And, therefore, what a clamant and urgent need there is for love-fires
at which to kindle these souls that are heavy, and burdened, and cold.
And when the Holy Spirit is given to a man, and he is baptized with
fire, it must surely, first of all, be the fire of cordial, human
affection. And such is the teaching of experience. When John Wesley came
into the fulness of the divine blessing in a little service at
Aldersgate Street, London, he said that he "felt his heart strangely
warmed." He was receiving the gift of holy fire. And I cannot but think
that Charles Wesley was thinking about his brother's experience on that
day when he wrote his own immortal hymn which includes the prayerful
lines:
"Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold hearts of ours."
You find and feel the glow of that love-fire throughout the New
Testament Scriptures. They who have the most of God's Spirit have the
most of the fire. There was Barnabas, who was declared to be "full of
the Holy Spirit," and he is also described as "the son of consolation."
What a consummate title! Cannot we feel the love-fire burning and
glowing in all his ample ministry? Full of the Spirit, and therefore
full of consolation! The truth of the matter is this,--we cannot be much
with the Spirit of Christ, and not take fire from His presence. In these
high realms, communing is partaking, and we kindle to the same affection
as fills the heart of the Lord. "We love because He first loved us." His
fire lights our fire, and we burn in kindred passion. So do I proclaim
that when the fire of God falls upon our spirits the sacred gift kindles
and inflames the soul's affections. When we are baptized with the Holy
Ghost and with fire, we receive the glowing power of Christian love.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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