerland and to be able to tell them, and to know
that you have God's sure Word under your feet when you do tell them, "You
may all be baptized with the Holy Spirit"? But that unspeakably joyous and
glorious thought has its solemn side. If we may be baptized with the Holy
Spirit then we _must_ be. If we are baptized with the Holy Spirit then
souls will be saved through our instrumentality who will not be saved if
we are not thus baptized. If then we are not willing to pay the price of
this baptism and therefore are not thus baptized we shall be responsible
before God for every soul that might have been saved who was not saved
because we did not pay the price and therefore did not obtain the
blessing. I often tremble for myself and for my brethren in the ministry,
and not only for my brethren in the ministry but for my brethren in all
forms of Christian work, even the most humble and obscure. Why? Because we
are preaching error? No, alas, there are many in these dark days who are
doing that, and I do tremble for them; but that is not what I mean now. Do
I mean that I tremble because we are not preaching the truth? for it is
quite possible not to preach error and yet not preach the truth; many a
man has never preached a word of error in his life, but still is not
preaching the truth, and I do tremble for them; but that is not what I
mean now. I mean that I tremble for those of us who are preaching the
truth, the very truth as it is in Jesus, the truth as it is recorded in
the written Word of God, the truth in its simplicity, its purity and its
fullness, but who are preaching it in "persuasive words of man's wisdom"
and not "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Cor. ii. 4, R.
V.). Preaching it in the energy of the flesh and not in the power of the
Holy Spirit. There is nothing more death dealing than the Gospel without
the Spirit's power. "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." It
is awfully solemn business preaching the Gospel either from the pulpit or
in more quiet ways. It means death or life to those that hear, and whether
it means death or life depends very largely on whether we