-_T. Goodwin_.

To unconverted persons, a great part of the Bible resembles a letter
written in cipher. The blessed Spirit's office is to act as God's
decipherer, by letting His people into the secret of celestial
experience, as the key and clew to those sweet mysteries of grace
which were before as a garden shut up, or as a fountain sealed, or as
a book written in an unknown character.--_Toplady_.

The greatest, strongest, mightiest plea for the Church of God in the
world is the existence of the Spirit of God in its midst, and the
works of the Spirit of God are the true evidences of Christianity.
They say miracles are withdrawn, but the Holy Spirit is the standing
miracle of the Church of God to-day. I will not say a word against
societies for Christian evidences, nor against those weighty and
learned brethren who have defended the outworks of the Christian
Church. They have done good service, and I wish them every blessing,
but as to my own soul, I never was settled in my faith in Christ by
Paley's Evidences, nor by all the evidence ever brought from history
or elsewhere; the Holy Spirit has taken the burden off my shoulders,
and given me peace and liberty. This to me is evidence, and as to the
externals which we can quote to others, it was enough for Peter and
John that the people saw the lame man healed, and they needed not to
speak for themselves.--_Spurgeon_.

POWER--ITS SOURCE.

"Without the soul, divinely quickened and inspired, the observances of
the grandest ritualism are as worthless as the motions of a galvanized
corpse."--_Anon_.

I QUOTE this sentence, as it leads me at once to the subject under
consideration. What is this quickening and inspiration? What is this
power needed? From whence its source? I reply: The Holy Spirit of God.
I am a full believer in "The Apostles' Creed," and therefore "I
believe in the Holy Ghost."

A writer has pointedly asked: "What are our souls without His grace?--as
dead as the branch in which the sap does not circulate. What is the
Church without Him?--as parched and barren as the fields without the
dew and rain of heaven."

There has been much inquiry of late on the subject of the Holy Spirit.
In this and other lands thousands of persons have been giving
attention to the study of this grand theme. I hope it will lead us all
to pray for a greater manifestation of His power upon the whole Church
of God. How much we have dishonored Him in the past! How ignorant of