Come From the Four Winds, O Breath!

Come From the Four Winds, O Breath!

(No. 2246)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 6, 1892.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 15,
1890.

"He said to me, Prophesy unto the wind, son of man, and say to the
wind, Thus says the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O Breath, and
breathe upon these slain, that they may live." Ezekiel 37:9.

ACCORDING to some commentators, this vision in the valley of dry bones
may refer to three forms of resurrection. Holy Scripture is so
marvelously full of meaning that one interpretation seldom exhausts its
message to us. The chapter before us is an excellent example of this
fact and supplies an illustration of several Scriptural Truths of God.

Some think they see, here, a parable of the resurrection of the dead.
Assuredly, Ezekiel's vision pictures what will happen in the day when
"the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised." No matter how
dry the bones may be, the bodies of those who sleep in the dust of the
earth shall rise again. That which was sown shall spring up from the
grave and, in the case of the children of God, it shall wear a new
glory. At the Word of Christ it shall come to pass–"For the hour is
coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and
shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of
life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation."

Others see here the resurrection of the almost destroyed host of Israel
which had been divided into two companies and carried away captive into
Babylon. Plague and pestilence and the sword of the Chaldean had gone
far to cut off the chosen nation, but God promised to restore His
people, thus mingling mercy with judgment, and again setting in the
cloud the bow of His Everlasting Covenant. A partial fulfillment of
this promise was given when, for a while, the Lord set up, again, the
tribes of Israel at Jerusalem and they had a happy rest before the
coming of Christ. But Israel's full restoration is yet to be
accomplished. The people shall be gathered out of the graves in which,
as a nation, they have so long lain buried, and shall be placed in
their own land–and then will come to pass the Word of Jehovah–"Then
shall you know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, says
the Lord."

There are others, who, looking beyond the literal for the spiritual
teaching, see, and I think, rightly see, that here is a picture of the
recovery of ungodly men from their spiritual death and corruption–a
parable of the way in which sinners are brought up from their hopeless,
spiritually dead condition and made to live by the power of the Holy
Spirit. I shall, at any rate, use the text in this sense, for I am not
now aiming at the interpretation of prophesy, nor concerned greatly
with what is to happen in the future. Neither do I wish to conduct you
into the deep things of God, but I am just now thinking of practical
uses to which I can put this incident in order to stir up God's people
to deal with the Holy Spirit as He should be dealt with, and to urge
the unconverted to seek the Lord in the hope that some of them, as dead
and dry as the bones in the Valley of Vision, may be made to live by
His Divine Power.

Nothing gave me greater comfort, this week, than when I received a note
from one saying that, last Thursday night, while I was preaching from
the text, "Let your soul delight itself in fatness," she was enabled to
lay hold on Christ. I had rather have such tidings than to hear the
most glad news of a worldly kind that could be brought to me! Oh, that
now, also, some poor heart may find rest in Christ while we are talking
of that Divine Spirit who becomes a Comforter to all those to whom He
has been first a Quickener! May He come and cause men to live and then,
afterwards, make them full of gladness! It is His blessed office first,
to bestow life, and then to give light. Living unto God is the earliest
experience of the redeemed–afterwards comes joy in God by the Holy
Spirit.

I. Now, first, in using this text, as I have said, for practical
purposes, I am going to make this remark upon it–WE ARE NOTHING
WITHOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT. I now speak, my Brothers, to you who love the
souls of men. I know that there are some among you who preach and teach
with all earnestness, with broken-hearted love and, for the glory of
Christ, you try to bring men to believe in Jesus. In thus endeavoring
to save the souls of the lost and ruined men, you are engaged in a
noble work. But I dare say that you have often felt what I, also, fully
realize, that you have not gone far in your holy service before you are
brought face to face with the fact that, in itself, the work you
propose to do is an utter impossibility!

We begin our labor according to the Word of the Lord and we prophesy.
God helping us, we can do that and, though the burden of the Lord is
heavy, yet if we are told to prophesy again, we can, by His Grace, do
that, also. We can prophesy to dry bones, or prophesy to the wind
according to God's commandment. We are not afraid of seeming to be
foolish since we know that when "the world by wisdom knew not God, it
pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe." But when we preach the Word and, as the result of our
preaching expect men to be saved–and so saved that we may know it–we
come, all of a sudden, upon an iron-bound coast and can get no further.
We find that men are dead–what is needed is that they should be
quickened–and we cannot quicken them! There are a great many things we
can do–and God forbid that we should leave one of them undone! But
when we come to the creation of life, we have reached a mysterious
region into which we cannot penetrate–we have entered the realm of
miracles where Jehovah reigns supreme!

The prerogative to give life or to take it away must remain with the
Most High. The wit and wisdom of man are altogether powerless to bestow
life upon even the tiniest insect! We know for sure,, doctrinally, and
we know it with equal certainty by experience, that we can do nothing
towards the quickening of men apart from the Spirit of God. If He does
not come and give life, we may preach till we have not another breath
left, but we shall not raise from the tomb of sin even the soul of a
little child, or bring a single sinner to the feet of Christ!

How, then, should this fact affect us? Because of our powerlessness,
shall we sit still, doing nothing and caring nothing? Shall we say,
"The Spirit of God must do the work, therefore I may fold my arms and
take things easy"? Beloved, we cannot do that! Our heart's desire and
prayer for our fellow men is that they might be saved and we have
sometimes felt that for their sakes, we could almost be willing to be
accursed, if we might bring eternal life to them! We cannot sit still!
We do not believe that it was God's intent that any Truth of God should
ever lead us into sloth–at any rate, it has not so led us, by His
Grace–it has carried us in quite the opposite direction!

Let us try to be as practical in this matter as we are in material
things. We cannot rule the winds, nor create them. A whole parliament
of philosophers could not cause a capful of wind to blow. The sailor
knows that he can neither stop the tempest nor raise it. What then?
Does he sit still? By no means! He has all kinds of sails of different
cuts and forms to enable him to use every ounce of wind that comes–and
he knows how to reef or furl them in case the tempest becomes too
strong for his boat. Though he cannot control the movement of the wind,
he can use what it pleases God to send. The miller cannot divert that
great stream of water out of its channel, but he knows how to utilize
it–he makes it turn his mill-wheel. Though he cannot resist the law of
gravitation, for there seems to be an almost omnipotent force in it,
yet he uses that law and yokes it to his chariot! Thus, though we
cannot command that mighty influence which streams from the Omnipotent
Spirit of God; though we cannot turn it which way we will, for, "the
wind blows where it wishes," yet we can make use of it and, in our
inability to save men, we turn to God and lay hold of His power.

What, then, are we to do? Face to face with spiritual death. Conscious
of the fact that we cannot remove it. And fully aware that only the
Holy Spirit can quicken dead souls, what shall we do? There are certain
ways and means by which we can act properly towards this Divine
Person–certain attitudes of heart which it would be well for us to
take up–and certain results which will follow from a clear
apprehension of the true state of the case.

First, by this fact, we must feel deeply humbled, emptied and cut
adrift from self. Look, Sir, you may study your sermon. You may examine
the original of your text. You may critically follow it out in all its
bearings. You may go and preach it with great correctness of
expression, but you cannot quicken a soul by that sermon! You may go up
into your pulpit. You may illustrate, explain and enforce the Truth of
God with mighty rhetoric. You may charm your hearers– you may hold
them spellbound–but no eloquence of yours can raise the dead!
Demosthenes might stand for a century between the jaws of death, but
the monster would not be moved by anything he or all human orators
might say!

Another voice than ours must be heard! Another power than that of
thought or persuasion must be brought into the work or it will not be
done! You may organize your societies; you may have excellent methods;
you may diligently pursue this course and that, but when you have done
it all, nothing comes of it if the effort stands by itself! Only as the
Spirit of God shall bless men by you, shall they receive a blessing
through you! Whatever your ability or experience, it is the Spirit of
God who must bless your labor. Therefore, never go to a service with a
boast upon your lips of what you can do, or with the slightest trace of
self-confidence–or else you will go in a spirit which will prevent the
Holy Spirit from working with or through you.

O Brothers and Sisters, think nothing of us who preach to you! If ever
you do, our power will be gone. If you begin to suppose that such and
such a minister, having been blessed of God to so many thousands will
necessarily be the means of the conversion of your friend, you are
imputing to a son of man what belongs only to the Son of God! And you
will assuredly do that pastor or that minister a serious mischief by
tolerating in your heart so idolatrous a thought! We are nothing! You
are nothing. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the
Lord of Hosts," is a message that should make us lie in the dust and
utterly despair of doing anything in and of ourselves, seeing that all
the power is of God, alone! It will do us good to be very empty, to be
very weak, to be very distrustful of self–and so to go about out
Master's work.

Next, because of our absolute need of the Holy Spirit, we must give
ourselves to prayer before our work and after our work. A man who
believes that, do what he may, no soul will be quickened apart from the
work of the Spirit of God–a man who has a longing desire that he may
save souls will not venture to his pulpit without prayer! He will not
deliver his message without a thousand groans and cries to God for help
in every sentence that he utters. And when the sermon is done, his work
will not be done–it will have scarcely begun–his sermons will be but
a text for long-continued prayer! He will be crying to God continually
to anoint him with the heavenly oil. His prayer will be, "Let the
Spirit of God be upon me, that I may preach deliverance to the
captives; otherwise men will still remain in the prison house in spite
of all my

toil."

And you, Beloved, as you believe that doctrine, will not allow the
preacher to go to his work without your prayers! You will bear him up
in your supplications, feeling that your attendances at the House of
God will all be vanity, and the coming together of the people will be
as nothing unless God, the Holy Spirit, is pleased to bless the Word!
This thought will drive you to besiege the Throne of Grace with strong
crying and tears that God would quicken the dead sons of men. If any of
you are working without prayer, I will not advise you to cease your
work, but I will urge you to begin to pray, not merely as a matter of
form, but as the very life of your labors! Let the habit of prayer be
constant with you, so that you neither begin any service for God, nor
carry it on, nor conclude it without crying to the Lord for His Holy
Spirit to make the work effectual by His almighty power!

We have already gathered much instruction from this Truth of God if we
have learned to lie low before the Lord and before the Mercy Seat. But
we must go a little further. Since everything depends upon the Spirit
of God, we must be very careful to be such men as the Spirit of God can
use. We may not judge others, but have you not met with men whom you
could not think the Spirit of God would be likely to bless? If a man is
self-sufficient, can the Spirit of God, to any large degree, bless him?
If a man is inconsistent in his daily life; if there is no earnestness
about him; if you cannot tell when he is in character or creed; if he
contradicts one day what he said the day before; if he is vain-glorious
and boastful, is it likely that the Spirit of God will bless him?

If any of us should become lazy, indolent, or self-indulgent, we cannot
expect the Spirit, whose one aim is to glorify Christ, to work with us!
If we should become proud, domineering, hectoring, how could the gentle
Dove abide with us? If we should become despondent, having little or no
faith in what we preach and not expecting the power of the Holy Spirit
to be with us, is it likely that God will bless us? Believe me, dear
Friends, that a vessel fit for the Master's use must be very clean. It
need not be of silver or of gold–it may be but a common earthen
vessel, but it must be very clean–for our God is a jealous God. He can
spy a fingerprint where our eyes could not see it, even with a
microscope–and He will not drink out of a vessel which a moment before
was at the lips of Satan! He will not use us if we have been used by
self, or if we have allowed ourselves to be used by the world. Oh, how
clean should we be in our private life as well as in our ordinary walk
and conversation! This is no small thing. See to it, my Brothers and
Sisters, for much of the promised blessing may depend upon your
carefulness.

Next, since we depend wholly upon the Spirit, we must be most anxious
to use the Word of God and to keep close to the Truth of God in all our
work for Christ among men. The Word of God is the Holy Spirit's
sword–he will not wield our wooden weapons. He will only use this true
Jerusalem blade of God's own fashioning. Let us, then, set high value
on the Inspired Word. We shall defeat our adversaries by that
sword-thrust, "It is written." So spoke the Christ; and so He conquered
Satan. So also the Holy Spirit speaks. Be wise, therefore, and let your
reliance be not on your own wisdom, but on the Word to which you can
add, "Thus says the Lord." If our preaching is of that kind, the Holy
Spirit will always set His seal to it. But if you have thought it out
and it is your own production, go, good Sir, to Her Majesty's offices,
and get patent letters for your invention–the Holy Spirit will have
nothing to do with it! He cares nothing about your "original mind." Our
Lord Jesus laid aside all originality and spoke only the Words of His
Father–the Words which the Holy Spirit brought to Him!

He said to His disciples, in that memorable discourse, before He went
out to Gethsemane, "The Word which you hear is not Mine, but the
Father's which sent Me." Let us try to imitate Him, being willing not
to think our own thoughts, or to speak our own words, but those which
God shall give us! I would rather speak five words out of this Book
than 50,000 words of the philosophers! I had rather be a fool with God
than be a wise man with the most sage scientist, for, "the foolishness
of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than
men." You cannot work for Christ except by the Spirit of Christ, and
you cannot teach for Christ except you teach Christ! Your work will
have no blessing upon it, unless it is God's Word spoken through your
lips to the sons of men! If we want revivals, we must revive our
reverence for the Word of God. If we want conversions, we must put more
of God's Word into our sermons–even if we paraphrase it into our own
words, it must still be His Word upon which we place our reliance–for
the only power which will bless men lies in that. It is God's Word that
saves souls, not our comment upon it, however correct that comment may
be! Let us, then, be scrupulously careful to honor the Holy Spirit by
taking the weapon which He has prepared for us, believing in the full
Inspiration of the sacred Scriptures and expecting that God will prove
their Inspiration by their effect upon the minds and hearts of men.

Again, since we are nothing without the Holy Spirit, we must avoid in
our work anything that us not of Him. We want these dead people raised,
but we cannot raise them–only the Spirit of God can do that. Now, in
our part of the work, for which God condescendingly uses us, let us
take care that there is nothing which would grieve the Spirit, or cause
Him to go away from us. I believe that in places where the work of
conversion goes on in great numbers, God is much more jealous than He
is anywhere else. He watches His Church and if He sees, in the officers
of the Church, or in the workers, something unholy. If He beholds
practices tolerated that are not according to His pure mind and if,
when they are noticed, these evils are winked at and still further
indulged, He will withdraw His blessing until we cease to have a
controversy with Him! Possibly He might give His blessing to a Church
which was worse than this in many respects, while He might withdraw it
from this Church, which has already been so highly favored, if it
countenanced anything contrary to

His Word.

An ordinary subject of Her Majesty might say certain things about her
for which he would never be brought to book. But a favorite at court
must mind how he behaves. So must we be very sensitive in this Divine
employment in which we come nearest to Christ–we must be careful to
co-operate with Him in our work of seeking to pluck brands from the
burning. We must mind how we do it, for we may, perhaps, be led to
adopt ways and methods which may grieve Him. And if we persevere in
those ways and methods, after we have learned that they are not
according to His will, the Spirit of God will leave us, lest He should
seem to be setting His seal upon that of which He does not approve! A
headlong zeal, even for Christ, may leap into a ditch! What we think to
be very wise may be very unwise–and where we deem that even a little
"policy" may come in, that little policy may taint the whole and make a
nauseous stench which God will not endure! You must have the Spirit of
God! You can do nothing without Him! Therefore do nothing that would
cause Him to depart from you.

Moreover, we must be always ready to obey the Holy Spirit's gentlest
monitions by which I mean the monitions which are in God's Word and,
also–but putting this in the second place–such inward whispers as He
accords to those who dwell near to Him. I believe that the Holy Spirit
does still speak to His chosen in a very remarkable way. Men of the
world might ridicule this Truth of God and, therefore, we speak little
of it, but the child of God knows that there are, at times, distinct
movements of the Holy Spirit upon his mind leading him in such and such
ways. Be very tender of these

touches of God! Some people do not feel these movements, but perhaps if
they, with a more perfect heart, feared the Lord, His secret might be
revealed to them. That great ship at sea will not be moved by a
ripple–even an ordinary wave will not stir it–it is big and heavy.
But that cork, out yonder, goes up and down with every ripple of the
water! Should a great wave come, it will be raised to the crest of it
and carried wherever the current compels. Let your spirit be little
before God and easily moved–so that you may recognize every impulse of
the Spirit–and obey it at once, whatever it may be.

When the Holy Spirit moves you to give up such and such a thing, yield
to it instantly, lest you lose His Presence! When He impels you to
fulfill such and such a duty, be not disobedient to the heavenly
vision. Or if He suggests to you to praise God for such and such a
favor, give yourself to thanksgiving. Yield yourself wholly to His
guidance. You who are workers, ask for the wisdom of the Spirit
carefully and believingly. I do not understand a man going into the
pulpit and praying the Spirit of God to guide him in what he shall
say–and then pulling it out of his pocket in manuscript. It looks to
me as if he shut the Spirit of God out of any special operation! At
least all the help he can expect to have from the Spirit at that
particular time must be in the manner of his reading, though, of
course, he may have been guided in what he has written. Still, there is
but scant room for the Spirit to manifest His power!

In the same way, if you make up your mind how you will deal with people
and what you will say, it may often happen that, in the process, if you
forget all you meant to say, it would be the best thing that could
happen to you! And if you said exactly what you did not think it would
be prudent to say, the unaccustomed method might be the thing the
Spirit of God would bless. Keep yourself, therefore, before that valley
of dry bones, free to do just what the Spirit of God would have you do,
that He, through you, may raise the dead!

Once more–since, apart from the Spirit, we are powerless, we must
value greatly every movement of His Power. Notice, in this account of
the vision in the valley, how the Prophet draws attention to the fact
of the shaking and the noises, and the coming of the sinews and the
flesh even before there was any sign of life! I think that, if we want
the Spirit of God to bless us, we must be on the watch to notice
everything He does. Look out for the first desire, the first fear! Be
glad of anything happening to your people that looks as if it were the
work of the Holy Spirit and, if you value Him in His earlier works, He
is likely to go on and to do more and more, till, at last, He will give
the breath–and the slain host shall arise and become an army for God!
You cannot expect the Spirit of God to come and work by you if you are
half asleep. You cannot expect the Spirit of God to put forth His power
if you are in such a condition that if He saved half your congregation,
you would not know it–and if He saved nobody, you would not fret about
it! God will not bless you when you are not awake! The Spirit of God
does not work by sleepy men! He loves to have us alive, ourselves, and
then He will make others alive by us. See to this, dear Brothers. If we
had more time at our disposal, I would speak longer on this part of the
subject, but I have said enough, now, if God the Holy Spirit blesses
it, upon this first great Truth that we are nothing without the Holy
Spirit.

II. Now, secondly, we may learn, from the action of Ezekiel on this
occasion, that WE MAY SO ACT AS TO HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. When he first
saw the dry bones, there was no wind nor Breath, yet, obeying the voice
of the Lord in the vision, the Breath came and life followed. How,
then, shall we act? I will only give you in brief a few of the
conditions to be observed by us.

If we want the Holy Spirit to be surely with us, to give us a blessing,
we must, in the power of the Spirit, realize the scene in which we are
to labor. In this case, the Holy Spirit took the Prophet, carried him
out and set him down in the midst of the valley which was full of
bones. This is just a type of what will happen to every man whom the
Spirit means to use! Do you want to save people in the slums? Then, you
must go to the slums! Do you want to save sinners broken down under a
sense of sin? You must be broken down! At least you must get near to
them in their brokenness of heart and be able to sympathize with them.
I believe that no man will command power over a people whom he does not
understand. If you have never been to a certain place, you do not know
the road–but if you have been there, yourself, and you come upon a
person who has lost his way–you are the man to direct him.

When you have been through the same perplexities that trouble others,
you can say to them, "I have been there myself. I know all about it. By
God's blessing, I can conduct you out of this maze." Dear Friend, we
must have greater sympathy with sinners! You cannot pluck the brand out
of the burning if you are afraid of being singed! You must be willing
to dirty your fingers on the bars of the grate if you would do it. If
there is a diamond dropped into a ditch, you must

thrust your arm up to your elbow in the mud, or else you cannot expect
to pick the jewel out of the mire. The Holy Spirit, when He blesses a
man, sets him down in the midst of the valley full of bones and causes
him to pass by them round about until he fully comprehends the
greatness and the difficulty of the work to be accomplished, even as
the Prophet said, "Behold, there were very many in the open valley;
and, lo, they were very dry."

Next, if the Holy Spirit is to be with us, we must speak in the power
offaith. If Ezekiel had not had faith, he certainly would not have
preached to dry bones–they make a wretched congregation! And he
certainly would not have preached to the wind, for it must have been a
fickle listener! Who but a fool would behave in this manner unless
faith entered into action? If preaching is not a supernatural exercise,
it is a useless procedure! God the Holy Spirit must be with us, or else
we might as well go and stand on the tops of the hills of Scotland and
shout to the east wind! There is nothing in all our eloquence unless we
believe in the Holy Spirit making use of the Truth of God which we
preach for the quickening of the souls of men. Our preaching must be an
act of faith! We must preach by faith as much as Noah built the ark by
faith and, just as the walls of Jericho were brought down by
faith–men's hearts are to be broken by faithful preaching, that is,
preaching full of faith!

In addition to this, if we desire to have the Spirit of God with us, we
must prophesy according to God's command. By prophesying, I do not mean
foretelling future events, but simply uttering the message which we
have received from the Lord, proclaiming it aloud so that all may hear.
You will notice how it is twice said, in almost the same words, "So I
prophesied as He commanded me." God will bless the prophesying that He
commands, but not any other. So we must keep clear of that which is
contrary to His Word and speak the Truth that He gives us to declare.
As Jonah, the second time he was told to go to Nineveh, was told by the
Lord to "preach unto it the preaching that I bid you," so must we do if
we would have our word believed even as his was. Our message is
received when it is the Word of God through us! When the Lord describes
the blessing that comes upon the earth by the rain and snow from
Heaven, he says, "So shall My Word be that goes forth out of My mouth."
Let us see to it that before a word goes forth out of our mouth, we
have received it from the mouth of God. Then we may hope and expect
that the people will also receive it from us. The Spirit of God, that
is, the Breath of God, goes with the Word of God, and with that alone.

Notice, next, that if we would have the Spirit of God with us, we must
break out in vehemence of desire. The Prophet is to prophesy to the
bones, but he does not begin in a formal manner by saying, "Only the
winds coming can bring Breath to these slain persons." No, he breaks
out with an interjection and with his whole soul heaving with a
ground-swell of great desire, he cries, "Come from the four winds, O
Breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live!" He has the
people before him in his eyes and in his heart–and he appeals, with
mighty desire, to the Spirit of God, that He would come and make them
live! You will generally find, in our service today, that the men who
yearn over the souls of their fellow men are those whom the Spirit of
God uses. A man of no desire gets what he longs for–and that is
nothing at all.

Then, if we would have more of the power of the Spirit of God with us,
we must see only the Divine purpose, the Divine Power and the Divine
working. God will have His Spirit go forth with those who see His hand.
"When I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of
your graves, and shall put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I
shall place you in your own land: then shall you know that I, the Lord,
have spoken it, and performed it, says the Lord." It is not my plan
that God is going to work out–it is His own! It is not my purpose that
the Holy Spirit is going to carry out–it is the purpose of the eternal
Jehovah! It is not my power, or my experience, or my mode of thought
which will bring men from death to life–it is the Holy Spirit who will
do it–and He only! We must apprehend this fact and get to work in this
attitude–and then God the Holy Spirit will be with us.

III. Bear with me, if I fill up all my time, or if I should even stray
beyond it. I now want to address unconverted persons or those who are
afraid that they are still unsaved–and with the text before us WE
WOULD SPEAK DIFFERENTLY TO OUR HEARERS.

You who are not yet quickened by the Divine Life, or are afraid you are
not, we would exhort you to hear the Word of the Lord. Though you feel
that you are as dead as these dry bones, yet if you want to be saved,
be frequent in hearing the Word of God. "Faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God." If you wish to find the Divine Life, thank
God that you have that wish–and frequent those houses where Christ is
much spoken of–and where the way of eternal

life is very plainly set forth. When you mingle with the worshippers,
listen with both your ears–try to remember what you hear and pray all
the while that God will bless it to you. "O you dry bones, hear the
Word of the Lord!"

Next, we could remind you of your absolute need of life from the Spirit
of God. Put it in what shape you like, you cannot be saved unless you
are born again! And the new birth is not a matter within your own
power. "You must be born again"–"from above," as the margin reads, in
the third chapter of John's Gospel. All the religion of which you are
capable will not save you, do what you will! Strive as you may with
outward ceremonies, or religious observances, there is no hope for you
but in the Holy Spirit! There is something to be done for you which you
cannot do for yourself. We will not water down that Truth of God, but
give it to you just as it stands in the Scriptures–we want you to feel
its power.

But we would have you note what the Holy Spirit has done for others.
There are some of your friends who have been born again. They were as
hopeless as you are, but they are now saved! You know they are, for you
have seen their lives. Take note of them, for what the Holy Spirit can
work in one, He can work in another! Let the Grace of God in others
comfort you concerning yourself, especially when you hear of great
drunks, or great swearers, or very vicious persons who have been
transformed into saints. Say to yourself, "If the Holy Spirit could
make a saint out of such a sinner as that, surely He can make a saint
out of me." As you see the flesh and sinews on others who were once as
dry as bare bones, be encouraged to hope that it may be even so with
you before long!

May I go a little further and say that we would have you observe
carefully what is done in yourself? I think I am speaking to some here
who have already undergone a remarkable change. You cannot say that you
have spiritual life–you are afraid that you have not. Still, you are
not what you used to be. You have put away many things from you that
were once a pleasure to you–and now you take delight in many things
which you once despised. There is some hope in that, though it may be
nothing more than the sinews coming on the bones and the flesh upon the
sinews. Yet I notice that, where the Holy Spirit begins, He does not
leave off till He has finished His work. God takes such a delight in
His work, that, having begun it, He completes it! Well did Job say,
"You will have a desire to the work of Your hands." Now, what He has
already done for you, encourages me–and should encourage you to hope
that He will yet do much more, continuing His gracious work until life
eternal is bestowed upon you!

Furthermore, we would remind you that faith in Jesus is a sign of life.
If in your heart you can trust yourself to Christ and believe in Him
that He can save you, you already have eternal life! "He that believes
on the Son has everlasting life." If you can now, though it is for the
first time, trust yourself on Christ, alone–faith is the surest
evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit! You "have passed from death
unto life" already! You cannot see the Spirit any more than you can see
the wind, but, if you have faith, that is a blessed vane that turns in
the way the Spirit of God blows. "Whoever believes that Jesus is the
Christ, is born of God." If you believe, this is true of you–and if
you cast yourself wholly upon Christ– remember that it is written, "He
that believes on Him is not condemned." Therefore be of good cheer!

We beg you not to be led aside to the discussion of difficulties. There
are a great many difficulties. To tell dry bones to live is a very
unreasonable sort of thing when tried by rules of logic. And for me to
tell you, a dead sinner, to believe in Christ, may seem perfectly
unjustifiable by the same rule. But I do not need to justify it. If I
find it in God's Word, that is quite enough for me! And if the preacher
does not feel any difficulty in the matter, why should you? There is a
difficulty, but you have nothing to do with it! There are difficulties
everywhere. There is a difficulty in explaining how it is that bread
sustains your body–and how that bread, sustaining your body, can be
the means of prolonging your life! We cannot understand how the
material can impinge upon the spiritual. And there are difficulties in
almost everything connected with life. If a man will not do anything
till he has solved every difficulty, we had better dig his grave. And
you will be in Hell if you will not go to Heaven without having every
difficulty solved for you! Forget the difficulties–there will be time
enough to settle them when we get to Heaven. Meanwhile, if life comes
through Jesus Christ, let us have it and have done with nursing our
doubts!

Further, we would have you long for the visitation of God, the Holy
Spirit. Join with us in the prayer, "Come Holy Spirit, come with all
Your Power! Come from the four winds, O Breath!" One wind will not do
it–it must come from all quarters. Your heart, filled with all sorts
of evil, needs breaking–it needs throwing down like the house of Job's
son when Job's children were in it–and "there came a great wind from
the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell."
Oh, for a wind from the four quarters of Heaven to smite the four
corners of the house of your sin and lay it low! "Come from the four
winds, O Breath!" As the poet sings–

"Lifeless in the valley, Come, O Breath, and breathe! New-create and
rally! Come, O Breath, and breathe Blowing where you wish, You the word
assist, You death's power resist, Come, O Breath, and breathe!

Be willing to have the Holy Spirit as He wills to come. Let Him come as
a north wind, cold and cutting, or as a south wind, sweet and melting.
Say, "Come, from any of the four winds, O Breath! Only come!" He can
come unexpectedly upon you in the pew during these five minutes that
remain. You are, perhaps, thinking about whether you can catch an early
train and get home. May the Holy Spirit lay hold of you before you
leave the building and get you home in real earnest to your God and to
your Father! He can come very mightily. There is a great deal about you
that would shut Him out–but it is hard to keep the wind out when it
blows in the fullness of its strength–you may fill up the crevices of
the door as you please, but still the wind gets in. Thus, too, is it
with the Spirit of God–He comes in might, but He can also come very
sweetly. Be not afraid of the Holy Spirit! He can charm you to Christ,
as well as drive you to Christ. May He enter your heart even now!

We yearn to see all of you thus made to live. I am praying in my very
soul that He would come to every one of you. I do not read that Ezekiel
saw part of the valley of dry bones live and the rest remain dry bones,
but that they all lived and stood upon their feet–an exceedingly great
army! I long to see you all blessed at this service. Why should it not
be so? Oh, that the Spirit of God would come and touch every one of us!
Many of you are alive, already, blessed be His name! Well, you can have
more life, for Christ has come not only that you might have life, but
that you "might have it more abundantly." I beseech you, let the
blessed Spirit enter into greater fullness. But pray mightily that
every soul here that is dead may now feel the sacred Breath and begin
to live! Then I shall not only hear of one, as last Thursday, but news
shall be brought of many upon whom the Divine Spirit has sweetly come
and led them to Jesus, to be saved now, and to be saved forever! God
grant it! Amen.

Portion of Scripture Read before Sermon–Ezekiel 37.