"Crispus … believed … and many of the Corinthians hearing
believed." Acts xviii. 8.
"So mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed." Acts xix. 18-20.
We often hear of discussions on the "lapsed masses." "Why have the masses of the people lapsed from the Churches?" Perhaps the more correct way of putting it would be, Why have the Churches lapsed from the masses? The answer is not far to seek—because they have lost the driving power which alone could keep them abreast of the masses, even the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. The conditions were just as unfavorable in the first century as in the nineteenth, and yet we read, "So mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed." It is positively painful to see the substitutes that are being tried to-day for the power of the Holy Ghost. Miserable substitutes are they all! One Church is trying this plan, another that, and not one of them has found a new plan that is a permanent success. They are floundering, and some of them are foundering, and no wonder. It will be no loss to the kingdom of God if Churches which ignore the Holy Ghost should founder. Let us get back to Pentecostal methods. The trouble is that the Churches have lost their way to that "upper room." Let a Church only find her way back there and obtain her Pentecost; let pulpit and pew be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, and the people will come running in to see the burning. That Church will not need to cater for amusements as a bait to catch the masses, but the people will come crowding into her pews, climbing into them as Zacchæus climbed into the branches of that sycamore tree when he wanted to see the Lord; for the people still want "to see Jesus," and they have heard that He is "to pass that way." We cannot improve on Pentecost's methods for reaching the masses.
4. Persecution.
Yet another effect of the Fullness of the Spirit must be mentioned, viz., Persecution.
"Others mocking said, They are filled with new wine." Acts ii. 13.
"They laid hands on them and put them in ward." Acts iv. 3.
"Let us threaten them." Acts iv. 17.
"They laid hands on the apostles and put them in public ward." Acts v. 18.
"And were minded to slay them." Acts v. 33.