1 J. Brierley, The Secret of Living, 126.
428 BRAND PLUCKED OUT OF THE FIRE
a dreadful enemy of God and all that was good, and one of the most profligate and abandoned young men living ; but during that sermon there was a mighty transformation in me. Showers of tears poured down my cheeks, and from that hour I broke off all my evil practices, and forsook all my wicked and foolish companions without delay, giving myself up to God and His service with all my heart. 0 what reason had I to say, ' Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?"'
The Gospel from the lips of Whitefield proved the power of God to the salvation of young Olivers. His after-life showed how wonderful was the change. He ever afterward remained a true soldier of the Lord. He joined Mr. Wesley's band and became one of his ablest itinerants, a flaming herald of the cross, an able minister of the New Testament. His hymn " The God of Abram praise " is one of inimitable beauty. James Montgomery, no mean poet himself, says concerning it, "There is not in our language a lyric of more majestic style, more elevated thought, or more glorious imagery." After a ministry of many years, this distinguished convert of Whitefield died suddenly March 7, 1799, and was buried in the tomb of Wesley, City Eoad Chapel, London.1
1 J. B. Wakely.
The Supremacy of the Spiritual.
4*9
Literature.
Dods (M.), Footsteps in the Path of Life, 82.
Edwards (EL), The Spiritual Observatory, 85.
Horwill (H. W.), The Old Gospel in the New Era, 27.
Little (J.), The Day-Spring, 50.
Matheson (G.), Voices of the Spirit, 89.
Neville (W. G.), Sermons, 97.
Pierson (A. T.), The Hopes of the Gospel, 41.
Rutherford (R), That Good Part, 135.
Spurgeon (C. H.), New Park Street Pulpit, iii. (1857), No. 149.
Swanson (W. S.), Gethsemane, 96.
Voysey (C), Sermons, iv. (1881), No. 32 ; xi. (1888), No. 5.
British Congregationalist, Feb. 6, 1908 (J. H. Jowett).
Christian World Pulpit, xvi. 161 (D. Fraser) ; xxxviii. 298 (R. F. Bracey) ; lxiv. 186 (S. Barnett) ; lxviii. 21 (G. R. Eden) ; lxix. 152 (A. F. W. Ingram).
Church of England Pulpit, lv. 42 (P. T. Bainbrigge) ; lxiii. 359 (G. A. Lefroy).
Church Pulpit Year Book, 1913, p. 33.
The Supremacy of the Spiritual.
Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. — Zech. iv. 6.
1. The Lord, through the prophet Zechariah, addressed this message, under remarkable circumstances, to Zerubbabel, the prince and leader of the Jews, under whom the first company of the exiles, numbering about fifty thousand, returned from Babylon. On reaching Jerusalem, he with his fellow-exiles promptly set about building the second Temple. They laid the foundations with great rejoicing, in high hope of speedily completing the work. But seeing the smallness of their resources and the vast- ness of the undertaking, the large numbers who opposed and the fewness of those who helped, Zerubbabel and his people became discouraged, and ceased from their labours. For full fifteen years nothing was done. To arouse the leader and to stir up the people to resume and press forward the undertaking, the Lord by Zechariah addressed them, telling them that, though they were poor and weak in comparison with the builders of Solomon's Temple, yet God would have them know that the work was not wholly theirs, but was emphatically His, and must therefore be accomplished. For their encouragement He promised that His favour and the aid of His Spirit would be given them, furnishing in ways of His own all that was needed to complete the building. This He taught them by the symbolic vision of the golden candlestick and two olive trees, which is recorded in the context preceding the text, and of which the text is the explanation. The prophet saw a candlestick of gold, having seven lamps on the tops of seven branches, all connected with the central stem and to the bowl above by a golden pipe. On the right side of the candlestick was a living olive tree, and on the left side a similar olive tree. These trees poured from themselves a plentiful and unfailing supply of oil into the central bowl of the candlestick.
432 THE SUPREMACY OF THE SPIRITUAL
Then the prophet asked what the vision meant. The reply given was the words of the text — " This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."
2. Zechariah had shared in the prevailing despondency of his time. He did not see what good could be accomplished by men of so little pith as Zerubbabel and the rest. He had taken their measure, and he despaired of them as the root or beginning of any noble undertaking or any fruitful work. Such men can never shine as lights in the world. Such feeble, incompetent persons could only bring disgrace on religion. In the vision of the candlestick it was made clear to Zechariah's mind that he had been wrong, not perhaps in his judgment of his contemporaries, but in forgetting one contemporary of whom he had made no account. " Not by might, nor by power " — so far he was right, there was neither might nor power — " but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." He was reminded of the source of the Church's light, and it was revealed to him that the oil which fed this light — the Spirit, that is, which produces right and God-glorifying results in men — flows from an inexhaustible source beyond the light itself ; so that we can never measure the light by looking at the wick, or at the amount of oil each bowl can contain, but only by looking at the source whence the oil is supplied. With immense significance the oil was seen to be derived from two living olive trees — obviously to teach that, though the bowls might be very small, the supply out of which they could be refilled was inexhaustibly large, a living fountain of oil.