Pentecost, Its Scope, Power and Perpetuation

I have just finished reading the manuscript of Rev. W. G. Bennett's book on "Pentecost, Its Scope, Power and Perpetuation," and have been greatly edified by doing so. While the background of the book is strictly orthodox from the vantage of the scriptural and Wesleyan interpretation, there are here applications that have hitherto been overlooked and illustrations that are new.
The specific point upon which the book rests its case is this: Pentecost was not only the beginning of the Christian dispensation, but is the pattern for the propagation of the Church in all
the ages. Pentecost is indeed a personal experience at which time the Christian is purged from inbred sin and filled with the Holy Ghost. But it is also a state into which the Church should come in order that a real revival may result. The call, therefore, is not alone to the individual to consecrate and believe for the coming of the Holy Spirit, but it is also to the Church to seek earnestly to reach that unity of mind and heart which is always a prerequisite, and then to believe God for that outpouring of His Spirit that affects the unconverted world about, and makes conversions real and the desire for personal holiness deep.
The author is by no means uninformed as to the prevailing deadness and formality among professors of religion, the heterodoxy in many pulpits, and the astounding wickedness of men in general in our day. And yet for all these, he refuses to be discouraged and declares that if Jesus postpones His coming in the glory of His second Advent, the Church may yet have a more glorious and far reaching revival than has yet been recorded. He does say that, if Jesus tarries, it is a revival or a revolution more far reaching than men have ever known, and a revolution that will outlaw Christianity and mar the opportunity of the Church beyond anything men have yet seen.
The positions taken in this book are, according to my judgment, sane, scriptural and timely. This book is needed and cannot fail to do good wherever it is circulated and read. It will certainly contribute both directly and indirectly to the bringing on of that revival for which all spiritually minded people pray.
I have known Brother Bennett for many years and it is a pleasure to commend both him and his book to the reading public, and to pray for the widest circulation of the book among our own people and all others.
James B. Chapman, General Superintendent Church of the Nazarene