Secret Power; or, The Secret of Success in Christian Life and WorkMoody, Dwight Lyman
Religion
Secret Power; or, The Secret of Success in Christian Life and Work
Moody, Dwight Lyman
Baptism in the Holy Spirit; Christian life; Holy Spirit
It is possible a man may just barely have life and be satisfied; and I
think that a great many are in that condition. In the 3d chapter of
John we find that Nicodemus came to Christ and that he received life.
At first this life was feeble. You don't hear of him standing up
confessing Christ boldly, and of the Spirit coming upon him in great
power, though possessing life through faith in Christ. And then turn
to the 4th chapter of John, and you will find it speaks of the woman
coming to the well of Samaria, and Christ held out the cup of
salvation to her and she took it and drank, and it became in her "a
well of water springing up into everlasting life." That is better than
in the 3d chapter of John; here it came down in a flood into her soul;
as some one has said, it came down from the throne of God, and like a
mighty current carried her back to the throne of God. Water always
rises to its level, and if we get the soul filled with water from the
throne of God it will bear us upward to its source.
But if you want to get the best class of Christian life portrayed,
turn to the 7th chapter and you will find that it says he that
receiveth the Spirit, through trusting in the Lord Jesus, "out of him
shall flow rivers of living water." Now there are two ways of digging
a well. I remember, when a boy, upon a farm, in New England, they had
a well, and they put in an old wooden pump, and I used to have to pump
the water from that well upon wash-day, and to water the cattle; and I
had to pump and pump and pump until my arm got tired, many a time. But
they have a better way now; they don't dig down a few feet and brick
up the hole and put the pump in, but they go down through the clay and
the sand and the rock, and on down until they strike what they call a
lower stream, and then it becomes an artesian well, which needs no
labor, as the water rises spontaneously from the depths beneath.
Now I think God wants all His children to be a sort of artesian well;
not to keep pumping, but to flow right out. Why, haven't you seen
ministers in the pulpit just pumping, and pumping and pumping? I have,
many a time, and I have had to do it, too. I know how it is. They
stand in the pulpit and talk and talk and talk, and the people go to
sleep, they can't arouse them. What is the trouble? Why, the living
water is not there; they are just pumping when there is no water in
the well. You can't get water out of a dry well; you have to get
something in the well, or you can't get anything out. I have seen
these wooden pumps where you had to pour water into them before you
could pump any water out, and so it is with a good many people; you
have to get something in them before you can get any out. People
wonder why it is that they have no Spiritual power. They stand up and
talk in meeting, and don't say anything; they say they haven't
anything to say, and you find it out soon enough; they need not state
it; but they just talk, because they feel it is a duty, and say
nothing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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