Look, ye saints, the sight is glorious!
See the "Man of sorrows" now
From the fight return victorious:
Every knee to Him shall bow!

Hark the bursts of acclamation!
Hark those loud triumphant chords!
Jesus takes the highest station:
Oh, what joy the sight affords!

Crown Him! Crown Him! Angels, crown Him!
King of kings and Lord of lords!

Deck

As one old writer has said, "God, for the sake of our Savior's honor, and for the glory of His undertaking, had in His wisdom determined that so incomparably excellent a gift should be the reward of His obedience, the consequence of His triumph, the effect of His intercession above, an ornament of His royal state, a pledge of His princely munificence; it was reserved as a most rich and majestic gratuity, fit to be conferred at His coronation when He solemnly was inaugurated to sovereign dignity and invested with power superlative."

When the alabaster box was broken, when His suffering flesh was rent, the Spirit of Jesus was poured forth in the Church, and all the house of God was filled with the fragrance of that anointing. "God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows" (Heb. 1:9). Indeed, Pentecost was the initial day of a new order. It was a sample opening page of a new book titled, "The Acts of the Holy Ghost," or "The Autobiography of the Holy Spirit." It was a new beginning - the commencement of a new spiritual life, a new relationship, a new fellowship, a new authority and a new power. "Not yet" was changed to "This is that" (John 7:39; Acts 2:16).

This new life created a new fellowship of men, a new race incorporated into Christ (I Cor. 12:13; II Cor. 5:17; I Peter 2:9). Mantled with unction, they went everywhere preaching the Word. Theirs was a spontaneous evangelism. They didn't need to conduct clinics or conventions concerning the task of evangelism. Methinks they held no large conferences to stir the believers to evangelize the lost. Oh, no! such a notion never entered their heads. Saturated with the Spirit, filled with the love of Christ, bubbling over with their new-found joy, they crusaded for Christ. It was as natural as breathing to them. "We can't but speak the things which we've seen and heard." It was spiritual combustion! So great was their enthusiasm and aggressiveness that the enemy hurriedly called a council meeting with the theme, "How can we stop this gospel epidemic?" ("that it spread no further" Acts 4:15-17). The more they were persecuted and insulted, the more dynamic they became. Soon, they were accused of being "These that have turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6). Glory! They abode in the Pentecostal fervor, preached the Pentecostal gospel, lived the Pentecostal life and garnered a Pentecostal harvest!

Scarcely anyone would affirm that we're living today in this blessed apostolic atmosphere. "How is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthern pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter" (Lam. 4:1-2)!

Our palatial buildings, our large membership rolls, our high-salaried pastors and popular evangelists are no proof of dynamic Christianity. The early Church had none of these elements of success. God must deliver us from the awful discrepancy into which we've drifted. The godly remnant in the book of Lamentations, after surveying the awful condition of Zion, cried out in agony, "Wherefore dost Thou forget us forever, and forsake us so long time? Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old " Lam. 5:20-22).

All over the world saints must come to the place of penitence and desperation and cry, "Oh, God, forgive us! Oh, God, bring us back to the place of simplicity and power!" Oh, dear child of God, this would be revival, restoration, recovery and renewal! The Church has allowed herself to become the custodian of dead creeds rather than the trumpeters of living faith! We are playing with the gravedigger's shovel when God wants to give us a resurrection trumpet. "Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:60).

There was a time when, because of the martial and uncompromising spirit, the Church found itself living in the catacombs and carrying on a kind of guerrilla warfare. That, of course, was in the days when faith acted in scorn of consequence. And the Church of the catacombs was more consistent and more majestic than the Church on the stage with popular footlights. To a large extent the Church has become a band of suave saunterers, when the Lord wants it to be an army of stern soldiers. When the Church settles down to the comforts of a religious club and forgets its holy crusade, it abides alone.

This is copyrighted material from James Stewart's book Come O Breath, available from Revival Literature, PO Box 6068, Asheville, NC 28816.