Spurgeon on the Holy Spirit.

Quoted from Receiving The Holy Ghost : Sermon 1790 Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit

“You know, dear friends, when the Holy Spirit was given in the earliest ages he showed his presence by certain miraculous signs. Some of those who received the Holy Spirit spake with tongues; others began to prophesy, and a third class received the gifts of healing, so that wherever they laid their hands disease fled before them. I am sure that if these powers were given now in connection with the reception of the Holy Spirit and your believing, you would all be anxious to possess them. I can hardly imagine a single Christian who would not put to himself the enquiry, “Have I received the Holy Spirit in that fashion?” You would want to be healing, or to be speaking with tongues, or to be working miracles by which you could benefit your fellow-men and glorify God: would you not? Now, be it never forgotten that those works of the Holy Spirit which are permanent must assuredly be of greater value than those which were transitory. We cannot suppose that the Holy Ghost brought forth the best wine at first, and that his operations gradually deteriorated. It is a rule of the kingdom to keep the best wine to the last, and therefore I conclude that you and I are not left to partake of the dregs, but that those works of the Holy Spirit which are at this time vouchsafed to the Church of God are every way as valuable as those earlier miraculous gifts which have departed from us. The work of the Holy Spirit, by which men are quickened from their death in sin, is not inferior to the power which made men speak with tongues. The work of the Holy Spirit, when he comforts men and makes them glad in Christ, is by no means second to the opening of the eyes of the blind. Why, sirs, men might have the gifts of the Spirit as to miracle, and yet might perish after all; but he that hath the spiritual gifts of the Holy Ghost shall never perish: they are saving blessings, and where they come they lift the man out of his sinful estate, and make him to be a child of God. I would therefore press it upon you this morning that, as you would certainly enquire whether you had the gifts of healing and miracle-working, if such gifts were now given to believers, much more should you enquire whether you have those more permanent gifts of the Spirit which are this day open to you all by the which you shall work no physical miracle, but shall achieve spiritual wonders of the grander sort. If we come to weigh spiritual operations, they are by no means secondary in the judgment of enlightened servants of God. Have ye then received the Spirit since you believed? Beloved, are you now receiving the Spirit? Are you living under his divine influence? Are you filled with his power?”