_CALVARY AND PENTECOST_
ACTS ii. 22-36.
The Apostle Peter traces the stream of Pentecostal blessing to a tomb.
This "river of water of life" has its "rise" in a death of transcendent
sacrifice. And I must never forget these dark beginnings of my eternal
hope. It is well that I should frequently visit the sources of my
blessedness, and kneel on "the green hill far away."
It will save me from having a cheap religion. I shall never handle the
gifts of grace as though they had cost nothing. There will always be the
marks of blood upon them, the crimson stain of incomparable sacrifice.
And it will save me from all flippancy in my religious life. When I visit
the cross and the tomb, life is transformed from a picnic into a crusade.
For that is ever my peril, to picnic on the banks of the river and to
spend my days in emotional loitering.
After all, my Pentecost is purposed to prepare me for my own Gethsemane
and Calvary! Life is given me in order that I may spend it again in ready
and fruitful sacrifice.