SPIRITUAL ASPIRATION

I want the internal oracle, Thy still, small voice together with Urim and Thummin, the new name which none knoweth but he that receiveth it. In a word, Lord, I want a plenitude of Thy Spirit, the full promise of the Father, and the rivers which flow from the inmost divine center into the hearts of believers. I do believe that Thou canst and wilt thus baptize me with the Holy Ghost and with fire : destroy my unbelief, confirm and increase my faith, By Thy Baptisms of water in Jordan, of bloody sweat in Gethsemane, of blood and fire and the vapor of smoke on Calvary, baptize, O, baptize me, and make a full end of error . I am tired of forms, professions and human notions, so far as they are not pipes or channels to convey Life, Light and Love to my dark and stony heart. Neither the plain letter of the Gospel, nor Thy sweet foretaste and transient illuminations of Thy Spirit, can satisfy the large desires of my faith. Come. O Lord, and thou Blessed Spirit, come Thou and Thy Father and Thou holy comforter, come to make Thy abode with me. Blessed mourning ! Lord increase it : I had rather wait in tears for Thy fulness than wantonly waste the fragments of Thy spiritual bounties, or feed with Laodicean contentment upon the tainted manna of my carnal joys. Righteous Father, I hunger and thirst after Thy righteousness; send Thy Holy Spirit of promise to fill me therewith, to sanctify me throughout, and to seal me centrally to the day of eternal redemption and finished salvation. Shed Thy Spirit abundantly on me, till the fountain of living water abundantly spring up in my soul, and I can say in the full sense of the words, that Thou livest in me, that my life is hid with Thee in God, and that my spirit is returned to Him that gave it,—to Thee the first and the last, my author and my end, my God and my all John Fletcher.—Revised.