E. H. TUNBRIDGE WELLS, _August_ 29_th_, 1877. A SERMON. ‘Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me.’—_Acts_, i. 8. IT is said of the saints of God in the Old Testament, that ‘out of weakness they were made strong,’ and none of us who are called to God’s ministry can think for one moment of our work and our weakness without the deepest sense of our own need of that same gift. We have a work of infinite importance. We are called to be God’s instruments in making known that which God has wrought at no less a price than the most precious blood of His well-beloved Son. We have to encounter the threefold antagonism of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and we ourselves are poor weak creatures, so weak that we are quite unable to stand alone, and so utterly fallen that we cannot preserve ourselves even for an hour. It follows, therefore, that we all stand in need of power from God. And whatever be our position, whether in the ministry or out of it, whether laymen, deacons, presbyters, or bishops, we all require to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. If ever the need of this strength was felt it must be felt now, now that we are passing through the perilous times of the latter days; and if there be any office in the whole world which appears to require it more than another, it is the sacred office to which my dear friend is this day admitted, the holy office of a Bishop in the Church of God. But, thanks to God! there is provision made in the Gospel for weakness as well as for sin; and the result is, that the promise of power was almost the last promise made by our blessed Lord before He left us, so that just before His ascension He said, ‘Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me.’ Now the Holy Ghost came on the Church at Pentecost, and as there has never been said one word about His being withdrawn, we are warranted in looking for that power now, and in spreading out our weakness before His throne, in full assurance that according to His promise He Himself will give power for His work. Let us study, then, two points—1st, the purpose, and 2ndly, the source of the power; and while we study, may we by God’s great grace be permitted to experience the gift! I. The purpose: ‘Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.’ It in clear, therefore, that the power is a power of testimony, and that its great object is to enable us to be witnesses unto the Lord Jesus Christ.