erson, as acts and deeds are
performed by Him which can not be performed by a machine, an
influence, or a result.

AGENT AND INSTRUMENT.

The Holy Spirit is closely identified with the words of the Lord
Jesus. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing,
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."
The Gospel proclamation can not be divorced from the Holy Spirit.
Unless He attend the word in power, vain will be the attempt in
preaching it. Human eloquence or persuasiveness of speech are the mere
trappings of the dead, if the living Spirit be absent; the prophet may
preach to the bones in the valley, but it must be the breath from
Heaven which will cause the slain to live.

In the third chapter of the First Epistle of Peter, it reads, "For
Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit."

Here we see that Christ was raised up from the grave by this same
Spirit, and the power exercised to raise Christ's dead body must raise
our dead souls and quicken them. No other power on earth can quicken a
dead soul, but the same power that raised the body of Jesus Christ out
of Joseph's sepulcher. And if we want that power to quicken our
friends who are dead in sin, we must look to God, and not be looking
to man to do it. If we look alone to ministers, if we look alone to
Christ's disciples to do this work, we shall be disappointed; but if
we look to the Spirit of God and expect it to come from Him and Him
alone, then we shall honor the Spirit, and the Spirit will do His
work.

SECRET OF EFFICIENCY.

I can not help but believe there are many Christians who want to be
more efficient in the Lord's service, and the object of this book is
to take up this subject of the Holy Spirit, that they may see from
whom to expect this power. In the teaching of Christ, we find the last
words recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, the 28th chapter and 19th
verse, "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Here we
find that the Holy Spirit and the Son are equal with the Father--are
one with Him, "teaching them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Christ was now handing His commission
over to His Apostles. He was going to leave them. His work on earth
was finished, and He was now