And they that do _not_ believe upon Him--what of them? The fire is of no advantage to them. Some of you do as people in Swiss villages do where there is a conflagration--you cover over your houses with incombustible felts or other materials, and deluge them with water, in the hope that no spark may light on you. There is no way by which the fire can do its work on us except our opening our hearts for the Firebringer. When He comes He brings the vital spark with Him, and He plants it on the hearth of our hearts. Trust in Him, believe far more intensely than the most of Christian people of this day do in the reality of the gift of supernatural divine life from Jesus Christ. I do believe that hosts of professing Christians have no firm grip of this truth, and, alas! very little verification of it in their lives. Your heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. 'Covet earnestly the best gifts'; and take care that you do not put the fire out--'quench not the Holy Spirit,' as you will do if you 'fulfil the lusts of the flesh.' I remember once being down in the engine-room of an ocean-going steamer. There were the furnaces, large enough to drive an engine of five or six thousand horsepower. A few yards off there were the refrigerators, with ice hanging round the spigots that were put in to test the temperature. Ah! that is like many a Christian community, and many an individual Christian. Here is the fire; there is the frost. Brethren, let us seek to be baptized with fire, lest we should be cast into it, and be consumed by it. END OP VOL. I. VOLUME II: ST. LUKE _Chaps. XIII to XXIV_ CONTENTS TRUE SABBATH OBSERVANCE (Luke xiii. 10-17) THE STRAIT GATE (Luke xiii. 22-30). CHRIST'S MESSAGE TO HEROD (Luke xiii. 32, 33) THE LESSONS OF A FEAST (Luke xiv. 1-14) EXCUSES NOT REASONS (Luke xiv. 18) THE RASH BUILDER (Luke xiv. 28) THAT WHICH WAS LOST (Luke xv. 4, 8, 11) THE PRODIGAL AND HIS FATHER (Luke xv. 11-24) GIFTS TO THE PRODIGAL (Luke xv. 22, 23) THE FOLLIES OF THE WISE (Luke xvi. 8) TWO KINDS OF RICHES (Luke xvi. 10-12) THE GAINS OF THE FAITHFUL STEWARD (Luke xvi. 12) DIVES AND LAZARUS (Luke xvi. 19-31) MEMORY IN ANOTHER WORLD (Luke xvi 25) GOD'S SLAVES (Luke xvii. 9-10) WHERE ABE THE NINE? (Luke xvii. 11-19) THREE KINDS OF PRAYING (Luke xviii. 1-14) ENTERING THE KINGDOM (Luke xviii. 15-30) THE MAN THAT STOPPED JESUS (Luke xviii. 40-41) MELTED BY KINDNESS (Luke xix. 5) THE TRADING SERVANTS (Luke xix. 16, 18) THE REWARDS OF THE TRADING SERVANTS (Luke xix. 17,19) A NEW KIND OP KING (Luke xix. 37-48) TENANTS WHO WANTED TO BE OWNERS (Luke xx. 9-19) WHOSE IMAGE AND SUPERSCRIPTION? (Luke xx. 24) WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE? (Luke xxi. 20-36) THE LORD'S SUPPER (Luke xxii. 7-20) PARTING PROMISES AND WARNINGS (Luke xxii. 24-37) CHRIST'S IDEAL OF A MONARCH (Luke xxii. 25, 26) THE LONELY CHRIST (Luke xxii. 28) A GREAT FALL AND A GREAT RECOVERY (Luke xxii. 32) GETHSEMANY (Luke xxii. 39-58)