one home to God, and I heard her voice as plainly as I could hear the
voice of my friend at my side. Every vision of a mother in heaven, of
a child in the skies, is a call of God. He seeks to persuade us by
calamities. The Chicago theater horror, with its hundreds of women and
children dead and disfigured, was God's call to a great city and to the
world. This is the striving of the Spirit. Not with audible voice
does he speak to us but by means of impressions and convictions. Let
us not think for a moment that these come simply because the preacher
has influence and may possibly be possessed of a certain kind of genius
or power. These are God's warnings to us. Be careful, therefore, how
you resist them. Jesus said in John the sixteenth chapter the seventh
to the eleventh verses, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is
expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And
when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness
and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me; of
righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of
judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." The word
"_reprove_" is a judicial word. When the judge has heard the testimony
for or against the criminal and the arguments of the counsel, he
himself sums up the case and lays it before the jury, bringing out the
strong points or the weak ones in relation to the criminal. This is
reproving, and it is this that the Spirit does. He brings before us
Jesus Christ and then presents unto God our treatment of him, and so it
is easy to understand how the text could be true. "My spirit shall not
always strive with men."

2. How may we know that he is striving? There are very many ways.

(1) If the attention is aroused and centered upon religious subjects
and interests, then be careful how you treat God. The student who
finds his mind constantly escaping from his books to the thought of
eternity; the business man who cannot possibly escape the thought that
he owes God something and ought not to slight him, these have proofs
that the Spirit is striving.

After an evangelistic meeting which I recently conducted I received the
following letter, which clearly indicates the striving of the Spirit:

"I had not attended the church for years until to-night, but being a
visitor in C. and hearing that you were f