I
can almost see the two arm in arm, walking along, and as they walked,
there came along the chariot of fire, and before Elisha knew it,
Elijah was caught up, and as he went sweeping towards the throne, the
servant cried, "My Father! My Father! The chariot of Israel and the
horsemen thereof!" Elisha saw him no more. He picked up Elijah's
fallen mantle, and returning with that old mantle of his master's, he
came to the Jordan and cried for Elijah's God, and the waters
separated hither and thither, and he passed through dry-shod. Then the
watching prophets lifted up their voices and said, "The Spirit of
Elijah is upon Elisha;" and so it was, a double portion of it.

May the Spirit of Elijah, beloved reader, be upon us. If we seek for
it we will have it. Oh, may the God of Elijah answer by fire, and
consume the spirit of worldliness in the churches, burn up the dross,
and make us whole-hearted Christians. May that Spirit come upon us;
let that be our prayer in our family altars and in our closets. Let us
cry mightily to God that we may have a double portion of the Holy
Spirit, and that we may not rest satisfied with this worldly state of
living, but let us, like Sampson, shake ourselves and come out from
the world, that we may have the power of God.

CHAPTER III.

WITNESSING IN POWER.

A man may as well hew marble without tools, or paint without colors or
instruments, or build without materials, as perform any acceptable
service without the graces of the Spirit, which are both the materials
and the instruments in the work.--_Alleine_.

If we do not have the Spirit of God, it were better to shut the
churches, to nail up the doors, to put a black cross on them, and say,
"God have mercy on us!" If you ministers have not the Spirit of God,
you had better not preach, and you people had better stay at home. I
think I speak not too strongly when I say that a church in the land
without the Spirit of God is rather a curse than a blessing. If you
have not the Spirit of God, Christian worker, remember that you stand
in somebody else's way; you are as a tree bearing no fruit standing
where another fruitful tree might grow. This is solemn work; the Holy
Spirit or nothing, and worse than nothing. Death and condemnation to a
church that is not yearning after the Spirit, and crying and groaning
until the Spirit has wrought mightily in her midst. He is here; He has
never gone back since He descended at Pentecost. He is often