"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

"(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

"Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

"And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

"By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

"Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

"To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

"First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

"For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

"Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

"For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established." — Rom. 1:1-11.

Omitting the parts in parenthesis, I have selected the parts to make perfect sense. Here are two principal parts to the verse rendered: — (1) The calling of St. Paul and the calling of believers in Rome. Notice the play on the word "called": "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, . . . among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ [v. 6]: to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints." Put the " calling" of St. Paul and the call of believers side by side. (2) The other part is the conversion of these Roman believers, — the marvelous, world-wide notoriety of these believers, — and Paul's earnest request to see them and impart the spiritual gift, that they might be established. The subject is: The establishing of believers in the principles of the spiritual life.

First, their wonderful conversion. "I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world." What a wonderful conversion they must have had, that, before the days of post offices, telegraphy, newspapers, — in the clumsiness of those old ages, the notoriety of their conversion had gone out over the Romish Empire. Caesar had his couriers, who went out through all the Romish Empire, and they would carry letters to all parts of the kingdom, as far as Germany and to Mesopotamia, and into India and Arabia and to Algiers, and the whole Empire was reached by them; and they not only bore dispatches, but they repeated matters of information, and, as it was in old stage-coach times, the whole neighborhood turned out, so they told the wonderful news of Jesus who had died, and of His resurrection — about His having been killed and come to life again, and that people were believing on Him, and giving up their idols for Him. The news was carried throughout Egypt and Arabia; so St. Paul says, "I thank God" your conversion was not merely being baptized, etc., but it was a radical change, causing you to give up your idols. He praised God that they had such conversion; that is the kind we want you to have, — that will cause you to fling away your idols, sins, and rebellion, and count everything loss but your interest in heaven. St. Paul, after this wonderful change, says, " I want to see you that I may impart a certain spiritual gift." What was that gift? Could it be any other than the baptism of the Holy Ghost? "I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established." To impart by my faith, through faith, a spiritual gift that will establish you.

Some would say, "If these Romans had such a notorious conversion, what more did they need?" Friends, unless we are rooted and grounded in conversion it would not be such a blessing to us. Every man needs to be established as well as to enter into business. We seem to understand this in everything else but religion. If a business man doesn't establish himself he will soon become bankrupt. Perhaps a merchant starts out in business; he makes a start; but if he doesn't establish himself and pay his debts he'll go to bankruptcy. But in religion people seem to lose their common sense; just go to church, observe all the ordinances and forms, and you are all right. Now there are people whose religion seems mortgaged, and if they do not get the baptism of the Holy Ghost they will soon lose all the religion they have got. The word " establish " means to complete, to perfect, to confirm, to root, to ground; when the apostle uses this word, he does it to signify the perfecting of the young converts in the principles of conversion. The baptism of the Holy Ghost does not give you any graces not obtained at conversion; every converted person has love, joy, peace, faith, patience, hope, etc., — all the fruits of the Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Ghost does not add a single virtue or grace. But, while he has all the graces, this baptism clarifies, strengthens, and confirms these graces. When I was born I had as many fingers and toes, and as many bones in my body; my growth did not add any. Yet the members of the body need to be purged and cleansed and strengthened; and so, when the Holy Ghost converts your soul, He puts all these graces into you, but they are not perfected. Love, faith, hope, humility, are not completed. There are still lingering germs of original sin, and original sin will always weaken, impare, and choke these graces, though they are all there. The baptism of the Holy Ghost applies the blood of Jesus, and purges out all inbred sin, and these graces can unfold and expand without opposition. When all doubt is gone, faith is made perfect in a converted heart. Every grace is perfected up to its capacity by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. In order to get converted we want to know what it is. When the Lord changes your heart you have the principle of submission; yet the point is, is your submission entire, complete? There will be times when there will be rebellion. The general tenor of your heart is submission, but there will be times of uprisings, - against obeying the Holy Ghost; and whereas you are submissive, it is not complete. Why? There is a root in the heart, of original sin, and it will shoot up and manifest itself in rebellion. Have you not felt that in many things you could say, " Thy will be done," and yet in some one thing you cannot say it? What does it show? That you are not perfectly submissive; you do have the fruit of the Spirit, but it is rendered imperfect because on some points a lack of it. When the Holy Ghost comes to establish you, the principle of submission will be complete; you will be submissive on every point, and your submission will be steady and fixed, — established. In your sleep and when you awake, happy or sad, your heart is held steady in a state of submission; you are "rooted and grounded" in it. Before you had submission, but it wasn't complete; there was just enough to spoil your joy; but the baptism of the Holy Ghost establishes you.

And second, the principle of faith. When you were converted, can you remember how you trusted God? You had no "Dutch" philosophy mixed with your faith then; you trusted God; you prayed simply, not doubting the atonement, nor God's especial care for you. You believed it all; you believed when you read that " all things work together for good to them that love God"; you believed in all church members; you were a "child"; your faith was childlike and simple; you had that simple faith in special providences. But as the years have gone by, there has come something that became mixed up with that childlike faith you had when converted. The Church is not what you thought; trials come, and you read outside books; you get philosophical, and get things mixed with your faith. All the while old depravity will help you out, and you soon come to wonder if the Bible is inspired or if there is a special Providence; you get philosophical. You may get rich, and get wiser than you were. I have known men who, when young, behind the plow handle, were simple and childlike; but when they became manufacturers they became wise, and got away from the simple state, and their faith got mixed up. Maybe we get learned, — a "D.D.," perhaps.

A brother said once: "Brethren, when I was a little boy I believed in God and Jesus, and had so much joy, — I wish I could have the simple piety of my boyhood days." He meant he had become great; had waded through book after book, and that so much German and French had got mixed with his faith; it is so easy for a learned or a rich man to get the " big head." We need to have the root of inbred sin destroyed; skepticism killed at the taproot. So long as you have depravity in your heart, you have infidelity at the taproot; the Holy Ghost removes it, and you become "rooted and grounded" in faith to God, all the way along. Though you may have a great deal of knowledge, you have a faith that keeps above philosophy and mere reason. What is grander than to see a man with half a university in his head, with a simple faith in God? You need a faith that is complete every day, so that every day we trust the blood of Jesus right now; trust His special providences every day; a faith that never falters or questions, and so " rooted and grounded " that you go on believing as easily as you breathe. You will go on believing God when sick and delirious. I have met people who forget their own name, but never the name of Jesus. A faith fixed by the Holy Ghost; when God roots and grounds your faith, it stands like Gibraltar. Birds may sing or thunders howl, — when meeting angels or devils, it always believes in Jesus without any misgivings. We need a faith, absolute faith, that is fixed as the Bible; a trust that has no limit to it; a faith that throws you out and lets you drop in God, without asking how far it is; that faith that reposes in God. You get the faith of conversion established; that is perfect faith.

The third principle is love. Oh, how I loved everybody when I was converted! and when a wicked boy kicked my Bible out of my hand, I did not think of getting angry with him; I just loved him. Our hearts are tender and susceptible. Young converts are happy and affectionate, and they don't want to wound or grieve. You want to lose all hardness and roughness, and get the barnacles taken off; you need to get these principles in your heart, and then have the "establishing" by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. If you do not, you will lose that sweetness of your early love; you will get where you serve God on principle, not on love. You will get fastidious; it will annoy you if a brother or sister talks aloud; everything has to be "velvet-lined; and you will think you are not as happy as you used to be, but you think you are "settled down." You don't like much noise; you get philosophical and ecclesiastical. You need melting; you want to get back to where there is more gush and glory in your soul. We get harsh unconsciously; we get overbearing to children. The human heart is deceitful, and unless purged from this "root of bitterness" our hearts will take on this frigidness; and so Paul says, " Now," in your early love, I want to see you, that you may get this baptism of the Holy Ghost; that you may be a happy, complete church. Old people will either mellow or soar down; of all sour things the sourest is a sour preacher! Why is it that some few of them sour down? Because, as the years go by, the heart unpurged will take on a frigidity. But what is more beautiful than to see an old person sweet and happy and genial? We want our hearts so cleansed and purged that we will always keep a sweet spirit; we need to be confirmed in that love. Don't you want to get something that will not only take you back to your first love, but keep you there, and not only that but will make you more mellow, sweeter? You want to be confirmed in love.

We need to get where our hearts never will get cold or frosty; we all need to have our hearts not only blessed with the "first love," but that we will be absolutely fixed the balance of our lifetime. The baptism of the Holy Ghost will do this. How do you get it? Paul says, "I am called and you are called, etc."If you write on a piece of paper how Paul came to be an "apostle," I will underwrite and tell you how we get to be "established," — here is a parallel line. Did Paul make himself an "apostle "? We talk about " self-made " men, but Paul was a "God-made" man. Paul never did make himself an apostle; neither can I make myself a " saint," for my calling is parallel with his. Nor did he develop into an apostle; neither can you develop into a saint. St. Paul was made an apostle by this simple process:. God made him an " apostle." And God makes you a " saint "; the cases are parallel. God converted Paul, and He converts us; you follow Paul, and you will get into your "saintship" just as he got his " apostleship." God said, "Will you consent to give up your Jewish notions, and consent to take the name you now persecute? " — "Yes, Lord." — "Will you be my minister to the Gentile world?" — "Yes, Lord." — "Will you consent to be a martyr?" — "Yes, Lord." — "All right, Paul! "Then God put His hand on Paul, and made him an " apostle." He got to be an apostle by saying "yes" to God without arguing the question; he got from a murderer to an apostle without saying long prayers. So you will get to be a "saint" in five minutes by saying " yes " to God. "Will you agree to be a little humble anybody? willing to be or suffer anything I ask?" — "Yes, Lord." That is all He wants; and when you say the final " yes," the Holy Ghost puts His hand on your heart and says that you are a " saint " before God.

When I was in California, a lady was seeking a "clean heart," — had been seeking four years; the most devoted woman in the church, but she panted for full redernption. This was the last meeting, and Brother McDonald told me that that sister " ought to trust God to-night." I told her she had wept and prayed to God enough, and asked her if she would agree to say "yes" to anything God might ask in all the years to come. She hesitated. " Don't you want to and mean to say "yes'? " and she said, "I want to say it and I will. God being my Helper I will say ' yes ' to God "; and she repeated it, and she rose up and said, "I will say 'yes' to God," and then she commenced, "Glory!" Simply saying "yes" was all God wanted. She thought she wanted emotion, but all she wanted was to say "yes" to God. If you want to get converted, surrender and say "yes" to God, and if you want to become grounded in the principles of conversion come and say "yes" to God.