When Mr. Moody first went to London he preached in a Congregational Church, Sunday morning. There was no particular stir. That evening he spoke to a large audience of men in the same place, and scores expressed a desire to become Christians. He went to Dublin next day, but was recalled by a telegram saying that a great revival had broken out. And Mr. Moody accounts for this wonderful work of grace which followed by telling that, on that Sunday morning, a lady went home and told her invalid sister that Mr. Moody from America had preached. "I know what that means," said the invalid. "We are going to have a great revival. I have been praying for months that the Lord would send him here." She would not eat any dinner, but spent the day in fasting and prayer. The revival began in that invalid's room.
A gentleman waked his wife up at three o'clock in the morning to have her join him in prayer in behalf of a neighboring family who were unsaved; and at daybreak went to his neighbor's house to entreat them to yield to Christ.
When such concern for the perishing is manifested by the Church, there is sure to be a gracious ingathering.
STUDY XXI.
A PERSONAL PENTECOST.
Memory Verse: "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."—(Acts i, 8.)
Scripture for Meditation: Acts ii, 1-4; xix, 1-6.
But, above all, the soul-winner must have a personal Pentecost. Christ does not send us alone to seek the lost. In the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of St. John's Gospel, he definitely promises the Comforter. And again, on the day of his ascension, he bids his disciples tarry at Jerusalem until the Holy Ghost is come. Then as they waited, "with one accord in one place," "a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind filled all the house where they were sitting, ... and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." Since that day the one supreme qualification for Christ's witnesses is the enduement with the Holy Ghost. He will give a better knowledge of the Scriptures; he will re-enforce tact and earnestness and perseverance; he will give tenderness of heart and the burden for souls.