A few days after the Church in Nongsawlia had received the rich blessing of the Holy Spirit, the sister Church in SHILLONG was made joyous by a participation in the same great gift. The following account has been written by one who was present on the never-to-be-forgotten occasion, when God made His presence manifest there by wondrous signs.

“On the evening of the 1st of April, when we met as usual at the close of the week to pray, we felt that there was something very unusual in the prayers offered at the beginning of the Service, for the person who led prayed for the Spirit so pleadingly and earnestly as if his very soul was parched with thirst, and fainting with hunger. As he proceeded very quiet murmurs were heard, and some began to pray in whispers. At last it became too awful, loud cries were heard, and the greater number of the congregation burst out into heart-piercing cries for mercy, others shouted in ecstasy at the sight of a Saviour ‘able to save.’ In one seat was a young woman who had been long astray, and behind her sat her mother; the girl had been praying quietly for forgiveness, and the mother’s heart was full, so full when she saw the girl’s penitence, that she could not contain herself, she shouted with great joy, clapping her hands for extreme gladness.

A young man sitting on the other side of the Church, touched by the Spirit, with joyfulness of heart got up and walked to the mother, and began to sing, ‘Crown Him, Lord of all.’ The two sang together, oblivious of all. One woman, convicted of the hardness of her heart, fell down on the floor. One young man realised his own perilous condition, having never really accepted Christ; he felt as if the scourge of God was failing upon him, so terrible and so real was it that he seemed to hear the swish of the scourge. He tried to run away from the meeting, to flee somewhere from the awful Presence, but he was riveted to his seat, and in great agony he cried for mercy. As he prayed the scourging ceased, and he had the great peace that comes to every one who casteth himself on the Saviour. Another young man, a Christian, but a very irreverent youth, felt great terror, he felt as if some unseen hand was twisting him, and for days he was unable to leave his bed.”

The realisation of the love of God in Jesus Christ, the suffering Saviour, revealed by the Holy Spirit of God, was the power that conquered hard hearts and subdued stubborn wills in Khasia. Too many professing Christians had been heedless of themselves, and had allowed their hearts to become overcharged with the “cares of this life,” and had woven for themselves a thick veil of indifference. But when the promised Spirit came He revealed anew the Lord Jesus on the Cross, and tore asunder the veil from their hearts, and they saw again and more vividly than ever before the love of the One in whom they had believed. Oh, how they reproached themselves for their coldness, for their neglect, and how they praised God for so lovingly arousing them from their torpor.

The same great love sought out the wanderers from the Father’s House, the prodigal sons who had wandered far from home and who had wasted their substance in riotous living. This wonderful love sought them in the land of famine, and brought them back, yes, in poverty and rags, but brought them to be enriched and clothed, and surrounded again by the love of the Eternal Father. And in the case of the heathen, also, it was still sweetly true. They were brought to know the Love that had given His Son to be the propitiation for their sins. They hastened to throw away their old rites and ceremonies; the blood which they had considered sacred they cast from them with abhorrence, for they had had a glimpse of the Lamb of God, and of His precious blood, which verily cleanseth from all sin. As in Wales, so in Khasia, the Cross was the conquering force. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, shall draw all men to myself.”
Thousands of souls believingly beheld Him, and yielded themselves to His drawing love. Oh, that Christians would endeavour to keep the Cross unveiled! Oh, that God’s people would take heed to themselves, and not allow the mists and clouds of earth’s cares and pleasures to come again between the hearts of men and the manifested love of God. Does He not wish us to look constantly upon His Love? “Keep yourselves in the Love of God.”