Welsh Journals

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Tfie (lorcfi The Official Organ of The Forward Movement of the Presbyterian Church of Wales. VOL. 1. No. i. [New Series] JANUARY. 19 O 5, Price One Penny. 'Post Free Is 6d per annum, prepaid). JitoutMty Notes. By the General Superintendent. A Blessed New Yean. The year 1905 has come in on the crest of one of the greatest spiritua1 waves which has ever flowed over our land. The individuals and the Churches who take this blessed tide of the Holy Spirit at the flood, will have the most glorious year in their earthly experience. This flood of Divine life will lead them on to a fortune which the children of this year never knew. " I am come," says Jesus Christ, that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Christ for us appropriated by faith, is the source of life ; the one secures our salvation, the other enables us to glorify God in the salvation of others. How distinctly these two stages of spiritual life are set forth in our Lord's discourse about the water of life. The first effect upon the believer of drinking this water is "he shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life " That is, the soul receives salvation and the perennial joy and peace which accompany salvation. But the second stage is this : " He that believeth in Me, as the Scriptures hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." But this spake He of the Spirit which they that believe in Him shall receive. Here is the divine life going out in holy service a testimony and blessing through the Holy Spirit. _ This more abundant life must The overflow- ,,.,., ing and the have an outlet as well as inlet it overcoming the soul would enjoy a contin- '£ ' uous flow for service and testi¬ mony. In order to receive, we must give ; this fact should be emphasised to all converts of the present blessed revival—if they are to develope into strong, vigorous christians. In the past, we have had innumerable instances of arrested development in our christian Churches ; believers who have settled into a condition of confirmed infancy, and whose testimony always begins and ends with conversion. They hover around that event like ohildren who are continually telling us of their birthday. But our conversion, blessed as it is, may be one of those things that are behind, and which we are to forget in the pursuit of higher things Is there not a deep significance in the expression of the two-fold union which our Lord so often uses, "Ye in Me and I in you? " The branch tnat is in the vine has its own position ; but only as the vine is in it, constantly penetrating it with its sap and substance, does it have power for fruitfulness. " If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature," he is regenerated, he is justified But what can the same apostle's words mean when in referring to such regenerated ones he says, " My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be found in you ? " The later travail—this second birth —pangs for those who had already been born of the Spirit, what can these signify ? " Do they not teach that there is a second stage in spiritual development, distinct and seperated from Conversion—a stage in which we rise by the special renewal or baptism of the Holy Ghost into Spiritual giants, and equipped by which, we lead the victorious life The chief lesson taught by the . "he Great present revival is that s iccess Lesson of the Present Revival in the extension .,1 the K ngdom of God is not by mighty nor by power of wealth and culture, but " My Spirit," saith the Lord of Hosts," This lesson is now forced upon the attention of all the Christian Churches of the land And God knows we sadly stood in need of such a lesson. For years past the churches had got to lean far too much upon human agencies, upon art and architecture, upon music and rhetoric and social attractions The result of this blundering has been years of barreness and defeat, and of victory for the world, flesh, and the devil in our land. Now our eyes are once more opened to the secret of power: we see that young and uncultured men and women, equipped by the Spirit of God, are more than a match for all the forces of evil which have so long cursed our