, in
utter thoughtlessness, or from perversity or coarseness, or any induced
depravity of taste, allows any evil spirit to bear rule in his life, our
prayer for such an one to-day is that the baptism of fire may descend
upon his soul, and the power of a new spirit be felt in it.

And indeed there is not one of us but needs to come at such a time with
this same prayer for his own life; for our own experience is too often
very like the vision of Ezekiel. Under the influences that come between
us and the Spirit of the living God, our soul is in continual danger of
being like the prophet's valley of dry bones, which lay lifeless,
unmoved, till the breath of the Lord breathed over them, and the breath
came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an
exceeding great army.

So we pray that our life may prove responsive to these influences of the
Pentecostal season. And the first response it gives is when it rises up
in the consciousness of the Spirit of God as a living power in the heart,
a power to drive out evil, and to inspire and strengthen us for what is
good.

And if, under the inspiring associations of this historic and holy day,
you feel your soul touched with a new spirit or consciousness rising up
in you from the grave of its own dead self to new desires and new
thoughts, and a new sense of the living nearness of the Holy Ghost the
Comforter, then you know--and you need no prophet to tell you--that the
Pentecostal gift has not failed, and there is good hope that you will not
spoil either your youth or your manhood with any form of ignoble life.

XIX. SANCTIFIED FOR SERVICE.

"We are labourers together with God; ye are God's husbandry; ye are
God's building."--1 COR. iii. 9.

In this passage St. Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for that spirit of
party which was dividing them into followers of this or that teacher and
so destroying their unity in Christ. You do not belong, he says, to Paul
or to Apollos; _we_ have no claim upon you; ye are not to be called by
_our_ name: you are _God's_ husbandry, and _God's_ building, not ours; we
are but labourers in His service and ministers for your good. Therefore,
see to it that you live as one society in Christ Jesus, discarding all
divisions, factions, and party passions and watchwords, imbued with one
spirit. It is a noble exhortation to unity of life and purpose; but we
may notice in it more than this.

As Paul himself disclaims