"Have you received the Holy Ghost? 'Twill fit you for the fight, 'Twill make of you a mighty host, To put your foes to flight. "Have you received the Holy Power? 'Twill fall from Heaven on you, From Jesus' throne this very hour, 'Twill make you brave and true. "Oh, now receive the Holy Fire! 'Twill burn away all dross, All earthly, selfish, vain desire, 'Twill make you love the Cross." "HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" XVII. PREACHING. "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" asks Paul. And then he declares: "After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." What kind of preaching is this? He does not say, "foolish preaching," but the foolishness of such a way as that of preaching. Certainly, it is not the moral essay, or the intellectual, or semi-intellectual, kind of preaching that is most generally heard throughout the world to-day, that is to save men; for thousands of such sermons move and convert no one: nor is it a mere noisy declamation called a sermon--noisy because empty of all earnest thought and true feeling; but it must be the kind of which Peter speaks when he writes of "them that preached the Gospel ... with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven" (1 Peter i. 12). No man is equipped to rightly preach the Gospel, and undertake the spiritual oversight and instruction of souls, till he has been anointed with the Holy Ghost. The disciples had been led to Jesus by John the Baptist, whose mighty preaching laid a deep and broad foundation for their spiritual education, and then for three years they had listened to both the public and private teachings of Jesus; they had been "eye-witnesses of His glory," of His life and death and resurrection, and yet He commanded them to tarry in Jerusalem, and wait for the Holy Spirit. He was to fit them for their ministry. And if they, trained and taught by the Master Himself, had need of the Holy Spirit to enable them to preach and testify with wisdom and power, how much more do you and I need His presence! Without Him they could do nothing. With Him they were invincible, and could continue the work of Jesus. The mighty energy of His working is seen in the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost. The sermon itself does not seem to have been very remarkable; indeed, it is principally composed of testimony backed up and fortified by Scripture quotations, followed by exhortation, just as are the sermons that are most effective to-day in the immediate conversion and sanctification of men. "True preaching," said Horace Bushnell, "is a testimony."