Sermons Author:Stopford Augustus Brooke Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: [1872.] PENTECOST. Acts ii. 13â??21. The Peast of mankind which we celebrate to-day has, indeed, a right to be a day of rejoicing, for on it came home to ... more »the heart of Man the results, as principles, of the divinest Life ever lived upon this earth. The mighty rushing wind of the new spiritual Thought filled the house of mankind, its fire dwelt upon the tongues of men, and in their hearts awoke the tempest of Prophecy. On Apostles, on old men, on young men and maidens, on servants and handmaids, the Spirit of God came, and a new life dawned upon the world. We may differ about the details of the story, but the fact of the new impulse is undeniable, and its results part of the history of the race. The history of the day is worthy of our thought Some time before it, those who were inspired on Pentecost had lived with Jesus Christ in Galilee and Judea for a few years. His life was an uneventful existence until its close. Our records of it are small, scarcely extending in direct narration over more than a few months. The teaching which He gave was simplequiet, though resolute. The divinity which shone through it was not the divinity of impassive power, of unapproachable light, it was the divinity of love and mercy, and truth and purity,â??the divinity of a life of duty and a death of self-sacrifice. But, beautiful as it was, it made but little impression then. Had the world then ceased, we should have called that life inoperative. The priesthood imagined they had killed its influence by the Crucifixion. They mocked when they heard of the Resurrection, and the days passed on to the Ascension, and no further life seemed kindled in the Apostles. At last, the day when they lost sight for ever of their Master upon earth, He bade them tarry at Jerusalem till they were endued with powe...« less