Peter's Scripture quotations were apt, fitting the occasion and
the people to whom they were addressed. The testimony was bold
and joyous, the rushing outflow of a warm, fresh throbbing
experience; and the exhortation was burning, uncompromising in
its demands, and yet tender and full of sympathy and love. But a
Divine Presence was at work in that vast, mocking, wondering
throng, and it was He who made Peter's simple words search like
fire, and carry such overwhelming conviction to the hearts of the
people.
And it is still so that whenever and wherever a man preaches
"with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven," there will be
conviction.
Under Peter's sermon "they were pricked in their hearts." The
truth pierced them as a sword until they said, "What shall we
do?" They had been doubting and mocking a short time before, but
now they were earnestly inquiring the way to be saved.
The speech may be without polish, the manner uncouth, and the
matter simple and plain; but conviction will surely follow any
preaching in the burning love and power and contagious joy of the
Holy Spirit.
A few years ago a poor black boy in Africa, who had been stolen
for a slave, and most cruelly treated, heard a missionary talking
of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and his heart hungered and
thirsted for Him. In a strange manner he worked his way to New
York to find out more about the Holy Spirit, getting the captain
of the ship and several of the crew converted on the way. The
brother in New York to whom he came took him to a meeting the
first night he was in the city, and left him there, while he went
to fulfil another engagement. When he returned at a late hour, he
found a crowd of men at the penitent-form, led there by the
simple words of this poor black fellow. He took him to his
Sunday-school, and put him up to speak, while he attended to some
other matters. When he turned from these affairs that had
occupied his attention for only a little while, he found the
penitent-form full of teachers and scholars, weeping before the
Lord. What the black boy had said he did not know; but he was
bowed with wonder and filled with joy, for it was the power of
the Holy Spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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