Emphasis Preaching Journal

In the old days of seven sermons and a suitcase on the sawdust trail, a travelling evangelist saved his Holy Ghost sermon for the last night of each protracted meeting and arranged a most dramatic climax. He'd hire a young boy to hide in the rafters of a church with a snow white dove in his hands. The evangelist built his sermon up to a feverish point where he would cry out, "Come down Holy Ghost, come down Holy Ghost!" At that point, the lad would release the dove, it would flutter down and around the heads of the congregants, and a most vivid impression would have been made.

At one particular meeting, the scene had been set, and the preacher bellowed, "Come down Holy Ghost, come down Holy Ghost!" Nothing happened. The preacher expostulated again and less than nothing. Finally, a young voice was heard wafting down from the rafters, "Preacher, an ol' yeller tomcat done et the Holy Ghost; do you want me to send the ol' yeller tomcat down?"

The Holy Spirit that is within Christians for witness can come down upon us for ministry.
-- Barnhart