LIBRARY OF PRINCETON ORL BNET TE I TREN. j fs thig Hy OG} AL SEh MARY THEOL LIED, ALIN ALIFE Ts ist BT 123 .M36 1898 Mallory, O. E. Lips touched with fire ee Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library § ee ee ee ee https://archive.org/details/lipstouchedwithf00mall Lips Touched With Fire ae lay Y Pentecost For Me. BY REV. O. E. MALLORY, M.A. “Ye shall receive power.”’ PUBLISHED BY CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PUBLISHING CO.., SOUT NY ACK. ~Nuny, Copyrighted, 1898. O. E, MALLORY, » me i t & t i é : ’ i ALLIANCE PRESS SOUTH NYACK, N. ee! %, e. ae ue | HUNGER FOR A DEEPER KNOWLEDGE OF GOD . a THIS BOOK IS PRAYERFULLY DEDICATED. Kt Pee TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Pentecost a Fact. CHAPTER II. Pentecost and Purity. CHAPTER III. Pentecost and Prophesying. CHAPTER IV. Pentecost and the Supernatural. CHAPTER V. Pentecost and Power. CHAPTER VI. Pentecost and Fire. CHAPTER VII. Pentecost and Missions. _ ore INTRODUCTION. We are living especially in the Spirit’s dis- pensation, and much is being written and said upon this subject in these days. Many people, however, are being confused for want of sim- plicity and clear thinking. That we may be kept from mist and fog in the discussion of this important subject we most devoutly pray. That there is an experience for the believer subsequent to conversion, by which the life is often transformed more thoroughly than at con- version, is today the testimony of thousands. What is this experience? Some call it “the rest of faith,’ some “the fullness of Jesus,” others “the second blessing,” “sanctification,” or “holiness,” By whatever name it is called it is what the disciples received at Pentecost; it is the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” Actsi. 5. “The promise is unto you, and to your chil- dren, and to all that are afar off even as many as viii. INTRODUCTION. the Lord our God shall call” Acts ii. 39. What was for the disciples at Pentecost is for me, and for all who will pay the price. This. gift is the legacy of the New Testament church. The object of these pages is to so magnify the believer’s inheritance as to awaken a death- less hunger in every heart for the Pentecostal baptism. It is with humble trust in the Om- nipotent Spirit to use these pages for the trans- forming of some lives, and with the hope that some little corner of this world may be thereby bettered, that this little book is sent on its mis- sion. Q.. Ho Ma PP abieene p<. 2ER CHAPTER I. PENTECOST A FACT. “For the promise is unto you, and to your children.”’ Acts ii. 39, Some one has tersely said that three state- ments represent our holy religion: “God for us; God with us; and God in us.” We have God for us in the history of Israel; we have God with us in the person of Jesus Christ, who walked our streets and ate at our tables; we have God in us in the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. It is with this third statement we are chiefly concerned in these pages. Startling as the truth may be to reason, yet it is the stu- pendous fact of revelation that the God of heaven comes to abide ina human soul. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him 12 PENTECOST FOR ME. not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” JOU XIV LO Lg This promise was fulfilled at Pentecost. On that natal day of the church there was to be a new departure, and a revelation of God in man as never before. “We will come unto him and make our abode with him.” This Jesus had distinctly declared before He went away. He bade His disciples tarry, wait for this endue- ment of power: “Behold I will send the prom- ise of My Father upon you, but tarry ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.” Luke xxiv. 49. “When the day of Pentecost was fully come, — they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 11. 1, 2, 3, 4. This was a new experience with the apostles. PENTECOST A FACT, 13 It was not the enlargement of a blessing already theirs, but an addition, pure and simple, to all they had ever known before that day, though | they had walked in sweetest fellowship with their Lord for three years. It was the fulfill- ment of what had been before time prophesied. When the people came running together at Jerusalem to see and hear the strange things which followed the outpouring of the Spirit, they attempted to account for the miraculous in a natural way by saying, “T’hese men are full of new wine.” It was indeed new wine, but the new wine of the kingdom, a spiritual intoxi- cation. Peter rises to explain and tells the people that “these men are not drunken as ye suppose, but ¢his is that which was spoken by Joel, the prophet: And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” Mark that this manifestation of God was to take place 14 PENTECOST FOR ME. “in the last days’—the last days of the Jewish age—and was to usher in the more glorious dis- pensation of grace. The baptism with the Spirit is a fact in his- tory, and it is a fact in human experience. This gift is the legacy of the New Testament church. It is the will of the Father for every child of His who willl take it with the conditions af- fixed. THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT FORESHADOWED. The Old Testament is the closed bud, the New Testament is the opening flower. We shall find nothing in the opening flower that was not held in the bud. We may distrust any doctrine claimed for the New Testament which has not its foregleams in the Old. If the bap- tism with the Spirit is really a special experi- ence of this dispensation of grace, we shall find it foreshadowed somewhere in the Old Testa- ment. The doctrine of the Incarnation had its type in the angel of the Covenant, that of the vicarious suffering for sin is constantly brought to mind in bleeding sacrifice and dripping altar; the resurrection had its foreshadowing in a na- PENTECOST A FACT. 15 tion brought up out of and through Jordan— ever the symbol of death, into Canaan, the land of promise. Now if the doctrine of the Baptism of the Spirit, as a special experience, is taught in the Gospel, we must find types of it in the Book of the Law. Do we find them? Most certainly we do! Very definitely marked too. If we turn to Isaiah sixth we find the prophet had an experience very like to that of the disciples at Pentecost. A new vision of God came to him in the Temple, which brought him on his face to the earth, crying, “I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips.” Vision of God gives vision of self. He could not stand in that Holy Presence. But the same God who reveals sin sends fire to cleanse it: “Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” Isaiah vi. 6, 7. The fire that touched the prophet’s lips was fire from heaven, symbolizing the Spirit of God 16 PENTECOST FOR ME. —the Spirit that always transforms men. It is a picture of Pentecost, a foregleam of the com- ing glory of the Gospel dispensation. Another lively type we find in Elisha who sought so persistently the double portion of Flijah’s spirit. When Elisha had followed his master from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, and from Jericho through the river Jordan, the type of death, Elijah asked him what he should do for him and Elisha an- swered, “I pray thee let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.” ‘The request was granted and the double portion fell with Elijah’s man- tle, and the mighty workings of Elisha’s life dated from that hour. Yesterday this man was Hlijah’s servant, as powerless as any other of the sons of the proph- ets, today he works miracles as did his Master. This was not growth, but gift; gift suddenly at- tained, not by any effort or work, but by simple faith and obedience, gift forever his. It was not something given today and lost tomorrow, to be sought anew, nay, it was his forevermore, a part of his life, himself. Again, the Shekinah was a symbol of the PENTECOST A FACT, alr Holy Ghost in visible manifestation, coming to lead and shield God’s people and to fill the Temple with His glory and light. The chil- dren of Israel did not come by degrees into the possession of this heavenly presence, but there was a day when God sent the pillar of fire. So the Pentecostal baptism was not some- thing which the disciples grew up to, developed into. It was a gift. There came a day when as the sound of a rushing mighty wind the Spirit descended and filled all the place. Be- loved, if you and I ever know this gracious en- duement of power there will be a day, when by the upper-room cleansing the Holy Spirit will come to occupy His temple, our hearts. PENTECOST WAS A DEFINITE EXPERIENCE. It had been distinctly foreshadowed in the Old Testament. it had been the burden of the prophecy of Joel. Jesus promised the Com- forter if He went away, commanding His dis- ciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they should be endued with power from on high. This was - definite direction for a definite purpose; and when the promised blessing came the disciples 18 PENTECOST FOR ME. found it to be a definite experience, eclipsing all that had ever touched their lives before, even those memorable years of tender fellowship with the Master Himself. God im them was to be—was—superior to God for them or God with them. Christ’s word had _ fulfillment, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: It is ex- pedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” John xvi. 7. The baptism of the Spirit at Pentecost then was a second experience to all _ who ever know the Spirit’s personal enthrone- ment in the soul. “Tid I not receive all at conversion?” is the question often raised. Is not the child born perfect and is not all, after that, growth? This may seem formidable reasoning to the man who does not think for himself. But to the thinking mind it will occur that while the child is born perfect, with all his parts, he is yet a child. There comes a time later, when he reaches his majority, a marked epoch in his life, when he enters into freedom, no longer ‘‘under tutors and governors.” He has new duties, PENTECOST A FACT. 19 new privileges; begins to exercise his franchise, takes to himself the inheritance, his for years but for the first time coming under his control. Yesterday he could do none of this, but today he is twenty-one and a new, most. wonderful epoch has come to his life. This is the full - stature of manhood to which Paul refers. It is just this which transpires when we come into the full stature of Christian manhood. We put away childish things; we enter into lib- erty from the reigning power of sin; we take conscious possession of our inheritance in Christ, that which if dimly perceived and par- tially believed for before, yet had not become a fact in experience. So while it is true that the infant is born perfect, and all that follows is growth, it is also true that there is an epoch in every human life which corresponds exactly to the spiritual epoch when a soul meet its Pente- cost. Dr. Gordon, of Boston, the great exponent of spiritual teaching in these last days, whose books have transformed many lives, once said in my pulpit that there were three epochs in his life; One when he was converted; one when 20 PENTECOST FOR ME. he saw the Personal, Premillenenal Advent of his Lord; and one when he was baptized with the Holy Ghost. It was this third uplift in his — life which gave to that life its wonderful sub- limity. It was something definite with him and this is his teaching in that peerless book of his, “The Ministry of the Spirit.” If then we fail to teach the baptism of the Spirit as a definite experience we have no ex- planation for the types setting forth this gift, nor for the prophecies concerning it and the wonders which should follow upon its bestow- ment, neither do we know what to do with the commandment of our Lord to His disciples to tarry until some new power touched their lives. THIS GIFT WAS THE LEGACY FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH. Some we find, who claim to be teachers of the Word, who tell us that this special baptism of Pentecost was only for the apostles, not a con- tinual bestowment to the church. In answer to this we say the promise, in the first place, included more than the apostles. “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. NSS Se PENTECOST A FACT. 1 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men ghall gee vi- sions and your old men shall dream dreams: And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” Acts ii. 16, 17, 18. On servants and handmaidens, on young men and old men, surely this meant more than apostles. Peter connects the prophecy with the fact, when he says, “These men are not drunken as ye suppose but this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel.” There were about one hundred and twenty in the upper room when the gift came. Among them were women as we are definitely told. The record is that the tongues of fire “sat upon each of them, and they were ali filled with the Holy Ghost.” The whole hundred and twenty were evidently par- takers of the wondrous gift. Then Peter says the promise is made “unto you and your children, and to all that are afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.” This makes it clear that the gift was for the 22 PENTECOST FOR ME. church through all time. This same Peter went to the house of Cornelius by a special call of God to open the door of the Gospel to the Gentile world. It was a divinely called as- sembly. And while Peter was preaching, we are told, the Spirit fell on them, and they spake with tongues, precisly the thing that tran- spired at Pentecost. “And they of the cireum- cision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gen- tiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Acts x. 46. | Peter himself corroborates these facts in his testimony before the brethren in Judea. In his defence before them concerning his going in to preach to a Gentile audience, this is the argu- ment which effectually silences all caviling, that God sanctioned his action by bestowing the gift of the Holy Ghost: “And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning.” This happened ten years after Pentecost and was a gift to the Gentiles prov- ing it was a gift for the church at large, a gift for all the centuries. Cornelius knew his God before that day, for =< neat” ee Be PENTECOST A FACT. 23 we read that he was devout and that his prayers and alms had come up for a memorial before God and we know God was directing his life, even the minutia thereof. When the Spirit fell on him it was not conversion, it was anoint- ing with power. I know you are ready with the question, What then was meant by Peter’s repetition of of the statement of the angel to Cornelius, that he should “tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved”? This doubtless re- fers to full salvation, salvation from himself, just what takes place when we are baptized with the Holy Ghost. Certainly this interpre- tation is more acceptable than that an unsaved man was devout and his prayers and alms re- corded in heaven, God sending an angel for his further instruction. Paul was not in the company at Pentecost but he needed the same enduement and Ananias was sent to him with a special message from God to lay hands on him that he might receive the Holy Ghost. We have a very vivid picture of the Holy Ghost as a second blessing in the experience of 24 PENTECOST FOR ME. those who were converted under Philip at Samaria. “Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.” Acts vill. 14, 15, 16, 17. We read a few verses preceding those just quoted, “But when they believed Philip preach- ing the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were bap- tized both men and women.” So these people were Christians, baptized and in the church be- fore Peter and John laid hands on them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. Only the justified soul can be a candidate for the baptism of the Spirit. “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest PENTECOST A FACT. 25 of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” Eph. i. 13, 14. You cannot torture the Greek in this passage to make it mean any- thing else than the anointing of the Spirit sub- sequent to conversion. The revised version is even more emphatic: “In whom having also believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. “This seal- ing was an earnest or foretaste of the assured possession. ‘The incoming of the Spirit brings so much of heaven with Him that the soul no longer walks in shadows but rests in certainties, and exults in victory. Paul found certain disciples at Ephesus who were ignorant of the Holy Ghost as the great legacy of the believer. He said unto them, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye be- lieved?” Acts xix. 2. They were disciples, they had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, but were strangers to the blessed Paraclete. Paul laid hands on them, then the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spake with tongues and prophesied. xix. 6. Speaking with tongues identifies this 26 PENTECOST FOR ME. eift with that of Pentecost. Paul, who himself had received the anointing of the Spirit, was deeply anxious that all to whom he ministered might share the incomparable blessing. “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,” he writes to the Galatians. What does he mean by “travail again”? He is talking to Christians. He must be speaking of some second blessing. He had travailed in birth for them once when they were begotten unto a lively hope; this second travail is that Christ may be formed in them. Christ had been given for them, they were under the Blood, but Paul could not rest until they apprehended their full inheritance, which was “Christ im you. the hope of glory.” “Christ” here must mean the Spirit of Christ, the blessed Paraclete, the Comforter. As Joseph Cook has said, “The Comforter is but the continued presence of Him whose hands were pierced, and whose head was crowned.” We need not separate our thought of the Holy Spirit from the Holy Christ. Jesus said to His disciples, “Go ye into all the world and preach PENTECOST A FACT, De, the Gospel to every creature, and lo, J am with you alway, even to the end of the age.” Here Christ represents Himself as the abiding Spirit, for only as such could He dwell in us, and con- tinue His presence with us. Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ,” and “Christ liveth in me.” Not the corporal Christ, but the spirit Christ, which is the Spirit of the living God, the Holy Spirit, the Pentecostal Gift. “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit, and in truth.” We are not minimizing the work of Christ when we magnify the work of the Spirit, for He alone can now reveal to us the Christ: “He shall take of the things of Christ and show them unto us.” “He shall lead you into all truth.” O let us hasten to commit our ways unto His blessed leadership. and tarry until the enduement of power comes. For under His illumination we shall see our glorious inheritance, and take pos- session even now, a peace within that passeth all understanding, a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, and an assurance that all hell cannot disturb. There were two persons of the Trinity es- 28 PENTECOST FOR ME. pecially concerned in our salvation; and we might naturally expect two experiences as re- lated to those Persons. We are justified by the sacrifice of the Son we are sanctified by the power of the Spirit. Righteousness is the ad- justment of man to the law of God; holiness is the adjustment of man to the nature of God. The first is by the efficacy of the Blood, the second, by the power of the Spirit. EXPERIENCE CORROBORATES THE WORD. How many lives have been marked by this second experience, as the beginning of their great usefulness! Jonathan Edwards tells us of the wonderful transformation in his life under the Spirit, when he wrote out his con- secration and read it to God on his knees. The Spirit in power filled all his being. It was an epoch in his history and the secret. of that wonderful life which shook thousands out of their formalism and made his path luminous with the light of heaven. Evangelist Moody tells of a wonderful epoch in his life, when through the prayers of two faithful women in his congregation in Chicago, ee ee RRS a a PENTECOST A FACT. 29 he was set upon with a mighty hunger for a deeper revelation of God in his soul. He farther relates the marvellous manifestation of the Spirit which came to him later—in New York—when he retired to his room and fell on his face in the presence of his God while waves of love and glory flowed over his soul, infilling every avenue of his being, and setting him on fire with a sacred flame never to be extin- guished. What was this but Pentecost in the nine- teenth century? “For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Acts ii. 39. Who will ever attmpt to tell what that day’s experience meant for the world? God found an open channel for His Spirit to flow through and has used him for the transforming of thousands and tens of thou- sands of lives on both hemispheres. His lips from that day, like the lips of Isaiah, have been touched with fire. « The story of Spirit-filled lives—of fire- touched lips—is always fascinating to the child of God. Let us take another object lesson, 30 PENTECOST FOR ME. In the year 1879 Rev. Henry Richards sailed for the Congo as a missionary of the Livingston Inland Mission. He established his station at Banza Manteka, one hundred and fifty miles from the mouth of the Congo, and began the prodigious task of converting those wild tribes to Christ. He toiled faithfully and persistently for seven | long years without seeing a convert. From his own lips we have it, that at the end of that time “the people were just as much heathen as they ever were.” “T began to feel,’ said he, “that there was some mistake in my preaching. In the early days of the apostles souls were converted. Why not now? Js the Gospel less powerful now than then? If heathen then turned from their dumb idols to serve the hving God, why should not the heathen of Banza Manteka do the same?” Hoping to get light he studied the Acts of the Apostles and discovered his mistake. He had been preaching without the baptism of Pentecost, a blessing the disciples had needed in addition to the years of teaching and fellow- ship with the Christ. PENTECOST A FACT. 381 He began to fast and pray for the enduement of power. He prayed on until the fire fell. Then entering again upon his ministry he saw the heathen forsaking their idols and bending and bowing before Jehovah as if swayed by the breath of Omnipotence. Enquirers thronged him night and day confessing their sins and seeking the Saviour, so that he had not time to eat or sleep until, as he says, the people of Banza Manteka were no longer heathen. “I kept a book,” he writes, “and put down the names of those I believed to be truly con- verted, until I had reached over a thousand names.” Seven years without the enduement of power and without a single convert, a few short months under the baptism of the Spirit and over a thousand souls converted! What a waste of time in this man’s life because he failed to take his full inheritance in Christ! Since Peter’s life was multiplied a thousand fold by the Pentecostal baptism, since Henry Richard’s life was multiplied a thousand fold by the enduement of power, shall we not seek for like equipment? It is all for us. The promise is given “‘to you and to your children,” x? 32 PENTECOST FOR ME. Beloved, Pentecost is a fact in human experi- ence still, and our work will be comparatively fruitless and juiceless until we have been touched with its heavenly fire. Reader, have you seen your Pentecost? Do you know the upper-room experience? or do you refuse to pay the price? ‘There are thou- sands who, like Israel of old, come up to Kadesh Barnea and look over into the Promised Land, and even taste of the luscious fruit brought back by the hands of others, but never themselves enter in. There are thousands who, like Moses, view the land from some Pisgah summit but never cross its borders, because in fleshly wisdom and pride they smite the Rock instead of speaking to it. “Tf the Lord delight in us then He will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey.” Num. xii. 8. “The promise is unto you and to your chil- dren.” “If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” Luke ii. 13, PENTECOST A FACT, Do “T take the promised Holy Ghost, I take the power of Pentecost, To fill me to the uttermost, I take, He undertakes.” Pt CHAPTER II. PENTECOST AND PURITY. “This is the will of God even your sanctification.” I. THESS. 1Vowe: We have seen from the preceding chapter that Pentecost is a fact; a legacy for the New Testament chuch; a promise to all in every age who are willing to pay the price. Now what is the price?. The price is purity. “And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” Acts xv. 8, 9. We find here that the gift of the Holy Ghost and purification are inseparably connected. Peter’s argument is that these Gentiles must have received the Holy Ghost because their hearts were purified. It was the same gift re- ceived by the apostles at Pentecost that are now poured out on these outside of Israel, and that PENTECOST! AND PURITY. 35 their hearts were purified by faith is taken for granted. Pentecost and Purity are synony- mous. Very many people covet the power of the Spirit who will not bide the fires of His coming. They vainly try to obtain Him as an abiding Guest, forgetting that He only dwells in a clean temple. ‘The cleansing of the ten day prayer- meeting made possible the one day of outpour- ing. It is possible that the desire for this indwell- ing One may be wholly of the flesh—without any crucifixion of the old man whatever—sim- ply that He may be used by us to do wonderful things, thus magnifying self. But God’s order is just the opposite of this. He desires to use us, and for His own glory, by making us chan- nels through which His Spirit may freely act. “T am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;” says Paul, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Gal. ii. 20. Christ is enthroned in the power of the Spirit when, and only when, the self-life is crucified 36 PENTECOST FOR ME. and the will of the creature is lost in the will of the Creator. In other words, the man who is baptized with the Holy Ghost is sanctified, and the man who is sanctified is baptized with the Holy Ghost. The two things are eternally wedded and cannot be divorced. ‘What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Holding this truth in mind may save us much confusion. “This is the will of God, even your sanctifi- cation.” I. Thess. iv. 3. If it is God’s will what in the world can hinder our sanctification except our own will? But what is sanctification? We are told it is either one of two things; the suppression of the carnal nature or the eradication of the carnal nature. But we prefer to say that it is some- thing superior to either, even the enthronement of the Holy Ghost in a human soul—the abid- ing presence of the Paraclete—by whom we loy- ingly and loyally choose God’s will in all things. This may not be eradication, it is not sup- pression. J’or how can there be suppression where there is always a loving choice of God’s will in all things? When eradication is spoken PENTECOST AND PURITY. OW of most people reason that what is eradicated will, ought never to appear again. Yet many who are taught and accept this doctrine of the total eradication of the carnal nature at sancti- fication, are startled some day to find the hydra head of the serpent coming into view again. Naturally there is wonder, fear, then doubt; and finally many are led to distrust everything in their past experience. About a year since we received a letter from a servant of God whom we had never seen. He said that he had labored several years as an evangelist and with much of the favor of heaven upon his work. He believed and taught the eradication of the carnal nature. One day he was startled to find the carnal nature alive in himself, and so asserting itself that he was thrown into captivity and was soon in such bondage that he stopped preaching for two years. He writes that he happened to be in New York City, at the time of the October Conven- tion of the Christian Alliance, and stepped into the Tabernacle one day to listen. The author of this little book was speaking and giving the 38 PENTECOST FOR ME. above definition of sanctification. As he drank in the truth light burst in upon him and darkness fled. He came to his feet and at the time of his writing he was successfully prose- cuting evangelistic work once more. | Sanctification is totality for God, or a will parallel with the will of God. While this fel- lowship is maintained we walk in a sanctified state, and fellowship is maintained while the Holy Ghost is an abiding guest. “If ye abide in Me and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,” ye shall hold the keys of power. We have a class of persons who believe in the baptism with the Holy Ghost as a second experience, but declare that experience is only for added power for service. Then there are others who, believing in the enduement of pow- er as a second experience, yet hold it to be the eradication of the carnal nature. We affirm that neither of these positions is correct, but, rather, that the enthronement of the Holy Ghost in the soul by faith, creates in us a loving choice of His will in all things. He knows nothing but the will of God. Such as choose, with Him, only to know that will walk without PENTECOST AND PURITY. 39 condemnation. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the Spirit.” Rom. vill. 1. There is no condemnation from the . law to them who are in Christ, and no self con- demnation to them who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit means more than power for service, it means heart purity. It is misleading to talk about power for service with- out talking of purity for fellowship. There can be no power without fellowship. | Reader, have you taken your inheritance? If not, why not? O it is blessed to know that there is not the thickness of tissue-paper be- tween youand God! ‘This you may know when your will is absolutely parallel with the will of Goda The doctrine of eradication of the carnal nature need not be taught as essential to sanc- tification. What is sin? Sin is the conscious resistance of the Divine will. “Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life.” John vy. 40. If sin is in the will, then sanctification, or separation from sin is in the will. Jesus 40) PENTECOST FOR ME. said, “If a man love Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.” John oak gay The Holy Ghost comes to take up His abode in a clean temple. The temple is clean when our will always wills with God. The Bible speaks of being crucified to the world and dead to sin. This is just what takes place when the self-life, in the self-will, is yielded fully to God. Let me quote you on this point a few sentences from the pen of a clear thinker: “The rebellious will is slain by perfect love, self-will is destroyed, and the human will be- comes blended with the divine. This being so, holiness is salvation from a divided will. It is said of Amaziah, ‘He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart: and many a believer leads a similar life. He loves God, but not perfectly. He is de- voted, but not fully. And in harmony with this, his will is a disunited will. He would serve God, but he would serve himself at the same time. Moses fell into this state when God’s will took him to the rock, and self-will ; : | u ; ee i ee PENTECOST AND PURITY. 41 made him ‘speak unadvisedly with his lips.’ And so Saul when God’s will sent him on his journey to the Amalekites, but self-will led him to disobey a part of the Lord’s commands. Too often the brightness goes out of a Christian’s life because the intrusions of self-will are con- tinually permitted. But we are ‘called to be saints, and saintship is not partial, but full, salvation.’ Here, we believe, is common ground where extremes on sanctification may meet, and be both Biblical and rational. Sanctification is the enthronement of the Holy Ghost in a hu- man soul constraining it, by His presence and power, to lovingly and loyally choose God’s will in all things: It is the Shekinah which fills all the temple, consuming all else with its ef- fulgence and glory. FOREGLEAMS OF SANCTIFICATION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. Sinai and Calvary are in contrast; but Sinai and Pentecost are halves of the same sphere; one is the type of the other. Sinai was fifty days after the paschal lanyb was slain in Egypt, 43 PENTECOST FOR ME. Pentecost was fifty days after the paschal lamb on Calvary. Sinai was holiness demanded, but man unaided, was powerless to meet the de- mand. Pentecost is holiness provided, with Omnipotence dwelling within to assure it. The first commandment could only be kept by a sanctified heart, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” This un- divided love can only reign in a heart purified by the Holy Ghost. Pentecost. alone can pre- pare us to keep the law. “And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them.” Ez. xxxvi. 2%. This the prophet lizekiel saw to be possible for man under the more glorious dispensation of the Spirit. He saw two experiences of the Gospel age: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.” This is a perfect description of what is done for the sinner. But the prophet saw something more than this: “And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall t SS ee ae ee ee ee SS Le ee ee ee ee eo eo a PENTECOST AND PURITY. 43 keep my judgments and do them.” Here we have the enduement of the Spirit set forth in language which cannot be mistaken. “I will put My Spirit within you’; no doubt Ezekiel saw, among other blessings of the Spirit, the mighty outpouring of Pentecost, the incoming of the Trinity in unity into a human soul, by which the individual would be permanently changed and caused to walk in the will and way of God. When the Spirit is enthroned within there is a mighty causation force at the fountain of our being as an impelling power. Ah! but it is blessed to know that the keeping power is with Him “who caused us to walk in His statutes, and keep His commandments and do them.” The wonderful experience of Isaiah, when his lips were touched, not only gives us a type of a second experience, but in a special manner the cleansing which accompanies God’s en- thronement in the human soul. A mighty work of cleansing took place. The angel laid the coal of fire upon his mouth and said, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” ‘This is 44 PENTECOST FOR ME. just what the Spirit does when He takes the throne of the heart; something comes to pass, — the buyers and sellers go out of the temple leav- ing it under His perfect sway. Again, what mean the commands for cere- monial sanctification in the Old Testament un- less these shadows were to find their substance in the New Testament? Over and over God calls upon His people to sanctify themselves and make ready for the display of His presence and power. Significant among these com- mands—for purity was that given to Joshua just before crossing the Jordan into Canaan: “And Joshua said unto the people sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do won- ders among you.” rod was about to reveal Himself in majesty and power. ‘The people were to sanctify them- selves—-which required separation from certain things and outward cleansing. ‘They were to make ready, for God was coming among them. They were—by a sovereign act of God—going into Canaan, and Canaan is not so much a type of heaven as it is of the sanctified life. As ceremonial cleansing was essential to entering PENTECOST AND PURITY. 45 Canaan of old, so is heart cleansing essential now to the entering of the Canaan of rest and victory. Ceremonial cleansing among the Israelites of old was not a process, but an act to be per- formed. The shadow must tell of the sub- stance. The crossing of Jordan was not a life work, it was a definite act performed and fin- ished. These people were one day in the wild- erness, the next they were in Canaan. There was a life in Canaan, however, which would con- stantly let them intoadeeper knowledge of God. Pentecost is purity. What means the laver for cleansing which stands between the brazen altar and the holy place? Each part of the tabernacle was to preach the Gospel, and hence God ordered the construction of every part of it. Its exact size, the materials from which every thing was to be made. The furniture al- so with all its belongings even to the minutia. When the pattern had been given God said unto Moses, “See that thou make all things according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount.” Heb. viii. 5. It was of God’s ordering, and it must be done exactly as He had commanded, 46 PENTECOST FOR ME. for it was to be God’s dwelling-place among men. very part of it was vocal with the Gos- pel of the New dispensation. It was salvation in an object lesson; an epitome of the great re- demption scheme. There were three parts to the tabernacle; the outer court, where the bloody sacrifices were of- fered, and the brazen altar where the smoking sacrifice was seen. ‘This was the type of justifi- cation, for blood was the ground of pardon. The next was the holy place where was found the altar of incense, the type of prayer, and also the table of shewbread which was ever there, the type of the unfailing supply; and the seven- bowled lamp, ever burning, from the constant supply of oil. This was the type of the light of the Holy Ghost, which light never dims in a sanctified soul. The outer court then is justification, the holy place is sanctification, and the Holy of holies is glorification: For none ever went into the Holy of holies except the High Priest and no one has entered the Holy of holies above ex- cept our High Priest, Jesus the Christ. We may come to that holy place in prayer, and by PENTECOST AND PURITY. 47 faith look through the rent veil, but He only has entered in. Now let us inquire as to the meaning of the brazen laver filled with water, which stood at the door of the holy place. All who went in to the holy place had to be cleansed at this laver according to the law to be ceremonially clean before entering the sacred precinct. ‘This has no meaning in the New Testament unless it be the cleansing of our hearts as we enter into a life of totality for God, where the light never dies and the bread never fails, and where the smoke of incense is ever floating heavenward. Pente- cost and Purity are identical then in the types. WHAT OF THE SUBSTANCE. ° oe Coming back to Pentecost, we find a mighty cleansing took place under that baptism. What a transformation in Peter! He had been im- petuous, self-conceited and boastful; cowardly, weak and vacillating. After Pentecost the fleshly elements so prominent before, has van- ished forever. He is ready to die or suffer un- complainingly for his Master. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came 48 PENTECOST FOR ME. unto Jesus asking for places of honor on His right hand and on His left, while He was yet with them on earth, showing that they were largely still in the flesh. But after the fire of Pentecost fell, all this unholy ambition was con- sumed. The upper-room experience for ten days had been searching and cleansing. We are told they were in prayer. No one can come into the pres- ence of God without having more or less reve- lation of his own heart. Day after day, as they prayed, they came up against sins which had to be put away, until at last God found clean hearts and the right of way, and came down to fill all of them with His power and glory. We have teachers in these days who would fain make the way to holiness easy. They tell us to “take” the Holy Ghost, just “take” Him. But the disciples could not take Him without the days of preparation, and what was true then is still true. “Tarry” is still the word to those who would win. Peter said of the Gentile house of Cornelius, that when they received the Holy Ghost God purified their hearts. “If we confess our sins, PENTECOST AND PURITY. 49 He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John i. 9. Forgiveness and cleansing are close- ly linked together in this pasage, yet as two dis- tinct experiences. “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse our- selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” IL. Cor. vii. 1. There is filthiness of the mind and spirit as well as of the flesh; but the enduement of the Spirit sweeps the whole man, body, soul and spirit. “And the very God of Peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus.” I. Thess. ii. 20. Paul believed we could live a blameless life, sanctified through the Spirit. “That He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.” Luke i. 74, 75. Primarily this passage doubtless refers to Israel of old; but Zecharias was under the Spirit of prophecy, and was 50 PENTECOST FOR ME. portraying the blessed heritage of every believer in the Spirit’s dispensation. The Holy Spirit comes to destroy our enemies that we may walk in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives. We find Pentecost and Purity are wedded in the shadows of the Old Testament, and in the substance of the New. HOW MUCH DOES PURITY MEAN? Does it mean perfection? Yes, and no. It does not mean perfection of knowledge. Prog- ress is the eternal law of our being. I¢ is not perfection in power; Omnipotence alone can claim that. Yet we are commanded to be per- fect, and there is something God counts perfec- tion in His children. Hezekiah could say to God, “I have served Thee with a perfect heart.” What perfection does he mean? He means perfect love and loyalty. That a man can ren- der, and does render when His will is wholly abandoned to the will of God. Purity is not maturity. JI may be living in perfect obedience to the divine law, so far as I know it, today, but the wider knowledge of to- morrow may require me to take a step further PENTECOST AND PURITY. 51 in obedience. Just here is where many strike mist and fog, and just here we covet above all things clearness of thought. It is possible to be perfect in the sight of God when we are not accounted so in the sight of men. “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me and be thou perfect.” Gen. xvii. 1. The patriarch was asked to walk before God. God was to pronounce on the man, and His judg- ment is always based on the motive. “Evil done without the motive to do it, is not ac- counted evil;’ While the motive to do right— even though hindered in its fulfillment—is ac- counted as though done. The Holy Spirit has recorded that ‘Love is the fulfilling of the law.” There may be great imperfection in the sight of men, but God, who sees the love which rules the heart, pronounces the law kept. The teacher is the one to pro- nounce on the scholar’s deportment and studies, not some member of the child’s family. If his instructor pronounces the pupil perfect who shall question? 52 PENTECOST FOR ME. I have somewhere seen an illustration which seems to epitomize this truth very clearly. Some young people were picking flowers in a garden, making bouquets for their friends. He had been lifted from the mire mouth. and the clay, and his feet placed on the Rock. The new song was given him because of a new experience into which he had been lifted. He PENTECOST AND FIRE. 145 did not climb there; he was lifted there; the song was put in his mouth. When God gives us a song we can sing for others. Bunyan represents his pilgrim as getting into the slough of despond, and floundering about in the mire. He was about to turn around and run back when he heard some other one, who had just come up out of the slough on the other side, singing. As the music caught his ear he turned about with new courage and went through, bursting into song himself as he reached in safety the further side. Sahat The world is waiting for men who have found a song in the night. Paul and Silas could sing at midnight with their backs smarting from the lash, their feet in the stocks. It was a kind of serenade under the window of Jehovah, and as He stamped His foot in encore to His faithful servants, it shook the prison walls; and shook these men out of their stocks; and shook: the doors off of their hinges; and shook up the jailor. When God gives a song it is just as good for the night as for the day. It ripples from an ever-springing fountain which is independent © of all earthly environment. 146 PENTECOST FOR ME. The fiery trials are somehow connected with future glory. This thought is not separated from Christ’s work. Hear what Paul says of Him in the twelfth chapter of the Hebrews: “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” He endured the cross and the shame in view of the glory which was to follow. The great apostle to the Gentiles gives us a similar statement in Phil. n. 7, 8, 9. “But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in likeness of men; and being found in fashion, as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedi- ent unto death—even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name.” The lowest form of humiliation here is closely connected with the highest summit of exalta- tion and glory. “If so be that ye suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” “Together! Wonderful word! Who shall measure its meaning? Let your thoughts climb to the more excellent glory, where He is PENTECOST AND FIRE. 147 forever seated at the right hand of God. See Him who hath the pre-eminence in all things, “exalted above all principalities and powers,” and then remember that we are “glorified to- gether.” As Rebecca shared with Isaac the glory of his home, so we shall share the glory of the heavenly home, with our King and Lord, by whom we have been redeemed, and, with whom we shall be exalted in the eternal glory. Jesus with His own lips has put this truth beyond all cavil in His answer to Peter, who wanted to know what they should receive who had forsaken all for Him. “And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath forsditen houses, or brethren, or sis- ters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” Matt. xix. 28-29. Our Saviour’s words make it clear that suffer- ing and glory are connected, and that there are 148 PENTECOST FOR ME. honored places of authority for those who have suffered and sacrificed most deeply with and for Him. Christ more than hints at the same truth in the parable of the pounds; where He commends the faithful servant. “Then came the first, saying, Lord, Thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And He said unto him, Well, thou good servant, because thou hast been faith- ful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, Thy pound hath gained five pounds. And He said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.” Luke xix. 16-19. Is God partial? No! He would be partial, however, if some did not have a richer glory than others. Our admittance to heaven is a free gift, through the wonderful mercy and grace of God; but the place we occupy when there will be assigned accordine to our fidelity and service here. With the envy and jealousy of these sinful, earthbound hearts of ours, it is difficult for us to see how pre-eminence can be given, even in heaven, without disturbing the very foundation of society. We must remember that there self-life is forever eliminated, and PENTECOST AND FIRE. 149 only that love which “thinketh no evil” will have possession of the human heart. There will be no ostentatious assuming of places of ‘honor and distinction, but these will be in- stinctively conceded to those whose rightful heritage they are. There is enough left in the broken nature of man, as seen here, to give some faint idea of what may be the law of that perfected society which we shall find there. We are ready to recognize and applaud great heroism and sac- rifice where others have done for high motive what we would not have done.. There is some- thing even in our fallen selves which yields to such a man the homage which is his due, in which we could have no right. Let us illus- trate: Some years ago a steamer took fire on Lake Erie. On board was a man returning to his home from California, with his hard earned gold fastened in a belt which he couid buckle around him. The sailors soon saw that all effort to quench the flames were futile. Heading for shore they determined to beach the boat if pos- sible, so that some of the passengers at least 150 PENTECOST FOR ME. might reach safety. This man went to his trunk and took out his belt of gold. He was about to put it around his waist when a little girl of ten summers ran up to him and said: “Won’t you save me? Ihave no papa or mama on board!” It was an awful crisis. He looked at the gold, and thought of the toil and sutfering he had endured to win it; then he looked at the child. In a moment he dropped the prize so long striven for, and told the child to climb on his back and cling about his neck, and he would try to save her. As the boat struck some dis- tance from the shore, he leaped into the waves with his precious freight, making a heroic struggle for land, and was thrown upon the sand by a gigantic breaker, senseless. As he came to himself, the first face he beheld, look- ing down into his own with dripping eyes, was that of the little one he had rescued. There were others in that company, who had sought only to save their own lives and effects, who, beholding this man, who had risked his life for the sake of a stranger child, instinctively shrank into the background, giving him, by PENTECOST AND FIRE. 151 common consent, the place of honor which he had purchased by his deed. When we reach the other shore we shall find some who heard the cries of sinking ones, but were too much absorbed in self and the world to try to rescue them. We shall find others who clung to their gold to the last while wreck- ed humanity was forgotten. These people, we are told, may be saved, “so as by fire,” but “their works will be burned up;” they will suffer loss. There are others to whom an “abundant en- trance will be ministered.” They forgot their gold, they forgot themselves, and laid hold of a sinking world. It may be that they plunged into the night of heathendom, counting not their own lives dear unto themselves, that they might win the jewels for the crown of their King. How instinctively we shall lift such to the throne, and rejoice to see them have the honor due to such service. Why is it that we exalt Jesus Christ and give Him the highest place in the universe? Be- cause the place has been won by sacrifice and service for humanity; because “He humbled Himself and became of no reputation,” because -152 . PENTECOST FOR ME. “He became obedient unto death.” Therefore, “God hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name above every name. ‘The same Spirit in man will exalt him.” Let us sue “for an abundant entrance.” “If we suffer with Him we shall be glorified together.” “There are times that I can no more weep That I have suffered. For I know great strength is born of suffering. And I trust that still ‘Wrapped in the dry husks of my outer life, Lie warmer seeds than ever yet Have burst from its covering: Stronger purposes stir consciously within, and make me great With a new life—a life akin to God’s.”’ st CHAPTER VII. PENTECOST AND MISSIONS... “Ye shall be witnesses of Me,” 292) = unto 7 the -utter- most parts of the earth.” When Christ ascended to the bosom of the Father, and the Spirit descended upon the in- fant church, the world’s great crusade for Jesus really began. Up to that time very little, comparatively, had been done. One here and another there, had joined the limited company of those who were following the despised Nazarene. ‘The foundations of the Kingdom were laid, the ereat doctrines had been enunciated ; the ideal life, which God wanted lived on earth, had been seen among men. With this preparation the little company of believers were waiting the promised outpouring of power which should in- augurate the mighty Gospel campaign. The disciples were commanded to tarry for the en- duement of power. They waited until the fire 154 PENTECOST FOR ME. fell, and then three thousand were born in a day, more than is recorded of all the three years before. The book of Acts is a book of missions. The Holy Spirit was given to execute the work of God in the world’s redemption. Jesus left one thing for His disciples to do: “Go!” One boundary to their going: “The utermost part of the earth.” One message they were to carry: “The everlasting Gospel.” ‘The business of the church in this generation is to give the Gospel to the heathen in this generation. If the church of God should once get hold of this truth as it is, it would simplify her work amazingly. If the evangelization of the world was to become the ruling, dominant passion of the church, how everything else would fall into harmony, and begin to revolve around it. So much of wear, and tear, and waste, would be taken out of her experience, and so much heaven and victory brought into it. 4 THE SPIRIT’S ORDER IN MISSIONARY WORK. We must fall into God’s order in the prosecu- tion of missionary work, or there may be disap- PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 155 pointment, defeat and delay as well as waste of time and material. The divine order for the ages is given by the apostle James at the great council called at Jerusalem to settle some theo- logical questions with which the church was then being agitated. “And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath de- clared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the*ruins thereof. and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom My name is called, said the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” Acts xv. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. The apostle seemed to think he had spoken for the ages, as we see by his closing words, “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” First, He was to “visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for 156 PENTECOST FOR ME. - His name.” The Gentile age is an elective age. The Ecclesia, the church, is a called-out people. If this is not recognized there may be great waste in our work. Chafe under it as some of us may, the Jewish nation is the nation with which God has been, and is to be chiefly concerned. The Gentile nations fill up the parenthesis which is thrown in_ between Christ’s first and second comings, because of the rejection of the Messiah by the Jews. The Gentile supremacy will continue only for a limited time; “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles wntil the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” This then is an elective age, and therefore we cannot look for the universal reign of Christ in this age. In it He is to gather out a people. As Dr. Gordon tersely puts it: “We are not to bring the world to Christ, but Christ to the world.” For “this gospel shall be preached for a witness unto all nations, then shall the end come.” The end of Gentile supremacy. Then begins the next great step in the programme. “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 157 and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up.” Acts xv. 16. | The tabernacle of David was broken down when the Jewish nation went down under the curse of our Saviour. “And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visita- tion.” Luke xix. 41, 42, 43, 44. These prophetic words were literally fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the Roman emperor, in the year 70. The Jews have had no national existence since that day. They have been the servants and slaves of other nations; a “byword and a hissing,” as was said of them. But He is to build again the taber- nacle of Dawid which is fallen down. The 158 PENTECOST FOR ME. Jews are.to be given national glory again. The language of prophecy is most patent on this subject. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Isa. xi. 11, 12. The first restoration of the Jews was a res- toration from Babylonian captivity. The sec- ond restoration is yet to come, as Christ shall return “and build again the tabernacle which is fallen down. That is the time when “He shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather to- gether the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Then shall they “see Him whom they have pierced” and mourn. Then shall the Jewish theocracy be restored, with David’s greater Son on the throne. Then the residue of men on earth shall have the Gospel. PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 159 All the Gentiles shall have opportunity then to seek Christ, with the Gospel untrammeled by the power of the devil, for he will then be a captive in chains: he will be cast into a pit. A world without a devil! What victories will then be in all the earth for a thousand years! “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know thegLord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jer. xxxi. 34. We have then God’s purpose in salvation for the world, briefly outlined in this great council in Jerusalem. First, an elective age for the Gentiles; second, the restoration of the Jews—a redeemed nation, with Christ as King; third, the residue of the nations brought in. If we keep God’s order in missionary work, we shall work without waste, but if we attempt to bring the millennial age into the elective age, there will be confusion at once. We have in this age—in the matter of soul-saving and physical healing—only the earnest of the age to 160 PENTECOST FOR ME. come. The above order, be assured, was given by the Holy Ghost. He was the august per- sonage recognized in that council: “It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us.” Surely there could be no mistake, for He was adminis- tering affairs in the church then, and would be today if we would give Him His rightful place. THE HOLY SPIRIT IN MISSIONARY, ENTERPRISE. We need not only to move in God’s order in prosecuting missionary work, but we need to move under God’s order. The missionary, above all men, needs to know that he is called of God to his work. Paul and Barnabas were called of the Holy Ghost and sent out by the Holy Ghost. “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” Acts xiii. 2. The man who attempts to go to the heathen world at his own charges, or under his own call, makes a very grave mistake. No love of ro- PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 161 mance, or desire, even to do something heroic, or the strongest resolve of duty, will sustain a missionary in the depressing self-sacrifice and suffering which is his constant lot. Human nature would certainly give way. Paul, amid his sufferings and privations, could go back to the heavenly vision, and to the Spirit’s call and appointment at Antioch, and here all question- ing ended. When we think of Judson’s prison life at Oungpenla, where he suffered a hundred deaths; when we see him carrying his hungry babe around to find some heathen mother who would nurse it, while the life of his sick wife at home was hanging in the balance, we can easily under- stand how any soul would, must faint that had~ to stop on anything short of a divine call, some heavenly vision. There are times when the missionary is shut in with God. Not a soul about him can understand him—can truly sym- pathize with him. David had such an hour when returning to Ziklag, where he and his six hundred chosen men had left all dear to them, he saw over the hill, where had stood the city, only a heap of 162 PENTECOST FOR ME. smouldering ruins. The men in bitter grief turned on David with mutiny in their hearts. He was alone now, with no one and nothing left but God. But God was enough with David, for we read that “David encouraged him- self in the Lord his God.” In the face of every earthly discouragement he started on the trail of those who had taken his all, and swoop- ing down upon them, recovered wives and chil- dren, and all they had carried away. Thus the missionary is often left where he must encour- age himself in the Lord his God if he is to be encouraged at all. At such times he needs to know that God sent him to his field, that he is under divine orders, or his heart will sink. The man who is called must also have equip- ment for his work. The brightest natural gifts, with the most fervid devotion, is not a sufficient preparation for the work. There were schools for the prophets in the days of Elijah, and there are schools of training today which no person should ignore who hopes to make a success in reaching the heathen mind. Paul, the greatest of missionaries, was also one of the greatest of men in mental caliber, and PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 163 in the culture of the schools of his day. Some think because God has said that He “has chosen the weak things to confound the mighty,” that this is sufficient warrant for putting a premium on ignorance, and rushing into the battle with- out the necessary equipment. This is folly. But the missionary must not only be called of the Spirit, but the Spirit must direct him when and where to go. No man ever was more truly called or more thoroughly armed, than this great warrior, the Apostle to the Gentiles. Yet he and Barnabas did not go forth until the Spirit said Go, and went then where they were directed. “So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence to Cyprus.” Under the direction of the Holy Ghost they were kept from any mistake as to their field of labor. How the Shekinah went before them marking every step of the way. Turn to Acts sixteenth chapter and sixth verse and you will see how wonderfully they were led. “Now when they had gone through- out Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. After they were come to Mysia, they 164 PENTECOST FOR ME. essayed to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit suf- fered them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Mace- donia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen | the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the Gospel unto them.” Paul was then called of the Spirit, sent of the Spirit, and guided by the Spirit. This should be true of every missionary. He should be Spirit-filled and Spirit-led. Peter we find under special direction of the Spirit. “While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.” Acts x. 19. The three men were the connecting link between the two visions, the one seen by Cornelius, and the other by Peter. Now when the Spirit speaks there can be no mistake. Peter starts on his missionary work to the Gentiles, nothing doubting, accept- ing all consequences, assured that God had sent him. It was the breaking of caste with his own people and exposed him to ostracism, but the PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 165 Spirit had spoken, and every other voice was silenced. “And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or un- clean.” Acts x. 28. Though he was led in paths new and strange, there was no risk, for the Shekinah went before him. The sheet let down from heaven not only showed Peter that the Gentiles might be made clean, but that all grades and classes of them might be saved, as represented by the medley of creatures on the sheet. Dr. Gordon tells us that the sheet lifted to heaven again may give a hint of the Gentile bride caught up at the last to meet the Lord in the air. “For Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.” We are especially struck in reading the biographies of our missionaries with the fact that they are Spirit-called and Spirit-led. Cary, Judson, Paton, and others who might be named, were as divinely called, sustained, led, 166 PENTECOST FOR ME. as ever Paul or Barnabas were, and seemed as fearless and heroic of soul. Let us “lay hands suddenly on no man” who would go to the heathen world. Let us not make it too easy for men to go. If they are Spirit-filled and Spirit- called they will go, and such volunteers can be depended on in the heat of the fray. THE, BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT A BAPTISM OF LOVE FOR. HUMANITY. The one ruling thought in the mind of God for this world is voiced in John iii. 16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If we are filled with the Holy Spirit there can be but one great thought dominating our life—the redemption of the world. Around this central sun all lesser satellites will revolve. We shall feel the great commission binding on us, and a pulse of love within which turns all duty into holy privilege, so that we covet the hardest task. The Holy Ghost in us is the fountain of sustained enthusiasm in Christian missions. Paul’s life was full of persecution and suf- PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 167 fering, and everything to chill his ardor, but never for a moment did he falter. Every op- posing force only found new sources of power in him, strengthening his wings for higher flight. The eagle, sitting upon the crag in his lonely eyrie watching with searching eye the gathering storm as the clouds are banking up against the sun, waits patiently until he begins to feel the storm wind strike; then with a scream of defiance, he swings his breast to the breeze using the very storm to mount toward the sun. This is what Paul did. Every storm in his life only carried him nearer the sun; nearer the heart of Him whose love was his life. “Having obtained help of God,” he says, “I continue unto this day.” His boast was ever in the Lord. With an enthusiasm which never waned, living more in heaven than on earth, sometimes his soul catching the strains of the ransomed throng, seemed like the chained eagle which hears the free bird cry—to wrestle with his mortal fetters, almost ready to cast them off, that he might rise. ‘For I am in a strait be- twixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless 168 PENTECOST FOR ME. to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” Phil. i. 23, 24. Wonderful Paul! He lived and labored un- der the power of the Holy Ghost until he came in sight of the executioner’s block, hailing it, not with a death-requiem, but with the shout of a chieftain returning from the field of con- flict, flushed with victory. “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have fin- ished my course, I have kept the faith. Hence- forth there is laid up for me a crown of right- eousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” TTeaim v6) 7) 8: We have no difficulty in tracing all the great missionary movements of the centuries to Spirit-filled men. Dr. Gordon in his book, en- titled “The Holy Spirit in Missions,” has given us a line of these princes among men, who were belted to the enginery of heaven, and were able to move the mighty enterprises of earth. We feel like getting down at their feet to learn the first lessons of consecration. And yet the high- : PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 169 est devotion to missionary work he has por- trayed in others cannot outrank that which was exhibited in his own life. Dr. Gordon was a prince of princes in his love for the lost world and devotion to mission- ary enterprise. The world was on his heart, and to the utmost of his power he sought to bring Christ to the world as man’s only hope. His church was educated into the same love for missions as he himself had, by being first led into the Holy Ghost. Their gifts for mis- sions often exceeded their offerings for the running expenses of the church. Several mis- sionaries are now supported by them, and such is the atmosphere which pervades this hallowed place, as well as the school connected with it, that missionaries are being called constantly from their midst to the foreign field. The spirit of the holy man still seems to pervade the whole church and its work. The spirit dominant there was most touch- ingly exemplified by one of the Chinese scholars at the doctor’s death. He would not buy flow- ers for the funeral because, he said, the dead man would be better pleased if the price was 170 PENTECOST FOR ME. put into. missions. This was the beginning of a memorial fund, started by the young people of the church, and was taken up by other churches all over the land, until a large sum was pledged for the cause so near the heart of their lamented leader. Dr. Gordon was twenty-three years a member of the Executive Board of the American Bap- tist Missionary Union, and six of those years he was the honored chairman. He was always a tower of strength in the meetings. When others were faint and fearful, he was always hopeful, and a great inspiration to all. He was the man above all others sought for to educate and inspire at great missionary gatherings; and this not only in our own land, but in England, Scotland and France. Who shall measure the magnitude of the work he wrought for the race? He seemed more than any other man I ever knew to belong to the whole world.’ The world seemed to bow in tears when he fell. Letters of sympathy and sorrow followed his death from every State and Territory in this land and from many centres of the old world. What made the man so mighty in missionary PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 171 enterprise? He had the Pentecostal experi- ence; he had tarried in the upper chamber. The Holy Ghost was enthroned in that holy temple. He was sought quite as much for spiritual con- ferences, to speak on the Holy Spirit, as for missionary addresses. Missions were the neces- sary sequence of the Spirit’s anointing of the man. The two will be found eternally wedded. I know another church in New England, where the baptism of the Holy Ghost, as a dis- tinct experience, has been taught for fifteen years. During that time nine men have been ordained to the ministry and another is now in college preparing for the same work. Seven missionaries have been sent from this same church into the world’s harvest fields during these years, and there are others contemplating this service in the future. Surely teaching which produces such results 1s never wasted. Look at the great work wrought by Hudson Taylor in the heart of China! He is the soul of that great enterprise. Let me give a brief report as given in *97: “The China Inland Mis- sion reports 720 missionaries, 907 native help- ers, 6,173 communicants, #1 boarding and 63 142 PENTECOST FOR MRE. day schools, with 1,077 native pupils, 40 opium refuges, 5 hospitals and 19 dispensaries. The total expenditure was thirty-five thousand eight hundred and forty-eight and one-third pounds, or about one hundred and Severe thousand dollars.” These figures can be crowded into a brief space, but are simply colossal. Seven hundred and twenty missionaries! What great mission- ary organization, which has been running per- haps for a century, can show such figures? The China Inland Mission stands in the foremost of all missionary work. The progress of the work has been a marvel in the eyes of older organiza- tions. What is the secret of if all? This, the man who is top and bottom, the great inspira- tion of it all—speaking after the flesh-—is a Spirit-filled man. His faith and trust in a God who answers prayer is something wonderful. He has no superiors and few peers in Pentecos- tal power. The Holy Ghost in us shall take of the things of Christ and show them unto us. The great- est thing in Christ was His compassion for a lost world. “Let this mind be in you, which PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 173 was also in Christ Jesus.” If it is, we, too, shall be moved with compassion at the sight of a per- ishing world. Missionary work will dominate our life. Let us introduce one other character before we have done, to illustrate the great truth be- fore us, of “Pentecost and Missions.” We know it becomes us to speak modestly, for his form is still among us, but it cannot be amiss to look at some facts which will furnish a glorious in- spiration for God’s people in the world’s evan- gelization. I refer to the work prosecuted by the Chris- - tian Missionary Alliance, one of the greatest movements of these modern days. The mis- sionary work is only about nine years old, and yet the globe is belted by the enterprise. Over three hundred missionaries are at work in Africa, India, China, Japan, Thibet, Palestine and South America. ‘The laborers have no su- periors in consecration to their work. Like Paul and Barnabas they have been called of the Holy Ghost, and are laboring under His special illumination and supervision. They are taught first and last that the Holy Spirit is 174 PENTECOST FOR ME. administering the great work of missions, and they are not wanted unless under His appoint- ment. Spirit-called and Spirit-led, their devo- tion and service is something wonderful. The fruits of their labors are quickly seen on all these fields. That a work of such magnitude could arise in nine years baffles all calculation. How shall we account for it? Most emphatically it is the work of the Holy Ghost. The leader of this movement, the man who under God has been its inspiration, had his upper-room experience in Louisville, Kentucky, a few years ago. He was pastor of a cold, aristocratic Presbyterian Church in that city. He said that he saw a few in his audience whom he knew had a re- ligious experience he did not have. He sought to know the secret of their power, and gave himself to the study of the Word and spe- cial prayer for all the heritage God had pro- vided for His children. He had not sought long when the anointing came, the fire fell, and anew and mighty impulse for a lost world seized him. He secured a large hall, or theater, for special services, to try to reach the young men PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 175 then in the city at school. But he found that he could not put the new wine of the kingdom into the old bottles of formalism, and leaving Kentucky, he came to New York. He found himself out of tune with dead and lifeless forms of conservative church life, and was led to gather around him a few Spirit- filled people, and commence an aggressive war- fare on the kingdom of Satan. Before long he discovered that the world was full of hungry people waiting only for light on the ministry of the Holy Ghost in this age. The little hand- ful grew, and the small one became a nation. The friends of the Alliance are now found in large numbers in all the States and Territories of the Union, and in many other lands. The name of Rev. A. B. Simpson has gone around the world: The great conventions conducted by him in many of the States are noted for spirituality and power; there are no better in the world. The great end in view in these gatherings is to bring Christians to see the fulness of their inheritance in Christ Jesus for soul and body. Thousands and tens of thousands have been 176 PENTECOST FOR ME. delivered from physical and spiritual bondage, and their lives filled with sweetness and power, a perpetual wellspring of abounding life. Dr. Simpson himself found that the spiritual anointing meant healing for a broken, wrecked body. He draws his hfe and strength directly from God in a real way, and is enabled to do every day the work of a half a dozen ordinary persons. It is impossible to account for the amount of work he does on any other than a supernatural basis. Liberal, conscientious giving is almost con- fined to Spirit-filled people. At the Alliance conventions, before referred to, there is very lit- tle effort made to impress those listening with the conviction that they ought to give. On the contrary, every effort is made, through the ten days or two weeks, to bring men to see their inheritance in Christ, and lead them to a total surrender to God. When the fire falls and burns up the self life, opening hearts with a consuming love for the lost, purse-strings loosen. | Other societies have suggested the propriety of holding great conventions to stir up mission- PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 17 ary zeal, and multiply missionary contributions. They forget that it is not the discussion of mis- sions which brings the money, but the definite teaching of the Holy Ghost as an indwelling power, and the leading of people into this ex- perience. The secret of Christian liberality is the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. It is won- derful sometimes to see how the bringing of a soul into a Spirit-filled life will suddenly unlock thousands of dollars for missionary work. The poorest also are led to give out of their poverty. It has been a thousand times repeated where these and others in moderate circumstances have stripped themselves of their bits of jewelry and laid it on the altar for missionary service. It is this spiritual devotion which gives a man the range of vision that takes the perishing world into review. The unparalleled work, then, wrought by the Alliance is wholly due to the fact that these people have seen their Pen- tecost. Their lips have been touched by fire, and they “can but speak forth the things they have seen and heard.” If we would see the world speedily evangelized, there must be a re- vival of Pentecostal piety, purity, and power. 178 PENTECOST FOR ME. There is a “Pentecost for me’—you. Have you seen it? If not; why not? “I indeed bap- tize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after Me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall bap- tize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” “Tarry ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.” “For the promise is unto you and to your children.” “But ye shall receive power, the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Amen. “My hands were filled with many things That I did precious hold, As any treasure of a king’s— Silver, or gems, or gold. The Master came and touched my hands (The scars were in His own), And at His feet my treasures sweet Fell shattered one by one. ‘IT must have empty hands (said He) Wherewith to work My works through thee.’ “My hands were stained with marks of toil, Defiled with dust of earth; And I my work did oft-times soil, And render little worth. PENTECOST AND MISSIONS. 179 The Master came and touched my hands, And crimson were His own; But when, amazed, on mine I gazed, Lo, every stain was gone! ‘I must have cleansed hands (said He) Wherewith to work My works through thee.’ “My hands were growing feverish, And cumberd with much care; Trembling with haste and eagerness, Nor folded oft in prayer. The Master came and touched my hands, With healing in His own, And calm and still to do His will They grew—the fever gone. ‘IT must have quiet hands (said He) Wherewith to work My works through thee.’ “My hands were strong in fancied strength, But not in power divine, And bold to take up tasks at length That were not His, but mine. The Master came and touched my hands, And might was in His own; But mine since then have powerless been, Save His are laid thereon. ‘And it is only thus (said He) That I can work My works through thee.’ ” 148 1B 2105) 3-25-33 37180 mires tx midge to Pappa: sen