es that I
left years ago; I would not think of spending a night that way; it is
a waste of time; there is hardly a chance to say a word for the
Master. If you talk of a personal Christ, your company becomes
offensive; they don't like it; they want you to talk about the world,
about a popular minister, a popular church, a good organ, a good
choir, and they say, "Oh, we have a grand organ, and a superb choir,"
and all that, and it suits them; but that don't warm the Christian
heart. When you speak of a risen Christ and a personal Saviour, they
don't like it; the fact is, the world has come into the church and
taken possession of it, and what we want to do is to wake up and ask
God to forgive us for "Grieving the Spirit."

Dear reader, search your heart and inquire, Have I done anything to
grieve the Spirit of God? If you have, may God show it to you to-day;
if you have done any thing to grieve the Spirit of God, you want to
know it to-day, and get down on your face before God and ask Him to
forgive you and help you to put it away. I have lived long enough to
know that if I can not have the power of the Spirit of God on me to
help me to work for Him, I would rather die, than live just for the
sake of living. How many are there in the church to-day, who have been
members for fifteen or twenty years, but have never done a solitary
thing for Jesus Christ? They can not lay their hands upon one solitary
soul who has been blessed through their influence; they can not point
to-day to one single person who has ever been lifted up by them.

QUENCH NOT.

In 1st Thessalonians, 5th chapter, we are told not to Quench the Spirit.
Now, I am confident the cares of the world are coming in and quenching
the Spirit with a great many. They say: "I don't care for the world;"
perhaps not the _pleasures_ of the world so much after all as the _cares_
of this life; but they have just let the cares come in and quench the
Spirit of God. Anything that comes between me and God--between my soul
and God--quenches the Spirit. It may be my family. You may say: "Is
there any danger of my loving my family too much?" Not if we love God
more; but God must have the first place. If I love my family more than
God, then I am quenching the Spirit of God within me; if I love wealth,
if I love fame, if I love honor, if I love position, if I love pleasure,
if I love self, more than I love God who created and saved me, then I am
committing a sin; I am not only