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diff --git a/6135.txt b/6135.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5abe45b --- /dev/null +++ b/6135.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6087 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of When the Holy Ghost is Come, by S. L. Brengle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: When the Holy Ghost is Come + +Author: S. L. Brengle + +Posting Date: September 22, 2012 [EBook #6135] +Release Date: July, 2004 +First Posted: November 17, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN THE HOLY GHOST IS COME *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant, Charles Franks, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + + +WHEN THE HOLY GHOST IS COME. + +BY + +COLONEL S. L. BRENGLE, + + +Edited by BRAMWELL BOOTH. + + + + +FOREWORD. + +The Salvation Army, contrary to what has often been thought by +surface observers, has owed its existence, its strength, and its +success chiefly to our careful attention to the profoundest +questions of the soul. + +And still, as always, we wish to urge upon all the study of those +great practical truths, without the proclamation of which our +work for men would cease to have any abiding value. We glory in +the knowledge of Christ as a perfect Saviour just as much for +this, our own time, as for any past generation, or for any +generation yet to come. The pretence that this age has reached +some superior development, whether mental or moral, for which a +new kind of Saviour is needed, seems to us absurd. And we do not +believe it can long endure where Christ is really known. + +To the most thoughtful, therefore, as well as to those who have +the least time for thought, I earnestly commend the words of +devout and practical men upon those great questions, which I hope +to see reproduced in the series of which the present volume is +the first. Prayerful reading of their messages cannot but lead to +immediate action, to a complete self-abandonment to God, and to a +realizing faith in His power to use every one of His sons and +daughters for the healing of the world's open sores and the +triumph of His Rule. + +BRAMWELL BOOTH. LONDON, January, 1909. + + + +CONTENTS. + + +PREFACE + +I. WHO IS HE? +II. PREPARING HIS HOUSE III. IS THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY + SPIRIT A THIRD BLESSING? +IV. THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT +V. PURITY +VI. POWER +VII. TRYING THE SPIRITS +VIII. GUIDANCE +IX. THE MEEK AND LOWLY HEART +X. HOPE +XI. THE HOLY SPIRIT'S SUBSTITUTE FOR GOSSIP AND EVIL-SPEAKING +XII. THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST +XIII. OFFENCES AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST +XIV. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SOUND DOCTRINE +XV. PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT +XVI. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ANOINTED PREACHER +XVII. PREACHING +XIX. THE SHEATHED SWORD: A LAW OF THE SPIRIT +XX. VICTORY THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT OVER SUFFERING +XXI. THE OVERFLOWING BLESSING +XXII. IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE AND EXPERIENCE OF HOLINESS TO + SPIRITUAL LEADERS +XXIII. VICTORY OVER EVIL TEMPER BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT + + + + +PREFACE. + + +It is no small pleasure to me to commend this book to all who +love God, and in particular to those who are labouring to serve +Him in the ranks of The Salvation Army. I believe that it will +prove useful in the most important ways--in its bearing, that +is, upon many of the practical difficulties and problems of daily +life. + +The writer, Colonel Brengle, gives us not only of the fruit of an +orderly and well-stored mind on the great subject before us, +but--and this is the more important--he tells us of the actual work +of the Holy Spirit in the lives of ordinary men and women, as he +has witnessed the results of that work amidst his many labours +for the Salvation and Holiness of the people. It is for them he +writes. It is to them, living the common life, bound to others by +the obligations of ordinary social intercourse, toiling at their +secular occupations, and rubbing shoulders with the multitude in +the market-place, that his message comes. I venture to hope that +his words will make it plain to some of them that the highest +intercourse with the Divine is their privilege; that the special +province of the Holy Ghost is to lead men into the truest +devotion to God, and to the advancement of His Kingdom on earth, +even while they are carrying on the common avocations associated +with earning their daily bread. + +The only purpose of God having a practical bearing on our lives +is His purpose to save men from sin and its awful consequences, +and make them conform to His will in this world as in the next. +The work of the Holy Spirit is to help us to achieve that +purpose. Without His help we are unable to overcome the +difficulties that are in the way, whether we consider them from +the standpoint of the world or of the individual. If anyone could +have looked at the state of the world at the time of our Lord's +death he would surely have regarded the work which the Apostles +were commissioned to attempt as the most utterly wild and +impracticable enterprise that the human mind could conceive. And +it was so, but for one fact. That fact was the promise of the +Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to be the great Helper in the +undertaking. + +And equally in the work of uniting the individual soul with God's +purpose that Spirit is our Helper. In the work of righteousness +He is a Partner with us. In the life of faith and prayer He is +our unwavering Prompter and Guide. In the submission of our wills +to God and the chastening of our spirits He is the great Co-worker +with us. In the bearing of burdens and the enduring of trial and +sorrow He joins hands with us to lead us on. In the purifying of +every power from the taint of sin He is our Sanctifier. + +All this is practical. It has to do with to-day--with every bit +of to-day. In fact, so far from the sphere of the Holy Spirit +being limited to the pulpit or the platform, or to the inward +experiences of the religious life, He is just as truly and +properly concerned with the affairs of the shop and the street, +the nursery and the kitchen, the chamber of suffering and the +home of penury, as with preaching the Gospel or healing the sick. + +Now it is to lead its readers to a personal experience of all +this that this book has been written. No mere intellectual assent +to the truth it sets forth can satisfy its author, any more than +it can benefit his readers. What he seeks, and what I join him in +devoutly asking of God, is that you, dear friend, who may take +this little volume into your hands, may see what an infinite +privilege is yours, and may begin to act with God the Holy Ghost, +and to open your whole being to Him, that He may work with you. + +BRAMWELL BOOTH. +LONDON, January, 1909. + + + + +I. + +WHO IS HE? + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +On that last eventful evening in the upper room, just after the +Passover feast, Jesus spoke to His disciples about His departure, +and, having commanded them to love one another, He besought them +not to be troubled in heart, but to hold fast their faith in Him, +assuring them that, though He was to die and leave them, He was +but going to the Father's many-mansioned house to prepare a place +for them. + +But already they were troubled, for what could this death and +departure mean but the destruction of all their hopes, of all +their cherished plans? Jesus had drawn them away from their +fishing-boats, their places of custom and daily employment, and +inspired them with high personal and patriotic ambitions, and +encouraged them to believe that He was the Seed of David, the +promised Messiah; and they hoped that He would cast out Pilate +and his hated Roman garrison, restore the kingdom to Israel, and +sit on David's throne, a King, reigning in righteousness and +undisputed power and majesty for ever. And then, were they not to +be His Ministers of State and chief men in His Kingdom? + +He was their Leader, directing their labours; their Teacher, +instructing their ignorance and solving their doubts and all +their puzzling problems; their Defence, stilling the stormy sea +and answering for them when questioned by wise and wily enemies. + +They were poor and unlearned and weak. In Him was all their help, +and what would they do, what could they do, without Him? They +were without social standing, without financial prestige, without +learning or intellectual equipment, without political or military +power. He was their All, and without Him they were as helpless as +little children, as defenceless as lambs in the midst of wolves. +How could their poor hearts be otherwise than troubled? + +But then He gave them a strange, wonderful, reassuring promise: +He said, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray +the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may +abide with you for ever" (John xiv. 15, 16). I am going away, but +Another shall come, who will fill My place. He shall not go away, +but abide with you for ever, and He "shall be in you." And later +He added: "It is expedient for you"--that is, better for you--"that +I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come." + +Who is this other One--this Comforter? He must be some august +Divine Person, and not a mere influence or impersonal force, for +how else could He take and fill the place of Jesus? How else +could it be said that it was better to have Him than to have +Jesus remaining in the flesh? He must be strong and wise, and +tender and true, to take the place of the Blessed One who is to +die and depart. Who is He? + +John, writing in the Greek language, calls Him "Paraclete," but +we in English call Him Comforter. But Paraclete means more, much +more than Comforter. It means "one called in to help: an +advocate, a helper." The same word is used of Jesus in i John ii. +i: "We have an Advocate," a Paraclete, a Helper, "with the +Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Just as Jesus had gone to be +the disciples' Advocate, their Helper in the Heavens, so this +other Paraclete was to be their Advocate, their Helper on earth. +He would be their Comforter when comfort was needed; but He would +be more; He would be also their Teacher, Guide, Strengthener, as +Jesus had been. At every point of need there would He be as an +ever-present and all-wise, almighty Helper. He would meet their +need with His sufficiency; their weakness with His strength; +their foolishness with His wisdom; their ignorance with His +knowledge; their blindness and short-sightedness with His +perfect, all-embracing vision. Hallelujah! What a Comforter! Why +should they be troubled? + +They were weak, but He would strengthen them with might in the +inner man (Eph. iii. 16). They were to give the world the words +of Jesus, and teach all nations (Matthew xxviii. 19, 20); and He +would teach them all things, and bring to their remembrance +whatsoever Jesus had said to them (John xiv. 26). + +They were to guide their converts in the right way, and He was to +guide them into all truth (John xvi. 13). They were to attack +hoary systems of evil, and inbred and actively intrenched sin, in +every human heart; but He was to go before them, preparing the +way for conquest, by convincing the world of sin, of righteousness, +and of judgment (John xvi. 8). They were to bear heavy burdens and +face superhuman tasks, but He was to give them power (Acts i. 8). +Indeed, He was to be a Comforter, a Strengthener, a Helper. + +Jesus had been external to them. Often they missed Him. Sometimes +He was asleep when they felt they sorely needed Him. Sometimes He +was on the mountains, while they were in the valley vainly trying +to cast out stubborn devils, or wearily toiling on the tumultuous, +wind-tossed sea. Sometimes He was surrounded by vast crowds, and +He entered into high disputes with the doctors of the law, and +they had to wait till He was alone to seek explanations of His +teachings. But they were never to lose this other Helper in the +crowd, nor be separated for an instant from Him, for no human +being, nor untoward circumstance, nor physical necessity, could +ever come between Him and them, for, said Jesus, "He shall be in +you." + +From the words used to declare the sayings, the doings, the +offices and works of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, we are +forced to conclude that He is a Divine Person. Out of the +multitude of Scriptures which might be quoted, note this passage, +which, as nearly as is possible with human language, reveals to +us His personality: "Now there were in the Church that was at +Antioch certain prophets and teachers... As they ministered to +the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas +and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they +had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent +them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed +into Seleucia" (Acts xiii. 1-4). + +Further on we read that they "were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to +preach the word in Asia"; and when they would have gone into +Bithynia, "the Spirit suffered them not" (Acts xvi. 6, 7). + +Again, when the messengers of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, +were seeking Peter, "the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men +seek thee. Arise, therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, +doubting nothing: for I have sent them" (Acts x. 19, 20). + +These are but a few of the passages of Scripture that might be +quoted to establish the fact of His personality--His power to +think, to will, to act, to speak; and if His personality is not +made plain in these Scriptures, then it is impossible for human +language to make it so. + +Indeed, I am persuaded that if an intelligent heathen, who had +never seen the Bible, should for the first time read the four +Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, he would say that the +personality of the Holy Spirit is as clearly revealed in the Acts +as is the personality of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. In truth, +the Acts of the Apostles are in a large measure the acts of the +Holy Spirit, and the disciples were not more certainly under the +immediate direction of Jesus during the three years of His +earthly ministry than they were under the direct leadership of +the Spirit after Pentecost. + +But, while there are those that admit His personality, yet in +their loyalty to the Divine Unity they deny the Trinity, and +maintain that the Holy Spirit is only the Father manifesting +Himself as Spirit, without any distinction in personality. But +this view cannot be harmonised with certain Scriptures. While the +Bible and reason plainly declare that there is but one God, yet +the Scriptures as clearly reveal that there are three Persons in +the Godhead--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. + +The form of Paul's benediction to the Corinthians proves the +doctrine:-- + +"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the +communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen" (2 Cor. xiii. +14). + +Again, it is taught in the promise of Jesus, already quoted, "And +I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter... +the Spirit of Truth" (John xiv. 16, 17). Here the three Persons of +the Godhead are clearly revealed. The Son prays; the Father +answers; the Spirit comes. + +The Holy Spirit is "another Comforter," a second Comforter +succeeding the first, who was Jesus, and both were given by the +Father. + +Do you say, "I cannot understand it"? Neither do I. Who can +understand it? God does not expect us to understand it. Nor would +He have us puzzle our heads and trouble our hearts in attempting +to understand it or harmonise it with our knowledge of arithmetic. + +Note this: it is only the _fact_ that is revealed; +_how_ there can be three Persons in one Godhead is not +revealed. + +The _how_ is a mystery, and is not a matter of faith at all; +but the _fact_ is a matter of revelation, and therefore a +matter of faith. I myself am a mysterious trinity of body, mind, +and spirit. The fact I believe, but the _how_ is not a thing +to believe. It is at this point that many puzzle and perplex +themselves needlessly. + +In the ordinary affairs of life we grasp facts, and hold them +fast, without puzzling ourselves over the _how_ of things. +Who can explain _how_ food sustains life; how light reveals +material objects, how sound conveys ideas to our minds? It is the +fact we know and believe, but the _how_ we pass by as a +mystery unrevealed. What God has revealed, we believe. We cannot +understand _how_ Jesus turned water into wine; _how_ He +multiplied a few loaves and fishes and fed thousands; _how_ +He stilled the stormy sea; _how_ He opened blind eyes, healed +lepers, and raised the dead by a word. But the facts we believe. +Wireless telegraphic messages are sent over the vast wastes of +ocean. That is a fact, and we believe it. But _how_ they go we +do not know. That is not something to believe. It is a matter of +pure speculation, and is unexplained. + +An old servant of God has pointed out that it is the fact of the +Trinity, and not the _manner_ of it, which God has revealed, +and made a subject for our faith. + +But while the Scriptures reveal to us the fact of the personality +of the Holy Spirit, and it is a subject for our faith, to those +in whom He dwells this fact may become a matter of sacred +knowledge, of blessed experience. + +How else can we account for the positive and assured way in which +the Apostles and disciples spoke of the Holy Ghost on and after +the day of Pentecost, if they did not know Him? Immediately after +the fiery baptism, with its blessed filling, Peter stood before +the people, and said: "This is that which was spoken by the +prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith +God, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh"; then he exhorted +the people and assured them that if they would meet certain +simple conditions they should "receive the gift of the Holy +Ghost." He said to Ananias, "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to +lie to the Holy Ghost?" He declared to the High Priest and +Council that he and his fellow-Apostles were witnesses of the +resurrection of Jesus: and added, "And so is also the Holy Ghost, +whom God hath given to them that obey Him." Without any apology +or explanation, or "think so" or "hope so," they speak of being +"filled" (not simply with some new, strange experience or +emotion, but) "with the Holy Ghost." Certainly they must have +known Him. And if they knew Him, may not we? + +Paul says: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, +but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things +that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, +not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy +Ghost teacheth" (I Cor. ii. 12, 13). And if we know the words, +may we not know the Teacher of the words? + +John Wesley says:-- + +"The knowledge of the Three-One God is interwoven with all true +Christian faith, with all vital religion. I do not say," he adds, +"that every real Christian can say, with the Marquis de Renty, 'I +bear about with me continually an experimental verity, and a +fullness of the ever-blessed Trinity. I apprehend that this is +not the experience of "babes," but rather "fathers in Christ."' +But I know not how anyone can be a Christian believer till he +'hath the witness in himself,' till 'the Spirit of God witnesses +with his spirit that he is a child of God'; that is, in effect, +till God the Holy Ghost witnesses that God the Father has +accepted him through the merits of God the Son. + +"Not that every Christian believer adverts to this; perhaps, at +first, not one in twenty; but, if you ask them a few questions, +you will easily find it is implied in what he believes." + +I shall never forget my joy, mingled with awe and wonder, when +this dawned upon my consciousness. For several weeks I had been +searching the Scriptures, ransacking my heart, humbling my soul, +and crying to God almost day and night for a pure heart and the +baptism with the Holy Ghost, when one glad, sweet day (it was +January 9th, 1885) this text suddenly opened to my understanding: +"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us +our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"; and I was +enabled to believe without any doubt that the precious blood +cleansed my heart, even mine, from all sin. Shortly after that, +while reading these words of Jesus to Martha: "I am the +resurrection and the life; he that believeth on Me, though he +were dead, yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth on +Me shall never die," instantly my heart was melted like wax +before fire; Jesus Christ was revealed to my spiritual consciousness, +revealed in me, and my soul was filled with unutterable love. I +walked in a heaven of love. Then one day, with amazement, +I said to a friend: "This is the perfect love about which the +Apostle John wrote; but it is beyond all I dreamed of; in it is +personality; this love thinks, wills, talks with me, corrects me, +instructs and teaches me." And then I knew that God the +Holy Ghost was in this love, and that this love was God, for +"God is love." + +Oh, the rapture mingled with reverential, holy fear--for it is a +rapturous, yet divinely fearful thing--to be indwelt by the Holy +Ghost, to be a temple of the Living God! Great heights are always +opposite great depths, and from the heights of this blessed +experience many have plunged into the dark depths of fanaticism. +But we must not draw back from the experience through fear. All +danger will be avoided by meekness and lowliness of heart; by +humble, faithful service; by esteeming others better than +ourselves, and in honour preferring them before ourselves; by +keeping an open, teachable spirit; in a word, by looking steadily +unto Jesus, to whom the Holy Spirit continually points us: for He +would not have us fix our attention exclusively upon Himself and +His work _in_ us, but also upon the Crucified One and His +work _for_ us, that we may walk in the steps of Him whose +blood purchases our pardon, and makes and keeps us clean. + + "Great Paraclete! to Thee we cry: + O highest Gift of God most high! + O Fount of life! O Fire of love! + And sweet Anointing from above! + + "Our senses touch with light and fire; + Our hearts with tender love inspire; + And with endurance from on high + The weakness of our flesh supply. + + "Far back our enemy repel, + And let Thy peace within us dwell; + So may we, having Thee for Guide, + Turn from each hurtful thing aside. + + "Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow + The Father and the Son to know, + And evermore to hold confessed + Thyself of Each the Spirit blest." + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +II. + +PREPARING HIS HOUSE. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +JESUS said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be +born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom +of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which +is born of the Spirit is spirit." And Paul wrote to the Romans +that, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of +His." + +So it must be that every child of God, every truly converted +person, has the Holy Spirit in some gracious manner and measure, +else he would not be a child of God; for it is only "as many as +are led by the Spirit of God" that "are the sons of God." + +It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin, who makes us feel +how good and righteous, and just and patient God is, and how +guilty we are, and how unfit for Heaven, and how near to Hell. It +is the Holy Spirit who leads us to true repentance and confession +and amendment of life; and when our repentance is complete, and +our surrender is unconditional, it is He who reasons with us, and +calms our fears, and soothes our troubled hearts, and banishes +our darkness, and enables us to look to Jesus, and believe on Him +for the forgiveness of all our sins and the salvation of our +souls. And when we yield and trust, and are accepted of the Lord, +and are saved by grace, it is He who assures us of the Father's +favour, and notifies us that we are saved. "The Spirit Himself +beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." +He is "the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." + + "And His that gentle voice we hear, + Soft as the breath of even; + That checks each thought, that calms each fear, + And speaks of Heaven." + + It is He who strengthens the new convert + to fight against and overcome sin, and it is + He who "begets within him a hope of fuller + righteousness through faith in Christ." + + "And every virtue we possess, + And every victory won, + And every thought of holiness, + Are His alone." + +Blessed be God for this work of the Holy Spirit within the heart +of every true child of His! + +But, great and gracious as is this work, it is not the fiery +pentecostal baptism with the Spirit which is promised; it is not +the fullness of the Holy Ghost to which we are exhorted. It is +only the clear dawn of the day, and not the rising of the day-star. +This is only the initial work of the Spirit. It is perfect of +its kind, but it is preparatory to another and fuller work, +about which I wish to write. + +Jesus said to His disciples, concerning the Holy Spirit, that +"the world" (the unsaved, unrepentant) "cannot receive" Him, +"because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him"; because they +resist Him, and will not permit Him to work in their hearts. And +then Jesus added, "but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you...." +He had begun His work in them, but there was more to follow, for +Jesus said, "and shall be in you." + +When a man is building himself a house, he is in and out of it +and round about it. But we do not say he lives in it until it has +been completed. And it is in that sense that Jesus said, "He +dwelleth with you." But when the house is finished, the owner +sweeps out all the chips and saw-dust, scrubs the floor, lays +down his carpets, hangs up his pictures, arranges his furniture, +and moves in with his family. Then he is in the fullest sense +within it. He abides there. Now, it is in that sense that Jesus +meant that the Holy Spirit should be in them. This is fitly +expressed in one of our songs:-- + + "Holy Spirit, come, Oh, come! + Let Thy work in me be done! + All that hinders shall be thrown aside; + Make me fit to be Thy dwelling." + +Previous to Pentecost He was with them, using the searching +preaching of John the Baptist, and the life, the words, the +example, the sufferings, and the death and resurrection of Jesus +as instruments with which to fashion their hearts for His +indwelling. As the truth was declared to them in the words of +Jesus, pictured to them in His doings, exemplified in His daily +life, and fulfilled in His death and His rising from the dead, +the Holy Spirit wrought mightily within them; but He could not +yet find perfect rest in their hearts; therefore He did not yet +abide within them. + +They had forsaken all to follow Christ. They had been +commissioned to preach the Gospel, to heal the sick, to cleanse +the lepers, to raise the dead, to cast out devils. Their names +were written in Heaven. They were not of the world, even as Jesus +was not of the world, for they belonged to Him and to the Father. +They knew the Holy Spirit, for He was with them, working in them, +but not yet living in them, for they were yet carnal; that is, +they were selfish, each seeking the best place for himself. They +disputed among themselves as to which should be the greatest. +They were bigoted, wanting to call down fire from Heaven to +consume those who would not receive Jesus, and forbidding those +who would not follow them to cast out devils in His name. They +were positive and loud in their professions of devotion and +loyalty to Jesus when alone with Him. They declared they would +die with Him. But they were fearful, timid, and false to Him when +the testing time came. When the mocking crowd appeared, and +danger was near, they all forsook Him, and fled; while Peter +cursed and swore, and denied that he knew Him. + +But the Holy Spirit did not forsake them. He still wrought within +them, and, no doubt, used their very mistakes and miserable +failures to perfect within them the spirit of humility and +perfect self-abasement in order that they might safely be +exalted. And on the day of Pentecost His work of preparation was +complete, and He moved in to abide for ever. Hallelujah! + +And this experience of theirs before Pentecost is the common +experience of all true converts. Every child of God knows that +the Holy Spirit is with him; realises that He is working within, +striving to set the house in order. And with many who are +properly taught and gladly obedient, this work is done quickly, +and the heavenly Dove, the Blessed One, takes up his constant +abode within them; the toil and strife with inbred sin is ended +by its destruction, and they enter at once into the sabbath of +full salvation. + +Surely this is possible. The disciples could not receive the Holy +Spirit till Jesus was glorified; because not until then was the +foundation for perfect, intelligent, unwavering faith laid. But +since the day of Pentecost, He may be received immediately by +those who have repented of all sin, who have believed on Jesus, +and been born again. Some have assured me that they were +sanctified wholly and filled with the Spirit within a few hours +of their conversion. I have no doubt that this was so with many +of the three thousand who were converted under Peter's preaching +on the day of Pentecost. + +But often this work is slow, for He can only work effectually as +we work with Him, practising intelligent and obedient faith. Some +days the work prospers and seems almost complete, and then peace +and joy and comfort abound in the heart; at other times the work +is hindered, and oftentimes almost or quite undone, by the +strivings and stirrings of inbred sin, by fits of temper, by +lightness and frivolity, by neglect of watchfulness and prayer, +and the patient, attentive study of His word; by worldliness, by +unholy ambitions, by jealousies and envyings, by uncharitable +suspicions and harsh judgments and selfish indulgences, and +slowness to believe. + +"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit," seeks to bring the soul +back under the bondage of sin again, while the Spirit wars +against the flesh, which is "the old man," "the carnal mind." The +Spirit seeks to bring every thought into "captivity to the +obedience of Christ," to lead the soul to that point of glad, +whole-hearted consecration to its Lord, and that simple, perfect +faith in the merits of His blood which shall enable Him to cast +out "the old man," destroy "the carnal mind," and, making the +heart His temple, enthrone Christ within. + +"Here on earth a temple stands, Temple never built with hands; +There the Lord doth fill the place With the glory of His grace. +Cleansed by Christ's atoning blood, _Thou_ art this fair +house of God. Thoughts, desires, that enter there, Should they +not be pure and fair? Meet for holy courts and blest, Courts of +stillness and of rest, Where the soul, a priest in white, Singeth +praises day and night; Glory of the love divine, Filling all this +heart of mine." + +My brother, my sister, what is your experience just now? Are you +filled with the Spirit? Or is the old man still warring against +Him in your heart? Oh, that you may receive Him fully by faith +just now! + +"Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" + + + + +III. + +IS THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT A THIRD BLESSING? + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +There is much difference of opinion among many of God's children +as to the time and order of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and +many who believe that entire cleansing is subsequent to +salvation, ask if the baptism with the Spirit is not subsequent +to cleansing, and, therefore, a third blessing. + +There are four classes of teachers whose views appear to differ +about this subject. There are:-- + +1. Those who emphasise cleansing; who say much of a clean heart, +but little, if anything, about the fullness of the Holy Spirit +and power from on High. + +2. Those who emphasise the baptism with the Holy Ghost and +fullness of the Spirit, but say little or nothing of cleansing +from inbred sin and the destruction of the carnal mind. + +3. Those who say much of both, but separate them into two +distinct experiences, often widely separated in time. + +4. Those who teach that the truth is in the union of the two, and +that, while we may separate them in their order, putting +cleansing first, we cannot separate them as to time, since it is +the baptism that cleanses, just as the darkness vanishes before +the flash of the electric light when the right button is touched; +just as the Augean stables were cleansed, in the fabled story of +Grecian mythology, when Hercules turned in the floods of the +River Arno; the refuse went out as the rushing waters poured in. + +There are three very blessed portions of Scripture which show us +that this is God's order, and two that plainly show us that +cleansing and the baptism are not separate in time. + +In Psalm li. 10 and 12, David prays, "Create in me a clean heart, +O God, and renew a right spirit within me.... Uphold me with Thy +free Spirit." First the cleansing, then the filling that upholds: +for as it is my spirit within me that upholds my body, so it is +God's Spirit within that upholds my soul. + +In Ezekiel xxxvi. 25 and 27, the Lord says, "Then will I sprinkle +clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your +filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.... And I +will put My Spirit within you." + +Here again, the order is first cleansing, then filling. + +In John xvii. 15-26, Jesus prays for His disciples, and says: "I +pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that +Thou shouldst keep them from the evil.... Sanctify them;... that +they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee; +that they also may be one in Us;... I in them, and Thou in Me, +that they may be made perfect in one;... that the love wherewith +Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them." + +Here, again, it is first sanctification (cleansing, being made +holy), then filling, divine union with the Father and the Son +through the Holy Spirit. + +These Scriptures make plain the order of God's work, and if we +looked at them alone, without diligently comparing Scripture with +Scripture, as God would have us do, we might perhaps conclude +that the cleansing and filling were as distinct and separate in +time as they are in this order of statement. + +But other Scriptures give us abundant light on that side of the +subject. In Isaiah vi. 1-8, we have the record of the prophet's +sanctification, and we notice that the cleansing and the filling +were not separate in time. The cleansing was not _before_ +the baptism, but _by_ the baptism. The "live coal" was laid +upon his mouth, and touched his lips; and by this fiery baptism +his iniquity was taken away and his sin was purged. + +In Acts x. 44, we read of Peter's preaching Jesus to Cornelius, +the Roman centurion, and his household; and "while Peter yet +spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard +the word"; and in Acts xv. 7-9, at the first Council in +Jerusalem, we have Peter's rehearsal of the experience of +Cornelius and his household. Peter says: "Men and brethren, ye +know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the +Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the Gospel, and +believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, +giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; and put no +difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." +Here we see that their believing, and the sudden descent of the +Holy Ghost with cleansing power into their hearts, constitute one +blessed experience. + +What patient, waiting, expectant faith reckons done, the baptism +with the Holy Ghost actually accomplishes. Between the act of +faith by which a man begins to reckon himself "dead indeed unto +sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans +vi. 11), and the act of the Holy Spirit, which makes the +reckoning good, there may be an interval of time, "a little +while" (Hebrews x. 37); but the act and state of steadfastly, +patiently, joyously, perfectly believing, which is man's part, +and the act of baptising with the Holy Ghost, cleansing as by +fire, which is God's part, bring about the one experience of +entire sanctification, and must not and cannot be logically +looked upon as two distinct blessings, any more than the act of +the husband and the act of the wife can be separated in the one +experience of marriage. + +There are two works and two workers: God and man. Just as my +right arm and my left arm work when my two hands come together, +but the union of the two hands constitute one experience. + +If my left arm acts quickly, my right arm will surely respond. +And so, if the soul, renouncing self and sin and the world, with +ardour of faith in the precious blood for cleansing, and in the +promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, draws nigh to God, God +will draw nigh to that soul, and the blessed union will be +effected suddenly: and in that instant, what faith has reckoned +done will be done, the death-stroke will be given to "the old +man," sin will die, and the heart will be clean indeed, and +wholly alive toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It will +not be a mere "make-believe" experience, but a gloriously real +one. + +It is possible that some have been led into confusion of thought +on this subject by not considering all the Scriptures bearing on +it. What is it that cleanses or sanctifies, and how? Jesus prays: +"Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth." Here it is +the word, or truth, that sanctifies. + +John says: "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from +all sin." Here it is the blood. + +Peter says: "God...put no difference between us and them, +purifying their hearts by faith." And Paul says: "That they may +receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are +sanctified by faith." Here it is by faith. + +Again, Paul writes: "God hath from the beginning chosen you to +salvation through sanctification of the Spirit" (2 Thess. ii. +13). And again, "That the offering up of the Gentiles might be +acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost" (Romans xv. 16). +And Peter writes: "To the strangers... elect... through +sanctification of the Spirit" (1 Peter i. I, 2). Here it is the +Spirit that sanctifies or makes clean and holy. + +Is there, then, confusion here? Jesus says, "the truth"; John +says, "the blood"; Paul and Peter say, "faith," and "the Holy +Ghost." Can these be reconciled? Let us see. + +Here is a child in a burning house. A man at the peril of his +life rushes to the spot above which the child stands in awful +danger, and cries out, "Jump, and I will catch you!" + +The child hears, believes, leaps, and the man receives him; but +just as he turns and places the boy in safety, a falling timber +smites him to the ground wounded to death, and his flowing blood +sprinkles the boy whom he has saved. + +A breathless spectator says: "The child's faith saved him." +Another says: "How quick the lad was! His courageous leap saved +him." Another says: "Bless the child! He was in awful danger, and +he just barely saved himself." Another says: "That man's word +just reached the boy's ear in the nick of time, and saved him." +Another says: "God bless that man! He saved that child." And yet +another says: "That boy was saved by blood; by the sacrifice of +that heroic man!" + +Now, what saved the child? Without the man's presence and promise +there would have been no faith; and without faith there would +have been no saving action, and the boy would have perished. The +man's word saved him by inspiring faith. Faith saved him by +leading to proper action. He saved himself by leaping. The man +saved him by sacrificing his own life in order to catch him when +he leaped out. + +Not the child himself alone, nor his faith, nor his brave leap, +nor his rescuer's word, nor his blood, nor the man himself saved +the boy, but they all together saved him; and the boy was not +saved till he was in the arms of the man. + +And so it is faith and works, and the word and the blood and the +Holy Ghost that sanctify. + +The blood, the sacrifice of Christ, underlies all, and is the +meritorious cause of every blessing we receive, but the Holy +Spirit is the active Agent by whom the merits of the blood are +applied to our needs. + +During the American Civil War certain men committed some +dastardly and unlawful deeds, and were sentenced to be shot. On +the day of the execution they stood in a row confronted by +soldiers with loaded muskets, waiting the command to fire. Just +before the command was given, the commanding officer felt a touch +on his elbow, and, turning, saw a young man by his side, who +said, "Sir, there in that row, waiting to be shot, is a married +man. He has a wife and children. He is their bread-winner. If you +shoot him, he will be sorely missed. _Let me take his place._" + +"All right," said the officer; "take his place, if you wish; but +you will be shot." + +"I quite understand that," replied the young man; "but no one +will miss me"; and, going to the condemned man, he pushed him +aside, and took his place. + +Soon the command to fire was given. The volley rang out, and the +young hero dropped dead with a bullet through his heart, while +the other man went free. + +His freedom came to him by blood. Had he, however, neglected the +great salvation, and, despising the blood shed for him, and +refusing the sacrifice of the friend and the righteous claims of +the law, persisted in the same evil ways, he, too, would have +been shot. The blood, though shed for him, would not have availed +to set him free. But he accepted the sacrifice, submitted to the +law, and went home to his wife and children; but it was by the +blood; every breath he henceforth drew, every throb of his heart, +every blessing he enjoyed, or possibly could enjoy, came to him +by the blood. He owed everything from that day forth to the +blood, and every fleeting moment, every passing day, and every +rolling year but increased his debt to the blood which had been +shed for him. + +And so we owe all to the blood of Christ, for we were under +sentence of death--"The soul that sinneth it shall die"; and we +have all sinned, and God, to be holy, must frown upon sin, and +utterly condemn it, and must execute His sentence against it. + +But Jesus suffered for our sins. He died for us. "He was wounded +for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;... and +with His stripes we are healed." "Ye know that ye were not +redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold... but with +the precious blood of Christ" (i Peter i. 18, 19); "Who loved me, +and gave Himself for me" (Gal. ii. 20). And now every blessing we +ever had, or ever shall have, comes to us by the Divine +Sacrifice, by "the precious blood." And "How shall we escape, if +we neglect so great salvation?" His blood is the meritorious +cause not only of our pardon, but of our cleansing, our +sanctification; but the Holy Spirit is the ever-present, living, +active Cause. + +The truth or word which sanctifies is the record God has given us +of His will and of that Divine Sacrifice, that "precious blood." +The faith that purifies is that sure confidence in that word +which leads to renunciation of all self-righteousness, that utter +abandonment to God's will, and full dependence on the merits of +"the precious blood," the "faith that works by love," for "faith +without works is dead." And thus we draw nigh to God, and God +draws nigh to us, and the Holy Ghost falls upon us, comes into +us, and cleanses our hearts by the destruction of sin, and the +shedding abroad within us of the love of God. + +The advocates of entire sanctification as an experience wrought +in the soul by the baptism with the Spirit subsequent to +regeneration call it "the second blessing." + +But many good people object to the term, and say that they have +received the first, second, third, and fiftieth blessing; and no +doubt they have; and yet the people who speak of "the second +blessing" are right, in the sense in which they use the term; and +in that sense there are but the two blessings. + +Some years ago a man heard things about a lady that filled him +with admiration for her, and made him feel that they were of one +mind and heart. Later, he met her for the first time, and fell in +love with her. After some months, following an enlarged +acquaintance and much consideration and prayer, he told her of +his love, and asked her to become his wife; and after due +consideration and prayer on her part she consented, and they +promised themselves to each other; they plighted their faith, and +in a sense gave themselves to each other. + +That was the first blessing, and it filled him with great peace +and joy, but not perfect peace and joy. Now, there were many +blessings following that before the great second blessing came. +Every letter he received, every tender look, every pressure of +the hand, every tone of her voice, every fresh assurance of +enduring and increasing affection was a blessing; but it was not +the second blessing. + +But one day, after patient waiting, which might have been +shortened by mutual consent, if they had thought it wise, and +after full preparation, they came together in the presence of +friends and before a man of God, and in the most solemn and +irrevocable manner gave themselves to each other to become one, +and were pronounced man and wife. That was the second blessing, +an epochal experience, unlike anything which preceded, or +anything to follow. And now their peace and joy and rest were +full. + +There had to be the first and second blessings in this +relationship of man and wife, but there is no third. And yet in +the sense of those who say they have received fifty blessings +from the Lord, there have been countless blessings in their +wedded life; indeed, it has been a river of blessing, broadening +and deepening in gladness and joy and sweet affections and +fellowship with the increasing years. + +But let us not confuse thought by disputing over terms and +wrangling about words. + +The first blessing in Jesus Christ is salvation, with its +negative side of remission of sins and forgiveness, and its +positive side of renewal or regeneration--the new birth--one +experience. + +And the second blessing is entire sanctification, with its +negative side of cleansing, and its positive side of filling with +the Holy Ghost--one whole, rounded, glorious, epochal experience. +And while there may be many refreshings, girdings, illuminations, +and secret tokens and assurances of love and favour, there is no +third blessing in this large sense, in this present time. + +But when time is no more, when the ever-lasting doors have lifted +up, and the King of Glory comes in with His Bride, and, for ever +redeemed and crowned, He makes us to sit down with Him on His +throne, then in eternity we shall have the third blessing--we +shall be glorified. + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +IV. + +THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +How shall I know that I am accepted of God?--that I am saved or +sanctified? The Bible declares God's love and pity for sinners, +including me, and reveals His offer of mercy to me in Jesus +Christ, on condition that I fully repent of my sins, and yielding +myself to Him, believe on Jesus Christ, and taking up my cross, +follow Him. But how shall I know that I have met these conditions +in a way to satisfy Him, and that I am myself saved? + +1. The Bible cannot tell me this. It tells me what to do, but it +does not tell me when I have done it, any more than the sign-board +at the country cross-roads, pointing out the road leading to the +city, tells me when I have got to the city. + +2. My religious teachers and friends cannot tell me, for they +cannot read my heart, nor the mind of God toward me. How can they +know when I have in my heart repented and believed, and when His +righteous anger is turned away? + +They can encourage me to repent, believe, obey, and can assure me +that, if I do, He will accept me, and I shall be saved; but +beyond that they cannot go. + +3. My own heart, owing to its darkness and deceitfulness and +liability to error, is not a safe witness previous to the +assurance God Himself gives. If my neighbour is justly offended +with me, it is not my own heart, but his testimony that first +assures me of his favour once more. + +How, then, shall I know that I am justified or wholly sanctified? +There is but one way, and that is by the witness of the Holy +Spirit. God must notify me, and make me to know it; and this He +does, when, despairing of my own works of righteousness, I cast +my poor soul fully and in faith upon Jesus. "For ye have not +received the spirit of bondage again to fear," says Paul, "but ye +have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, +Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that +we are the children of God" (Romans viii. 15, 16). "And because +ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your +hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal. iv. 6). Unless He Himself +assures me, I shall never know that He accepts me, but must +continue in uncertainty all my days. + + "Come, Holy Ghost, Thyself impress + On my expanding heart: + And show that in the Father's grace + I share a filial part." + +The General says: "Assurance is produced by the revelation of +forgiveness and acceptance made by God Himself directly to the +soul. This is the witness of the Spirit. It is God testifying in +my soul that He has loved me, and given Himself for me, and +washed me from my sins in His own blood. Nothing short of this +_actual revelation_, made by God Himself, can make anyone +sure of salvation." + +John Wesley says: "By the testimony of the Spirit, I mean an +inward impression of the soul, whereby the Spirit of God +immediately and directly witnesses to my spirit that I am a child +of God; that 'Jesus hath loved me, and given Himself for me'; +that all my sins are blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to +God." + +This witness of the Spirit addressed to my consciousness enables +me to sing with joyful assurance:-- + + "My God is reconciled; + His pardoning voice I hear: + He owns me for His child; + I can no longer fear: + With confidence I now draw nigh, + And, 'Father, Abba, Father,' cry." + +When the Holy Spirit witnesses to me that I am saved and adopted +into God's family as His child, then other evidences begin to +abound also. For instance:-- + +1. My own spirit witnesses that I am a new creature. I know that +old things have passed away, and all things have become new. My +very thoughts and desires have been changed. Love and joy and +peace reign within me. My heart no longer condemns me. Pride and +selfishness, and lust and temper, no longer control my thoughts +nor lead captive my will. I am a new creature, and I know it, and +I infer without doubt that this is the work of God in me. + +2. My conscience bears witness that I am honest and true in all +my purposes and intentions; that I am without guile; that my eye +is single to the glory of God, and that with all simplicity and +sincerity of heart I serve Him; and, since by nature I am only +sinful, I again infer that this sincerity of heart is His blessed +work in my soul, and is a fruit of salvation. + +3. The Bible becomes a witness to my salvation. In it are +accurately portrayed the true characteristics of the children of +God; and as I study it prayerfully, and find these characteristics +in my heart and life, I again infer that I am saved. This is true +self-examination, and is most useful. + +These evidences are most important to guard us against any +mistake as to the witness of the Holy Spirit. + +The witness of the Spirit is not likely to be mistaken for +something else, just as the sun is not likely to be mistaken for +a lesser light, a glow-worm or a moon. But one who has not seen +the sun might mistake some lesser light for the sun. So an +unsaved man may mistake some flash of fancy, some pleasant +emotion, for the witness of the Spirit. But if he is honest, the +absence of these secondary evidences and witnesses will correct +him. He must know that so long as sin masters him, reigns within +him, and he is devoid of the tempers, graces, and dispositions of +God's people, as portrayed in the Bible, that he is mistaken in +supposing that he has the witness of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit +cannot witness to what does not exist. He cannot lie. Not until +sin is forgiven does He witness to the fact. Not until we are +justified from our old sins and born again does He witness that +we are children of God; and when He does so witness, these +secondary evidences always follow. Charles Wesley expresses this +in one of his matchless hymns:-- + + "How can a sinner know + His sins on earth forgiven? + How can my gracious Saviour show + My name inscribed in Heaven? + + "We who in Christ believe + That He for us hath died, + We all His unknown peace receive, + And feel His blood applied. + + "His love, surpassing far + The love of all beneath, + We find within our hearts, and dare + The pointless darts of death. + + "Stronger than death and hell + The mystic power we prove; + And conquerors of the world, we dwell + In Heaven, who dwell in love." + +The witness of the Spirit is far more comprehensive than many +suppose. Multitudes do not believe that there is any such thing, +while others confine it to the forgiveness of sins and adoption +into the family of God. But the truth is that the Holy Spirit +witnesses to much more than this. + +He witnesses to the sinner that he is guilty, condemned before +God, and lost. This we call conviction; but it is none other than +the witness of the Spirit to the sinner's true condition; and +when a man realises it, nothing can convince him to the contrary. +His friends may point out his good works, his kindly disposition, +and try to assure him that he is not a bad man; but, so long as +the Spirit continues to witness to his guilt, nothing can console +him or reassure his quaking heart. This convicting witness may +come to a sinner at any time, but it is usually given under the +searching preaching of the Gospel, or the burning testimony of +those who have been gloriously saved and sanctified; or in time +of danger, when the soul is awed into silence, so that it can +hear the "still small voice" of the Holy Spirit. + +Again, the Holy Spirit not only witnesses to the forgiveness of +sins and acceptance with God, but He also witnesses to sanctification. +"For by one offering," says the Apostle, "He" (that is, Jesus) "hath +perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost +also is a witness to us" (Hebrews x. 14, 15). + +Indeed, one who has this witness can no more doubt it than a man +with two good eyes can doubt the existence of the sun when he +steps forth into the splendour of a cloudless noon-day. It +satisfies him, and he cries out exultingly, "We know, we know!" +Hallelujah! + +Paul seems to teach that the Holy Spirit witnesses to every good +thing God works in us, for he says: "We have received, not the +spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we +might know the things that are freely given to us of God" (1 Cor. +ii. 12). It is for our comfort and encouragement to know our +acceptance of God and our rights, privileges, and possessions in +Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is given for this purpose, that +we may _know_. + +But it is important to bear in mind God's plan of work in this +matter. + +1. The witness of the Spirit is dependent upon our faith. God +does not give it to those who do not believe in Jesus; and if our +faith wavers, the witness will become intermittent; and if faith +fails, it will be withdrawn. Owing to the unsteadiness of their +faith, many young converts get into uncertainty. Happy are they +at such times if some one is at hand to instruct and encourage +them to look steadfastly to Jesus. But, alas! many old Christians +through unsteady faith walk in gloom and uncertainty, and, +instead of encouraging the young, they discourage them. Steadfast +faith will keep the inward witness bright. + +2. We must not get our attention off Jesus, and the promises of +God in Him, and fix it upon the witness of the Spirit. The +witness continues only while we look unto Jesus, and trust and +obey Him. When we take our eyes off Him, the witness is gone. +Many people fail here. Instead of quietly and confidently looking +unto Jesus, and trusting Him, they are vainly looking for the +witness; which is as though a man should try to realise the +sweetness of honey, without receiving it in his mouth; or the +beauty of a picture, while having his eyes turned inward upon +himself instead of outward upon the picture. Jesus saves. Look to +Him, and He will send the Spirit to witness to His work. + +3. The witness may be brightened by diligence in the discharge of +duty, by frequent seasons of glad prayer, by definite testimony +to salvation and sanctification, and by stirring up our faith. + +4. The witness may be dulled by neglect of duty, by sloth in +prayer, by inattention to the Bible, by indefinite, hesitating +testimony, and by carelessness, when we should be careful to walk +soberly and steadfastly with the Lord. + +5. I dare not say that the witness of the Spirit is dependent +upon our health, but there are some forms of nervous and organic +disease that seem to so distract or becloud the mind as to +interfere with the clear discernment of the witness of the +Spirit. I knew a nervous little child who would be so distracted +with fear by an approaching carriage, when being carried across +the street in her father's arms, that she seemed to be incapable +of hearing or heeding his reassuring voice. It may be that there +are some diseases that for the time prevent the sufferer from +discerning the reassuring witness of the Heavenly Father. Dr. Asa +Mahan told me of an experience of this kind which he had in a +very dangerous sickness. And Dr. Daniel Steele had a similar +experience while lying at the point of death with typhoid fever. +But some of the happiest Christians the world has seen have been +racked with pain and tortured with disease. + +And so there may be seasons of fierce temptation when the witness +is not clearly discerned; but we may rest assured that if our +hearts cleave to Jesus Christ and duty, He will never leave or +forsake us. Blessed be God! + +6. But the witness will be lost if we wilfully sin, or +persistently neglect to follow where He leads. This witness is a +pearl of great price, and Satan will try to steal it from us; +therefore, we must guard it with watchful prayer continually. + +7. If lost, it may be found again by prayer and faith and a +dutiful taking up of the cross which has been laid down. +Thousands who have lost it have found it again, and often they +have found it with increased brightness and glory. If you have +lost it, my brother, look up in faith to your loving God, and He +will restore it to you. It is possible to live on the right side +of plain duty without the witness, but you cannot be sure of your +salvation, joyful in service, or glad in God, without it; and +since it is promised to all God's children, no one who professes +to be His should be without it. + +If you have it not, my brother or sister, seek it now by faith in +Jesus. Go to Him, and do not let Him go till He notifies you that +you are His. Listen to Charles Wesley:-- + + "From the world of sin, and noise, + And hurry, I withdraw; + For the small and inward voice + I wait with humble awe; + Silent am I now and still, + Dare not in Thy presence move; + To my waiting soul reveal + The secret of Thy love." + +Do you want the witness to abide? Then study the word of God, and +live by it; sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord; +praise the Lord with your first waking breath in the morning, and +thank Him with your last waking breath at night; flee from sin; +keep on believing; look to Jesus, cleave to Him, follow Him +gladly, trust the efficacy of His blood, and the witness will +abide in your heart. Be patient with the Lord. Let Him mould you, +and "He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will +rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing" (Zeph. iii. +17); and you shall no longer doubt, but know that you are His. +Hallelujah! + + "There are in this loud stunning tide + Of human care and crime, + With whom the melodies abide + Of th' everlasting chime; + Who carry music in their heart + Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, + Plying their task with busier feet + Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat." + +And that "holy strain" is but the echo of the Lord's song in +their heart, which is the witness of the Spirit. + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +V. + +PURITY. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +A MINISTER of the Gospel, after listening to an eminent servant +of God preaching on entire sanctification through the baptism +with the Spirit, wrote to him, saying: "I like your teaching on +the baptism with the Holy Ghost. I need it, and am seeking it; +but I do not care much for entire sanctification or heart-cleansing. +Pray for me that I may be filled with the Holy Ghost." + +The brother knew him well, and immediately replied: "I am so glad +you believe in the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and are so +earnestly seeking it. I join my prayer with yours that you may +receive that gift. But let me say to you, that if you get the +gift of the Holy Ghost, you will have to take entire sanctification +with it, for the first thing the baptism with the Holy Ghost does +is to cleanse the heart from all sin." + +Thank God, he humbled himself, permitted the Lord to sanctify +him, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and mightily +empowered to work for God. + +Many have looked at the promise of power when the Holy Ghost is +come, the energy of Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost, +and the marvellous results which followed, and they have hastily +and erroneously jumped to the conclusion that the baptism with +the Holy Ghost is for work and service only. + +It does bring power--the power of God, and it does fit for +service, probably the most important service to which any created +beings are commissioned, the proclamation of salvation and the +conditions of peace to a lost world; but not that alone, nor +primarily. The primary, the basal work of the baptism, is that of +cleansing. + +You may turn a flood into your millrace, but until it sweeps away +the logs and brushwood and dirt that obstruct the course, you +cannot get power to turn the wheels of your mill. The flood first +washes out the obstructions, and then you have power. + +The great hindrance in the hearts of God's children to the power +of the Holy Ghost is inbred sin--that dark, defiant, evil +something within that struggles for the mastery of the soul, and +will not submit to be meek and lowly, and patient and forbearing +and holy, as was Jesus; and when the Holy Spirit comes, His first +work is to sweep away that something, that carnal principle, and +make free and clean all the channels of the soul. + +Peter was filled with power on the day of Pentecost; but +evidently the purifying effect of the baptism made a deeper and +more lasting impression upon his mind than the empowering effect; +for years after, in that first Council in Jerusalem, recorded in +the fifteenth chapter of Acts, he stood up and told about the +spiritual baptism of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and his +household, and he said: "And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare +them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; +and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts +by faith." Here he calls attention not to power, but to purity, +as the effect of the baptism. When the Holy Ghost comes in to +abide, "the old man" goes out. Praise the Lord! + +This destruction of inbred sin is made perfectly plain in that +wonderful Old Testament type of the baptism with the Holy Ghost +and fire recorded in the sixth chapter of Isaiah. The prophet was +a most earnest preacher of righteousness (see Isaiah i. 10-20), +yet he was not sanctified wholly. But he had a vision of the Lord +upon His Throne, and the seraphims crying one to another: "Holy, +holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His +glory." And the very "posts of the door moved at the voice of him +that cried"; and how much more should the heart of the prophet be +moved! And so it was; and he cried out: "Woe is me! for I am +undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the +midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the +King, the Lord of Hosts." + +When unsanctified men have a vision of God, it is not their lack +of power, but their lack of purity, their unlikeness to Christ, +the Holy One, that troubles them. And so it was with the prophet. +But he adds: "Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a +live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off +the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath +touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin +purged." Here again, it is purity rather than power to which our +attention is directed. + +Again, in the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel, we have another +type of this spiritual baptism. In Isaiah the type was that of +fire, but here it is that of water; for water and oil, and the +wind and rain and dew, are all used as types of the Holy Spirit. + +The Lord says, through Ezekiel: "Then will I sprinkle clean water +upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and +from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I +give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take +away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an +heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause +you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and +do them." + +Here again, the incoming of the Holy Spirit means the outgoing of +all sin, of "all your filthiness, and of all your idols." How +plainly it is taught! And yet, many of God's dear children do not +believe it is their privilege to be free from sin and pure in +heart in this life. But, may we not? Let us consider this. + +1. It is certainly _desirable_. Every sincere Christian--and +none can be a Christian who is not sincere--wants to be free from +sin, to be pure in heart, to be like Christ. Sin is hateful to +every true child of God. The Spirit within him cries out against +the sin, the wrong temper, the pride, the lust, the selfishness, +the evil that lurks within the heart. Surely, it is desirable to +be free from sin. + + "He wills that I should holy be: + That holiness I long to feel; + That full Divine conformity + To all my Saviour's righteous will." + +2. It is _necessary_, for "without holiness no man shall see +the Lord." Sometime, somehow, somewhere, sin must go out of our +hearts--all sin--or we cannot go into Heaven. Sin would spoil +Heaven just as it spoils earth; just as it spoils the peace of +hearts and homes, of families and neighbourhoods and nations +here. Why God in His wisdom allows sin in the world, I do not +know, I cannot understand. But this I understand: that He has one +world into which He will not let sin enter. He has notified us in +advance that no sin, nothing that defiles, can enter Heaven, can +mar the blessedness of that holy place. "Who shall ascend into +the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He +that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up +his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully" We must get rid of +sin to get into Heaven, to enjoy the full favour of God. It is +necessary. + + "Choose I must, and soon must choose + Holiness, or Heaven lose. + If what Heaven loves I hate, + Shut for me is Heaven's gate! + + "Endless sin means endless woe; + Into endless sin I go + If my soul, from reason rent, + Takes from sin its final bent. + + "As the stream its channel grooves, + And within that channel moves; + So does habit's deepest tide + Groove its bed and there abide. + + "Light obeyed increaseth light; + Light resisted bringeth night; + Who shall give me will to choose + If the love of light I lose? + + "Speed, my soul, this instant yield; + Let the light its sceptre wield. + While thy God prolongs His grace, + Haste thee to His holy face." + +3. This purification from sin is _promised_. Nothing can be +plainer than the promise of God on this point. "Then will I +sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from +_all_ your filthiness and from _all_ your idols will I cleanse +you." When all is removed, nothing remains. When all filthiness +and all idols are taken away, none are left. + +"But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin +hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through +righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans +v. 20, 21). Grace reigns, not through sin, but "through +righteousness" which has expelled sin. Grace brings in +righteousness and sin goes out. + +"If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have +fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His +Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John i. 7). Hallelujah! + +"Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of +righteousness" (Romans vi. 18). + +These are sample promises and assurances any one of which is +sufficient to encourage us to believe that our Heavenly Father +will save us from all sin, if we meet His conditions. + +4. And that deliverance is _possible_. It was for this that +Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, came into the world, and suffered +and died, that He might "save His people from their sins" +(Matthew i. 21). It was for this that He shed His precious blood: +to "cleanse us from all sin." It was for this that the word of +God, with its wonderful promises, was given: "That by these ye +might be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the +corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter i. 4); by +which is meant, escape from inbred sin. It was for this that +ministers of the Gospel--Salvation Army Officers--are given, "for +the perfecting of the saints" (Eph. iv. 12), for the saving and +sanctifying of men (Acts xxvi. 18). It is primarily for this that +the Holy Ghost comes as a baptism of fire: that sin might be +consumed out of us, so that we might be "made meet for the +inheritance of the saints in light"; that so we might be ready +without a moment's warning to go into the midst of the heavenly +hosts in white garments, "washed in the blood of the Lamb." Glory +be to God for ever and ever! + +And shall all these mighty agents and this heavenly provision, +and these gracious purposes of God, fail to destroy sin out of +any obedient, believing heart? Is sin omnipotent? No! + +If you, my brother, my sister, will look unto Jesus just now, +trusting the merits of His blood, and receive the Holy Spirit +into your heart, you shall be "made free from sin"; it "shall not +have dominion over you." Hallelujah! Under the fiery touch of His +holy presence, your iniquity shall be taken away, and your sin +shall be purged. And you yourself shall burn as did the bush on +the mount of God which Moses saw; yet you, like the bush, shall +not be consumed; and by this holy fire, this flame of love, +that consumes sin, you shall be made proof against that +unquenchable fire that consumes sinners. + + "Come, Holy Ghost, Thy mighty aid bestowing; + Destroy the works of sin, the self, the pride; + Burn, burn in me, my idols overthrowing: + Prepare my heart for Him, for my Lord crucified." + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +VI. + +POWER. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +JUST before His ascension, Jesus met His disciples for the last +time, and repeated His command that they should "not depart from +Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father," and +reiterated His promise that they should be "baptised with the +Holy Ghost not many days hence." + +Then "they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time +restore again the kingdom to Israel?" They were still eager for +an earthly kingdom. But "He said unto them, It is not for you to +know the time or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His +own power," or authority. And then He added, "But ye shall +receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." + +They wanted power, and He assured them that they should have it, +but said nothing of its nature, or the work and activities into +which it would thrust them, and for which it would equip them, +beyond the fact that they should be witnesses unto Him "in +Jerusalem and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the +earth." After that the Holy Ghost Himself was henceforth to be +their Teacher. + +And then Jesus left them. Earth lost its power to hold Him, and +while they beheld Him He began to ascend; a cloud bent low from +Heaven, receiving Him out of sight, and they were left alone, +with His promise of power ringing in their ears, and His command +to "wait for the promise of the Father" checking any impatience +that might lead them to "go a-fishing," as Peter had done some +days before, or cause an undue haste to begin their life-work of +witnessing for Him before God's appointed time. + +For ten days they waited, not listlessly, but eagerly, as a maid +for her mistress, or a servant for his master, who is expected to +come at any moment; they forgot their personal ambitions; they +ceased to judge and criticise one another, and in the sweet unity +of brotherly love, "with one accord" they rejoiced, they prayed, +they waited; and then on the day of Pentecost, at their early +morning prayer meeting, when they were all present, the windows +of Heaven were opened, and such a blessing as they could not +contain was poured out upon them. "And suddenly there came a +sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all +the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them +cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And +they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." + +This was the inaugural day of the Church of God: the dawn of the +dispensation of the Holy Spirit; the beginning of the days of +power. + +In the morning of that day there were only a few Christians in +the world; the New Testament was not written, and it is doubtful +if they had among them all a copy of the Old Testament; they had +no church buildings, no colleges, no religious books and papers; +they were poor and despised, unlearned and ignorant; but before +night they had enrolled three thousand converts from among those +who, a few weeks before, had crucified their Lord, and they had +aroused and filled all Jerusalem with questionings and amazement. + +What was the secret? Power. What was the secret? God the Holy +Ghost. He had come, and this work was His work, and they were His +instruments. + +When Jesus came, a body was prepared for Him (Hebrews x. 5), and +through that body He wrought His wondrous works; but when the +other Comforter comes, He takes possession of those bodies that +are freely and fully presented to Him, and He touches their lips +with grace; He shines peacefully and gloriously on their faces; +He flashes beams of pity and compassion and heavenly affection +from their eyes; He kindles a fire of love in their hearts, and +lights the flame of truth in their minds. They become His temple, +and their hearts are a holy of holies in which His blessed +presence ever abides, and from that central citadel He works, +enduing the man who has received Him with power. + +If you ask how the Holy Spirit can dwell within us and work +through us without destroying our personality, I cannot tell. How +can the electric fluid fill and transform a dead wire into a live +one, which you dare not touch? How can a magnetic current fill a +piece of steel, and transform it into a mighty force which by its +touch can raise tons of iron, as a child would lift a feather? +How can fire dwell in a piece of iron until its very appearance +is that of fire, and it becomes a fire-brand? I cannot tell. + +Now, what fire and electricity and magnetism do in iron and +steel, the Holy Spirit does in the spirits of men who believe on +Jesus, follow Him wholly, and trust Him intelligently. He dwells +in them, and inspires them, till they are all alive with the very +life of God. + +The transformation wrought in men by the baptism with the Holy +Ghost, and the power that fills them, are amazing beyond measure. +The Holy Spirit gives-- + +1. _Power over the world_. They become + + "Dead to the world and all its toys, + Its idle pomps and fading joys." + +The world masters and enslaves people who have not the Holy +Spirit. To one man it offers money, and he falls down and +worships; sells his conscience and character for gold. To another +it offers power, and he falls down and worships and sacrifices +his principles and sears his conscience for power. To another it +offers pleasure; to another learning; to another fame, and they +fall down and worship, and sell themselves for these things. But +the man filled with the Holy Ghost is free. He can turn from +these things without a pang, as he would from pebbles; or, he can +take them and use them as his servants for the glory of God and +the good of men. + +What did Peter and James and John care for the great places in +the kingdoms of this world after they were filled with the Holy +Ghost? They would not have exchanged places with Herod the king +or with Caesar himself. For the gratification of any personal +ambition these things were no more attractive to them now than +the lordship over a tribe of ants on their tiny hill. They were +now kings and priests unto God, and theirs was an everlasting +kingdom, and its glory exceeds the glory of the kingdoms of this +world as the splendour of the sun exceeds that of the glow-worm. + +The head of some great business enterprises was making many +thousands of dollars every year; but when the Holy Spirit filled +him money lost its power over him. He still retained his +position, and made vast sums; but, as a steward of the Lord, he +poured it into God's work, and has been doing so for more than +thirty years. + +The disciples in Jerusalem after Pentecost held all their +possessions in common, so completely were they freed from the +power and love of money. + +A rising young lawyer got filled with the Spirit, and the next +day said to his client: "I cannot plead your case. I have a +retainer from the Lord Jesus"; and he became one of the mightiest +preachers the world has ever seen. + +A popular lad got the fiery baptism, and went to his baseball +team, and said: "Boys, you swear, and I am now a Christian, and I +cannot play with you any more"; and God made him the wonder of +all his old friends, and a happy winner of souls. + +A fashionable woman got the baptism, and God gave her power to +break away from her worldly set and surroundings, live wholly for +Him, and gave her an influence that girdled the globe. + +Paul said: "The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the +world." Men could whip, and stone, and imprison his body, and cut +off his head, but his soul was free. It was enslaved and driven +by no unholy or inordinate ambition, by no lust for gold, by no +desire for power or fame, by no fear of man, by no shame of +worldly censure or adverse public opinion. He had power over the +world, and this same power is the birthright of every converted +man, and the present possession of every one who is wholly +sanctified by the baptism with the Holy Ghost. + +2. _Power over the flesh_. The body which God intended for a +"house beautiful" for the soul, and a temple holy unto Himself, +is often reduced to a sty, where the imprisoned soul wallows in +lusts and passions, and degrades itself below the level of +beasts. But this baptism gives a man power over his body. + +God has given to man such desires and passions as are necessary +to secure his continued existence, and not one is in itself evil, +but good and only good; and when controlled and used, but not +abused, will help to develop and maintain the purest and highest +manhood. The appetites for food and drink are necessary to life. +Another desire is intended to secure the continuance of the human +race. And so all the desires and appetites of the body have +useful ends, and were given to us in love by our Heavenly Father +for high and essential purposes, and are necessary to us as human +beings. + +But the soul, cut off from fellowship with God, by sin, seeks +satisfaction in sensual excesses, and the unlawful gratification +of these appetites, and so sinks to depths of degradation to +which no beast ever falls. Thus man becomes a slave; swollen and +raging passion takes the place of innocent appetites and desires. + +Now, when the Holy Spirit enters the heart and sanctifies the +soul, He does not destroy these desires, but He purifies and +regulates them. He reinforces the soul with the fear and love of +God, and gives it power, complete power, over the fleshly +appetites. He restores it to its full fellowship with God and its +kingship over the body. + +But while these appetites and desires are not in themselves +sinful, but are necessary for our welfare and our complete +manhood, and while their diseased and abnormal power is cured +when we are sanctified, they are still avenues through which we +may be tempted. Therefore, they must be guarded with care and +ruled in wisdom. Many people stumble at and reject the doctrine +of entire sanctification, because they do not understand these +things. They mistake that which is natural and essential to a +human being for the diseased and abnormal propensity caused by +sin, and so miss the blessed truth of full salvation. + +I knew a doctor, who had used tobacco for over sixty years, +delivered from the abnormal appetite instantly through sanctification +of the Spirit. I knew an old man, who had been a drunkard for over +fifty years, similarly delivered. I knew a young man, the slave of a +vicious habit of the flesh, who was set free at once by the fiery +baptism. The electric current cannot transform the dead wire into +a live one quicker than the Holy Spirit can flood a soul with light +and love, destroy the carnal mind, and fill a man with power over +all sin. + +3. _Power over the Devil_. The indwelling presence of the +Holy Spirit destroys all doubt as to the personality of the +Devil. He is discerned, and his malice is felt and known as never +before. + +In the dark a man may be so skilfully attacked that his enemy is +not discovered, but not in the day. Many people in these days +deny that there is any Devil, only evil; but they are in the +dark, so much in the dark that they not only say that there is no +Devil, but that there is no personal God, only good. But the day +comes with the Holy Spirit's entrance, and then God is intimately +known and the Devil is discovered. And as he assailed Jesus after +His baptism with the Spirit, so he does to-day all who receive +the Holy Ghost. He comes as an angel of light to deceive, and as +a roaring lion to devour and overcome with fear; but the soul +filled with the Spirit outwits the Devil, and, clad in the whole +armour of God, overcomes the old enemy. + +"Power over all the power of the enemy" is God's purpose for all +His children. Power to do the will of God patiently and +effectively, with naturalness and ease, or to suffer the will of +God with patience and good cheer, comes with this blessed +baptism. It is power for service or sacrifice, according to God's +will. Have you this power? If not, it is for you. Yield yourself +fully to Christ just now, and if you ask in faith you shall +receive. + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +VII. + +TRYING THE SPIRITS. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +Those who have not the Holy Spirit, or who do not heed Him, fall +easily and naturally into formalism, substituting lifeless +ceremonies, sacraments, genuflections, and ritualistic performances +for the free, glad, living worship inspired by the indwelling +Spirit. They sing, but not from the heart. They say their prayers, +but they do not really pray. "I prayed last night, mother," said a +child. "Why, my child, you pray every night!" replied the mother. +"No," said the child, "I only said prayers, but last night I really +prayed." And his face shone. He had opened his heart to the Holy +Spirit, and had at last really talked with God and worshipped. + +But those who receive the Holy Spirit may fall into fanaticism, +unless they follow the command of John to "try the spirits, +whether they are of God." + +We are commanded to "despise not prophesyings," but at the same +time we are commanded to "prove all things." "Many false prophets +are gone out into the world," and, if possible, will lead us +astray. So we must beware. As some one has written, we must +"Believe not every spirit; regard not, trust not, follow not, +every pretender to the Spirit of God, or every professor of +vision, or inspiration, or revelation from God." + +The higher and more intense the life, the more carefully must it +be guarded, lest it be endangered and go astray. It is so in the +natural world, and likewise in the spiritual world. + +When Satan can no longer rock people to sleep with religious +lullabys, or satisfy them with the lifeless form, then he comes +as an angel of light, probably in the person of some professor or +teacher of religion, and seeks to usurp the place of the Holy +Spirit; but instead of leading "into all truth," he leads the +unwary soul into deadly error; instead of directing him on to the +highway of holiness, and into the path of perfect peace, where no +ravenous beast ever comes, he leads him into a wilderness where +the soul, stripped of its beautiful garments of salvation, is +robbed and wounded and left to die, if some good Samaritan, with +patient pity and Christlike love, come not that way. + +1. When the Holy Spirit comes in His fullness, He strips men of +their self-righteousness and pride and conceit. They see +themselves as the chief of sinners, and realise that only through +the stripes of Jesus are they healed; and ever after, as they +live in the Spirit, their boast is in Him and their glory is in +the cross. Remembering the hole of the pit from which they were +digged, they are filled with tender pity for all who are out of +the way; and, while they do not excuse or belittle sin, yet they +are slow to believe evil, and their judgments are full of +charity. + + "Judge not; the workings of his brain + And of his heart thou canst not see: + What looks to thy dim eyes a stain, + In God's pure light may only be + A scar, brought from some well-won field, + Where thou wouldst only faint and yield." + +But the man who has been thus snared by Satan forgets his own +past miserable state, and boasts of his righteousness, and thanks +God that he was never as other men, and he begins to beat his +fellow-servants with heavy denunciations, and thrust them through +with sharp criticisms, and pelt them with hard words. He ceases +to pity, and begins to condemn; he no longer warns and entreats +men in tender love, but is quick to believe evil, and swift to +pass judgment, not only upon their actions, but upon their +motives as well. + +True charity has no fellowship with deeds of darkness. It never +calls evil good, it does not wink at iniquity, but it is as far +removed from this sharp, condemning spirit as light is from +darkness, as honey is from vinegar. It is quick to condemn sin, +but is full of saving, long-suffering compassion for the sinner. + +2. A humble, teachable mind marks those in whom the Holy Spirit +dwells. They esteem very highly in love those who are over them +in the Lord, and are glad to be admonished by them. They submit +themselves one to the other in the fear of the Lord, welcome +instruction and correction, and esteem "open rebuke better than +secret love" (Proverbs xxvii. 5). They believe that the Lord has +yet many things to say unto them, and they are willing and glad +for Him to say them by whom He will, but especially by their +leaders and their brethren. While they do not fawn and cringe +before men, nor believe everything that is said to them, without +proving it by the word and Spirit of God, they believe that God +"gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; +and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, +for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of +Christ"; and, like Cornelius, they are ready to hear these +appointed ministers, and receive the word of the Lord from them. + +But Satan seeks to destroy all this lowliness of spirit and +humbleness of mind. Those in whom his deadly work has begun are +"wiser in their own conceit than seven men that can render a +reason." They are wiser than all their teachers, and no man can +instruct them. One of these deluded souls, who had previously +been marked by modesty and humility, declared of certain of God's +chosen leaders whose spiritual knowledge and wisdom were +everywhere recognised, that "the whole of them knew no more +about the Holy Ghost than an old goose." Paul, Luther, and Wesley +were much troubled, and their work greatly hurt, by some of these +misguided souls, and every great spiritual awakening is likely to +be marred more or less by such people; so that we cannot be too +much on our guard against false spirits who would counterfeit the +work and leadings of the Holy Spirit. + +It is this huge conceit that has led some men to announce +themselves as apostles and prophets to whom all men must listen, +or fall under the wrath of God; while others have declared that +they were living in resurrection bodies and should not die; and +yet others have reached that pitch of fanaticism where they could +calmly proclaim themselves to be the Messiah, or the Holy Ghost +in bodily form. Such people will be quick to deny the infallibility +of the Pope, while they assume their own infallibility, and +denounce all who dispute it. + +The Holy Spirit may lead to a holy rivalry in love and humility +and brotherly kindness and self-denial and good works, but He +never leads men into the swelling conceit of such exclusive +knowledge and superior wisdom that they can no longer be taught +by their fellow-men. + +3. Again, the man who is filled with the Spirit is tolerant of +those who differ from him in opinion, in doctrine. He is firm in +his own convictions, and ready at all times with meekness and +fear to explain and defend the doctrines which he holds and is +convinced are according to God's word, but he does not condemn +and consign to damnation all those who differ from him. He is +glad to believe that men are often better than their creed, and +may be saved in spite of it; that, like mountains whose bases are +bathed with sunshine and clothed with fruitful fields and +vineyards, while their tops are covered with dark clouds, so +men's hearts are often fruitful in the graces of charity, while +their heads are yet darkened by doctrinal error. + +Anyway, as "the servant of the Lord," he will "not strive; but be +gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness +instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure +will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and +that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil" +(2 Timothy ii. 24-26). + +But when Satan comes as an angel of light he will, under guise of +love for and loyalty to the truth, introduce the spirit of +intolerance. It was this spirit that crucified Jesus; that burned +Huss and Cranmer at the stake; that strangled Savonarola; that +inspired the massacre of St. Bartholomew and the horrors of the +Inquisition; and it is the same spirit, in a milder but possibly +more subtle form, that blinds the eyes of many professing +Christians to any good in those who differ from them in doctrine, +forms of worship or methods of government. They murder love to +protect what they often blindly call truth. What is truth without +love? A dead thing, an encumbrance, the letter that killeth! + +The body is necessary to our life in this world, but life can +exist in a deformed and even mutilated body; and such a body with +life in it is better than the most perfect body that is only a +corpse. So, while truth is most precious, and sound doctrine to +be esteemed more than silver and gold, yet love can exist where +truth is not held in its most perfect and complete forms, and +love is the one thing needful. + + "The love of God is broader + Than the measure of man's mind: + And the heart of the Eternal + Is most wonderfully kind." + +4. The Holy Ghost begets a spirit of unity among Christians. +People who have been sitting behind their sectarian fences in +self-complacent ease, or proud indifference, or proselytising +zeal, or grim defiance, are suddenly lifted above the fence, and +find sweet fellowship with each other, when He comes into their +hearts. + +They delight in each other's society; they each esteem others +better than themselves, and in honour they prefer one another +before themselves. They fulfil the Psalmist's ideal: "Behold, how +good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in +unity." Here is a picture of the unity of Christians in the +beginning in Jerusalem: "And they were all filled with the Holy +Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the +multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one +soul; neither said any of them that aught of the things which he +possessed was his own; but they had all things common." What an +ideal is this! And since it has been attained once, it can be +attained again and retained, but only by the indwelling of the +Holy Ghost. It was for this that Jesus poured out His heart in +His great intercessory prayer, recorded in John xvii., just +before His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. He says, "I pray +for them.... Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also +which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may +be one." And what was the standard of unity to which He would +have us come? Listen! + +"As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be +one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." +Such unity has a wondrous power to compel the belief of worldly +men. "And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that +they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, +that they may be perfect in one; and that the world may +_know_ that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou +hast loved Me." Wondrous unity! Wondrous love! + +It is for this His blessed heart eternally yearns, and it is for +this that the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those who +receive Him. But Satan ever seeks to destroy this holy love and +divine unity. When he comes, he arouses suspicions, he stirs up +strife, he quenches the spirit of intercessory prayer, he +engenders backbitings, and causes separations. + +After enumerating various Christian graces, and urging the +Colossians to put them on, Paul adds: "And above all these +things, put on charity," or love, "which is the bond of +perfectness" (Col. iii. 14). These graces were garments, and love +was the girdle which bound and held them together; and so love is +the bond that holds true Christians together. + +Divine love is the great test by which we are to try ourselves +and all teachers and spirits. + +Love is not puffed up. Love is not bigoted. Love is not +intolerant. Love is not schismatic. Love is loyal to Jesus and to +all His people. If we have this love shed abroad in our hearts by +the Holy Ghost, we shall discern the voice of our Good Shepherd, +and we shall not be deceived by the voice of the stranger; and so +we shall be saved from both formalism and fanaticism. + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +VIII. + +GUIDANCE. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +It is the work of the Holy Spirit to guide the people of God +through the uncertainties and dangers and duties of this life to +their home in Heaven. When He led the children of Israel out of +Egypt, by the hand of Moses, He guided them through the waste, +mountainous wilderness, in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire +by night, thus assuring their comfort and safety. And this was +but a type of His perpetual spiritual guidance of His people. + +"But how may I certainly know what God wants of me?" is sure to +become the earnest and, oftentimes, the agonising cry of every +humble and devoutly zealous young Christian. "How may I know the +guidance of the Holy Spirit?" is asked again and again. + +1. It is well for us to get it fixed in our minds that we need to +be guided always by Him. A ship was wrecked on a rocky coast far +out of the course that the captain thought he was taking. On +examination, it was found that the compass had been slightly +deflected by a bit of metal that had lodged in the box. + +But the voyage of life on which we each one sail is beset by as +many dangers as the ship at sea, and how shall we surely steer +our course to our heavenly harbour without Divine guidance? There +is a wellnigh infinite number of influences to deflect us from +the safe and certain course. We start out in the morning, and we +know not what person we may meet, what paragraph we may read, +what word may be spoken, what letter we may receive, what subtle +temptation may assail or allure us, what immediate decisions we +may have to make during the day, that may turn us almost +imperceptibly, but none the less surely, from the right way. We +need the guidance of the Holy Spirit. + +2. We not only need Divine guidance, but we may have it. God's +word assures us of this. Oh! how my heart was comforted and +assured one morning by these words: "And the Lord shall guide +thee continually" (Isaiah lviii. 11). Not occasionally, not +spasmodically, but "continually." Hallelujah! The Psalmist says: +"This God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our Guide even +unto death" (Psalm xlviii. 14). Again, he says: "The meek will +He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach His way" (Psalm +xxv. 9). And again, "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the +way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye" (Psalm +xxxii. 8). And again, "Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel" +(Psalm lxxiii. 24). Jesus said of the Holy Spirit: "Howbeit when +He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all +truth" (John xvi. 13). And Paul wrote: "As many as are led by the +Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans viii. 14). + +These Scriptures establish the fact that the children of God may +be guided always by the Spirit of God. + + "Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, + Pilgrim through this barren land! + I am weak, but Thou art mighty: + Hold me with Thy powerful hand." + +3. How does God guide us? + +Paul says: "We walk by faith, not by sight," and, "The just shall +live by faith," so we may conclude:-- + +(a) That the guidance of the Holy Spirit is such as still to +demand the exercise of faith. God never leads us in such a way as +to do away with the necessity of faith. When God warned Noah, we +read that it was by faith that Noah was led to build the ark. +When God told Abraham to go to a land which He would show him, it +was by faith that Abraham went (Hebrews xi. 7, 8). If we believe, +we shall surely be guided; but if we do not believe, we shall be +left to ourselves. Without faith it is impossible to please God, +or to follow where He leads. Again, the Psalmist says, "The meek +will He guide in judgment," from which we gather:-- + +(b) That the Spirit guides us in such manner as to demand the +exercise of our best judgment. He enlightens our understanding +and directs our judgment by sound reason and sense. + +I knew a man who was eager to obey God, and to be led by the +Spirit, but who had the mistaken idea that the Holy Spirit sets +aside human judgment and common sense, and speaks directly upon +the most minute and commonplace matters. He wanted the Holy +Spirit to direct him just how much to eat at each meal, and he +has been known to take food out of his mouth at what he supposed +to be the Holy Spirit's notification that he had eaten enough, +and that if he swallowed that mouthful, it would be in violation +of the leadings of the Spirit. + +No doubt, the Spirit will help an honest man to arrive at a safe +judgment even in matters of this kind, but it will doubtless be +through the use of his sanctified common sense. Otherwise, he is +reduced to a state of mental infancy, and kept in intellectual +swaddling clothes. He will guide us in judgment; but it is only +as we resolutely, and in the best light we have, exercise +judgment. + +John Wesley said that God usually guided him by presenting +reasons to his mind for any given course of action. + +(c) The Psalmist says, "Thou shalt guide me with Thy +counsel," and "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way +that thou shalt go." Now, counsel, instruction, and teaching not +only imply effort upon the part of the teacher, but also study +and close attention on the part of the one being taught. So this +guidance of the Holy Spirit is such as will require us to +attentively listen, diligently study, and patiently learn the +lessons He would teach us. And so we see that the Holy Spirit +does not set aside our powers and faculties, but seeks to awaken +and stir them into full activity, and develop them into well-rounded +perfection, and thus make them channels through which He +can intelligently influence and direct us. + +What He seeks to do is to illuminate our whole spiritual being, +as the sun illuminates our physical being, and bring us into such +union and sympathy, such oneness of thought, desire, affection, +and purpose with God, that we shall, by a kind of spiritual +instinct, know at all times the mind of God concerning us, and +never be in doubt about His will. + +4. The Holy Spirit guides us-- + +(a) By opening up to our minds the deep, sanctifying truths of +the Bible, and especially by revealing to us the character and +spirit of Jesus and His Apostles, and leading us to follow in +their footsteps--the footsteps of their faith and love and +unselfish devotion to God and man, even unto the laying down of +their lives. + +(b) By the circumstances and surroundings of our daily life. + +(c) By the counsel of others, especially of devout, and wise, and +experienced men and women of God. + +(d) By deep inward conviction, which increases as we wait +upon Him in prayer and readiness to obey. It is by this sovereign +conviction that men are called to preach, to go to foreign fields +as missionaries, to devote their time, talents, money, and lives +to God's work for the bodies and souls of men. + +5. Why do people seek for guidance and not find it? + +(a) Because they do not diligently study God's word, and +seek to be filled with its truths and principles. They neglect +the cultivation of their minds and hearts in the school of +Christ, and so miss Divine guidance. One of the mightiest men of +God now living used to carry his Bible with him into the coal +mine when only a boy, and spent his spare time filling his mind +and heart with its heavenly truths, and so prepared himself to be +divinely led in mighty labours for God. + +(b) They do not humbly accept the daily providences, the +circumstances, and conditions of their everyday life as a part of +God's present plan for them; as His school in which He would +train them for greater things; as His vineyard in which He would +have them diligently labour. + +A young woman imagined she was called to devote herself entirely +to saving souls; but under the searching training through which +she had to pass saw her selfishness, and she said she would have +to return home, and live a holy life there, and seek to get her +family saved--something which she had utterly neglected--before +she could go into the work. If we are not faithful at home, or in +the shop, or mill, or store where we work, we shall miss God's +way for us. + +(c) Because they are not teachable, and are unwilling to receive +instruction from other Christians. They are not humble-minded. + +(d) Because they do not wait on God, and listen and heed the +inner leadings of the Holy Spirit. They are self-willed; they +want their own way. Some one has said, "That which is often asked +of God is not so much His will and way, as His approval of our +way." And another has said: "God's guidance is plain, when we are +true." If we promptly and gladly obey, we shall not miss the way. +Paul said of himself, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly +vision." He obeyed God at all costs, and so the Holy Spirit could +guide him. + +(e) Because of fear and unbelief. It was this fearfulness of +unbelief that caused the Israelites to turn back, and not go into +Canaan when Caleb and Joshua assured them that God would help +them to possess the land. They lost sight of God, and feared the +giants and walled cities, and so missed God's way for them and +perished in the wilderness. + +(f) Because they do not take everything promptly and confidently +to God in prayer. + +Paul tells us to be "instant in prayer"; and I am persuaded that +it is slowness and delay to pray, and sloth and sleepiness in +prayer, that rob God's children of the glad assurance of His +guidance in all things. + +(g) Because of impatience and haste. Some of God's plans +for us unfold slowly, and we must patiently and calmly wait on +Him in faith and faithfulness, assured that in due time He will +make plain His way for us, if our faith fail not. It is never +God's will that we should get into a headlong hurry; but that, +with patient steadfastness, we should learn to stand still when +the pillar of cloud and fire does not move, and that with loving +confidence and glad promptness we should strike our tents and +march forward when He leads. + + "When we cannot see our way, + Let us trust and still obey; + He who bids us forward go, + Cannot fail the way to show. + Though the sea be deep and wide, + Though a passage seem denied; + Fearless, let us still proceed, + Since the Lord vouchsafes to lead." + +Finally, we may rest assured that the Holy Spirit never leads His +people to do anything that is wrong, or that is contrary to the +will of God as revealed in the Bible. He never leads anyone to be +impolite and discourteous. "Be courteous" is a Divine command. He +would have us respect the minor graces of gentle, kindly manners, +as well as the great laws of holiness and righteousness. + +He may sometimes lead us in ways that are hard for flesh and +blood, and that bring to us sorrow and loss in this life. He led +Jesus into the wilderness to be sore tried by the Devil, and to +Pilate's judgment hall, and to the cross. He led Paul in ways +that meant imprisonment, stonings, whippings, hunger and cold, +and bitter persecution and death. But He upheld Paul until he +cried out: "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in +necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake." +"Yea," said he, "I glory in my infirmities, that the power of +Christ may rest upon me." Hallelujah! Oh, to be thus led by our +Heavenly Guide! + + "He leadeth me! Oh, blessed thought! + Oh, words with heavenly comfort fraught! + Whate'er I do, where'er I be, + Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me. + + "Sometimes 'mid scenes of deepest gloom, + Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom, + By waters still, o'er troubled sea, + Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me. + + "Lord, I will clasp Thy hand in mine, + Nor ever murmur nor repine, + Content, whatever lot I see, + Since 'tis my God that leadeth me. + + "And when my task on earth is done, + When by Thy grace the victory's won, + E'en death's cold wave I will not flee, + Since God through Jordan leadeth me." + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +IX. + +THE MEEK AND LOWLY HEART. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +I know a man whose daily prayer for years was that he might be +meek and lowly in heart as was his Master. "Take My yoke upon +you, and learn of Me," said Jesus; "for I am meek and lowly in +heart." + +How lowly Jesus was! He was the Lord of life and glory. He made +the worlds, and upholds them by His word of power (John i., +Hebrews i.). But He humbled Himself, and became man, and was born +of the Virgin in a manger among the cattle. He lived among the +common people, and worked at the carpenter's bench. And then, +anointed with the Holy Spirit, He went about doing good, +preaching the Gospel to the poor, and ministering to the manifold +needs of the sick and sinful and sorrowing. He touched the +lepers; He was the Friend of publicans and sinners. His whole +life was a ministry of mercy to those who most needed Him. He +humbled Himself to our low estate. He was a King who came "lowly, +and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass" +(Zech. ix. 9). He was a King, but His crown was of thorns, and a +cross was His throne. + +What a picture Paul gives us of the mind and heart of Jesus! He +exhorts the Philippians, saying, "Let nothing be done through +strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem +other better than themselves"; and then he adds, "Let this mind +be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form +of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made +Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a +servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in +fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto +death, even the death of the cross." + +Now, when the Holy Spirit finds His way into the heart of a man, +the Spirit of Jesus has come to that man, and leads him to the +same meekness of heart and lowly service that were seen in the +Master. + +Ambition for place and power and money and fame vanishes, and in +its place is a consuming desire to be good and do good, to +accomplish in full the blessed, the beneficent will of God. + +Some time ago I met a woman who, as a trained nurse in Paris, +nursing rich, English-speaking foreigners, received pay that in a +few years would have made her independently wealthy; but the +spirit of Jesus came into her heart, and she is now nursing the +poor, and giving her life to them, and doing for them service the +most loathsome and exacting, and doing it with a smiling face, +for her food and clothes. + +Some able men in one of our largest American cities lost their +spiritual balance, cut themselves loose from all other Christians, +and made for a time quite a religious stir among many good people. +They were very clear and powerful in their presentation of certain +phases of truth, but they were also very strong, if not bitter, +in their denunciations of all existing religious organisations. +They attacked the churches and The Salvation Army, pointing out +what they considered wrong so skilfully, and with such professions +of sanctity, that many people were made most dissatisfied with the +churches and with The Army. + +An Army Captain listened to them, and was greatly moved by their +fervour, their burning appeals, their religious ecstasy, and +their denunciations of the lukewarmness of other Christians, +including The Army. She began to wonder if after all they were +not right, and whether or not the Holy Spirit was amongst us. Her +heart was full of distress, and she cried to God. And then the +vision of our Slum Officers rose before her eyes. She saw their +devotion, their sacrifice, their lowly, hidden service, year +after year, among the poor and ignorant and vicious, and she said +to herself, "Is not this the Spirit of Jesus? Would these men, +who denounce us so, be willing to forgo their religious ecstasies +and spend their lives in such lowly, unheralded service?" And the +mists that had begun to blind her eyes were swept away, and she +saw Jesus still amongst us going about doing good in the person +of our Slum Officers and of all who for His name's sake sacrifice +their time and money and strength to bless and save their +fellow-men. + +You who have visions of glory and rapturous delight, and so count +yourselves filled with the Spirit, do these visions lead you to +virtue and to lowly, loving service? If not, take heed to +yourselves, lest, exalted like Capernaum to Heaven, you are at +last cast down to Hell. Thank God for the mounts of transfiguration +where we behold His glory! but down below in the valley are +children possessed of devils, and to them He would have us go +with the glory of the mount on our faces, and lowly love and +vigorous faith in our hearts, and clean hands ready for any service. +He would have us give ourselves to them; and if we love Him, +if we follow Him, if we are truly filled with the Holy Spirit, we +will. + +A Captain used to slip out of bed early in the morning to pray, +and then black his own and his Lieutenant's boots, and God +mightily blessed him. Recently I saw him, now a Commissioner, +with thousands of Officers and Soldiers under his command, at an +outing in the woods by the lake shore, looking after poor and +forgotten Soldiers, and giving them food with his own hand. Like +the Lord, his eyes seemed to be in every place beholding +opportunities to do good, and his feet and hands always followed +his eyes; and this is the fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit. + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +X. + +HOPE. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +Are you ever cast down and depressed in spirit? Listen to Paul: +"Now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in +believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the +Holy Ghost" (Romans xv. 13). What cheer is in those words! They +ring like the shout of a triumph. + +1. God Himself is "the God of hope." There is no gloom, no +depression, no wasting sickness of deferred hope in Him. He is a +brimming fountain and ocean of hope eternally, and He is our God. +He is our Hope. + +2. Out of His infinite fullness He is to fill us; not half fill +us, but fill us with joy, "all joy," hallelujah! "and peace." + +3. And this is not by some condition or means that is so high and +difficult that we cannot perform our part, but it is simply "in +believing "--something which the little child or the aged +philosopher, the poor man and the rich man, the ignorant and the +learned can do. And the result will be:-- + +4. Abounding "hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." And what +power is that? If it is physical power, then the power of a +million Niagaras and flowing oceans and rushing worlds is as +nothing compared to it. If it is mental power, then the power of +Plato and Bacon and Milton and Shakespeare and Newton is as the +light of a fire-fly to the sun when compared to it. If it is +spiritual power, then there is nothing with which it can be +compared. But suppose it is all three in one, infinite and +eternal! This is the power, throbbing with love and mercy, to +which we are to bring our little hearts by living faith, and God +will fill us with joy and peace and hope by the incoming of the +Holy Spirit. + +God's people are a hopeful people. They hope in God, with whom +there is no change, no weakness, no decay. In the darkest night +and the fiercest storm they still hope in Him, though it may be +feebly. But He would have His people "abound in hope" so that +they should always be buoyant, triumphant. + +But how can this be in a world such as this? We are surrounded by +awful, mysterious, and merciless forces, that at any moment may +overwhelm us. The fire may burn us, the water may drown us, the +hurricane may sweep us away, friends may desert us, foes may +master us. There is the depression that comes from failing +health, from poverty, from overwork and sleepless nights and +constant care, from thwarted plans, disappointed ambitions, +slighted love, and base ingratitude. Old age comes on with its +grey hairs, failing strength, dimness of sight, dullness of +hearing, tottering step, shortness of breath, and general +weakness and decay. The friends of youth die, and a new, strange, +pushing generation that knows not the old man, comes elbowing him +aside and taking his place. Under some blessed outpouring of the +Spirit the work of God revives, vile sinners are saved, Zion puts +on her beautiful garments, reforms of all kind advance, the +desert blossoms as the rose, the waste place becomes a fruitful +field, and the millennium seems just at hand; and then the +spiritual tide recedes, the forces of evil are emboldened, they +mass themselves and again sweep over the heritage of the Lord, +leaving it waste and desolate, and the battle must be fought over +again. + +How can one be always hopeful, always abounding in hope, in such +a world? Well, hallelujah! it is possible "through the power of +the Holy Ghost," but only through His power; and this power will +not fail so long as we fix our eyes on eternal things and +believe. + +The Holy Spirit, dwelling within, turns our eyes from that which +is temporal to that which is eternal; from the trial itself to +God's purpose in the trial; from the present pain to the precious +promise. + +I am now writing in a little city made rich by vast potteries. If +the dull, heavy clay on the potter's wheel and in the fiery oven +could think and speak, it would doubtless cry out against the +fierce agony; but if it could foresee the purpose of the potter, +and the thing of use and beauty he meant to make it, it would +nestle low under his hand and rejoice in hope. + +We are clay in the hand of the Divine Potter, but we can think +and speak, and in some measure understand His high purpose in us. +It is the work of the Holy Spirit to make us understand. And if +we will not be dull and senseless and unbelieving, He will +illuminate us and fill us with peaceful, joyous hope. + +1. He would reveal to us that our Heavenly Potter has Himself +been on the wheel and in the fiery furnace, learning obedience +and being fashioned into "the Captain of our salvation" by the +things which He suffered. When we are tempted and tried, and +tempest-tossed, He raises our hope by showing us Jesus suffering +and sympathising with us, tempted in all points as we are, and so +able and wise and willing to help us in our struggle and conflict +(Hebrews ii. 9-18). He assures us that Jesus, into whose hands is +committed all power in Heaven and earth, is our elder Brother, +"touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews iv. 15), +and He encourages us to rest in Him and not be afraid; and so we +abound in hope, through His power as we believe. + +2. He reveals to us the eternal purpose of God in our trials and +difficulties. Listen to Paul: "All things work together for good +to them that love God." "We know _this_," says Paul (Romans +viii. 28). But how can this be? Ah! there is where faith must be +exercised. It is "in believing" that we "abound in hope through +the power of the Holy Ghost." + +God's wisdom and ability to make all things work together for our +good are not to be measured by our understanding, but to be +firmly held by our faith. My child is in serious difficulty and +does not know how to help himself; but I say, "Leave it to me." +He may not understand how I am to help him, but he trusts me, and +rejoices in hope. We are God's dear children, and He knows how to +help us, and make all things work together for our good, if we +will only commit ourselves to Him in faith. + + "Thou art as much His care as if beside + Nor man nor angel lived in Heaven or earth; + Thus sunbeams pour alike their glorious tide, + To light up worlds, or wake an insect's mirth." + +Again, afflictions overtake us, and now the Holy Spirit +encourages our hope and makes it to abound by such promises as +these: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh +for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we +look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which +are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the +things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18). But +such a promise as that only mocks us if we do not believe. "In +all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His +presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed +them; and He bare them, and He carried them all the days of old" +(Isaiah lxiii. 9). And He is just the same to-day. To some He +says: "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" (Isaiah +xlviii 10), and nestling down into His will and "believing," they +"abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." + +He turns our eyes back upon Job in his loss and pain; upon Joseph +sold into Egyptian slavery; Daniel in the lions' den; the three +Hebrews in the burning fiery furnace, and Paul in prison and +shipwreck and manifold perils; and, showing us their steadfastness +and their final triumph, He prompts us to hope in God. + +When weakness of body overtakes us, He encourages us with such +assurances as these: "My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is +the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever" (Psalm lxxiii. +26), and the words of Paul: "Though our outward man perish, yet +the inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Cor. iv. 16). + +When old age comes creeping on apace, He has promised to meet the +need that our hope fail not. Listen to David! He prays: "Cast me +not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength +faileth.... Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake +me not; until I have showed Thy strength unto this generation, +and Thy power to every one that is to come" (Psalm lxxi. 9, 18). +And through Isaiah the Lord replies: "Even to your old age I am +He; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I +will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you" (Isaiah xlvi. +4). And David cries out, "The righteous shall flourish like the +palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be +planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of +our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they +shall be fat and flourishing, to show that the Lord is upright" +(Psalm xcii. 12-15). + +These are sample promises of which the Bible is full, and which +have been adapted by infinite wisdom and love to meet us at every +point of doubt and fear and need, that, in believing them, we may +have a steadfast and glad hope in God. He is pledged to help us. +He says: "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for +I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, +I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness" +(Isaiah xli. 10). + +When all God's waves and billows seemed to sweep over David, and +his soul was bowed within him, three times he cried out: "Why art +thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? +Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His +countenance" (Psalm xlii. 5). And Jeremiah, remembering the +wormwood and the gall, and the deep mire of the dungeon into +which they had plunged him, and from which he had scarcely been +delivered, said: "It is good that a man should both hope and +quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord" (Lam. iii. 26). + +When the Holy Spirit is come, He brings to remembrance these +precious promises, and makes them living words; and, if we +believe, the whole heaven of our soul shall be lighted up with +abounding hope. Hallelujah! It is only through ignorance of God's +promises, or through weak and wavering faith, that hope is +dimmed. Oh, that we may heed the still small voice of the +Heavenly Comforter, and steadfastly, joyously believe! + + "My hope is built on nothing less + Than Jesus' blood and righteousness; + When all around my soul gives way, + He then is all my Hope and Stay." + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XI. + +THE HOLY SPIRIT'S SUBSTITUTE FOR GOSSIP AND EVIL-SPEAKING. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +The other day I heard a man of God say: "We cannot bridle the +tongues of the people among whom we live: they will talk"; and by +talk he meant gossip and criticism and fault-finding. + + "You never can tell when you send a word-- + Like an arrow shot from a bow + By an archer blind--be it cruel or kind, + Just where it will chance to go. + It may pierce the breast of your dearest friend, + Tipped with its poison or balm: + To a stranger's heart in life's great mart + It may carry its pain or its calm." + +The wise mother, when she finds her little boy playing with a +sharp knife, or the looking-glass, or some dainty dish, does not +snatch it away with a slap on his cheek or harsh words, but +quietly and gently substitutes a safer and more interesting toy, +and so avoids a storm. + +A sensible father who finds his boy reading a book of dangerous +tendency, will kindly point out its character and substitute a +better book that is equally interesting. + +When children want to spend their evenings on the street, +thoughtful and intelligent parents will seek to make their +evenings at home more healthfully attractive. + +When a man seeks to rid his mind of evil and hurtful thoughts, he +will find it wise to follow Paul's exhortation to the Philippians: +"Brethren, whatsoever things are true,... honest,... just,... +pure,... lovely,... of good report;... if there be any praise, +think on these things" (Phil. iv. 8). + +Any man who faithfully, patiently, and persistently accepts this +programme of Paul's will find his evil thoughts vanishing away. + +And this is the Holy Spirit's method: He has a pleasant and safe +substitute for gossip and fault-finding and slander. + +Here it is: "Be filled with the Spirit: speaking to yourselves in +psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody +in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things +unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" +(Eph. v. 18-20). This is certainly a fruit of being filled with +the Spirit. + +Many years ago the Lord gave me a blessed revival in a little +village in which nearly every soul in the place, as well as +farmers from the surrounding country, were converted. One result +was that they now had no time for gossip and doubtful talk about +their neighbours. They were all talking about religion and +rejoicing in the things of the Lord. If they met each other on +the street, or in some shop or store, they praised the Lord, and +encouraged each other to press on in the heavenly way. If they +met a sinner, they tenderly besought him to be reconciled to God, +to give up his sins, "flee from the wrath to come," and start at +once for Heaven. If they met in each other's houses, they +gathered around the organ or the piano and sang hymns and songs, +and did not part till they had united in prayer. + +There was no criticising of their neighbours, no grumbling and +complaining about the weather, no fault-finding with their lot in +life, or their daily surroundings and circumstances. Their +conversation was joyous, cheerful, and helpful to one another. +Nor was it forced and out of place, but rather it was the +natural, spontaneous outflow of loving, humble, glad hearts +filled with the Spirit, in union with Jesus, and in love and +sympathy with their fellow-men. + +And this is, I think, our Heavenly Father's ideal of social and +spiritual intercourse for His children on earth. He would not +have us separate ourselves from each other and shut ourselves up +in convents and monasteries in austere asceticism on the one +hand, nor would He have us light and foolish, or fault-finding +and censorious on the other hand, but sociable, cheerful, and +full of tender, considerate love. + +On the day of Pentecost, when they were all filled with the Holy +Ghost and a multitude were converted, we read that "they, +continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking +bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and +singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the +people" (Acts ii. 46, 47). This is a sample of the brotherly love +and unity which our Heavenly Father would have throughout the +whole earth; but how the breath of gossip and evil-speaking would +have marred this heavenly fellowship and separated these "chief +friends"! + + "Lord! subdue our selfish will; + Each to each our tempers suit + By Thy modulating skill, + Heart to heart, as lute to lute." + +Let no one suppose, however, that the Holy Spirit accomplishes +this heavenly work by some overwhelming baptism which does away +with the need of our co-operation. He does not override us, but +works with us; and we must intelligently and determinedly work +with Him in this matter. + +People often fall into idle and hurtful gossip and evil-speaking, +not so much from ill-will, as from old habit, as a wagon falls +into a rut. Or they drift into it with the current of conversation +about them. Or they are beguiled into it by a desire to say +something, and be pleasant and entertaining. + +But when the Holy Spirit comes, He lifts us out of the old ruts, +and we must follow Him with care lest we fall into them again, +possibly never more to escape. He gives us life and power to stem +the adverse currents about us, but we must exercise ourselves not +to be swept downward by them. He does not destroy the desire to +please, but He subordinates it to the desire to help and bless, +and we must stir ourselves up to do this. + +When Miss Havergal was asked to sing and play before a worldly +company, she sang a sweet song about Jesus, and, without +displeasing anybody, greatly blessed the company. + +At a breakfast party John Fletcher told his experience so sweetly +and naturally that all hearts were stirred, the Holy Ghost fell +upon the company, and they ended with a glorious prayer meeting. + +William Bramwell used at meals to steadily and persistently turn +the conversation into spiritual channels to the blessing of all +who were present, so that they had two meals--one for the body +and one for the soul. + +To do this wisely and helpfully requires thought and prayer and a +fixed purpose, and a tender, loving heart filled with the Holy +Spirit. + +I know a mother who seeks to have a brief season of prayer and a +text of Scripture just before going to dinner to prepare her +heart to guide the conversation along spiritual highways. + +Are you careful and have you victory in this matter, my comrade? +If not, seek it just now in simple, trustful prayer, and the Lord +who loves you will surely answer, and will be your helper from +this time forth. He surely will. Believe just now, and henceforth +"let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ." + + "I ask Thee, ever blessed Lord, + That I may never speak a word, + Of envy born, or passion stirred. + + "First, true to Thee in heart and mind, + Then always to my neighbour kind, + By Thy good hand to good inclined. + + "Oh, save from words that bear a sting, + That pain to any brother bring: + Inbreathe Thy calm in everything. + + "Let love within my heart prevail, + To rule my words when thoughts assail, + That, hid in Thee, I may not fail. + + "I know, my Lord, Thy power within + Can save from all the power of sin; + In Thee let every word begin. + + "Should I be silent? Keep me still, + Glad waiting on my Master's will: + Thy message through my lips fulfil. + + "Give me Thy words when I should speak, + For words of Thine are never weak, + But break the proud, but raise the meek. + + "Into Thy lips all grace is poured, + Speak Thou through me, Eternal Word, + Of thought, of heart, of lips the Lord." + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XII. + +THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +God is love, and the Holy Spirit is ceaselessly striving to make +this love known in our hearts, work out God's purposes of love in +our lives, and transform and transfigure our character by love. +And so we are solemnly warned against resisting the Spirit, and +almost tearfully and always tenderly exhorted to "quench not the +Spirit," and to "grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby," +says the Apostle, "ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." + +There is one great sin against which Jesus warned the Jews, as a +sin never to be forgiven in this world nor in that which is to +come. That was blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. + +That there is such a sin, Jesus teaches in Matthew xii. 31, 32, +Mark iii. 28-30, and Luke xii. 10. And it may be that this is the +sin referred to in Hebrews vi. 4-6; x. 29. + +Since many of God's dear children have fallen into dreadful +distress through fear that they had committed this sin, it may be +helpful for us to study carefully as to what constitutes it. + +Jesus was casting out devils, and Mark tells us that "the scribes +which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by +the prince of the devils casteth He out devils." To this Jesus +replied with gracious kindness and searching logic: "How can +Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself, +that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against +itself, it cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself and +be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. No man can enter +into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he will +first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house." + +In this quiet reply we see that Jesus does not rail against them, +nor flatly deny their base assertion that He does His miracles by +the power of the Devil, but shows how logically false must be +their statement. And then, with grave authority, and, I think, +with solemn tenderness in His voice and in His eyes, He adds, +"Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons +of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: +but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never +forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation"; or, as the +Revised Version puts it, "is guilty of an eternal sin"; and then +Mark adds, "because they said, He hath an unclean spirit" (Mark +iii. 22-30). + +Jesus came into the world to reveal God's truth and love to men, +and to save them, and men are saved by believing in Him. But how +could the men of His day, who saw Him working at the carpenter's +bench, and living the life of an ordinary man of humble toil and +daily temptation and trial, believe His stupendous claim to be +the only-begotten Son of God, the Saviour of the world, and the +final Judge of all men? Any wilful and proud impostor could make +such a claim. But men _could_ not and _ought_ not to believe +such an assertion unless the claim were supported by ungainsayable +evidence. This evidence Jesus began to give, not only in the holy +life which He lived and the pure Gospel He preached, but in the +miracles He wrought, the blind eyes He opened, the sick He healed, +the hungry thousands He fed, the seas He stilled, the dead He +raised to life again, and the devils He cast out of bound and +harassed souls. + +The Scribes and Pharisees witnessed these miracles, and were +compelled to admit these signs and wonders. Nicodemus, one of +their number, said to Jesus, "Rabbi, we know that Thou art a +teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou +doest, except God be with him" (John iii. 2). Would they now +admit His claim to be the Son of God, their promised and +long-looked-for Messiah? They were thoughtful men and very religious, +but not spiritual. The Gospel He preached was Spirit and life; it +appealed to their conscience and revealed their sin, and to +acknowledge Him was to admit that they themselves were wrong. It +meant submission to His authority, the surrender of their wills, +and a change of front in their whole inner and outer life. This +meant moral and spiritual revolution in each man's heart and +life, and to this they would not submit. And so to avoid such +plain inconsistency, they must discredit His miracles; and since +they could not deny them, they declared that He wrought them by +the power of the Devil. + +Jesus worked these signs and wonders by the power of the Holy +Spirit, that he might win their confidence, and that they might +reasonably believe and be saved. But they refused to believe, and +in their malignant obstinacy heaped scorn upon Him, accusing Him +of being in league with the Devil; and how could they be saved? +This was the sin against the Holy Spirit against which Jesus +warned them. It was not so much one act of sin, as a deep-seated, +stubborn rebellion against God that led them to choose darkness +rather than light, and so to blaspheme against the Spirit of +truth and light. It was sin full and ripe and ready for the +harvest. + +Some one has said that "this sin cannot be forgiven, not because +God is unwilling to forgive, but because one who thus sins +against the Holy Spirit has put himself where no power can soften +his heart or change his nature. A man may misuse his eyes and yet +see; but whosoever puts them out can never see again. One may +misdirect his compass, and turn it aside from the North Pole by a +magnet or piece of iron, and it may recover and point right +again; but whosoever destroys the compass itself has lost his +guide at sea." + +Many of God's dear children, honest souls, have been persuaded +that they have committed this awful sin. Indeed, I once thought +that I myself had done so, and for twenty-eight days I felt that, +like Jonah, I was "in the belly of hell." But God, in love and +tender mercy, drew me out of the horrible pit of doubt and fear, +and showed me that this is a sin committed only by those who, in +spite of all evidence, harden their hearts in unbelief, and to +shield themselves in their sins deny and blaspheme the Lord. + +Dr. Daniel Steele tells of a Jew who was asked, "Is it that you +_cannot_, or that you _will not_ believe?" The Jew passionately +replied, "We _will_ not, we _will_ not believe." + +This was wilful refusal and rejection of light, and in that +direction lies hardness of heart beyond recovery, fullness of +sin, and final impenitence, which are unpardonable. + +Doubtless many through resistance to the Holy Spirit come to this +awful state of heart; but those troubled, anxious souls who think +they have committed this sin are not usually among the number. + +An Army Officer in Canada was in the midst of a glorious revival, +when one night a gentleman arose and with deep emotion urged the +young people present to yield themselves to God, accept Jesus as +their Saviour, and receive the Holy Spirit. He told them that he +had once been a Christian, but that he had not walked in the +light, and, consequently, had sinned against the Holy Spirit, and +could never more be pardoned. Then, with all earnest tenderness, +he exhorted them to be warned by his sad state, and not to harden +their hearts against the gracious influences, and entreated them +to yield to the Saviour. Suddenly the scales of doubt dropped +from his eyes, and he saw that he had not in his inmost heart +rejected Jesus; that he had not committed the unpardonable sin; +that + + "The love of God is broader + Than the measure of man's mind: + And the heart of the Eternal + Is most wonderfully kind." + +And in an instant his heart was filled with light and love and +peace, and sweet assurance that Christ Jesus was his Saviour, +even his. + +In one meeting, I have known three people who thought they had +committed this sin, and were bowed with grief and fear, to come +to the penitent-form and find deliverance. + +The poet Cowper was plunged into unutterable gloom by the +conviction that he had committed this awful sin; but God tenderly +brought him into the light and sweet comforts of the Holy Spirit +again, and doubtless it was in the sense of such lovingkindness +that he wrote: + + "There is a fountain filled with blood, + Drawn from Emanuel's veins; + And sinners plunged beneath that flood + Lose all their guilty stains." + +John Bunyan was also afflicted with horrible fears that he had +committed the unpardonable sin, and in his little book entitled, +"Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners" (a book which I would +earnestly recommend to all soul-winners), he tells how he was +delivered from his doubts and fears and was filled once more with +the joy of the Lord. There are portions of his "Pilgrim's +Progress" which are to be interpreted in the light of this +grievous experience. + +Those who think they have committed this sin may generally be +assured that they have not. + +1. Their hearts are usually very tender, while this sin must +harden the heart past all feeling. + +2. They are full of sorrow and shame for having neglected God's +grace and trifled with the Saviour's dying words, but such sorrow +could not exist in a heart so fully given over to sin that pardon +was impossible. + +3. God says, "Whosoever will may come"; and if they find it in +their hearts to come, they will not be cast out, but freely +pardoned and received with loving kindness through the merits of +Jesus' blood. God's promise will not fail, His faithfulness is +established in the heavens. Bless His holy name! Those who have +committed this sin are full of evil, and do not care to come, and +will not, and, therefore, are never pardoned. Their sin is +eternal. + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XIII. + +OFFENCES AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +One day, in a fit of boyish temper, I spoke hot words of anger, +somewhat unjustly, against another person, and this deeply +grieved my mother. She said but little, and though her sweet face +has mouldered many years beneath the Southern daisies, her look +of grief I can still see across the years of a third of a +century. And that is the one sad memory of my childhood. A +stranger might have been amused or incensed at my words, but +mother was grieved--grieved to her heart by my lack of generous, +self-forgetful, thoughtful love. + +We can anger a stranger or an enemy, but it is only a friend we +grieve. The Holy Spirit is such a Friend, more tender and +faithful than a mother; and shall we carelessly offend Him, and +estrange ourselves from Him in spite of His love? + +There is a sense in which every sin is against the Holy Ghost. Of +course, not every such sin is unpardonable, but the tendency of +all sin is in that direction, and we are only safe as we avoid +the very beginnings of sin. Only as we "walk in the Spirit" are +we "free from the law of sin and death" (Romans viii. 2). +Therefore, it is infinitely important that we beware of offences +against the Spirit, "lest any of you be hardened through the +deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews iii. 13). + +Grieving the Holy Spirit is a very common and a very sad offence +of professing Christians, and it is to this that must be +attributed much of the weakness and ignorance and joylessness of +so many followers of Christ. + +And He is grieved, as was my mother, by the unloving speech and +spirit of God's children. + +In his letters to the Ephesians, Paul says, "Let no corrupt +communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good +to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the +hearers." And then he adds: "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of +God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all +bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, +be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to +another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for +Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of +God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath +loved us, and hath given Himself for us" (Eph. iv. 29-v. 2). + +What does Paul teach us here? That it is not by some huge +wickedness, some Judas-like betrayal, some tempting and lying to +the Holy Ghost, as did Ananias and Sapphira (Acts v. 1-9), that +we grieve Him, but by that which most people count little and +unimportant; by talk that corrupts instead of blessing and +building up those that hear, by gossip, by bitterness, and +uncharitable criticisms and fault-findings. This was the sin of +the elder son when the prodigal returned, and it was by this he +pierced with grief the kind old father's heart. + +By getting in a rage, by loud, angry talking and evil-speaking +and petty malice, by unkindness and hard-heartedness and an +unforgiving spirit, we grieve Him. In a word, by not walking +through the world as in our Father's house, and among our +neighbours and friends as among His dear children; by not loving +tenderly and making kindly sacrifices for one another, He is +grieved. And this is not a matter of little importance. It may +have sadly momentous consequences. + +It is a bitter, cruel, and often an irreparable thing to trifle +with a valuable earthly friendship. How much more when the +friendship is heavenly? when the Friend is our Lord and Saviour, +our Creator and Redeemer, our Governor and Judge, our Teacher, +Guide, and God? When we trifle with a friend's wishes--especially +when such wishes are all in perfect harmony with and for our +highest possible good--we may not estrange the friend from us, +but we estrange ourselves from our friend. Our hearts grow cold +toward him, though his heart may be breaking with longing toward +us. + +The more Saul ill-treated David, the more he hated David. + +Such estrangement may lead, little by little, to yet greater sin, +to strange hardness of heart, to doubts and unbelief, and +backslidings and denial of the Lord. + +The cure for all this is a clean heart full of sweet and gentle, +self-forgetful, generous love. Then we shall be "followers of God +as dear children," then we shall "walk in love as Christ loved +us, and gave Himself for us." + +But there is another offence, that of quenching the Spirit, which +accounts for the comparative darkness and deadness of many of +God's children. + +In I Thess. v. 16-19 the Apostle says: "Rejoice evermore. Pray +without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will +of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit." + +When will the Lord's dear children learn that the religion of +Jesus is a lowly thing, and that it is the little foxes that +spoil the vines? Does not the Apostle here teach that it is not +by some desperate, dastardly deed that we quench the Spirit, but +simply by neglecting to rejoice and pray, and give thanks at all +times and for all things? + +It is not necessary to blot the sun out of the heavens to keep +the sunlight out of your house--just close the blinds and draw +the curtains; nor do you pour barrels of water on the flames to +quench the fire--just shut off the draught; nor do you dynamite +the city reservoir and destroy all the mains and pipes to cut off +your supply of sparkling water, but just refrain from turning on +the main. + +So you do not need to do some great evil, some deadly sin, to +quench the Spirit. Just cease to rejoice, through fear of man and +of being peculiar; be prim and proper as a white and polished +gravestone; let gushing joy be curbed; neglect to pray when you +feel a gentle pull in your heart to get alone with the Lord; omit +giving hearty thanks for all God's tender mercies, faithful +discipline and loving chastenings, and soon you will find the +Spirit quenched. He will no longer spring up joyously like a well +of living water within you. + +But give the Spirit a vent, an opening, a chance, and He will +rise within you and flood your soul with light and love and joy. + +Some years ago a sanctified woman of clear experience went alone +to keep her daily hour with God; but, to her surprise, it seemed +that she could not find Him, either in prayer or in His word. She +searched her heart for evidence of sin, but the Spirit showed her +nothing contrary to God in her mind, heart, or will. She searched +her memory for any breach of covenant, any broken vows, any +neglect, any omission, but could find none. + +Then she asked the Lord to show her if there were any duty +unfulfilled, any command unnoticed, which she might perform, and +quick as thought came the often-read words, "Rejoice evermore." +"Have you done that this morning?" + +She had not. It had been a busy morning, and a well-spent one, +but so far there had been no definite rejoicing in her heart, +though the manifold riches and ground for joy of all Christians +were hers. + +At once she began to count her blessings and thank the Lord for +each one, and rejoice in Him for all the way He had led her, and +the gifts He had bestowed, and in a very few minutes the Lord +stood revealed to her spiritual consciousness. + +She had not committed sin, nor resisted the Spirit, but a failure +to rejoice in Him who had daily loaded her with benefits (Psalm +lxviii. 19) had in a measure quenched the Spirit. She had not +turned the main, and so her soul was not flooded with living +waters. She had not remembered the command: "Thou shalt rejoice +before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hand +unto." But that morning she learned a lifelong lesson, and she +has ever since safeguarded her soul by obeying the many commands +to "Rejoice in the Lord." + +Grieving and quenching the Spirit will not only leave barren and +desolate an individual soul, but it will do so for a Corps, a +church, a community, a whole nation or continent. We see this +illustrated on a large scale by the long and weary Dark Ages, +when the light of the Gospel was almost extinguished, and only +here and there was the darkness broken by the torch of truth held +aloft by some humble, suffering soul that had wept and prayed, +and through painful struggles had found the light. + +We see it also in those Corps, churches, communities, and +countries where revivals are unknown, or are a thing of the past, +where souls are not born into the Kingdom, and where there is no +joyous shout of victory among the people of God. + +Grieving and quenching the Spirit may be done unintentionally by +lack of thought and prayer and hearty devotion to the Lord Jesus; +but they prepare the way and lead to intentional and positive +resistance to the Spirit. + +To resist the Spirit is to fight against Him. + +The sinner who, listening to the Gospel invitation, and convicted +of sin, refuses to submit to God in true repentance and faith in +Jesus, is resisting the Holy Spirit. We have bold and striking +historical illustrations of the danger of resisting the Holy +Spirit in the disasters which befell Pharaoh, and the terrible +calamities which came upon Jerusalem, and have for twenty +centuries followed the Jews. + +The ten plagues that came upon Pharaoh and his people were ten +opportunities and open doors into God's favour and fellowship, +which they themselves shut by their stubborn resistance, only to +be overtaken by dreadful catastrophe. + +To the Jews, Stephen said: "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost" +(Acts vii. 51); and the siege and fall of Jerusalem, and the +butchery and banishment and enslavement of its inhabitants, and +all the woes that came upon the Jews, followed their rejection of +Jesus and the hardness of heart and spiritual blindness which +swiftly overtook them when they resisted all the loving efforts +and entreaties of His disciples baptised with the Holy Spirit. + +And what on a large scale befalls nations and people, on a small +scale also befalls individuals. Those that receive and obey the +Lord are enlightened and blessed and saved; those that resist and +reject Him are sadly left to themselves and surely swallowed up +in destruction. + +Likewise the professing Christian who hears of heart-holiness and +cleansing from all sin as a blessing he may now have by faith, +and, convicted of his need of the blessing and of God's desire +and willingness to bestow it upon him now, refuses to seek it in +whole-hearted affectionate consecration and faith, is resisting +the Holy Spirit. And such resistance imperils the soul beyond all +possible computation. + +We see an example of this in the Israelites who were brought out +of Egypt with signs and wonders, and led through the Red Sea and +the wilderness to the borders of Canaan, but, forgetting, +refused to go over into the land. In this they resisted the Holy +Spirit in His leadings as surely as did Pharaoh, and with quite +as disastrous results to themselves, perishing in their evil way. + +For their sin was as much greater than his as their light +exceeded his. + +Hundreds of years later, Isaiah, writing of this time, says: "In +all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His +presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed +them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But +they rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit; therefore He was turned +to be their enemy, and He fought against them" (Isaiah lxiii. 9, +10). + +We see from this that Christians must beware and watch and pray +and walk softly with the Lord in glad obedience and childlike +faith, if they would escape the darkness and dryness that result +from grieving and quenching the Spirit, and the dangers that +surely come from resisting Him. + + "Arm me with jealous care, + As in Thy sight to live; + And, Oh, Thy servant, Lord, prepare, + A strict account to give. + + "Help me to watch and pray, + And on Thyself rely, + Assured if I my trust betray, + I shall for ever die." + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XIV. + +THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SOUND DOCTRINE. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +Is Jesus Christ divine? Is the Bible an inspired Book? Is man a +fallen creature who can be saved only through the suffering and +sacrifice of the Creator? Will there be a resurrection of the +dead, and a day in which God will judge all the world by the Man +Christ Jesus? Is Satan a personal being, and is there a Hell in +which the wicked will be for ever punished? + +These are great doctrines which have been held and taught by His +followers since the days of Jesus and His Apostles, and yet they +are ever being attacked and denied. + +Are they true? Or are they only fancies and falsehoods, or +figures of speech and distortions of truth? How can we find truth +and know it? + +Jesus said, "When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide +you into all truth" (John xvi. 13). + +What truth? Not the truth of the multiplication table, or of +physical science, or art, or secular history, but spiritual +truth--the truth about God and His will and character, and our +relations to Him in Christ--that truth which is necessary to +salvation and holiness--into all this truth the Holy Spirit will +guide us. "He shall teach you all things," said Jesus (John xiv. +26). + +How, then, shall we escape error and be "sound in doctrine"? Only +by the help of the Holy Spirit. + +How do we know Jesus Christ is divine? Because the Bible tells us +so? Infinitely precious and important is this revelation in the +Bible; but not by this do we know it. Because the Church teaches +it in her creed, and we have heard it from the catechism? Nothing +taught in any creed or catechism is of more vital importance; but +neither by this do we know it. + +How then? Listen to Paul: "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, +but by the Holy Ghost" (I Cor. xii. 3). "No man," says Paul. Then +learning it from the Bible or catechism is not to know it except +as the parrot might know it; but every man is to be taught this +by the Holy Spirit, if he is to really know it. + +Then it is not a revelation made once for all, and only to the +men who walked and talked with Jesus, but it is a spiritual +revelation made anew to each believing heart that in penitence +seeks Him and so meets the conditions of such a revelation. + +Then the poor, degraded, ignorant outcast at The Army penitent-form +in the slums of London or Chicago, who never heard of a +creed, and the ebony African and dusky Indian, who never saw the +inside of a Bible, may have Christ revealed in him, and know by +the revelation of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is Lord. + +"It pleased God... to reveal His Son in me," wrote Paul (Gal. i. +15, 16); and again, "Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 20); and +again, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again +until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. iv. 19); as though Christ is +to be spiritually formed in the heart of each believer by the +operation of the Holy Spirit, as He was physically formed in the +womb of Mary by the same Spirit (Luke i. 35); and again, "The +mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but +now is made manifest to His saints,... which is Christ in you, +the hope of glory" (Col. i. 26, 27); "That Christ may dwell in +your hearts by faith" (Eph. iii. 17); "Examine yourselves, +whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not +your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be +reprobates" (2 Cor. xiii. 5)? + +"At that day," said Jesus, when making His great promise of the +Comforter to His disciples, "At that day ye shall know that I am +in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you" (John xiv. 20); and +again, in His great prayer, He said: "I have declared unto them +Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast +loved Me may be in them, and I in them." + +It is this ever-recurring revelation to penitent, believing +hearts, by the agency of the ever-present Holy Spirit, that makes +faith in Jesus Christ living and invincible. "I know He is Lord, +for He saves my soul from sin, and He saves me now," is an +argument that rationalism and unbelief cannot answer nor +overthrow, and so long as there are men in the world who can say +this, faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ is secure; and this +experience and witness come by the Holy Ghost. + + "I worship Thee, O Holy Ghost, + I love to worship Thee; + My risen Lord for aye were lost + But for Thy company." + +And so it is by the guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit that +all saving truth becomes vital to us. + +It is He that makes the Bible a living Book; it is He that +convinces the world of judgment (John xvi. 8-11); it is He that +makes men certain that there is a Heaven of surpassing and +enduring glory and joy, and a Hell of endless sorrow and woe for +those who sin away their day of grace and die in impenitence. + +Who have been the mightiest and most faithful preachers of the +gloom and terror and pain of a perpetual Hell? those who have +been the mightiest and most effective preachers of God's +compassionate love. + +In all periods of great revival, when men seemed to live on the +borderland, and in the vision of eternity, Hell has been +preached. The leaders in these revivals have been men of prayer +and faith and consuming love, but they have been men who knew +"the terrors of the Lord," and, therefore, they preached the +judgments of God, and they proved that the law with its penalties +is a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ (Gal. iii. 24). Fox, the +Quaker; Bunyan, the Baptist; Baxter, the Puritan; Wesley and +Fletcher, and Whitefield and Caughey, the Methodists; Finney, the +Presbyterian; Edwards and Moody, the Congregationalists; and +General Booth, the Salvationist, have preached it, not savagely, +but tenderly and faithfully, as a mother might warn her child +against some great danger that would surely follow careless and +selfish wrong-doing. + +What men have loved and laboured and sacrificed as these men? +Their hearts have been a flaming furnace of love and devotion to +God, and an over-flowing fountain of love and compassion for men; +but just in proportion as they have discovered God's love and +pity for the sinner, so have they discovered His wrath against +sin and all obstinate wrong-doing; and as they have caught +glimpses of Heaven and declared its joys and everlasting glories +to men, so they have seen Hell, with its endless punishment, and +with trembling voice and overflowing eyes have they warned men to +"flee from the wrath to come." + +Were these men, throbbing with spiritual life and consumed with +devotion to the Kingdom of God and the everlasting well-being of +their fellowmen, led to this belief by the Spirit of Truth, or +were they misled? Is it the prophet, weeping and praying and +preaching and fighting for God and men, to whom the Spirit has +always first spoken and revealed the things of God? Or is it the +philosopher, or dry-as-dust theologian, or the popular preacher +of smooth things, sitting in his study and among his books, +spinning out of his own mind his conceits concerning God's plan +and purpose in the universe? + +Does Seneca or the Psalmist, Plato or Paul, Rousseau or Wesley, +the idolised, high-salaried, soft-raimented preacher of a wide +gate and broad way to life and Heaven, or the veteran soul-winner, +General Booth, more clearly make known the mind of God in +matters that are spiritual? + +"The things of the Spirit... are spiritually discerned" (I Cor. +ii. 14), says Paul. It is not by searching and philosophising +that these things are found out, but by revelation. "Flesh and +blood hath not revealed it unto thee," said Jesus to Peter, "but +My Father which is in Heaven" (Matthew xvi. 17). The great +teacher of truth is the Spirit of Truth, and the only safe +expounders and guardians of sound doctrine are men filled with +the Holy Ghost. + +Study and research have their place, and an important place; but +in spiritual things they will be no avail unless prosecuted by +spiritual men. As well might men blind from birth attempt to +study the starry heavens, and men born deaf undertake to expound +and criticise the harmonies of Bach and Beethoven. Men must see +and hear to speak and write intelligently on such subjects. And +so men must be spiritually enlightened to understand spiritual +truth. + +The greatest danger to any religious organisation is that a body +of men should arise in its ranks, and hold its positions of +trust, who have learned its great fundamental doctrines by rote +out of the catechism, but have no experimental knowledge of their +truth inwrought by the mighty anointing of the Holy Ghost, and +who are destitute of "an unction from the Holy One," by which, +says John, "ye know all things" (1 John ii. 20, 27). + +Why do men deny the divinity of Jesus Christ? Because they have +never placed themselves in that relation to the Spirit, and met +those unchanging conditions that would enable Him to reveal Jesus +to them as Saviour and Lord. + +Why do men dispute the inspiration of the Scriptures? Because the +Holy Ghost, who inspired "holy men of God" to write the Book (2 +Peter i. 21), hides its spiritual sense from unspiritual and +unholy men. + +Why do men doubt a Day of Judgment, and a state of everlasting +doom? Because they have never been bowed and broken and crushed +beneath the weight of their sin, and by a sense of guilt and +separation from a holy God that can only be removed by faith in +His dying Son. + +A sportsman lost his way in a pitiless storm on a black and +starless night. Suddenly his horse drew back and refused to take +another step. He urged it forward, but it only threw itself back +upon its haunches. Just then a vivid flash of lightning revealed +a great precipice upon the brink of which he stood. It was but an +instant, and then the pitchy blackness hid it again from view. +But he turned his horse and anxiously rode away from the terrible +danger. + +A distinguished professor of religion said to me some time ago, +"I dislike, I abhor, the doctrine of Hell"; and then after a +while added, "But three times in my life I have seen that there +was eternal separation from God and an everlasting Hell for me, +if I walked not in the way God was calling me to go." + +Into the blackness of the sinner's night the Holy Spirit, who is +patiently and compassionately seeking the salvation of all men, +flashes a light that gives him a glimpse of eternal things which, +heeded, would lead to the sweet peace and security of eternal +day. For when the Holy Spirit is heeded and honoured, the night +passes, the shadows flee away, the day dawns, "the Sun of +Righteousness arises with healing in His wings," and, saved and +sanctified, men walk in His light in safety and joy. Doctrines +which before were repellent to the carnal mind, and but +foolishness, or a stumbling-block to the heart of unbelief, now +become precious and satisfying to the soul; and truths which +before were hid in impenetrable darkness, or seen only as through +dense gloom and fog, are now seen clearly as in the light of +broad day. + + "Hold thou the faith that Christ is Lord, + God over all, who died and rose; + And everlasting life bestows + On all who hear the living word. + For thee His life-blood He out-poured, + His Spirit sets thy spirit free; + Hold thou the faith--He dwells in thee, + And thou in Him, and Christ is Lord!" + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XV. + +PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +An important work of the Holy Spirit is to teach us how to pray, +instruct us what to pray for, and inspire us to pray earnestly, +without ceasing, and in faith, for the things we desire and the +things that are dear to the heart of the Lord. + +In a familiar verse, the poet Montgomery says: + + "Prayer is the burden of a sigh, + The falling of a tear, + The upward glancing of the eye, + When none but God is near." + +And no doubt he is right. Prayer is exceedingly simple. The +faintest cry for help, a whisper for mercy, is prayer. But when +the Holy Spirit comes and fills the soul with His blessed +presence, prayer becomes more than a cry; it ceases to be a +feeble request, and often becomes a strife (Romans xv. 30; Col. +iv. 12) for greater things, a conflict, an invincible argument, a +wrestling with God, and through it men enter into the Divine +councils and rise into a blessed and responsible fellowship in +some important sense with the Father and the Son in the moral +government of the world. + +It was in this spirit and fellowship that Abraham prayed for +Sodom (Genesis xviii. 23-32); that Moses interceded for Israel, +and stood between them and God's hot displeasure (Exodus xxxii. +7-14); and that Elijah prevailed to shut up the heavens for three +years and six months, and then again prevailed in his prayer for +rain. + +God would have us come to Him not only as a foolish and ignorant +child comes, but as an ambassador to his home government; as a +full-grown son who has become of age and entered into partnership +with his father; as a bride who is one in all interests and affections +with the bridegroom. + +He would have us "come boldly to the throne of grace" with a +well-reasoned and Scriptural understanding of what we desire, and +with a purpose to "ask," "seek," and "knock" till we get the +thing we wish, being assured that it is according to His will; +and this boldness is not inconsistent with the profoundest +humility and a sense of utter dependence; indeed, it is always +accompanied by self-distrust and humble reliance upon the merits +of Jesus, else it is but presumption and unsanctified conceit. +This union of assurance and humility, of boldness and dependence, +can be secured only by the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and only +so can one be prepared and fitted for such prayer. + +Three great obstacles hinder mighty prayer: + +1. selfishness; 2, unbelief; 3, the darkness of ignorance and +foolishness. The baptism with the Spirit sweeps away these +obstacles and brings in the three great essentials to prayer--1, +faith; 2, love, Divine love; 3, the light of heavenly knowledge +and wisdom. + +1. Selfishness must be cast out by the incoming of love. The +ambassador must not be seeking personal ends, but the interests +of his government and the people he represents; the son must not +be seeking private gain, but the common prosperity of the +partnership in which he will fully and lawfully share; the bride +must not forget him to whom she belongs, and seek separate ends, +but in all ways identify herself with her husband and his +interests. + +So the child of God must come in prayer, unselfishly. + +It is the work of the Holy Spirit, with our co-operation and glad +consent, to search and destroy selfishness out of our hearts, and +fill them with pure love to God and man. And when this is done we +shall not then be asking for things amiss to consume them upon +our lusts, to gratify our appetites, or pride, or ambition, or +ease, or vain-glory. We shall seek only the glory of our Lord and +the common good of our fellow-men, in which, as co-workers and +partners, we shall have a common share. If we ask for success, it +is not that we may be exalted, but that God may be glorified; +that Jesus may secure the purchase of His blood; that men may be +saved, and the Kingdom of Heaven be established upon earth. + +If we ask for daily bread, it is not that we may be full, but +that we may be fitted for daily duty. If we ask for health, it is +not alone that we may be free from pain and filled with physical +comfort, but that we may be spent "in publishing the sinner's +Friend," in fulfilling the work for which God has placed us here. + +2. Unbelief must be destroyed. Doubt paralyzes prayer. Unbelief +quenches the spirit of intercession. Only as the eye of faith +sees our Father God upon the Throne guaranteeing to us rights and +privileges by the blood of His Son, and inviting us to come +without fear, and make our wants known, does prayer rise from the +commonplace to the sublime; does it cease to be a feeble, timid +cry, and become a mighty spiritual force, moving God Himself in +the interests which it seeks. + +Men, wise with the wisdom of this world, but poor and naked and +blind and foolish in matters of faith, ask: "Will God change His +plans at the request of man?" And we answer, "Yes," since many of +God's plans are made contingent upon the prayers of His people, +and He has ordered that prayer offered in faith, according to His +will, revealed in His word, shall be one of the controlling +factors in His government of men. + +Is it God's will that the tides of the Atlantic and Pacific +should sweep across the Isthmus of Panama? That men should run +under the Alps? That thoughts and words should be winged across +the ocean without any visible or tangible medium? Yes; it is His +will, if men will it, and work to these ends in harmony with His +great physical laws. So in the spiritual world there are wonders +wrought by prayer, and God wills the will of His people when they +come to Him in faith and love. + +What else is meant by such promises and assurances as these: +"Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye +pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark +xi. 24); "The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in +its working. Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he +prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the +earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and +the heavens gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit" +(James v. 16-18. American Revision). + +The Holy Spirit dwelling within the heart helps us to understand +the things we may pray for, and the heart that is full of love +and loyalty to God only wants what is lawful. This is mystery to +people who are under the dominion of selfishness and the darkness +of unbelief, but it is a soul-thrilling fact to those who are +filled with the Holy Ghost. + +"What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?" asked Jesus of the +blind man (Luke xviii. 41). + +He had respect to the will of the blind man, and granted his +request, seeing he had faith. And He still has respect to the +vigorous, sanctified will of His people--the will that has been +subdued by consecration and faith into loving union with His +will. + +The Lord answered Abraham on behalf of Sodom till he ceased to +ask. + +"The Lord has had His way so long with Hudson Taylor," said a +friend, "that now, Hudson Taylor can have his way with the Lord." + +Adoniram Judson lay sick with a fatal illness in far-away Burmah. +His wife read to him an account of the conversion of a number of +Jews in Constantinople through some of his writings. For a while +the sick man was silent, and then he spoke with awe, telling his +wife that for years he had prayed that he might be used in some +way to bless the Jews, yet never having seen any evidence that +his prayers were answered; but now, after many years and from far +away, the evidence of answer had come. And then, after further +silence, he spoke with deep emotion, saying that he had never +prayed a prayer for the glory of God and the good of men but +that, sooner or later, even though for the time being he had +forgotten, he found that God had not forgotten, but had +remembered and patiently worked to answer his prayer. + +Oh, the faithfulness of God! He means it when He makes promises +and exhorts and urges and commands us to pray. It is not His +purpose to mock us, but to answer and "to do exceeding abundantly +above all that we ask or think." Bless His holy Name! + +3. Knowledge and wisdom must take the place of foolish ignorance. +Paul says, "We know not what we should pray for as we ought," and +then adds, "But the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us +with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Romans viii. 26). If my +little child asks for a glittering razor, I refuse its request; +but when my full-grown son asks for one I grant it. So God cannot +wisely answer some prayers, for they are foolish or untimely. +Hence, we need not love and faith only, but wisdom and knowledge, +that we may ask according to the will of God. + +It is this that Paul has in mind when he says that he will not +only pray with the Spirit, but "I will pray with the understanding +also" (I Cor. xiv. 15). Men should think before they pray, and +study that they may pray wisely. + +Now, when the Holy Spirit comes there pours into the soul not +only a tide of love and simple faith, but a flood of light as +well, and prayer becomes not only earnest, but intelligent also. +And this intelligence increases, as, under the leadership of the +Holy Spirit, the word of God is studied, and its heavenly truths +and principles are grasped and assimilated. + +It is thus men come to know God and become His friends, whose +prayers He will assist and will not deny. + +Such men talk with God as friend with friend, and the Holy Spirit +helps their infirmities; encourages them to urge their prayer in +faith; teaches them to reason with God; enables them to come +boldly in the name of Jesus, when oppressed with a sense of their +own insignificance and unworthiness; and, when words fail them +and they scarcely know how to voice their desires, He intercedes +within them with unutterable groanings, according to the will of +God (Romans viii. 26, 27; 1 Cor. ii. 11). + +A young man felt called to mission work in China, but his mother +offered strong opposition to his going. An agent of the mission, +knowing the need of the work, and vexed with the mother, one day +laid the case before Hudson Taylor. + +"Mr. Taylor," said he, "listened patiently and lovingly to all I +had to say, and then gently suggested our praying about it. Such +a prayer I have never heard before! It seemed to me more like a +conversation with a trusted friend whose advice he was seeking. +He talked the matter over with the Friend from every point of +view--from the side of the young man, from the side of China's +needs, from the side of the mother, and her natural feelings, and +also from my side. It was a revelation to me. I saw that prayer +did not mean merely asking for things, much less asking for +things to be carried out by God according to our ideas; but that +it means _communion_, fellowship, partnership, with our +Heavenly Father. And when our will is really blended with His, +what liberty we may have in asking for what we want!" + +Hallelujah! + + "My soul, ask what thou wilt, + Thou canst not be too bold; + Since His own blood for thee He spilt, + What else can He withhold?" + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XVI. + +CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ANOINTED PREACHER. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +Since God saves men by "the foolishness of preaching," the +preacher has an infinitely important work, and he must be fitted +for it. But what can fit a man for such sacred work? Not +education alone, not knowledge of books, not gifts of speech, not +winsome manners, nor a magnetic voice, nor a commanding presence, +but only God. The preacher must be more than a man--he must be a +man plus the Holy Ghost. + +Paul was such a man. He was full of the Holy Spirit, and in +studying his life and ministry we get a life-sized portrait of an +anointed preacher living, fighting, preaching, praying, +suffering, triumphing, and dying in the power and light and glory +of the indwelling Spirit. + +In the second chapter of the First of Thessalonians he gives us a +picture of his character and ministry which were formed and +inspired by the Holy Spirit, a sample of His workmanship, and an +example for all Gospel preachers. + +At Philippi he had been terribly beaten with stripes on his bare +back, and roughly thrust into the inner dungeon, and his feet +were made fast in the stocks; but that did not break nor quench +his spirit. Love burned in his heart, and his joy in the Lord +brimmed full and bubbled over, and at midnight, in the damp, +dark, loathsome dungeon, he and Silas, his comrade in service and +suffering, "prayed and sang praises unto God." God answered with +an earthquake, and the jailer and his household got gloriously +converted. Paul was set free and went at once to Thessalonica, +where, regardless of the shameful way he had been treated at +Philippi, he preached the Gospel boldly, and a blessed revival +followed with many converts; but persecution arose, and Paul had +again to flee. His heart, however, was continually turning back +to these converts, and at last he sat down and wrote them this +letter. From this we learn that-- + +1. He was a _joyful_ preacher. He was no pessimist, croaking +out doleful prophecies and lamentations and bitter criticisms. He +was full of the joy of the Lord. It was not the joy that comes +from good health, a pleasant home, plenty of money, wholesome +food, numerous and smiling friends, and sunny, favouring skies; +but a deep, springing fountain of solemn, gladdening joy that +abounded and overflowed in pain and weariness, in filthy, noisome +surroundings, in loneliness and poverty, and danger and bitter +persecutions. No earth-born trial could quench it, for it was +Heaven-born; it was "the joy of the Lord" poured into his heart +with the Holy Spirit. + +2. He was a _bold_ preacher. Worldly prudence would have +constrained him to go softly at Thessalonica, after his +experience at Philippi, lest he arouse opposition and meet again +with personal violence; but, instead, he says: "We were bold in +our God to speak unto you the Gospel of God with much contention." +Personal considerations were all forgotten, or cast to the winds, +in his impetuous desire to declare the Gospel and save their +souls. He lived in the will of God, and conquered his fears. "The +wicked" are fearful, and "flee when no man pursueth; but the +righteous are as bold as a lion." + +This boldness is a fruit of righteousness, and is always found in +those who are full of the Holy Ghost. They forget themselves, and +so lose all fear. This was the secret of the martyrs when burned +at the stake or thrown to the wild beasts. + +Fear is a fruit of selfishness. Boldness thrives when selfishness +is destroyed. God esteems it, commands His people to be +courageous, and makes spiritual leaders only of those who possess +courage (Joshua i. 9). + +Moses feared not the wrath of the king, refused to be called the +son of Pharaoh's daughter, and boldly espoused the cause of his +despised and enslaved people. + +Joshua was full of courage. Gideon fearlessly attacked one +hundred and twenty thousand Midianites, with but three hundred +unarmed men. + +Jonathan and his armour-bearer charged the Philistine garrison +and routed hundreds singlehanded. + +David faced the lion and the bear, and inspired all Israel by +battling with and killing Goliath. + +The prophets were men of the highest courage, who fearlessly +rebuked kings, and at the risk of life, and often at the cost of +life, denounced popular sins, and called the people back to +righteousness and the faithful service of God. These men feared +God, and so lost the fear of man. They believed God, and so +obeyed Him, and found His favour, and were entrusted with His +high missions and everlasting employments. + +"Fear thou not, for I am with thee," saith the Lord; and this +Paul believed, and so says, "We were bold in our God." God was +his high tower, his strength and unfailing defence, and so he was +not afraid. + +His boldness toward man was a fruit of his boldness toward God, +and that, in turn, was a fruit of his faith in Jesus as his High +Priest, who had been touched with the feeling of his infirmities, +and through whom he could "come boldly to the Throne of Grace, +and obtain mercy, and find grace to help in every time of need." + +It is the timidity and delicacy with which men attempt God's work +that often accounts for their failure. Let them speak out boldly +like men, as ambassadors of Heaven, who are not afraid to +represent their King, and they will command attention and +respect, and reach the hearts and consciences of men. + +I have read that quaint old Bishop Latimer, who was afterwards +burned at the stake, "having preached a sermon before King Henry +VIII, which greatly displeased the monarch, was ordered to preach +again on the next Sunday, and make apology for the offence given. +The day came, and with it a crowded assembly anxious to hear the +bishop's apology. Reading his text, he commenced thus: 'Hugh +Latimer, dost thou know before whom thou art this day to speak? +To the high and mighty monarch, the king's most excellent +majesty, who can take away thy life if thou offendest. Therefore, +take heed that thou speakest not a word that may displease. But, +then, consider well, Hugh, dost thou not know from whence thou +comest? Upon whose message thou art sent? Even by the great and +mighty God, who is all-present, and who beholdeth all thy ways, +and who is able to cast thy soul into Hell! Therefore, take care +that thou deliver thy message faithfully.'" + +He then repeated the sermon of the previous Sunday, word for +word, but with double its former energy and emphasis. The Court +was full of excitement to learn what would be the fate of this +plain-dealing and fearless bishop. He was ordered into the king's +presence, who, with a stern voice, asked: "How dared you thus +offend me?" "I merely discharged my duty," was Latimer's reply. +The king arose from his seat, embraced the good man, saying, +"Blessed be God I have so honest a servant." + +He was a worthy successor of Nathan, who confronted King David +with his sin, and said, "Thou art the man." + +This Divine courage will surely accompany the fiery baptism of +the Spirit. + +What is it but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that gives +courage to Salvation Army Officers and Soldiers, enabling them to +face danger and difficulty and loneliness with joy, and attack +sin in its worst forms as fearlessly as David attacked Goliath? + +"Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." + + "Shall I, for fear of feeble man, + The Spirit's course in me restrain? + Awed by a mortal's frown, shall I + Conceal the word of God most high? + Shall I, to soothe the unholy throng, + Soften Thy truth, or smooth my tongue? + + "How then before Thee shall I dare + To stand, or how Thine anger bear? + Yea, let men rage; since Thou wilt spread + Thy shadowing wings around my head; + Since in all pain Thy tender love + Will still my sure refreshment prove." + +3. He was _without guile_. "For our exhortation was not of +deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile; but as we were allowed +of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak; not +as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts." + +He was frank and open. He spoke right out of his heart. He was +transparently simple and straightforward. Since God had honoured +him with this infinite trust of preaching the Gospel, he sought +to so preach it that he should please God regardless of men. And +yet that is the surest way to please men. People who listen to +such a man feel his honesty, and realise that he is seeking to do +them good, to save them rather than to tickle their ears and win +their applause, and in their hearts they are pleased. + +But, anyway, whether or not they are pleased, he is to deliver +his message as an ambassador, and look to his home government for +his reward. He gets his commission from God, and it is God who +will try his heart and prove his ministry. Oh, to please Jesus! +Oh, to stand perfect before God after preaching His Gospel! + +4. He was _not a time-server nor a covetous man._ "Neither +at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of +covetousness; God is witness," he adds. + +There are three ways of reaching a man's purse: (1) Directly. (2) +By way of his head with flattering words. (3) By way of his heart +with manly, honest, saving words. The first way is robbery. The +second way is robbery, with the poison of a deadly, but pleasing, +opiate added, which may damn his soul. The third reaches his +purse by saving his soul and opening in his heart an unfailing +fountain of benevolence to bless himself and the world. + +It were better for a preacher to turn highwayman, and rob men +with a club and a strong hand, than, with smiles and smooth words +and feigned and fawning affection, to rob them with flattery, +while their poor souls, neglected and deceived, go down to Hell. +How will he meet them in the Day of Judgment, and look into their +horrorstricken faces, realising that he played and toyed with +their fancies and affections and pride to get money, and, instead +of faithfully warning them and seeking to save them, with +flattering words fattened their souls for destruction! + +Not so did Paul. "I seek not yours, but you," he wrote the +Corinthians. It was not their money, but their souls he wanted. + +But such faithful love will be able to command all men have to +give. Why, to some of his converts he wrote: "I bear you record, +that if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own +eyes, and have given them to me" (Gal. iv. 15). But he sought not +to please them with flattering words, only to save them. + +So faithful was he in this matter, and so conscious of his +integrity, that he called God Himself into the witness-box. "God +is witness," says he. + +Blessed is the man who can call on God to witness for him; and +that man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells in fullness can do this. +Can you, my brother? + +5. He was _not vain-glorious, nor dictatorial, nor oppressive_. +Some men care nothing for money, but they care mightily for power +and place and the glory that men give. But Paul was free from +this spiritual itching. Listen to him: "Nor of men sought we +glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been +burdensome" (or "used authority") "as the Apostles of Christ." + +Said Solomon, "For men to seek their own glory is not glory," it +is only vain-glory. "How can ye believe, which receive honour one +of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" +asked Jesus. + +From all this Paul was free, and so is every man who is full of +the Holy Ghost. And it is only as we are thus free that with the +whole heart and with a single eye we can devote ourselves to the +work of saving men. + +6. With all his boldness and faithfulness he was _gentle_. +"We were gentle among you," he says, "as a nurse cherisheth her +children." + +The fierce hurricane which casts down the giant trees of the +forest is not so mighty as the gentle sunshine, which, from tiny +seeds and acorns, lifts aloft the towering spires of oak and fir +on a thousand hills and mountains. + +The wild storm that lashes the sea into foam and fury is feeble +compared to the gentle, yet immeasurably powerful influence, +which twice a day swings the oceans in resistless tides from +shore to shore. + +And as in the physical world the mighty powers are gentle in +their vast workings, so it is in the spiritual world. The light +that falls on the lids of the sleeping infant and wakes it from +its slumber, is not more gentle than the "still small voice" that +brings assurance of forgiveness or cleansing to them that look +unto Jesus. + +Oh, the gentleness of God! "Thy gentleness hath made me great," +said David. "I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of +Christ" (2 Cor. x. 1), wrote Paul. And again, "The fruit of the +Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness" (Gal. v. +22). And as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are gentle, so will +be the servant of the Lord who is filled with the Spirit. + +I shall never forget the gentleness of a mighty man of God whom I +well knew, who on the platform was clothed with zeal as with a +garment, and in his overwhelming earnestness was like a lion or a +consuming fire; but when dealing with a wounded or broken heart, +or with a seeking soul, no nurse with a little babe could be more +tender than he. + +7. Finally, Paul was full of _self-forgetful, self-sacrificing +love._ "So being affectionately desirous of you, we were +willing to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only, +but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us." + +No wonder he shook those heathen cities, overthrew their idols, +had great revivals, that his jailer was converted, and that his +converts would have gladly plucked out their eyes for him! Such +tender, self-sacrificing love compels attention, begets +confidence, enkindles love, and surely wins its object. + +This burning love led him to labour and sacrifice, and so live +and walk before them that he was not only a teacher, but an +example of all he taught, and could safely say, "Follow me." + +This love led him to preach the whole truth, that he might by all +means save them. He kept back no truth because it was unpopular, +for it was their salvation and not his own reputation and +popularity he sought. + +He preached not himself, but a crucified Christ, without the +shedding of whose blood there is no remission of sins; and +through that precious blood he preached present cleansing from +all sin, and the gift of the Holy Spirit for all who obediently +believe. + +And this love kept him faithful and humble and true to the end, +so that at last in sight of the martyr's death, he saw the +martyr's crown, and cried out: "I am now ready to be offered,... +I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have +kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of +righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me +at that day." + +He had been faithful, and now at the end he was oppressed with no +doubts and harassed with no bitter regrets, but looked forward +with eager joy to meeting his Lord and beholding the blessed face +of Him he loved. Hallelujah! + + "Have you received the Holy Ghost? + 'Twill fit you for the fight, + 'Twill make of you a mighty host, + To put your foes to flight. + + "Have you received the Holy Power? + 'Twill fall from Heaven on you, + From Jesus' throne this very hour, + 'Twill make you brave and true. + + "Oh, now receive the Holy Fire! + 'Twill burn away all dross, + All earthly, selfish, vain desire, + 'Twill make you love the Cross." + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XVII. + +PREACHING. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +"Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of +this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" +asks Paul. And then he declares: "After that in the wisdom of God +the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the +foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." + +What kind of preaching is this? He does not say, "foolish +preaching," but the foolishness of such a way as that of +preaching. Certainly, it is not the moral essay, or the +intellectual, or semi-intellectual, kind of preaching that is +most generally heard throughout the world to-day, that is to save +men; for thousands of such sermons move and convert no one: nor +is it a mere noisy declamation called a sermon--noisy because +empty of all earnest thought and true feeling; but it must be the +kind of which Peter speaks when he writes of "them that preached +the Gospel ... with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven" (1 +Peter i. 12). + +No man is equipped to rightly preach the Gospel, and undertake +the spiritual oversight and instruction of souls, till he has +been anointed with the Holy Ghost. + +The disciples had been led to Jesus by John the Baptist, whose +mighty preaching laid a deep and broad foundation for their +spiritual education, and then for three years they had listened +to both the public and private teachings of Jesus; they had been +"eye-witnesses of His glory," of His life and death and +resurrection, and yet He commanded them to tarry in Jerusalem, +and wait for the Holy Spirit. He was to fit them for their +ministry. And if they, trained and taught by the Master Himself, +had need of the Holy Spirit to enable them to preach and testify +with wisdom and power, how much more do you and I need His +presence! + +Without Him they could do nothing. With Him they were invincible, +and could continue the work of Jesus. The mighty energy of His +working is seen in the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost. +The sermon itself does not seem to have been very remarkable; +indeed, it is principally composed of testimony backed up and +fortified by Scripture quotations, followed by exhortation, just as +are the sermons that are most effective to-day in the immediate +conversion and sanctification of men. "True preaching," said Horace +Bushnell, "is a testimony." + +Peter's Scripture quotations were apt, fitting the occasion and +the people to whom they were addressed. The testimony was bold +and joyous, the rushing outflow of a warm, fresh throbbing +experience; and the exhortation was burning, uncompromising in +its demands, and yet tender and full of sympathy and love. But a +Divine Presence was at work in that vast, mocking, wondering +throng, and it was He who made Peter's simple words search like +fire, and carry such overwhelming conviction to the hearts of the +people. + +And it is still so that whenever and wherever a man preaches +"with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven," there will be +conviction. + +Under Peter's sermon "they were pricked in their hearts." The +truth pierced them as a sword until they said, "What shall we +do?" They had been doubting and mocking a short time before, but +now they were earnestly inquiring the way to be saved. + +The speech may be without polish, the manner uncouth, and the +matter simple and plain; but conviction will surely follow any +preaching in the burning love and power and contagious joy of the +Holy Spirit. + +A few years ago a poor black boy in Africa, who had been stolen +for a slave, and most cruelly treated, heard a missionary talking +of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and his heart hungered and +thirsted for Him. In a strange manner he worked his way to New +York to find out more about the Holy Spirit, getting the captain +of the ship and several of the crew converted on the way. The +brother in New York to whom he came took him to a meeting the +first night he was in the city, and left him there, while he went +to fulfil another engagement. When he returned at a late hour, he +found a crowd of men at the penitent-form, led there by the +simple words of this poor black fellow. He took him to his +Sunday-school, and put him up to speak, while he attended to some +other matters. When he turned from these affairs that had +occupied his attention for only a little while, he found the +penitent-form full of teachers and scholars, weeping before the +Lord. What the black boy had said he did not know; but he was +bowed with wonder and filled with joy, for it was the power of +the Holy Spirit. + +Men used to fall as though cut down in battle under the preaching +of Wesley, Whitefield, Finney, and others. And while there may +not be the same physical manifestation at all times, there will +surely be the same opening of eyes to spiritual things, breaking +of hearts, and piercing of consciences. The Spirit under the +preaching of a man filled with the Holy Ghost will often come +upon a congregation like a wind, and heads will droop, eyes will +brim with tears, and hearts will break under His convicting +power. I remember a proud young woman who had been mercilessly +criticising us for several nights smitten in this way. She was +smiling when suddenly the Holy Spirit winged a word to her heart, +and instantly her countenance changed, her head drooped, and for +an hour or more she sobbed and struggled while her proud heart +broke, and she found her way with true repentance and faith to +the feet of Jesus, and her Heavenly Father's favour. How often +have we seen such sights as this under the preaching of The +General! And it ought to be a common sight under the preaching of +all servants of God, for what are we sent for but to convict men +of their sin and their need, and by the power of the Spirit to +lead them to the Saviour? + +And not only will there be conviction under such preaching, but +generally, if not always, there will be conversion and sanctification. + +Three thousand people accepted Christ under Peter's Pentecostal +sermon, and later five thousand were converted, and a multitude +of the priests were obedient to the faith. And it was so under +the preaching of Philip in Samaria, of Peter in Lydda and Saron +and in Caesarea, and of Paul in Ephesus and other cities. + +To be sure, the preaching of Stephen in its immediate effect only +resulted in enraging his hearers until they stoned him to death; +but it is highly probable that the ultimate result was the +conversion of Paul, who kept the clothes of those who stoned him, +and through Paul the evangelisation of the Gentiles. + +One of the greatest of American evangelists sought with agonising +prayers and tears the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and received +it; and then he said he preached the same sermons; but where +before it had been as one beating the air, now hundreds were +saved. + +It is this that has made Salvation Army Officers successful. +Young, inexperienced, without special gifts, and without +learning, but with the baptism, they have been mighty to win +souls. The hardest hearts have been broken, the darkest minds +illuminated, the most stubborn wills subdued, and the wildest +natures tamed by them. Their words have been with power, and have +convicted and converted and sanctified men, and whole communities +have been transformed by their labours. + +But without this Presence great gifts and profound and accurate +learning are without avail in the salvation of men. We often see +men with great natural powers, splendidly trained, and equipped +with everything save this fiery baptism, and they labour and +preach year after year without seeing a soul saved. They have +spent years in study; but they have not spent a day, much less +ten days, fasting and praying and waiting upon God for His +anointing that should fill them with heavenly wisdom and power +for their work. They are like a great gun loaded and primed, but +without a spark of fire to turn the powder and ball into a +resistless lightning bolt. + +It is fire men need, and that they get from God in agonising, +wrestling, listening prayer that will not be denied; and when +they get it, and not till then, will they preach with the Holy +Ghost sent down from Heaven, and surely men shall be saved. Such +preaching is not foolish. The Holy Spirit makes the word alive. +He brings it to the remembrance of the preachers in whom He +abides, and He applies it to the heart of the hearers, lightening +up the soul as with a sun until sin is seen in all its hideousness, +or cutting as a sharp sword, piercing the heart with resistless +conviction of the guilt and shame of sin. + +Peter had no time to consult the Scriptures and prepare a sermon +on the morning of Pentecost; but the Holy Spirit quickened his +memory, and brought to his mind the Scriptures appropriate to the +occasion. + +Hundreds of years before, the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of the +prophet Joel, had foretold that in the last days the Spirit +should be poured out upon all flesh, and that their sons and +daughters should prophesy. And the same Spirit that spoke through +Joel now made Peter to see and declare that this Pentecostal +baptism was that of which Joel spoke. + +By the mouth of David He had said: "Thou wilt not leave My soul +in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption"; +and now Peter, by the inspiration of the same Spirit, applies +this Scripture to the resurrection of Jesus, and so proves to the +Jews that the One they had condemned and killed was the Holy One +foretold in prophecy and psalm. + +And so to-day the Holy Spirit inspires men who receive Him to use +the Scriptures to awaken, convict, and save men. + +When Finney was a young preacher, he was invited to a country +school-house to preach. On the way there he became much +distressed in soul, and his mind seemed blank and dark, when all +at once this text, spoken to Lot in Sodom by the angels, came to +his mind: "Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will +destroy this city." He explained the text, told the people about +Lot, and the wickedness of Sodom, and applied it to them. While +he spoke they began to look exceedingly angry, and then, as he +earnestly exhorted them to give up their sins and seek the Lord, +they began to fall from their seats as though stricken down in +battle, and to cry to God for mercy. A great revival followed; +many were converted, and a number of the converts became +ministers of the Gospel. + +To Finney's amazement, he learned afterwards that the place was +called Sodom, because of its extreme wickedness, and the old man +who had invited him to preach was called Lot, because he was the +only God-fearing man in the place. Evidently the Holy Spirit +worked through Finney to accomplish these results. And such +inspiration is not uncommon with those who are filled with the +Spirit. + +But this reinforcement of the mind and memory by the Holy Spirit +does not do away with the need of study. The Spirit quickens that +which is already in the mind and memory, as the warm sun and +rains of spring quicken the sleeping seeds that are in the +ground, and only those. + +The sun does not put the seed in the soil, nor does the Holy +Spirit without our attention and study put the word of God in our +minds. For that we should prayerfully and patiently study. + +"We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the +ministry of the word," said the Apostles. + +"Study to show thyself approved of God, a workman that needeth +not to be ashamed; rightly dividing the word of truth," wrote +Paul to Timothy. + +Those men have been best able to rightly divide the word, and +have been most mightily used by the Holy Spirit, who have most +carefully and prayerfully studied the word of God, and most +constantly and lovingly meditated upon it. + +4. This preaching is _healing and comforting._ Preaching +"with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven" is indescribably +searching in its effects. But it is also edifying, strengthening, +comforting to those who are wholly the Lord's. It cuts, but only +to cure. It searches, but only to save. It is constructive, as +well as destructive. It tears down sin and pride and unbelief, +but it builds up faith and righteousness and holiness and all the +graces of a Christian character. It warms the heart with love, +strengthens faith, and confirms the will in all holy purposes. + +Every preacher baptised with the Holy Ghost can say with Jesus: +"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath +anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me +to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the +captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; +to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of +vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." + +Seldom is there a congregation in which there are only those who +need to be convicted. There will also be meek and gentle ones to +whom should be brought a message of joy and good tidings; broken-hearted +ones to be bound up; wounded ones to heal; tempted ones to +be delivered; and those whom Satan has bound by some fear or habit +to be set free; and the Holy Spirit who knows all hearts will +inspire the word that shall bless these needy ones. + +The preacher filled with the Holy Spirit, who is instant in +prayer, constant in the study of God's word, and steadfast and +active in faith, will surely be so helped that he can say with +Isaiah: "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, +that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is +weary" (Isaiah i. 4). And as with little Samuel, the Lord will +"let none of his words fall to the ground" (1 Samuel iii. 19). + +He will expect results, and God will make them follow his +preaching as surely as corn follows the planting and cultivating +of the farmer. + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XVIII. + +THE HOLY SPIRIT'S CALL TO THE WORK. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +"THE Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath +anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent +Me" (Isaiah lxi. 1), is the testimony of the workman God sends. + +God chooses His own workmen, and it is the office of the Holy +Spirit to call whom He will to preach the Gospel. I doubt not He +calls men to other employments for His glory, and would still +more often do so, if men would but listen and wait upon Him to +know His will. + +He called Bezaleel and Aholiab to build the tabernacle. He called +and commissioned the Gentile king, Cyrus, to rebuild Jerusalem +and restore His chastised and humbled people to their own land. +And did He not call Joan of Arc to her strange and wonderful +mission? And Washington and Lincoln? + +And, no doubt, He _leads_ most men by His providence to +their life-work; but the call to preach the Gospel is more than a +providential leading; it is a distinct and imperative conviction. +Bishop Simpson, in his "Lectures on Preaching," says:-- + +"Even in its faintest form there is this distinction between a +call to the ministry and a choice of other professions: a young +man may _wish_ to be a physician; he may _desire_ to enter the +navy; he would _like_ to be a farmer; but he feels he _ought_ to +be a minister. It is this feeling of _ought_, or obligation, +which in its feeblest form indicates the Divine call. It is not +in the aptitude, taste, or desire, but in the conscience, that +its root is found. It is the voice of God to the human conscience, +saying, 'You ought to preach.'" + +Sometimes the call comes as distinctly as though a voice had +spoken from the skies into the depths of the heart. + +A young man who was studying law was converted. After a while he +was convicted for sanctification, and while seeking he heard, as +it were, a voice, saying, "Will you devote all your time to the +Lord?" He replied: "I am to be a lawyer, not a preacher, Lord." +But not until he had said, "Yes, Lord," could he find the +blessing. + +A thoughtless, godless young fellow was working in the corn-field +when a telegram was handed him announcing the death of his +brother, a brilliant and devoted Salvation Army Field Officer; +and there and then, unsaved as he was, God called him, showed him +a vast Army with ranks broken, where his brother had fallen, and +made him to feel that he should fill the breach in the ranks. +Fourteen months later he took up the sword, and entered the Fight +from the same platform from which his brother fell, and is to-day +one of our most successful and promising Field Officers. + +Again, the call may come as a quiet suggestion, a gentle +conviction, as though a gossamer bridle were placed upon the +heart and conscience to guide the man into the work of the Lord. +The suggestion gradually becomes clearer, the conviction +strengthens until it masters the man, and if he seeks to escape +it, he finds the silken bridle to be one of stoutest thongs and +firmest steel. + +It was so with me. When but a boy of eleven, I heard a man +preaching, and I said to myself, "Oh, how beautiful to preach!" +Two years later I was converted, and soon the conviction came +upon me that I should preach. Later, I decided to follow another +profession; but the conviction increased in strength, while I +struggled against it, and turned away my ears and went on with my +studies. Yet in every crisis, or hour of stillness, when my soul +faced God, the conviction that I must preach burned itself deeper +into my conscience. I rebelled against it. I felt I would almost +rather (but not quite) go to Hell than to submit. Then at last a +great "Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel," took possession of +me, and I yielded, and God won. Hallelujah! + +The first year He gave me three revivals, with many souls; and +now I would rather preach Jesus to poor sinners and feed His +lambs than to be an archangel before the Throne. Some day, some +day, He will call me into His blessed presence, and I shall stand +before His face, and praise Him for ever for counting me worthy, +and calling me to preach His glad Gospel, and share in His joy of +saving the lost. The "woe" is lost in love and delight through +the baptism of the Spirit and the sweet assurance that Jesus is +pleased. + +Occasionally, the call comes to a man who is ready and responds +promptly and gladly. When Isaiah received the fiery touch that +purged his life and purified his heart, he "heard the voice of +the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" +And in the joy and power of his new experience, he cried out, +"Here am I; send me!" (Isaiah vi. 5-8). + +When Paul received his call, he says, "Immediately I conferred +not with flesh and blood" (Gal. i. 16), and he got up and went as +the Lord led him. + +But more often it seems the Lord finds men preoccupied with other +plans and ambitions, or encompassed with obstacles and difficulties, +or oppressed with a deep sense of unworthiness or unfitness. Moses +argued that he could not talk. "O Lord!" he said, "I am not +eloquent, neither heretofore nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy +servant; but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." + +And then the Lord condescended, as He always does, to reason with +the backward man. "Who hath made man's mouth?" He asks, "or who +maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I +the Lord? Now, therefore, go, and I will be with thy mouth, and +teach thee what thou shalt say" (Exodus iv. 10-12). + +When the call of God came to Jeremiah, he shrank back, and said, +"Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child." But the +Lord replied, "Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all +that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt +speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to +deliver thee" (Jeremiah i. 6-8). + +And so the call of God comes to-day to those who shrink and feel +that they are the most unfit, or most hedged in by insuperable +difficulties. + +I know a man, who, when converted, could not tell A from B. He +knew nothing whatever about the Bible, and stammered so badly +that, when asked his own name, it would usually take him a minute +or so to tell it; added to this, he lisped badly, and was subject +to a nervous affliction which seemed likely to unfit him for any +kind of work whatever. But God poured light and love into his +heart, called him to preach, and to-day he is one of the +mightiest soul-winners in the whole round of my acquaintance. +When he speaks the house is always packed to the doors, and the +people hang on his words with wonder and joy. + +He was converted at a Camp meeting, and sanctified wholly in a +cornfield. He learned to read; but, being too poor to afford a +light in the evening, he studied a large-print Bible by the light +of the full moon. To-day, he has the Bible almost committed to +memory, and when he speaks he does not open the Book, but reads +his lesson from memory, and quotes proof texts from Genesis to +Revelation without mistake, and gives chapter and verse for every +quotation. When he talks his face shines, and his speech is like +honey for sweetness, and like bullets fired from a gun for power. +He is one of the weak and foolish ones God has chosen to confound +the wise and mighty (1 Cor. i. 27). + +If God calls a man, He will so corroborate the call in some way, +that men may know that there is a prophet among them. It will be +with him as it was with Samuel. "And Samuel grew, and the Lord +was with him, and did let none of His words fall to the ground. +And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was +established to be a prophet of the Lord" (1 Samuel iii. 19, 20). + +If the man himself is uncertain about the call, God will deal +patiently with him, as He did with Gideon, to make him certain. +His fleece will be wet with dew when the earth is dry, or dry +when the earth is wet; or he will hear of some tumbling barley +cake smiting the tents of Midian, that will strengthen his faith, +and make him to know that God is with him (Judges vi. 36-40; +vii. 9-15). + +If the door is shut and difficulties hedge the way, God will go +before the man He calls, and open the door and sweep away the +difficulties (Isaiah xlv. 2, 3). + +If others think the man so ignorant and unfit that they doubt his +call, God will give him such grace or such power to win souls +that they shall have to acknowledge that God has chosen him. It +was in this way that God made a whole National Headquarters, from +the Commissioner downwards, to know that He had chosen the +elevator boy for His work. The boy got scores of his passengers +on the elevator saved, and then he was commissioned and sent into +the Field to devote all his time to saving men. + +The Lord will surely let the man's comrades and brethren know, as +surely as He did the Church at Antioch, when "the Holy Ghost +said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have +called them" (Acts xiii. 2). + +Sometimes the one who is called will try to hide it in his heart, +and then God stirs up some Officer or minister, some Soldier or +mother in Israel, to lay a hand on his shoulders, and ask, "Are +you not called to the work?" and he finds he cannot hide himself +nor escape from the call, any more than could Adam hide himself +from God behind the trees of the garden, or Jonah escape God's +call by taking ship for Tarshish. + +Happy is the man who does not try to escape, but, though +trembling at the mighty responsibility, assumes it, and, with all +humility and faithfulness, sets to work by prayer and patient, +continuous study of God's word, to fit himself for God's work. He +will need to prepare himself, for the call to the work is also a +call to preparation, continuous preparation of the fullest +possible kind. + +The man whom God calls cannot safely neglect or despise the call. +He will find his mission on earth, his happiness and peace, his +power and prosperity, his reward in Heaven, and probably Heaven +itself, bound up with that call and dependent upon it. He may run +away from it, as did Jonah, and find a waiting ship to favour his +flight; but he will also find fierce storms and bellowing seas +overtaking him, and big-mouthed fishes of trouble and disaster +ready to swallow him. + +But if he heeds the call, and cheerfully goes where God appoints, +God will go with him; he shall nevermore be left alone. The Holy +Spirit will surely accompany him, and he may be one of the +happiest men on earth, one of the gladdest creatures in God's +universe. + +"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," said +Jesus, as He commissioned His disciples to go to all nations and +preach the Gospel. "My presence shall go with thee," said Jehovah +to Moses, when sending him to face Pharaoh and free Israel, and +lead them to the Promised Land. + +And to the boy Jeremiah, He said, "Be not afraid of their faces: +for I am with thee to deliver thee.... And they shall fight +against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am +with thee" (Jeremiah i. 8, 19). + +I used to read these words with a great and rapturous joy, as I +realised by faith that they were also meant for me, and for every +man sent of God, and that His blessed presence was with me every +time I spoke to the people or dealt with an individual soul, or +knelt in prayer with a penitent seeker after God; and I still +read them so. + +Has He called you into the work, my brother? And are you +conscious of His helpful, sympathising, loving presence with you? +If so, let no petty offence, no hardship, nor danger, nor dread +of the future, cause you to turn aside or draw back. Stick to the +work till He calls you out, and when He so calls you can go with +open face and a heart abounding with love, joy, and peace, and He +will still go with you. + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XIX. + +THE SHEATHED SWORD: A LAW OF THE SPIRIT. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +JUST as the moss and the oak are higher in the order of creation +than the clod of clay and the rock, the bird and beast than the +moss and the oak, the man than the bird and the beast, so the +spiritual man is a higher being than the natural man. The sons of +God are a new order of being. The Christian is a "new creation." +Just as there are laws governing the life of the plant, and other +and higher laws that of the bird and beast, so there are higher +laws for man, and still higher for the Christian. It was with +regard to one of these higher laws that govern the heavenly life +of the Christian that Jesus said to Peter, "Put up thy sword." + +Jesus said to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world; if My +kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight." The +natural man is a fighter. It is the law of his carnal nature. He +fights with fist and sword, tongue and wit. His kingdom is of +this world, and he fights for it with such weapons as this world +furnishes. The Christian is a citizen of Heaven, and is subject +to its law, which is universal, wholehearted love. In his kingdom +he conquers not by fighting, but by submitting. When an enemy +takes his coat, he overcomes him, not by going to law, but by +generously giving him his cloak also. When his enemy compels him +to go a mile with him, he vanquishes the enemy by cheerfully +going two miles with him. When he is smitten on one cheek, he +wins his foe by meekly turning the other cheek. This is the law +of the new life from Heaven, and only by recognising and obeying +it can that new life be sustained and passed on to others. This +is the narrow way which leads to life eternal, "and few there be +that find it," or, finding it, are willing to walk in it. + +A Russian peasant, Sutajeff, could get no help from the religious +teachers of his village, so he learned to read, and while +studying the Bible he found this narrow way, and walked gladly in +it. One night neighbours of his stole some of his grain, but in +their haste or carelessness they left a bag. He found it, and ran +after them to restore it, "for," said he, "fellows who have to +steal must be hard up." And by this Christlike spirit he saved +both himself and them, for he kept the spirit of love in his own +heart, and they were converted and became his most ardent +disciples. + +A beggar woman, to whom he gave lodging, stole the bedding and +ran away with it. She was pursued by the neighbours, and was just +about to be put in prison when Sutajeff appeared, became her +advocate, secured her acquittal, and gave her food and money for +her journey. + +He recognised the law of his new life and gladly obeyed it, and +so was not overcome of evil, but persistently and triumphantly +overcame evil with good (Romans xii. 21). + +This is the spirit and method of Jesus; and by men filled with +this spirit and following this method He will yet win the world. + +He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His +life a ransom for many. His spirit is not one of self-seeking, but +of self-sacrifice. Some mysterious majesty of His presence or voice +so awed and overcame His foes that they went back and fell to the +ground before Him in the Garden of His agony, but He meekly +submitted Himself to them; and when Peter laid to with his sword, +and cut off the ear of the high priest's servant, Jesus said to him, +"Put up thy sword into the sheath; the cup which My Father hath +given Me, shall I not drink it?" + +This was the spirit of Isaac. When he digged a well, the +Philistines strove with his servants for it; so he digged +another; and when they strove for that, he removed and digged yet +another, "and for that they strove not: and he called the name of +it Rehoboth" (margin, _room_): "and he said, For now the +Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the +land.... And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, +I am the God of Abraham, thy father: fear not, for I am with +thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed" (Genesis xxvi. +22, 24). + +This was the spirit of David, when Saul was hunting for his life; +twice David could have slain him, and when urged to do so, he +said, "As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him; or his day +shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle and perish. +The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the +Lord's anointed" (1 Samuel xxvi. 10, 11). + +This was the spirit of Paul. He says, "Being reviled, we bless; +being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we intreat" (1 +Cor. iv. 12, 13). "The servant of the Lord must not strive," +wrote Paul to Timothy, "but be gentle unto all men." This is the +spirit of our King, this is the law of His Kingdom. + +Is this your spirit? When you are reviled, bemeaned and +slandered, and are tempted to retort, He says to you, "Put up thy +sword into the sheath." When you are wronged and illtreated, and +men ride rough-shod over you, and you feel it but just to smite +back, He says, "Put up thy sword into the sheath." "Live +peaceably with all men." Your weapons are not carnal, but +spiritual, now that you belong to Him, and have your citizenship +in Heaven. If you fight with the sword; if you retort and smite +back when you are wronged, you quench the Spirit; you get out of +the narrow way, and your new life from Heaven will perish. + +An Officer went to a hard Corps, and after a while found that his +predecessor was sending back to friends for money which his own +Corps much needed. He felt it to be an injustice, and, losing +sight of the Spirit of Jesus, he made a complaint about it, and +the money was returned. But he got lean in his soul. He had +quenched the Spirit. He had broken the law of the Kingdom. He had +not only refused to give his cloak, but had fought for and +secured the return of the coat. He had lost the smile of Jesus, +and his poor heart was sad and heavy within him. He came to me +with anxious inquiry as to what I thought of his action. I had to +admit that the other man had transgressed, and that the money +ought to be returned, but that he should have been more grieved +over the unchristlike spirit of his brother than over the loss of +the five dollars, and that like Sutajeff he should have said, +"Poor fellow! he must be hard up; I will send him five dollars +myself. He has taken my coat, he shall have my cloak too." When I +told him that story, he came to himself very quickly, and was +soon back in the narrow way and rejoicing in the smile of Jesus +once again. + +"But will not people walk over us, if we do not stand up for our +rights?" you ask. I do not argue that you are not to stand up for +your rights; but that you are to stand up for your higher rather +than your lower rights, the rights of your heavenly life rather +than your earthly life, and that you are to stand up for your +rights in the way and spirit of Jesus rather than in the way and +spirit of the world. + +If men wrong you intentionally, they wrong themselves far worse +than they wrong you; and if you have the spirit of Jesus in your +heart you will pity them more than you pity yourself. They nailed +Jesus to the cross and hung Him up to die; they gave Him gall and +vinegar to drink; they cast votes for His seamless robe, and +divided His garments between them, while the crowd wagged their +heads at Him and mocked Him. Great was the injustice and wrong +they were inflicting upon Him, but He was not filled with anger, +only pity. He thought not of the wrong done Him, but of the wrong +they did themselves, and their sin against His Heavenly Father, +and He prayed not for judgment upon them, but that they might be +forgiven, and He won them, and is winning and will win the world. +Bless God! + +"By mercy and truth iniquity is purged," wrote Solomon. "Put up +thy sword into the sheath, "and take mercy and truth for your +weapons, and God will be with you and for you, and great shall be +your victory and joy. Hallelujah! + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XX. + +VICTORY THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT OVER SUFFERING. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +HAD there been no sin our Heavenly Father would have found other +means by which to develop in us passive virtues, and train us in +the graces of meekness, patience, long-suffering, and forbearance, +which so beautify and display the Christian character. But since +sin is here, with its contradictions and falsehoods, its darkness, +its wars, brutalities and injustices, producing awful harvests of +pain and sorrow, God, in wonderful wisdom and lovingkindness, +turns even these into instruments by which to fashion in us +beautiful graces. Storm succeeds sunshine, and darkness the light; +pain follows hard on the heels of pleasure, while sorrow peers +over the shoulder of joy; gladness and grief, rest and toil, +peace and war, interminably intermingled, follow each other in +ceaseless succession in this world. We cannot escape suffering +while in the body. But we can receive it with a faith that robs +it of its terror, and extracts from it richest blessing; from +the flinty rock will gush forth living waters, and the carcase +of the lion will furnish the sweetest honey. + +This is so even when the suffering is a result of our own folly +or sin. It is intended not only in some measure as a punishment, +but also as a teacher, a corrective, a remedy, a warning; and it +will surely work for good, if, instead of repining and vainly +regretting the past, we steadily look unto Jesus and learn our +lesson in patience and thankfulness. + + "If all the skies were sunshine, + Our faces would be fain + To feel once more upon them + The cooling plash of rain. + + "If all the world were music, + Our hearts would often long + For one sweet strain of silence + To break the endless song. + + "If life were always merry, + Our souls would seek relief + And rest from weary laughter + In the quiet arms of grief." + +Doubtless all our suffering is a result of sin, but not +necessarily the sin of the sufferer. Jesus was the sinless One, +but He was also the Chief of sufferers. Paul's great and lifelong +sufferings came upon him, not because of his sins, but rather +because he had forsaken sin, and was following Jesus in a world +of sin, and seeking the salvation of his fellows. In this path +there is no escape from suffering, though there are hidden and +unspeakable consolations. "In the world ye shall have tribulation," +said Jesus. "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer +persecution," wrote Paul. + +Sooner or later, suffering in some form comes to each of us. It +may come through broken health, or pain and weariness of body; or +through mental anguish, moral distress, spiritual darkness and +uncertainty. It may come through the loss of loved ones, through +betrayal by trusted friends; or through deferred or ruined hopes, +or base ingratitude; or perhaps in unrequited toil and sacrifice +and ambitions all unfulfilled. Nothing more clearly distinguishes +the man filled with the Spirit from the man who is not than the +way each receives suffering. + +One with triumphant faith and shining face and strong heart +glories in tribulation, and counts it all joy. To this class +belong the Apostles, who, beaten and threatened, "departed from +the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer +shame for His Name" (Acts v. 41). + +The other with doubts and fears, murmurs and complains, and to +his other miseries adds that of a rebellious heart and discontented +mind. One sees the enemy's armed host, and unmixed distress +and danger; the other sees the angel of the Lord, with abundant +succour and safety (2 Kings vi. 15-17). + +An evangelist of my acquaintance told a story that illustrates +this. When a pastor he went one morning to visit two sisters who +were greatly afflicted. They were about the same age, and had +long been professing Christians and members of the Church. He +asked the first one upon whom he called, "How is it with you this +morning?" "Oh, I have not slept all night," she replied. "I have +so much pain. It is so hard to have to lie here. I cannot see why +God deals so with me." Evidently, she was not filled with the +Spirit, but was in a controversy with the Lord about her +sufferings, and would not be comforted. + +Leaving her he called immediately upon the other sister, and +asked, "How are you to-day?" "Oh, I had such a night of +suffering!" she replied. "Then," said he, "there came out upon +her worn face, furrowed and pale, a beautiful radiance, and she +added, "but Jesus was so near and helped me so, that I could +suffer this way and more, if my Father thinks best"; and on she +went with like words of cheer and triumph that made the sick room +a vestibule of glory. No lack of comfort in her heart, for the +Comforter Himself, the Holy Spirit, had been invited and had come +in. One had the Comforter in fullness, the other had not. + +Probably, no man ever suffered more than Paul, but with soldier-like +fortitude he bore his heavy burdens, faced his constant and +exacting labours, endured his sore trials, disappointments, and +bitter persecutions by fierce and relentless enemies; he stood +unmoved amid shipwrecks, stripes and imprisonments, cold, hunger, +and homelessness without a whimper that might suggest repining or +discouragement, or an appeal for pity. Indeed, he went beyond +simple uncomplaining fortitude, and said, "we glory in tribulation" +(Romans v. 3); "I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation" +(2 Cor. vii. 4); "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, +in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake" +(2 Cor. xii. 10). After a terrible scourging upon his bare back, +he was thrust into a loathsome inner dungeon, his feet fast in +the stocks, with worse things probably awaiting him on the morrow. +Nevertheless, we find him and Silas, his companion in suffering, +at midnight praying and singing praises unto God (Acts xvi. 25). + +What is his secret? Listen to him: "Because the love of God is +shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto +us" (Romans v. 5). His prayer for his Ephesian brethren had been +answered in his own heart: "That He would grant you, according to +the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His +Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by +faith." And this inner strength and consciousness, through faith, +in an indwelling Christ enabled him to receive suffering and +trial, not stoically as the Red Indian, nor hilariously, in a +spirit of bravado, but cheerfully and with a thankful heart. + +Arnold of Rugby has written something about his "most dear and +blessed sister" that illustrates the power flowing from +exhaustless fountains of inner joy and strength through the +working of the Holy Spirit. He says:-- + +"I never saw a more perfect instance of the spirit and power of +love, and of a sound mind. Her life was a daily martyrdom for +twenty years, during which she adhered to her early-formed +resolution of never talking about herself; she was thoughtful +about the very pins and ribands of my wife's dress, about the +making of a doll's cap for a child--but of herself, save only as +regarded her ripening in all goodness, wholly thoughtless, +enjoying everything lovely, graceful, beautiful, high-minded, +whether in God's works or man's, with the keenest relish; +inheriting the earth to the very fullness of the promise, though +never leaving her crib, nor changing her posture; and preserved, +through the very valley of the shadow of death, from all fear or +impatience, and from every cloud of impaired reason, which might +mar the beauty of Christ's and the Spirit's work." + +It is not by hypnotising the soul, nor by blessing it into a +state of ecstatic insensibility, that the Lord enables the man +filled with the Spirit to thus triumph over suffering. Rather it +is by giving the soul a sweet, constant, and unshaken assurance +through faith: First, that it is freely and fully accepted in +Christ. Second, that whatever suffering comes, it is measured, +weighed, and permitted by love infinitely tender, and guided by +wisdom that cannot err. Third, that however difficult it may be +to explain suffering now, it is nevertheless _one_ of the +"all things" which "work together for good to them that love +God," and that in a "little while" it will not only be swallowed +up in the ineffable blessedness and glory, but that in some way +it is actually helping to work out "a far more exceeding and +eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. iv. 7). Fourth, that though the +furnace has been heated seven times hotter than was wont, yet +"the Form... like unto the Son of God" is walking with us in the +fire; though triumphant enemies have thrust us into the lions' +den, yet the angel of the Lord arrived first and locked the +lions' jaws; though foes may have formed against us sharp +weapons, yet they cannot prosper, for His shield and buckler +defend us; though all things be lost, yet "Thou remainest"; and +though "my flesh and my heart may fail, God is the strength of my +heart and my portion for ever." + +Not all God's dear children thus triumph over their difficulties +and sufferings, but this is God's standard, and they may attain +unto it, if, by faith, they will open their hearts and "be filled +with the Spirit." + +Here is the testimony of a Salvation Army Officer up to date:-- + +"Viewed from the outside, my life as a sinner was easy and +untroubled, over which most of my friends expressed envy; while +these same friends thought my life as a Christian full of care, +toil, hardship, and immense loss. This, however, was only an +outside view, and the real state of the case was exactly the +opposite of what they supposed. For in all the pleasure-seeking, +idleness, and freedom from responsibility of my life apart from +God, I carried an immeasurable burden of fear, anxiety, and +constantly recurring disappointment; trifles weighed upon me, and +the thought of death haunted me with vague terrors. + +"But when I gave myself wholly to God, though my lot became at +once one of toil, responsibility, comparative poverty and +sacrifice, yet I could not feel pain in any storm that broke over +my head, because of the presence of God. It was not so much that +I was insensible to trouble, as sensible of His presence and +love; and the worst trials were as nothing in my sight, nor have +been for over twenty-two years. While as for death, it appears +only as a doorway into more abundant life, and I can alter an old +German hymn, and sing with joy: + + "'Oh, how my heart with rapture dances. + To think my dying hour advances! + Then, Lord, with Thee! + My Lord, with Thee!'" + +This is faith's triumph over the worst the world can offer +through the blessed fullness of the indwelling Comforter. Bless +His Name! + + "Here speaks the Comforter, Light of the straying, + Hope of the penitent, Advocate sure, + Joy of the desolate, tenderly saying, + 'Earth has no sorrow My grace cannot cure.'" + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XXI. + +THE OVERFLOWING BLESSING. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +THE children of Israel were instructed by Moses to give tithes of +all they had to the Lord, and in return God promised to richly +bless them, making their fields and vineyards fruitful and +causing their flocks and herds to safely multiply. But they +became covetous and unbelieving, and began to rob God by +withholding their tithes, and then God began to withhold His +blessing from them. + +But still God loved and pitied them, and sent to them again and +again by His prophets; and finally by the prophet Malachi He +said: "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there +may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the +Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and +pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to +receive it" (Malachi iii. 10). + +He promised to make their barns overflow, if they would be +faithful, if they would pay their tithes and discharge their +obligations to Him. + +Now, this overflow of barns and granaries is a type of +overflowing hearts and lives when we give ourselves fully to God, +and the blessed Holy Ghost comes in, and Jesus becomes all and in +all to us. The blessing is too big to contain, but just bursts +out and overflows through the life, the looks, the conversation, +the very tones of the voice, and gladdens and refreshes and +purifies wherever it goes. Jesus calls it "rivers of living +water" (John vii. 38). + +There is an overflow of _love_. Sin brings in an overflow of +hate, so that the world is filled with wars and murders, +slanders, oppression, and selfishness. But this blessing causes +love to overflow. Schools, colleges, and hospitals are built; +shelters, rescue homes, and orphanages are opened; even war +itself is in some measure humanised by the Red Cross Society and +Christian commissions. Sinners love their own, but this blessing +makes us to love all men--strangers, the heathen, and even our +enemies. + +There is an overflow of _peace_. It settles old quarrels and +grudges. It makes a different atmosphere in the home. The +children know it when father and mother get the Comforter. Kindly +words and sweet goodwill take the place of bitterness and strife. +I suspect that even the dumb beasts realise the overflow. + +I heard a laughable story of a man whose cow would switch her +tail in his face, and then kick over the pail when he was milking +her, after which he would always give her a beating with the +stool on which he sat. But he got the blessing, and his heart was +overflowing with peace. The next morning he went to milk that +cow, and when the pail was nearly full, swish! came the tail in +his face, and with a vicious kick she knocked over the pail, and +then ran across the barn-yard. The blessed man picked up the +empty pail and stool and went over to the cow, which stood +trembling, awaiting the usual kicks and beating; but instead he +patted her gently, and said, "You may kick over that pail as +often as you please, but I am not going to beat you any more"; +and the cow seemed to understand, for she dropped her head and +quietly began to eat, and never kicked again! That story is good +enough to be true, and I doubt not it is, for certainly when the +Comforter comes a great peace fills the heart and overflows +through all the life. + +There is an overflow of _joy_. It makes the face to shine; +it glances from the eye, and bubbles out in thanksgiving and +praise. You never can tell when one who has the blessing will +shout out, "Glory to God! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Amen!" + +I have sometimes seen a whole congregation wakened up and +refreshed and made glad by the joyous overflow from one clean-hearted +soul. A Salvation Soldier or Officer with an overflow of +genuine joy is worth a whole company of ordinary folks. He is a +host within himself, and is a living proof of the text, "The joy +of the Lord is your strength." + +There is an overflow of _patience_ and _long-suffering._ +A man got this blessing, and his wicked wife was +so enraged that she left him, and went across the way and lived +as the wife of his unmarried brother. He was terribly tempted to +take his gun and go over and kill them both. But he prayed about +it, and the Lord gave him the patience and long-suffering of +Jesus, who bears long with the backslider who leaves Him and +joins himself with the world; and he continued to treat them with +the utmost kindness, as though they had done him no wrong. Some +people might say the man was weak, but I should say he was +unusually "strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," and a +neighbour of his told me that all his neighbours believed in his +religion. + +There is an overflow of _goodness_ and _generosity_. I +read the other day of a poor man who supports eight workers in +the foreign mission field. When asked how he did it, he replied +that he wore celluloid collars, did his own washing, denied +himself, and managed his affairs in order to do it. + +Do you ask, "How can I get such a blessing?" You will get it by +bringing in all the tithes, by giving yourself in love and +obedience and wholehearted, joyous consecration to Jesus, as a +true bride gives herself to her husband. Do not try to bargain +with the Lord and buy it of Him, but wait on Him in never-give-in +prayer and confident expectation, and He will give it to you. And +then you must not hold it selfishly for your own gratification, +but let it overflow to the hungry, thirsty, fainting world about +you. God bless you even now, and do for you exceeding abundantly +above all you ask or think! + +A comrade went from one of my meetings recently with a heart +greatly burdened for the blessing, and for two or three days and +nights did little else but read the Bible, and pray and cry to +God for a clean heart filled with the Spirit. At last the +Comforter came, and with Him fullness of peace and joy and +soul-rest, and that day this comrade led a number of others into the +blessing. Hallelujah! "If ye then, being evil, know how to give +good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly +Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him" (Luke xi. 13). +"_Ask,... seek,... knock_." + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XXII. + +IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE AND EXPERIENCE OF HOLINESS TO SPIRITUAL +LEADERS. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +A mighty man inspires and trains other men to be mighty. We +wonder and exclaim often at the slaughter of Goliath by David, +and we forget that David was the forerunner of a race of +fearless, invincible warriors and giant-killers. + +If we would in this light but study and remember the story of +David's mighty men, it would be most instructive to us. + +Moses inspired a tribe of cowering, toiling, sweat-begrimed, +spiritless slaves to lift up their heads, straighten their backs, +and throw off the yoke; and he led them forth with songs of +victory and shouts of triumph from under the mailed hand and iron +bondage of Pharaoh. He fired them with a national spirit, and +welded and organised them into a distinct and compact people that +could be hurled with resistless power against the walled cities +and trained warriors of Canaan. + +But what was the secret of David and Moses? Whence the +superiority of these men? David was only a stripling shepherd-boy +when he immortalised himself. What was his secret? To be sure, +Moses was "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," and, +doubtless, had been trained in all the civil, military, and +scientific learning of his day, but he was so weak in himself +that he feared and fled at the first word of questioning and +disparagement that he heard (Exodus ii. 14), and spent the next +forty years feeding sheep for another man in the rugged +wilderness of Sinai. What, then, was his secret? + +Doubtless, they were men cast in a kinglier mould than most men; +but their secret was not in themselves. + +Joseph Parker declared that great lives are built on great +promises, and so they are. These men had so far humbled +themselves that they found God. They got close to Him, and He +spoke to them. He gave them promises. He revealed His way and +truth to them, and trusting Him, believing His promises, and +fashioning their lives according to His truth--His doctrine--everything +else followed. They became "workers together with +God," heroes of faith, leaders of men, builders of empire, +teachers of the race, and, in an important sense, saviours of +mankind. + +Their secret is an open one; it is the secret of every truly +successful spiritual leader from then till now, and there is no +other way to success in spiritual leadership. + +1. They had an _experience_. They _knew God_. + +2. This experience, this acquaintance with God, was +_maintained_ and deepened and broadened in obedience to +God's teaching, or truth, or doctrine. + +3. They patiently yet urgently _taught others_ what they +themselves had learned, and declared, so far as they saw it, the +whole counsel of God. + +They were abreast of the deepest experiences and fullest +revelations God had yet made to men. They were leaders, not +laggards. They were not in the rear of the procession of God's +warriors and saints; they were in the forefront. + +Here we discover the importance of the doctrine and experience of +holiness through the baptism of the Holy Spirit to Salvation Army +leaders. We are to know God and glorify Him and reveal Him to +men. We are to finish the work of Jesus, and "fill up that which +is behind of the sufferings of Christ" (Col. i. 24). We are to +rescue the slaves of sin, to make a people, to fashion them into +a holy nation, and inspire and lead them forth to save the world. +How can we do this? Only by being in the forefront of God's +spiritual hosts; not in name and in titles only, but in reality; +by being in glad possession of the deepest experiences God gives, +and the fullest revelations He makes to men. + +The astonishing military and naval successes of the Japanese are +said to be due to their profound study, clear understanding, and +firm grasp of the theory, the principles, the doctrines of war; +their careful and minute preparation of every detail of their +campaigns; the scientific accuracy and precision with which they +carry out all their plans, and their splendid and utter personal +devotion to their cause. + +Our war is far more complex and desperate than theirs, and its +issues are infinitely more far-reaching, and we must equip +ourselves for it; and nothing is so vital to our cause as a +mastery of the doctrine and an assured and joyous possession of +the Pentecostal experience of holiness through the indwelling +Spirit. + +I. _The Doctrine._--What is the teaching of God's word about +holiness? + +1. If we carefully study God's word, we find that He wants His +people to be holy, and the making of a holy people, after the +pattern of Jesus, is the crowning work of the Holy Spirit. He +commands us to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the +flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord" (2 +Cor. vii. 1). It is prayed that we may "increase and abound in +love one toward another, and toward all men... to the end He may +stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God" (1 +Thess. iii. 12, 13). He says: "As He which hath called you is +holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is +written, Be ye holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter i. 15, 16). And in +the most earnest manner we are exhorted to "follow peace with all +men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" +(Hebrews xii. 14). + +2. As we further study the word, we discover that holiness is +more than simple freedom from condemnation for wrong-doing. A +helpless invalid lying on his bed of sickness, unable to do +anything wrong, may be free from the condemnation of actual +wrong-doing, and yet it may be in his heart to do all manner of +evil. Holiness on its negative side is a state of heart purity; +it is heart cleanness--cleanness of thought and temper and +disposition, cleanness of intention and purpose and wish; it is a +state of freedom from all sin, both inward and outward (Romans +vi. 18). On the positive side it is a state of union with God in +Christ, in which the whole man becomes a temple of God and filled +with the fruit of the Spirit, which is "love, joy, peace, +long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." It +is moral and spiritual sympathy and harmony with God in the +holiness of His nature. + +We must not, however, confound purity with maturity. Purity is a +matter of the heart, and is secured by an instantaneous act of +the Holy Spirit; maturity is largely a matter of the head and +results from growth in knowledge and experience. In one, the +heart is made clean, and is filled with love; in the other, the +head is gradually corrected and filled with light, and so the +heart is enlarged and more firmly established in faith; +consequently, the experience deepens and becomes stronger and +more robust in every way. It is for this reason that we need +teachers after we are sanctified, and to this end we are exhorted +to humbleness of mind. + +Importance of the Doctrine. + +With a heart full of sympathy and love for his father my little +boy may voluntarily go into the garden to weed the vegetables; +but, being yet ignorant, lacking light in his head, he pulls up +my sweet corn with the grass and weeds. His little heart glows +with pleasure and pride in the thought that he is "helping papa," +and yet he is doing the very thing I don't want him to do. But if +I am a wise and patient father, I shall be pleased with him; for +what is the loss of my few stalks of corn compared to the +expression and development of his love and loyalty? And I shall +commend him for the love and faithful purpose of his little +heart, while I patiently set to work to enlighten the darkness of +his little head. His heart is pure toward his father, but he is +not yet mature. In this matter of light and maturity holy people +often widely differ, and this causes much perplexity and needless +and unwise anxiety. In the fourteenth chapter of Romans, Paul +discusses and illustrates the principle underlying this +distinction between purity and maturity. + +3. As we continue to study the word under the illumination of the +Spirit, who is given to lead us into all truth, we further learn +that holiness is not a state which we reach in conversion. The +Apostles were converted, they had forsaken all to follow Jesus +(Matthew xix. 27-29), their names were written in Heaven (Luke x. +20), and yet they were not holy. They doubted and feared, and +again and again were they rebuked for the slowness and littleness +of their faith. They were bigoted, and wanted to call down fire +from Heaven to consume those who would not receive Jesus (Luke +ix. 51-56); they were frequently contending among themselves as +to which should be the greatest, and when the supreme test came +they all forsook Him and fled. Certainly, they were not only +afflicted with darkness in their heads, but, far worse, carnality +in their hearts; they were His, and they were very dear to Him, +but they were not yet holy, they were yet impure of heart. + +Paul makes this point very clear in his Epistle to the +Corinthians. He tells them plainly that they were yet only babes +in Christ, because they were carnal and contentious (I Cor. iii. +I). They were in Christ, they had been converted, but they were +not holy. + +It is of great importance that we keep this truth well in mind +that men may be truly converted, may be babes in Christ, and yet +not be pure in heart; we shall then sympathise more fully with +them, and see the more clearly how to help them and guide their +feet into the way of holiness and peace. + +Those who hold that we are sanctified wholly in conversion will +meet with much to perplex them in their converts, and are not +intelligently equipped to bless and help God's little children. + +4. A continued study of God's teaching on this subject will +clearly reveal to us that purity of heart is obtained after we +are converted. Peter makes this very plain in his address to the +Council in Jerusalem, where he recounts the outpouring of the +Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and his household. After mentioning +the gift of the Holy Ghost, he adds, "and put no difference +between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith" (Acts xv. +9). Among other things, then, the baptism of the Holy Ghost +purifies the heart; but the disciples were converted before they +received this Pentecostal experience, so we see that heart +purity, or holiness, is a work wrought in us after conversion. + +Again, we notice that Peter says, "purifying their hearts by +faith." If it is by faith, then it is not by growth, nor by +works, nor by death, nor by purgatory after death. It is God's +work. He purifies the heart, and He does it for those, and only +those who, devoting all their possessions and powers to Him, seek +Him by simple, prayerful, obedient, expectant, unwavering faith +through His Son our Saviour. + +Unless we grasp these truths, and hold them firmly, we shall not +be able to "rightly divide the word of truth," we shall hardly be +"workmen that need not be ashamed, approved unto God" (2 Tim. ii. +15). Some one has written that "the searcher in science knows +that if he but stumble in his hypothesis--that if he but let +himself be betrayed into prejudice or undue leaning toward a pet +theory, or anything but absolute uprightness of mind--his whole +work will be stultified and he will fail ignominiously. To get +anywhere in science he must follow truth with absolute rectitude." + +THE HOLY SPIRIT. + +And is there not a science of salvation, of holiness, of eternal +life, that requires the same absolute loyalty to "the Spirit of +Truth"? How infinitely important, then, that we know what that +truth is, that we may understand and hold that doctrine. + +A friend of mine who finished his course with joy, and was called +into the presence of his Lord to receive his crown some time ago, +has pointed out some mistakes which we must carefully avoid. Here +they are:-- + +"It is a great mistake to substitute repentance for Bible +consecration. The people whom Paul exhorted to full sanctification +were those who had turned from their idols to serve the living +and true God, and to wait for His Son sent down from Heaven +(I Thess. i. 9, 10; iii. 10-13; v. 23). + +"Only people who are citizens of His kingdom can claim His +sanctifying power. Those who still have idols to renounce may be +candidates for conversion, but not for the baptism with the Holy +Ghost and fire. + +"It is a mistake in consecration to suppose that the person +making it has anything of his own to give. We are not our own, +but we are bought with a price, and consecration is simply taking +our hands off from God's property. To wilfully withhold anything +from God is to be a God-robber. + +"It is a mistake to substitute a mere mental assent to God's +proprietorship and right to all we have, while withholding +complete devotion to Him. This is theoretical consecration--a +rock on which we fear multitudes are being wrecked. Consecration +which does not embrace the crucifixion of self and the funeral of +all false ambitions is not the kind which will bring the Holy +Fire. A consecration is imperfect which does not embrace the +speaking faculty" (the tongue), "and the believing faculty" (the +heart), "the imagination, and every power of mind, soul, and +body, and give all absolutely and for ever into the hands of +Jesus, turning a deaf ear to every opposing voice. + +"Reader, have you made such a consecration as this? It must +embrace all this, or it will prove a bed of quicksand to sink +your soul, instead of a full salvation balloon, which will safely +bear you above the fog and malaria and turmoil of the world, +where you can triumphantly sing: + + "'I rise to float in realms of light, + Above the world and sin. + With heart made pure and garments white, + And Christ enthroned within.' + +"It is a mistake to teach seekers to 'only believe,' without +complete abandonment to God at every point, for they can no more +do it than an anchored ship can sail. + +"It is a mistake to substitute mere verbal assent for obedient +trust. 'Only believe' is a fatal snare to all who fall into these +traps. + +"It is a mistake to believe that the altar sanctifies the gift +without the assurance that all is on the altar. If even the end +of your tongue, or one cent of your money, or a straw's weight of +false ambition, or spirit of dictation, or one ounce of your +reputation, or will, or believing powers be left off the altar, +you can no more believe than a bird without wings can fly. + +"'Only believe' is only for those seekers of holiness who are +truly converted, fully consecrated, and crucified to everything +but the whole will of God. Teachers who apply this to people who +have not yet reached these stations need themselves to be taught. +All who have reached them may believe, and if they do believe, +may look God in the face, and triumphantly sing: + + "'The blood, the blood is all my plea, + Hallelujah, for it cleanseth me.'" + +II. _The Experience_.--Simply to be skilled in the doctrine +is not sufficient for us as leaders. We may be as orthodox as St. +Paul himself, and yet be only as "sounding brass and clanging +cymbals," unless we are rooted in the blessed experience of +holiness. If we would save ourselves and them that follow us, if +we would make havoc of the Devil's kingdom and build up God's +kingdom, we must not only know and preach the truth, but we must +be living examples of the saving and sanctifying power of the +truth. We are to be "living epistles, known and read of all men"; +we must be able to say with Paul, "follow me as I follow Christ"; +and "those things which ye learned and received and heard and saw +in me, do; and the God of peace shall be with you." + +We must not forget that-- + +1. We are ourselves simple Christians, individual souls +struggling for eternal life and liberty, and we must by all means +save ourselves. To this end we must be holy, else we shall at +last experience the awful woe of those who, having preached to +others, are yet themselves castaways. + +2. We are leaders upon whom multitudes depend. It is a joy and an +honour to be a leader, but it is also a grave responsibility. +James says: "We shall receive the heavier judgment" (James iii. +i, R.V.). How unspeakable shall be our blessedness, and how vast +our reward, if, wise in the doctrine, and rich and strong and +clean in the experience of holiness, we lead our people into +their full heritage in Jesus! But how terrible shall be our +condemnation, and how great our loss, if, in spiritual slothfulness +and unbelief, we stop short of the experience ourselves and leave +them to perish for want of the gushing waters and heavenly food +and Divine direction we should have brought them! We need the +experience for ourselves, and we need it for our work and for our +people. + +What the roof is to a house, that the doctrine is to our system +of truth. It completes it. What sound and robust health is to our +bodies, that the experience is to our souls. It makes us every +whit whole, and fits us for all duty. Sweep away the doctrine, +and the experience will soon be lost. Lose the experience, and +the doctrine will surely be neglected, if not attacked and +denied. No man can have the heart, even if he has the head, to +fully and faithfully and constantly preach the doctrine unless he +has the experience. + +Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and as this doctrine +deals with the deepest things of the Spirit, it is only clearly +understood and is best recommended, explained, defended, and +enforced by those who have the experience. + +Without the experience, the presentation of the doctrine will be +faulty and cold and lifeless, or weak and vacillating, or harsh +and sharp and severe. With the experience, the preaching of the +doctrine will be with great joy and assurance, and will be strong +and searching, but at the same time warm and persuasive and +tender. + +I shall never forget the shock of mingled surprise and amusement +and grief with which I heard a Captain loudly announce in one of +my meetings many years ago that he was "going to preach holiness +now," and his people "have to get it," if he had to "ram it down +their throats." Poor fellow! He did not possess the experience +himself, and never pressed into it and soon forsook his people. + +A man in the clear experience of the blessing will never think of +"ramming" it down people; but will, with much secret prayer, +constant meditation and study, patient instruction, faithful +warning, loving persuasion, and burning, joyful testimony, seek +to lead them into that entire and glad consecration and that +fullness of faith that never fail to receive the blessing. + +Again, the most accurate and complete knowledge of the doctrine, +and the fullest possession of the experience, will fail us at +last unless we carefully guard ourselves at several points, and +unless we watch and pray. + +3. We must not judge ourselves so much by our feelings as by our +volitions. It is not my feelings, but the purpose of my heart, +the attitude of my will, that God looks at, and it is that to +which I must look. "If our heart condemns us not, then have we +confidence toward God." A friend of mine who had firmly grasped +this thought, and walked continually with God, used to testify: +"I am just as good when I don't feel good as when I do feel +good." Another mighty man of God said that all the feeling he +needed to enable him to trust God was the consciousness that he +was fully submitted to all the known will of God. + +We must not forget that the Devil is "the accuser of the +brethren" (Rev. xii. 10), and that he seeks to turn our eyes away +from Jesus, who is our Surety and our Advocate, to ourselves, our +feelings, our infirmities, our failures; and if he succeeds in +this, gloom will fill us, doubts and fears will spring up within +us, and we shall soon fail and fall. We must be wise as the +conies, and build our nest in the cleft of the Rock of Ages. +Hallelujah! + +4. We must not divorce conduct from character, or works from +faith. Our lives must square with our teaching. We must live what +we preach. We must not suppose that faith in Jesus excuses us +from patient, faithful, laborious service. We must "live by every +word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God"; that is, we must +fashion our lives, our conduct, our conversation by the +principles laid down in His word, remembering His searching +saying, "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall +enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of +My Father which is in Heaven." + +This subject of faith and works is very fully discussed by James +(chap. ii. 14-26), and Paul is very clear in his teaching that, +while God saves us not by our works, but by His mercy through +faith, yet it is that we may "maintain good work" (Titus iii. +14); and "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto +good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in +them" (Eph. ii. 8-10). + +Faith must "work by love," and emotion must be transmitted into +action, and joy must lead to work, and love to faithful, +self-sacrificing service, else they become a kind of pleasant and +respectable, but none the less deadly, debauchery, and at last +ruin us. + +5. However blessed and satisfactory our present experience may +be, we must not rest in it, but remember that our Lord has yet +many things to say unto us, as we are able to receive them. We +must stir up the gift of God that is in us, and say with Paul, +"One thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and +stretching forward" (as a racer) "to the things which are before, +I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of +God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. iii. 13, 14, R.V.). It is at this +point that many fail. They seek the Lord, they weep and struggle +and pray, and then they believe; but, instead of pressing on, +they sit down to enjoy the blessing, and, lo! it is not. The +children of Israel must needs follow the pillar of cloud and +fire. It made no difference when it moved--by day or by night, +they followed; and when the Comforter comes we must follow, if we +would abide in Him and be filled with all the fullness of God. +And, Oh, the joy of following Him! + +Finally, if we have the blessing--not the harsh, narrow, +unprogressive exclusiveness which often calls itself by the +sweet, heavenly term of holiness, but the vigorous, courageous, +self-sacrificing, tender, Pentecostal experience of perfect +love--we shall both save ourselves and enlighten the world, our +converts will be strong, our Candidates for the work will +multiply, and will be able, dare-devil men and women, and our +people will come to be like the brethren of Gideon, of whom it +was said, "Each one resembled the children of a king." + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + +XXIII. + +VICTORY OVER EVIL TEMPER BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. + + +"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon +you." + +Two letters recently reached me, one from Oregon, and one from +Massachusetts, inquiring if I thought it possible to have temper +destroyed. The comrade from Oregon wrote: "I have been wondering +if the statement is correct when one says, 'My temper is all +taken away.' Do you think the temper is destroyed or sanctified? +It seems to me that if one's temper were actually gone he would +not be good for anything." + +The comrade from Massachusetts wrote: "Two of our Corps Cadets +have had the question put to them: 'Is it possible to have all +temper taken out of our hearts?' One claims it is possible. The +other holds that the temper is not taken out, but God gives power +to overcome it." + +Evidently these are questions that perplex many people, and yet +the answer seems to me simple. + +Temper, _as usually spoken of_, is not a faculty or power of +the soul, but is rather an irregular, passionate, violent +expression of selfishness. When selfishness is destroyed by love, +by the incoming of the Holy Spirit, revealing Jesus to us as an +uttermost Saviour, and creating within us a clean heart, of +course such evil temper is gone, just as the friction and +consequent wear and heat of two wheels is gone when the cogs are +perfectly adjusted to each other. The wheels are far better off +without friction, and just so man is far better off without such +temper. + +We do not destroy the wheels to get rid of the friction, but we +readjust them; that is, we put them into just or right relations +to each other, and then noiselessly and perfectly they do their +work. So, strictly speaking, sanctification does not destroy +self, but it destroys selfishness--the abnormal and mean and +disordered manifestation and assertion of self. I myself am to be +sanctified, rectified, purified, brought into harmony with God's +will as revealed in His word, and united to Him in Jesus, so that +His life of holiness and love flows continually through all the +avenues of my being, as the sap of the vine flows through all +parts of the branch. "I am the Vine, ye are the branches," said +Jesus. + +When a man is thus filled with the Holy Spirit he is not made +into a putty man, a jelly fish, with all powers of resistance +taken out of him; he does not have any less force and "push" and +"go" than before, but rather more, for all his natural energy is +now reinforced by the Holy Spirit, and turned into channels of +love and peace instead of hate and strife. + +He may still feel indignation in the presence of wrong, but it +will not be rash, violent, explosive, and selfish, as before he +was sanctified, but calm and orderly, and holy, and determined, +like that of God. It will be the wholesome, natural antagonism of +holiness and righteousness to all unrighteousness and evil. + +Such a man will feel it when he is wronged, but it will be much +in the same way that he feels when others are wronged. The +personal, selfish element will be absent. At the same time there +will be pity and compassion and yearning love for the wrong-doer +and a greater desire to see him saved than to see him punished. + +A sanctified man was walking down the street the other day with +his wife, when a filthy fellow on a passing wagon insulted her +with foul words. Instantly the temptation came to the man to want +to get hold of him and punish him, but as instantly the +indwelling Comforter whispered, "If ye will forgive men their +trespasses;" and instantly the clean heart of the man responded, +"I will, I do forgive him, Lord;" and instead of anger a great +love filled his soul, and instead of hurling a brick or hot words +at the poor Devil-deceived sinner, he sent a prayer to God in +Heaven for him. There was no friction in his soul. He was +perfectly adjusted to his Lord; his heart was perfectly +responsive to his Master's word, and he could rightly say, "My +temper is gone." + +A man must have his spiritual eyes wide open to discern the +difference between sinful temper and righteous indignation. + +Many a man wrongs and robs himself by calling his fits of temper +"righteous indignation;" while, on the other hand, there is here +and there a timid soul who is so afraid of sinning through temper +as to suppress the wholesome antagonism that righteousness, to be +healthy and perfect, must express towards all unrighteousness and +sin. + +It takes the keen-edged word of God, applied by the Holy Spirit, +to cut away unholy temper without destroying righteous antagonism; +to enable a man to hate and fight sin with spiritual weapons +(2 Cor. x. 3-5), while pitying and loving the sinner; to so fill +him with the mind of Jesus that he will feel as badly over a wrong +done to a stranger as though it were done to himself; to help him +to put away the personal feeling and be as calm and unselfish and +judicial in opposing wrong as is the judge upon the bench. Into +this state of heart and mind is one brought who is entirely +sanctified by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Hallelujah! + +Dr. Asa Mahan, the friend and co-worker of Finney, had a quick +and violent temper in his youth and young manhood; but one day he +believed, and God sanctified him, and for fifty years he said he +never felt but one uprising of temper, and that was but for an +instant, about five years after he received the blessing. For the +following forty-five years, though subjected to many trials and +provocations, he felt only love and peace and patience and good-will +in his heart. + +A Christian woman was confined to her bed for years with nervous +and other troubles, and was very cross and touchy and petulant. +At last she became convinced that the Lord had a better +experience for her, and she began to pray for a clean heart full +of patient, holy, humble love; and she prayed so earnestly, so +violently, that her family became alarmed lest she should wear +her poor, frail body out in her struggle for spiritual freedom. +But she told them she was determined to have the blessing, if it +cost her her life, and so she continued to pray, until one glad, +sweet day the Comforter came; her heart was purified, and from +that day forth, in spite of the fact that she was still a nervous +invalid, suffering constant pain, she never showed the least sign +of temper or impatience, but was full of meekness, and patient, +joyous thankfulness. + + "Love took up the harp of life, and smote on all + the chords with might-- + Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, passed in + music out of sight." + +Such is the experience of one in whom Jesus lives without a +rival, and in whom grace has wrought its perfect work. + +"No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not +drunkenness itself, does more to un-Christianise society than +evil temper," says a distinguished and thoughtful writer. + +If this be true, it must be God's will that we be saved from it. +And it is provided for in the uttermost salvation that Jesus +offers. + +Do you want this blessing, my brother, my sister? If so, be sure +of this: God has not begotten such a desire in your heart to mock +you; you may have it. God is able to do even this for you. With +man it is impossible, but not with God. Look at Him just now for +it. It is His work, His gift. Look at your past failures, and +acknowledge them; look at your present and future difficulties, +count them up and face them every one, and admit that they are +more than you can hope to conquer; but then look at the dying Son +of God, your Saviour--the Man with the seamless robe, the crown +of thorns, and the nail-prints; look at the fountain of His +Blood; look at His word; look at the Almighty Holy Ghost, who +will dwell within you, if you but trust and obey, and cry out: +"It shall be done! The mountain shall become a plain; the +impossible shall become possible. Hallelujah!" Quietly, +intelligently, abandon yourself to the Holy Spirit just now in +simple, glad, obedient faith, and the blessing shall be yours. +Glory to God! + +"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?" + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's When the Holy Ghost is Come, by S. L. Brengle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN THE HOLY GHOST IS COME *** + +***** This file should be named 6135.txt or 6135.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/3/6135/ + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant, Charles Franks, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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