The Spirit of Christ

They who have the Spirit of Christ filling them and continuously animating them with new supplies of knowledge , courage , and decision , such as can be traced in the first disciples , succeed in bringing men into living contact with God . The disciples were first visited with a new unction before the blessing spread to the impenitent ; and to look for a great awakening among masses of men before the labourers or preachers of the truth are themselves recipients of the baptism of the Spirit , is to expect the end without the means . It was so at Pentecost . Nothing is so calculated to strike the heart of a callous age as the the arresting spectacle of men filled with the Spirit  -  the awe inspiring spectacle of of men whose hearts the Lord has won , openly separating themselves from the world , that they may invite and persuade men to accept the great salvation . Unless this fresh baptism is maintained in its intensity , or repeatedly renewed , declension will certainly ensue ; for to be content , like many declining churches , merely to hold a form of sound words , when the Spirit is forfeited or sinned away , is in the last degree delusive , and only like a removed landmark ,,ready to be swept away , or carried down a swollen river.

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