in faith nothing doubting," There are many and many
Definite Lines of Work 165
an absolute surrender to God becomes as clear as day when we make that surrender.
3. We must definitely a ask "
guidance. It is not
enough to desire | It is not enough to be willing to obey j
we.j3mstL<7$, definitely ask God to show us the way.
4. We must confidently expect guidance. a Let him ask
in faith nothing doubting," There are many and many who cannot find the way, though they ask God to show
it to them, simply because they have not the absolutely
undoubting expectation that God will show them the
way. God promises to show it if we expect it con-
fidently. When you come to God in prayer to show
you what to do, know for a certainty that He will show
you. In what way He will show you. He does not
tell, but He promises that He will show you and that is
enough.
5. We must follow step by step as the guidance comes. As said before, just how it will come, no one can tell,
but it will come. Oftentimes only a step will be made
clear at a time ; that is all we need to know the next
step. Many are in darkness because they do not know
and cannot find what God would have them do next
week, or next month or next year. A college man
once came to me and told me that he was in great darkness about God's guidance, that he had been seek-
ing, to find the will of God and learn what his life's work
should be, but he could not find it. I asked him how
far along he was in his college course. He said his
sophomore year. I asked, u What is it you desire to know ? " u What I shall do when I finish college."
tc Do you know that you ought to go through college ? "
166 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
" Yes." This man not only knew what he ought to
do next year but the year after but still he was in great
perplexity because he did not know what he ought to
do when these two years were ended. God delights to
lead His children a step at a time. He leads us as He
led the children of Israel " And when the cloud was
taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the chil-
: and in the place where the
dren of Israel journeyed
cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their
tents. At the commandment of the LORD the children
of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the LORD they pitched : as long as the cloud abode upon
the tabernacle they rested in their tents. And when
the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days,
then the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD,
and journeyed not. And so it was, when the cloud was
a few days upon the tabernacle ; according to the com-
mandment of the LORD they journeyed. And so it
was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morn-
ing, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning
: whether it was by day or by night
then they journeyed
that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or
whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that
the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon,
the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not : but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At
the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed
they kept the charge of the LORD, at the commandment
of the LORD by the hand of Moses '\(Num. ix. 1723)4
Many who have given themselves up to the leading
Definite Lines ot Work 167
of the Holy Spirit get Into a place of great bondage and
are tortured because they have leadings which they fear
may be from God but of which they are not sure. If
they do not obey these leadings, they are fearful they have disobeyed God and sometimes fancy that they have grieved away the Holy Spirit, because they did not
follow His leading. This is all unnecessary. Let us
settle it in our minds that God's guidance Is clear guidance. " God is light, and in Him is no darkness at
all "
(i John I. 5). And any leading that is not per-
fectly clear is not from Him. That is, if our wills are
absolutely surrendered to Him. Of course, the
obscurity may arise from an unsurrendered will. (Jut
if our wills are absolutely surrendered to God, we have
the right as God's children to be sure that any guidance
is from Him before we obey iLt We have a right to go to our Father and say,
cc Heavenly Father, here I am.
I desire above all things to do Thy will. Now make
it clear to me, Thy child. If this thing that I have a
leading to do is Thy will, I will do it, but make it clear
as day if It be Thy will." If it is His will, the
heavenly Father will make it as clear as day. And
you need not, and ought not to do that thing until He
does make it clear, and you need not and ought not to condemn yourself because you did not do it. God does
not want His children to be in a state of condemnation
before Him. He wishes us to be free from all care,
worry, anxiety and self-condemnation. Any earthly
parent would make the way clear to his child that asked
to know it and much more will our heavenly Father make it clear to us, and until He does make it clear^
168 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
we need have no fears that in not doing it, we are dis-
obeying God. We have no right to dictate to God
how He shall give His guidance as, for example, by
asking Him to shut up every way, or by asking Him to
give a sign, or by guiding us in putting our finger on a
text, or in any other way. It is ours to seek and to ex-
pect wisdom but it is not ours to dictate how it shall be
given. The Holy Spirit divides to u each man
severally as He will" (i Cor. xii. n). Two things are evident from what has been said
about the work of the Holy Spirit. First, how utterly
dependent we are upon the work of the Holy Spirit at
every turn of Christian life and service. Second, how
perfect is the provision for life and service that God
has made. How wonderful is the fullness of privilege
that is open to the humblest believer through the Holy
Spirit's work. It is not so much what we are by nature,
either intellectually, morally, physically, or even spirit-
ually, that is important. The important matter is, what
the Holy Spirit can do for us and what we will let Him
do. Not infrequently, the Holy Spirit takes the one who seems to give the least natural promise and uses
him far beyond those who give the greatest natural
promise. fChristian life is not to be lived in the realm
of natural temperament, and Christian work is not to
be done in the power of natural endowment, but Chris-
tian life is to be lived in the realm of the Spirit, and
Christian work is to be done on the power of the Spiritjl The Holy Spirit is willing and eagerly desirous of
doing for each one of us His whole work, and He will
do in each one of us all that we will let Him do.
XIX
The Holy Spirit and the Believer's Body THE
Holy Spirit does a work for our bodies as
well as for our minds and hearts. We read
cc But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall
in Rom. vlii. II, R. V.,
quicken also your mortal bodies through His Spirit that
dwelleth In you."
The Holy Spirit quickens the mortal body of the believer.
It is very evident from the context that this refers to
the future resurrection of the body (vs. 2123). The
resurrection of the body is the Holy Spirit's work. The glorified body is from Him ; it is " a spiritual body/* At the present time, we have only the first fruits of the
Spirit and are waiting for the full harvest, the redemption of our body (v. 23).
There is, however, a sense in which the Holy Spirit even now quickens our bodies. Jesus tells us in Matt,
xii. 28 that He cast out devils by the jyjmj^ajfjGuiAnd we read in Acts x. 38, " How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who
went about doing good and healing all that were op-
pressed of the devil/' In James v. 14, the Apostle
writes, " Is any sick among you ? Let him call for
the elders of the church ; and let them pray over
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
1 79 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
Lord." The oil in this passage (as elsewhere) is
the type of the Holy Spirit, and the truth is set
forth that the healing is the Holy Spirit's work. ^God
by His Holy Spirit does impart new health and vigour
to these mortal bodies in the present life. To go to
the extremes that many do and take the ground that
the believer who is walking in fellowship with Christ
need never be ill is to go farther than the Bible war-
rants us in going. It is true that the redemption of
our bodies is secured by the atoning work of Christ
but until the Lord comes, we only enjoy the first fruits
of that redemption ; and we are waiting and some-
times groaning for our full place as sons manifested in
j;he redemption of our body (Rom. viii. 23). {JBut while this is true, it is the clear teaching of Scripture and a matter of personal experience on the part of
thousands that the life of the Holy Spirit does sweep
through these bodies of ours in moments of weakness
and of pain and sickness, imparting new health to
them, delivering from pain and filling them with
abounding life. It is our privilege to know the quick-
ening touch of the Holy Spirit in these bodies as well
as in our minds and affections and will. It would be
a great day for the Church and for the glory of Jesus
Christ, if Christians would renounce forever all the
devil's counterfeits of the Holy Spirit's work, Christian
Science, Mental Healing, Emmanuelism, Hypnotism and the various other forms of occultism and depend upon God by the power of His Holy Spirit to work
that in these bodies of ours which He in His unerring wisdom sees that we most need.
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit ONE
of the most deeply significant phrases used
in connection with the Holy Spirit in the
Scriptures is " baptized with the Holy Ghost." John the Baptist was the first to use this
phrase. In speaking of himself and the coming One he said, " I indeed baptize you with water unto re-
pentance : but He that cometh after me is mightier than
I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear : He shall bap-
tize you with the Holy Ghost and wfify fire
(Matt*
lii. n). The second "with" in this passage is in
italics. It is not found in the Greek. There are not two different baptisms spoken of, the one with the
Holy Ghost and one with fire, but one baptism with
the Holy Wind and Fire. Jesus afterwards used the
same expression. In Acts i. 5, He says, " For John
truly baptized with water ; but ye shall be baptised
; with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." WEen
this promise of John the Baptist and of our Lord was
fulfilled in Acts ii. 3, 4, R. V., we read, " And there
appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of
fire ; and it sat upon each one of them. And they were all I filled /with the Holy Spirit." Here we have
" used
another expression "filled with the Holy Spirit
synonymously with " baptized with the Holy Spirit."
172 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
We read again in Acts x. 44-46, " While Peter yet
spake these words^ the Holy Ghost fell on all them" which-
heard the word. And they of the circumcision which
believed were astonished 5 as many as came with Peter,
because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift
of the Holy Ghost. For, they heard them speak with
tongues, and magnify God." Peter himself afterwards
describing this experience in Jerusalem tells the story
in this way, a And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost
fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remem-
bered I the word of the Lord 5 how that He said, John
indeed baptized with water 5 but ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then as God gave
them the like gift as He did unto us who believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ ; what was I 5 that I could withstand God ? "
(Acts xi. 15-17). Here Peter distinctly calls
the experience which came to Cornelius and his house-
hold, being baptized with the Holy Ghost^ so we see
that the expression " the Holy Ghost fell " and 4C the
gift of the Holy Ghost " are practically synonymous
expressions with u baptized with the Holy Ghost."
Still other expressions are used to describe this bless-
ing, such as "..receive the Holy Ghost" (Acts ii. 38;
xix. 2-6) ; " th<s . Holy Ghost came on them "
(Acts
xix. 2-6); ".gift 'of the Holy Ghost "
(Heb. ii. 4;
I Cor. xii. 4, ii, 13); "I send the promise of My Father upon you ; " and a endued with power from on
(Luke xxiv. 49). What is the baptism with the Holy Spirit ?
high
In the first place the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a
definite experience of which one may and ought to know
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 173
whether he has received It or not. This is evident from our Lord's command to His disciples in Luke xxiv. 49 and in Acts i. 4, that they should not depart from Jerusalem to undertake the work which He had commis-
sioned them to do until they had received this promise of the Father. It is also evident from the eighth chapter of Acts, fifteenth and sixteenth verses, where we
are distinctly told, " the Holy Spirit had not as yetfallen
upon any of them" It is evident also from the nine-
teenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the second
verse, R. V., where Paul put to the little group of dis-
ciples at Ephesus the definite question, " Did ye re-
ceive the Holy Ghost when ye believed ? " It is evi-
dent that the receiving of the Holy Ghost was an ex-
perience so definite that one could answer yes or no to
the question whether they had received the Holy Spirit. In this case the disciples definitely answered, a No,'* that they did not so much as hear whether the Holy Ghost was given* They did not say what our Author-
ized Version makes them say, that they did not so much as hear whether there was any Holy Ghost. They knew that there was a Holy Ghost ; they knew
furthermore that there was a definite promise of the
baptism with the Holy Ghost, but they had not heard
that that promise had been as yet fulfilled. Paul told them that it had and took steps whereby they were
definitely baptized with the Holy Spirit before that meet-
ing closed. It is ^equally evident from Gal. iii. 2 that
the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a definite experience of which one may know whether he has received It or
not. In this passage Paul says to the believers in
174 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
cc This only would I learn of you. Received
Galatia,
ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Their receiving the Spirit had been so
definite as a matter of personal consciousness, that Paul
could appeal to it as a ground for his argument. In
our day there is much talk about the baptism with the
Holy Spirit and prayer for the baptism with the Spirit
that is altogether vague and indefinite. Men arise in
meeting and pray that they may be baptized with the
Holy Spirit, and if you should go afterwards to the one who offered the prayer and put to him the question, a Did you receive what you asked ? Were you bap-
tized with the Holy Spirit ? "
it is quite likely that he
would hesitate and falter and say, " I hope so "
; but
there is none of this indefiniteness in the Bible. The
Bible is clear as day on this, as on every other point.
It sets fpjth.an experience SQ .defiftltj.ani^a.i^al^that one may know whether or not he has received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and can answer yes or no to
cc Have you received the Holy Ghost ? "
the question,
In the second place it is evident that the baptism with
the Holy Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit distinctfrom and additional to His regenerating work. This is evident
from Acts i. 5, "For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." It is clear then that the disciples had not as yet been baptized with the Holy Ghost, that they were to be
thus baptized not many days hence. But the men to whom Jesus spoke these words were already regenerate men. They had been so pronounced by our Lord Him-
self, He had said to them in John xv. 3, u Now ye are
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 175
clean through the word which I have spoken unto
you." But what does clean through the word mean?
I Peter I. 23 answers the question, u Being lorn
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, ly
the word of God, which Hveth and abideth forever." A
little earlier on the same night Jesus had said to them
in John xiii. 10, R. V., " He that is bathed needeth
not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit : and ye are clean but not alL" The Lord Jesus had pronounced that apostolic company clean i.e., regenerate men
with the exception of the one who never was a regenerate man, Judas Iscariot who should betray Him (see verse 1 1). The remaining eleven Jesus Christ had pronounced regenerate men. Yet He tells these same men in Acts i. 5, that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was an experience that they had not as yet realized,
that still lay in the future. So it is evident that it is j & one thing to be born again by the Holy Spirit through the Word and something distinct from this and
additional to it to be baptized with the Holy Spirit* The same thing is evident from Acts viii. 12, R. V.,
compared with the fifteenth and sixteenth verses of the same chapter. In the twelfth verse we read that a
large company of disciples had believed the preaching of Philip concerning the kingdom of God and the name
of Jesus Christ, and cc had been baptized into the name
of the Lord Jesus "
(v. 16, R. V.). Certainly in
this company of baptized believers there were at least some regenerate persons. Whatever the true form of
water baptism may be, they undoubtedly had been
baptized by the true form, for the baptizing had been
lj6 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
done by a Spirit-commissioned man, but in the fifteenth
and sixteenth verses we read, u When they (that is
Peter and John) were come down, they prayed for
them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost : for as
yet He was fallen upon none of them : only they had
been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus."
Baptized believers they were , baptized into the name
of the Lord Jesus they had been ; regenerate men some
of them most assuredly were, and yet not one of them
as yet had received, or been baptized with, the Holy Ghost. So again, it is evident that the baptism with
the Holy Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit
distinct from and additional to His regenerating work. A man may be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and still
not be baptized with the Holy Spirit. In regeneration^
there is the importation pj life by the Spirit's power, and the one who receives it is saved : in the baptism ^o&vfWfftin^n with the Holy Spirit, there is the imgartation of power, and the one who receives it is fitted for service. The
baptism with the Holy Spirit, however, may take place
at the moment of regeneration. It did, for example,
in the household of Cornelius. We read in Acts x.
43, that while Peter was preaching, he came to the
point where he said concerning Jesus, u To Him bear
all the prophets witness, that through His name whoso-
ever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins," and at that point Cornelius and his household believed
and we read immediately, " While Peter yet spake these
words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard
the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 177
that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the
Holy Ghost." The moment they believed the testimony about Jesus, they were baptized with the Holy Ghost, even before they were baptized with water.
Regeneration and the baptism with the Holy Spirit took
place practically at the same moment, and so they do
in many an experience to-day. It would seem as if in
a normal condition of the church, this would be the
usual experience. But the church Is not in a normal
condition to-day. A very large part of the church
is in the place where the believers in Samaria were
before Peter and John came down, and where the
disciples in Ephesus were before Paul came and told them of their larger privilege baptized believers,
baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, baptized unto repentance and remission of sins, but not as
yet baptized with the Holy Ghost. ^Nevertheless the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the birthright of
every believer^ It was purchased for us by the
atoning death of Christ, and when He ascended to
the right hand of the Father, He received the promise of the Father and shed Him forth upon the church, and
if any one to-day has not the baptism with the Holy
Spirit as a personal experience, It is because he has not
claimed his birthright. Potentially, every member of
the body of Christ is baptized with the Holy Spirit
(i Con xii. 1 3), u For in one Spirit, we were #// baptized
into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink
into one Spirit/* But there are many believers with whom that which is potentially theirs has not become
178 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
a matter of real, actual, personal experience. All men
are potentially justified in the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross, that is justification is provided for them and belongs to them (Rom. v. 18, R. V.), but
what potentially belongs to every man, each man must
appropriate to himself by faith in Christ ; then justifica-
tion is actually and experimentally his and just so, while the baptism with the Holy Spirit is potentially the
possession of every believer, each individual believer
must appropriate it for himself before it is experimentally
his. We may go still further than this and say that it is
only by the baptism with the Holy Spirit that one
becomes in the fullest sense a member of the body of
Christ, because it is only by the baptism with the
Spirit that he receives power to perform those functions
for which God has appointed him as a part of the body.
/'As we have already seen every true believer has the
Etoly Spirit (Rom. viii. 9), but not every believer has
the baptism with the Holy Spirit (though every believer
may have as we have just seen)> It is one thing to
have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, perhaps
dwelling within us way back in some hidden sanctuary of our being, back of definite consciousness, and
something far different, something vastly more, to have the Holy Spirit taking complete possession of
* He inhabits. There are those who
the one whom
press the fact that every believer potentially has the
baptism with the Spirit, to such an extent that they,
clearly teach that every believer has the baptism with
the Spirit as an actual experience. But unless the
baptism with the Spirit to-day is something radically
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 179
different from what the baptism with the Spirit was in
the early church, indeed unless it is something not at
all real, then either a very large proportion of those whom we ordinarily consider believers are not believers,
or else one may be a believer and a regenerate man
without having been baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Certainly, this was the case in the early church. It
was the case with the Apostles before Pentecost ; it was
the case with the church in Ephesus ; it was the case
with the church in Samaria. And there are thousands
to-day who can testify to having received Christ and
been born again, and then afterwards, sometimes long
afterwards, having been baptized with the Holy Ghost
as a definite experience. This is a matter of great
practical importance, for there are many who are not
enjoying the fullness of privilege that they might enjoy because by pushing individual verses in the Scriptures
beyond what they will bear and against the plain
teaching of the Scriptures as a whole, they are trying
to persuade themselves that they have already been
baptized with the Holy Spirit when they have not. And if they would only admit to themselves that they had not, they could then take the steps whereby they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit as a matter
of definite, personal experience.
The next thing which is clear from the teaching of
Scripture is that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is always
connected with, and primarily for the purpose of testimony and service*.
Our Lord in speaking of this baptism which they were so soon to receive in Luke xxiv. 49 said, " And
i8o The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
behold I send the promise of My Father upon you
but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be
endued with power from on high" And again He said
in Acts i. 5, 8, u For John truly baptized with water ;
but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not
many days hence. . . . But ye shall receive power
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you
: and ye
shall be witnesses unto Me^ both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth." In the record of the fulfillment of this
cc And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Then follows the detailed account of what Peter said
promise of our Lord in Acts ii. 4, we read,
and of the result. The result was that Peter and the
other Apostles spoke with such power that three thou-
sand persons that day were convicted of sin, renounced
their sin and confessed their acceptance of Jesus Christ
in baptism and continued -steadfastly in the Apostles'
doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread
and in prayers ever afterwards. In the fourth chapter of Acts, the thirty-first to the thirty-third verses, we
read that when the Apostles on another occasion were
filled with the Holy Spirit, the result was that they
9 and that "with
"spake the word of God with boldness*
great power gave the Apostles their witness to the resur-
rection of the Lord Jesus" And in the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we have a description of
Paul's being baptized with the Holy Spirit We read
in the seventeenth to the twentieth verses, " And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house $
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 181
and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the
Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way
as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest re-
ceive thy sight, and be filed with the Holy Ghost. And
immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been
scales : and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. . . . And straightway^ he
preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son
of God," and in the twenty-second verse we read that
he cc confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus,
proving that this is the Christ" (R. V.). In i Cor. xiL we have the fullest discussion of the,l)^|)|isi*with*the Holy Spirit founcf lunTany passage in the Bible. This
is the classical passage on the whole subject. And the
results there recorded are gifts for service. ^The
baptism with the Holy Spirit is not primarily intended
to make believers happy, but to make them useful.^ It
is not intended merely for the ecstasy of the individual
believer, it is intended primarily for his effr^s^rcy in
service. 1 do not say tlui iue baptism with the Holy
Spirit will not make the believer happy ; for as part of
the fruit of the Spirit is "joy," if one is baptized with the
Holy Spirit, joy ..must inevitably result. I have never known one to be baptized with the Holy Spirit into whose life there did not come, sooner or later, a new
joy, a higher and purer and fuller joy than he had ever
known before. But this is not the prime purpose of
the baptism nor the most important and prominent re-
sult. Great emphasis needs to be laid upon this point,
for there are many Christians who in seeking the
182 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
baptism with the Spirit are seeking personal ecstasy and
rapture. They go to conventions and conferences for
the deepening of the Christian life and come back and
tell what a wonderful blessing they have received, refer-
ring to some new ecstasy that has come into their heart, but when you watch them, it is difficult to see that they
are any more useful to their pastors or their churches
than they were before, and one is compelled to think
that whatever they have received, they have not re-
ceived the real baptism with the Holy Spirit. Ecstasies
and raptures are all right in their places. When they come, thank God for them the writer knows some-
thing about them but in a world such as we live in
to-day where sin and self-righteousness and unbelief
are s~o triumphant, where there is such an awful tide of
men, women and young people sweeping on towards
eternal perdition, I would rather go through my whole
life and never have one touch of ecstasy but have gpjKfc to witness for Christ and win others for Christ and
thus to save them, than to have raptures 365 days in
the year but no power to stem the awful tide of sin
and bring men, women and children to a saving
knowledge of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
(The purpose of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is
not primarily to make believers individually holy^ I do
not say that it is not the work of the Holy Spirit to make believers holy, for as we have already seen, He
is " the Spirit of Holiness," and the only way we shall
ever attain unto holiness is by His power. I do not
even say that the baptism with the Holy Spirit will not
result in a great spiritual transformation and uplift
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 183
cleansing, for the promise is, " He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit andfire
(and the thought of fire
as used in this connection is the thought of searching,
refining, cleansing, consuming). A wonderful trans-
formation took place in the Apostles at Pentecost, and
a wonderful transformation has taken place in thousands who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit since
fbut theprimary purpose of the baptism with
Pentecost,
the Holy Spirit is efficiency in testimony and service.
Ithas to do rather with gifts for service than with
graces of character. It is the impartation of spiritual
power or gifts in service and sometimes one may have
rare gifts by the Spirit's power and yet manifest few of
the graces of the Spirit. (See i Cor. xiii. 1-3; Matt. vii. 22, 23.) In every passage in the Bible in
which the baptism with the Holy Spirit is mentioned,
it is connected with testimony or service.
We shall perhaps get a clearer idea of just what the
baptism with the Holy Spirit is, if we stop to consider what are the results of the baptism with the Holy
Spirit.
WHAT ARE THE RESULTS OF THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT ?
I. The specific manifestations of the baptism with the
Holy Spirit are not precisely the same in all persons. This
appears very clearly from I Cor. xii. 4-13, "Now
there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And
there are differences of administrations, but the same
Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is
the same God which worketh all in all. But the mani-
festation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit
184 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of
wisdom 5 to another the word of knowledge by the same
Spirit ; to another faith by the same Spirit ; to another
the gifts of healing by the same Spirit ; to another the
working of miracles 5 to another prophecy $ to another
discerning of spirits ; to another divers kind of tongues ;
to another the interpretation of tongues
: but all these
worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to
every man severally as He will. JFor as the body is
one, and hath many members, and all the members of
that one body, being many, are one body
: so also is
Christ. | For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one
body, tvliether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be
bond or free ; and have been all made to drink into one
Spirit." Here we see one baptism but a great variety of manifestations of the power of that baptism. There
are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. The gifts
vary with the different lines of service to which God
calls different persons. The church is a body, and dif-
ferent members of the body have different functions
and the Spirit imparts to the one who is baptized with
the Spirit those gifts which fit him for the service to
which God has called him. It is very important to
bear this in mind. Through the failure to see this, many have gone entirely astray on the whole subject. In my early study of the subject, I noticed the fact that
in many instances those who were baptized with the
Holy Spirit spake with tongues (e. g^ Acts ii. 4 ; x. 46 ;
xix. 6) and I wondered if every one who was baptized with the Holy Spirit would not speak with tongues. I
did not know of any one who was speaking with
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 185
tongues to-day and so I wondered still further whether
the baptism with the Holy Spirit were for the present
age. But one day I was studying I Cor. xii. and
noticed how Paul said to the believers In that wonder-
fully gifted church in Corinth, all of whom had been
pronounced in the thirteenth verse to be baptized with
the Spirit, " And God hath set some in the church,
first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers^
after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, govern-
ments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles ? Are
all prophets ? Are all teachers ? are all workers of
miracles ? Have all the gift of healing ? Do all speak with tongues ? Do all interpret ? " So I saw it was
clearly taught in the Scriptures that oriillajight.lbe
baptifea^wittf^tfie ffolf "Spirit'! and still not have the gift of tangtfes".** "'TsawTurffiermbre that the gift of tongues,
according to the Scripture, was the last and the least
important of all the gifts, and that we were urged to
desire earnestly the greater gifts (i Cor. xiii. 31 ;
I Cor. xiv. 5, 12, 14, 1 8, 19, 27, 28). A little later I was tempted to fall into another error, more specious but in reality just as unscriptural as this, namely, that if
one were baptized with the Holy Spirit, he would re-
ceive the gift of an evangelist. I had read the story of D. L. Moody, of Charles G. Finney and of others who were baptized with the Holy Spirit, and of the
power that came to them as evangelists, and the
thought was suggested that if any one Is baptized with
the Holy Spirit will not he also obtain power as an
evangelist ? But this was also unscriptural. If God
has called a man to be an evangelist and he is baptized
l86 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
with the Holy Spirit, he will receive power as an
evangelist, but if God has called him to be something
else, he will receive power to become something else. Three great evils come from the error of thinking that
every one who .is baptized with the Holy Spirit will re-
ceive power as an evangelist*
(1) The evil of disappointment. There are many who seek the baptism with the Holy Spirit expecting power as an evangelist, but God has not called them
to that work, and though they really meet the condi-
tions of receiving the baptism with the Spirit, and do
receive the baptism with the Spirit, power as an
evangelist does not come. In many cases this results
in bitter disappointment and sometimes even in despair. The one who has expected the power of an evangelist and has not received it sometimes even questions whether
he is a child of God. But if he had properly under-
stood the matter, he would have known that the fact
that he had not received power as an evangelist is no
proof that he has not received the baptism with the
Spirit, and much less is it a proof that he is not a child of God.
(2) The second evil is graver still, namely, the evil of presumption. A man whom God has not called to
the work of an evangelist or a minister oftentimes
rushes into it because he has received, or imagines he
has received, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. He
thinks all a man needs to become a preacher is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. This is not true. In order
to succeed as a minister a man needs a call to that
specific work, and furthermore, he needs that knowl-
The^Baptism With the Holy Spirit 187
edge of God's Word that will prepare him for the
work. If a man is called to the ministry and studies the Word until he has something to preach, if then he is
baptized with the Holy Spirit, he will have success as a
preacher, but if he is not called to that work, or if he
has not the knowledge of the Word of God that is
necessary, he will not succeed in the work, even
though he receives the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
(3) The third evil is greater still, namely, the evil
of indifference. There are many who know that they are not called to the work of preaching. If then they think that the baptism with the Holy Spirit simply im-
parts power as an evangelist, or power to preach, the
matter of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is one of no
personal concern to them. For example, here is a mother with a large family of children. She knows
perfectly well, or at least it is hoped that she knows, that she is not called to do the work of an evan-
gelist. She knows that her duty lies with her children and her home. If she reads or hears about the
baptism with the Holy Spirit, and gets the impression that the baptism with the Holy Spirit simply imparts power to do the work of an evangelist, or to
preach, she will think "The evangelist needs this
blessing, my minister needs this blessing, but it
is not for me'*;, but if she understands the matter as
it is taught in the Bible, that while the baptism with
the Spirit imparts power, the way in which the power will be manifested depends entirely upon the line of work to which God calls us, and that no efficient work
can be done without it, and sees still further that there