{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_6135/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_6135","id":"gutenberg_6135","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6135","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Holy Spirit"],"text":"Produced by Curtis A. Weyant, Charles Franks, and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWHEN THE HOLY GHOST IS COME.\n\nBY\n\nCOLONEL S. L. BRENGLE,\n\n\nEdited by BRAMWELL BOOTH.\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD.\n\nThe Salvation Army, contrary to what has often been thought by\nsurface observers, has owed its existence, its strength, and its\nsuccess chiefly to our careful attention to the profoundest\nquestions of the soul.\n\nAnd still, as always, we wish to urge upon all the study of those\ngreat practical truths, without the proclamation of which our\nwork for men would cease to have any abiding value. We glory in\nthe knowledge of Christ as a perfect Saviour just as much for\nthis, our own time, as for any past generation, or for any\ngeneration yet to come. The pretence that this age has reached\nsome superior development, whether mental or moral, for which a\nnew kind of Saviour is needed, seems to us absurd. And we do not\nbelieve it can long endure where Christ is really known.\n\nTo the most thoughtful, therefore, as well as to those who have\nthe least time for thought, I earnestly commend the words of\ndevout and practical men upon those great questions, which I hope\nto see reproduced in the series of which the present volume is\nthe first. Prayerful reading of their messages cannot but lead to\nimmediate action, to a complete self-abandonment to God, and to a\nrealizing faith in His power to use every one of His sons and\ndaughters for the healing of the world's open sores and the\ntriumph of His Rule.\n\nBRAMWELL BOOTH. LONDON, January, 1909.\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nI.     WHO IS HE?\nII.    PREPARING HIS HOUSE III.   IS THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY\n         SPIRIT A THIRD BLESSING?\nIV.    THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT\nV.     PURITY\nVI.    POWER\nVII.   TRYING THE SPIRITS\nVIII.  GUIDANCE\nIX.    THE MEEK AND LOWLY HEART\nX.     HOPE\nXI.    THE HOLY SPIRIT'S SUBSTITUTE FOR GOSSIP AND EVIL-SPEAKING\nXII.   THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST\nXIII.  OFFENCES AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST\nXIV.   THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SOUND DOCTRINE\nXV.    PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT\nXVI.   CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ANOINTED PREACHER\nXVII.  PREACHING\nXIX.   THE SHEATHED SWORD: A LAW OF THE SPIRIT\nXX.    VICTORY THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT OVER SUFFERING\nXXI.   THE OVERFLOWING BLESSING\nXXII.  IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE AND EXPERIENCE OF HOLINESS TO\n         SPIRITUAL LEADERS\nXXIII. VICTORY OVER EVIL TEMPER BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nIt is no small pleasure to me to commend this book to all who\nlove God, and in particular to those who are labouring to serve\nHim in the ranks of The Salvation Army. I believe that it will\nprove useful in the most important ways--in its bearing, that\nis, upon many of the practical difficulties and problems of daily\nlife.\n\nThe writer, Colonel Brengle, gives us not only of the fruit of an\norderly and well-stored mind on the great subject before us,\nbut--and this is the more important--he tells us of the actual work\nof the Holy Spirit in the lives of ordinary men and women, as he\nhas witnessed the results of that work amidst his many labours\nfor the Salvation and Holiness of the people. It is for them he\nwrites. It is to them, living the common life, bound to others by\nthe obligations of ordinary social intercourse, toiling at their\nsecular occupations, and rubbing shoulders with the multitude in\nthe market-place, that his message comes. I venture to hope that\nhis words will make it plain to some of them that the highest\nintercourse with the Divine is their privilege; that the special\nprovince of the Holy Ghost is to lead men into the truest\ndevotion to God, and to the advancement of His Kingdom on earth,\neven while they are carrying on the common avocations associated\nwith earning their daily bread.\n\nThe only purpose of God having a practical bearing on our lives\nis His purpose to save men from sin and its awful consequences,\nand make them conform to His will in this world as in the next.\nThe work of the Holy Spirit is to help us to achieve that\npurpose. Without His help we are unable to overcome the\ndifficulties that are in the way, whether we consider them from\nthe standpoint of the world or of the individual. If anyone could\nhave looked at the state of the world at the time of our Lord's\ndeath he would surely have regarded the work which the Apostles\nwere commissioned to attempt as the most utterly wild and\nimpracticable enterprise that the human mind could conceive. And\nit was so, but for one fact. That fact was the promise of the\nComforter, the Holy Spirit, to be the great Helper in the\nundertaking.\n\nAnd equally in the work of uniting the individual soul with God's\npurpose that Spirit is our Helper. In the work of righteousness\nHe is a Partner with us. In the life of faith and prayer He is\nour unwavering Prompter and Guide. In the submission of our wills\nto God and the chastening of our spirits He is the great Co-worker\nwith us. In the bearing of burdens and the enduring of trial and\nsorrow He joins hands with us to lead us on. In the purifying of\nevery power from the taint of sin He is our Sanctifier.\n\nAll this is practical. It has to do with to-day--with every bit\nof to-day. In fact, so far from the sphere of the Holy Spirit\nbeing limited to the pulpit or the platform, or to the inward\nexperiences of the religious life, He is just as truly and\nproperly concerned with the affairs of the shop and the street,\nthe nursery and the kitchen, the chamber of suffering and the\nhome of penury, as with preaching the Gospel or healing the sick.\n\nNow it is to lead its readers to a personal experience of all\nthis that this book has been written. No mere intellectual assent\nto the truth it sets forth can satisfy its author, any more than\nit can benefit his readers. What he seeks, and what I join him in\ndevoutly asking of God, is that you, dear friend, who may take\nthis little volume into your hands, may see what an infinite\nprivilege is yours, and may begin to act with God the Holy Ghost,\nand to open your whole being to Him, that He may work with you.\n\nBRAMWELL BOOTH.\nLONDON, January, 1909.\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\nWHO IS HE?\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nOn that last eventful evening in the upper room, just after the\nPassover feast, Jesus spoke to His disciples about His departure,\nand, having commanded them to love one another, He besought them\nnot to be troubled in heart, but to hold fast their faith in Him,\nassuring them that, though He was to die and leave them, He was\nbut going to the Father's many-mansioned house to prepare a place\nfor them.\n\nBut already they were troubled, for what could this death and\ndeparture mean but the destruction of all their hopes, of all\ntheir cherished plans? Jesus had drawn them away from their\nfishing-boats, their places of custom and daily employment, and\ninspired them with high personal and patriotic ambitions, and\nencouraged them to believe that He was the Seed of David, the\npromised Messiah; and they hoped that He would cast out Pilate\nand his hated Roman garrison, restore the kingdom to Israel, and\nsit on David's throne, a King, reigning in righteousness and\nundisputed power and majesty for ever. And then, were they not to\nbe His Ministers of State and chief men in His Kingdom?\n\nHe was their Leader, directing their labours; their Teacher,\ninstructing their ignorance and solving their doubts and all\ntheir puzzling problems; their Defence, stilling the stormy sea\nand answering for them when questioned by wise and wily enemies.\n\nThey were poor and unlearned and weak. In Him was all their help,\nand what would they do, what could they do, without Him? They\nwere without social standing, without financial prestige, without\nlearning or intellectual equipment, without political or military\npower. He was their All, and without Him they were as helpless as\nlittle children, as defenceless as lambs in the midst of wolves.\nHow could their poor hearts be otherwise than troubled?\n\nBut then He gave them a strange, wonderful, reassuring promise:\nHe said, \"If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray\nthe Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may\nabide with you for ever\" (John xiv. 15, 16). I am going away, but\nAnother shall come, who will fill My place. He shall not go away,\nbut abide with you for ever, and He \"shall be in you.\" And later\nHe added: \"It is expedient for you\"--that is, better for you--\"that\nI go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come.\"\n\nWho is this other One--this Comforter? He must be some august\nDivine Person, and not a mere influence or impersonal force, for\nhow else could He take and fill the place of Jesus? How else\ncould it be said that it was better to have Him than to have\nJesus remaining in the flesh? He must be strong and wise, and\ntender and true, to take the place of the Blessed One who is to\ndie and depart. Who is He?\n\nJohn, writing in the Greek language, calls Him \"Paraclete,\" but\nwe in English call Him Comforter. But Paraclete means more, much\nmore than Comforter. It means \"one called in to help: an\nadvocate, a helper.\" The same word is used of Jesus in i John ii.\ni: \"We have an Advocate,\" a Paraclete, a Helper, \"with the\nFather, Jesus Christ the righteous.\" Just as Jesus had gone to be\nthe disciples' Advocate, their Helper in the Heavens, so this\nother Paraclete was to be their Advocate, their Helper on earth.\nHe would be their Comforter when comfort was needed; but He would\nbe more; He would be also their Teacher, Guide, Strengthener, as\nJesus had been. At every point of need there would He be as an\never-present and all-wise, almighty Helper. He would meet their\nneed with His sufficiency; their weakness with His strength;\ntheir foolishness with His wisdom; their ignorance with His\nknowledge; their blindness and short-sightedness with His\nperfect, all-embracing vision. Hallelujah! What a Comforter! Why\nshould they be troubled?\n\nThey were weak, but He would strengthen them with might in the\ninner man (Eph. iii. 16). They were to give the world the words\nof Jesus, and teach all nations (Matthew xxviii. 19, 20); and He\nwould teach them all things, and bring to their remembrance\nwhatsoever Jesus had said to them (John xiv. 26).\n\nThey were to guide their converts in the right way, and He was to\nguide them into all truth (John xvi. 13). They were to attack\nhoary systems of evil, and inbred and actively intrenched sin, in\nevery human heart; but He was to go before them, preparing the\nway for conquest, by convincing the world of sin, of righteousness,\nand of judgment (John xvi. 8). They were to bear heavy burdens and\nface superhuman tasks, but He was to give them power (Acts i. 8).\nIndeed, He was to be a Comforter, a Strengthener, a Helper.\n\nJesus had been external to them. Often they missed Him. Sometimes\nHe was asleep when they felt they sorely needed Him. Sometimes He\nwas on the mountains, while they were in the valley vainly trying\nto cast out stubborn devils, or wearily toiling on the tumultuous,\nwind-tossed sea. Sometimes He was surrounded by vast crowds, and\nHe entered into high disputes with the doctors of the law, and\nthey had to wait till He was alone to seek explanations of His\nteachings. But they were never to lose this other Helper in the\ncrowd, nor be separated for an instant from Him, for no human\nbeing, nor untoward circumstance, nor physical necessity, could\never come between Him and them, for, said Jesus, \"He shall be in\nyou.\"\n\nFrom the words used to declare the sayings, the doings, the\noffices and works of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, we are\nforced to conclude that He is a Divine Person. Out of the\nmultitude of Scriptures which might be quoted, note this passage,\nwhich, as nearly as is possible with human language, reveals to\nus His personality: \"Now there were in the Church that was at\nAntioch certain prophets and teachers... As they ministered to\nthe Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas\nand Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they\nhad fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent\nthem away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed\ninto Seleucia\" (Acts xiii. 1-4).\n\nFurther on we read that they \"were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to\npreach the word in Asia\"; and when they would have gone into\nBithynia, \"the Spirit suffered them not\" (Acts xvi. 6, 7).\n\nAgain, when the messengers of Cornelius, the Roman centurion,\nwere seeking Peter, \"the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men\nseek thee. Arise, therefore, and get thee down, and go with them,\ndoubting nothing: for I have sent them\" (Acts x. 19, 20).\n\nThese are but a few of the passages of Scripture that might be\nquoted to establish the fact of His personality--His power to\nthink, to will, to act, to speak; and if His personality is not\nmade plain in these Scriptures, then it is impossible for human\nlanguage to make it so.\n\nIndeed, I am persuaded that if an intelligent heathen, who had\nnever seen the Bible, should for the first time read the four\nGospels and the Acts of the Apostles, he would say that the\npersonality of the Holy Spirit is as clearly revealed in the Acts\nas is the personality of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. In truth,\nthe Acts of the Apostles are in a large measure the acts of the\nHoly Spirit, and the disciples were not more certainly under the\nimmediate direction of Jesus during the three years of His\nearthly ministry than they were under the direct leadership of\nthe Spirit after Pentecost.\n\nBut, while there are those that admit His personality, yet in\ntheir loyalty to the Divine Unity they deny the Trinity, and\nmaintain that the Holy Spirit is only the Father manifesting\nHimself as Spirit, without any distinction in personality. But\nthis view cannot be harmonised with certain Scriptures. While the\nBible and reason plainly declare that there is but one God, yet\nthe Scriptures as clearly reveal that there are three Persons in\nthe Godhead--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.\n\nThe form of Paul's benediction to the Corinthians proves the\ndoctrine:--\n\n\"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the\ncommunion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen\" (2 Cor. xiii.\n14).\n\nAgain, it is taught in the promise of Jesus, already quoted, \"And\nI will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter...\nthe Spirit of Truth\" (John xiv. 16, 17). Here the three Persons of\nthe Godhead are clearly revealed. The Son prays; the Father\nanswers; the Spirit comes.\n\nThe Holy Spirit is \"another Comforter,\" a second Comforter\nsucceeding the first, who was Jesus, and both were given by the\nFather.\n\nDo you say, \"I cannot understand it\"? Neither do I. Who can\nunderstand it? God does not expect us to understand it. Nor would\nHe have us puzzle our heads and trouble our hearts in attempting\nto understand it or harmonise it with our knowledge of arithmetic.\n\nNote this: it is only the _fact_ that is revealed;\n_how_ there can be three Persons in one Godhead is not\nrevealed.\n\nThe _how_ is a mystery, and is not a matter of faith at all;\nbut the _fact_ is a matter of revelation, and therefore a\nmatter of faith. I myself am a mysterious trinity of body, mind,\nand spirit. The fact I believe, but the _how_ is not a thing\nto believe. It is at this point that many puzzle and perplex\nthemselves needlessly.\n\nIn the ordinary affairs of life we grasp facts, and hold them\nfast, without puzzling ourselves over the _how_ of things.\nWho can explain _how_ food sustains life; how light reveals\nmaterial objects, how sound conveys ideas to our minds? It is the\nfact we know and believe, but the _how_ we pass by as a\nmystery unrevealed. What God has revealed, we believe. We cannot\nunderstand _how_ Jesus turned water into wine; _how_ He\nmultiplied a few loaves and fishes and fed thousands; _how_\nHe stilled the stormy sea; _how_ He opened blind eyes, healed\nlepers, and raised the dead by a word. But the facts we believe.\nWireless telegraphic messages are sent over the vast wastes of\nocean. That is a fact, and we believe it. But _how_ they go we\ndo not know. That is not something to believe. It is a matter of\npure speculation, and is unexplained.\n\nAn old servant of God has pointed out that it is the fact of the\nTrinity, and not the _manner_ of it, which God has revealed,\nand made a subject for our faith.\n\nBut while the Scriptures reveal to us the fact of the personality\nof the Holy Spirit, and it is a subject for our faith, to those\nin whom He dwells this fact may become a matter of sacred\nknowledge, of blessed experience.\n\nHow else can we account for the positive and assured way in which\nthe Apostles and disciples spoke of the Holy Ghost on and after\nthe day of Pentecost, if they did not know Him? Immediately after\nthe fiery baptism, with its blessed filling, Peter stood before\nthe people, and said: \"This is that which was spoken by the\nprophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith\nGod, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh\"; then he exhorted\nthe people and assured them that if they would meet certain\nsimple conditions they should \"receive the gift of the Holy\nGhost.\" He said to Ananias, \"Why hath Satan filled thine heart to\nlie to the Holy Ghost?\" He declared to the High Priest and\nCouncil that he and his fellow-Apostles were witnesses of the\nresurrection of Jesus: and added, \"And so is also the Holy Ghost,\nwhom God hath given to them that obey Him.\" Without any apology\nor explanation, or \"think so\" or \"hope so,\" they speak of being\n\"filled\" (not simply with some new, strange experience or\nemotion, but) \"with the Holy Ghost.\" Certainly they must have\nknown Him. And if they knew Him, may not we?\n\nPaul says: \"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world,\nbut the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things\nthat are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak,\nnot in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy\nGhost teacheth\" (I Cor. ii. 12, 13). And if we know the words,\nmay we not know the Teacher of the words?\n\nJohn Wesley says:--\n\n\"The knowledge of the Three-One God is interwoven with all true\nChristian faith, with all vital religion. I do not say,\" he adds,\n\"that every real Christian can say, with the Marquis de Renty, 'I\nbear about with me continually an experimental verity, and a\nfullness of the ever-blessed Trinity. I apprehend that this is\nnot the experience of \"babes,\" but rather \"fathers in Christ.\"'\nBut I know not how anyone can be a Christian believer till he\n'hath the witness in himself,' till 'the Spirit of God witnesses\nwith his spirit that he is a child of God'; that is, in effect,\ntill God the Holy Ghost witnesses that God the Father has\naccepted him through the merits of God the Son.\n\n\"Not that every Christian believer adverts to this; perhaps, at\nfirst, not one in twenty; but, if you ask them a few questions,\nyou will easily find it is implied in what he believes.\"\n\nI shall never forget my joy, mingled with awe and wonder, when\nthis dawned upon my consciousness. For several weeks I had been\nsearching the Scriptures, ransacking my heart, humbling my soul,\nand crying to God almost day and night for a pure heart and the\nbaptism with the Holy Ghost, when one glad, sweet day (it was\nJanuary 9th, 1885) this text suddenly opened to my understanding:\n\"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us\nour sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness\"; and I was\nenabled to believe without any doubt that the precious blood\ncleansed my heart, even mine, from all sin. Shortly after that,\nwhile reading these words of Jesus to Martha: \"I am the\nresurrection and the life; he that believeth on Me, though he\nwere dead, yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth on\nMe shall never die,\" instantly my heart was melted like wax\nbefore fire; Jesus Christ was revealed to my spiritual consciousness,\nrevealed in me, and my soul was filled with unutterable love. I\nwalked in a heaven of love. Then one day, with amazement,\nI said to a friend: \"This is the perfect love about which the\nApostle John wrote; but it is beyond all I dreamed of; in it is\npersonality; this love thinks, wills, talks with me, corrects me,\ninstructs and teaches me.\" And then I knew that God the\nHoly Ghost was in this love, and that this love was God, for\n\"God is love.\"\n\nOh, the rapture mingled with reverential, holy fear--for it is a\nrapturous, yet divinely fearful thing--to be indwelt by the Holy\nGhost, to be a temple of the Living God! Great heights are always\nopposite great depths, and from the heights of this blessed\nexperience many have plunged into the dark depths of fanaticism.\nBut we must not draw back from the experience through fear. All\ndanger will be avoided by meekness and lowliness of heart; by\nhumble, faithful service; by esteeming others better than\nourselves, and in honour preferring them before ourselves; by\nkeeping an open, teachable spirit; in a word, by looking steadily\nunto Jesus, to whom the Holy Spirit continually points us: for He\nwould not have us fix our attention exclusively upon Himself and\nHis work _in_ us, but also upon the Crucified One and His\nwork _for_ us, that we may walk in the steps of Him whose\nblood purchases our pardon, and makes and keeps us clean.\n\n  \"Great Paraclete! to Thee we cry:\n  O highest Gift of God most high!\n  O Fount of life! O Fire of love!\n  And sweet Anointing from above!\n\n  \"Our senses touch with light and fire;\n  Our hearts with tender love inspire;\n  And with endurance from on high\n  The weakness of our flesh supply.\n\n  \"Far back our enemy repel,\n  And let Thy peace within us dwell;\n  So may we, having Thee for Guide,\n  Turn from each hurtful thing aside.\n\n  \"Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow\n  The Father and the Son to know,\n  And evermore to hold confessed\n  Thyself of Each the Spirit blest.\"\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\nPREPARING HIS HOUSE.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nJESUS said, \"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be\nborn of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom\nof God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which\nis born of the Spirit is spirit.\" And Paul wrote to the Romans\nthat, \"If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of\nHis.\"\n\nSo it must be that every child of God, every truly converted\nperson, has the Holy Spirit in some gracious manner and measure,\nelse he would not be a child of God; for it is only \"as many as\nare led by the Spirit of God\" that \"are the sons of God.\"\n\nIt is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin, who makes us feel\nhow good and righteous, and just and patient God is, and how\nguilty we are, and how unfit for Heaven, and how near to Hell. It\nis the Holy Spirit who leads us to true repentance and confession\nand amendment of life; and when our repentance is complete, and\nour surrender is unconditional, it is He who reasons with us, and\ncalms our fears, and soothes our troubled hearts, and banishes\nour darkness, and enables us to look to Jesus, and believe on Him\nfor the forgiveness of all our sins and the salvation of our\nsouls. And when we yield and trust, and are accepted of the Lord,\nand are saved by grace, it is He who assures us of the Father's\nfavour, and notifies us that we are saved. \"The Spirit Himself\nbeareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.\"\nHe is \"the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.\"\n\n  \"And His that gentle voice we hear,\n  Soft as the breath of even;\n  That checks each thought, that calms each fear,\n  And speaks of Heaven.\"\n\n  It is He who strengthens the new convert\n  to fight against and overcome sin, and it is\n  He who \"begets within him a hope of fuller\n  righteousness through faith in Christ.\"\n\n  \"And every virtue we possess,\n  And every victory won,\n  And every thought of holiness,\n     Are His alone.\"\n\nBlessed be God for this work of the Holy Spirit within the heart\nof every true child of His!\n\nBut, great and gracious as is this work, it is not the fiery\npentecostal baptism with the Spirit which is promised; it is not\nthe fullness of the Holy Ghost to which we are exhorted. It is\nonly the clear dawn of the day, and not the rising of the day-star.\nThis is only the initial work of the Spirit. It is perfect of\nits kind, but it is preparatory to another and fuller work,\nabout which I wish to write.\n\nJesus said to His disciples, concerning the Holy Spirit, that\n\"the world\" (the unsaved, unrepentant) \"cannot receive\" Him,\n\"because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him\"; because they\nresist Him, and will not permit Him to work in their hearts. And\nthen Jesus added, \"but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you....\"\nHe had begun His work in them, but there was more to follow, for\nJesus said, \"and shall be in you.\"\n\nWhen a man is building himself a house, he is in and out of it\nand round about it. But we do not say he lives in it until it has\nbeen completed. And it is in that sense that Jesus said, \"He\ndwelleth with you.\" But when the house is finished, the owner\nsweeps out all the chips and saw-dust, scrubs the floor, lays\ndown his carpets, hangs up his pictures, arranges his furniture,\nand moves in with his family. Then he is in the fullest sense\nwithin it. He abides there. Now, it is in that sense that Jesus\nmeant that the Holy Spirit should be in them. This is fitly\nexpressed in one of our songs:--\n\n  \"Holy Spirit, come, Oh, come!\n   Let Thy work in me be done!\n   All that hinders shall be thrown aside;\n   Make me fit to be Thy dwelling.\"\n\nPrevious to Pentecost He was with them, using the searching\npreaching of John the Baptist, and the life, the words, the\nexample, the sufferings, and the death and resurrection of Jesus\nas instruments with which to fashion their hearts for His\nindwelling. As the truth was declared to them in the words of\nJesus, pictured to them in His doings, exemplified in His daily\nlife, and fulfilled in His death and His rising from the dead,\nthe Holy Spirit wrought mightily within them; but He could not\nyet find perfect rest in their hearts; therefore He did not yet\nabide within them.\n\nThey had forsaken all to follow Christ. They had been\ncommissioned to preach the Gospel, to heal the sick, to cleanse\nthe lepers, to raise the dead, to cast out devils. Their names\nwere written in Heaven. They were not of the world, even as Jesus\nwas not of the world, for they belonged to Him and to the Father.\nThey knew the Holy Spirit, for He was with them, working in them,\nbut not yet living in them, for they were yet carnal; that is,\nthey were selfish, each seeking the best place for himself. They\ndisputed among themselves as to which should be the greatest.\nThey were bigoted, wanting to call down fire from Heaven to\nconsume those who would not receive Jesus, and forbidding those\nwho would not follow them to cast out devils in His name. They\nwere positive and loud in their professions of devotion and\nloyalty to Jesus when alone with Him. They declared they would\ndie with Him. But they were fearful, timid, and false to Him when\nthe testing time came. When the mocking crowd appeared, and\ndanger was near, they all forsook Him, and fled; while Peter\ncursed and swore, and denied that he knew Him.\n\nBut the Holy Spirit did not forsake them. He still wrought within\nthem, and, no doubt, used their very mistakes and miserable\nfailures to perfect within them the spirit of humility and\nperfect self-abasement in order that they might safely be\nexalted. And on the day of Pentecost His work of preparation was\ncomplete, and He moved in to abide for ever. Hallelujah!\n\nAnd this experience of theirs before Pentecost is the common\nexperience of all true converts. Every child of God knows that\nthe Holy Spirit is with him; realises that He is working within,\nstriving to set the house in order. And with many who are\nproperly taught and gladly obedient, this work is done quickly,\nand the heavenly Dove, the Blessed One, takes up his constant\nabode within them; the toil and strife with inbred sin is ended\nby its destruction, and they enter at once into the sabbath of\nfull salvation.\n\nSurely this is possible. The disciples could not receive the Holy\nSpirit till Jesus was glorified; because not until then was the\nfoundation for perfect, intelligent, unwavering faith laid. But\nsince the day of Pentecost, He may be received immediately by\nthose who have repented of all sin, who have believed on Jesus,\nand been born again. Some have assured me that they were\nsanctified wholly and filled with the Spirit within a few hours\nof their conversion. I have no doubt that this was so with many\nof the three thousand who were converted under Peter's preaching\non the day of Pentecost.\n\nBut often this work is slow, for He can only work effectually as\nwe work with Him, practising intelligent and obedient faith. Some\ndays the work prospers and seems almost complete, and then peace\nand joy and comfort abound in the heart; at other times the work\nis hindered, and oftentimes almost or quite undone, by the\nstrivings and stirrings of inbred sin, by fits of temper, by\nlightness and frivolity, by neglect of watchfulness and prayer,\nand the patient, attentive study of His word; by worldliness, by\nunholy ambitions, by jealousies and envyings, by uncharitable\nsuspicions and harsh judgments and selfish indulgences, and\nslowness to believe.\n\n\"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit,\" seeks to bring the soul\nback under the bondage of sin again, while the Spirit wars\nagainst the flesh, which is \"the old man,\" \"the carnal mind.\" The\nSpirit seeks to bring every thought into \"captivity to the\nobedience of Christ,\" to lead the soul to that point of glad,\nwhole-hearted consecration to its Lord, and that simple, perfect\nfaith in the merits of His blood which shall enable Him to cast\nout \"the old man,\" destroy \"the carnal mind,\" and, making the\nheart His temple, enthrone Christ within.\n\n\"Here on earth a temple stands, Temple never built with hands;\nThere the Lord doth fill the place With the glory of His grace.\nCleansed by Christ's atoning blood, _Thou_ art this fair\nhouse of God. Thoughts, desires, that enter there, Should they\nnot be pure and fair? Meet for holy courts and blest, Courts of\nstillness and of rest, Where the soul, a priest in white, Singeth\npraises day and night; Glory of the love divine, Filling all this\nheart of mine.\"\n\nMy brother, my sister, what is your experience just now? Are you\nfilled with the Spirit? Or is the old man still warring against\nHim in your heart? Oh, that you may receive Him fully by faith\njust now!\n\n\"Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?\"\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nIS THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT A THIRD BLESSING?\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nThere is much difference of opinion among many of God's children\nas to the time and order of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and\nmany who believe that entire cleansing is subsequent to\nsalvation, ask if the baptism with the Spirit is not subsequent\nto cleansing, and, therefore, a third blessing.\n\nThere are four classes of teachers whose views appear to differ\nabout this subject. There are:--\n\n1. Those who emphasise cleansing; who say much of a clean heart,\nbut little, if anything, about the fullness of the Holy Spirit\nand power from on High.\n\n2. Those who emphasise the baptism with the Holy Ghost and\nfullness of the Spirit, but say little or nothing of cleansing\nfrom inbred sin and the destruction of the carnal mind.\n\n3. Those who say much of both, but separate them into two\ndistinct experiences, often widely separated in time.\n\n4. Those who teach that the truth is in the union of the two, and\nthat, while we may separate them in their order, putting\ncleansing first, we cannot separate them as to time, since it is\nthe baptism that cleanses, just as the darkness vanishes before\nthe flash of the electric light when the right button is touched;\njust as the Augean stables were cleansed, in the fabled story of\nGrecian mythology, when Hercules turned in the floods of the\nRiver Arno; the refuse went out as the rushing waters poured in.\n\nThere are three very blessed portions of Scripture which show us\nthat this is God's order, and two that plainly show us that\ncleansing and the baptism are not separate in time.\n\nIn Psalm li. 10 and 12, David prays, \"Create in me a clean heart,\nO God, and renew a right spirit within me.... Uphold me with Thy\nfree Spirit.\" First the cleansing, then the filling that upholds:\nfor as it is my spirit within me that upholds my body, so it is\nGod's Spirit within that upholds my soul.\n\nIn Ezekiel xxxvi. 25 and 27, the Lord says, \"Then will I sprinkle\nclean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your\nfilthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.... And I\nwill put My Spirit within you.\"\n\nHere again, the order is first cleansing, then filling.\n\nIn John xvii. 15-26, Jesus prays for His disciples, and says: \"I\npray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that\nThou shouldst keep them from the evil.... Sanctify them;... that\nthey all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee;\nthat they also may be one in Us;... I in them, and Thou in Me,\nthat they may be made perfect in one;... that the love wherewith\nThou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.\"\n\nHere, again, it is first sanctification (cleansing, being made\nholy), then filling, divine union with the Father and the Son\nthrough the Holy Spirit.\n\nThese Scriptures make plain the order of God's work, and if we\nlooked at them alone, without diligently comparing Scripture with\nScripture, as God would have us do, we might perhaps conclude\nthat the cleansing and filling were as distinct and separate in\ntime as they are in this order of statement.\n\nBut other Scriptures give us abundant light on that side of the\nsubject. In Isaiah vi. 1-8, we have the record of the prophet's\nsanctification, and we notice that the cleansing and the filling\nwere not separate in time. The cleansing was not _before_\nthe baptism, but _by_ the baptism. The \"live coal\" was laid\nupon his mouth, and touched his lips; and by this fiery baptism\nhis iniquity was taken away and his sin was purged.\n\nIn Acts x. 44, we read of Peter's preaching Jesus to Cornelius,\nthe Roman centurion, and his household; and \"while Peter yet\nspake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard\nthe word\"; and in Acts xv. 7-9, at the first Council in\nJerusalem, we have Peter's rehearsal of the experience of\nCornelius and his household. Peter says: \"Men and brethren, ye\nknow how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the\nGentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the Gospel, and\nbelieve. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness,\ngiving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; and put no\ndifference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.\"\nHere we see that their believing, and the sudden descent of the\nHoly Ghost with cleansing power into their hearts, constitute one\nblessed experience.\n\nWhat patient, waiting, expectant faith reckons done, the baptism\nwith the Holy Ghost actually accomplishes. Between the act of\nfaith by which a man begins to reckon himself \"dead indeed unto\nsin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord\" (Romans\nvi. 11), and the act of the Holy Spirit, which makes the\nreckoning good, there may be an interval of time, \"a little\nwhile\" (Hebrews x. 37); but the act and state of steadfastly,\npatiently, joyously, perfectly believing, which is man's part,\nand the act of baptising with the Holy Ghost, cleansing as by\nfire, which is God's part, bring about the one experience of\nentire sanctification, and must not and cannot be logically\nlooked upon as two distinct blessings, any more than the act of\nthe husband and the act of the wife can be separated in the one\nexperience of marriage.\n\nThere are two works and two workers: God and man. Just as my\nright arm and my left arm work when my two hands come together,\nbut the union of the two hands constitute one experience.\n\nIf my left arm acts quickly, my right arm will surely respond.\nAnd so, if the soul, renouncing self and sin and the world, with\nardour of faith in the precious blood for cleansing, and in the\npromise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, draws nigh to God, God\nwill draw nigh to that soul, and the blessed union will be\neffected suddenly: and in that instant, what faith has reckoned\ndone will be done, the death-stroke will be given to \"the old\nman,\" sin will die, and the heart will be clean indeed, and\nwholly alive toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It will\nnot be a mere \"make-believe\" experience, but a gloriously real\none.\n\nIt is possible that some have been led into confusion of thought\non this subject by not considering all the Scriptures bearing on\nit. What is it that cleanses or sanctifies, and how? Jesus prays:\n\"Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.\" Here it is\nthe word, or truth, that sanctifies.\n\nJohn says: \"The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from\nall sin.\" Here it is the blood.\n\nPeter says: \"God...put no difference between us and them,\npurifying their hearts by faith.\" And Paul says: \"That they may\nreceive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are\nsanctified by faith.\" Here it is by faith.\n\nAgain, Paul writes: \"God hath from the beginning chosen you to\nsalvation through sanctification of the Spirit\" (2 Thess. ii.\n13). And again, \"That the offering up of the Gentiles might be\nacceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost\" (Romans xv. 16).\nAnd Peter writes: \"To the strangers... elect... through\nsanctification of the Spirit\" (1 Peter i. I, 2). Here it is the\nSpirit that sanctifies or makes clean and holy.\n\nIs there, then, confusion here? Jesus says, \"the truth\"; John\nsays, \"the blood\"; Paul and Peter say, \"faith,\" and \"the Holy\nGhost.\" Can these be reconciled? Let us see.\n\nHere is a child in a burning house. A man at the peril of his\nlife rushes to the spot above which the child stands in awful\ndanger, and cries out, \"Jump, and I will catch you!\"\n\nThe child hears, believes, leaps, and the man receives him; but\njust as he turns and places the boy in safety, a falling timber\nsmites him to the ground wounded to death, and his flowing blood\nsprinkles the boy whom he has saved.\n\nA breathless spectator says: \"The child's faith saved him.\"\nAnother says: \"How quick the lad was! His courageous leap saved\nhim.\" Another says: \"Bless the child! He was in awful danger, and\nhe just barely saved himself.\" Another says: \"That man's word\njust reached the boy's ear in the nick of time, and saved him.\"\nAnother says: \"God bless that man! He saved that child.\" And yet\nanother says: \"That boy was saved by blood; by the sacrifice of\nthat heroic man!\"\n\nNow, what saved the child? Without the man's presence and promise\nthere would have been no faith; and without faith there would\nhave been no saving action, and the boy would have perished. The\nman's word saved him by inspiring faith. Faith saved him by\nleading to proper action. He saved himself by leaping. The man\nsaved him by sacrificing his own life in order to catch him when\nhe leaped out.\n\nNot the child himself alone, nor his faith, nor his brave leap,\nnor his rescuer's word, nor his blood, nor the man himself saved\nthe boy, but they all together saved him; and the boy was not\nsaved till he was in the arms of the man.\n\nAnd so it is faith and works, and the word and the blood and the\nHoly Ghost that sanctify.\n\nThe blood, the sacrifice of Christ, underlies all, and is the\nmeritorious cause of every blessing we receive, but the Holy\nSpirit is the active Agent by whom the merits of the blood are\napplied to our needs.\n\nDuring the American Civil War certain men committed some\ndastardly and unlawful deeds, and were sentenced to be shot. On\nthe day of the execution they stood in a row confronted by\nsoldiers with loaded muskets, waiting the command to fire. Just\nbefore the command was given, the commanding officer felt a touch\non his elbow, and, turning, saw a young man by his side, who\nsaid, \"Sir, there in that row, waiting to be shot, is a married\nman. He has a wife and children. He is their bread-winner. If you\nshoot him, he will be sorely missed. _Let me take his place._\"\n\n\"All right,\" said the officer; \"take his place, if you wish; but\nyou will be shot.\"\n\n\"I quite understand that,\" replied the young man; \"but no one\nwill miss me\"; and, going to the condemned man, he pushed him\naside, and took his place.\n\nSoon the command to fire was given. The volley rang out, and the\nyoung hero dropped dead with a bullet through his heart, while\nthe other man went free.\n\nHis freedom came to him by blood. Had he, however, neglected the\ngreat salvation, and, despising the blood shed for him, and\nrefusing the sacrifice of the friend and the righteous claims of\nthe law, persisted in the same evil ways, he, too, would have\nbeen shot. The blood, though shed for him, would not have availed\nto set him free. But he accepted the sacrifice, submitted to the\nlaw, and went home to his wife and children; but it was by the\nblood; every breath he henceforth drew, every throb of his heart,\nevery blessing he enjoyed, or possibly could enjoy, came to him\nby the blood. He owed everything from that day forth to the\nblood, and every fleeting moment, every passing day, and every\nrolling year but increased his debt to the blood which had been\nshed for him.\n\nAnd so we owe all to the blood of Christ, for we were under\nsentence of death--\"The soul that sinneth it shall die\"; and we\nhave all sinned, and God, to be holy, must frown upon sin, and\nutterly condemn it, and must execute His sentence against it.\n\nBut Jesus suffered for our sins. He died for us. \"He was wounded\nfor our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;... and\nwith His stripes we are healed.\" \"Ye know that ye were not\nredeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold... but with\nthe precious blood of Christ\" (i Peter i. 18, 19); \"Who loved me,\nand gave Himself for me\" (Gal. ii. 20). And now every blessing we\never had, or ever shall have, comes to us by the Divine\nSacrifice, by \"the precious blood.\" And \"How shall we escape, if\nwe neglect so great salvation?\" His blood is the meritorious\ncause not only of our pardon, but of our cleansing, our\nsanctification; but the Holy Spirit is the ever-present, living,\nactive Cause.\n\nThe truth or word which sanctifies is the record God has given us\nof His will and of that Divine Sacrifice, that \"precious blood.\"\nThe faith that purifies is that sure confidence in that word\nwhich leads to renunciation of all self-righteousness, that utter\nabandonment to God's will, and full dependence on the merits of\n\"the precious blood,\" the \"faith that works by love,\" for \"faith\nwithout works is dead.\" And thus we draw nigh to God, and God\ndraws nigh to us, and the Holy Ghost falls upon us, comes into\nus, and cleanses our hearts by the destruction of sin, and the\nshedding abroad within us of the love of God.\n\nThe advocates of entire sanctification as an experience wrought\nin the soul by the baptism with the Spirit subsequent to\nregeneration call it \"the second blessing.\"\n\nBut many good people object to the term, and say that they have\nreceived the first, second, third, and fiftieth blessing; and no\ndoubt they have; and yet the people who speak of \"the second\nblessing\" are right, in the sense in which they use the term; and\nin that sense there are but the two blessings.\n\nSome years ago a man heard things about a lady that filled him\nwith admiration for her, and made him feel that they were of one\nmind and heart. Later, he met her for the first time, and fell in\nlove with her. After some months, following an enlarged\nacquaintance and much consideration and prayer, he told her of\nhis love, and asked her to become his wife; and after due\nconsideration and prayer on her part she consented, and they\npromised themselves to each other; they plighted their faith, and\nin a sense gave themselves to each other.\n\nThat was the first blessing, and it filled him with great peace\nand joy, but not perfect peace and joy. Now, there were many\nblessings following that before the great second blessing came.\nEvery letter he received, every tender look, every pressure of\nthe hand, every tone of her voice, every fresh assurance of\nenduring and increasing affection was a blessing; but it was not\nthe second blessing.\n\nBut one day, after patient waiting, which might have been\nshortened by mutual consent, if they had thought it wise, and\nafter full preparation, they came together in the presence of\nfriends and before a man of God, and in the most solemn and\nirrevocable manner gave themselves to each other to become one,\nand were pronounced man and wife. That was the second blessing,\nan epochal experience, unlike anything which preceded, or\nanything to follow. And now their peace and joy and rest were\nfull.\n\nThere had to be the first and second blessings in this\nrelationship of man and wife, but there is no third. And yet in\nthe sense of those who say they have received fifty blessings\nfrom the Lord, there have been countless blessings in their\nwedded life; indeed, it has been a river of blessing, broadening\nand deepening in gladness and joy and sweet affections and\nfellowship with the increasing years.\n\nBut let us not confuse thought by disputing over terms and\nwrangling about words.\n\nThe first blessing in Jesus Christ is salvation, with its\nnegative side of remission of sins and forgiveness, and its\npositive side of renewal or regeneration--the new birth--one\nexperience.\n\nAnd the second blessing is entire sanctification, with its\nnegative side of cleansing, and its positive side of filling with\nthe Holy Ghost--one whole, rounded, glorious, epochal experience.\nAnd while there may be many refreshings, girdings, illuminations,\nand secret tokens and assurances of love and favour, there is no\nthird blessing in this large sense, in this present time.\n\nBut when time is no more, when the ever-lasting doors have lifted\nup, and the King of Glory comes in with His Bride, and, for ever\nredeemed and crowned, He makes us to sit down with Him on His\nthrone, then in eternity we shall have the third blessing--we\nshall be glorified.\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nTHE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nHow shall I know that I am accepted of God?--that I am saved or\nsanctified? The Bible declares God's love and pity for sinners,\nincluding me, and reveals His offer of mercy to me in Jesus\nChrist, on condition that I fully repent of my sins, and yielding\nmyself to Him, believe on Jesus Christ, and taking up my cross,\nfollow Him. But how shall I know that I have met these conditions\nin a way to satisfy Him, and that I am myself saved?\n\n1. The Bible cannot tell me this. It tells me what to do, but it\ndoes not tell me when I have done it, any more than the sign-board\nat the country cross-roads, pointing out the road leading to the\ncity, tells me when I have got to the city.\n\n2. My religious teachers and friends cannot tell me, for they\ncannot read my heart, nor the mind of God toward me. How can they\nknow when I have in my heart repented and believed, and when His\nrighteous anger is turned away?\n\nThey can encourage me to repent, believe, obey, and can assure me\nthat, if I do, He will accept me, and I shall be saved; but\nbeyond that they cannot go.\n\n3. My own heart, owing to its darkness and deceitfulness and\nliability to error, is not a safe witness previous to the\nassurance God Himself gives. If my neighbour is justly offended\nwith me, it is not my own heart, but his testimony that first\nassures me of his favour once more.\n\nHow, then, shall I know that I am justified or wholly sanctified?\nThere is but one way, and that is by the witness of the Holy\nSpirit. God must notify me, and make me to know it; and this He\ndoes, when, despairing of my own works of righteousness, I cast\nmy poor soul fully and in faith upon Jesus. \"For ye have not\nreceived the spirit of bondage again to fear,\" says Paul, \"but ye\nhave received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,\nFather. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that\nwe are the children of God\" (Romans viii. 15, 16). \"And because\nye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your\nhearts, crying, Abba, Father\" (Gal. iv. 6). Unless He Himself\nassures me, I shall never know that He accepts me, but must\ncontinue in uncertainty all my days.\n\n  \"Come, Holy Ghost, Thyself impress\n    On my expanding heart:\n   And show that in the Father's grace\n    I share a filial part.\"\n\nThe General says: \"Assurance is produced by the revelation of\nforgiveness and acceptance made by God Himself directly to the\nsoul. This is the witness of the Spirit. It is God testifying in\nmy soul that He has loved me, and given Himself for me, and\nwashed me from my sins in His own blood. Nothing short of this\n_actual revelation_, made by God Himself, can make anyone\nsure of salvation.\"\n\nJohn Wesley says: \"By the testimony of the Spirit, I mean an\ninward impression of the soul, whereby the Spirit of God\nimmediately and directly witnesses to my spirit that I am a child\nof God; that 'Jesus hath loved me, and given Himself for me';\nthat all my sins are blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to\nGod.\"\n\nThis witness of the Spirit addressed to my consciousness enables\nme to sing with joyful assurance:--\n\n  \"My God is reconciled;\n   His pardoning voice I hear:\n  He owns me for His child;\n   I can no longer fear:\n  With confidence I now draw nigh,\n  And, 'Father, Abba, Father,' cry.\"\n\nWhen the Holy Spirit witnesses to me that I am saved and adopted\ninto God's family as His child, then other evidences begin to\nabound also. For instance:--\n\n1. My own spirit witnesses that I am a new creature. I know that\nold things have passed away, and all things have become new. My\nvery thoughts and desires have been changed. Love and joy and\npeace reign within me. My heart no longer condemns me. Pride and\nselfishness, and lust and temper, no longer control my thoughts\nnor lead captive my will. I am a new creature, and I know it, and\nI infer without doubt that this is the work of God in me.\n\n2. My conscience bears witness that I am honest and true in all\nmy purposes and intentions; that I am without guile; that my eye\nis single to the glory of God, and that with all simplicity and\nsincerity of heart I serve Him; and, since by nature I am only\nsinful, I again infer that this sincerity of heart is His blessed\nwork in my soul, and is a fruit of salvation.\n\n3. The Bible becomes a witness to my salvation. In it are\naccurately portrayed the true characteristics of the children of\nGod; and as I study it prayerfully, and find these characteristics\nin my heart and life, I again infer that I am saved. This is true\nself-examination, and is most useful.\n\nThese evidences are most important to guard us against any\nmistake as to the witness of the Holy Spirit.\n\nThe witness of the Spirit is not likely to be mistaken for\nsomething else, just as the sun is not likely to be mistaken for\na lesser light, a glow-worm or a moon. But one who has not seen\nthe sun might mistake some lesser light for the sun. So an\nunsaved man may mistake some flash of fancy, some pleasant\nemotion, for the witness of the Spirit. But if he is honest, the\nabsence of these secondary evidences and witnesses will correct\nhim. He must know that so long as sin masters him, reigns within\nhim, and he is devoid of the tempers, graces, and dispositions of\nGod's people, as portrayed in the Bible, that he is mistaken in\nsupposing that he has the witness of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit\ncannot witness to what does not exist. He cannot lie. Not until\nsin is forgiven does He witness to the fact. Not until we are\njustified from our old sins and born again does He witness that\nwe are children of God; and when He does so witness, these\nsecondary evidences always follow. Charles Wesley expresses this\nin one of his matchless hymns:--\n\n  \"How can a sinner know\n   His sins on earth forgiven?\n  How can my gracious Saviour show\n   My name inscribed in Heaven?\n\n  \"We who in Christ believe\n   That He for us hath died,\n  We all His unknown peace receive,\n   And feel His blood applied.\n\n  \"His love, surpassing far\n   The love of all beneath,\n  We find within our hearts, and dare\n   The pointless darts of death.\n\n  \"Stronger than death and hell\n   The mystic power we prove;\n  And conquerors of the world, we dwell\n   In Heaven, who dwell in love.\"\n\nThe witness of the Spirit is far more comprehensive than many\nsuppose. Multitudes do not believe that there is any such thing,\nwhile others confine it to the forgiveness of sins and adoption\ninto the family of God. But the truth is that the Holy Spirit\nwitnesses to much more than this.\n\nHe witnesses to the sinner that he is guilty, condemned before\nGod, and lost. This we call conviction; but it is none other than\nthe witness of the Spirit to the sinner's true condition; and\nwhen a man realises it, nothing can convince him to the contrary.\nHis friends may point out his good works, his kindly disposition,\nand try to assure him that he is not a bad man; but, so long as\nthe Spirit continues to witness to his guilt, nothing can console\nhim or reassure his quaking heart. This convicting witness may\ncome to a sinner at any time, but it is usually given under the\nsearching preaching of the Gospel, or the burning testimony of\nthose who have been gloriously saved and sanctified; or in time\nof danger, when the soul is awed into silence, so that it can\nhear the \"still small voice\" of the Holy Spirit.\n\nAgain, the Holy Spirit not only witnesses to the forgiveness of\nsins and acceptance with God, but He also witnesses to sanctification.\n\"For by one offering,\" says the Apostle, \"He\" (that is, Jesus) \"hath\nperfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost\nalso is a witness to us\" (Hebrews x. 14, 15).\n\nIndeed, one who has this witness can no more doubt it than a man\nwith two good eyes can doubt the existence of the sun when he\nsteps forth into the splendour of a cloudless noon-day. It\nsatisfies him, and he cries out exultingly, \"We know, we know!\"\nHallelujah!\n\nPaul seems to teach that the Holy Spirit witnesses to every good\nthing God works in us, for he says: \"We have received, not the\nspirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we\nmight know the things that are freely given to us of God\" (1 Cor.\nii. 12). It is for our comfort and encouragement to know our\nacceptance of God and our rights, privileges, and possessions in\nJesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is given for this purpose, that\nwe may _know_.\n\nBut it is important to bear in mind God's plan of work in this\nmatter.\n\n1. The witness of the Spirit is dependent upon our faith. God\ndoes not give it to those who do not believe in Jesus; and if our\nfaith wavers, the witness will become intermittent; and if faith\nfails, it will be withdrawn. Owing to the unsteadiness of their\nfaith, many young converts get into uncertainty. Happy are they\nat such times if some one is at hand to instruct and encourage\nthem to look steadfastly to Jesus. But, alas! many old Christians\nthrough unsteady faith walk in gloom and uncertainty, and,\ninstead of encouraging the young, they discourage them. Steadfast\nfaith will keep the inward witness bright.\n\n2. We must not get our attention off Jesus, and the promises of\nGod in Him, and fix it upon the witness of the Spirit. The\nwitness continues only while we look unto Jesus, and trust and\nobey Him. When we take our eyes off Him, the witness is gone.\nMany people fail here. Instead of quietly and confidently looking\nunto Jesus, and trusting Him, they are vainly looking for the\nwitness; which is as though a man should try to realise the\nsweetness of honey, without receiving it in his mouth; or the\nbeauty of a picture, while having his eyes turned inward upon\nhimself instead of outward upon the picture. Jesus saves. Look to\nHim, and He will send the Spirit to witness to His work.\n\n3. The witness may be brightened by diligence in the discharge of\nduty, by frequent seasons of glad prayer, by definite testimony\nto salvation and sanctification, and by stirring up our faith.\n\n4. The witness may be dulled by neglect of duty, by sloth in\nprayer, by inattention to the Bible, by indefinite, hesitating\ntestimony, and by carelessness, when we should be careful to walk\nsoberly and steadfastly with the Lord.\n\n5. I dare not say that the witness of the Spirit is dependent\nupon our health, but there are some forms of nervous and organic\ndisease that seem to so distract or becloud the mind as to\ninterfere with the clear discernment of the witness of the\nSpirit. I knew a nervous little child who would be so distracted\nwith fear by an approaching carriage, when being carried across\nthe street in her father's arms, that she seemed to be incapable\nof hearing or heeding his reassuring voice. It may be that there\nare some diseases that for the time prevent the sufferer from\ndiscerning the reassuring witness of the Heavenly Father. Dr. Asa\nMahan told me of an experience of this kind which he had in a\nvery dangerous sickness. And Dr. Daniel Steele had a similar\nexperience while lying at the point of death with typhoid fever.\nBut some of the happiest Christians the world has seen have been\nracked with pain and tortured with disease.\n\nAnd so there may be seasons of fierce temptation when the witness\nis not clearly discerned; but we may rest assured that if our\nhearts cleave to Jesus Christ and duty, He will never leave or\nforsake us. Blessed be God!\n\n6. But the witness will be lost if we wilfully sin, or\npersistently neglect to follow where He leads. This witness is a\npearl of great price, and Satan will try to steal it from us;\ntherefore, we must guard it with watchful prayer continually.\n\n7. If lost, it may be found again by prayer and faith and a\ndutiful taking up of the cross which has been laid down.\nThousands who have lost it have found it again, and often they\nhave found it with increased brightness and glory. If you have\nlost it, my brother, look up in faith to your loving God, and He\nwill restore it to you. It is possible to live on the right side\nof plain duty without the witness, but you cannot be sure of your\nsalvation, joyful in service, or glad in God, without it; and\nsince it is promised to all God's children, no one who professes\nto be His should be without it.\n\nIf you have it not, my brother or sister, seek it now by faith in\nJesus. Go to Him, and do not let Him go till He notifies you that\nyou are His. Listen to Charles Wesley:--\n\n  \"From the world of sin, and noise,\n  And hurry,  I withdraw;\n  For the small and inward voice\n  I wait with humble awe;\n  Silent am I now and still,\n  Dare not in Thy presence move;\n  To my waiting soul reveal\n  The secret of Thy love.\"\n\nDo you want the witness to abide? Then study the word of God, and\nlive by it; sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord;\npraise the Lord with your first waking breath in the morning, and\nthank Him with your last waking breath at night; flee from sin;\nkeep on believing; look to Jesus, cleave to Him, follow Him\ngladly, trust the efficacy of His blood, and the witness will\nabide in your heart. Be patient with the Lord. Let Him mould you,\nand \"He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will\nrest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing\" (Zeph. iii.\n17); and you shall no longer doubt, but know that you are His.\nHallelujah!\n\n  \"There are in this loud stunning tide\n  Of human care and crime,\n  With whom the melodies abide\n  Of th' everlasting chime;\n  Who carry music in their heart\n  Through dusky lane and wrangling mart,\n  Plying their task with busier feet\n  Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.\"\n\nAnd that \"holy strain\" is but the echo of the Lord's song in\ntheir heart, which is the witness of the Spirit.\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\nPURITY.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nA MINISTER of the Gospel, after listening to an eminent servant\nof God preaching on entire sanctification through the baptism\nwith the Spirit, wrote to him, saying: \"I like your teaching on\nthe baptism with the Holy Ghost. I need it, and am seeking it;\nbut I do not care much for entire sanctification or heart-cleansing.\nPray for me that I may be filled with the Holy Ghost.\"\n\nThe brother knew him well, and immediately replied: \"I am so glad\nyou believe in the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and are so\nearnestly seeking it. I join my prayer with yours that you may\nreceive that gift. But let me say to you, that if you get the\ngift of the Holy Ghost, you will have to take entire sanctification\nwith it, for the first thing the baptism with the Holy Ghost does\nis to cleanse the heart from all sin.\"\n\nThank God, he humbled himself, permitted the Lord to sanctify\nhim, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and mightily\nempowered to work for God.\n\nMany have looked at the promise of power when the Holy Ghost is\ncome, the energy of Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost,\nand the marvellous results which followed, and they have hastily\nand erroneously jumped to the conclusion that the baptism with\nthe Holy Ghost is for work and service only.\n\nIt does bring power--the power of God, and it does fit for\nservice, probably the most important service to which any created\nbeings are commissioned, the proclamation of salvation and the\nconditions of peace to a lost world; but not that alone, nor\nprimarily. The primary, the basal work of the baptism, is that of\ncleansing.\n\nYou may turn a flood into your millrace, but until it sweeps away\nthe logs and brushwood and dirt that obstruct the course, you\ncannot get power to turn the wheels of your mill. The flood first\nwashes out the obstructions, and then you have power.\n\nThe great hindrance in the hearts of God's children to the power\nof the Holy Ghost is inbred sin--that dark, defiant, evil\nsomething within that struggles for the mastery of the soul, and\nwill not submit to be meek and lowly, and patient and forbearing\nand holy, as was Jesus; and when the Holy Spirit comes, His first\nwork is to sweep away that something, that carnal principle, and\nmake free and clean all the channels of the soul.\n\nPeter was filled with power on the day of Pentecost; but\nevidently the purifying effect of the baptism made a deeper and\nmore lasting impression upon his mind than the empowering effect;\nfor years after, in that first Council in Jerusalem, recorded in\nthe fifteenth chapter of Acts, he stood up and told about the\nspiritual baptism of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and his\nhousehold, and he said: \"And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare\nthem witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us;\nand put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts\nby faith.\" Here he calls attention not to power, but to purity,\nas the effect of the baptism. When the Holy Ghost comes in to\nabide, \"the old man\" goes out. Praise the Lord!\n\nThis destruction of inbred sin is made perfectly plain in that\nwonderful Old Testament type of the baptism with the Holy Ghost\nand fire recorded in the sixth chapter of Isaiah. The prophet was\na most earnest preacher of righteousness (see Isaiah i. 10-20),\nyet he was not sanctified wholly. But he had a vision of the Lord\nupon His Throne, and the seraphims crying one to another: \"Holy,\nholy, holy is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His\nglory.\" And the very \"posts of the door moved at the voice of him\nthat cried\"; and how much more should the heart of the prophet be\nmoved! And so it was; and he cried out: \"Woe is me! for I am\nundone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the\nmidst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the\nKing, the Lord of Hosts.\"\n\nWhen unsanctified men have a vision of God, it is not their lack\nof power, but their lack of purity, their unlikeness to Christ,\nthe Holy One, that troubles them. And so it was with the prophet.\nBut he adds: \"Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a\nlive coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off\nthe altar. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath\ntouched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin\npurged.\" Here again, it is purity rather than power to which our\nattention is directed.\n\nAgain, in the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel, we have another\ntype of this spiritual baptism. In Isaiah the type was that of\nfire, but here it is that of water; for water and oil, and the\nwind and rain and dew, are all used as types of the Holy Spirit.\n\nThe Lord says, through Ezekiel: \"Then will I sprinkle clean water\nupon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and\nfrom all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I\ngive you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take\naway the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an\nheart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause\nyou to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and\ndo them.\"\n\nHere again, the incoming of the Holy Spirit means the outgoing of\nall sin, of \"all your filthiness, and of all your idols.\" How\nplainly it is taught! And yet, many of God's dear children do not\nbelieve it is their privilege to be free from sin and pure in\nheart in this life. But, may we not? Let us consider this.\n\n1. It is certainly _desirable_. Every sincere Christian--and\nnone can be a Christian who is not sincere--wants to be free from\nsin, to be pure in heart, to be like Christ. Sin is hateful to\nevery true child of God. The Spirit within him cries out against\nthe sin, the wrong temper, the pride, the lust, the selfishness,\nthe evil that lurks within the heart. Surely, it is desirable to\nbe free from sin.\n\n  \"He wills that I should holy be:\n   That holiness I long to feel;\n  That full Divine conformity\n   To all my Saviour's righteous will.\"\n\n2. It is _necessary_, for \"without holiness no man shall see\nthe Lord.\" Sometime, somehow, somewhere, sin must go out of our\nhearts--all sin--or we cannot go into Heaven. Sin would spoil\nHeaven just as it spoils earth; just as it spoils the peace of\nhearts and homes, of families and neighbourhoods and nations\nhere. Why God in His wisdom allows sin in the world, I do not\nknow, I cannot understand. But this I understand: that He has one\nworld into which He will not let sin enter. He has notified us in\nadvance that no sin, nothing that defiles, can enter Heaven, can\nmar the blessedness of that holy place. \"Who shall ascend into\nthe hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He\nthat hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up\nhis soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully\" We must get rid of\nsin to get into Heaven, to enjoy the full favour of God. It is\nnecessary.\n\n  \"Choose I must, and soon must choose\n  Holiness, or Heaven lose.\n  If what Heaven loves I hate,\n  Shut for me is Heaven's gate!\n\n  \"Endless sin means endless woe;\n  Into endless sin I go\n  If my soul, from reason rent,\n  Takes from sin its final bent.\n\n  \"As the stream its channel grooves,\n  And within that channel moves;\n  So does habit's deepest tide\n  Groove its bed and there abide.\n\n  \"Light obeyed increaseth light;\n  Light resisted bringeth night;\n  Who shall give me will to choose\n  If the love of light I lose?\n\n  \"Speed, my soul, this instant yield;\n  Let the light its sceptre wield.\n  While thy God prolongs His grace,\n  Haste thee to His holy face.\"\n\n3. This purification from sin is _promised_. Nothing can be\nplainer than the promise of God on this point. \"Then will I\nsprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from\n_all_ your filthiness and from _all_ your idols will I cleanse\nyou.\" When all is removed, nothing remains. When all filthiness\nand all idols are taken away, none are left.\n\n\"But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin\nhath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through\nrighteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord\" (Romans\nv. 20, 21). Grace reigns, not through sin, but \"through\nrighteousness\" which has expelled sin. Grace brings in\nrighteousness and sin goes out.\n\n\"If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have\nfellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His\nSon cleanseth us from all sin\" (1 John i. 7). Hallelujah!\n\n\"Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of\nrighteousness\" (Romans vi. 18).\n\nThese are sample promises and assurances any one of which is\nsufficient to encourage us to believe that our Heavenly Father\nwill save us from all sin, if we meet His conditions.\n\n4. And that deliverance is _possible_. It was for this that\nJesus Christ, the Father's Son, came into the world, and suffered\nand died, that He might \"save His people from their sins\"\n(Matthew i. 21). It was for this that He shed His precious blood:\nto \"cleanse us from all sin.\" It was for this that the word of\nGod, with its wonderful promises, was given: \"That by these ye\nmight be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the\ncorruption that is in the world through lust\" (2 Peter i. 4); by\nwhich is meant, escape from inbred sin. It was for this that\nministers of the Gospel--Salvation Army Officers--are given, \"for\nthe perfecting of the saints\" (Eph. iv. 12), for the saving and\nsanctifying of men (Acts xxvi. 18). It is primarily for this that\nthe Holy Ghost comes as a baptism of fire: that sin might be\nconsumed out of us, so that we might be \"made meet for the\ninheritance of the saints in light\"; that so we might be ready\nwithout a moment's warning to go into the midst of the heavenly\nhosts in white garments, \"washed in the blood of the Lamb.\" Glory\nbe to God for ever and ever!\n\nAnd shall all these mighty agents and this heavenly provision,\nand these gracious purposes of God, fail to destroy sin out of\nany obedient, believing heart? Is sin omnipotent? No!\n\nIf you, my brother, my sister, will look unto Jesus just now,\ntrusting the merits of His blood, and receive the Holy Spirit\ninto your heart, you shall be \"made free from sin\"; it \"shall not\nhave dominion over you.\" Hallelujah! Under the fiery touch of His\nholy presence, your iniquity shall be taken away, and your sin\nshall be purged. And you yourself shall burn as did the bush on\nthe mount of God which Moses saw; yet you, like the bush, shall\nnot be consumed; and by this holy fire, this flame of love,\nthat consumes sin, you shall be made proof against that\nunquenchable fire that consumes sinners.\n\n  \"Come, Holy Ghost, Thy mighty aid bestowing;\n   Destroy the works of sin, the self, the pride;\n  Burn, burn in me, my idols overthrowing:\n   Prepare my heart for Him, for my Lord crucified.\"\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nPOWER.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nJUST before His ascension, Jesus met His disciples for the last\ntime, and repeated His command that they should \"not depart from\nJerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,\" and\nreiterated His promise that they should be \"baptised with the\nHoly Ghost not many days hence.\"\n\nThen \"they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time\nrestore again the kingdom to Israel?\" They were still eager for\nan earthly kingdom. But \"He said unto them, It is not for you to\nknow the time or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His\nown power,\" or authority. And then He added, \"But ye shall\nreceive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.\"\n\nThey wanted power, and He assured them that they should have it,\nbut said nothing of its nature, or the work and activities into\nwhich it would thrust them, and for which it would equip them,\nbeyond the fact that they should be witnesses unto Him \"in\nJerusalem and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the\nearth.\" After that the Holy Ghost Himself was henceforth to be\ntheir Teacher.\n\nAnd then Jesus left them. Earth lost its power to hold Him, and\nwhile they beheld Him He began to ascend; a cloud bent low from\nHeaven, receiving Him out of sight, and they were left alone,\nwith His promise of power ringing in their ears, and His command\nto \"wait for the promise of the Father\" checking any impatience\nthat might lead them to \"go a-fishing,\" as Peter had done some\ndays before, or cause an undue haste to begin their life-work of\nwitnessing for Him before God's appointed time.\n\nFor ten days they waited, not listlessly, but eagerly, as a maid\nfor her mistress, or a servant for his master, who is expected to\ncome at any moment; they forgot their personal ambitions; they\nceased to judge and criticise one another, and in the sweet unity\nof brotherly love, \"with one accord\" they rejoiced, they prayed,\nthey waited; and then on the day of Pentecost, at their early\nmorning prayer meeting, when they were all present, the windows\nof Heaven were opened, and such a blessing as they could not\ncontain was poured out upon them. \"And suddenly there came a\nsound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all\nthe house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them\ncloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And\nthey were all filled with the Holy Ghost.\"\n\nThis was the inaugural day of the Church of God: the dawn of the\ndispensation of the Holy Spirit; the beginning of the days of\npower.\n\nIn the morning of that day there were only a few Christians in\nthe world; the New Testament was not written, and it is doubtful\nif they had among them all a copy of the Old Testament; they had\nno church buildings, no colleges, no religious books and papers;\nthey were poor and despised, unlearned and ignorant; but before\nnight they had enrolled three thousand converts from among those\nwho, a few weeks before, had crucified their Lord, and they had\naroused and filled all Jerusalem with questionings and amazement.\n\nWhat was the secret? Power. What was the secret? God the Holy\nGhost. He had come, and this work was His work, and they were His\ninstruments.\n\nWhen Jesus came, a body was prepared for Him (Hebrews x. 5), and\nthrough that body He wrought His wondrous works; but when the\nother Comforter comes, He takes possession of those bodies that\nare freely and fully presented to Him, and He touches their lips\nwith grace; He shines peacefully and gloriously on their faces;\nHe flashes beams of pity and compassion and heavenly affection\nfrom their eyes; He kindles a fire of love in their hearts, and\nlights the flame of truth in their minds. They become His temple,\nand their hearts are a holy of holies in which His blessed\npresence ever abides, and from that central citadel He works,\nenduing the man who has received Him with power.\n\nIf you ask how the Holy Spirit can dwell within us and work\nthrough us without destroying our personality, I cannot tell. How\ncan the electric fluid fill and transform a dead wire into a live\none, which you dare not touch? How can a magnetic current fill a\npiece of steel, and transform it into a mighty force which by its\ntouch can raise tons of iron, as a child would lift a feather?\nHow can fire dwell in a piece of iron until its very appearance\nis that of fire, and it becomes a fire-brand? I cannot tell.\n\nNow, what fire and electricity and magnetism do in iron and\nsteel, the Holy Spirit does in the spirits of men who believe on\nJesus, follow Him wholly, and trust Him intelligently. He dwells\nin them, and inspires them, till they are all alive with the very\nlife of God.\n\nThe transformation wrought in men by the baptism with the Holy\nGhost, and the power that fills them, are amazing beyond measure.\nThe Holy Spirit gives--\n\n1. _Power over the world_. They become\n\n  \"Dead to the world and all its toys,\n  Its idle pomps and fading joys.\"\n\nThe world masters and enslaves people who have not the Holy\nSpirit. To one man it offers money, and he falls down and\nworships; sells his conscience and character for gold. To another\nit offers power, and he falls down and worships and sacrifices\nhis principles and sears his conscience for power. To another it\noffers pleasure; to another learning; to another fame, and they\nfall down and worship, and sell themselves for these things. But\nthe man filled with the Holy Ghost is free. He can turn from\nthese things without a pang, as he would from pebbles; or, he can\ntake them and use them as his servants for the glory of God and\nthe good of men.\n\nWhat did Peter and James and John care for the great places in\nthe kingdoms of this world after they were filled with the Holy\nGhost? They would not have exchanged places with Herod the king\nor with Caesar himself. For the gratification of any personal\nambition these things were no more attractive to them now than\nthe lordship over a tribe of ants on their tiny hill. They were\nnow kings and priests unto God, and theirs was an everlasting\nkingdom, and its glory exceeds the glory of the kingdoms of this\nworld as the splendour of the sun exceeds that of the glow-worm.\n\nThe head of some great business enterprises was making many\nthousands of dollars every year; but when the Holy Spirit filled\nhim money lost its power over him. He still retained his\nposition, and made vast sums; but, as a steward of the Lord, he\npoured it into God's work, and has been doing so for more than\nthirty years.\n\nThe disciples in Jerusalem after Pentecost held all their\npossessions in common, so completely were they freed from the\npower and love of money.\n\nA rising young lawyer got filled with the Spirit, and the next\nday said to his client: \"I cannot plead your case. I have a\nretainer from the Lord Jesus\"; and he became one of the mightiest\npreachers the world has ever seen.\n\nA popular lad got the fiery baptism, and went to his baseball\nteam, and said: \"Boys, you swear, and I am now a Christian, and I\ncannot play with you any more\"; and God made him the wonder of\nall his old friends, and a happy winner of souls.\n\nA fashionable woman got the baptism, and God gave her power to\nbreak away from her worldly set and surroundings, live wholly for\nHim, and gave her an influence that girdled the globe.\n\nPaul said: \"The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the\nworld.\" Men could whip, and stone, and imprison his body, and cut\noff his head, but his soul was free. It was enslaved and driven\nby no unholy or inordinate ambition, by no lust for gold, by no\ndesire for power or fame, by no fear of man, by no shame of\nworldly censure or adverse public opinion. He had power over the\nworld, and this same power is the birthright of every converted\nman, and the present possession of every one who is wholly\nsanctified by the baptism with the Holy Ghost.\n\n2. _Power over the flesh_. The body which God intended for a\n\"house beautiful\" for the soul, and a temple holy unto Himself,\nis often reduced to a sty, where the imprisoned soul wallows in\nlusts and passions, and degrades itself below the level of\nbeasts. But this baptism gives a man power over his body.\n\nGod has given to man such desires and passions as are necessary\nto secure his continued existence, and not one is in itself evil,\nbut good and only good; and when controlled and used, but not\nabused, will help to develop and maintain the purest and highest\nmanhood. The appetites for food and drink are necessary to life.\nAnother desire is intended to secure the continuance of the human\nrace. And so all the desires and appetites of the body have\nuseful ends, and were given to us in love by our Heavenly Father\nfor high and essential purposes, and are necessary to us as human\nbeings.\n\nBut the soul, cut off from fellowship with God, by sin, seeks\nsatisfaction in sensual excesses, and the unlawful gratification\nof these appetites, and so sinks to depths of degradation to\nwhich no beast ever falls. Thus man becomes a slave; swollen and\nraging passion takes the place of innocent appetites and desires.\n\nNow, when the Holy Spirit enters the heart and sanctifies the\nsoul, He does not destroy these desires, but He purifies and\nregulates them. He reinforces the soul with the fear and love of\nGod, and gives it power, complete power, over the fleshly\nappetites. He restores it to its full fellowship with God and its\nkingship over the body.\n\nBut while these appetites and desires are not in themselves\nsinful, but are necessary for our welfare and our complete\nmanhood, and while their diseased and abnormal power is cured\nwhen we are sanctified, they are still avenues through which we\nmay be tempted. Therefore, they must be guarded with care and\nruled in wisdom. Many people stumble at and reject the doctrine\nof entire sanctification, because they do not understand these\nthings. They mistake that which is natural and essential to a\nhuman being for the diseased and abnormal propensity caused by\nsin, and so miss the blessed truth of full salvation.\n\nI knew a doctor, who had used tobacco for over sixty years,\ndelivered from the abnormal appetite instantly through sanctification\nof the Spirit. I knew an old man, who had been a drunkard for over\nfifty years, similarly delivered. I knew a young man, the slave of a\nvicious habit of the flesh, who was set free at once by the fiery\nbaptism. The electric current cannot transform the dead wire into\na live one quicker than the Holy Spirit can flood a soul with light\nand love, destroy the carnal mind, and fill a man with power over\nall sin.\n\n3. _Power over the Devil_. The indwelling presence of the\nHoly Spirit destroys all doubt as to the personality of the\nDevil. He is discerned, and his malice is felt and known as never\nbefore.\n\nIn the dark a man may be so skilfully attacked that his enemy is\nnot discovered, but not in the day. Many people in these days\ndeny that there is any Devil, only evil; but they are in the\ndark, so much in the dark that they not only say that there is no\nDevil, but that there is no personal God, only good. But the day\ncomes with the Holy Spirit's entrance, and then God is intimately\nknown and the Devil is discovered. And as he assailed Jesus after\nHis baptism with the Spirit, so he does to-day all who receive\nthe Holy Ghost. He comes as an angel of light to deceive, and as\na roaring lion to devour and overcome with fear; but the soul\nfilled with the Spirit outwits the Devil, and, clad in the whole\narmour of God, overcomes the old enemy.\n\n\"Power over all the power of the enemy\" is God's purpose for all\nHis children. Power to do the will of God patiently and\neffectively, with naturalness and ease, or to suffer the will of\nGod with patience and good cheer, comes with this blessed\nbaptism. It is power for service or sacrifice, according to God's\nwill. Have you this power? If not, it is for you. Yield yourself\nfully to Christ just now, and if you ask in faith you shall\nreceive.\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nTRYING THE SPIRITS.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nThose who have not the Holy Spirit, or who do not heed Him, fall\neasily and naturally into formalism, substituting lifeless\nceremonies, sacraments, genuflections, and ritualistic performances\nfor the free, glad, living worship inspired by the indwelling\nSpirit. They sing, but not from the heart. They say their prayers,\nbut they do not really pray. \"I prayed last night, mother,\" said a\nchild. \"Why, my child, you pray every night!\" replied the mother.\n\"No,\" said the child, \"I only said prayers, but last night I really\nprayed.\" And his face shone. He had opened his heart to the Holy\nSpirit, and had at last really talked with God and worshipped.\n\nBut those who receive the Holy Spirit may fall into fanaticism,\nunless they follow the command of John to \"try the spirits,\nwhether they are of God.\"\n\nWe are commanded to \"despise not prophesyings,\" but at the same\ntime we are commanded to \"prove all things.\" \"Many false prophets\nare gone out into the world,\" and, if possible, will lead us\nastray. So we must beware. As some one has written, we must\n\"Believe not every spirit; regard not, trust not, follow not,\nevery pretender to the Spirit of God, or every professor of\nvision, or inspiration, or revelation from God.\"\n\nThe higher and more intense the life, the more carefully must it\nbe guarded, lest it be endangered and go astray. It is so in the\nnatural world, and likewise in the spiritual world.\n\nWhen Satan can no longer rock people to sleep with religious\nlullabys, or satisfy them with the lifeless form, then he comes\nas an angel of light, probably in the person of some professor or\nteacher of religion, and seeks to usurp the place of the Holy\nSpirit; but instead of leading \"into all truth,\" he leads the\nunwary soul into deadly error; instead of directing him on to the\nhighway of holiness, and into the path of perfect peace, where no\nravenous beast ever comes, he leads him into a wilderness where\nthe soul, stripped of its beautiful garments of salvation, is\nrobbed and wounded and left to die, if some good Samaritan, with\npatient pity and Christlike love, come not that way.\n\n1. When the Holy Spirit comes in His fullness, He strips men of\ntheir self-righteousness and pride and conceit. They see\nthemselves as the chief of sinners, and realise that only through\nthe stripes of Jesus are they healed; and ever after, as they\nlive in the Spirit, their boast is in Him and their glory is in\nthe cross. Remembering the hole of the pit from which they were\ndigged, they are filled with tender pity for all who are out of\nthe way; and, while they do not excuse or belittle sin, yet they\nare slow to believe evil, and their judgments are full of\ncharity.\n\n  \"Judge not; the workings of his brain\n   And of his heart thou canst not see:\n  What looks to thy dim eyes a stain,\n   In God's pure light may only be\n  A scar, brought from some well-won field,\n  Where thou wouldst only faint and yield.\"\n\nBut the man who has been thus snared by Satan forgets his own\npast miserable state, and boasts of his righteousness, and thanks\nGod that he was never as other men, and he begins to beat his\nfellow-servants with heavy denunciations, and thrust them through\nwith sharp criticisms, and pelt them with hard words. He ceases\nto pity, and begins to condemn; he no longer warns and entreats\nmen in tender love, but is quick to believe evil, and swift to\npass judgment, not only upon their actions, but upon their\nmotives as well.\n\nTrue charity has no fellowship with deeds of darkness. It never\ncalls evil good, it does not wink at iniquity, but it is as far\nremoved from this sharp, condemning spirit as light is from\ndarkness, as honey is from vinegar. It is quick to condemn sin,\nbut is full of saving, long-suffering compassion for the sinner.\n\n2. A humble, teachable mind marks those in whom the Holy Spirit\ndwells. They esteem very highly in love those who are over them\nin the Lord, and are glad to be admonished by them. They submit\nthemselves one to the other in the fear of the Lord, welcome\ninstruction and correction, and esteem \"open rebuke better than\nsecret love\" (Proverbs xxvii. 5). They believe that the Lord has\nyet many things to say unto them, and they are willing and glad\nfor Him to say them by whom He will, but especially by their\nleaders and their brethren. While they do not fawn and cringe\nbefore men, nor believe everything that is said to them, without\nproving it by the word and Spirit of God, they believe that God\n\"gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists;\nand some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints,\nfor the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of\nChrist\"; and, like Cornelius, they are ready to hear these\nappointed ministers, and receive the word of the Lord from them.\n\nBut Satan seeks to destroy all this lowliness of spirit and\nhumbleness of mind. Those in whom his deadly work has begun are\n\"wiser in their own conceit than seven men that can render a\nreason.\" They are wiser than all their teachers, and no man can\ninstruct them. One of these deluded souls, who had previously\nbeen marked by modesty and humility, declared of certain of God's\nchosen leaders whose spiritual knowledge and wisdom were\neverywhere recognised, that \"the whole of them knew no more\nabout the Holy Ghost than an old goose.\" Paul, Luther, and Wesley\nwere much troubled, and their work greatly hurt, by some of these\nmisguided souls, and every great spiritual awakening is likely to\nbe marred more or less by such people; so that we cannot be too\nmuch on our guard against false spirits who would counterfeit the\nwork and leadings of the Holy Spirit.\n\nIt is this huge conceit that has led some men to announce\nthemselves as apostles and prophets to whom all men must listen,\nor fall under the wrath of God; while others have declared that\nthey were living in resurrection bodies and should not die; and\nyet others have reached that pitch of fanaticism where they could\ncalmly proclaim themselves to be the Messiah, or the Holy Ghost\nin bodily form. Such people will be quick to deny the infallibility\nof the Pope, while they assume their own infallibility, and\ndenounce all who dispute it.\n\nThe Holy Spirit may lead to a holy rivalry in love and humility\nand brotherly kindness and self-denial and good works, but He\nnever leads men into the swelling conceit of such exclusive\nknowledge and superior wisdom that they can no longer be taught\nby their fellow-men.\n\n3. Again, the man who is filled with the Spirit is tolerant of\nthose who differ from him in opinion, in doctrine. He is firm in\nhis own convictions, and ready at all times with meekness and\nfear to explain and defend the doctrines which he holds and is\nconvinced are according to God's word, but he does not condemn\nand consign to damnation all those who differ from him. He is\nglad to believe that men are often better than their creed, and\nmay be saved in spite of it; that, like mountains whose bases are\nbathed with sunshine and clothed with fruitful fields and\nvineyards, while their tops are covered with dark clouds, so\nmen's hearts are often fruitful in the graces of charity, while\ntheir heads are yet darkened by doctrinal error.\n\nAnyway, as \"the servant of the Lord,\" he will \"not strive; but be\ngentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness\ninstructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure\nwill give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and\nthat they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil\"\n(2 Timothy ii. 24-26).\n\nBut when Satan comes as an angel of light he will, under guise of\nlove for and loyalty to the truth, introduce the spirit of\nintolerance. It was this spirit that crucified Jesus; that burned\nHuss and Cranmer at the stake; that strangled Savonarola; that\ninspired the massacre of St. Bartholomew and the horrors of the\nInquisition; and it is the same spirit, in a milder but possibly\nmore subtle form, that blinds the eyes of many professing\nChristians to any good in those who differ from them in doctrine,\nforms of worship or methods of government. They murder love to\nprotect what they often blindly call truth. What is truth without\nlove? A dead thing, an encumbrance, the letter that killeth!\n\nThe body is necessary to our life in this world, but life can\nexist in a deformed and even mutilated body; and such a body with\nlife in it is better than the most perfect body that is only a\ncorpse. So, while truth is most precious, and sound doctrine to\nbe esteemed more than silver and gold, yet love can exist where\ntruth is not held in its most perfect and complete forms, and\nlove is the one thing needful.\n\n  \"The love of God is broader\n   Than the measure of man's mind:\n   And the heart of the Eternal\n    Is most wonderfully kind.\"\n\n4. The Holy Ghost begets a spirit of unity among Christians.\nPeople who have been sitting behind their sectarian fences in\nself-complacent ease, or proud indifference, or proselytising\nzeal, or grim defiance, are suddenly lifted above the fence, and\nfind sweet fellowship with each other, when He comes into their\nhearts.\n\nThey delight in each other's society; they each esteem others\nbetter than themselves, and in honour they prefer one another\nbefore themselves. They fulfil the Psalmist's ideal: \"Behold, how\ngood and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in\nunity.\" Here is a picture of the unity of Christians in the\nbeginning in Jerusalem: \"And they were all filled with the Holy\nGhost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the\nmultitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one\nsoul; neither said any of them that aught of the things which he\npossessed was his own; but they had all things common.\" What an\nideal is this! And since it has been attained once, it can be\nattained again and retained, but only by the indwelling of the\nHoly Ghost. It was for this that Jesus poured out His heart in\nHis great intercessory prayer, recorded in John xvii., just\nbefore His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. He says, \"I pray\nfor them.... Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also\nwhich shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may\nbe one.\" And what was the standard of unity to which He would\nhave us come? Listen!\n\n\"As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be\none in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.\"\nSuch unity has a wondrous power to compel the belief of worldly\nmen. \"And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that\nthey may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me,\nthat they may be perfect in one; and that the world may\n_know_ that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou\nhast loved Me.\" Wondrous unity! Wondrous love!\n\nIt is for this His blessed heart eternally yearns, and it is for\nthis that the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those who\nreceive Him. But Satan ever seeks to destroy this holy love and\ndivine unity. When he comes, he arouses suspicions, he stirs up\nstrife, he quenches the spirit of intercessory prayer, he\nengenders backbitings, and causes separations.\n\nAfter enumerating various Christian graces, and urging the\nColossians to put them on, Paul adds: \"And above all these\nthings, put on charity,\" or love, \"which is the bond of\nperfectness\" (Col. iii. 14). These graces were garments, and love\nwas the girdle which bound and held them together; and so love is\nthe bond that holds true Christians together.\n\nDivine love is the great test by which we are to try ourselves\nand all teachers and spirits.\n\nLove is not puffed up. Love is not bigoted. Love is not\nintolerant. Love is not schismatic. Love is loyal to Jesus and to\nall His people. If we have this love shed abroad in our hearts by\nthe Holy Ghost, we shall discern the voice of our Good Shepherd,\nand we shall not be deceived by the voice of the stranger; and so\nwe shall be saved from both formalism and fanaticism.\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\nGUIDANCE.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nIt is the work of the Holy Spirit to guide the people of God\nthrough the uncertainties and dangers and duties of this life to\ntheir home in Heaven. When He led the children of Israel out of\nEgypt, by the hand of Moses, He guided them through the waste,\nmountainous wilderness, in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire\nby night, thus assuring their comfort and safety. And this was\nbut a type of His perpetual spiritual guidance of His people.\n\n\"But how may I certainly know what God wants of me?\" is sure to\nbecome the earnest and, oftentimes, the agonising cry of every\nhumble and devoutly zealous young Christian. \"How may I know the\nguidance of the Holy Spirit?\" is asked again and again.\n\n1. It is well for us to get it fixed in our minds that we need to\nbe guided always by Him. A ship was wrecked on a rocky coast far\nout of the course that the captain thought he was taking. On\nexamination, it was found that the compass had been slightly\ndeflected by a bit of metal that had lodged in the box.\n\nBut the voyage of life on which we each one sail is beset by as\nmany dangers as the ship at sea, and how shall we surely steer\nour course to our heavenly harbour without Divine guidance? There\nis a wellnigh infinite number of influences to deflect us from\nthe safe and certain course. We start out in the morning, and we\nknow not what person we may meet, what paragraph we may read,\nwhat word may be spoken, what letter we may receive, what subtle\ntemptation may assail or allure us, what immediate decisions we\nmay have to make during the day, that may turn us almost\nimperceptibly, but none the less surely, from the right way. We\nneed the guidance of the Holy Spirit.\n\n2. We not only need Divine guidance, but we may have it. God's\nword assures us of this. Oh! how my heart was comforted and\nassured one morning by these words: \"And the Lord shall guide\nthee continually\" (Isaiah lviii. 11). Not occasionally, not\nspasmodically, but \"continually.\" Hallelujah! The Psalmist says:\n\"This God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our Guide even\nunto death\" (Psalm xlviii. 14). Again, he says: \"The meek will\nHe guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach His way\" (Psalm\nxxv. 9). And again, \"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the\nway which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye\" (Psalm\nxxxii. 8). And again, \"Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel\"\n(Psalm lxxiii. 24). Jesus said of the Holy Spirit: \"Howbeit when\nHe, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all\ntruth\" (John xvi. 13). And Paul wrote: \"As many as are led by the\nSpirit of God, they are the sons of God\" (Romans viii. 14).\n\nThese Scriptures establish the fact that the children of God may\nbe guided always by the Spirit of God.\n\n  \"Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,\n   Pilgrim through this barren land!\n   I am weak, but Thou art mighty:\n   Hold me with Thy powerful hand.\"\n\n3. How does God guide us?\n\nPaul says: \"We walk by faith, not by sight,\" and, \"The just shall\nlive by faith,\" so we may conclude:--\n\n(a) That the guidance of the Holy Spirit is such as still to\ndemand the exercise of faith. God never leads us in such a way as\nto do away with the necessity of faith. When God warned Noah, we\nread that it was by faith that Noah was led to build the ark.\nWhen God told Abraham to go to a land which He would show him, it\nwas by faith that Abraham went (Hebrews xi. 7, 8). If we believe,\nwe shall surely be guided; but if we do not believe, we shall be\nleft to ourselves. Without faith it is impossible to please God,\nor to follow where He leads. Again, the Psalmist says, \"The meek\nwill He guide in judgment,\" from which we gather:--\n\n(b) That the Spirit guides us in such manner as to demand the\nexercise of our best judgment. He enlightens our understanding\nand directs our judgment by sound reason and sense.\n\nI knew a man who was eager to obey God, and to be led by the\nSpirit, but who had the mistaken idea that the Holy Spirit sets\naside human judgment and common sense, and speaks directly upon\nthe most minute and commonplace matters. He wanted the Holy\nSpirit to direct him just how much to eat at each meal, and he\nhas been known to take food out of his mouth at what he supposed\nto be the Holy Spirit's notification that he had eaten enough,\nand that if he swallowed that mouthful, it would be in violation\nof the leadings of the Spirit.\n\nNo doubt, the Spirit will help an honest man to arrive at a safe\njudgment even in matters of this kind, but it will doubtless be\nthrough the use of his sanctified common sense. Otherwise, he is\nreduced to a state of mental infancy, and kept in intellectual\nswaddling clothes. He will guide us in judgment; but it is only\nas we resolutely, and in the best light we have, exercise\njudgment.\n\nJohn Wesley said that God usually guided him by presenting\nreasons to his mind for any given course of action.\n\n(c) The Psalmist says, \"Thou shalt guide me with Thy\ncounsel,\" and \"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way\nthat thou shalt go.\" Now, counsel, instruction, and teaching not\nonly imply effort upon the part of the teacher, but also study\nand close attention on the part of the one being taught. So this\nguidance of the Holy Spirit is such as will require us to\nattentively listen, diligently study, and patiently learn the\nlessons He would teach us. And so we see that the Holy Spirit\ndoes not set aside our powers and faculties, but seeks to awaken\nand stir them into full activity, and develop them into well-rounded\nperfection, and thus make them channels through which He\ncan intelligently influence and direct us.\n\nWhat He seeks to do is to illuminate our whole spiritual being,\nas the sun illuminates our physical being, and bring us into such\nunion and sympathy, such oneness of thought, desire, affection,\nand purpose with God, that we shall, by a kind of spiritual\ninstinct, know at all times the mind of God concerning us, and\nnever be in doubt about His will.\n\n4. The Holy Spirit guides us--\n\n(a) By opening up to our minds the deep, sanctifying truths of\nthe Bible, and especially by revealing to us the character and\nspirit of Jesus and His Apostles, and leading us to follow in\ntheir footsteps--the footsteps of their faith and love and\nunselfish devotion to God and man, even unto the laying down of\ntheir lives.\n\n(b) By the circumstances and surroundings of our daily life.\n\n(c) By the counsel of others, especially of devout, and wise, and\nexperienced men and women of God.\n\n(d) By deep inward conviction, which increases as we wait\nupon Him in prayer and readiness to obey. It is by this sovereign\nconviction that men are called to preach, to go to foreign fields\nas missionaries, to devote their time, talents, money, and lives\nto God's work for the bodies and souls of men.\n\n5. Why do people seek for guidance and not find it?\n\n(a) Because they do not diligently study God's word, and\nseek to be filled with its truths and principles. They neglect\nthe cultivation of their minds and hearts in the school of\nChrist, and so miss Divine guidance. One of the mightiest men of\nGod now living used to carry his Bible with him into the coal\nmine when only a boy, and spent his spare time filling his mind\nand heart with its heavenly truths, and so prepared himself to be\ndivinely led in mighty labours for God.\n\n(b) They do not humbly accept the daily providences, the\ncircumstances, and conditions of their everyday life as a part of\nGod's present plan for them; as His school in which He would\ntrain them for greater things; as His vineyard in which He would\nhave them diligently labour.\n\nA young woman imagined she was called to devote herself entirely\nto saving souls; but under the searching training through which\nshe had to pass saw her selfishness, and she said she would have\nto return home, and live a holy life there, and seek to get her\nfamily saved--something which she had utterly neglected--before\nshe could go into the work. If we are not faithful at home, or in\nthe shop, or mill, or store where we work, we shall miss God's\nway for us.\n\n(c) Because they are not teachable, and are unwilling to receive\ninstruction from other Christians. They are not humble-minded.\n\n(d) Because they do not wait on God, and listen and heed the\ninner leadings of the Holy Spirit. They are self-willed; they\nwant their own way. Some one has said, \"That which is often asked\nof God is not so much His will and way, as His approval of our\nway.\" And another has said: \"God's guidance is plain, when we are\ntrue.\" If we promptly and gladly obey, we shall not miss the way.\nPaul said of himself, \"I was not disobedient to the heavenly\nvision.\" He obeyed God at all costs, and so the Holy Spirit could\nguide him.\n\n(e) Because of fear and unbelief. It was this fearfulness of\nunbelief that caused the Israelites to turn back, and not go into\nCanaan when Caleb and Joshua assured them that God would help\nthem to possess the land. They lost sight of God, and feared the\ngiants and walled cities, and so missed God's way for them and\nperished in the wilderness.\n\n(f) Because they do not take everything promptly and confidently\nto God in prayer.\n\nPaul tells us to be \"instant in prayer\"; and I am persuaded that\nit is slowness and delay to pray, and sloth and sleepiness in\nprayer, that rob God's children of the glad assurance of His\nguidance in all things.\n\n(g) Because of impatience and haste. Some of God's plans\nfor us unfold slowly, and we must patiently and calmly wait on\nHim in faith and faithfulness, assured that in due time He will\nmake plain His way for us, if our faith fail not. It is never\nGod's will that we should get into a headlong hurry; but that,\nwith patient steadfastness, we should learn to stand still when\nthe pillar of cloud and fire does not move, and that with loving\nconfidence and glad promptness we should strike our tents and\nmarch forward when He leads.\n\n  \"When we cannot see our way,\n  Let us trust and still obey;\n  He who bids us forward go,\n  Cannot fail the way to show.\n  Though the sea be deep and wide,\n  Though a passage seem denied;\n  Fearless, let us still proceed,\n  Since the Lord vouchsafes to lead.\"\n\nFinally, we may rest assured that the Holy Spirit never leads His\npeople to do anything that is wrong, or that is contrary to the\nwill of God as revealed in the Bible. He never leads anyone to be\nimpolite and discourteous. \"Be courteous\" is a Divine command. He\nwould have us respect the minor graces of gentle, kindly manners,\nas well as the great laws of holiness and righteousness.\n\nHe may sometimes lead us in ways that are hard for flesh and\nblood, and that bring to us sorrow and loss in this life. He led\nJesus into the wilderness to be sore tried by the Devil, and to\nPilate's judgment hall, and to the cross. He led Paul in ways\nthat meant imprisonment, stonings, whippings, hunger and cold,\nand bitter persecution and death. But He upheld Paul until he\ncried out: \"I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in\nnecessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake.\"\n\"Yea,\" said he, \"I glory in my infirmities, that the power of\nChrist may rest upon me.\" Hallelujah! Oh, to be thus led by our\nHeavenly Guide!\n\n   \"He leadeth me! Oh, blessed thought!\n    Oh, words with heavenly comfort fraught!\n    Whate'er I do, where'er I be,\n    Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.\n\n   \"Sometimes 'mid scenes of deepest gloom,\n    Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,\n    By waters still, o'er troubled sea,\n    Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.\n\n   \"Lord, I will clasp Thy hand in mine,\n    Nor ever murmur nor repine,\n    Content, whatever lot I see,\n    Since 'tis my God that leadeth me.\n\n   \"And when my task on earth is done,\n    When by Thy grace the victory's won,\n    E'en death's cold wave I will not flee,\n    Since God through Jordan leadeth me.\"\n\n\"HAVE  YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nIX.\n\nTHE MEEK AND LOWLY HEART.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nI know a man whose daily prayer for years was that he might be\nmeek and lowly in heart as was his Master. \"Take My yoke upon\nyou, and learn of Me,\" said Jesus; \"for I am meek and lowly in\nheart.\"\n\nHow lowly Jesus was! He was the Lord of life and glory. He made\nthe worlds, and upholds them by His word of power (John i.,\nHebrews i.). But He humbled Himself, and became man, and was born\nof the Virgin in a manger among the cattle. He lived among the\ncommon people, and worked at the carpenter's bench. And then,\nanointed with the Holy Spirit, He went about doing good,\npreaching the Gospel to the poor, and ministering to the manifold\nneeds of the sick and sinful and sorrowing. He touched the\nlepers; He was the Friend of publicans and sinners. His whole\nlife was a ministry of mercy to those who most needed Him. He\nhumbled Himself to our low estate. He was a King who came \"lowly,\nand riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass\"\n(Zech. ix. 9). He was a King, but His crown was of thorns, and a\ncross was His throne.\n\nWhat a picture Paul gives us of the mind and heart of Jesus! He\nexhorts the Philippians, saying, \"Let nothing be done through\nstrife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem\nother better than themselves\"; and then he adds, \"Let this mind\nbe in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form\nof God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made\nHimself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a\nservant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in\nfashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto\ndeath, even the death of the cross.\"\n\nNow, when the Holy Spirit finds His way into the heart of a man,\nthe Spirit of Jesus has come to that man, and leads him to the\nsame meekness of heart and lowly service that were seen in the\nMaster.\n\nAmbition for place and power and money and fame vanishes, and in\nits place is a consuming desire to be good and do good, to\naccomplish in full the blessed, the beneficent will of God.\n\nSome time ago I met a woman who, as a trained nurse in Paris,\nnursing rich, English-speaking foreigners, received pay that in a\nfew years would have made her independently wealthy; but the\nspirit of Jesus came into her heart, and she is now nursing the\npoor, and giving her life to them, and doing for them service the\nmost loathsome and exacting, and doing it with a smiling face,\nfor her food and clothes.\n\nSome able men in one of our largest American cities lost their\nspiritual balance, cut themselves loose from all other Christians,\nand made for a time quite a religious stir among many good people.\nThey were very clear and powerful in their presentation of certain\nphases of truth, but they were also very strong, if not bitter,\nin their denunciations of all existing religious organisations.\nThey attacked the churches and The Salvation Army, pointing out\nwhat they considered wrong so skilfully, and with such professions\nof sanctity, that many people were made most dissatisfied with the\nchurches and with The Army.\n\nAn Army Captain listened to them, and was greatly moved by their\nfervour, their burning appeals, their religious ecstasy, and\ntheir denunciations of the lukewarmness of other Christians,\nincluding The Army. She began to wonder if after all they were\nnot right, and whether or not the Holy Spirit was amongst us. Her\nheart was full of distress, and she cried to God. And then the\nvision of our Slum Officers rose before her eyes. She saw their\ndevotion, their sacrifice, their lowly, hidden service, year\nafter year, among the poor and ignorant and vicious, and she said\nto herself, \"Is not this the Spirit of Jesus? Would these men,\nwho denounce us so, be willing to forgo their religious ecstasies\nand spend their lives in such lowly, unheralded service?\" And the\nmists that had begun to blind her eyes were swept away, and she\nsaw Jesus still amongst us going about doing good in the person\nof our Slum Officers and of all who for His name's sake sacrifice\ntheir time and money and strength to bless and save their\nfellow-men.\n\nYou who have visions of glory and rapturous delight, and so count\nyourselves filled with the Spirit, do these visions lead you to\nvirtue and to lowly, loving service? If not, take heed to\nyourselves, lest, exalted like Capernaum to Heaven, you are at\nlast cast down to Hell. Thank God for the mounts of transfiguration\nwhere we behold His glory! but down below in the valley are\nchildren possessed of devils, and to them He would have us go\nwith the glory of the mount on our faces, and lowly love and\nvigorous faith in our hearts, and clean hands ready for any service.\nHe would have us give ourselves to them; and if we love Him,\nif we follow Him, if we are truly filled with the Holy Spirit, we\nwill.\n\nA Captain used to slip out of bed early in the morning to pray,\nand then black his own and his Lieutenant's boots, and God\nmightily blessed him. Recently I saw him, now a Commissioner,\nwith thousands of Officers and Soldiers under his command, at an\nouting in the woods by the lake shore, looking after poor and\nforgotten Soldiers, and giving them food with his own hand. Like\nthe Lord, his eyes seemed to be in every place beholding\nopportunities to do good, and his feet and hands always followed\nhis eyes; and this is the fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit.\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nX.\n\nHOPE.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nAre you ever cast down and depressed in spirit? Listen to Paul:\n\"Now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in\nbelieving, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the\nHoly Ghost\" (Romans xv. 13). What cheer is in those words! They\nring like the shout of a triumph.\n\n1. God Himself is \"the God of hope.\" There is no gloom, no\ndepression, no wasting sickness of deferred hope in Him. He is a\nbrimming fountain and ocean of hope eternally, and He is our God.\nHe is our Hope.\n\n2. Out of His infinite fullness He is to fill us; not half fill\nus, but fill us with joy, \"all joy,\" hallelujah! \"and peace.\"\n\n3. And this is not by some condition or means that is so high and\ndifficult that we cannot perform our part, but it is simply \"in\nbelieving \"--something which the little child or the aged\nphilosopher, the poor man and the rich man, the ignorant and the\nlearned can do. And the result will be:--\n\n4. Abounding \"hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.\" And what\npower is that? If it is physical power, then the power of a\nmillion Niagaras and flowing oceans and rushing worlds is as\nnothing compared to it. If it is mental power, then the power of\nPlato and Bacon and Milton and Shakespeare and Newton is as the\nlight of a fire-fly to the sun when compared to it. If it is\nspiritual power, then there is nothing with which it can be\ncompared. But suppose it is all three in one, infinite and\neternal! This is the power, throbbing with love and mercy, to\nwhich we are to bring our little hearts by living faith, and God\nwill fill us with joy and peace and hope by the incoming of the\nHoly Spirit.\n\nGod's people are a hopeful people. They hope in God, with whom\nthere is no change, no weakness, no decay. In the darkest night\nand the fiercest storm they still hope in Him, though it may be\nfeebly. But He would have His people \"abound in hope\" so that\nthey should always be buoyant, triumphant.\n\nBut how can this be in a world such as this? We are surrounded by\nawful, mysterious, and merciless forces, that at any moment may\noverwhelm us. The fire may burn us, the water may drown us, the\nhurricane may sweep us away, friends may desert us, foes may\nmaster us. There is the depression that comes from failing\nhealth, from poverty, from overwork and sleepless nights and\nconstant care, from thwarted plans, disappointed ambitions,\nslighted love, and base ingratitude. Old age comes on with its\ngrey hairs, failing strength, dimness of sight, dullness of\nhearing, tottering step, shortness of breath, and general\nweakness and decay. The friends of youth die, and a new, strange,\npushing generation that knows not the old man, comes elbowing him\naside and taking his place. Under some blessed outpouring of the\nSpirit the work of God revives, vile sinners are saved, Zion puts\non her beautiful garments, reforms of all kind advance, the\ndesert blossoms as the rose, the waste place becomes a fruitful\nfield, and the millennium seems just at hand; and then the\nspiritual tide recedes, the forces of evil are emboldened, they\nmass themselves and again sweep over the heritage of the Lord,\nleaving it waste and desolate, and the battle must be fought over\nagain.\n\nHow can one be always hopeful, always abounding in hope, in such\na world? Well, hallelujah! it is possible \"through the power of\nthe Holy Ghost,\" but only through His power; and this power will\nnot fail so long as we fix our eyes on eternal things and\nbelieve.\n\nThe Holy Spirit, dwelling within, turns our eyes from that which\nis temporal to that which is eternal; from the trial itself to\nGod's purpose in the trial; from the present pain to the precious\npromise.\n\nI am now writing in a little city made rich by vast potteries. If\nthe dull, heavy clay on the potter's wheel and in the fiery oven\ncould think and speak, it would doubtless cry out against the\nfierce agony; but if it could foresee the purpose of the potter,\nand the thing of use and beauty he meant to make it, it would\nnestle low under his hand and rejoice in hope.\n\nWe are clay in the hand of the Divine Potter, but we can think\nand speak, and in some measure understand His high purpose in us.\nIt is the work of the Holy Spirit to make us understand. And if\nwe will not be dull and senseless and unbelieving, He will\nilluminate us and fill us with peaceful, joyous hope.\n\n1. He would reveal to us that our Heavenly Potter has Himself\nbeen on the wheel and in the fiery furnace, learning obedience\nand being fashioned into \"the Captain of our salvation\" by the\nthings which He suffered. When we are tempted and tried, and\ntempest-tossed, He raises our hope by showing us Jesus suffering\nand sympathising with us, tempted in all points as we are, and so\nable and wise and willing to help us in our struggle and conflict\n(Hebrews ii. 9-18). He assures us that Jesus, into whose hands is\ncommitted all power in Heaven and earth, is our elder Brother,\n\"touched with the feeling of our infirmities\" (Hebrews iv. 15),\nand He encourages us to rest in Him and not be afraid; and so we\nabound in hope, through His power as we believe.\n\n2. He reveals to us the eternal purpose of God in our trials and\ndifficulties. Listen to Paul: \"All things work together for good\nto them that love God.\" \"We know _this_,\" says Paul (Romans\nviii. 28). But how can this be? Ah! there is where faith must be\nexercised. It is \"in believing\" that we \"abound in hope through\nthe power of the Holy Ghost.\"\n\nGod's wisdom and ability to make all things work together for our\ngood are not to be measured by our understanding, but to be\nfirmly held by our faith. My child is in serious difficulty and\ndoes not know how to help himself; but I say, \"Leave it to me.\"\nHe may not understand how I am to help him, but he trusts me, and\nrejoices in hope. We are God's dear children, and He knows how to\nhelp us, and make all things work together for our good, if we\nwill only commit ourselves to Him in faith.\n\n  \"Thou art as much His care as if beside\n   Nor man nor angel lived in Heaven or earth;\n  Thus sunbeams pour alike their glorious tide,\n   To light up worlds, or wake an insect's mirth.\"\n\nAgain, afflictions overtake us, and now the Holy Spirit\nencourages our hope and makes it to abound by such promises as\nthese: \"Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh\nfor us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we\nlook not at the things which are seen, but at the things which\nare not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the\nthings which are not seen are eternal\" (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18). But\nsuch a promise as that only mocks us if we do not believe. \"In\nall their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His\npresence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed\nthem; and He bare them, and He carried them all the days of old\"\n(Isaiah lxiii. 9). And He is just the same to-day. To some He\nsays: \"I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction\" (Isaiah\nxlviii 10), and nestling down into His will and \"believing,\" they\n\"abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.\"\n\nHe turns our eyes back upon Job in his loss and pain; upon Joseph\nsold into Egyptian slavery; Daniel in the lions' den; the three\nHebrews in the burning fiery furnace, and Paul in prison and\nshipwreck and manifold perils; and, showing us their steadfastness\nand their final triumph, He prompts us to hope in God.\n\nWhen weakness of body overtakes us, He encourages us with such\nassurances as these: \"My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is\nthe strength of my heart, and my portion for ever\" (Psalm lxxiii.\n26), and the words of Paul: \"Though our outward man perish, yet\nthe inward man is renewed day by day\" (2 Cor. iv. 16).\n\nWhen old age comes creeping on apace, He has promised to meet the\nneed that our hope fail not. Listen to David! He prays: \"Cast me\nnot off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength\nfaileth.... Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake\nme not; until I have showed Thy strength unto this generation,\nand Thy power to every one that is to come\" (Psalm lxxi. 9, 18).\nAnd through Isaiah the Lord replies: \"Even to your old age I am\nHe; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I\nwill bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you\" (Isaiah xlvi.\n4). And David cries out, \"The righteous shall flourish like the\npalm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be\nplanted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of\nour God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they\nshall be fat and flourishing, to show that the Lord is upright\"\n(Psalm xcii. 12-15).\n\nThese are sample promises of which the Bible is full, and which\nhave been adapted by infinite wisdom and love to meet us at every\npoint of doubt and fear and need, that, in believing them, we may\nhave a steadfast and glad hope in God. He is pledged to help us.\nHe says: \"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for\nI am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea,\nI will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness\"\n(Isaiah xli. 10).\n\nWhen all God's waves and billows seemed to sweep over David, and\nhis soul was bowed within him, three times he cried out: \"Why art\nthou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?\nHope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His\ncountenance\" (Psalm xlii. 5). And Jeremiah, remembering the\nwormwood and the gall, and the deep mire of the dungeon into\nwhich they had plunged him, and from which he had scarcely been\ndelivered, said: \"It is good that a man should both hope and\nquietly wait for the salvation of the Lord\" (Lam. iii. 26).\n\nWhen the Holy Spirit is come, He brings to remembrance these\nprecious promises, and makes them living words; and, if we\nbelieve, the whole heaven of our soul shall be lighted up with\nabounding hope. Hallelujah! It is only through ignorance of God's\npromises, or through weak and wavering faith, that hope is\ndimmed. Oh, that we may heed the still small voice of the\nHeavenly Comforter, and steadfastly, joyously believe!\n\n  \"My hope is built on nothing less\n  Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;\n  When all around my soul gives way,\n  He then is all my Hope and Stay.\"\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXI.\n\nTHE HOLY SPIRIT'S SUBSTITUTE FOR GOSSIP AND EVIL-SPEAKING.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nThe other day I heard a man of God say: \"We cannot bridle the\ntongues of the people among whom we live: they will talk\"; and by\ntalk he meant gossip and criticism and fault-finding.\n\n  \"You never can tell when you send a word--\n   Like an arrow shot from a bow\n  By an archer blind--be it cruel or kind,\n   Just where it will chance to go.\n  It may pierce the breast of your dearest friend,\n   Tipped with its poison or balm:\n  To a stranger's heart in life's great mart\n   It may carry its pain or its calm.\"\n\nThe wise mother, when she finds her little boy playing with a\nsharp knife, or the looking-glass, or some dainty dish, does not\nsnatch it away with a slap on his cheek or harsh words, but\nquietly and gently substitutes a safer and more interesting toy,\nand so avoids a storm.\n\nA sensible father who finds his boy reading a book of dangerous\ntendency, will kindly point out its character and substitute a\nbetter book that is equally interesting.\n\nWhen children want to spend their evenings on the street,\nthoughtful and intelligent parents will seek to make their\nevenings at home more healthfully attractive.\n\nWhen a man seeks to rid his mind of evil and hurtful thoughts, he\nwill find it wise to follow Paul's exhortation to the Philippians:\n\"Brethren, whatsoever things are true,... honest,... just,...\npure,... lovely,... of good report;... if there be any praise,\nthink on these things\" (Phil. iv. 8).\n\nAny man who faithfully, patiently, and persistently accepts this\nprogramme of Paul's will find his evil thoughts vanishing away.\n\nAnd this is the Holy Spirit's method: He has a pleasant and safe\nsubstitute for gossip and fault-finding and slander.\n\nHere it is: \"Be filled with the Spirit: speaking to yourselves in\npsalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody\nin your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things\nunto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ\"\n(Eph. v. 18-20). This is certainly a fruit of being filled with\nthe Spirit.\n\nMany years ago the Lord gave me a blessed revival in a little\nvillage in which nearly every soul in the place, as well as\nfarmers from the surrounding country, were converted. One result\nwas that they now had no time for gossip and doubtful talk about\ntheir neighbours. They were all talking about religion and\nrejoicing in the things of the Lord. If they met each other on\nthe street, or in some shop or store, they praised the Lord, and\nencouraged each other to press on in the heavenly way. If they\nmet a sinner, they tenderly besought him to be reconciled to God,\nto give up his sins, \"flee from the wrath to come,\" and start at\nonce for Heaven. If they met in each other's houses, they\ngathered around the organ or the piano and sang hymns and songs,\nand did not part till they had united in prayer.\n\nThere was no criticising of their neighbours, no grumbling and\ncomplaining about the weather, no fault-finding with their lot in\nlife, or their daily surroundings and circumstances. Their\nconversation was joyous, cheerful, and helpful to one another.\nNor was it forced and out of place, but rather it was the\nnatural, spontaneous outflow of loving, humble, glad hearts\nfilled with the Spirit, in union with Jesus, and in love and\nsympathy with their fellow-men.\n\nAnd this is, I think, our Heavenly Father's ideal of social and\nspiritual intercourse for His children on earth. He would not\nhave us separate ourselves from each other and shut ourselves up\nin convents and monasteries in austere asceticism on the one\nhand, nor would He have us light and foolish, or fault-finding\nand censorious on the other hand, but sociable, cheerful, and\nfull of tender, considerate love.\n\nOn the day of Pentecost, when they were all filled with the Holy\nGhost and a multitude were converted, we read that \"they,\ncontinuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking\nbread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and\nsingleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the\npeople\" (Acts ii. 46, 47). This is a sample of the brotherly love\nand unity which our Heavenly Father would have throughout the\nwhole earth; but how the breath of gossip and evil-speaking would\nhave marred this heavenly fellowship and separated these \"chief\nfriends\"!\n\n  \"Lord! subdue our selfish will;\n   Each to each our tempers suit\n  By Thy modulating skill,\n   Heart to heart, as lute to lute.\"\n\nLet no one suppose, however, that the Holy Spirit accomplishes\nthis heavenly work by some overwhelming baptism which does away\nwith the need of our co-operation. He does not override us, but\nworks with us; and we must intelligently and determinedly work\nwith Him in this matter.\n\nPeople often fall into idle and hurtful gossip and evil-speaking,\nnot so much from ill-will, as from old habit, as a wagon falls\ninto a rut. Or they drift into it with the current of conversation\nabout them. Or they are beguiled into it by a desire to say\nsomething, and be pleasant and entertaining.\n\nBut when the Holy Spirit comes, He lifts us out of the old ruts,\nand we must follow Him with care lest we fall into them again,\npossibly never more to escape. He gives us life and power to stem\nthe adverse currents about us, but we must exercise ourselves not\nto be swept downward by them. He does not destroy the desire to\nplease, but He subordinates it to the desire to help and bless,\nand we must stir ourselves up to do this.\n\nWhen Miss Havergal was asked to sing and play before a worldly\ncompany, she sang a sweet song about Jesus, and, without\ndispleasing anybody, greatly blessed the company.\n\nAt a breakfast party John Fletcher told his experience so sweetly\nand naturally that all hearts were stirred, the Holy Ghost fell\nupon the company, and they ended with a glorious prayer meeting.\n\nWilliam Bramwell used at meals to steadily and persistently turn\nthe conversation into spiritual channels to the blessing of all\nwho were present, so that they had two meals--one for the body\nand one for the soul.\n\nTo do this wisely and helpfully requires thought and prayer and a\nfixed purpose, and a tender, loving heart filled with the Holy\nSpirit.\n\nI know a mother who seeks to have a brief season of prayer and a\ntext of Scripture just before going to dinner to prepare her\nheart to guide the conversation along spiritual highways.\n\nAre you careful and have you victory in this matter, my comrade?\nIf not, seek it just now in simple, trustful prayer, and the Lord\nwho loves you will surely answer, and will be your helper from\nthis time forth. He surely will. Believe just now, and henceforth\n\"let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ.\"\n\n  \"I ask Thee, ever blessed Lord,\n  That I may never speak a word,\n  Of envy born, or passion stirred.\n\n  \"First, true to Thee in heart and mind,\n  Then always to my neighbour kind,\n  By Thy good hand to good inclined.\n\n  \"Oh, save from words that bear a sting,\n  That pain to any brother bring:\n  Inbreathe Thy calm in everything.\n\n  \"Let love within my heart prevail,\n  To rule my words when thoughts assail,\n  That, hid in Thee, I may not fail.\n\n  \"I know, my Lord, Thy power within\n  Can save from all the power of sin;\n  In Thee let every word begin.\n\n  \"Should I be silent? Keep me still,\n  Glad waiting on my Master's will:\n  Thy message through my lips fulfil.\n\n  \"Give me Thy words when I should speak,\n  For words of Thine are never weak,\n  But break the proud, but raise the meek.\n\n  \"Into Thy lips all grace is poured,\n  Speak Thou through me, Eternal Word,\n  Of thought, of heart, of lips the Lord.\"\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXII.\n\nTHE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nGod is love, and the Holy Spirit is ceaselessly striving to make\nthis love known in our hearts, work out God's purposes of love in\nour lives, and transform and transfigure our character by love.\nAnd so we are solemnly warned against resisting the Spirit, and\nalmost tearfully and always tenderly exhorted to \"quench not the\nSpirit,\" and to \"grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby,\"\nsays the Apostle, \"ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.\"\n\nThere is one great sin against which Jesus warned the Jews, as a\nsin never to be forgiven in this world nor in that which is to\ncome. That was blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.\n\nThat there is such a sin, Jesus teaches in Matthew xii. 31, 32,\nMark iii. 28-30, and Luke xii. 10. And it may be that this is the\nsin referred to in Hebrews vi. 4-6; x. 29.\n\nSince many of God's dear children have fallen into dreadful\ndistress through fear that they had committed this sin, it may be\nhelpful for us to study carefully as to what constitutes it.\n\nJesus was casting out devils, and Mark tells us that \"the scribes\nwhich came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by\nthe prince of the devils casteth He out devils.\" To this Jesus\nreplied with gracious kindness and searching logic: \"How can\nSatan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself,\nthat kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against\nitself, it cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself and\nbe divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. No man can enter\ninto a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he will\nfirst bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.\"\n\nIn this quiet reply we see that Jesus does not rail against them,\nnor flatly deny their base assertion that He does His miracles by\nthe power of the Devil, but shows how logically false must be\ntheir statement. And then, with grave authority, and, I think,\nwith solemn tenderness in His voice and in His eyes, He adds,\n\"Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons\nof men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:\nbut he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never\nforgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation\"; or, as the\nRevised Version puts it, \"is guilty of an eternal sin\"; and then\nMark adds, \"because they said, He hath an unclean spirit\" (Mark\niii. 22-30).\n\nJesus came into the world to reveal God's truth and love to men,\nand to save them, and men are saved by believing in Him. But how\ncould the men of His day, who saw Him working at the carpenter's\nbench, and living the life of an ordinary man of humble toil and\ndaily temptation and trial, believe His stupendous claim to be\nthe only-begotten Son of God, the Saviour of the world, and the\nfinal Judge of all men? Any wilful and proud impostor could make\nsuch a claim. But men _could_ not and _ought_ not to believe\nsuch an assertion unless the claim were supported by ungainsayable\nevidence. This evidence Jesus began to give, not only in the holy\nlife which He lived and the pure Gospel He preached, but in the\nmiracles He wrought, the blind eyes He opened, the sick He healed,\nthe hungry thousands He fed, the seas He stilled, the dead He\nraised to life again, and the devils He cast out of bound and\nharassed souls.\n\nThe Scribes and Pharisees witnessed these miracles, and were\ncompelled to admit these signs and wonders. Nicodemus, one of\ntheir number, said to Jesus, \"Rabbi, we know that Thou art a\nteacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou\ndoest, except God be with him\" (John iii. 2). Would they now\nadmit His claim to be the Son of God, their promised and\nlong-looked-for Messiah? They were thoughtful men and very religious,\nbut not spiritual. The Gospel He preached was Spirit and life; it\nappealed to their conscience and revealed their sin, and to\nacknowledge Him was to admit that they themselves were wrong. It\nmeant submission to His authority, the surrender of their wills,\nand a change of front in their whole inner and outer life. This\nmeant moral and spiritual revolution in each man's heart and\nlife, and to this they would not submit. And so to avoid such\nplain inconsistency, they must discredit His miracles; and since\nthey could not deny them, they declared that He wrought them by\nthe power of the Devil.\n\nJesus worked these signs and wonders by the power of the Holy\nSpirit, that he might win their confidence, and that they might\nreasonably believe and be saved. But they refused to believe, and\nin their malignant obstinacy heaped scorn upon Him, accusing Him\nof being in league with the Devil; and how could they be saved?\nThis was the sin against the Holy Spirit against which Jesus\nwarned them. It was not so much one act of sin, as a deep-seated,\nstubborn rebellion against God that led them to choose darkness\nrather than light, and so to blaspheme against the Spirit of\ntruth and light. It was sin full and ripe and ready for the\nharvest.\n\nSome one has said that \"this sin cannot be forgiven, not because\nGod is unwilling to forgive, but because one who thus sins\nagainst the Holy Spirit has put himself where no power can soften\nhis heart or change his nature. A man may misuse his eyes and yet\nsee; but whosoever puts them out can never see again. One may\nmisdirect his compass, and turn it aside from the North Pole by a\nmagnet or piece of iron, and it may recover and point right\nagain; but whosoever destroys the compass itself has lost his\nguide at sea.\"\n\nMany of God's dear children, honest souls, have been persuaded\nthat they have committed this awful sin. Indeed, I once thought\nthat I myself had done so, and for twenty-eight days I felt that,\nlike Jonah, I was \"in the belly of hell.\" But God, in love and\ntender mercy, drew me out of the horrible pit of doubt and fear,\nand showed me that this is a sin committed only by those who, in\nspite of all evidence, harden their hearts in unbelief, and to\nshield themselves in their sins deny and blaspheme the Lord.\n\nDr. Daniel Steele tells of a Jew who was asked, \"Is it that you\n_cannot_, or that you _will not_ believe?\" The Jew passionately\nreplied, \"We _will_ not, we _will_ not believe.\"\n\nThis was wilful refusal and rejection of light, and in that\ndirection lies hardness of heart beyond recovery, fullness of\nsin, and final impenitence, which are unpardonable.\n\nDoubtless many through resistance to the Holy Spirit come to this\nawful state of heart; but those troubled, anxious souls who think\nthey have committed this sin are not usually among the number.\n\nAn Army Officer in Canada was in the midst of a glorious revival,\nwhen one night a gentleman arose and with deep emotion urged the\nyoung people present to yield themselves to God, accept Jesus as\ntheir Saviour, and receive the Holy Spirit. He told them that he\nhad once been a Christian, but that he had not walked in the\nlight, and, consequently, had sinned against the Holy Spirit, and\ncould never more be pardoned. Then, with all earnest tenderness,\nhe exhorted them to be warned by his sad state, and not to harden\ntheir hearts against the gracious influences, and entreated them\nto yield to the Saviour. Suddenly the scales of doubt dropped\nfrom his eyes, and he saw that he had not in his inmost heart\nrejected Jesus; that he had not committed the unpardonable sin;\nthat\n\n  \"The love of God is broader\n   Than the measure of man's mind:\n  And the heart of the Eternal\n   Is most wonderfully kind.\"\n\nAnd in an instant his heart was filled with light and love and\npeace, and sweet assurance that Christ Jesus was his Saviour,\neven his.\n\nIn one meeting, I have known three people who thought they had\ncommitted this sin, and were bowed with grief and fear, to come\nto the penitent-form and find deliverance.\n\nThe poet Cowper was plunged into unutterable gloom by the\nconviction that he had committed this awful sin; but God tenderly\nbrought him into the light and sweet comforts of the Holy Spirit\nagain, and doubtless it was in the sense of such lovingkindness\nthat he wrote:\n\n  \"There is a fountain filled with blood,\n   Drawn from Emanuel's veins;\n  And sinners plunged beneath that flood\n   Lose all their guilty stains.\"\n\nJohn Bunyan was also afflicted with horrible fears that he had\ncommitted the unpardonable sin, and in his little book entitled,\n\"Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners\" (a book which I would\nearnestly recommend to all soul-winners), he tells how he was\ndelivered from his doubts and fears and was filled once more with\nthe joy of the Lord. There are portions of his \"Pilgrim's\nProgress\" which are to be interpreted in the light of this\ngrievous experience.\n\nThose who think they have committed this sin may generally be\nassured that they have not.\n\n1. Their hearts are usually very tender, while this sin must\nharden the heart past all feeling.\n\n2. They are full of sorrow and shame for having neglected God's\ngrace and trifled with the Saviour's dying words, but such sorrow\ncould not exist in a heart so fully given over to sin that pardon\nwas impossible.\n\n3. God says, \"Whosoever will may come\"; and if they find it in\ntheir hearts to come, they will not be cast out, but freely\npardoned and received with loving kindness through the merits of\nJesus' blood. God's promise will not fail, His faithfulness is\nestablished in the heavens. Bless His holy name! Those who have\ncommitted this sin are full of evil, and do not care to come, and\nwill not, and, therefore, are never pardoned. Their sin is\neternal.\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXIII.\n\nOFFENCES AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nOne day, in a fit of boyish temper, I spoke hot words of anger,\nsomewhat unjustly, against another person, and this deeply\ngrieved my mother. She said but little, and though her sweet face\nhas mouldered many years beneath the Southern daisies, her look\nof grief I can still see across the years of a third of a\ncentury. And that is the one sad memory of my childhood. A\nstranger might have been amused or incensed at my words, but\nmother was grieved--grieved to her heart by my lack of generous,\nself-forgetful, thoughtful love.\n\nWe can anger a stranger or an enemy, but it is only a friend we\ngrieve. The Holy Spirit is such a Friend, more tender and\nfaithful than a mother; and shall we carelessly offend Him, and\nestrange ourselves from Him in spite of His love?\n\nThere is a sense in which every sin is against the Holy Ghost. Of\ncourse, not every such sin is unpardonable, but the tendency of\nall sin is in that direction, and we are only safe as we avoid\nthe very beginnings of sin. Only as we \"walk in the Spirit\" are\nwe \"free from the law of sin and death\" (Romans viii. 2).\nTherefore, it is infinitely important that we beware of offences\nagainst the Spirit, \"lest any of you be hardened through the\ndeceitfulness of sin\" (Hebrews iii. 13).\n\nGrieving the Holy Spirit is a very common and a very sad offence\nof professing Christians, and it is to this that must be\nattributed much of the weakness and ignorance and joylessness of\nso many followers of Christ.\n\nAnd He is grieved, as was my mother, by the unloving speech and\nspirit of God's children.\n\nIn his letters to the Ephesians, Paul says, \"Let no corrupt\ncommunication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good\nto the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the\nhearers.\" And then he adds: \"And grieve not the Holy Spirit of\nGod, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all\nbitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking,\nbe put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to\nanother, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for\nChrist's sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of\nGod, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath\nloved us, and hath given Himself for us\" (Eph. iv. 29-v. 2).\n\nWhat does Paul teach us here? That it is not by some huge\nwickedness, some Judas-like betrayal, some tempting and lying to\nthe Holy Ghost, as did Ananias and Sapphira (Acts v. 1-9), that\nwe grieve Him, but by that which most people count little and\nunimportant; by talk that corrupts instead of blessing and\nbuilding up those that hear, by gossip, by bitterness, and\nuncharitable criticisms and fault-findings. This was the sin of\nthe elder son when the prodigal returned, and it was by this he\npierced with grief the kind old father's heart.\n\nBy getting in a rage, by loud, angry talking and evil-speaking\nand petty malice, by unkindness and hard-heartedness and an\nunforgiving spirit, we grieve Him. In a word, by not walking\nthrough the world as in our Father's house, and among our\nneighbours and friends as among His dear children; by not loving\ntenderly and making kindly sacrifices for one another, He is\ngrieved. And this is not a matter of little importance. It may\nhave sadly momentous consequences.\n\nIt is a bitter, cruel, and often an irreparable thing to trifle\nwith a valuable earthly friendship. How much more when the\nfriendship is heavenly? when the Friend is our Lord and Saviour,\nour Creator and Redeemer, our Governor and Judge, our Teacher,\nGuide, and God? When we trifle with a friend's wishes--especially\nwhen such wishes are all in perfect harmony with and for our\nhighest possible good--we may not estrange the friend from us,\nbut we estrange ourselves from our friend. Our hearts grow cold\ntoward him, though his heart may be breaking with longing toward\nus.\n\nThe more Saul ill-treated David, the more he hated David.\n\nSuch estrangement may lead, little by little, to yet greater sin,\nto strange hardness of heart, to doubts and unbelief, and\nbackslidings and denial of the Lord.\n\nThe cure for all this is a clean heart full of sweet and gentle,\nself-forgetful, generous love. Then we shall be \"followers of God\nas dear children,\" then we shall \"walk in love as Christ loved\nus, and gave Himself for us.\"\n\nBut there is another offence, that of quenching the Spirit, which\naccounts for the comparative darkness and deadness of many of\nGod's children.\n\nIn I Thess. v. 16-19 the Apostle says: \"Rejoice evermore. Pray\nwithout ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will\nof God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit.\"\n\nWhen will the Lord's dear children learn that the religion of\nJesus is a lowly thing, and that it is the little foxes that\nspoil the vines? Does not the Apostle here teach that it is not\nby some desperate, dastardly deed that we quench the Spirit, but\nsimply by neglecting to rejoice and pray, and give thanks at all\ntimes and for all things?\n\nIt is not necessary to blot the sun out of the heavens to keep\nthe sunlight out of your house--just close the blinds and draw\nthe curtains; nor do you pour barrels of water on the flames to\nquench the fire--just shut off the draught; nor do you dynamite\nthe city reservoir and destroy all the mains and pipes to cut off\nyour supply of sparkling water, but just refrain from turning on\nthe main.\n\nSo you do not need to do some great evil, some deadly sin, to\nquench the Spirit. Just cease to rejoice, through fear of man and\nof being peculiar; be prim and proper as a white and polished\ngravestone; let gushing joy be curbed; neglect to pray when you\nfeel a gentle pull in your heart to get alone with the Lord; omit\ngiving hearty thanks for all God's tender mercies, faithful\ndiscipline and loving chastenings, and soon you will find the\nSpirit quenched. He will no longer spring up joyously like a well\nof living water within you.\n\nBut give the Spirit a vent, an opening, a chance, and He will\nrise within you and flood your soul with light and love and joy.\n\nSome years ago a sanctified woman of clear experience went alone\nto keep her daily hour with God; but, to her surprise, it seemed\nthat she could not find Him, either in prayer or in His word. She\nsearched her heart for evidence of sin, but the Spirit showed her\nnothing contrary to God in her mind, heart, or will. She searched\nher memory for any breach of covenant, any broken vows, any\nneglect, any omission, but could find none.\n\nThen she asked the Lord to show her if there were any duty\nunfulfilled, any command unnoticed, which she might perform, and\nquick as thought came the often-read words, \"Rejoice evermore.\"\n\"Have you done that this morning?\"\n\nShe had not. It had been a busy morning, and a well-spent one,\nbut so far there had been no definite rejoicing in her heart,\nthough the manifold riches and ground for joy of all Christians\nwere hers.\n\nAt once she began to count her blessings and thank the Lord for\neach one, and rejoice in Him for all the way He had led her, and\nthe gifts He had bestowed, and in a very few minutes the Lord\nstood revealed to her spiritual consciousness.\n\nShe had not committed sin, nor resisted the Spirit, but a failure\nto rejoice in Him who had daily loaded her with benefits (Psalm\nlxviii. 19) had in a measure quenched the Spirit. She had not\nturned the main, and so her soul was not flooded with living\nwaters. She had not remembered the command: \"Thou shalt rejoice\nbefore the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hand\nunto.\" But that morning she learned a lifelong lesson, and she\nhas ever since safeguarded her soul by obeying the many commands\nto \"Rejoice in the Lord.\"\n\nGrieving and quenching the Spirit will not only leave barren and\ndesolate an individual soul, but it will do so for a Corps, a\nchurch, a community, a whole nation or continent. We see this\nillustrated on a large scale by the long and weary Dark Ages,\nwhen the light of the Gospel was almost extinguished, and only\nhere and there was the darkness broken by the torch of truth held\naloft by some humble, suffering soul that had wept and prayed,\nand through painful struggles had found the light.\n\nWe see it also in those Corps, churches, communities, and\ncountries where revivals are unknown, or are a thing of the past,\nwhere souls are not born into the Kingdom, and where there is no\njoyous shout of victory among the people of God.\n\nGrieving and quenching the Spirit may be done unintentionally by\nlack of thought and prayer and hearty devotion to the Lord Jesus;\nbut they prepare the way and lead to intentional and positive\nresistance to the Spirit.\n\nTo resist the Spirit is to fight against Him.\n\nThe sinner who, listening to the Gospel invitation, and convicted\nof sin, refuses to submit to God in true repentance and faith in\nJesus, is resisting the Holy Spirit.  We have bold and striking\nhistorical illustrations of the danger of resisting the Holy\nSpirit in the disasters which befell Pharaoh, and the terrible\ncalamities which came upon Jerusalem, and have for twenty\ncenturies followed the Jews.\n\nThe ten plagues that came upon Pharaoh and his people were ten\nopportunities and open doors into God's favour and fellowship,\nwhich they themselves shut by their stubborn resistance, only to\nbe overtaken by dreadful catastrophe.\n\nTo the Jews, Stephen said: \"Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost\"\n(Acts vii. 51); and the siege and fall of Jerusalem, and the\nbutchery and banishment and enslavement of its inhabitants, and\nall the woes that came upon the Jews, followed their rejection of\nJesus and the hardness of heart and spiritual blindness which\nswiftly overtook them when they resisted all the loving efforts\nand entreaties of His disciples baptised with the Holy Spirit.\n\nAnd what on a large scale befalls nations and people, on a small\nscale also befalls individuals. Those that receive and obey the\nLord are enlightened and blessed and saved; those that resist and\nreject Him are sadly left to themselves and surely swallowed up\nin destruction.\n\nLikewise the professing Christian who hears of heart-holiness and\ncleansing from all sin as a blessing he may now have by faith,\nand, convicted of his need of the blessing and of God's desire\nand willingness to bestow it upon him now, refuses to seek it in\nwhole-hearted affectionate consecration and faith, is resisting\nthe Holy Spirit. And such resistance imperils the soul beyond all\npossible computation.\n\nWe see an example of this in the Israelites who were brought out\nof Egypt with signs and wonders, and led through the Red Sea and\nthe wilderness to the borders of Canaan, but, forgetting,\nrefused to go over into the land. In this they resisted the Holy\nSpirit in His leadings as surely as did Pharaoh, and with quite\nas disastrous results to themselves, perishing in their evil way.\n\nFor their sin was as much greater than his as their light\nexceeded his.\n\nHundreds of years later, Isaiah, writing of this time, says: \"In\nall their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His\npresence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed\nthem; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But\nthey rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit; therefore He was turned\nto be their enemy, and He fought against them\" (Isaiah lxiii. 9,\n10).\n\nWe see from this that Christians must beware and watch and pray\nand walk softly with the Lord in glad obedience and childlike\nfaith, if they would escape the darkness and dryness that result\nfrom grieving and quenching the Spirit, and the dangers that\nsurely come from resisting Him.\n\n  \"Arm me with jealous care,\n   As in Thy sight to live;\n  And, Oh, Thy servant, Lord, prepare,\n   A strict account to give.\n\n  \"Help me to watch and pray,\n   And on Thyself rely,\n  Assured if I my trust betray,\n   I shall for ever die.\"\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXIV.\n\nTHE HOLY SPIRIT AND SOUND DOCTRINE.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nIs Jesus Christ divine? Is the Bible an inspired Book? Is man a\nfallen creature who can be saved only through the suffering and\nsacrifice of the Creator? Will there be a resurrection of the\ndead, and a day in which God will judge all the world by the Man\nChrist Jesus? Is Satan a personal being, and is there a Hell in\nwhich the wicked will be for ever punished?\n\nThese are great doctrines which have been held and taught by His\nfollowers since the days of Jesus and His Apostles, and yet they\nare ever being attacked and denied.\n\nAre they true? Or are they only fancies and falsehoods, or\nfigures of speech and distortions of truth? How can we find truth\nand know it?\n\nJesus said, \"When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide\nyou into all truth\" (John xvi. 13).\n\nWhat truth? Not the truth of the multiplication table, or of\nphysical science, or art, or secular history, but spiritual\ntruth--the truth about God and His will and character, and our\nrelations to Him in Christ--that truth which is necessary to\nsalvation and holiness--into all this truth the Holy Spirit will\nguide us. \"He shall teach you all things,\" said Jesus (John xiv.\n26).\n\nHow, then, shall we escape error and be \"sound in doctrine\"? Only\nby the help of the Holy Spirit.\n\nHow do we know Jesus Christ is divine? Because the Bible tells us\nso? Infinitely precious and important is this revelation in the\nBible; but not by this do we know it. Because the Church teaches\nit in her creed, and we have heard it from the catechism? Nothing\ntaught in any creed or catechism is of more vital importance; but\nneither by this do we know it.\n\nHow then? Listen to Paul: \"No man can say that Jesus is the Lord,\nbut by the Holy Ghost\" (I Cor. xii. 3). \"No man,\" says Paul. Then\nlearning it from the Bible or catechism is not to know it except\nas the parrot might know it; but every man is to be taught this\nby the Holy Spirit, if he is to really know it.\n\nThen it is not a revelation made once for all, and only to the\nmen who walked and talked with Jesus, but it is a spiritual\nrevelation made anew to each believing heart that in penitence\nseeks Him and so meets the conditions of such a revelation.\n\nThen the poor, degraded, ignorant outcast at The Army penitent-form\nin the slums of London or Chicago, who never heard of a\ncreed, and the ebony African and dusky Indian, who never saw the\ninside of a Bible, may have Christ revealed in him, and know by\nthe revelation of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is Lord.\n\n\"It pleased God... to reveal His Son in me,\" wrote Paul (Gal. i.\n15, 16); and again, \"Christ liveth in me\" (Gal. ii. 20); and\nagain, \"My little children, of whom I travail in birth again\nuntil Christ be formed in you\" (Gal. iv. 19); as though Christ is\nto be spiritually formed in the heart of each believer by the\noperation of the Holy Spirit, as He was physically formed in the\nwomb of Mary by the same Spirit (Luke i. 35); and again, \"The\nmystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but\nnow is made manifest to His saints,... which is Christ in you,\nthe hope of glory\" (Col. i. 26, 27); \"That Christ may dwell in\nyour hearts by faith\" (Eph. iii. 17); \"Examine yourselves,\nwhether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not\nyour own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be\nreprobates\" (2 Cor. xiii. 5)?\n\n\"At that day,\" said Jesus, when making His great promise of the\nComforter to His disciples, \"At that day ye shall know that I am\nin My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you\" (John xiv. 20); and\nagain, in His great prayer, He said: \"I have declared unto them\nThy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast\nloved Me may be in them, and I in them.\"\n\nIt is this ever-recurring revelation to penitent, believing\nhearts, by the agency of the ever-present Holy Spirit, that makes\nfaith in Jesus Christ living and invincible. \"I know He is Lord,\nfor He saves my soul from sin, and He saves me now,\" is an\nargument that rationalism and unbelief cannot answer nor\noverthrow, and so long as there are men in the world who can say\nthis, faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ is secure; and this\nexperience and witness come by the Holy Ghost.\n\n  \"I worship Thee, O Holy Ghost,\n   I love to worship Thee;\n  My risen Lord for aye were lost\n   But for Thy company.\"\n\nAnd so it is by the guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit that\nall saving truth becomes vital to us.\n\nIt is He that makes the Bible a living Book; it is He that\nconvinces the world of judgment (John xvi. 8-11); it is He that\nmakes men certain that there is a Heaven of surpassing and\nenduring glory and joy, and a Hell of endless sorrow and woe for\nthose who sin away their day of grace and die in impenitence.\n\nWho have been the mightiest and most faithful preachers of the\ngloom and terror and pain of a perpetual Hell? those who have\nbeen the mightiest and most effective preachers of God's\ncompassionate love.\n\nIn all periods of great revival, when men seemed to live on the\nborderland, and in the vision of eternity, Hell has been\npreached. The leaders in these revivals have been men of prayer\nand faith and consuming love, but they have been men who knew\n\"the terrors of the Lord,\" and, therefore,  they preached the\njudgments of God, and they proved that the law with its penalties\nis a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ (Gal. iii. 24). Fox, the\nQuaker; Bunyan, the Baptist; Baxter, the Puritan; Wesley and\nFletcher, and Whitefield and Caughey, the Methodists; Finney, the\nPresbyterian; Edwards and Moody, the Congregationalists; and\nGeneral Booth, the  Salvationist, have preached it, not savagely,\nbut tenderly and faithfully, as a mother might warn her child\nagainst some great danger that would surely follow careless and\nselfish wrong-doing.\n\nWhat men have loved and laboured and sacrificed as these men?\nTheir hearts have been a flaming furnace of love and devotion to\nGod, and an over-flowing fountain of love and compassion for men;\nbut just in proportion as they have discovered God's love and\npity for the sinner, so have they discovered His wrath against\nsin and all obstinate wrong-doing; and as they have caught\nglimpses of Heaven and declared its joys and everlasting glories\nto men, so they have seen Hell, with its endless punishment, and\nwith trembling voice and overflowing eyes have they warned men to\n\"flee from the wrath to come.\"\n\nWere these men, throbbing with spiritual life and consumed with\ndevotion to the Kingdom of God and the everlasting well-being of\ntheir fellowmen, led to this belief by the Spirit of Truth, or\nwere they misled? Is it the prophet, weeping and praying and\npreaching and fighting for God and men, to whom the Spirit has\nalways first spoken and revealed the things of God? Or is it the\nphilosopher, or dry-as-dust theologian, or the popular preacher\nof smooth things, sitting in his study and among his books,\nspinning out of his own mind his conceits concerning God's plan\nand purpose in the universe?\n\nDoes Seneca or the Psalmist, Plato or Paul, Rousseau or Wesley,\nthe idolised, high-salaried, soft-raimented preacher of a wide\ngate and broad way to life and Heaven, or the veteran soul-winner,\nGeneral Booth, more clearly make known the mind of God in\nmatters that are spiritual?\n\n\"The things of the Spirit... are spiritually discerned\" (I Cor.\nii. 14), says Paul. It is not by searching and philosophising\nthat these things are found out, but by revelation. \"Flesh and\nblood hath not revealed it unto thee,\" said Jesus to Peter, \"but\nMy Father which is in Heaven\" (Matthew xvi. 17). The great\nteacher of truth is the Spirit of Truth, and the only safe\nexpounders and guardians of sound doctrine are men filled with\nthe Holy Ghost.\n\nStudy and research have their place, and an important place; but\nin spiritual things they will be no avail unless prosecuted by\nspiritual men. As well might men blind from birth attempt to\nstudy the starry heavens, and men born deaf undertake to expound\nand criticise the harmonies of Bach and Beethoven. Men must see\nand hear to speak and write intelligently on such subjects. And\nso men must be spiritually enlightened to understand spiritual\ntruth.\n\nThe greatest danger to any religious organisation is that a body\nof men should arise in its ranks, and hold its positions of\ntrust, who have learned its great fundamental doctrines by rote\nout of the catechism, but have no experimental knowledge of their\ntruth inwrought by the mighty anointing of the Holy Ghost, and\nwho are destitute of \"an unction from the Holy One,\" by which,\nsays John, \"ye know all things\" (1 John ii. 20, 27).\n\nWhy do men deny the divinity of Jesus Christ? Because they have\nnever placed themselves in that relation to the Spirit, and met\nthose unchanging conditions that would enable Him to reveal Jesus\nto them as Saviour and Lord.\n\nWhy do men dispute the inspiration of the Scriptures? Because the\nHoly Ghost, who inspired \"holy men of God\" to write the Book (2\nPeter i. 21), hides its spiritual sense from unspiritual and\nunholy men.\n\nWhy do men doubt a Day of Judgment, and a state of everlasting\ndoom? Because they have never been bowed and broken and crushed\nbeneath the weight of their sin, and by a sense of guilt and\nseparation from a holy God that can only be removed by faith in\nHis dying Son.\n\nA sportsman lost his way in a pitiless storm on a black and\nstarless night. Suddenly his horse drew back and refused to take\nanother step. He urged it forward, but it only threw itself back\nupon its haunches. Just then a vivid flash of lightning revealed\na great precipice upon the brink of which he stood. It was but an\ninstant, and then the pitchy blackness hid it again from view.\nBut he turned his horse and anxiously rode away from the terrible\ndanger.\n\nA distinguished professor of religion said to me some time ago,\n\"I dislike, I abhor, the doctrine of Hell\"; and then after a\nwhile added, \"But three times in my life I have seen that there\nwas eternal separation from God and an everlasting Hell for me,\nif I walked not in the way God was calling me to go.\"\n\nInto the blackness of the sinner's night the Holy Spirit, who is\npatiently and compassionately seeking the salvation of all men,\nflashes a light that gives him a glimpse of eternal things which,\nheeded, would lead to the sweet peace and security of eternal\nday. For when the Holy Spirit is heeded and honoured, the night\npasses, the shadows flee away, the day dawns, \"the Sun of\nRighteousness arises with healing in His wings,\" and, saved and\nsanctified, men walk in His light in safety and joy. Doctrines\nwhich before were repellent to the carnal mind, and but\nfoolishness, or a stumbling-block to the heart of unbelief, now\nbecome precious and satisfying to the soul; and truths which\nbefore were hid in impenetrable darkness, or seen only as through\ndense gloom and fog, are now seen clearly as in the light of\nbroad day.\n\n  \"Hold thou the faith that Christ is Lord,\n   God over all, who died and rose;\n   And everlasting life bestows\n   On all who hear the living word.\n   For thee His life-blood He out-poured,\n   His Spirit sets thy spirit free;\n   Hold thou the faith--He dwells in thee,\n   And thou in Him, and Christ is Lord!\"\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXV.\n\nPRAYING IN THE SPIRIT.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nAn important work of the Holy Spirit is to teach us how to pray,\ninstruct us what to pray for, and inspire us to pray earnestly,\nwithout ceasing, and in faith, for the things we desire and the\nthings that are dear to the heart of the Lord.\n\nIn a familiar verse, the poet Montgomery says:\n\n  \"Prayer is the burden of a sigh,\n   The falling of a tear,\n   The upward glancing of the eye,\n   When none but God is near.\"\n\nAnd no doubt he is right. Prayer is exceedingly simple. The\nfaintest cry for help, a whisper for mercy, is prayer. But when\nthe Holy Spirit comes and fills the soul with His blessed\npresence, prayer becomes more than a cry; it ceases to be a\nfeeble request, and often becomes a strife (Romans xv. 30; Col.\niv. 12) for greater things, a conflict, an invincible argument, a\nwrestling with God, and through it men enter into the Divine\ncouncils and rise into a blessed and responsible fellowship in\nsome important sense with the Father and the Son in the moral\ngovernment of the world.\n\nIt was in this spirit and fellowship that Abraham prayed for\nSodom (Genesis xviii. 23-32); that Moses interceded for Israel,\nand stood between them and God's hot displeasure (Exodus xxxii.\n7-14); and that Elijah prevailed to shut up the heavens for three\nyears and six months, and then again prevailed in his prayer for\nrain.\n\nGod would have us come to Him not only as a foolish and ignorant\nchild comes, but as an ambassador to his home government; as a\nfull-grown son who has become of age and entered into partnership\nwith his father; as a bride who is one in all interests and affections\nwith the bridegroom.\n\nHe would have us \"come boldly to the throne of grace\" with a\nwell-reasoned and Scriptural understanding of what we desire, and\nwith a purpose to \"ask,\" \"seek,\" and \"knock\" till we get the\nthing we wish, being assured that it is according to His will;\nand this boldness is not inconsistent with the profoundest\nhumility and a sense of utter dependence; indeed, it is always\naccompanied by self-distrust and humble reliance upon the merits\nof Jesus, else it is but presumption and unsanctified conceit.\nThis union of assurance and humility, of boldness and dependence,\ncan be secured only by the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and only\nso can one be prepared and fitted for such prayer.\n\nThree great obstacles hinder mighty prayer:\n\n1. selfishness; 2, unbelief; 3, the darkness of ignorance and\nfoolishness. The baptism with the Spirit sweeps away these\nobstacles and brings in the three great essentials to prayer--1,\nfaith; 2, love, Divine love; 3, the light of heavenly knowledge\nand wisdom.\n\n1. Selfishness must be cast out by the incoming of love. The\nambassador must not be seeking personal ends, but the interests\nof his government and the people he represents; the son must not\nbe seeking private gain, but the common prosperity of the\npartnership in which he will fully and lawfully share; the bride\nmust not forget him to whom she belongs, and seek separate ends,\nbut in all ways identify herself with her husband and his\ninterests.\n\nSo the child of God must come in prayer, unselfishly.\n\nIt is the work of the Holy Spirit, with our co-operation and glad\nconsent, to search and destroy selfishness out of our hearts, and\nfill them with pure love to God and man. And when this is done we\nshall not then be asking for things amiss to consume them upon\nour lusts, to gratify our appetites, or pride, or ambition, or\nease, or vain-glory. We shall seek only the glory of our Lord and\nthe common good of our fellow-men, in which, as co-workers and\npartners, we shall have a common share. If we ask for success, it\nis not that we may be exalted, but that God may be glorified;\nthat Jesus may secure the purchase of His blood; that men may be\nsaved, and the Kingdom of Heaven be established upon earth.\n\nIf we ask for daily bread, it is not that we may be full, but\nthat we may be fitted for daily duty. If we ask for health, it is\nnot alone that we may be free from pain and filled with physical\ncomfort, but that we may be spent \"in publishing the sinner's\nFriend,\" in fulfilling the work for which God has placed us here.\n\n2. Unbelief must be destroyed. Doubt paralyzes prayer. Unbelief\nquenches the spirit of intercession. Only as the eye of faith\nsees our Father God upon the Throne guaranteeing to us rights and\nprivileges by the blood of His Son, and inviting us to come\nwithout fear, and make our wants known, does prayer rise from the\ncommonplace to the sublime; does it cease to be a feeble, timid\ncry, and become a mighty spiritual force, moving God Himself in\nthe interests which it seeks.\n\nMen, wise with the wisdom of this world, but poor and naked and\nblind and foolish in matters of faith, ask: \"Will God change His\nplans at the request of man?\" And we answer, \"Yes,\" since many of\nGod's plans are made contingent upon the prayers of His people,\nand He has ordered that prayer offered in faith, according to His\nwill, revealed in His word, shall be one of the controlling\nfactors in His government of men.\n\nIs it God's will that the tides of the Atlantic and Pacific\nshould sweep across the Isthmus of Panama? That men should run\nunder the Alps? That thoughts and words should be winged across\nthe ocean without any visible or tangible medium? Yes; it is His\nwill, if men will it, and work to these ends in harmony with His\ngreat physical laws. So in the spiritual world there are wonders\nwrought by prayer, and God wills the will of His people when they\ncome to Him in faith and love.\n\nWhat else is meant by such promises and assurances as these:\n\"Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye\npray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them\" (Mark\nxi. 24); \"The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in\nits working. Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he\nprayed fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the\nearth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and\nthe heavens gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit\"\n(James v. 16-18. American Revision).\n\nThe Holy Spirit dwelling within the heart helps us to understand\nthe things we may pray for, and the heart that is full of love\nand loyalty to God only wants what is lawful. This is mystery to\npeople who are under the dominion of selfishness and the darkness\nof unbelief, but it is a soul-thrilling fact to those who are\nfilled with the Holy Ghost.\n\n\"What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?\" asked Jesus of the\nblind man (Luke xviii. 41).\n\nHe had respect to the will of the blind man, and granted his\nrequest, seeing he had faith. And He still has respect to the\nvigorous, sanctified will of His people--the will that has been\nsubdued by consecration and faith into loving union with His\nwill.\n\nThe Lord answered Abraham on behalf of Sodom till he ceased to\nask.\n\n\"The Lord has had His way so long with Hudson Taylor,\" said a\nfriend, \"that now, Hudson Taylor can have his way with the Lord.\"\n\nAdoniram Judson lay sick with a fatal illness in far-away Burmah.\nHis wife read to him an account of the conversion of a number of\nJews in Constantinople through some of his writings. For a while\nthe sick man was silent, and then he spoke with awe, telling his\nwife that for years he had prayed that he might be used in some\nway to bless the Jews, yet never having seen any evidence that\nhis prayers were answered; but now, after many years and from far\naway, the evidence of answer had come. And then, after further\nsilence, he spoke with deep emotion, saying that he had never\nprayed a prayer for the glory of God and the good of men but\nthat, sooner or later, even though for the time being he had\nforgotten, he found that God had not forgotten, but had\nremembered and patiently worked to answer his prayer.\n\nOh, the faithfulness of God! He means it when He makes promises\nand exhorts and urges and commands us to pray. It is not His\npurpose to mock us, but to answer and \"to do exceeding abundantly\nabove all that we ask or think.\" Bless His holy Name!\n\n3. Knowledge and wisdom must take the place of foolish ignorance.\nPaul says, \"We know not what we should pray for as we ought,\" and\nthen adds, \"But the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us\nwith groanings which cannot be uttered\" (Romans viii. 26). If my\nlittle child asks for a glittering razor, I refuse its request;\nbut when my full-grown son asks for one I grant it. So God cannot\nwisely answer some prayers, for they are foolish or untimely.\nHence, we need not love and faith only, but wisdom and knowledge,\nthat we may ask according to the will of God.\n\nIt is this that Paul has in mind when he says that he will not\nonly pray with the Spirit, but \"I will pray with the understanding\nalso\" (I Cor. xiv. 15). Men should think before they pray, and\nstudy that they may pray wisely.\n\nNow, when the Holy Spirit comes there pours into the soul not\nonly a tide of love and simple faith, but a flood of light as\nwell, and prayer becomes not only earnest, but intelligent also.\nAnd this intelligence increases, as, under the leadership of the\nHoly Spirit, the word of God is studied, and its heavenly truths\nand principles are grasped and assimilated.\n\nIt is thus men come to know God and become His friends, whose\nprayers He will assist and will not deny.\n\nSuch men talk with God as friend with friend, and the Holy Spirit\nhelps their infirmities; encourages them to urge their prayer in\nfaith; teaches them to reason with God; enables them to come\nboldly in the name of Jesus, when oppressed with a sense of their\nown insignificance and unworthiness; and, when words fail them\nand they scarcely know how to voice their desires, He intercedes\nwithin them with unutterable groanings, according to the will of\nGod (Romans viii. 26, 27; 1 Cor. ii. 11).\n\nA young man felt called to mission work in China, but his mother\noffered strong opposition to his going. An agent of the mission,\nknowing the need of the work, and vexed with the mother, one day\nlaid the case before Hudson Taylor.\n\n\"Mr. Taylor,\" said he, \"listened patiently and lovingly to all I\nhad to say, and then gently suggested our praying about it. Such\na prayer I have never heard before! It seemed to me more like a\nconversation with a trusted friend whose advice he was seeking.\nHe talked the matter over with the Friend from every point of\nview--from the side of the young man, from the side of China's\nneeds, from the side of the mother, and her natural feelings, and\nalso from my side. It was a revelation to me. I saw that prayer\ndid not mean merely asking for things, much less asking for\nthings to be carried out by God according to our ideas; but that\nit means _communion_, fellowship, partnership, with our\nHeavenly Father. And when our will is really blended with His,\nwhat liberty we may have in asking for what we want!\"\n\nHallelujah!\n\n  \"My soul, ask what thou wilt,\n  Thou canst not be too bold;\n  Since His own blood for thee He spilt,\n  What else can He withhold?\"\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXVI.\n\nCHARACTERISTICS OF THE ANOINTED PREACHER.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nSince God saves men by \"the foolishness of preaching,\" the\npreacher has an infinitely important work, and he must be fitted\nfor it. But what can fit a man for such sacred work? Not\neducation alone, not knowledge of books, not gifts of speech, not\nwinsome manners, nor a magnetic voice, nor a commanding presence,\nbut only God. The preacher must be more than a man--he must be a\nman plus the Holy Ghost.\n\nPaul was such a man. He was full of the Holy Spirit, and in\nstudying his life and ministry we get a life-sized portrait of an\nanointed preacher living, fighting, preaching, praying,\nsuffering, triumphing, and dying in the power and light and glory\nof the indwelling Spirit.\n\nIn the second chapter of the First of Thessalonians he gives us a\npicture of his character and ministry which were formed and\ninspired by the Holy Spirit, a sample of His workmanship, and an\nexample for all Gospel preachers.\n\nAt Philippi he had been terribly beaten with stripes on his bare\nback, and roughly thrust into the inner dungeon, and his feet\nwere made fast in the stocks; but that did not break nor quench\nhis spirit. Love burned in his heart, and his joy in the Lord\nbrimmed full and bubbled over, and at midnight, in the damp,\ndark, loathsome dungeon, he and Silas, his comrade in service and\nsuffering, \"prayed and sang praises unto God.\" God answered with\nan earthquake, and the jailer and his household got gloriously\nconverted. Paul was set free and went at once to Thessalonica,\nwhere, regardless of the shameful way he had been treated at\nPhilippi, he preached the Gospel boldly, and a blessed revival\nfollowed with many converts; but persecution arose, and Paul had\nagain to flee. His heart, however, was continually turning back\nto these converts, and at last he sat down and wrote them this\nletter. From this we learn that--\n\n1. He was a _joyful_ preacher. He was no pessimist, croaking\nout doleful prophecies and lamentations and bitter criticisms. He\nwas full of the joy of the Lord. It was not the joy that comes\nfrom good health, a pleasant home, plenty of money, wholesome\nfood, numerous and smiling friends, and sunny, favouring skies;\nbut a deep, springing fountain of solemn, gladdening joy that\nabounded and overflowed in pain and weariness, in filthy, noisome\nsurroundings, in loneliness and poverty, and danger and bitter\npersecutions. No earth-born trial could quench it, for it was\nHeaven-born; it was \"the joy of the Lord\" poured into his heart\nwith the Holy Spirit.\n\n2. He was a _bold_ preacher. Worldly prudence would have\nconstrained him to go softly at Thessalonica, after his\nexperience at Philippi, lest he arouse opposition and meet again\nwith personal violence; but, instead, he says: \"We were bold in\nour God to speak unto you the Gospel of God with much contention.\"\nPersonal considerations were all forgotten, or cast to the winds,\nin his impetuous desire to declare the Gospel and save their\nsouls. He lived in the will of God, and conquered his fears. \"The\nwicked\" are fearful, and \"flee when no man pursueth; but the\nrighteous are as bold as a lion.\"\n\nThis boldness is a fruit of righteousness, and is always found in\nthose who are full of the Holy Ghost. They forget themselves, and\nso lose all fear. This was the secret of the martyrs when burned\nat the stake or thrown to the wild beasts.\n\nFear is a fruit of selfishness. Boldness thrives when selfishness\nis destroyed. God esteems it, commands His people to be\ncourageous, and makes spiritual leaders only of those who possess\ncourage (Joshua i. 9).\n\nMoses feared not the wrath of the king, refused to be called the\nson of Pharaoh's daughter, and boldly espoused the cause of his\ndespised and enslaved people.\n\nJoshua was full of courage. Gideon fearlessly attacked one\nhundred and twenty thousand Midianites, with but three hundred\nunarmed men.\n\nJonathan and his armour-bearer charged the Philistine garrison\nand routed hundreds singlehanded.\n\nDavid faced the lion and the bear, and inspired all Israel by\nbattling with and killing Goliath.\n\nThe prophets were men of the highest courage, who fearlessly\nrebuked kings, and at the risk of life, and often at the cost of\nlife, denounced popular sins, and called the people back to\nrighteousness and the faithful service of God. These men feared\nGod, and so lost the fear of man. They believed God, and so\nobeyed Him, and found His favour, and were entrusted with His\nhigh missions and everlasting employments.\n\n\"Fear thou not, for I am with thee,\" saith the Lord; and this\nPaul believed, and so says, \"We were bold in our God.\" God was\nhis high tower, his strength and unfailing defence, and so he was\nnot afraid.\n\nHis boldness toward man was a fruit of his boldness toward God,\nand that, in turn, was a fruit of his faith in Jesus as his High\nPriest, who had been touched with the feeling of his infirmities,\nand through whom he could \"come boldly to the Throne of Grace,\nand obtain mercy, and find grace to help in every time of need.\"\n\nIt is the timidity and delicacy with which men attempt God's work\nthat often accounts for their failure. Let them speak out boldly\nlike men, as ambassadors of Heaven, who are not afraid to\nrepresent their King, and they will command attention and\nrespect, and reach the hearts and consciences of men.\n\nI have read that quaint old Bishop Latimer, who was afterwards\nburned at the stake, \"having preached a sermon before King Henry\nVIII, which greatly displeased the monarch, was ordered to preach\nagain on the next Sunday, and make apology for the offence given.\nThe day came, and with it a crowded assembly anxious to hear the\nbishop's apology. Reading his text, he commenced thus: 'Hugh\nLatimer, dost thou know before whom thou art this day to speak?\nTo the high and mighty monarch, the king's most excellent\nmajesty, who can take away thy life if thou offendest. Therefore,\ntake heed that thou speakest not a word that may displease. But,\nthen, consider well, Hugh, dost thou not know from whence thou\ncomest? Upon whose message thou art sent? Even by the great and\nmighty God, who is all-present, and who beholdeth all thy ways,\nand who is able to cast thy soul into Hell! Therefore, take care\nthat thou deliver thy message faithfully.'\"\n\nHe then repeated the sermon of the previous Sunday, word for\nword, but with double its former energy and emphasis. The Court\nwas full of excitement to learn what would be the fate of this\nplain-dealing and fearless bishop. He was ordered into the king's\npresence, who, with a stern voice, asked: \"How dared you thus\noffend me?\" \"I merely discharged my duty,\" was Latimer's reply.\nThe king arose from his seat, embraced the good man, saying,\n\"Blessed be God I have so honest a servant.\"\n\nHe was a worthy successor of Nathan, who confronted King David\nwith his sin, and said, \"Thou art the man.\"\n\nThis Divine courage will surely accompany the fiery baptism of\nthe Spirit.\n\nWhat is it but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that gives\ncourage to Salvation Army Officers and Soldiers, enabling them to\nface danger and difficulty and loneliness with joy, and attack\nsin in its worst forms as fearlessly as David attacked Goliath?\n\n\"Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.\"\n\n  \"Shall I, for fear of feeble man,\n  The Spirit's course in me restrain?\n  Awed by a mortal's frown, shall I\n  Conceal the word of God most high?\n  Shall I, to soothe the unholy throng,\n  Soften Thy truth, or smooth my tongue?\n\n  \"How then before Thee shall I dare\n  To stand, or how Thine anger bear?\n  Yea, let men rage; since Thou wilt spread\n  Thy shadowing wings around my head;\n  Since in all pain Thy tender love\n  Will still my sure refreshment prove.\"\n\n3. He was _without guile_. \"For our exhortation was not of\ndeceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile; but as we were allowed\nof God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak; not\nas pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.\"\n\nHe was frank and open. He spoke right out of his heart. He was\ntransparently simple and straightforward. Since God had honoured\nhim with this infinite trust of preaching the Gospel, he sought\nto so preach it that he should please God regardless of men. And\nyet that is the surest way to please men. People who listen to\nsuch a man feel his honesty, and realise that he is seeking to do\nthem good, to save them rather than to tickle their ears and win\ntheir applause, and in their hearts they are pleased.\n\nBut, anyway, whether or not they are pleased, he is to deliver\nhis message as an ambassador, and look to his home government for\nhis reward. He gets his commission from God, and it is God who\nwill try his heart and prove his ministry. Oh, to please Jesus!\nOh, to stand perfect before God after preaching His Gospel!\n\n4. He was _not a time-server nor a covetous man._ \"Neither\nat any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of\ncovetousness; God is witness,\" he adds.\n\nThere are three ways of reaching a man's purse: (1) Directly. (2)\nBy way of his head with flattering words. (3) By way of his heart\nwith manly, honest, saving words. The first way is robbery. The\nsecond way is robbery, with the poison of a deadly, but pleasing,\nopiate added, which may damn his soul. The third reaches his\npurse by saving his soul and opening in his heart an unfailing\nfountain of benevolence to bless himself and the world.\n\nIt were better for a preacher to turn highwayman, and rob men\nwith a club and a strong hand, than, with smiles and smooth words\nand feigned and fawning affection, to rob them with flattery,\nwhile their poor souls, neglected and deceived, go down to Hell.\nHow will he meet them in the Day of Judgment, and look into their\nhorrorstricken faces, realising that he played and toyed with\ntheir fancies and affections and pride to get money, and, instead\nof faithfully warning them and seeking to save them, with\nflattering words fattened their souls for destruction!\n\nNot so did Paul. \"I seek not yours, but you,\" he wrote the\nCorinthians. It was not their money, but their souls he wanted.\n\nBut such faithful love will be able to command all men have to\ngive. Why, to some of his converts he wrote: \"I bear you record,\nthat if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own\neyes, and have given them to me\" (Gal. iv. 15). But he sought not\nto please them with flattering words, only to save them.\n\nSo faithful was he in this matter, and so conscious of his\nintegrity, that he called God Himself into the witness-box. \"God\nis witness,\" says he.\n\nBlessed is the man who can call on God to witness for him; and\nthat man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells in fullness can do this.\nCan you, my brother?\n\n5. He was _not vain-glorious, nor dictatorial, nor oppressive_.\nSome men care nothing for money, but they care mightily for power\nand place and the glory that men give. But Paul was free from\nthis spiritual itching. Listen to him: \"Nor of men sought we\nglory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been\nburdensome\" (or \"used authority\") \"as the Apostles of Christ.\"\n\nSaid Solomon, \"For men to seek their own glory is not glory,\" it\nis only vain-glory. \"How can ye believe, which receive honour one\nof another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?\"\nasked Jesus.\n\nFrom all this Paul was free, and so is every man who is full of\nthe Holy Ghost. And it is only as we are thus free that with the\nwhole heart and with a single eye we can devote ourselves to the\nwork of saving men.\n\n6. With all his boldness and faithfulness he was _gentle_.\n\"We were gentle among you,\" he says, \"as a nurse cherisheth her\nchildren.\"\n\nThe fierce hurricane which casts down the giant trees of the\nforest is not so mighty as the gentle sunshine, which, from tiny\nseeds and acorns, lifts aloft the towering spires of oak and fir\non a thousand hills and mountains.\n\nThe wild storm that lashes the sea into foam and fury is feeble\ncompared to the gentle, yet immeasurably powerful influence,\nwhich twice a day swings the oceans in resistless tides from\nshore to shore.\n\nAnd as in the physical world the mighty powers are gentle in\ntheir vast workings, so it is in the spiritual world. The light\nthat falls on the lids of the sleeping infant and wakes it from\nits slumber, is not more gentle than the \"still small voice\" that\nbrings assurance of forgiveness or cleansing to them that look\nunto Jesus.\n\nOh, the gentleness of God! \"Thy gentleness hath made me great,\"\nsaid David. \"I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of\nChrist\" (2 Cor. x. 1), wrote Paul. And again, \"The fruit of the\nSpirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness\" (Gal. v.\n22). And as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are gentle, so will\nbe the servant of the Lord who is filled with the Spirit.\n\nI shall never forget the gentleness of a mighty man of God whom I\nwell knew, who on the platform was clothed with zeal as with a\ngarment, and in his overwhelming earnestness was like a lion or a\nconsuming fire; but when dealing with a wounded or broken heart,\nor with a seeking soul, no nurse with a little babe could be more\ntender than he.\n\n7. Finally, Paul was full of _self-forgetful, self-sacrificing\nlove._ \"So being affectionately desirous of you, we were\nwilling to have imparted unto you, not the Gospel of God only,\nbut also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.\"\n\nNo wonder he shook those heathen cities, overthrew their idols,\nhad great revivals, that his jailer was converted, and that his\nconverts would have gladly plucked out their eyes for him! Such\ntender, self-sacrificing love compels attention, begets\nconfidence, enkindles love, and surely wins its object.\n\nThis burning love led him to labour and sacrifice, and so live\nand walk before them that he was not only a teacher, but an\nexample of all he taught, and could safely say, \"Follow me.\"\n\nThis love led him to preach the whole truth, that he might by all\nmeans save them. He kept back no truth because it was unpopular,\nfor it was their salvation and not his own reputation and\npopularity he sought.\n\nHe preached not himself, but a crucified Christ, without the\nshedding of whose blood there is no remission of sins; and\nthrough that precious blood he preached present cleansing from\nall sin, and the gift of the Holy Spirit for all who obediently\nbelieve.\n\nAnd this love kept him faithful and humble and true to the end,\nso that at last in sight of the martyr's death, he saw the\nmartyr's crown, and cried out: \"I am now ready to be offered,...\nI have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have\nkept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of\nrighteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me\nat that day.\"\n\nHe had been faithful, and now at the end he was oppressed with no\ndoubts and harassed with no bitter regrets, but looked forward\nwith eager joy to meeting his Lord and beholding the blessed face\nof Him he loved. Hallelujah!\n\n  \"Have you received the Holy Ghost?\n   'Twill fit you for the fight,\n  'Twill make of you a mighty host,\n   To put your foes to flight.\n\n  \"Have you received the Holy Power?\n   'Twill fall from Heaven on you,\n  From Jesus' throne this very hour,\n   'Twill make you brave and true.\n\n  \"Oh, now receive the Holy Fire!\n   'Twill burn away all dross,\n  All earthly, selfish, vain desire,\n   'Twill make you love the Cross.\"\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXVII.\n\nPREACHING.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\n\"Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of\nthis world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?\"\nasks Paul. And then he declares: \"After that in the wisdom of God\nthe world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the\nfoolishness of preaching to save them that believe.\"\n\nWhat kind of preaching is this? He does not say, \"foolish\npreaching,\" but the foolishness of such a way as that of\npreaching. Certainly, it is not the moral essay, or the\nintellectual, or semi-intellectual, kind of preaching that is\nmost generally heard throughout the world to-day, that is to save\nmen; for thousands of such sermons move and convert no one: nor\nis it a mere noisy declamation called a sermon--noisy because\nempty of all earnest thought and true feeling; but it must be the\nkind of which Peter speaks when he writes of \"them that preached\nthe Gospel ... with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven\" (1\nPeter i. 12).\n\nNo man is equipped to rightly preach the Gospel, and undertake\nthe spiritual oversight and instruction of souls, till he has\nbeen anointed with the Holy Ghost.\n\nThe disciples had been led to Jesus by John the Baptist, whose\nmighty preaching laid a deep and broad foundation for their\nspiritual education, and then for three years they had listened\nto both the public and private teachings of Jesus; they had been\n\"eye-witnesses of His glory,\" of His life and death and\nresurrection, and yet He commanded them to tarry in Jerusalem,\nand wait for the Holy Spirit. He was to fit them for their\nministry. And if they, trained and taught by the Master Himself,\nhad need of the Holy Spirit to enable them to preach and testify\nwith wisdom and power, how much more do you and I need His\npresence!\n\nWithout Him they could do nothing. With Him they were invincible,\nand could continue the work of Jesus. The mighty energy of His\nworking is seen in the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost.\nThe sermon itself does not seem to have been very remarkable;\nindeed, it is principally composed of testimony backed up and\nfortified by Scripture quotations, followed by exhortation, just as\nare the sermons that are most effective to-day in the immediate\nconversion and sanctification of men. \"True preaching,\" said Horace\nBushnell, \"is a testimony.\"\n\nPeter's Scripture quotations were apt, fitting the occasion and\nthe people to whom they were addressed. The testimony was bold\nand joyous, the rushing outflow of a warm, fresh throbbing\nexperience; and the exhortation was burning, uncompromising in\nits demands, and yet tender and full of sympathy and love. But a\nDivine Presence was at work in that vast, mocking, wondering\nthrong, and it was He who made Peter's simple words search like\nfire, and carry such overwhelming conviction to the hearts of the\npeople.\n\nAnd it is still so that whenever and wherever a man preaches\n\"with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven,\" there will be\nconviction.\n\nUnder Peter's sermon \"they were pricked in their hearts.\" The\ntruth pierced them as a sword until they said, \"What shall we\ndo?\" They had been doubting and mocking a short time before, but\nnow they were earnestly inquiring the way to be saved.\n\nThe speech may be without polish, the manner uncouth, and the\nmatter simple and plain; but conviction will surely follow any\npreaching in the burning love and power and contagious joy of the\nHoly Spirit.\n\nA few years ago a poor black boy in Africa, who had been stolen\nfor a slave, and most cruelly treated, heard a missionary talking\nof the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and his heart hungered and\nthirsted for Him. In a strange manner he worked his way to New\nYork to find out more about the Holy Spirit, getting the captain\nof the ship and several of the crew converted on the way. The\nbrother in New York to whom he came took him to a meeting the\nfirst night he was in the city, and left him there, while he went\nto fulfil another engagement. When he returned at a late hour, he\nfound a crowd of men at the penitent-form, led there by the\nsimple words of this poor black fellow. He took him to his\nSunday-school, and put him up to speak, while he attended to some\nother matters. When he turned from these affairs that had\noccupied his attention for only a little while, he found the\npenitent-form full of teachers and scholars, weeping before the\nLord. What the black boy had said he did not know; but he was\nbowed with wonder and filled with joy, for it was the power of\nthe Holy Spirit.\n\nMen used to fall as though cut down in battle under the preaching\nof Wesley, Whitefield, Finney, and others. And while there may\nnot be the same physical manifestation at all times, there will\nsurely be the same opening of eyes to spiritual things, breaking\nof hearts, and piercing of consciences. The Spirit under the\npreaching of a man filled with the Holy Ghost will often come\nupon a congregation like a wind, and heads will droop, eyes will\nbrim with tears, and hearts will break under His convicting\npower. I remember a proud young woman who had been mercilessly\ncriticising us for several nights smitten in this way. She was\nsmiling when suddenly the Holy Spirit winged a word to her heart,\nand instantly her countenance changed, her head drooped, and for\nan hour or more she sobbed and struggled while her proud heart\nbroke, and she found her way with true repentance and faith to\nthe feet of Jesus, and her Heavenly Father's favour. How often\nhave we seen such sights as this under the preaching of The\nGeneral! And it ought to be a common sight under the preaching of\nall servants of God, for what are we sent for but to convict men\nof their sin and their need, and by the power of the Spirit to\nlead them to the Saviour?\n\nAnd not only will there be conviction under such preaching, but\ngenerally, if not always, there will be conversion and sanctification.\n\nThree thousand people accepted Christ under Peter's Pentecostal\nsermon, and later five thousand were converted, and a multitude\nof the priests were obedient to the faith. And it was so under\nthe preaching of Philip in Samaria, of Peter in Lydda and Saron\nand in Caesarea, and of Paul in Ephesus and other cities.\n\nTo be sure, the preaching of Stephen in its immediate effect only\nresulted in enraging his hearers until they stoned him to death;\nbut it is highly probable that the ultimate result was the\nconversion of Paul, who kept the clothes of those who stoned him,\nand through Paul the evangelisation of the Gentiles.\n\nOne of the greatest of American evangelists sought with agonising\nprayers and tears the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and received\nit; and then he said he preached the same sermons; but where\nbefore it had been as one beating the air, now hundreds were\nsaved.\n\nIt is this that has made Salvation Army Officers successful.\nYoung, inexperienced, without special gifts, and without\nlearning, but with the baptism, they have been mighty to win\nsouls. The hardest hearts have been broken, the darkest minds\nilluminated, the most stubborn wills subdued, and the wildest\nnatures tamed by them. Their words have been with power, and have\nconvicted and converted and sanctified men, and whole communities\nhave been transformed by their labours.\n\nBut without this Presence great gifts and profound and accurate\nlearning are without avail in the salvation of men. We often see\nmen with great natural powers, splendidly trained, and equipped\nwith everything save this fiery baptism, and they labour and\npreach year after year without seeing a soul saved. They have\nspent years in study; but they have not spent a day, much less\nten days, fasting and praying and waiting upon God for His\nanointing that should fill them with heavenly wisdom and power\nfor their work. They are like a great gun loaded and primed, but\nwithout a spark of fire to turn the powder and ball into a\nresistless lightning bolt.\n\nIt is fire men need, and that they get from God in agonising,\nwrestling, listening prayer that will not be denied; and when\nthey get it, and not till then, will they preach with the Holy\nGhost sent down from Heaven, and surely men shall be saved. Such\npreaching is not foolish. The Holy Spirit makes the word alive.\nHe brings it to the remembrance of the preachers in whom He\nabides, and He applies it to the heart of the hearers, lightening\nup the soul as with a sun until sin is seen in all its hideousness,\nor cutting as a sharp sword, piercing the heart with resistless\nconviction of the guilt and shame of sin.\n\nPeter had no time to consult the Scriptures and prepare a sermon\non the morning of Pentecost; but the Holy Spirit quickened his\nmemory, and brought to his mind the Scriptures appropriate to the\noccasion.\n\nHundreds of years before, the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of the\nprophet Joel, had foretold that in the last days the Spirit\nshould be poured out upon all flesh, and that their sons and\ndaughters should prophesy. And the same Spirit that spoke through\nJoel now made Peter to see and declare that this Pentecostal\nbaptism was that of which Joel spoke.\n\nBy the mouth of David He had said: \"Thou wilt not leave My soul\nin hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption\";\nand now Peter, by the inspiration of the same Spirit, applies\nthis Scripture to the resurrection of Jesus, and so proves to the\nJews that the One they had condemned and killed was the Holy One\nforetold in prophecy and psalm.\n\nAnd so to-day the Holy Spirit inspires men who receive Him to use\nthe Scriptures to awaken, convict, and save men.\n\nWhen Finney was a young preacher, he was invited to a country\nschool-house to preach. On the way there he became much\ndistressed in soul, and his mind seemed blank and dark, when all\nat once this text, spoken to Lot in Sodom by the angels, came to\nhis mind: \"Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will\ndestroy this city.\" He explained the text, told the people about\nLot, and the wickedness of Sodom, and applied it to them. While\nhe spoke they began to look exceedingly angry, and then, as he\nearnestly exhorted them to give up their sins and seek the Lord,\nthey began to fall from their seats as though stricken down in\nbattle, and to cry to God for mercy. A great revival followed;\nmany were converted, and a number of the converts became\nministers of the Gospel.\n\nTo Finney's amazement, he learned afterwards that the place was\ncalled Sodom, because of its extreme wickedness, and the old man\nwho had invited him to preach was called Lot, because he was the\nonly God-fearing man in the place. Evidently the Holy Spirit\nworked through Finney to accomplish these results. And such\ninspiration is not uncommon with those who are filled with the\nSpirit.\n\nBut this reinforcement of the mind and memory by the Holy Spirit\ndoes not do away with the need of study. The Spirit quickens that\nwhich is already in the mind and memory, as the warm sun and\nrains of spring quicken the sleeping seeds that are in the\nground, and only those.\n\nThe sun does not put the seed in the soil, nor does the Holy\nSpirit without our attention and study put the word of God in our\nminds. For that we should prayerfully and patiently study.\n\n\"We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the\nministry of the word,\" said the Apostles.\n\n\"Study to show thyself approved of God, a workman that needeth\nnot to be ashamed; rightly dividing the word of truth,\" wrote\nPaul to Timothy.\n\nThose men have been best able to rightly divide the word, and\nhave been most mightily used by the Holy Spirit, who have most\ncarefully and prayerfully studied the word of God, and most\nconstantly and lovingly meditated upon it.\n\n4. This preaching is _healing and comforting._ Preaching\n\"with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven\" is indescribably\nsearching in its effects. But it is also edifying, strengthening,\ncomforting to those who are wholly the Lord's. It cuts, but only\nto cure. It searches, but only to save. It is constructive, as\nwell as destructive. It tears down sin and pride and unbelief,\nbut it builds up faith and righteousness and holiness and all the\ngraces of a Christian character. It warms the heart with love,\nstrengthens faith, and confirms the will in all holy purposes.\n\nEvery preacher baptised with the Holy Ghost can say with Jesus:\n\"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath\nanointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me\nto bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the\ncaptives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;\nto proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of\nvengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.\"\n\nSeldom is there a congregation in which there are only those who\nneed to be convicted. There will also be meek and gentle ones to\nwhom should be brought a message of joy and good tidings; broken-hearted\nones to be bound up; wounded ones to heal; tempted ones to\nbe delivered; and those whom Satan has bound by some fear or habit\nto be set free; and the Holy Spirit who knows all hearts will\ninspire the word that shall bless these needy ones.\n\nThe preacher filled with the Holy Spirit, who is instant in\nprayer, constant in the study of God's word, and steadfast and\nactive in faith, will surely be so helped that he can say with\nIsaiah: \"The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned,\nthat I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is\nweary\" (Isaiah i. 4). And as with little Samuel, the Lord will\n\"let none of his words fall to the ground\" (1 Samuel iii. 19).\n\nHe will expect results, and God will make them follow his\npreaching as surely as corn follows the planting and cultivating\nof the farmer.\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXVIII.\n\nTHE HOLY SPIRIT'S CALL TO THE WORK.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\n\"THE Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath\nanointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent\nMe\" (Isaiah lxi. 1), is the testimony of the workman God sends.\n\nGod chooses His own workmen, and it is the office of the Holy\nSpirit to call whom He will to preach the Gospel. I doubt not He\ncalls men to other employments for His glory, and would still\nmore often do so, if men would but listen and wait upon Him to\nknow His will.\n\nHe called Bezaleel and Aholiab to build the tabernacle. He called\nand commissioned the Gentile king, Cyrus, to rebuild Jerusalem\nand restore His chastised and humbled people to their own land.\nAnd did He not call Joan of Arc to her strange and wonderful\nmission? And Washington and Lincoln?\n\nAnd, no doubt, He _leads_ most men by His providence to\ntheir life-work; but the call to preach the Gospel is more than a\nprovidential leading; it is a distinct and imperative conviction.\nBishop Simpson, in his \"Lectures on Preaching,\" says:--\n\n\"Even in its faintest form there is this distinction between a\ncall to the ministry and a choice of other professions: a young\nman may _wish_ to be a physician; he may _desire_ to enter the\nnavy; he would _like_ to be a farmer; but he feels he _ought_ to\nbe a minister. It is this feeling of _ought_, or obligation,\nwhich in its feeblest form indicates the Divine call. It is not\nin the aptitude, taste, or desire, but in the conscience, that\nits root is found. It is the voice of God to the human conscience,\nsaying, 'You ought to preach.'\"\n\nSometimes the call comes as distinctly as though a voice had\nspoken from the skies into the depths of the heart.\n\nA young man who was studying law was converted. After a while he\nwas convicted for sanctification, and while seeking he heard, as\nit were, a voice, saying, \"Will you devote all your time to the\nLord?\" He replied: \"I am to be a lawyer, not a preacher, Lord.\"\nBut not until he had said, \"Yes, Lord,\" could he find the\nblessing.\n\nA thoughtless, godless young fellow was working in the corn-field\nwhen a telegram was handed him announcing the death of his\nbrother, a brilliant and devoted Salvation Army Field Officer;\nand there and then, unsaved as he was, God called him, showed him\na vast Army with ranks broken, where his brother had fallen, and\nmade him to feel that he should fill the breach in the ranks.\nFourteen months later he took up the sword, and entered the Fight\nfrom the same platform from which his brother fell, and is to-day\none of our most successful and promising Field Officers.\n\nAgain, the call may come as a quiet suggestion, a gentle\nconviction, as though a gossamer bridle were placed upon the\nheart and conscience to guide the man into the work of the Lord.\nThe suggestion gradually becomes clearer, the conviction\nstrengthens until it masters the man, and if he seeks to escape\nit, he finds the silken bridle to be one of stoutest thongs and\nfirmest steel.\n\nIt was so with me. When but a boy of eleven, I heard a man\npreaching, and I said to myself, \"Oh, how beautiful to preach!\"\nTwo years later I was converted, and soon the conviction came\nupon me that I should preach. Later, I decided to follow another\nprofession; but the conviction increased in strength, while I\nstruggled against it, and turned away my ears and went on with my\nstudies. Yet in every crisis, or hour of stillness, when my soul\nfaced God, the conviction that I must preach burned itself deeper\ninto my conscience. I rebelled against it. I felt I would almost\nrather (but not quite) go to Hell than to submit. Then at last a\ngreat \"Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel,\" took possession of\nme, and I yielded, and God won. Hallelujah!\n\nThe first year He gave me three revivals, with many souls; and\nnow I would rather preach Jesus to poor sinners and feed His\nlambs than to be an archangel before the Throne. Some day, some\nday, He will call me into His blessed presence, and I shall stand\nbefore His face, and praise Him for ever for counting me worthy,\nand calling me to preach His glad Gospel, and share in His joy of\nsaving the lost. The \"woe\" is lost in love and delight through\nthe baptism of the Spirit and the sweet assurance that Jesus is\npleased.\n\nOccasionally, the call comes to a man who is ready and responds\npromptly and gladly. When Isaiah received the fiery touch that\npurged his life and purified his heart, he \"heard the voice of\nthe Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?\"\nAnd in the joy and power of his new experience, he cried out,\n\"Here am I; send me!\" (Isaiah vi. 5-8).\n\nWhen Paul received his call, he says, \"Immediately I conferred\nnot with flesh and blood\" (Gal. i. 16), and he got up and went as\nthe Lord led him.\n\nBut more often it seems the Lord finds men preoccupied with other\nplans and ambitions, or encompassed with obstacles and difficulties,\nor oppressed with a deep sense of unworthiness or unfitness. Moses\nargued that he could not talk. \"O Lord!\" he said, \"I am not\neloquent, neither heretofore nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy\nservant; but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.\"\n\nAnd then the Lord condescended, as He always does, to reason with\nthe backward man. \"Who hath made man's mouth?\" He asks, \"or who\nmaketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I\nthe Lord? Now, therefore, go, and I will be with thy mouth, and\nteach thee what thou shalt say\" (Exodus iv. 10-12).\n\nWhen the call of God came to Jeremiah, he shrank back, and said,\n\"Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.\" But the\nLord replied, \"Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all\nthat I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt\nspeak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to\ndeliver thee\" (Jeremiah i. 6-8).\n\nAnd so the call of God comes to-day to those who shrink and feel\nthat they are the most unfit, or most hedged in by insuperable\ndifficulties.\n\nI know a man, who, when converted, could not tell A from B. He\nknew nothing whatever about the Bible, and stammered so badly\nthat, when asked his own name, it would usually take him a minute\nor so to tell it; added to this, he lisped badly, and was subject\nto a nervous affliction which seemed likely to unfit him for any\nkind of work whatever. But God poured light and love into his\nheart, called him to preach, and to-day he is one of the\nmightiest soul-winners in the whole round of my acquaintance.\nWhen he speaks the house is always packed to the doors, and the\npeople hang on his words with wonder and joy.\n\nHe was converted at a Camp meeting, and sanctified wholly in a\ncornfield. He learned to read; but, being too poor to afford a\nlight in the evening, he studied a large-print Bible by the light\nof the full moon. To-day, he has the Bible almost committed to\nmemory, and when he speaks he does not open the Book, but reads\nhis lesson from memory, and quotes proof texts from Genesis to\nRevelation without mistake, and gives chapter and verse for every\nquotation. When he talks his face shines, and his speech is like\nhoney for sweetness, and like bullets fired from a gun for power.\nHe is one of the weak and foolish ones God has chosen to confound\nthe wise and mighty (1 Cor. i. 27).\n\nIf God calls a man, He will so corroborate the call in some way,\nthat men may know that there is a prophet among them. It will be\nwith him as it was with Samuel. \"And Samuel grew, and the Lord\nwas with him, and did let none of His words fall to the ground.\nAnd all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was\nestablished to be a prophet of the Lord\" (1 Samuel iii. 19, 20).\n\nIf the man himself is uncertain about the call, God will deal\npatiently with him, as He did with Gideon, to make him certain.\nHis fleece will be wet with dew when the earth is dry, or dry\nwhen the earth is wet; or he will hear of some tumbling barley\ncake smiting the tents of Midian, that will strengthen his faith,\nand make him to know that God is with him (Judges vi. 36-40;\nvii. 9-15).\n\nIf the door is shut and difficulties hedge the way, God will go\nbefore the man He calls, and open the door and sweep away the\ndifficulties (Isaiah xlv. 2, 3).\n\nIf others think the man so ignorant and unfit that they doubt his\ncall, God will give him such grace or such power to win souls\nthat they shall have to acknowledge that God has chosen him. It\nwas in this way that God made a whole National Headquarters, from\nthe Commissioner downwards, to know that He had chosen the\nelevator boy for His work. The boy got scores of his passengers\non the elevator saved, and then he was commissioned and sent into\nthe Field to devote all his time to saving men.\n\nThe Lord will surely let the man's comrades and brethren know, as\nsurely as He did the Church at Antioch, when \"the Holy Ghost\nsaid, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have\ncalled them\" (Acts xiii. 2).\n\nSometimes the one who is called will try to hide it in his heart,\nand then God stirs up some Officer or minister, some Soldier or\nmother in Israel, to lay a hand on his shoulders, and ask, \"Are\nyou not called to the work?\" and he finds he cannot hide himself\nnor escape from the call, any more than could Adam hide himself\nfrom God behind the trees of the garden, or Jonah escape God's\ncall by taking ship for Tarshish.\n\nHappy is the man who does not try to escape, but, though\ntrembling at the mighty responsibility, assumes it, and, with all\nhumility and faithfulness, sets to work by prayer and patient,\ncontinuous study of God's word, to fit himself for God's work. He\nwill need to prepare himself, for the call to the work is also a\ncall to preparation, continuous preparation of the fullest\npossible kind.\n\nThe man whom God calls cannot safely neglect or despise the call.\nHe will find his mission on earth, his happiness and peace, his\npower and prosperity, his reward in Heaven, and probably Heaven\nitself, bound up with that call and dependent upon it. He may run\naway from it, as did Jonah, and find a waiting ship to favour his\nflight; but he will also find fierce storms and bellowing seas\novertaking him, and big-mouthed fishes of trouble and disaster\nready to swallow him.\n\nBut if he heeds the call, and cheerfully goes where God appoints,\nGod will go with him; he shall nevermore be left alone. The Holy\nSpirit will surely accompany him, and he may be one of the\nhappiest men on earth, one of the gladdest creatures in God's\nuniverse.\n\n\"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,\" said\nJesus, as He commissioned His disciples to go to all nations and\npreach the Gospel. \"My presence shall go with thee,\" said Jehovah\nto Moses, when sending him to face Pharaoh and free Israel, and\nlead them to the Promised Land.\n\nAnd to the boy Jeremiah, He said, \"Be not afraid of their faces:\nfor I am with thee to deliver thee.... And they shall fight\nagainst thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am\nwith thee\" (Jeremiah i. 8, 19).\n\nI used to read these words with a great and rapturous joy, as I\nrealised by faith that they were also meant for me, and for every\nman sent of God, and that His blessed presence was with me every\ntime I spoke to the people or dealt with an individual soul, or\nknelt in prayer with a penitent seeker after God; and I still\nread them so.\n\nHas He called you into the work, my brother? And are you\nconscious of His helpful, sympathising, loving presence with you?\nIf so, let no petty offence, no hardship, nor danger, nor dread\nof the future, cause you to turn aside or draw back. Stick to the\nwork till He calls you out, and when He so calls you can go with\nopen face and a heart abounding with love, joy, and peace, and He\nwill still go with you.\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXIX.\n\nTHE SHEATHED SWORD: A LAW OF THE SPIRIT.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nJUST as the moss and the oak are higher in the order of creation\nthan the clod of clay and the rock, the bird and beast than the\nmoss and the oak, the man than the bird and the beast, so the\nspiritual man is a higher being than the natural man. The sons of\nGod are a new order of being. The Christian is a \"new creation.\"\nJust as there are laws governing the life of the plant, and other\nand higher laws that of the bird and beast, so there are higher\nlaws for man, and still higher for the Christian. It was with\nregard to one of these higher laws that govern the heavenly life\nof the Christian that Jesus said to Peter, \"Put up thy sword.\"\n\nJesus said to Pilate, \"My kingdom is not of this world; if My\nkingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight.\" The\nnatural man is a fighter. It is the law of his carnal nature. He\nfights with fist and sword, tongue and wit. His kingdom is of\nthis world, and he fights for it with such weapons as this world\nfurnishes. The Christian is a citizen of Heaven, and is subject\nto its law, which is universal, wholehearted love. In his kingdom\nhe conquers not by fighting, but by submitting. When an enemy\ntakes his coat, he overcomes him, not by going to law, but by\ngenerously giving him his cloak also. When his enemy compels him\nto go a mile with him, he vanquishes the enemy by cheerfully\ngoing two miles with him. When he is smitten on one cheek, he\nwins his foe by meekly turning the other cheek. This is the law\nof the new life from Heaven, and only by recognising and obeying\nit can that new life be sustained and passed on to others. This\nis the narrow way which leads to life eternal, \"and few there be\nthat find it,\" or, finding it, are willing to walk in it.\n\nA Russian peasant, Sutajeff, could get no help from the religious\nteachers of his village, so he learned to read, and while\nstudying the Bible he found this narrow way, and walked gladly in\nit. One night neighbours of his stole some of his grain, but in\ntheir haste or carelessness they left a bag. He found it, and ran\nafter them to restore it, \"for,\" said he, \"fellows who have to\nsteal must be hard up.\" And by this Christlike spirit he saved\nboth himself and them, for he kept the spirit of love in his own\nheart, and they were converted and became his most ardent\ndisciples.\n\nA beggar woman, to whom he gave lodging, stole the bedding and\nran away with it. She was pursued by the neighbours, and was just\nabout to be put in prison when Sutajeff appeared, became her\nadvocate, secured her acquittal, and gave her food and money for\nher journey.\n\nHe recognised the law of his new life and gladly obeyed it, and\nso was not overcome of evil, but persistently and triumphantly\novercame evil with good (Romans xii. 21).\n\nThis is the spirit and method of Jesus; and by men filled with\nthis spirit and following this method He will yet win the world.\n\nHe came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His\nlife a ransom for many. His spirit is not one of self-seeking, but\nof self-sacrifice. Some mysterious majesty of His presence or voice\nso awed and overcame His foes that they went back and fell to the\nground before Him in the Garden of His agony, but He meekly\nsubmitted Himself to them; and when Peter laid to with his sword,\nand cut off the ear of the high priest's servant, Jesus said to him,\n\"Put up thy sword into the sheath; the cup which My Father hath\ngiven Me, shall I not drink it?\"\n\nThis was the spirit of Isaac. When he digged a well, the\nPhilistines strove with his servants for it; so he digged\nanother; and when they strove for that, he removed and digged yet\nanother, \"and for that they strove not: and he called the name of\nit Rehoboth\" (margin, _room_): \"and he said, For now the\nLord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the\nland.... And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said,\nI am the God of Abraham, thy father: fear not, for I am with\nthee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed\" (Genesis xxvi.\n22, 24).\n\nThis was the spirit of David, when Saul was hunting for his life;\ntwice David could have slain him, and when urged to do so, he\nsaid, \"As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him; or his day\nshall come to die; or he shall descend into battle and perish.\nThe Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the\nLord's anointed\" (1 Samuel xxvi. 10, 11).\n\nThis was the spirit of Paul. He says, \"Being reviled, we bless;\nbeing persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we intreat\" (1\nCor. iv. 12, 13). \"The servant of the Lord must not strive,\"\nwrote Paul to Timothy, \"but be gentle unto all men.\" This is the\nspirit of our King, this is the law of His Kingdom.\n\nIs this your spirit? When you are reviled, bemeaned and\nslandered, and are tempted to retort, He says to you, \"Put up thy\nsword into the sheath.\" When you are wronged and illtreated, and\nmen ride rough-shod over you, and you feel it but just to smite\nback, He says, \"Put up thy sword into the sheath.\" \"Live\npeaceably with all men.\" Your weapons are not carnal, but\nspiritual, now that you belong to Him, and have your citizenship\nin Heaven. If you fight with the sword; if you retort and smite\nback when you are wronged, you quench the Spirit; you get out of\nthe narrow way, and your new life from Heaven will perish.\n\nAn Officer went to a hard Corps, and after a while found that his\npredecessor was sending back to friends for money which his own\nCorps much needed. He felt it to be an injustice, and, losing\nsight of the Spirit of Jesus, he made a complaint about it, and\nthe money was returned. But he got lean in his soul. He had\nquenched the Spirit. He had broken the law of the Kingdom. He had\nnot only refused to give his cloak, but had fought for and\nsecured the return of the coat. He had lost the smile of Jesus,\nand his poor heart was sad and heavy within him. He came to me\nwith anxious inquiry as to what I thought of his action. I had to\nadmit that the other man had transgressed, and that the money\nought to be returned, but that he should have been more grieved\nover the unchristlike spirit of his brother than over the loss of\nthe five dollars, and that like Sutajeff he should have said,\n\"Poor fellow! he must be hard up; I will send him five dollars\nmyself. He has taken my coat, he shall have my cloak too.\" When I\ntold him that story, he came to himself very quickly, and was\nsoon back in the narrow way and rejoicing in the smile of Jesus\nonce again.\n\n\"But will not people walk over us, if we do not stand up for our\nrights?\" you ask. I do not argue that you are not to stand up for\nyour rights; but that you are to stand up for your higher rather\nthan your lower rights, the rights of your heavenly life rather\nthan your earthly life, and that you are to stand up for your\nrights in the way and spirit of Jesus rather than in the way and\nspirit of the world.\n\nIf men wrong you intentionally, they wrong themselves far worse\nthan they wrong you; and if you have the spirit of Jesus in your\nheart you will pity them more than you pity yourself. They nailed\nJesus to the cross and hung Him up to die; they gave Him gall and\nvinegar to drink; they cast votes for His seamless robe, and\ndivided His garments between them, while the crowd wagged their\nheads at Him and mocked Him. Great was the injustice and wrong\nthey were inflicting upon Him, but He was not filled with anger,\nonly pity. He thought not of the wrong done Him, but of the wrong\nthey did themselves, and their sin against His Heavenly Father,\nand He prayed not for judgment upon them, but that they might be\nforgiven, and He won them, and is winning and will win the world.\nBless God!\n\n\"By mercy and truth iniquity is purged,\" wrote Solomon. \"Put up\nthy sword into the sheath, \"and take mercy and truth for your\nweapons, and God will be with you and for you, and great shall be\nyour victory and joy. Hallelujah!\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXX.\n\nVICTORY THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT OVER SUFFERING.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nHAD there been no sin our Heavenly Father would have found other\nmeans by which to develop in us passive virtues, and train us in\nthe graces of meekness, patience, long-suffering, and forbearance,\nwhich so beautify and display the Christian character. But since\nsin is here, with its contradictions and falsehoods, its darkness,\nits wars, brutalities and injustices, producing awful harvests of\npain and sorrow, God, in wonderful wisdom and lovingkindness,\nturns even these into instruments by which to fashion in us\nbeautiful graces. Storm succeeds sunshine, and darkness the light;\npain follows hard on the heels of pleasure, while sorrow peers\nover the shoulder of joy; gladness and grief, rest and toil,\npeace and war, interminably intermingled, follow each other in\nceaseless succession in this world. We cannot escape suffering\nwhile in the body. But we can receive it with a faith that robs\nit of its terror, and extracts from it richest blessing; from\nthe flinty rock will gush forth living waters, and the carcase\nof the lion will furnish the sweetest honey.\n\nThis is so even when the suffering is a result of our own folly\nor sin. It is intended not only in some measure as a punishment,\nbut also as a teacher, a corrective, a remedy, a warning; and it\nwill surely work for good, if, instead of repining and vainly\nregretting the past, we steadily look unto Jesus and learn our\nlesson in patience and thankfulness.\n\n  \"If all the skies were sunshine,\n   Our faces would be fain\n  To feel once more upon them\n   The cooling plash of rain.\n\n  \"If all the world were music,\n   Our hearts would often long\n  For one sweet strain of silence\n   To break the endless song.\n\n  \"If life were always merry,\n   Our souls would seek relief\n  And rest from weary laughter\n   In the quiet arms of grief.\"\n\nDoubtless all our suffering is a result of sin, but not\nnecessarily the sin of the sufferer. Jesus was the sinless One,\nbut He was also the Chief of sufferers. Paul's great and lifelong\nsufferings came upon him, not because of his sins, but rather\nbecause he had forsaken sin, and was following Jesus in a world\nof sin, and seeking the salvation of his fellows. In this path\nthere is no escape from suffering, though there are hidden and\nunspeakable consolations. \"In the world ye shall have tribulation,\"\nsaid Jesus. \"All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer\npersecution,\" wrote Paul.\n\nSooner or later, suffering in some form comes to each of us. It\nmay come through broken health, or pain and weariness of body; or\nthrough mental anguish, moral distress, spiritual darkness and\nuncertainty. It may come through the loss of loved ones, through\nbetrayal by trusted friends; or through deferred or ruined hopes,\nor base ingratitude; or perhaps in unrequited toil and sacrifice\nand ambitions all unfulfilled. Nothing more clearly distinguishes\nthe man filled with the Spirit from the man who is not than the\nway each receives suffering.\n\nOne with triumphant faith and shining face and strong heart\nglories in tribulation, and counts it all joy. To this class\nbelong the Apostles, who, beaten and threatened, \"departed from\nthe council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer\nshame for His Name\" (Acts v. 41).\n\nThe other with doubts and fears, murmurs and complains, and to\nhis other miseries adds that of a rebellious heart and discontented\nmind. One sees the enemy's armed host, and unmixed distress\nand danger; the other sees the angel of the Lord, with abundant\nsuccour and safety (2 Kings vi. 15-17).\n\nAn evangelist of my acquaintance told a story that illustrates\nthis. When a pastor he went one morning to visit two sisters who\nwere greatly afflicted. They were about the same age, and had\nlong been professing Christians and members of the Church. He\nasked the first one upon whom he called, \"How is it with you this\nmorning?\" \"Oh, I have not slept all night,\" she replied. \"I have\nso much pain. It is so hard to have to lie here. I cannot see why\nGod deals so with me.\" Evidently, she was not filled with the\nSpirit, but was in a controversy with the Lord about her\nsufferings, and would not be comforted.\n\nLeaving her he called immediately upon the other sister, and\nasked, \"How are you to-day?\" \"Oh, I had such a night of\nsuffering!\" she replied. \"Then,\" said he, \"there came out upon\nher worn face, furrowed and pale, a beautiful radiance, and she\nadded, \"but Jesus was so near and helped me so, that I could\nsuffer this way and more, if my Father thinks best\"; and on she\nwent with like words of cheer and triumph that made the sick room\na vestibule of glory. No lack of comfort in her heart, for the\nComforter Himself, the Holy Spirit, had been invited and had come\nin. One had the Comforter in fullness, the other had not.\n\nProbably, no man ever suffered more than Paul, but with soldier-like\nfortitude he bore his heavy burdens, faced his constant and\nexacting labours, endured his sore trials, disappointments, and\nbitter persecutions by fierce and relentless enemies; he stood\nunmoved amid shipwrecks, stripes and imprisonments, cold, hunger,\nand homelessness without a whimper that might suggest repining or\ndiscouragement, or an appeal for pity. Indeed, he went beyond\nsimple uncomplaining fortitude, and said, \"we glory in tribulation\"\n(Romans v. 3); \"I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation\"\n(2 Cor. vii. 4); \"I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches,\nin necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake\"\n(2 Cor. xii. 10). After a terrible scourging upon his bare back,\nhe was thrust into a loathsome inner dungeon, his feet fast in\nthe stocks, with worse things probably awaiting him on the morrow.\nNevertheless, we find him and Silas, his companion in suffering,\nat midnight praying and singing praises unto God (Acts xvi. 25).\n\nWhat is his secret? Listen to him: \"Because the love of God is\nshed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto\nus\" (Romans v. 5). His prayer for his Ephesian brethren had been\nanswered in his own heart: \"That He would grant you, according to\nthe riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His\nSpirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by\nfaith.\" And this inner strength and consciousness, through faith,\nin an indwelling Christ enabled him to receive suffering and\ntrial, not stoically as the Red Indian, nor hilariously, in a\nspirit of bravado, but cheerfully and with a thankful heart.\n\nArnold of Rugby has written something about his \"most dear and\nblessed sister\" that illustrates the power flowing from\nexhaustless fountains of inner joy and strength through the\nworking of the Holy Spirit.  He says:--\n\n\"I never saw a more perfect instance of the spirit and power of\nlove, and of a sound mind. Her life was a daily martyrdom for\ntwenty years, during which she adhered to her early-formed\nresolution of never talking about herself; she was thoughtful\nabout the very pins and ribands of my wife's dress, about the\nmaking of a doll's cap for a child--but of herself, save only as\nregarded her ripening in all goodness, wholly thoughtless,\nenjoying everything lovely, graceful, beautiful, high-minded,\nwhether in God's works or man's, with the keenest relish;\ninheriting the earth to the very fullness of the promise, though\nnever leaving her crib, nor changing her posture; and preserved,\nthrough the very valley of the shadow of death, from all fear or\nimpatience, and from every cloud of impaired reason, which might\nmar the beauty of Christ's and the Spirit's work.\"\n\nIt is not by hypnotising the soul, nor by blessing it into a\nstate of ecstatic insensibility, that the Lord enables the man\nfilled with the Spirit to thus triumph over suffering. Rather it\nis by giving the soul a sweet, constant, and unshaken assurance\nthrough faith: First, that it is freely and fully accepted in\nChrist. Second, that whatever suffering comes, it is measured,\nweighed, and permitted by love infinitely tender, and guided by\nwisdom that cannot err. Third, that however difficult it may be\nto explain suffering now, it is nevertheless _one_ of the\n\"all things\" which \"work together for good to them that love\nGod,\" and that in a \"little while\" it will not only be swallowed\nup in the ineffable blessedness and glory, but that in some way\nit is actually helping to work out \"a far more exceeding and\neternal weight of glory\" (2 Cor. iv. 7). Fourth, that though the\nfurnace has been heated seven times hotter than was wont, yet\n\"the Form... like unto the Son of God\" is walking with us in the\nfire; though triumphant enemies have thrust us into the lions'\nden, yet the angel of the Lord arrived first and locked the\nlions' jaws; though foes may have formed against us sharp\nweapons, yet they cannot prosper, for His shield and buckler\ndefend us; though all things be lost, yet \"Thou remainest\"; and\nthough \"my flesh and my heart may fail, God is the strength of my\nheart and my portion for ever.\"\n\nNot all God's dear children thus triumph over their difficulties\nand sufferings, but this is God's standard, and they may attain\nunto it, if, by faith, they will open their hearts and \"be filled\nwith the Spirit.\"\n\nHere is the testimony of a Salvation Army Officer up to date:--\n\n\"Viewed from the outside, my life as a sinner was easy and\nuntroubled, over which most of my friends expressed envy; while\nthese same friends thought my life as a Christian full of care,\ntoil, hardship, and immense loss. This, however, was only an\noutside view, and the real state of the case was exactly the\nopposite of what they supposed. For in all the pleasure-seeking,\nidleness, and freedom from responsibility of my life apart from\nGod, I carried an immeasurable burden of fear, anxiety, and\nconstantly recurring disappointment; trifles weighed upon me, and\nthe thought of death haunted me with vague terrors.\n\n\"But when I gave myself wholly to God, though my lot became at\nonce one of toil, responsibility, comparative poverty and\nsacrifice, yet I could not feel pain in any storm that broke over\nmy head, because of the presence of God. It was not so much that\nI was insensible to trouble, as sensible of His presence and\nlove; and the worst trials were as nothing in my sight, nor have\nbeen for over twenty-two years. While as for death, it appears\nonly as a doorway into more abundant life, and I can alter an old\nGerman hymn, and sing with joy:\n\n  \"'Oh, how my heart with rapture dances.\n  To think my dying hour advances!\n  Then, Lord, with Thee!\n  My Lord, with Thee!'\"\n\nThis is faith's triumph over the worst the world can offer\nthrough the blessed fullness of the indwelling Comforter. Bless\nHis Name!\n\n  \"Here speaks the Comforter, Light of the straying,\n   Hope of the penitent, Advocate sure,\n  Joy of the desolate, tenderly saying,\n   'Earth has no sorrow My grace cannot cure.'\"\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXXI.\n\nTHE OVERFLOWING BLESSING.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nTHE children of Israel were instructed by Moses to give tithes of\nall they had to the Lord, and in return God promised to richly\nbless them, making their fields and vineyards fruitful and\ncausing their flocks and herds to safely multiply. But they\nbecame covetous and unbelieving, and began to rob God by\nwithholding their tithes, and then God began to withhold His\nblessing from them.\n\nBut still God loved and pitied them, and sent to them again and\nagain by His prophets; and finally by the prophet Malachi He\nsaid: \"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there\nmay be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the\nLord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and\npour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to\nreceive it\" (Malachi iii. 10).\n\nHe promised to make their barns overflow, if they would be\nfaithful, if they would pay their tithes and discharge their\nobligations to Him.\n\nNow, this overflow of barns and granaries is a type of\noverflowing hearts and lives when we give ourselves fully to God,\nand the blessed Holy Ghost comes in, and Jesus becomes all and in\nall to us. The blessing is too big to contain, but just bursts\nout and overflows through the life, the looks, the conversation,\nthe very tones of the voice, and gladdens and refreshes and\npurifies wherever it goes. Jesus calls it \"rivers of living\nwater\" (John vii. 38).\n\nThere is an overflow of _love_. Sin brings in an overflow of\nhate, so that the world is filled with wars and murders,\nslanders, oppression, and selfishness. But this blessing causes\nlove to overflow. Schools, colleges, and hospitals are built;\nshelters, rescue homes, and orphanages are opened; even war\nitself is in some measure humanised by the Red Cross Society and\nChristian commissions. Sinners love their own, but this blessing\nmakes us to love all men--strangers, the heathen, and even our\nenemies.\n\nThere is an overflow of _peace_. It settles old quarrels and\ngrudges. It makes a different atmosphere in the home. The\nchildren know it when father and mother get the Comforter. Kindly\nwords and sweet goodwill take the place of bitterness and strife.\nI suspect that even the dumb beasts realise the overflow.\n\nI heard a laughable story of a man whose cow would switch her\ntail in his face, and then kick over the pail when he was milking\nher, after which he would always give her a beating with the\nstool on which he sat. But he got the blessing, and his heart was\noverflowing with peace. The next morning he went to milk that\ncow, and when the pail was nearly full, swish! came the tail in\nhis face, and with a vicious kick she knocked over the pail, and\nthen ran across the barn-yard. The blessed man picked up the\nempty pail and stool and went over to the cow, which stood\ntrembling, awaiting the usual kicks and beating; but instead he\npatted her gently, and said, \"You may kick over that pail as\noften as you please, but I am not going to beat you any more\";\nand the cow seemed to understand, for she dropped her head and\nquietly began to eat, and never kicked again! That story is good\nenough to be true, and I doubt not it is, for certainly when the\nComforter comes a great peace fills the heart and overflows\nthrough all the life.\n\nThere is an overflow of _joy_. It makes the face to shine;\nit glances from the eye, and bubbles out in thanksgiving and\npraise. You never can tell when one who has the blessing will\nshout out, \"Glory to God! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Amen!\"\n\nI have sometimes seen a whole congregation wakened up and\nrefreshed and made glad by the joyous overflow from one clean-hearted\nsoul. A Salvation Soldier or Officer with an overflow of\ngenuine joy is worth a whole company of ordinary folks. He is a\nhost within himself, and is a living proof of the text, \"The joy\nof the Lord is your strength.\"\n\nThere is an overflow of _patience_ and _long-suffering._\nA man got this blessing, and his wicked wife was\nso enraged that she left him, and went across the way and lived\nas the wife of his unmarried brother. He was terribly tempted to\ntake his gun and go over and kill them both. But he prayed about\nit, and the Lord gave him the patience and long-suffering of\nJesus, who bears long with the backslider who leaves Him and\njoins himself with the world; and he continued to treat them with\nthe utmost kindness, as though they had done him no wrong. Some\npeople might say the man was weak, but I should say he was\nunusually \"strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,\" and a\nneighbour of his told me that all his neighbours believed in his\nreligion.\n\nThere is an overflow of _goodness_ and _generosity_. I\nread the other day of a poor man who supports eight workers in\nthe foreign mission field. When asked how he did it, he replied\nthat he wore celluloid collars, did his own washing, denied\nhimself, and managed his affairs in order to do it.\n\nDo you ask, \"How can I get such a blessing?\" You will get it by\nbringing in all the tithes, by giving yourself in love and\nobedience and wholehearted, joyous consecration to Jesus, as a\ntrue bride gives herself to her husband. Do not try to bargain\nwith the Lord and buy it of Him, but wait on Him in never-give-in\nprayer and confident expectation, and He will give it to you. And\nthen you must not hold it selfishly for your own gratification,\nbut let it overflow to the hungry, thirsty, fainting world about\nyou. God bless you even now, and do for you exceeding abundantly\nabove all you ask or think!\n\nA comrade went from one of my meetings recently with a heart\ngreatly burdened for the blessing, and for two or three days and\nnights did little else but read the Bible, and pray and cry to\nGod for a clean heart filled with the Spirit. At last the\nComforter came, and with Him fullness of peace and joy and\nsoul-rest, and that day this comrade led a number of others into the\nblessing. Hallelujah! \"If ye then, being evil, know how to give\ngood gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly\nFather give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him\" (Luke xi. 13).\n\"_Ask,... seek,... knock_.\"\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXXII.\n\nIMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE AND EXPERIENCE OF HOLINESS TO SPIRITUAL\nLEADERS.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nA mighty man inspires and trains other men to be mighty. We\nwonder and exclaim often at the slaughter of Goliath by David,\nand we forget that David was the forerunner of a race of\nfearless, invincible warriors and giant-killers.\n\nIf we would in this light but study and remember the story of\nDavid's mighty men, it would be most instructive to us.\n\nMoses inspired a tribe of cowering, toiling, sweat-begrimed,\nspiritless slaves to lift up their heads, straighten their backs,\nand throw off the yoke; and he led them forth with songs of\nvictory and shouts of triumph from under the mailed hand and iron\nbondage of Pharaoh. He fired them with a national spirit, and\nwelded and organised them into a distinct and compact people that\ncould be hurled with resistless power against the walled cities\nand trained warriors of Canaan.\n\nBut what was the secret of David and Moses? Whence the\nsuperiority of these men? David was only a stripling shepherd-boy\nwhen he immortalised himself. What was his secret? To be sure,\nMoses was \"instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,\" and,\ndoubtless, had been trained in all the civil, military, and\nscientific learning of his day, but he was so weak in himself\nthat he feared and fled at the first word of questioning and\ndisparagement that he heard (Exodus ii. 14), and spent the next\nforty years feeding sheep for another man in the rugged\nwilderness of Sinai. What, then, was his secret?\n\nDoubtless, they were men cast in a kinglier mould than most men;\nbut their secret was not in themselves.\n\nJoseph Parker declared that great lives are built on great\npromises, and so they are. These men had so far humbled\nthemselves that they found God. They got close to Him, and He\nspoke to them. He gave them promises. He revealed His way and\ntruth to them, and trusting Him, believing His promises, and\nfashioning their lives according to His truth--His doctrine--everything\nelse followed. They became \"workers together with\nGod,\" heroes of faith, leaders of men, builders of empire,\nteachers of the race, and, in an important sense, saviours of\nmankind.\n\nTheir secret is an open one; it is the secret of every truly\nsuccessful spiritual leader from then till now, and there is no\nother way to success in spiritual leadership.\n\n1. They had an _experience_. They _knew God_.\n\n2. This experience, this acquaintance with God, was\n_maintained_ and deepened and broadened in obedience to\nGod's teaching, or truth, or doctrine.\n\n3. They patiently yet urgently _taught others_ what they\nthemselves had learned, and declared, so far as they saw it, the\nwhole counsel of God.\n\nThey were abreast of the deepest experiences and fullest\nrevelations God had yet made to men. They were leaders, not\nlaggards. They were not in the rear of the procession of God's\nwarriors and saints; they were in the forefront.\n\nHere we discover the importance of the doctrine and experience of\nholiness through the baptism of the Holy Spirit to Salvation Army\nleaders. We are to know God and glorify Him and reveal Him to\nmen. We are to finish the work of Jesus, and \"fill up that which\nis behind of the sufferings of Christ\" (Col. i. 24). We are to\nrescue the slaves of sin, to make a people, to fashion them into\na holy nation, and inspire and lead them forth to save the world.\nHow can we do this? Only by being in the forefront of God's\nspiritual hosts; not in name and in titles only, but in reality;\nby being in glad possession of the deepest experiences God gives,\nand the fullest revelations He makes to men.\n\nThe astonishing military and naval successes of the Japanese are\nsaid to be due to their profound study, clear understanding, and\nfirm grasp of the theory, the principles, the doctrines of war;\ntheir careful and minute preparation of every detail of their\ncampaigns; the scientific accuracy and precision with which they\ncarry out all their plans, and their splendid and utter personal\ndevotion to their cause.\n\nOur war is far more complex and desperate than theirs, and its\nissues are infinitely more far-reaching, and we must equip\nourselves for it; and nothing is so vital to our cause as a\nmastery of the doctrine and an assured and joyous possession of\nthe Pentecostal experience of holiness through the indwelling\nSpirit.\n\nI. _The Doctrine._--What is the teaching of God's word about\nholiness?\n\n1. If we carefully study God's word, we find that He wants His\npeople to be holy, and the making of a holy people, after the\npattern of Jesus, is the crowning work of the Holy Spirit. He\ncommands us to \"cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the\nflesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord\" (2\nCor. vii. 1). It is prayed that we may \"increase and abound in\nlove one toward another, and toward all men... to the end He may\nstablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God\" (1\nThess. iii. 12, 13). He says: \"As He which hath called you is\nholy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is\nwritten, Be ye holy, for I am holy\" (1 Peter i. 15, 16). And in\nthe most earnest manner we are exhorted to \"follow peace with all\nmen, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord\"\n(Hebrews xii. 14).\n\n2. As we further study the word, we discover that holiness is\nmore than simple freedom from condemnation for wrong-doing. A\nhelpless invalid lying on his bed of sickness, unable to do\nanything wrong, may be free from the condemnation of actual\nwrong-doing, and yet it may be in his heart to do all manner of\nevil. Holiness on its negative side is a state of heart purity;\nit is heart cleanness--cleanness of thought and temper and\ndisposition, cleanness of intention and purpose and wish; it is a\nstate of freedom from all sin, both inward and outward (Romans\nvi. 18). On the positive side it is a state of union with God in\nChrist, in which the whole man becomes a temple of God and filled\nwith the fruit of the Spirit, which is \"love, joy, peace,\nlong-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.\" It\nis moral and spiritual sympathy and harmony with God in the\nholiness of His nature.\n\nWe must not, however, confound purity with maturity. Purity is a\nmatter of the heart, and is secured by an instantaneous act of\nthe Holy Spirit; maturity is largely a matter of the head and\nresults from growth in knowledge and experience. In one, the\nheart is made clean, and is filled with love; in the other, the\nhead is gradually corrected and filled with light, and so the\nheart is enlarged and more firmly established in faith;\nconsequently, the experience deepens and becomes stronger and\nmore robust in every way. It is for this reason that we need\nteachers after we are sanctified, and to this end we are exhorted\nto humbleness of mind.\n\nImportance of the Doctrine.\n\nWith a heart full of sympathy and love for his father my little\nboy may voluntarily go into the garden to weed the vegetables;\nbut, being yet ignorant, lacking light in his head, he pulls up\nmy sweet corn with the grass and weeds. His little heart glows\nwith pleasure and pride in the thought that he is \"helping papa,\"\nand yet he is doing the very thing I don't want him to do. But if\nI am a wise and patient father, I shall be pleased with him; for\nwhat is the loss of my few stalks of corn compared to the\nexpression and development of his love and loyalty? And I shall\ncommend him for the love and faithful purpose of his little\nheart, while I patiently set to work to enlighten the darkness of\nhis little head. His heart is pure toward his father, but he is\nnot yet mature. In this matter of light and maturity holy people\noften widely differ, and this causes much perplexity and needless\nand unwise anxiety. In the fourteenth chapter of Romans, Paul\ndiscusses and illustrates the principle underlying this\ndistinction between purity and maturity.\n\n3. As we continue to study the word under the illumination of the\nSpirit, who is given to lead us into all truth, we further learn\nthat holiness is not a state which we reach in conversion. The\nApostles were converted, they had forsaken all to follow Jesus\n(Matthew xix. 27-29), their names were written in Heaven (Luke x.\n20), and yet they were not holy. They doubted and feared, and\nagain and again were they rebuked for the slowness and littleness\nof their faith. They were bigoted, and wanted to call down fire\nfrom Heaven to consume those who would not receive Jesus (Luke\nix. 51-56); they were frequently contending among themselves as\nto which should be the greatest, and when the supreme test came\nthey all forsook Him and fled. Certainly, they were not only\nafflicted with darkness in their heads, but, far worse, carnality\nin their hearts; they were His, and they were very dear to Him,\nbut they were not yet holy, they were yet impure of heart.\n\nPaul makes this point very clear in his Epistle to the\nCorinthians. He tells them plainly that they were yet only babes\nin Christ, because they were carnal and contentious (I Cor. iii.\nI). They were in Christ, they had been converted, but they were\nnot holy.\n\nIt is of great importance that we keep this truth well in mind\nthat men may be truly converted, may be babes in Christ, and yet\nnot be pure in heart; we shall then sympathise more fully with\nthem, and see the more clearly how to help them and guide their\nfeet into the way of holiness and peace.\n\nThose who hold that we are sanctified wholly in conversion will\nmeet with much to perplex them in their converts, and are not\nintelligently equipped to bless and help God's little children.\n\n4. A continued study of God's teaching on this subject will\nclearly reveal to us that purity of heart is obtained after we\nare converted. Peter makes this very plain in his address to the\nCouncil in Jerusalem, where he recounts the outpouring of the\nHoly Spirit upon Cornelius and his household. After mentioning\nthe gift of the Holy Ghost, he adds, \"and put no difference\nbetween us and them, purifying their hearts by faith\" (Acts xv.\n9). Among other things, then, the baptism of the Holy Ghost\npurifies the heart; but the disciples were converted before they\nreceived this Pentecostal experience, so we see that heart\npurity, or holiness, is a work wrought in us after conversion.\n\nAgain, we notice that Peter says, \"purifying their hearts by\nfaith.\" If it is by faith, then it is not by growth, nor by\nworks, nor by death, nor by purgatory after death. It is God's\nwork. He purifies the heart, and He does it for those, and only\nthose who, devoting all their possessions and powers to Him, seek\nHim by simple, prayerful, obedient, expectant, unwavering faith\nthrough His Son our Saviour.\n\nUnless we grasp these truths, and hold them firmly, we shall not\nbe able to \"rightly divide the word of truth,\" we shall hardly be\n\"workmen that need not be ashamed, approved unto God\" (2 Tim. ii.\n15). Some one has written that \"the searcher in science knows\nthat if he but stumble in his hypothesis--that if he but let\nhimself be betrayed into prejudice or undue leaning toward a pet\ntheory, or anything but absolute uprightness of mind--his whole\nwork will be stultified and he will fail ignominiously. To get\nanywhere in science he must follow truth with absolute rectitude.\"\n\nTHE HOLY SPIRIT.\n\nAnd is there not a science of salvation, of holiness, of eternal\nlife, that requires the same absolute loyalty to \"the Spirit of\nTruth\"? How infinitely important, then, that we know what that\ntruth is, that we may understand and hold that doctrine.\n\nA friend of mine who finished his course with joy, and was called\ninto the presence of his Lord to receive his crown some time ago,\nhas pointed out some mistakes which we must carefully avoid. Here\nthey are:--\n\n\"It is a great mistake to substitute repentance for Bible\nconsecration. The people whom Paul exhorted to full sanctification\nwere those who had turned from their idols to serve the living\nand true God, and to wait for His Son sent down from Heaven\n(I Thess. i. 9, 10; iii. 10-13; v. 23).\n\n\"Only people who are citizens of His kingdom can claim His\nsanctifying power. Those who still have idols to renounce may be\ncandidates for conversion, but not for the baptism with the Holy\nGhost and fire.\n\n\"It is a mistake in consecration to suppose that the person\nmaking it has anything of his own to give. We are not our own,\nbut we are bought with a price, and consecration is simply taking\nour hands off from God's property. To wilfully withhold anything\nfrom God is to be a God-robber.\n\n\"It is a mistake to substitute a mere mental assent to God's\nproprietorship and right to all we have, while withholding\ncomplete devotion to Him. This is theoretical consecration--a\nrock on which we fear multitudes are being wrecked. Consecration\nwhich does not embrace the crucifixion of self and the funeral of\nall false ambitions is not the kind which will bring the Holy\nFire. A consecration is imperfect which does not embrace the\nspeaking faculty\" (the tongue), \"and the believing faculty\" (the\nheart), \"the imagination, and every power of mind, soul, and\nbody, and give all absolutely and for ever into the hands of\nJesus, turning a deaf ear to every opposing voice.\n\n\"Reader, have you made such a consecration as this? It must\nembrace all this, or it will prove a bed of quicksand to sink\nyour soul, instead of a full salvation balloon, which will safely\nbear you above the fog and malaria and turmoil of the world,\nwhere you can triumphantly sing:\n\n  \"'I rise to float in realms of light,\n     Above the world and sin.\n   With heart made pure and garments white,\n     And Christ enthroned within.'\n\n\"It is a mistake to teach seekers to 'only believe,' without\ncomplete abandonment to God at every point, for they can no more\ndo it than an anchored ship can sail.\n\n\"It is a mistake to substitute mere verbal assent for obedient\ntrust. 'Only believe' is a fatal snare to all who fall into these\ntraps.\n\n\"It is a mistake to believe that the altar sanctifies the gift\nwithout the assurance that all is on the altar. If even the end\nof your tongue, or one cent of your money, or a straw's weight of\nfalse ambition, or spirit of dictation, or one ounce of your\nreputation, or will, or believing powers be left off the altar,\nyou can no more believe than a bird without wings can fly.\n\n\"'Only believe' is only for those seekers of holiness who are\ntruly converted, fully consecrated, and crucified to everything\nbut the whole will of God. Teachers who apply this to people who\nhave not yet reached these stations need themselves to be taught.\nAll who have reached them may believe, and if they do believe,\nmay look God in the face, and triumphantly sing:\n\n  \"'The blood, the blood is all my plea,\n   Hallelujah, for it cleanseth me.'\"\n\nII. _The Experience_.--Simply to be skilled in the doctrine\nis not sufficient for us as leaders. We may be as orthodox as St.\nPaul himself, and yet be only as \"sounding brass and clanging\ncymbals,\" unless we are rooted in the blessed experience of\nholiness. If we would save ourselves and them that follow us, if\nwe would make havoc of the Devil's kingdom and build up God's\nkingdom, we must not only know and preach the truth, but we must\nbe living examples of the saving and sanctifying power of the\ntruth. We are to be \"living epistles, known and read of all men\";\nwe must be able to say with Paul, \"follow me as I follow Christ\";\nand \"those things which ye learned and received and heard and saw\nin me, do; and the God of peace shall be with you.\"\n\nWe must not forget that--\n\n1. We are ourselves simple Christians, individual souls\nstruggling for eternal life and liberty, and we must by all means\nsave ourselves. To this end we must be holy, else we shall at\nlast experience the awful woe of those who, having preached to\nothers, are yet themselves castaways.\n\n2. We are leaders upon whom multitudes depend. It is a joy and an\nhonour to be a leader, but it is also a grave responsibility.\nJames says: \"We shall receive the heavier judgment\" (James iii.\ni, R.V.). How unspeakable shall be our blessedness, and how vast\nour reward, if, wise in the doctrine, and rich and strong and\nclean in the experience of holiness, we lead our people into\ntheir full heritage in Jesus! But how terrible shall be our\ncondemnation, and how great our loss, if, in spiritual slothfulness\nand unbelief, we stop short of the experience ourselves and leave\nthem to perish for want of the gushing waters and heavenly food\nand Divine direction we should have brought them! We need the\nexperience for ourselves, and we need it for our work and for our\npeople.\n\nWhat the roof is to a house, that the doctrine is to our system\nof truth. It completes it. What sound and robust health is to our\nbodies, that the experience is to our souls. It makes us every\nwhit whole, and fits us for all duty. Sweep away the doctrine,\nand the experience will soon be lost. Lose the experience, and\nthe doctrine will surely be neglected, if not attacked and\ndenied. No man can have the heart, even if he has the head, to\nfully and faithfully and constantly preach the doctrine unless he\nhas the experience.\n\nSpiritual things are spiritually discerned, and as this doctrine\ndeals with the deepest things of the Spirit, it is only clearly\nunderstood and is best recommended, explained, defended, and\nenforced by those who have the experience.\n\nWithout the experience, the presentation of the doctrine will be\nfaulty and cold and lifeless, or weak and vacillating, or harsh\nand sharp and severe. With the experience, the preaching of the\ndoctrine will be with great joy and assurance, and will be strong\nand searching, but at the same time warm and persuasive and\ntender.\n\nI shall never forget the shock of mingled surprise and amusement\nand grief with which I heard a Captain loudly announce in one of\nmy meetings many years ago that he was \"going to preach holiness\nnow,\" and his people \"have to get it,\" if he had to \"ram it down\ntheir throats.\" Poor fellow! He did not possess the experience\nhimself, and never pressed into it and soon forsook his people.\n\nA man in the clear experience of the blessing will never think of\n\"ramming\" it down people; but will, with much secret prayer,\nconstant meditation and study, patient instruction, faithful\nwarning, loving persuasion, and burning, joyful testimony, seek\nto lead them into that entire and glad consecration and that\nfullness of faith that never fail to receive the blessing.\n\nAgain, the most accurate and complete knowledge of the doctrine,\nand the fullest possession of the experience, will fail us at\nlast unless we carefully guard ourselves at several points, and\nunless we watch and pray.\n\n3. We must not judge ourselves so much by our feelings as by our\nvolitions. It is not my feelings, but the purpose of my heart,\nthe attitude of my will, that God looks at, and it is that to\nwhich I must look. \"If our heart condemns us not, then have we\nconfidence toward God.\" A friend of mine who had firmly grasped\nthis thought, and walked continually with God, used to testify:\n\"I am just as good when I don't feel good as when I do feel\ngood.\" Another mighty man of God said that all the feeling he\nneeded to enable him to trust God was the consciousness that he\nwas fully submitted to all the known will of God.\n\nWe must not forget that the Devil is \"the accuser of the\nbrethren\" (Rev. xii. 10), and that he seeks to turn our eyes away\nfrom Jesus, who is our Surety and our Advocate, to ourselves, our\nfeelings, our infirmities, our failures; and if he succeeds in\nthis, gloom will fill us, doubts and fears will spring up within\nus, and we shall soon fail and fall. We must be wise as the\nconies, and build our nest in the cleft of the Rock of Ages.\nHallelujah!\n\n4. We must not divorce conduct from character, or works from\nfaith. Our lives must square with our teaching. We must live what\nwe preach. We must not suppose that faith in Jesus excuses us\nfrom patient, faithful, laborious service. We must \"live by every\nword that proceedeth out of the mouth of God\"; that is, we must\nfashion our lives, our conduct, our conversation by the\nprinciples laid down in His word, remembering His searching\nsaying, \"Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall\nenter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of\nMy Father which is in Heaven.\"\n\nThis subject of faith and works is very fully discussed by James\n(chap. ii. 14-26), and Paul is very clear in his teaching that,\nwhile God saves us not by our works, but by His mercy through\nfaith, yet it is that we may \"maintain good work\" (Titus iii.\n14); and \"we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto\ngood works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in\nthem\" (Eph. ii. 8-10).\n\nFaith must \"work by love,\" and emotion must be transmitted into\naction, and joy must lead to work, and love to faithful,\nself-sacrificing service, else they become a kind of pleasant and\nrespectable, but none the less deadly, debauchery, and at last\nruin us.\n\n5. However blessed and satisfactory our present experience may\nbe, we must not rest in it, but remember that our Lord has yet\nmany things to say unto us, as we are able to receive them. We\nmust stir up the gift of God that is in us, and say with Paul,\n\"One thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and\nstretching forward\" (as a racer) \"to the things which are before,\nI press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of\nGod in Christ Jesus\" (Phil. iii. 13, 14, R.V.). It is at this\npoint that many fail. They seek the Lord, they weep and struggle\nand pray, and then they believe; but, instead of pressing on,\nthey sit down to enjoy the blessing, and, lo! it is not. The\nchildren of Israel must needs follow the pillar of cloud and\nfire. It made no difference when it moved--by day or by night,\nthey followed; and when the Comforter comes we must follow, if we\nwould abide in Him and be filled with all the fullness of God.\nAnd, Oh, the joy of following Him!\n\nFinally, if we have the blessing--not the harsh, narrow,\nunprogressive exclusiveness which often calls itself by the\nsweet, heavenly term of holiness, but the vigorous, courageous,\nself-sacrificing, tender, Pentecostal experience of perfect\nlove--we shall both save ourselves and enlighten the world, our\nconverts will be strong, our Candidates for the work will\nmultiply, and will be able, dare-devil men and women, and our\npeople will come to be like the brethren of Gideon, of whom it\nwas said, \"Each one resembled the children of a king.\"\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"\n\n\n\n\nXXIII.\n\nVICTORY OVER EVIL TEMPER BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.\n\n\n\"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon\nyou.\"\n\nTwo letters recently reached me, one from Oregon, and one from\nMassachusetts, inquiring if I thought it possible to have temper\ndestroyed. The comrade from Oregon wrote: \"I have been wondering\nif the statement is correct when one says, 'My temper is all\ntaken away.' Do you think the temper is destroyed or sanctified?\nIt seems to me that if one's temper were actually gone he would\nnot be good for anything.\"\n\nThe comrade from Massachusetts wrote: \"Two of our Corps Cadets\nhave had the question put to them: 'Is it possible to have all\ntemper taken out of our hearts?' One claims it is possible. The\nother holds that the temper is not taken out, but God gives power\nto overcome it.\"\n\nEvidently these are questions that perplex many people, and yet\nthe answer seems to me simple.\n\nTemper, _as usually spoken of_, is not a faculty or power of\nthe soul, but is rather an irregular, passionate, violent\nexpression of selfishness. When selfishness is destroyed by love,\nby the incoming of the Holy Spirit, revealing Jesus to us as an\nuttermost Saviour, and creating within us a clean heart, of\ncourse such evil temper is gone, just as the friction and\nconsequent wear and heat of two wheels is gone when the cogs are\nperfectly adjusted to each other. The wheels are far better off\nwithout friction, and just so man is far better off without such\ntemper.\n\nWe do not destroy the wheels to get rid of the friction, but we\nreadjust them; that is, we put them into just or right relations\nto each other, and then noiselessly and perfectly they do their\nwork. So, strictly speaking, sanctification does not destroy\nself, but it destroys selfishness--the abnormal and mean and\ndisordered manifestation and assertion of self. I myself am to be\nsanctified, rectified, purified, brought into harmony with God's\nwill as revealed in His word, and united to Him in Jesus, so that\nHis life of holiness and love flows continually through all the\navenues of my being, as the sap of the vine flows through all\nparts of the branch. \"I am the Vine, ye are the branches,\" said\nJesus.\n\nWhen a man is thus filled with the Holy Spirit he is not made\ninto a putty man, a jelly fish, with all powers of resistance\ntaken out of him; he does not have any less force and \"push\" and\n\"go\" than before, but rather more, for all his natural energy is\nnow reinforced by the Holy Spirit, and turned into channels of\nlove and peace instead of hate and strife.\n\nHe may still feel indignation in the presence of wrong, but it\nwill not be rash, violent, explosive, and selfish, as before he\nwas sanctified, but calm and orderly, and holy, and determined,\nlike that of God. It will be the wholesome, natural antagonism of\nholiness and righteousness to all unrighteousness and evil.\n\nSuch a man will feel it when he is wronged, but it will be much\nin the same way that he feels when others are wronged. The\npersonal, selfish element will be absent. At the same time there\nwill be pity and compassion and yearning love for the wrong-doer\nand a greater desire to see him saved than to see him punished.\n\nA sanctified man was walking down the street the other day with\nhis wife, when a filthy fellow on a passing wagon insulted her\nwith foul words. Instantly the temptation came to the man to want\nto get hold of him and punish him, but as instantly the\nindwelling Comforter whispered, \"If ye will forgive men their\ntrespasses;\" and instantly the clean heart of the man responded,\n\"I will, I do forgive him, Lord;\" and instead of anger a great\nlove filled his soul, and instead of hurling a brick or hot words\nat the poor Devil-deceived sinner, he sent a prayer to God in\nHeaven for him. There was no friction in his soul. He was\nperfectly adjusted to his Lord; his heart was perfectly\nresponsive to his Master's word, and he could rightly say, \"My\ntemper is gone.\"\n\nA man must have his spiritual eyes wide open to discern the\ndifference between sinful temper and righteous indignation.\n\nMany a man wrongs and robs himself by calling his fits of temper\n\"righteous indignation;\" while, on the other hand, there is here\nand there a timid soul who is so afraid of sinning through temper\nas to suppress the wholesome antagonism that righteousness, to be\nhealthy and perfect, must express towards all unrighteousness and\nsin.\n\nIt takes the keen-edged word of God, applied by the Holy Spirit,\nto cut away unholy temper without destroying righteous antagonism;\nto enable a man to hate and fight sin with spiritual weapons\n(2 Cor. x. 3-5), while pitying and loving the sinner; to so fill\nhim with the mind of Jesus that he will feel as badly over a wrong\ndone to a stranger as though it were done to himself; to help him\nto put away the personal feeling and be as calm and unselfish and\njudicial in opposing wrong as is the judge upon the bench. Into\nthis state of heart and mind is one brought who is entirely\nsanctified by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Hallelujah!\n\nDr. Asa Mahan, the friend and co-worker of Finney, had a quick\nand violent temper in his youth and young manhood; but one day he\nbelieved, and God sanctified him, and for fifty years he said he\nnever felt but one uprising of temper, and that was but for an\ninstant, about five years after he received the blessing. For the\nfollowing forty-five years, though subjected to many trials and\nprovocations, he felt only love and peace and patience and good-will\nin his heart.\n\nA Christian woman was confined to her bed for years with nervous\nand other troubles, and was very cross and touchy and petulant.\nAt last she became convinced that the Lord had a better\nexperience for her, and she began to pray for a clean heart full\nof patient, holy, humble love; and she prayed so earnestly, so\nviolently, that her family became alarmed lest she should wear\nher poor, frail body out in her struggle for spiritual freedom.\nBut she told them she was determined to have the blessing, if it\ncost her her life, and so she continued to pray, until one glad,\nsweet day the Comforter came; her heart was purified, and from\nthat day forth, in spite of the fact that she was still a nervous\ninvalid, suffering constant pain, she never showed the least sign\nof temper or impatience, but was full of meekness, and patient,\njoyous thankfulness.\n\n  \"Love took up the harp of life, and smote on all\n     the chords with might--\n  Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, passed in\n     music out of sight.\"\n\nSuch is the experience of one in whom Jesus lives without a\nrival, and in whom grace has wrought its perfect work.\n\n\"No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not\ndrunkenness itself, does more to un-Christianise society than\nevil temper,\" says a distinguished and thoughtful writer.\n\nIf this be true, it must be God's will that we be saved from it.\nAnd it is provided for in the uttermost salvation that Jesus\noffers.\n\nDo you want this blessing, my brother, my sister? If so, be sure\nof this: God has not begotten such a desire in your heart to mock\nyou; you may have it. God is able to do even this for you. With\nman it is impossible, but not with God. Look at Him just now for\nit. It is His work, His gift. Look at your past failures, and\nacknowledge them; look at your present and future difficulties,\ncount them up and face them every one, and admit that they are\nmore than you can hope to conquer; but then look at the dying Son\nof God, your Saviour--the Man with the seamless robe, the crown\nof thorns, and the nail-prints; look at the fountain of His\nBlood; look at His word; look at the Almighty Holy Ghost, who\nwill dwell within you, if you but trust and obey, and cry out:\n\"It shall be done! The mountain shall become a plain; the\nimpossible shall become possible. Hallelujah!\" Quietly,\nintelligently, abandon yourself to the Holy Spirit just now in\nsimple, glad, obedient faith, and the blessing shall be yours.\nGlory to God!\n\n\"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?\"","title":"When the Holy Ghost is Come","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":49283}