to the winds, and a divine passion will possess the life.  The world may sneer at it as fanaticism, but it is the fanaticism of Pentecost.  When the crowd saw the intensity of emotion shown by the newly-anointed disciples, they exclaimed, “These men are full of new wine.”  Here was shown an enthusiasm that leaps over all difficulties and rises above every discouragement—­the enthusiasm of Pentecost; and every soul-winner must have it.  Then, like Paul, wishing himself accursed that Israel might be saved, or like John Welch, wrapped in his plaid, kneeling in the snow, unable to sleep, and praying mightily for the souls of men, this holy earnestness will not let us rest until we see the salvation of the lost.

It will tell in look, and tone, and manner.  It may lead us to do things that may shock the sense of propriety of the dead, formal Church member, such as being obedient to the Master’s command, “Go ye out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in.”  Jeremiah preached repentance in the streets; and the early Church preached everywhere, on the streets, by the river’s bank, in the market-places, and in prisons.  John Livingstone stood on a tombstone, and preached with such power in the midst of a falling rain that multitudes were born in a day.  So did John Wesley.  O that the great Church of Jesus Christ might now have the enthusiasm of Pentecost!

STUDY XVIII.

PERSEVERANCE.

Memory Verse:  “Ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers, take no
    rest.”—­(Isa. lxii, 6, R.V.)

Scripture for Meditation:  Luke xv, 1-10.

How we are willing to persevere to save our friends from physical suffering and death!  No night is too long to watch, no sacrifice too great to make, no burden too heavy to bear, that the life of a loved one may be saved.  But should we not be just as persistent in our efforts to save from eternal death those whom we love?

Perhaps we have no more illustrious example of devotion to soul-winning than evidenced in the life of Uncle John Vassar.  Two incidents, related by the Rev. Walter B. Vassar, illustrate the perseverance with which he sought the perishing.

A young man was noticed to come night after night to revival-meetings, but would slip away before one could grasp his hand.  Mr. Vassar felt he must see this soul, and walked five miles to the farm where he lived, arriving as the family was about to eat an early dinner, of which he was urged to partake.  After being seated, the face of the young man not appearing in the family group, Mr. Vassar excused himself from the table, and hunted through all the farm-buildings where a man might possibly be in hiding.  At last, when about to confess himself defeated, he walked to the further end of the corn-crib, and there, in an old hogshead, he found the fellow lying low.  He confessed afterward that he had taken satisfaction in looking through the bunghole of the hogshead, in believing Uncle John would not find him there.  But this “winner of souls,” knowing his opportunity, leaped over by the side of the runaway, and then and there turned, as Charles Spurgeon has said, “the hogshead into a Bethel,” and won a soul for heaven.