Now, the illustration which Christ used to Nicodemus was the wind. “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth.” Now, you cannot see the Spirit of God work in this audience; but I hope and pray He may be working now in the hearts of many, convincing them of sin! Do you believe more than ever that you are a sinner? Well, that is the work of the Holy Ghost. The devil never told you you are a sinner; he tries to make you believe that you are good enough. If you believe to-night that you have sinned against God, that is the work of the Holy Ghost. He is here at work. We cannot see Him, but there are a great many who know He is here. Suppose I should say, “I don’t believe in the wind, and that it must be all imagination; I have lived thirty-seven years, and have never seen the wind. It is folly for men to talk about the wind.” I can just imagine that boy there saying, “Why, I know more than that man; I know there is wind, for it blew my hat off this very day into the mud, and I have often felt it blowing in my face.” My friends, you have never felt the wind more than I have felt the Spirit of God. You have never seen the effects of the wind more than I have seen the effects of the Spirit of God, and of the working of the Holy Ghost, and there are hundreds of witnesses here who would testify the same thing. Yet this invisible power does its work in creation, and the mighty invisible power of God does its work effectively in the spiritual sphere.
New life in Christ means the breaking of old fetters.
GOD CAN CHANGE THE DRUNKARD.
It may be that I am talking now to some poor drunkard here. When he comes into his house his children listen, and hear by the footfall that their father is coming home drunk, and the little things run away and hide from him as if he was some horrid demon. His wife begins to tremble. Many a time has that great, strong arm been brought down on her weak, defenceless body. Many a day has she carried about marks from that man’s violence. He ought to be her protector, support, and stay; but he has become her tormentor. His home is like hell upon earth; there is no joy there. There may be one such here to-night who hears the good news that he can be born again, and receive a nature from heaven, and receive the Spirit of God. God can give him power to hurl the infernal cup from him. God will give him grace to trample Satan under his feet, and the drunkard will then become a sober man. Go to that house three months hence, and you find it neat and clean. As you draw near that home you hear singing; not the song of the drunkard, that is gone, all things have become new. He has been born of God, and is singing one of the songs of Zion:
“Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.”
Or perhaps he is singing that good old hymn that his mother taught him when he was a little boy:
“There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood