May we not have to wait for the baptism with the Holy
a passage in the Bible that describes such an experience. I am inclined to think the Apostles had them, but if they had, they kept them to themselves and it is well that they did, for if they had put them on record, that is what we would be looking for to-day. But what are the manifestations that actually occurred in the case of the Apostles and the early disciples ? New power in the Lord's, work. We read at Pentecost that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts ii. 4). Similar accounts are given of what occurred in the household of Cornelius and what occurred in.Ephesus. All we read in the case of the Apostle Paul is that Ananias came in and said, a Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." Then Ananias baptized him, and the next thing we read is that Paul went straight down to the synagogue and preached Christ so mightily in the power of the Spirit that he " confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ " (Acts ix. 17-22). (o right through the New Testament the manifestation that we are taught to expect , and the manifestation that actually occurred was new power in Christian work and that is the manifestation that we may expect to-day and we need not look too carefully for that. The thing for us to do is to claim God's promise and let God take care of the mode of manifestation.
3. The third question that will arise with some is, May we not have to wait for the baptism with the Holy
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit
Spirit? Did not the Apostles have to wait ten days, and may we not have to wait ten days or even more ? No, there is no necessity that we wait. We are told distinctly in the Bible why the Apostles had to wait ten days. In Acts ii. I, we read, " And when the day of (literally " When the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled," R. V., margin). Way back in the Old Testament types, and back of that in Pentecost was fully come " the eternal counsels of God, the day of Pentecost was set for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the gathering of the church, and the Holy Spirit could not be given until the day of Pentecost was fully come, therefore the Apostles had to wait until the day of Pentecost was fulfilled, but there was no waiting after Pentecost. There was no waiting for example in Acts iv. 31 ; scarcely had they finished the prayer when the place where they were gathered together was shaken and " they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." There was no waiting in the household of Cornelius. They were listening to their first Gospel sermon and Peter said as the climax of his argument " to Him (that is Jesus) bear all the prophets witness that through His name every one that believeth on Him shall receive remission of sins " (R. V.), and no sooner had Peter spoken these words than they believed and " the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word." There was no waiting in Samaria after Peter and John came down and told them about the baptism with the Holy
Spirit and prayed with them. There was no waiting in Ephesus after Paul came and told them that there was not only the baptism of John unto repentance, but the
baptism of Jesus in the Holy Spirit. It is true that they had been waiting some time until then, but it was simply because they did not know that there was such a baptism for them. And many may wait to-day because they do not know that there is the baptism with the Spirit for them, or they may have to wait because they are not resting in the finished work of Christ, or because they have not put away sin, or because they have not surrendered fully to God, or because they will not definitely ask and believe and take ; but the reason for the waiting is not in God, it is in ourselves. Any one who will, can lay this book down at this point, take the steps which have been stated and immediately receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I would not say a word to dissuade men from spending much time in waiting upon God in prayer for " They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength (Isa. xl. 31). There are few of us indeed in these days who spend as many hours as we should in waiting upon God. The writer can bear joyful testimony to the manifest outpourings of the Spirit that have come time and again as he has waited upon God through the hours of the night with believing brethren, but the point I would emphasize is that the baptism with the Holy Spirit may be had at once. The Bible proves this ; experience proves it. There are many waiting for feeling who ought to be claiming by faith. In these days we hear of many who say they are " waiting for their Pentecost "
5 some have been waiting weeks, some have been waiting months, some have been waiting years. This is not Scriptural and it is dishonouring to God, These
brethren have an unscriptural view of what constitutes
Pentecost. They have fixed it in their minds that certain manifestations are to occur and as these particular manifestations, which they themselves have prescribed, do not come, they think they have not received the Holy Spirit. There are many who have been led into the error, already confuted in this book, that the baptism with the Holy Spirit always manifests itself in the gift of tongues. They have not received the gift of tongues and therefore they conclude that they have not received the baptism with the Holy Spirit. But as already seen, one may receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit and not receive the gift of tongues. Others still are waiting for some ecstatic feeling, f We do not need to wait at alL We may meet the conditions, we may claim the blessing at once on the ground of God's sure Word., There was a time in the writer's ministry when he was led to say that he would never enter his pulpit again until he had been definitely baptized with the Holy Spirit and knew it, or until God in some way told him to go. I shut myself up in my study and day by day waited upon God for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It was a time of struggle. The thought would arise, u Suppose you do not receive the baptism with the Holy
Spirit before Sunday. How it will look for you to refuse to go into your pulpit," but I held fast to my resolution. I had a more or less definite thought in my mind of what might happen when I was baptized with the Holy Spirit, but it did not come that way at all. One morning as I waited upon God, one of the quietest and calmest moments of my life, it was just as if
God said to me, " The blessing is yours. Now go and preach." If I had known my Bible then as I know it now, I might have heard that voice the very first day speaking to me through the Word, but I did not know it and God in His infinite condescension, looking upon my weakness, spoke it directly to my heart. There was no particular ecstasy or emotion, simply the calm assurance that the blessing was mine. I went into my work and God manifested His power in that work.
Some time passed, I do not remember just how long, and I was sitting in that same study. I do not remember that I was thinking about this subject at all, but suddenly it was just as if I had been knocked out of my chair on to the floor, and I lay upon my face crying, " Glory to God ! Glory to God ! " I could not stop. Some power, not my own, had taken possession of my lips and my whole person. The writer is not of an excitable, hysterical or even emotional temperament, but I lost control of myself absolutely. I had never shouted before in my life, but I could not stop. When after a while I got control of myself, I went to my wife and told her what had happened. I tell this experience, not to magnify it, but to say that the time when this wonderful experience (which I cannot really fully describe) came was not the moment when I was baptized with the Holy Spirit. The moment when I was baptized with the Holy Spirit was in that calm hour when God said, u It is yours. Now go and preach." There is an afternoon that I shall never forget. It was the eighth day of July, 1894. It was at the Northfield Students' Convention. I had spoken that morn*
Ing in the church on How to Receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. As I drew to a close, I took out my watch and noticed that it was exactly twelve o'clock. Mr. Moody had invited us to go up on the mountain that afternoon at three o'clock to wait upon God for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. As I looked at my watch, I said, " Gentlemen, it is exactly twelve o'clock. Mr. Moody has invited us to go up on the mountain at three o'clock to wait upon God for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It is three hours until three o'clock. Some of you cannot wait three hours, nor do you need to wait. Go to your tent, go to your room in the hotel or in the buildings, go out into the woods, go anywhere, where you can get alone with God, meet the conditions of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and claim it at once." At three o'clock we gathered in front of Mr.
Moody's mother's house ; four hundred and fifty-six of us in all, all men from the eastern colleges. (I know the number because Mr. Paul Moody counted us as we passed through the gates down into the lots.) We commenced to climb the mountainside. After we had gone some distance, Mr. Moody said, " 1 do not think we need to go further. Let us stop here." We sat down and Mr. Moody said, " Have any of you anything to say ? " One after another, perhaps seventy-five men, cc I could not wait arose and said words to this effect, until three o'clock. I have been alone with God and I have received the baptism with the Holy Spirit." Then Mr. Moody said, " I can see no reason why we should not kneel right down here now and ask God that the Holy Spirit may fall on us as definitely as He
fell on the Apostles at Pentecost. Let us pray." We knelt down on the ground ; some of us lay on our faces on the pine-needles. As we had gone up the mountainside, a cloud had been gathering over the mountain, and as we began to pray the cloud broke and the rain-drops began to come down upon us through the overhanging pine trees, but another cloud, big with mercy, had been gathering over Northfield for ten days and our prayers seemed to pierce that cloud and the Holy Ghost fell upon us. It was a wonderful hour. There are many who will never forget it. But any one who reads this book may have a similar hour alone by himself now. He can take the seven steps one by one and the Holy Spirit will fall upon him.
XXI
The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prophets and Apostles rHE work of the Holy Spirit in apostles and prophets is an entirely distinctive worh He imparts to apostles and prophets an especial giftfor an especial purpose. We read in I Cor. xii. 4, 8-n, 28, 29, R. V., " Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same
Spirit. . . . For to one is given through the Spirit wisdom ; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit ; to another faith, in the same
Spirit ; and to another gifts of healings, in the one
Spirit ; and to another workings of miracles ; and to another prophecy ; and to another discerning of spirits to another divers kinds of tongues ; and to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each severally even as He will. . . . And God hath set some in the church, first apostles secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues. Are all apostles ? Are all prophets ? Are all teachers ? Are all workers of miracles ? Have all gifts of healings ? Do all speak with tongues ? do all interpret ? " It is evident from
these verses that the work of the Holy Spirit in apostles and prophets is of a distinctive character. The doctrine is becoming very common and very popular in our day that the work of the Holy Spirit in preachers and teachers and in ordinary believers, illuminating them and guiding them into the truth and opening their minds to understand the Word of God is the same in kind and differs only in degree from the work of the Holy Spirit in prophets and apostles. It is evident from the passage just cited that this doctrine is thoroughly unscriptural and untrue. It overlooks the fact so clearly stated and carefully elucidated that while " there are " diversities of there is a the same Spirit " u diversities of administrations " " diversities of gifts workings" (i Cor. xii. 4-6) and that "not all are " and " not all are apostles (i Cor. xii. 29). A very scholarly and brilliant preacher seeking to miniprophets mize the difference between the work of the Holy
Spirit in apostles and prophets and His work in other men calls attention to the fact that the Bible says that Bezaleel was to be " filled with the Spirit of God " to devise the work of the tabernacle (Ex. xxxi. i-n). He gives this as a proof that the inspiration of the prophet does not differ from the inspiration of the artist or architect, but in doing this, he loses sight of the fact that the tabernacle was to be built after the " pattern "shown to Moses in the Mount " (Ex. xxv. 9, 40) and that therefore it was itself a prophecy and an exposition of the truth of God. It was not mere architecture.
It was the Word of God done into wood, gold, silver, brass, cloth, skin, etc& And Bezaleel needed as much