xi. 13, "Ifwith the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in Luke
226 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
back to my church without receiving it," I said, " My
brother, you are going to receive it." The following
morning he came very early to my house. He said,
ct I have to go away on the early train but I came around
to tell you before I went that I have received the baptism with the Holy Spirit."
6. The sixth step is definite prayerfor the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in Luke xi. 13, "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." This is very explicit. Jesus teaches us that the Holy
Spirit is given in answer to definite prayer just ask Him. There are many who tell us that we should not
pray for the Holy Spirit, and they reason it out very
speciously. They say that the Holy Spirit was given
as an abiding gift to the church at Pentecost, and why
pray for what is already given ? To this the late
Rev. Dr. A. J. Gordon well replied that Jesus Christ
was given as an abiding gift to the world at Calvary
(John iiL 16), but what was given to the world as a
whole each individual in the world must appropriate to
himself; and just so the Holy Spirit was given to the
church as an abiding gift at Pentecost, but what was
given to the church as a whole each individual in the
church must appropriate to himself, and God's way of
appropriation is prayer. But those who say we should
not pray for the Holy Spirit go further still than this.
They tell us that every believer alrea'dy has the Holy
Spirit (which we have already seen is true in a sense), and why pray for what we already have ? To this the
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 227
very simple answer is, that it is one thing to have the
Holy Spirit dwelling way back of consciousness in
some hidden sanctuary of the being and something quite
different, and vastly more, to have Him take possession of the whole house that He inhabits. But against all
these specious arguments we place the simple word of
Jesus Christ, " How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him."
It will not do to say, as has been said, that " this
promise was for the time of the earth life of our Lord, and to go back to the promise of Luke xi. 13 is to for-
get Pentecost, and to ignore the truth that now every
believer has the indwelling Spirit ; " for we find that
after Pentecost as well as before, the Holy Spirit was
given to believers in answer to definite prayer. For
example, we read in Acts iv. 31, R. V., " When they had prayed^ the place was shaken wherein they were
gathered together, and they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost^ and they spake the Word of God with boldness."
Again in Acts viiL 15, 16, we read that when Peter
and John were come down and saw the believers in
cc prayedfor them that they might receive the
Samaria they
Holy Ghost, for as yet He was fallen upon none of them^
only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.'*
Again in the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, Paul
tells the believers in Ephesus that he was praying for
them that they might be strengthened with power
through His Spirit (Eph. iii. 16). So right through the New Testament after Pentecost, as well as before, by
specific teaching and illustrative example, we are taught
that the Holy Spirit is given in answer to definite
228 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
5 convention in Boston ,
prayer. At a Christian workers
a brother came to me and said, " I notice that you are
on the program to speak on the Baptism with the Holy
Spirit." "Yes." "I think that is the most important
subject on the program. Now be sure and tell them
not to pray for the Holy Spirit." I replied, " My
brother, I will be sure and not tell them that : for
l How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him ?
Jesus says,
' "
"Yes, but that was before Pentecost." " How about
Acts iv. 31, R. V., was that before Pentecost or after ? "
He said, "It was certainly after." "Well," I said, "take it and read it." "And when they had prayed, the place where they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and spake
the Word of God with boldness." " How about Acts
viii. 15, 1 6, was that before Pentecost or after ? "
Certainly, it was after." " Take it and read it.'
" Who when they were come down prayed for them
that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet He
was fallen on none of them, only they were baptized In
the name of Jesus." He had nothing more to say. What was there more to say ? But with me, it is not
a matter of mere exegesis, that the Holy Spirit is given in answer to definite prayer. It is a matter of personal and indubitable experience. I knowJust as well that God gives the Holy Spirit la ausw^ to |>rayer asj[ know that v^ter quenches thirst and food satisfies
Hunger. In my first experience of being baptized with
the Holy Spirit, it was while I waited upon God in
prayer that I was thus baptized. Since then time and
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 229
again as I have waited on God in prayer, I have been
definitely filled with the Holy Spirit. Often as I have
knelt in prayer with others, as we prayed the Holy
Spirit has fallen upon us just as perceptibly as the rain
ever fell upon and fructified the earth. I shall never
forget one experience in our church in Chicago. We
were holding a noon prayer-meeting of the ministers at
the Y. M. C. A, Auditorium, preparatory to an ex-
pected visit to Chicago of Mr. Moody. At one of
these meetings a minister sprang to his feet and said,
4C What we need in Chicago is an all-night meeting of the ministers." "Very well/' I said. "If you will come up to Chicago Avenue Church Friday night at
ten o'clock, we will have a prayer-meeting and if God
keeps us all night, we will stay all night." At ten
o'clock on Friday night four or five hundred people
gathered in the lecture-rooms of the Chicago Avenue
Church. They were not all ministers. They were
not all men. Satan made a mighty attempt to ruin the
meeting. First of all three men got down by the door
and knelt down by chairs and pounded and shouted
until some of our heads seemed almost splitting, and some felt they must retire from the meeting ; and when
a brother went to expostulate with them and urge them
that things be done decently and in order, they swore
at the brother who made the protest. Still later a man
sprang up in the middle of the room and announced
that he was Elijah. The poor man was insane. But
these things were distracting, and there was more or
less of confusion until nearly midnight, and some
thought they would go home. But it is a poor meet-
230 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
ing that the devil can spoil, and some of us were there
for a blessing and determined to remain until we re-
ceived it. About midnight God gave us complete vic-
tory over all the discordant elements. Then for two
hours there was such praying as I have rarely heard in
my life. A little after two o'clock in the morning a
sudden hush fell upon the whole gathering, we were
all on our knees at the time. No one could speak 5 no one could pray, no one could sing ; all you could
hear was the subdued sobbing of joy, unspeakable and
full of glory. The very air seemed tremulous with the
presence of the Spirit of God. It was now Saturday
morning. The following morning, one of my deacons
came to me and said, with bated breath, " Brother
Torrey, I shall never forget yesterday morning until
the latest day of my life." But it was not by any means all emotion. There was solid reality that could
be tested by practical tests. A man went out of that
meeting in the early morning hours, took a train for
Missouri. When he had transacted his business in
the town that he visited, he asked the proprietor of
the hotel if there was any meeting going on in the town at the time. He said, " Yes, there is a pro-
tracted meeting going on at the Cumberland Presby-
terian Church." The man was himself a Cumberland
Presbyterian. He went to the church and when the
meeting was opened he arose in his place and asked the
minister if he could speak. Permission was granted, and with the power of the Holy Spirit upon him, he so
spoke that fifty-eight or fifty-nine persons professed to
accept Christ on the spot. A young man went out of