May 11

I will pour my spirit upon thy seed. — ISAIAH xliv. 3.

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. — LUKE xxiv. 49.

AFTER Christ had risen from the dead for our justification, and was ready for ascension and for coronation on his mediatorial throne, he appears to the apostles assembled in Jerusalem, gives them a charge and the promise of the Holy Ghost — “the promise of my Father,” “power from on high” — to come upon them while they tarry in the city. In obedience to this promise, early on the second Lord’s day after the ascension, “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Here began the new dispensation of the Holy Ghost, and here the Church starts off with one hundred and twenty spiritually baptized souls. Since Pentecost, his personal presence is the agent by whom all gracious and divine influences are communicated to man. He is omnipresent, and we cannot withdraw from his influence. He produces all internal religious experience, enlightens the understanding, purifies the purpose, influences the will, exalts the affections. All right feeling in the human heart is traceable directly or indirectly to the Holy Spirit. Our personal salvation and our personal usefulness depend upon heeding the Saviour’s injunction to tarry in the place of his appointment until we be “endued with power from on high.”

James M. Wing.

Grant this, O holy God and true,

The ancient seers thou didst inspire,

To us perform the promise due,

Descend, and crown us now with fire.

HENRY MORE (altered)