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Revell Company Publishers of Evangelical Literature Copyright, 1899 by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY Contents INTRODUCTORY . ‘ ; I THE Hovy Spirit Is A DIVINE PERSON . ‘ II THE Hoty Spirit BEFORE AND SINCE PENTE- COST e e J e 7 2 Ill THE Hoty Spirit BEFORE AND SINCE PENTE- e e e cost (Continued) . ; x : , IV THE FILLING WITH THE Hoty Spirit. i V THE FILLING WITH THE Ho_y Spirir Is INDIS- PENSABLE : : 4 ‘ " 27 37 51 7! aN ee, Ny I ' RAG Rave ie lee | vie iy Lr oF | te y Introductory ais Halt wih ¥ a ‘ NE ti ae ht PASS ey Aah se ba if, ie iiee Al Lv ikea) We th) us) ay) ue 5, Aad Pies ne ih " i Win ; (vi ’ eA ; ‘i 4 dit eS el > [bs aed Lee oe } H A) eae: mh Han ink iota) } Ae Da Introductory We are in the midst of a marked revival of interest in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. More books, booklets and tracts upon that subject have issued from the press during the last eighty years than in all previous time since the invention of printing. Indeed, within the last twenty years more has been written and said upon the doctrine of the Holy Spirit than in the preceding eighteen hundred years. Doubtless much good has been done. Doubt- less in so far as the testimony has been ac- cording to Scripture it has been the divine an- swer alike to the false mysticism of the day —spiritualism, theosophy, Christian science (falsely so called)—and to the current denial of the supernatural which is enervating mod- ern Christianity. But along with this good is much evil. Much which has been written and said is dis- tinctly unbiblical; much, of which so strong a 9 10 Introductory statement would not be warranted, has the grave demerit of interpreting Scripture by ex- perience, instead of subjecting experience to the test of Scripture. Something is confi- dently asserted because the writer has “felt” it. Not infrequently the Spirit has been put into the place of Christ. Much of this mass of testimony is deeply legal in its spirit. Be- lievers are set upon various works to the end that they may receive the baptism with the Spirit. They are directed to pray, to empty themselves, to cleanse themselves, to die to self and the world. Husbands and wives are directed to ‘‘die” to each other. Natural af- fection is branded as idolatry. In many ways asceticism is inculcated, and made conditional if the Spirit is to be received in His fullness. Very few of the more recent writings upon the Holy Spirit distinguish the dispensational aspects of the question, or take account of the progressive unfolding of the doctrine of His Person and work. In these papers the en- deavor will be made to state these vital things with clearness and simplicity. At present it may suffice to say, that in respect of no other Introductory 11 doctrine of Scripture is an understanding of . its progressive revelation more absolutely es- sential. The writings referred to add to the confusion of mingling together the past, mid- dle-past, and present offices and operations of the Spirit, the farther discord of presenting the personal experiences of the Apostles as the pattern of the believer’s experience now. The fact that the Apostles began as Jews after the flesh, went on to be spiritual Jews, the true Israel of God, seeing in Jesus the prom- ised Messiah, and then to be, with Christ as chief corner-stone, the foundation stones of the church, seems utterly forgotten by the more part of recent writers upon the Holy Spirit. They speak of new Pentecosts with- out reflecting that they might with equal ap- propriateness speak of new Nativities. It should be obvious to the most careless student of Scripture that just as the Son of God had been acting in and toward the world from the first, but at last made a true Advent at the Nativity; so the Holy Spirit, who had been acting in and toward the world from the first, at last made a true Advent at Pentecost. 12 Introductory Furthermore, it is rare indeed to find the relationships of the Spirit properly associated with His offices. In Scripture these are care- fully discriminated. The undeniable result of all this is that many earnest children of God are in utter confusion of mind upon this pro- foundly vital subject; and the peril is that in very weariness and discouragement thousands will turn from the study of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, as thousands have turned from the study of types and prophecies, sadly con- vinced that the truth is so hidden away as that no one may hope to come to clearness of vi- sion of it. The present writer is persuaded, on the con- trary, that, while many of the operations of the Spirit (as His agency in the new birth) are beyond human analysis and definition, the doctrine of His Person, relationships, and of- fices is transparently simple. The purpose, then, of these Plain Papers is to set forth that doctrine in a plain and Biblical way. That is all. The reader of these Papers will not, therefore, expect them to constitute an elabo- rate treatise; still less to present or defend a Introductory 13 theory. The writer aspires to do no more than to set in order things which are in con- fusion, and to leave his readers face to face with their actual privileges and responsibilities in respect of the divine Spirit who came into the world on the day of Pentecost for pur- poses as definite and simple as those which, some thirty-three years before Pentecost, brought the divine Son into the world. The Parsonage, East Northfield, Mass., March 1, 1899. The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person fuss J THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A DIVINE PERSON THE complete demonstration of this funda- mental fact would require the citation of every passage in the Scriptures relating in any way to the Holy Spirit, since every reference to Him implies or asserts both His personality and His Deity. It must, therefore, suffice to gather under convenient heads, examples of such passages. First: The Holy Spirit ts a Person, as dis- tinguished from an influence, emanation, or mantfestation. This appears from the following consider- ations: (1) The same words, implying per- sonality, are used of Him in Scripture which are used of other persons. The following may suffice as examples of this class of passages, and to these the reader may add largely. ‘And | will pray the 17 18 The Holy Spirit a Divine Person Father, and he shall give you another Com- forter, that he may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can- not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall bein you. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever | have said unto you.” John xiv. 16, 17, 26. ‘‘Never- theless I tell you the truth; It is expedient 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. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment. How- beit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew z#¢ unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said J, that he shall take of mine, The Holy Spirit a Divine Person 19 and shall shew 7¢ unto you.’? John xvi. Ti 0; 13-15. (2) Men are said to act toward Him in ways which would be impossible or absurd if He were not truly a Person. Of this class of passages, also, a few ex- amples must suffice. ‘‘But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.” Isa. Ixiii. 10. ‘‘ Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.” Matt. xii. 31. ‘And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Eph. iv. 30. ‘““Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, Shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace?” Heb. x. 29. (3) The Holy Spirit is said to perform ac- tions which would be possible only to a per- son, 20 The Holy Spirit a Divine Person The following passages sufficiently illustrate this: ‘‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John iii. 6. ‘But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.” John xiv. 26 (see also passages quoted above under sub-head [1]). ‘‘Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.” Acts Vill. 29. ‘‘While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.” Acts x. 19. ‘‘As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul.” Acts xiii. 2. ‘‘And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirm- ity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh interces- sion for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Rom. viii. 26, R. Vv. ‘‘Now when they had gone throughout 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 assayed to go The Holy Spirit a Divine Person 21 into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.” Acts xvi. 6, 7. Here the Spirit is represented as the active agent in the believer’s re-birth; as teaching, reproving, guiding, speaking, receiving, shew- ing, as giving active and specific direction to the service of saints, and as praying. | It would be difficult to say how the idea of personality could be more elaborately pre- sented. Secondly: The Holy Spirtt ts a Divine Per- son, in the proper sense, Detty. Let it be noted: (1) He is called God. ‘‘Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us ? Then said I, Here am 1, send me. And he said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.” ‘Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, Say- ing, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and see- ing ye shall see, and not perceive.” Isa. vi. 8, 9, with Acts xxviii. 25, 26. The bearing of these two passages is obvi- 22 The Holy Spirit a Divine Person ous. Isaiah says he heard the voice of the Lord, Luke that the Holy Ghost spake; the completed truth being that God the Holy Ghost spake. (See, as another like instance, Jer. xxxi. 31-34, with Heb. x. 15.) ‘But we all, with unveiled face reflecting like as mirror the glory of the Lord, are trans- formed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit 42 Cor. iii. 18, R. v. ‘‘But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou con- ceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” Acts v. 3, 4: The declaration is explicit: to lie to the Holy Ghost is to lie to God. (2) The Scriptures constantly ascribe to the Holy Spirit the attributes of God, as om- nipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and also His highest perfection, holiness. Holi- ness, indeed, is the emphatic mark of the The Holy Spirit a Divine Person 23 Spirit. And this not as having been made or become holy, but as being holy, and Himself the producer of holiness. «‘Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If | take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me.” Psalm cxxxix. 7-10, etc. ‘© And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Gen. i. 2. ‘By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens.” Job RXV FE. ‘But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath re- vealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no 24 The Holy Spirit a Divine Person man, but the Spirit of God.” 1 Cor. ii. 9-11. ‘‘How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Heb. ix. 14. (3) He is represented as performing works possible only to Deity. This is shown by every one of the passages quoted in the last preceding paragraph, to which may be added the following: ‘‘The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” Job xxxiii. 4. ‘‘ Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.” Psalm civ. 30. ‘But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Rom. viii. 11. ‘And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Cor. vi. 11. ‘“‘For the prophecy came not in old time by The Holy Spirit a Divine Person 25 the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Pet. i. 21. ‘Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake be- fore concerning Judas.” Acts i. 16. ‘‘And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.” Luke xii. 11, 12. ‘‘ Take heed there- fore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” Acts xx. 28. ‘‘For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues; but all 26 The Holy Spirit a Divine Person these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” 1 Cor. xii, 8-11. Surely it would be impossible intelligently to impute to a mere influence such definite personal acts as these; or to suppose one less than absolute Deity able to perform them. _In conclusion it is enough to say that further proofs both of the personality and Deity of the Spirit may be found in the facts that it is pos- sible to sin against Him; that He is joined on terms of perfect equality with the Father and the Son in the baptismal formula; and that in seven remarkable passages in the second and third chapters of the Revelation, we are com- manded to ‘‘hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” There is no biblical reason for believing in the Deity and personality of the Father or of the Son, which does not equally establish that of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit Before and Since Pentecost iN be i) iV yi, II THE HOLY SPIRIT BEFORE AND SINCE PENTECOST It is obvious to every reader of the Bible that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit follows, in common with every other doctrine, the law of progressive development. In Scripture noth- ing is completely told at once. ‘‘First the blade, then the ear; after that the full corn in the ear,” is ever the divine method of revela- tion. If we seek for the natural divisions in this progressive unfolding of the truth con- cerning the Spirit, we shall find them so broadly marked off as to be unmistakable. These divisions are: 1. The Holy Spirit before the Incarnation of Christ. 2. The Holy Spirit in relation to the Person and ministry of Christ from the Incarnation to Pentecost. 3. The Holy Spirit from Pentecost to the opening of the door to the Gentiles. 29 20 Before and Since Pentecost 4. The Holy Spirit in His present offices and relationships as defined in the Epistles. 5. The Holy Spirit (prophetically) in the future kingdom age. The purpose of this Paper is briefly to sketch the development of the doctrine in the first four aspects of its fivefold order, and to note the distinctions which may save us from confusion of thought. First: The Holy Spirit before the Incarna- tion. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is re- vealed, as we have seen in the preceding Paper, as a divine Person. As such He is as- sociated in the work of creation (Gen. i. 2; Jobiaexvis \23) xvi. 3) ex a PS. cre aoe etc.); strives with sinful man (Gen. vi. 3); en- lightens the spirit of man (Job xxxii. 8; Prov. XX. 27); gives skill of hand (Ex. xxxi. 2-5); bestows physical strength (Judges xiv. 6); and qualifies the servants of God for a various ministry (EX. xxviii. 3, Xxxv. 21, 31; Num. Xl. 25-29; Judges xi. 29, etc.; 1 Sam. xvi. 17; 2 Sam. xxiii. 2). To this should be added that operation of the Spirit by which the men Before and Since Pentecost 31 of faith in the Old Testament ages were re- generated. While this doctrine is not explic- itly taught in the Old Testament (except pro- phetically), our Lord’s words in John iii. 5, and Luke xiii. 28, leave no doubt as to the fact itself. Since the new birth is essential to see- ing and entering the kingdom of God, and since the Old Testament saints are in that kingdom, it follows necessarily that they were born of the Spirit. But, since that was the period of nonage, as Paul explains, (Galatians lii.-iv.,) they had not the indwelling Spirit of sonship. They were minors, ‘‘under tutors and governors.” It should be remembered, also, that to the Old Testament saint no way was revealed by | which he might receive the Holy Spirit. All | the offices of the Spirit were reserved within | the sovereign will of God. He sent His Spirit - upon whosoever He would. That the Spirit — came upon an individual did not by any — means prove him to bein salvation. Evena sincere believer had no assurance that tha Spirit might not forsake him; (Psalm li. 11) whereas the believer of this dispensation has a2 Before and Since Pentecost an express promise of the abiding of the Spirit. Secondly: The Holy Spirit in relation to the Person and ministry of Christ from His con- ception to Pentecost. The Four Gospels present the Spirit in con- nection with the person and ministry of Christ. Our Lord is conceived by the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, baptized, and led by Him. In His power Christ casts out demons, and performs His astonishing works. Luke i. 15, 35, iii. 21, 22, iv. 1, 18; Matt. xii. 28. He is pointed out by John as the Bap- tizer with the Holy Ghost, and this testimony Christ confirms in His last discourse. Matt. lii. 11; Acts i. 4, 5. Furthermore, our Lord taught His personal disciples how they, too, might have the Spirit. ‘“‘If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” Luke xi. 13. So familiar are we with this passage that we little think with what astonishment our Lord’s words must have fallen upon the ears of His Before and Since Pentecost gle disciples. Doubtless they were acquainted with the prophecy of Joel, but that pointed to a sovereign act of God wholly without refer- €nce to prayer or any other human condition. Up to that time, as we have seen, nO means had been made known by the use of which : any and every man of faith might obtain the Spirit. In Old Testament times the Spirit came upon some men as God’s service required, but these cases were rare, occasional and excep- tional. All was purely within the sovereign will of God. But now, to the whole body of disciples came the astonishing statement that any one of them, simply by asking, might re- ceive the Spirit! The privilege was too great for their faith. Not only is there not the smallest evidence that any of those disciples asked and obtained the gift of the Spirit, but there is the most conclusive evidence that none of them did so ask and obtain. At the close of His earth-ministry our Lord defined the person, relationships and offices of the coming Spirit. (1) Since they had not prayed the Father for the Spirit, He would. ‘I will pray the 34 Before and Since Pentecost Father, and he shall give you another Com- forter, that he may abide with you forever.” John xiv. 16. ‘‘But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father,” etc. ‘‘If I depart I will send him unto you.” John xv. 26, xvi. 7. (2) The coming One should stand related to believers in a threefold way. ‘‘He dwell- eth with you, and shall be i you.” John xiv. 17. “Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you.” John xiv. 17; Luke xxiv. 49. The coming One should be ‘‘with” © men, convicting, converting, regenerating; “within” men, as a fountain of living water, cleansing, renewing, satisfying; ‘‘upon”’ men, bestowing gifts and power for service. He should be Comforter, Guide, Teacher, Revealer. (3) Himself leaving the body of revealed truth incomplete, Christ promised that the Spirit of truth should complete it. John xvi. 13. Then He went to the cross. Beginning, on the very day of His resurrec- ' tion, His new ministry, He fulfilled, for His disciples, the promise, ‘‘He shall be z# you.” } John xiv. 17, xx. 22. On the evening of Before and Since Pentecost 35 His resurrection, our Lord « breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” They had not, then, already received Him. Nor, let it be observed, did they then receive Him by claiming the promise, ‘much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.” Luke xi. 13. Christ, shewing His hands and His side, the proof that redemption was fully accomplished, as ‘‘first-fruits” (Rom. viii. 23) and “seal” (Eph. i. 13) of that redemption, imparted the indwelling Spirit to the men who believed on Him. It was their privilege, as believers, now that the blood of atonement had been shed, without other condition, to receive the Spirit. He was the “earnest of their inheritance.” Eph Ay 1a: Absolutely the only condition in them was faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. That impartation of the Spirit as indwelling the believer simply and only because he was a believer, marked the tremendous transition from the age of law to the age of Grace. But there was yet another relationship of the Spirit, the baptism, or the “upon” relation- ship, for which these disciples who had re- 36 Before and Since Pentecost ceived the Spirit as indwelling, were com- manded to wait. ‘‘ Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” Luke xxiv. 49. ‘‘ For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judzea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts i. 5, 8. Then He was parted from them; and the ‘‘tarrying” began. The Holy Spirit Before and Since Pente- cost (Continued) ba awlt Me ROT AU vay AU : Whariat Sh) III THE HOLY SPIRIT BEFORE AND SINCE PENTECOST (Continued) Two of the divisions into which the pro- gressive unfolding of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit falls have been reviewed: the Old Tes- tament stage of that doctrine, and the period covered by the presence of Christ on earth. We now reach: Thirdly: The Holy Spirit from Pentecost to the Opening of the Kingdom to the Gentiles. Until the day of Pentecost, the disciples, who had received, by the outbreathing of Christ, the indwelling Spirit, waited for His coming ‘‘upon” them; and when that day was fully come, with the outward manifesta- tions of sound and flame, He came. They were baptized with the Holy Ghost; and not only baptized, but ‘filled with the Holy .Ghost.”” Three results of that baptism and filling were at once manifest: (1) giff—‘‘ they 39 * 40 Before and Since Pentecost began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance”; (2) power—as Peter preached the hearers were ‘‘ pricked in their heart,” and ‘‘ there were added unto them about three thousand souls”; and (3) unify— ‘and all that believed were together, and had all things common.” This outward unity was the result, not alone of the fact that they were alike believers in one Lord, and committed to one common destiny, but was the manifestation of a new fact concerning them which had been accom- plished for them by the baptism with the Spirit ; they had been, by that baptism, vitally united to each other, and to the risen Christ. Then began to be formed that ‘‘ body” of Christ, of which the Lord Jesus, at the right hand of the Father is the Head, and all regen- erate believers at and since Pentecost, are the members. <‘For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For-by one Spirit are we all bap- tized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free.” Before and Since Pentecost 41 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13. (See, also, Eph. i. 20-23, iv. 3-16.) This was that vital union with the risen and glorified Christ of which our Lord had. spoken (John xy. 1-10), as the union of the vine and the branches. The unity, then, which at and after Pentecost, was manifested outwardly by their being “together,” and hav- ing “‘all things common,” was wrought by the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Gift, or Special enduement for distinctive Service; power, or the ministry of that gift in Divine energy; and union to the body of Christ, are the results of the baptism and filling with the Holy Spirit. From the day of Pentecost, when Peter used the first key and opened the kingdom to the Jews, to the memorable day when, in the house of Cornelius, he used the second key and opened the door to the Gentiles, the im- partation of the Spirit to believers (all Jewish) was marked by two peculiarities which disap- pear entirely in the case of Gentile converts. These were (1) that commonly an interval of time elapsed between the receiving of Christ 42 Before and Since Pentecost by faith, and the baptism with the Spirit. ‘/ And (2) that commonly the mediation of the disciples, either by prayer or by the laying on of hands, was necessary. Instances may be found by reference to Acts viii. 12-17, 1X. 17. The whole of this period (Acts ii.-ix., inclu- sive) is peculiar, transitional and Jewish. Fourth: Thke Holy Spirit since the opening of the door to the Gentiles, in Hts present re- lationships and offices as defined tn the Epts- tles. With the opening of the kingdom to the Gentiles (Acts x.) we reach what may be called the normal experience for this dispensa- tion. It is very simply stated by Luke in Acts x. 44: ‘‘While Peter vet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.” Peter's own account of it is in Acts xi. 15: “And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the begin- ning.” | Henceforth, wherever the gospel is believed among Gentiles, the Holy Spirit in the mo- ' ment when they believe, regenerates and in- _ dwells them, and baptizes them into the Body Before and Since Pentecost 43 of Christ. To this the Epistles bear constant and unvarying testimony. A few examples of the Epistolary testimony must suffice. As to His indwelling: ‘‘What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of Godri 77k Cor. viii 19: It should be remembered that this is said of the most carnal and unsanctified body of be- lievers mentioned in the New Testament. For their low, unspiritual state see 1 Cor. i. 11, 12, lil. I-4, v. I, vi. 1. Indeed, the Apostle makes this great truth of the indwelling of the Spirit a basis for exhorting them to abstain from the coarsest sins. They had not attained to the in- | dwelling by acts of obedience, nor by peculiar : saintliness. The indwelling was the result of - their position as Gentiles saved by grace. ‘‘Now if any man have not the Spirit of . Christ, he is none of his.” Rom. viii. 9. ‘“‘For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” Ron. viii. 15. ‘‘And because ye are sons, God hath sent 44 Before and Since Pentecost forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,.Abba, Father.” Gal. iv. 6. Briefly, as to the fact of the baptism, note: ‘‘For, as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, and were all made to drink of one Spirit.” ‘1 Cor.’ Xil. 12,13) R. vi) This also was written to the same ‘‘ carnal’’ Corinthians, who, so far from having made great progress in the divine life, thus ‘‘attaining”’ the ‘‘sec- ond blessing,” were ‘‘ babes in Christ,” living upon milk, and not meat. Note, farther, in that twelfth chapter, the emphasis upon the universality of this posi- tion ‘‘in Christ” among believers: ‘‘ Every man,” verse 11; ‘‘a/J the members,” verse 12; ‘Call: ‘baptized;’; \ verse 133° ** alZ, made ito drink,” verse 13; ‘‘every one,” verse 18; ‘‘ye are the body of Christ,” verse 27. ' In other words, the body of Christ is formed of individual believers united to Christ, the _ living Head, by the baptism with the Holy Spirit; and, in this sense, there are no disjecta Before and Since Pentecost 45 membra, no ‘‘ unattached’ members of Christ. The idea is wholly absent from the Epistles, | and would never have entered the mind of man _ from the reading of the Epistles. The blind- — ing, misleading notion that a Gentile may be a regenerate believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, | and yet be destitute of the indwelling and bap- tizing Spirit, is wholly due to the failure to observe the progress of doctrine in the New Testament concerning the Spirit. Doubtless, also, the strange notion that the experiences through which the personal dis- ciples of our Lord passed from their position as mere Jews in the flesh, to their ultimate place in the body of Christ, must be followed by all subsequent believers, whether Jew or Gentile, is in part responsible for the error. The startling experience of the household of Cornelius should have sufficed to dispel it. That experience shook the apostolic church to its foundation, and was the determining fact in the decision of the Jerusalem council (Acts XV. 7-10), which, under God, emancipated the Gospel from its Jewish fetters. Instead of teaching believers to-day that 46 Before and Since Pentecost they are destitute of the Spirit unless they have passed through some experience subse- quent to conversion; or that they may obtain the Spirit by asking the Father, as in the in- terregnum between the baptism and crucifixion of Christ; or that many must be with one ac- cord in one place, ‘‘on their faces before God”’ if they would receive the Spirit; or that they cannot receive the Spirit until they are ‘‘en- tirely consecrated,” or ‘‘fully yielded”; they should be solemnly charged with the respon- sibility which rests upon them as those whose bodies are already ‘‘temples of the Holy Ghost”; as those who are ‘‘ members in par- ticular’’ of the sacred body of Christ. They should be exhorted: ‘‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Eph. iv. 30); and they should be shewn the glorious possibilities of blessing latent in those facts. No more transforming thought can be re- ceived into a believer's mind than that his body is already indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and that he is now a member of the body of Christ. The misleading opinion that it is possible Before and Since Pentecost 47 to be a true believer and yet to remain for a time destitute of the Spirit is sometimes justi- fied by the case of the ‘‘ disciples’? whom Paul found at Ephesus, of whom he asked—not, +¢ as in the Authorized Version, ‘‘Have ye re- ceived the Holy Ghost since ye believed ?’”— but, as in the Revised Version, ‘‘ Received ye the Holy Spirit when ye_ believed?” Acts xix. 2. As to this case it is sufficient to say: aN (1) The very form of the apostle’s question indicates that, normally, they should have re- ceived the Holy Spirit when they believed (literally, ‘‘upon believing’’). (2) The question developed the true state of the case, they were not Christ’s disciples at all, but John Baptist’s. This marks them as Jews or Jewish proselytes. They were in the precise state of John’s disciples before he pointed to Jesus, ‘‘the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world,” as the alone object of faith. (3) That they had not the Spirit was due, not to their ignorance of His advent at Pente- cost, but to the fact that their faith was not in 48 Before and Since Pentecost Christ crucified, but only the proper Jewish expectation of a coming Messiah. (Verse 4.) (4) Thatthey were not Christians previously to this interview with Paul, is proved by the fact he added Christian baptism to the mere preparatory rite of John Baptist. (Verse 5.) But, while it is true that every regenerate believer is indwelt by the Spirit, and by the Spirit baptized into Christ, it is of the very deepest moment to note that the Acts and | Epistles discriminate between possessing the | Spirit, and being filled with the Spirit. An example of this discrimination may be seen in Ephesians. In Eph. iv. 30 the believer is re- minded (as previously in i. 13), that he zs sealed with the Spirit; in v. 18, he is com- manded to be ‘‘ fi//ed with the Spirit.” Doubt- less, many believers are filled with the Spirit when, (in the moment of conversion), He re- generates, indwells and baptizes them. The disciples at Pentecost were both baptized and filled with the Spirit. Acts ii. 1-4. After de- scribing the physical manifestations attending their baptism, the account adds: ‘‘and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Before and Since Pentecost 49 That all believers are not ‘filled with the Spirit’? when He takes up His abode in them, and baptizes them into Christ, is due to the fact that they have complied with the condi- tion for the receiving of the Spirit, which is simply faith in Christ (John vii. 39; Gal. iii. 2), but have not complied with the condi- tions for the filling with the Spirit. These will be set forth in the following chapter. It should be added here that, while the fill- ing with the Spirit is as definite an act of divine power as the baptism with the Spirit, the filling, unlike the baptism, may be many times repeated. The true formula is: ‘‘one baptism; many fillings” (W. J. Erdman). The sealing is ‘‘unto the day of redemption,” and therefore needs not to be repeated. Eph. i. 13, 14, iv. 30. ‘The anointing which ye have received of him abideth.” 1 John ii. 27. An illustration, both of the distinction be- tween the baptism and the filling, and of the difference between possessing the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit, is found in the comparison of Acts ii. 1-4 and Acts iv. 23-31. 50 Before and Since Pentecost Here the same disciples who were both bap- tized and filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, were again filled with the Spirit. Had they lost their seal? Surely not, for they were ‘‘sealed unto the day of redemp- tion.”’ Eph. iv. 30. Had they become un- baptized out of the body of Christ? Surely not. They had become afraid of the Sanhedrin: —‘‘Lord, behold their threatenings,’—and thus were quenching the Spirit, and the remedy was re-filling. ‘‘The place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with bold- Ness.) It should be added that in the Acts and Epistles it is not the facts of the indwelling and baptism with the Spirit which are ac- counted as bestowing blessing in life, and power in service, but the state of being filled with the Spirit. Not men having the Spirit are sought for service, but men fi/Jed with the Holy Ghost. The Filling with the Holy Spirit re Pietra Un as 3) Ve nal an Aa) in nt! NIMES Mf iA IV THE FILLING WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT In the last chapter the writer endeavored to show that the Epistles, which (with the Rev- elation) are God’s final word to the saints of this dispensation, instead of exhorting believ- ers to seek the indwelling of the Spirit, or the baptism with the Spirit, again and again assert that both the indwelling and the baptism are the present possession of all who, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, are regenerate; and that exhortations to holiness of life are based upon the already existing fact of such possession. It was shown, further, that not the presence merely of the Spirit as indwelling and baptizing secured the fullness of blessing, victory, and power, but the state of being filled with the Spirit. Eph. v. 18, is a distinct command to ‘‘be filled with the Spirit.” The purpose of the present paper is to point out the simple Biblical conditions of such filling. 53 54. The Filling with the Holy Spirit These conditions are (1) negative—some things must not be, if we are to know this blessing; and (2) positive—demanding a definite affirm- ative action upon our part. 1. The negative conditions of the filling with the Holy Spirit. (1) The first of these negative conditions is stated in Ephesians iv. 30, 31. ‘And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” The word rendered ‘‘grieve” in this passage means literally ‘‘to make sorrowful.” Itis a touching thought that the Bible never speaks of the wrath of the Spirit. The one passage in the authorized version (Isaiah 1xiii. 10) in which the Spirit is said to be ‘‘ vexed,” is a mistranslation which the revised version cor- rectly changes to ‘‘ grieved.” It is not strange that some have found in this susceptibility of the Spirit to be grieved but not angered the mother part of the divine love. The things which grieve the Spirit are un- holy things allowed in the life. Some of these are enumerated in verse 31, immediately fol- lowing the exhortation not to grieve the The Filling with the Holy Spirit 5S Spirit: ‘‘ Bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, with all malice.” In Galatians v. 17 weare told that ‘‘ the flesh lust- eth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh;” and the ‘‘ works of the flesh” are enu- merated: ‘‘ Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, va- riance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, rev- elings, and such lithe ;”’ a clause which covers every manifestation of the flesh. All these grieve the Spirit when allowed in the believer’s life. Everything here depends upon the assent of the will. Temptations to these sins do not grieve the Spirit, nor are temptations sins, but the moment the will assents to the practice or presence of these ‘‘and such like,” the holy and sensitive Spirit is grieved. The effect of such assent of the will to ‘‘the law of sin which is in our members” is to refuse the rule of the Spirit in some part of our natures; to diminish the sphere of the Spirit’s sway over us. Our complex nature is like an empire of many provinces, We are spirit, soul, and 56 The Filling with the Holy Spirit body. We may be willing that the Spirit shall control our ugly tempers, and yet indulge ourselves in settled bitternesses. We may be willing that the Spirit shall rule our passions, and yet reserve what we are pleased to call the freedom of the intellect. Before conversion this empire (though we were all unconscious of it) was ruled by Satan (1 Cor. xii. 2; Eph. ii. 2) through self as viceroy. Now Christ is enthroned through the Spirit. But the dethroned ruler seeks ever the recovery of his dominion in whole, or in part; and the assent of the human will to any manifestation of the natural heart (Mark. viii. 20-23) is the reénthronement of self and, in so far as self is allowed to act, the dethronement of Christ’s vicegerent, the Spirit. It is not that He abandons us. Thank God we are ‘sealed unto the day of redemption,” and ‘“‘grieving away” the Spirit is an unbiblical notion, but a grieved Spirit is not an all-filling Spirit. The immediate consequence of the re- striction of the sphere of the Spirit’s authority is loss of blessing and victory in the inner life, and loss of power in the outer life—the life of The Filling with the Holy Spirit 57 service. The remedy for this loss, the filling of the Spirit, will be pointed out farther on. (2) The second negative condition is stated in 1 Thess. v. 19, ‘‘Quench not the Spirit.” The word (correctly rendered ‘‘quench”’) is used primarily of putting out fire; and in a secondary sense of resisting any vigorous ef- fort. To quench the Spirit, therefore, is to resist His fiery energy, His consuming and purifying work. We are baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire. He is the “Spirit of burning,” and so of purification. He is also the Spirit of power. Through Him God lays hold upon us as instruments in a world- embracing purpose. To quench the Spirit therefore (let it be repeated) is to resist this twofold work of purification and of use. To reserve any dross of the natural man from the consuming action of this holy flame is, in so far, to quench Him. Similarly, any resistance to His use of us, however slight, or from whatever cause, is to quench Him. The Spirit will not enforce obedience. His power is resistless, but waits the assent of our wills. We quench the Spirit, therefore, when we 58 The Filling with the Holy Spirit oppose His will. We quench the Spirit, there- fore when we refuse to speak for Christ when consciously moved to do so by Him. It may seem a very small thing to us, but we are not qualified to judge concerning small and great in the estimation of God. In His work im- mense results often follow seemingly unim- portant actions. We quench the Spirit when we refuse His call to definite service. We quench the Spirit when we refuse His absolute sovereignty over our service as to what (1 Cor. xii. 8-11) where (Acts xiii. 2-4, Xvi. 6, 7) and how (Acts viii. 29) we shall serve Christ. So long as servants of Christ are influenced in the place, kind, or method of their service by considerations of agreeable- ness, worldly advantage, salary and like mo- tives, they may not hope to know His full- ness. We quench the Spirit when we consent to such arrangements in church life or organiza- tion as give no liberty for the ministry of the various gifts of the Spirit, thus imposing si- lence or inactivity on others. The Filling with the Holy Spirit 59 The effect of quenching the Spirit is precisely the same with grieving Him—the sphere of His authority is diminished; we are no longer ‘“ filled,”’ because we have excluded Him from some part of our being. An illustration of this was given in the last chapter in the case of the disciples who, filled on the day of Pentecost, needed to be and were filled again on a subsequent occasion. The negative conditions of the filling with the Holy Spirit are, therefore, that we cease grieving Him by refusing the assent of the will to any unholiness; and that we cease quenching Him by opposing the resistance of the will to His sanctifying work within us, and His energizing work upon us. — It is not, let it again be insisted, that we are to make ourselves clean of sin, or to perfect ourselves in obedience. Neither of these acts is possible to us. In respect of both we are helpless. What we may do, is to put our wills over on the Spirit's side of these con- troversies. The representation is often made that if we can but will to be holy and obedient the victory is won. But, in the seventh chap- 60 The Filling with the Holy Spirit ter of Romans, Paul makes the tremendous and crushing discovery that willing and doing are by no means the same things. ‘For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Rom. vii. 18. Nor does he ever find it except in the mighty ‘‘law of the Spirit.” Rom. viii. 2. We come now to — 2. The positive conditions of the filling with the Holy Spirit. These are reducible to three. The first, variously stated in Scripture, as consecration, presenting the body a living sacrifice, taking up the cross, etc., is summed up finally in one word ‘‘yield.” That is, yieldedness. ‘‘ Neither yield ye your members as instruments of un- righteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” Rom. vi. 13. The word here used for ‘ yield,” in its va- rious forms in the original Greek, stands for the most absolute surrender to the control of another. Ina slightly different form it is used by our Lord in Matt. xxvi. 53, ‘‘ Tuinkest thou The Filling with the Holy Spirit 61 that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently g7ve me (literally ‘ yield’) more than twelve legions of angels?” Are we at liberty to suppose that those legions would think of obedience to Jesus in any but the most absolute sense? The word is used, also, of the presentation of sacrifices. These, needless to say, were wholly given to God. A sacrificer under the dispensation of law never dreamed of reasserting authority over a crea- ture once brought to the priest. Indeed, his final act of authority was to slay his offering in the presence of the priest. Lev. iv. 33, etc. This very thought of yieldedness, first of all, to death is enforced again and again in the Epistles. Rom. vi. 3, 6, vii. 4, etc. The very essence of true yieldedness is to consent that this judicial reckoning of God that we were crucified with Christ shall, by the Spirit, (Rom. vili. 13) be made real in our experience. ral nM 24 242 \Gorwt,oetc, keto tt: bacre- peated that co-crucifixion with Christ is not a self-work—Christ did not crucify Himself— but as He ‘‘ through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself” (Heb. ix. 14), so we ‘‘through the 62 The Filling with the Holy Spirit Spirit mortify (‘make dead’) the deeds of the body.” And this yieldedness is, be it observed, two- fold—‘‘ yourselves,” ‘‘ your members.” The first relates to the inner life—the sphere of soul and spirit as dominated by the flesh; the second to the outer life—the sphere of service. The first includes the yielding up to the Spirit of all things which defile us and therefore grieve Him. ‘‘Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.’ This is a very different thing from endeavoring our- selves to put these away. That we could never do; but the Holy Spirit can, and our yieldedness includes assent to this purifying work. The yielding of our ‘‘members”’ as instru- ments is abandoning to Christ through the Spirit all control over our service as to place, time, or quality. \ts formula is ‘‘ anything, any time, anywhere.” In Romans xii. 1, this yieldedness is presented under the sacrificial form. Observe that the exhortation is not to sacrifice our bodies, but to present them (to The Filling with the Holy Spirit 63 our Priest) for sacrifice. The point for em- phasis is the utterness of the abandonment of our bodies to Him. Under the old dis- pensation, as we have seen, the offerer had no secret purpose of reclaiming the offering. In the same way, to ‘‘yield” in the sense required, is sincerely, and honestly, and with- out any known secret reservation, to give self and our members over to the sway of Christ through the Spirit. Let now all pos- sible emphasis be put upon the remaining truth about this yielding, that it 7s a definite act. Millions are never filled with the Holy Spirit, because they never definitely yield themselves and their members to God. Even among earnest Christians this lack of definite- ness is proved by the practice of continually repeated consecrations (so-called). If we really have presented our bodies as living sac- rifices, we clearly have nothing left to present. It is done. The second positive condition of the filling is faith. By faith is meant not our general trust in 64 The Filling with the Holy Spirit Christ as our Saviour, but trust in Him as the alone bestower of the Spirit. Let go all con- | fusing past conditions, and remember that now and for Christians He, ‘‘ being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost” (or ‘‘promised Holy Ghost”), is now in the pre- cise position anticipated by Him when He ut- tered the words of John vii. 37-39: ‘‘In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink... but this spake he of the Spirit.” He has taken up the office of which John Baptist testified: ‘‘] indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to un- loose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” Luke iii. 16. Just as He, during His earthly ministry, pointed to the Father as willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who should ask Him, so now the Holy Spirit points to the ascended and glorified Christ as the bestower of the Spirit. Acts ii. 33. The Filling with the Holy Spirit 65 Faith, then, is called upon here for a two- fold exercise—to believe that the risen and glorified Christ is able and willing to bestow the fullness of the Spirit, and then to “ drink” (John vii. 37); that is, by a definite act of ap- propriation, to receive the Spirit. It is all of faith, One who has yielded self, and all known sin, and the body, unreservedly to the authority of Christ through the Spirit, is on taking ground. Heeding Christ’s invita- tion, ‘‘If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink,” he comes to Christ for this definite filling with the Spirit, and having come, he ‘“‘drinks.” It is precisely the same exercise of faith by which in the beginning of his Christian life he “received” Christ. John i. 12. Just here multitudes who really thirst, who have honestly yielded the whole being to Christ, fail. Having come so near, they do not “drink.” Waiting for some evidence of the senses they continue, perhaps for years, praying and longing for the fullness of the Spirit, but never ‘‘ receive” Him. Perhaps, at last, they inwardly blame God. In the Spirit 66 The Filling with the Holy Spirit of the elder son in the parable, they say, “Thou never gavest me a kid.” The an- swer always is, ‘‘Son, all that I have is thine.” The third condition is prayer. And this, be it remembered, is not asking the Father for the Spirit. Jesus ‘‘ being by the right hand of God exalted,” has ‘‘ received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost.’ Neither is it asking for the Holy Spirit in un-— belief of the repeated and emphatic declara- tions that the believer now has the Spirit, nor, strictly speaking, is it asking for the fullness of the Spirit. In the wonderful prayer re- corded in Acts iv. 24-30 the disciples do not — mention the Spirit. They pray about the fear they are in because of the Jewish religious | authorities, and of ‘‘ Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles.” ‘“‘Lord, behold their threatenings; and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thy hand to heal; and that signs and wonders | may be done in the name of thy holy child Jesus.” The Filling with the Holy Spirit 67 Think of the directness, humility, and pre- occupation with Christ, of that noble prayer, in contrast with the preoccupation with self, the subjectivity of so much latter-day praying about the Spirit. And, chiefly, note this: they prayed about the thing which had got wrong —‘behold their threatenings.” Fear was quenching the Spirit. So our prayers are to cover the ground of the most scrupulous and searching confession of failure, and of solicitude concerning the interests of Jesus, committed to our hands. To most, also, if not to all, prayer would be the most natural attitude of soul in definitely recetving the Spirit. How instinctively the expression would be: “ Lord, I do receive; | am now receiving from thee the fullness of the Spirit. I do believe thou hast received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, and thou hast said, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink; and so I drink.” One word of warning. The filling with the Spirit is both an act and a process; both an event and a Jife. ' There is a beginning of 68 The Filling with the Holy Spirit the state of fullness, but the continuance of. that state depends upon the quiet restful main- tenance of the conditions. The believer who will know the blessedness of the Spirit-filled life must begin by definite acts of yieldedness, appropriating faith, and prayer; but he must also maintain as the habit of life, yieldedness, appropriating faith and prayer. Confess in- stantly anything that grieves or quenches the Spirit—that maintains yieldedness. Be al- ways ‘‘drinking” the Spirit. ‘‘He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” John iv. 14. Keep the whole being in a receptive attitude toward the bestowing Christ. Do not try to think of the Spirit; think of Christ as the bestower of the Spirit. The holy and ever blessed and ador- able Spirit would be well content to be quite out of our consciousness if only that conscious- ness were filled with Christ. Live the life of prayer. Use prayer to hide everything in the heart of God. Bathe the whole life and serv- ice in prayer. Then the life that begins with the filling will go on in the fullness. A fruitful Christian service is the result of a The Filling with the Holy Spirit 69 perpetual drinking at the fountain of ‘living waters.” ‘‘I shall be anointed with fresh oil” (Ps. xcii. 10) should be the desire and the confident faith of every yielded servant of God as he goes forward to each new service. The Filling with the Holy Spirit is Indispensable ay pte) t i rie ty y V THE FILLING WITH THE HOLY GHOST IS INDISPEN- SABLE Mucu of the speaking about the filling with the Holy Spirit implies that such filling is de- sirable, indeed, but not indispensable. It is treated as one of the spiritual luxuries of the Christian life. A minister said to the writer, ‘“‘T am going to look into that subject one of these days.” He seemed utterly oblivious of the sorrowful fact that so long as he was not filled with the Spirit, no act of his service could be with power; and that because of that lack, his very sermon might work injury to his hearers, for nothing so surely causes atro- phy of conscience and heart as truth divorced from power. 2 Tim. iii. 5. 1. No Christian should be willing to perform the slightest act in the service of Christ until he ts definitely filled with the Holy Spirit. “‘And ye are witnesses of these things. 73 74 The Filling is Indispensable And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.” Luke xxiv. 48, 49. ‘‘But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judzea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts i. 8. How wonderfully all this was fulfilled all readers of the second chapter of Acts know. After that the Holy Ghost was come upon them they did ‘‘receive power,” for ‘they were all filed with the Holy Ghost, and be- gan to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” If, then, the very apostles of Jesus Christ, the chosen men who had been with Him and had been moulded by the tremendous impact of His personality; who were first-hand wit- nesses of His mighty miracles, and of His res- urrection; whose memories were stored with His wonderful words, and who had received the indwelling Spirit by His direct outbreath- ing—if those men must tarry until they were The Filling is Indispensable 75 filled with the Spirit before beginning even the least service, is it not a dangerous and diso- bedient self-confidence for one of us to begin a service without the filling P Nor, Biblically, is the filling with the Holy Spirit indispensable only to ministers of the Word. The filling is indispensable for any service. ‘‘And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the He- brews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said: It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.”” Acts vi. I-3. Just as in the Jewish dispensation, Bezaleel was ‘‘ filled with the Spirit of God” to ‘‘ work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,” because God would teach us that a// acceptable minis- try, even though mechanical, was acceptable 76 The Filling is Indispensable only when rendered by a Spirit-prepared serv- ant; so in the church age, He would commit even the temporalities of the church only to men qualified in the same way. In other words, it is the method of God’s appoint- ment. How great would be the peace and prosperity of the Church of God if all minis- ters and office-bearers were filled with the Spirit! The writer believes that all this is most solemn. What is the attempted service of an unfilled Christian but an insolent attempt to override the order of GodP It is no uncharity to say that the inevitable result of such service is the attempt to substitute fleshly expedients for the lacking spiritual power. Look over the church notices of any city newspaper, and see how feverish and frantic are the attempts to substitute ‘‘attractions” for power. It is the sin of Nadab and Abihu; and, as their sin was punished by physical death, so in modern religious life the anti-typ- ical sin of the substitution of strange fire for Spirit fire is punished by awful spiritual dead- ness. The Filling is Indispensable 77 2. No Christian can possibly live a right Christian life who ts not filled with the Holy Spirtt. All of the varied offices of the Spirit as in- dwelling the believer—offices bearing upon the believer's inner life—depend for their vig- orous ministry upon the filling with the Spirit. One may have the Spirit, and yet live a car- nal, joyless life. The case of the Corinthian church demonstrates this. 1 Cor. i. 2-0, i. 11-13, iii. I-4, v. I, 2, vi. 6. It is when the Christian is filled with the Spirit that all the marvellous results of His indwelling are real- ized. When it is remembered that it is the Spirit who gives victory over sin; Rom. vili. 2; Gal. v. 16, 17, actualizes to the believer his position in Christ; Gal. iii. 26, iv. 6, pro- duces the fragrant fruits of ‘‘love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance;” Gal. v. 22, 23, imparts spiritual vigor, strengthening him “with might in the inner man,” Eph. iii. 16, indites his prayers, Rom. viii. 26; Eph. vi. 18, comforts him, John xiv. 16, 17, 78 The Filling is Indispensable guides him, sanctifies him, and makes of him a ‘‘true’”’ worshipper, it should be evident that, since every believer may be filled with the Holy Spirit, he is most flagrantly guilty be- fore God if he is not so filled. In other words, it is not open to the believer without serious guilt to be living in known sin, serving self, and barren of the ‘‘much fruit” which alone glorifies the Father. John xv. 8. God, in grace, has by the Spirit made possible to every believer a saintly life anda powerful service. No Christian minister should be content without the conversion of sinners and the up-building of saints, for both are within His power. True, there may be churches so deliberately set in worldliness and unspirituality that they reject the ministry of the Spirit, however tenderly and wisely offered. Very well, let a Spirit-filled minister turn from such a church, even though weeping over it as Christ wept over Jerusalem, and God will assuredly give him a hearing elsewhere. But let him be sure first that he has offered a Spirit-filled ministry. And (let it be repeated) no believer, whether layman or minister, The Filling is Indispensable 79 should be content one hour without the in- effable blessedness of a Spirit-filled life. One final, but (in the light of much which is said and written) necessary word as to the ground of the Christian’s assurance of the fill- ing. Much is said, most harmfully as the writer believes, concerning consciousness. The harm done by that word lies in identify- ing it with feeling. It seems to be supposed that the Christian who definitely and continu- ously yields himself and his members, and who has really been filled with the Spirit, will know it by feeling holy, or powerful. That, in a word, he will be conscious of the Spirit. Nothing can be more misleading. Spirit-filled men are deeply conscious of what Matthew Henry calls ‘“‘ manifold defects and shortcomings in holy duties.” But they are conscious, too, of the nearness, the beauty, the abounding love, the holiness and tender- ness of Christ, and of the power of His blood to perfectly cleanse from all sin. New dis- coveries of sin but send them again and again to that cleansing stream. Their consciousness, then, is Christ-consciousness, not Spirit-con- 80 The Filling is Indispensable sciousness. Doubtless there is a holy exercise of the emotions. ‘‘The fruit of the Spirit is . 4 4 joy.” There is a “righteousness” and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” But there are also seasons of ‘‘ weakness and fear and much trembling,” and these often accompany the ‘‘demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” 1 Cor. ti. 3, 4. Cast far away, then, as a snare to soul, the watchfulness of subjective frames and feelings and stand by faith. Just as we believe that Christ has given us eternal life because He said, ‘‘ Verily, verily, I say unto you he that believeth on me hath eternal life” (John vi. 47) so we believe that He who bids the thirsty to “come unto Him and drink,” does give the rivers of blessing and power to those who drink. And to all who thus stand by faith He, in due season, grants to see the rivers, and to know the blessed cleansing and refreshing of the up-springing fountain. 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