Paracletos: The Baptism of the Holy Ghost,
by Rev Sherlock Bristol,

Ventura: Observer Printing House.
Fleming H. Revell,
New York: Chicago
12 Bible House, Astor Place. 148 & 150 Madison Street.
Copyrighted by
Rev. Sherlock Bristol
1892.

Observer Print, Ventura, California

To a class of persons, found in all our Churches, who hunger and thirst after righteousness and who sigh after greater fruitfulness in the Lord's service, this volume is affectionately dedicated.

SHERLOCK BRISTOL.

Ventura, California, January 1. 1893.

Preface
Chapter 1. "Paracletos" defined as the Holy-Helper and more than "The Comforter," as the word translated in the English Bible
Chapter 2. The Work of the Spirit under the Mosaic Dispensation
Chapter 3. The Work of the Holy Spirit under Messiah's reign, and in what respects it differed from that under Moses
Chapter 4. The Pentecostal Baptism, a great object lesson
Chapter 5. The Pentecostal Endowment Permanent in its Essentials
Chapter 6 Blessings of this Baptism confers upon the Christian personally
Chapter 7. How this great blessing adds to our ability to do good to others
Chapter 8. We pass now to consider the terms on which the Great Gift is bestowed
Chapter 9. The Gift distinguished from its Counterfeits
Chapter 10. How can the savor of this Baptism be obtained And is it ever lost?
Chapter 11. The attitude the Church in its varied organizations should take with relation to this Baptism of the Spirit
Chapter 12. Experiences of this Baptism testified unto by eminent Christians
Chapter 13. The Divinity and Personality of the Holy Spirit
Chapter 14. Final Words of Counsel.

PREFACE

5. A final cause for the presentation to the Christian public of this great matter, has been the belief of the writer that he was prompted thereto by the Holy Spirit. The vast importance of the subject matter will be conceded by all. But who is sufficient to set it forth? In the writing of the following pages, the writer has often been oppressed with a sense of his incompetency. And not once or twice only, has paused in the work, and looking to the right hand and the left, has cried out! for some other, more competent to set forth this great matter before the Churches! But a gentle voice as often whispered encouragingly in his ears, the words once spoken to Moses, "Who made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb or deaf? Or the seeing and the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say!"

Christian reader! A great future lies before you! An angel cannot measure it, or see its end! How can you lay its strong foundations, or place its corner stones, except you call on the Holy Ghost for help and receive him in fullest measure? Much he has done for you! Who can tell how much? Much he is doing still and is yet to do to carry out in your case, his plans of love! And David said, "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me? " Can you do less than say with him, "I will take the Cup of Salvation and call on the name of the Lord?"

It is a well recognized Christian doctrine and one accepted by all evangelical Churches, that the conversion of sinners is brought about mainly, through the persuasive influence of the Holy Spirit. Earnest workers in the Gospel field, confronted everywhere with evidences of the deep depravity of our race, and conscious of its power within, would give up all effort in despair, did they not confidently anticipate help from on high. And while every human persuasive is brought out and vigorously applied, the chief reliance is on the aid expected from the Holy Spirit. Jesus said "When he the Spirit of truth is come, he shall convince the world of sin, of righteousness and of Judgment." And an Apostle said, "No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost." The Hebrew prophets foresaw the nations of the earth turning to God, only after "The Spirit was poured out from on high." So established is this doctrine in our Churches, that were one of its ablest preachers to declare his belief in his personal power to convert a soul without the help referred to, they would be shocked at his presumption and turn from him as a man grossly conceited, and ignorant of the hold sin has upon the human heart! Hence it is, that in all revivals of religion where sinners in numbers turn to the Lord, the Churches are much on their knees, looking upward and praying for the descent of the Holy Spirit. If it be asked, whence this arrangement in the Divine plan of a special and personal work of the Spirit in man's conversion? one answer may be; that the conversion of a sinner, is a work special and extraordinary! It stands by itself! No other in our world is like it or ever will be! It means a restored fellowship, joyous, satisfying and eternal, between God and his alienated and wandering child! To the convert it means heart cleansing, and holiness perfected, unending felicity and a growth and wealth of being, inexpressible and illimitable! Unto other finite beings, the companions of that future life, it means a contribution to their blessed estate, ever increasing in volume and value! In a matter so important, God must feel an interest larger than that of all finite beings, and fit it is that he should have a special hand in bringing about that wondrous change! How could such a being as God is, stand aside and treat it as a matter of merely ordinary import? The Parable of the Prodigal Son suggests what it is fit a loving father should do in such a case. Other reasons suggest themselves, but it is not germain to the purpose of this book to state them here.

But the measure of Divine influence employed in the conversion of sinners and indispensible thereto, is not that to which the writer desires to call the reader's attention. It is rather to a much larger measure and one usually bestowed subsequent to conversion and supplementary to it. A measure specially promised to God's people under Messiah's reign as the great power by which the nations are to be converted, Satan's kingdom overthrown, and the millennium brought in!

Such a gift, the writer has no doubt, has been provided for God's people, has been set before them in the Bible, and is now lovingly and earnestly urged upon their acceptance; nevertheless, like many other heavenly gifts, actually bestowed, only, when earnestly sought in faith, in full hearted consecration and importunate prayer. Conditions not arbitrary, but indispensible to a proper appreciation of the gift and its retention. "This kind cometh not, but by prayer."

The ten day's prayer meeting, held by the Apostles in that upper room in Jerusalem, while they waited for the promised baptism of the spirit, fairly represents to the writer's mind, the conditions on which, during the centuries following, the great gift was to be ordinarily bestowed. And it is his settled belief, that if the example there set by the Apostles had been followed in its spirit by their successors, long since this world would have been converted to God. And even now, were *our Churches to seek this blessing as the Apostles sought it were they occasionally to set apart special and adequate periods for prayer, confession, and seeking the gift of the Holy Spirit, he believes revivals would fill the land and the world! The power to work miracles, and to speak with tongues, may have been eliminated from among the gifts originally bestowed. We believe it has been. But the great essentials are still there in undiminished measure, and offered on terms equally liberal and compliable. The chief and essential elements in this gift are believed to be two. 1st. personal sanctification, and 2nd, power to impress others with the truth. A power in both cases super-human the power of the spirit –taking up his residence in the human body and making it his temple, and allying himself with the soul and aiding it in all its warfare and its work. Is there such a power in reserve for God's people? That it has been largely ignored by our Churches for ages and therefore unemployed and unsought, is no proof that it does, not exist. What discoveries the last half of the nineteenth century has made of great powers latent till now, and for six thousand years waiting to be discovered and applied to human use! All our Churches admit a power of the Holy Spirit, such as is employed in the conversion of sinners, omnipresent in the Churches, but largely latent and undeveloped, because not sought and cooperated with as the Gospel requires. Even so is the Great Helper, present among the Churches, clothed with powers like those bestowed at Pentecost, and as ready to impart them now as he was then. This world is fast filling up with people! It approaches its end in its present form. Great promises and prophecies remain to be fulfilled! The nations are to be converted! But they will not be at the present slow rate of progress. That which will bring it about will be a world-wide Pentecostal revival. A revival sought by Christians all over the world much after the Pentecostal pattern, and received, first in sanctifying power upon themselves, and then in an out-going power upon the nations. And when that shall be, then we shall begin to hear the towers fall, and the nations saying one to another, "Come and let us go up to the house of the Lord and he will teach us His ways and we will walk in His paths." In the full confidence that this great blessing is in store for God's people awaiting the asking and the seeking; and longing to see our "Zion awake and shake herself from the dust, and put on her beautiful garments" the writer, now in his 78th year, and expecting to depart on the morrow takes his pen to write unto the Churches, and especially to his younger brethren in the Ministry, his convictions on this subject. May a hand unseen guide his pen and preserve from error that which may be written. No less inspire the reader with longing desires to " Know what is the hope of his calling and what is the riches of the glory of Christ's inheritance in the Saints, and what is the excelling greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power!"

HYMN

Lo / I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Matt. 28: 20.

"Always with us, Always with us,
Words of cheer and words of love; Thus the risen Saviour whispers, From his dwelling place above.
With us when we toil in sadness, Sowing much and reaping none;
Telling us that in the future, Golden harvests shall be won.
With us when the storm is sweeping O'er our pathway dark and drear;
Waking hope within our bosoms, Stilling every anxious fear.
With us in the lonely valley, When we cross the Chilling Stream,
Lighting up the Steps to Glory, With Salvation's radiant beam."

Chapter 1. "Paracletos" defined as the Holy-Helper and more than "The Comforter," as the word translated in the English Bible.

We are not therefore quite satisfied with the rendering the translators gave in our English Bible to the Greek, word. "Paracletos." They translate it "the Comforter." But it literally means, one "called upon," "kala," to call, and "para," for or upon. Perhaps we should say "The Called Upon." One who has come into our world to help needy humanity, and stands ready, at every human door, to help those who want his assistance and ask for it. If, for example, we are in sorrow, and ask for sustaining grace, and He comes and wipes away the tears; then He is our Comforter. If in perplexity, and know not what to do or whither go, and He takes our hand and leads us out, then He is our Guide. If we are sorely tempted and feel our feet sliding and call for help, and He comes to the rescue and delivers us from our strong enemy, then He is our Deliverer, the Captain of Salvation. If as a student, I need stimulus and illumination, to acquire the mental discipline and knowledge I am in pursuit of, and He comes to my aid, then He is my Teacher. If I feel my soul is polluted and unfitted for His Holy residence, and I call on him to come and cast out the unclean thoughts and desires, which like unclean spirits cling so fondly there, and he comes and drives them away, then He is my Sanctifier.

If the book of God is largely sealed to me, and fails to give comfort as it should, and He comes and breaks the seals, and makes it luminous, then He is the Interpreter. In short, the Holy Spirit fills so many offices, beside that of Comforter, that we prefer the more general term of Patron or Helper, as more fitly expressing the work He does for men. And yet a more literal-rendering still of Paracletos, is, as suggested above, that of The Called Upon. A distinguished Greek scholar, a learned Professor in a Theological Seminary, when asked to translate Paracletos in a single word, replied, "I cannot. It would take a dozen strong English words to give the full meaning, so extensive are the aids properly covered by it!"

It is as if in some city, there were some one, so given to help all who are in any distress, or need of help of any kind, and so able to help, and so successful in helping, and so absorbed in the work of helping, that it seems to constitute the only business of his life. Great multitudes go to him asking for relief and not one that is worthy is sent empty away! Crowds throng the streets which lead to his house by day, and many are the applicants who call upon him after the sun has set and some during the small hours of the coming day; Yet unwearied, he is ever ready to hear the plea, and rise and give the worthy applicant as much as he shall need. At length he comes to be known as "The Called Upon!" Such is the Bible designation, of that great being, whose work in this world, and especially among Christians, it will be the object of the following chapters to describe. "The Called Upon!" How suggestive, reader, of what you have done a thousand times! Of what millions more have done and are doing still! Indeed, is there a being on the earth or has there ever been, whose mind has opened wide enough to take in the idea of God, but has felt his brooding sympathy at times, has been taught the better way, and has been helped by a hand unseen? "Thou art the confidence of All the ends of the earth and of them that are afar off upon the sea." So says the Psalmist' And such we believe will be the confession of all our race, when before the throne in the coming judgment, the nations kneel and confess before God the facts and experiences of life.

"We need thee every hour,

Stay thou near by; Temptations lose their power, When thou art nigh!"

Chapter 2. The Work of the Spirit under the Mosaic Dispensation.

Messiah! All their great teachers, we are told, spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Indeed, the list of the Spirit's triumphs in converting and sanctifying men, while yet the nations were groping and feeling their way amid the shadows of the old dispensation, and awaiting the rise of the Sun of Righteousness, is too large to be transcribed here.

Chapter 3. The Work of the Holy Spirit under Messiah's reign, and in what respects it differed from that under Moses.

1. In the measure of Divine influence imparted to individuals. The great atonement, by the blood of the Messiah, opened the door for a wider and richer display of God's mercy and generosity towards sinners. God's government is vast! Countless are the hosts which are interested in it! It is evident from the Scriptures, that beings, other than those of the earth, looked with wondering eyes on God's treatment of a world of sinners! When the angels sinned, at once the law was executed, an(jl they were cast out of heaven!

But when man had sinned, punishment was largely withheld! The judgment was delayed, and pity and mercy and love combined to bring him to repentance! What did it mean? Was it possible that the Great Father and Governor was so moved by sympathy for his children, born in a world where devils roamed and tempted them, that he would fail to stand by the law which had hitherto been held so sacred. And when the mercy seat was planted in the tabernacle, and offerings made thereon, angels are represented as looking down upon it and studying into its meaning! Paul interprets the cherubim above the mercy seat as meaning, "which things the angels desire to look into." But when the Lamb of God condescended to human incarnation! to humiliation so low! and at last poured out his blood on the Altar of Sacrifice! then were the seals of the great mystery broken! and the Cherubim above the mercy seat flew back to heaven crying, Amen! Amen! God is just and God is gracious! And his fidelity to his government can be questioned nevermore! No, not if millions of repentant prodigals are forgiven and restored! And now open wider than ever the windows of heaven and let richer showers than ever fall upon men I If we are asked to show that larger measures of the Spirit are imparted to persons since Jesus came than ever before, we refer to Peter preaching after he had received the holy baptism in which 3,000 were converted in one day, and that in a city notorious for its prejudice against Christ and His disciples! In vain is previous history searched for a parallel with the power which attended that day's preaching.

So too, the Apostle Paul stands head and shoulders above the seers and prophets of the Old Testament in the marvelous power which attended his footsteps, while "from Jerusalem round about to Illyricum, he fully preached the Gospel of Christ!" So of many others, the companions or successors of these men. Baptised with the Holy Ghost they went every where preaching the word, planting Churches, and leading sinners to Christ in numbers so great that kings on their thrones saw the signs of the Son of Man coming in his kingdom with power and great glory! No section of earth's previous history, shows anything like a similar endowment of Spiritual .power! Coming down to more modern times, we behold Wesley and Whitfield, men as entirely dissimilar in mental traits, as two men well could be. Yet both filled with the Holy Ghost, and each leading unto the Lord, in his own way, men and women in numbers far beyond those so led by any of the Old Testament Prophets, or even Peter and Paul in the new! Later still, and even in our own times, men like Spurgeon in Europe, and Moody and Mills in America, astonish the world, by the power which attends them in preaching the Gospel. Did not Jesus say, John 14:12, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater' works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father!" But there is another difference in the operations of the Spirit, under the new dispensation which distinguishes it from the old.

2d. In the enlarged area of his work. Under the first Dispensation, while he was everywhere doing his work among the sons of men, leaving not a single soul destitute of his influence, his first and especial work was among the lost sheep of the House of Israel, raising up prophets among them, imparting to them a special revelation, walling them in also and separating them born the nations by special institutions and promises. But the seers of the Old Testament clearly foresaw, this was not always so to be, They beheld in Messiah's day, the partition wall broken down, and thus they prophesied, "It shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh!" "It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it, and many people shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths. And he shall judge among the nations and rebuke many peoples and they shall beat their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks, and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more! Passages like these abound in the Old Testament, and they teach, what facts abundantly show, that on Messiah's day, the work and success of the Holy Spirit, would be greater outside the Jewish people, than within their borders!

3. Unusual classes of people receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit under the new dispensation. In the old, his special gifts were largely confined to the priesthood, the seers, and the first-born in the family. Now, all were invited to share in it, the sons and daughters, the young men and old men, the servants and handmaidens; not one is excluded! what ever their employments, or social condition, the greatest of heaven's gifts is laid at their door! The language conveying the gift is this, "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men dream dreams, and on the servants and on the handmaidens, will I pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy." That is, they shall like the ancient prophets preach the will of God, with the manifest sanction of his power! This precious truth, that every Christian in Messiah's day could receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, received clear illustration and confirmation in the Pentecostal object lesson. In that wonderful outpouring of the Spirit, the cloven tongue as of fire sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and glorified God, as the Spirit gave them utterance!

Chapter 4. The Pentecostal Baptism, a great object lesson.

This remarkable outpouring of the Spirit stands out in the Bible, with a prominence, which draws all eyes unto it! Nothing equals it in the book of revelation. It is a great and startling object lesson, which Christians of all subsequent ages should study, and in it learn by what great force, personal sanctification is to be secured, and the world converted to God. What does this object lesson teach?

1st. It clearly teaches that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a great spiritual endowment bestowed upon Christians, subsequent to their conversion. In the case of many of these who first received it, it came years after their first induction into the family of God. Perhaps this is not always so, but we believe it is, usually. We say "usually" because we have occasionally seen converts and heard of others who received the Great Gift simultaneously with conversion. Bat such cases are rare. As a rule, converts after their conversion have a hard task in the effort to control their thoughts, passions, their speech and spirit. There is so much carnality left, so much of the world and the devil within, and around, while the spiritual man is feeble and the measure of the Spirit is small, that they often stumble and fall! And for a time they have a seventh chapter of Romans' experience. At length, like Israel in trouble, they cry unto the Lord for help and are delivered. They receive a double portion of the Holy Spirit and move into the 8th chapter and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory! There is so much of God in them now, that the devil flies, the flesh is subdued and the world is overcome! I say this is the usual experience. It was so in the apostles day. It is so now. We pass from experience to Bible proofs that this view is correct. The Apostles who received this gift on the day of Pentecost were Christians and had made considerable attainments in the Divine life. This is clear from the language which Christ uses concerning them, in that memorable prayer offered before his apprehension. "I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world. While I was with them I kept them in thy name and none of them is lost but the son of perdition." "Now ye are clean but not all." Such language proves clearly that they were converted people. Yet these were the very persons, to whom "the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter" was promised, over and over again in that memorable after-supper-talk, as a friend who was yet to come in fullness to their aid and abide with them forever. So, too, after his resurrection, and just before his ascension, "Being assembled with them he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he ye have received of new. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." And these were the men who conducted that prayer-meeting of ten day's continuance and held the brethren fast to the promise, till they were all with one accord in one place, and upon whom on the tenth day the Baptism came, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost! Thenceforth they were a very different class of men from what they were before! So far as the record goes, the inference is strong that the entire 120 in that upper room, who prayed for that baptism so long, were without exception, Christians, not less devout, than the average Christian in our modern churches. Probably far more so, for it cost something to be a Christian in those days of persecution and crucifixion! And if such men needed the Holy Baptism, shall the modern Church member be content with conversion and say "that is enough for me! I have been forgiven have a hope and have no need of any higher or greater blessing!" Passing along a little further in the story of the Apostles we read of Phillip going down to Samaria and preaching the Gospel and that "many believed and were baptised both men and women! And when the Apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent to them Peter and John, who when they were come prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost, and they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost." What stronger proof do we need that the influence and measure of the Spirit which brings about conversion, is not oil that me need and all that is provided f What greater proof that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, is a Christian endowment, and far above that received at conversion. 2. This great object lesson teaches that we must ourselves personally seek the gift, if we would have it. It came not to the Apostles unsought. Witness the ten days' prayer meeting. 3. That all classes can have it, that all need it whatever their lot, be they servants or handmaidens, old or young. 4. In that object lesson we see how God's people can from weakness rise to power. The Holy Ghost must come upon them, and then he that is feeble among them shall be as David and the house of David as the Angel of God. 5. In it we see how Christians are to be sanctified. That is lifted to a life of steadfast walk with God and victory over the powers of sin. By the reception within of this large measure of the Holy Spirit. Thus were sanctified Peter and his brethren. 6. In it too we see how the nations are to be converted unto the Lord. 7. We see also that if the Church would see sinners converted, it must first of all be baptized by the Holy Ghost. So much at least, this object lesson teaches. We shall enlarge on these topics in subsequent chapters. We leave them for the present.

Chapter 5. The Pentecostal Endowment Permanent in its Essentials.

Was the Pentecostal endowment of the Spirit designed solely for the Apostolic age, or intended in its substantial elements for the Christian Church down through the entire Messianic? Was the promise of the gift made to us as well as to the Apostles and their brethren? Is the gift within our reach as truly as within theirs? Questions of immense practical importance! They concern us personally. They concern the Church of God, and they deeply concern a world lying in wickedness. If the gift is for us, how sinful to live without it! If it is only in part for us, we need to know what our portion is, and to rise up and take quick possession! It is the settled belief of the writer that when the Holy Spirit came to take the place of the departed Jesus, he came to abide with the Church down through the ages, its Sanctifier, its Inspirer and Helper in converting the world to Christ. Indeed, what less can we make of Christ's words, "I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever! " And when that Comforter came, he came not empty handed, but with gifts rich and manifold. Thus Paul enumerates them, in 1 Cor. 12 Chap. "To one is given the word of wisdom, to another knowledge, to another faith, to another gifts of healing, to another miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another divers tongues, to another interpretation of tongues by the same Spirit." In another place, Gal. 5:23, he tells us "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." The sum of all this long enumeration of the gifts the Spirit bestows, is that the gifts he imparts are as varied as the wants of believers were at that time, or would be down to the end of time.

And if that is so, it follows that some of them would be specially adapted to their times, and incidental to the introduction of the New Testament, its verification as the word of God, but not needed after that work was done, and therefore subsequently to be withheld. Such we believe was the power to work miracles, to write inspired books, to speak with tongues, and in some cases to forecast the future. We do not see how the Apostles could have transmitted to us the Gospels and the Epistles as writings divinely inspired, unless the Holy Ghost had confirmed them by miracles. But when the word was verified as Divine, and the world had received evidence sufficient to convince honest and earnest men that the New Testament is God's Book, then it was eminently fit that this feature of the Baptism should be withdrawn, or eliminated from the gifts bestowed. For the laws of nature as we call them, are all the laws of God, they are all very dear to Him, since they were enacted in infinite wisdom and love, and necessary for the highest welfare of His children. If, therefore, He sets any of them aside, it must be temporarily, and at spaces few and far between. And even then only as few laws as possible, must feel the interference. The vast importance of the verification of the New Testament, alone warranted and demanded the bestowment upon its writers of miraculous powers. But when that end was answered, reason says they should be withdrawn, and history shows they were.

But surely the withdrawal of them did not involve those other all important gifts which were needed still and will be down to the end of time. We shall all admit that the great value of the latter day outpouring of the Spirit the Pentecostal Baptism, lay in its power to convert sinners and sanctify Christians. This done universally, or even generally, the millennium will have come, and the earth will be but a vestibule of heaven! But miracles have very little direct influence in bringing about either sanctification or conversion. Much less than the masses of people think. Let us look at a few examples. The raising of Lazarus from the dead did not convert the Jewish Sanhedrim, though its members well knew of its occurrence, they resisted its influence and sought to kill Lazarus to put his testimony out of the way! Judas had been an eye witness to Christ's miracles from the first, yet they did not change his wicked heart, but he continued a hypocrite and a thief, and finally, betrayed his Lord for 30 jrieces of silver! The officers and soldiers, who were sent to apprehend Jesus, so felt the stroke of his power when he advanced to meet them and said "I am he," that "they went backward and fell on the ground!" Yet they rose and rallied against him! And when a few moments after, they saw Jesus heal with a touch the right ear of Malchus, which Peter had cut off, still, unchanged in heart, they proceeded to bind Jesus and lead him away to Annas and Caiaphas for condemnation and crucifixion! And when the whole multitude uttered the hoarse cry "crucify! crucify him!" Doubtless their voices were lifted up with the rest and probably that of Malchus too.

Need we go back to Sinai and see the people worshiping a golden calf, crying "thee be thy Gods, O! Israel which led thee out of Egypt," while yet the towering mountain before them trembled at the presence of Him, who had but a few days before, uttered with a voice two millions could hear, the ten commandments? Need we recur to this as a proof that in all ages miracles have had no direct power to convert and sanctify men, and often very little that is indirect? What a startling example in this line were the people of Israel in all their journey from Egypt to the promised land! Did they not stand for half a year in Goshen and behold the ten dire plagues fall upon Egypt? Did they not hear the midnight wail which went up from every Egyptian house, when the startled family arose and found their first born dying or dead? Did they not see the waters divide and allow them to pass over into the Arabian peninsula dry shod, while Pharaoh's host was overwhelmed and drowned? And when their little store of food was spent, were they not for years fed with the manna which fell from heaven? But did all these and many other miracles, convert or sanctify the multitude? Far, far from it! They continued impenitent; they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit so that "He sware in his wrath that they should not enter into His rest!" We may add that the baptism of the Holy Ghost, did not always imply a power to work miracles. John was full of the Spirit. But John wrought no miracles, nor is it probable that one in a hundred of the Christians who received the great gift had the power to work a miracle. Paul asks, with an implied negative, "Have all the gift of healing? Do all work miracles!" And in a discussion of the comparative value of the gifts imparted by the Spirit, he exalts charity, or a heart full of love to God and Man, as far above all the rest. We have dwelt thus long on this feature the miraculous of the Pentecostal baptism, because many have such exaggerated views of it that when it had answered its purpose of confirming the word and was withdrawn from the Church they think there was little left worth seeking, and fall back upon such Spiritual endowments, as the Apostles had before Pentecost, as about all Christians can now rationally expect.

Indeed a distinguished Theological Professor in a letter to me on the subject argued that Theological students should not consider this baptism an indispensable prerequisite to their going forth from the Seminary to preach the Gospel. But that rather with the ordinary preparation should go forth under the General Order, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel," and expect to receive occasional baptisms while about their work. I give the sentiment of his letter. But this was not the Master's view of it. The Apostles had spent three years under his personal instructions. They were endowed with power to confirm their words by miracles. They had just spent forty days with him, listening to his words while he spoke to them "of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." But in spite of all that preparation, in his view, they lacked a most important preparation. It was richer endowment of the Holy Spirit! Accordingly he bade them seek and obtain it before entering on the sacred work. Hear his words, "Tarry in Jerusalem till, &c." Wait for the promise." Commanded that they should not depart from Jerusalem till "ye have received the promise." The repeated injunctions, thoroughly emphasize the' importance of the Great Gift. The ten days of prayer for it which followed bespeak its importance also! Then followed the Gift itself, with its astounding results! its effects on the 120 who received it! on the thousands converted! on the people of Jerusalem and the devout men who were gathered there from every nation under heaven! Results well worth those ten days of waiting and of prayer! Had our Lord sent forth his disciples, as the Professor whose sentiments we have quoted would send out his students, he would have sent them to disaster, defeat, and discouragement. Their past showed it. They were timid and weak and they needed a great reinforcement from on high before they could make an attack on the entrenchments of the enemy. We see it in our Church work. The Church must be prepared for a revival before it can expect one. It must take the stumbling blocks out of the road. It must be baptized with the Holy Ghost 01 it is not fit to cooperate with God in winning souls! "Sow not among thorns!" has been the standing theme of such men as Finney, and Avery, and Moody, and Mills, and a thousand other evangelists. Why then should not the candidates for the Ministry desire and seek a like preparation a baptism of the Spirit, before they enter on the same great work?

But the example of our Lord, in this line seems more striking still! He, our Great Exemplar, did not enter on his work of preaching the Kingdom of God, till he had received in an open and manifest form, the baptism of the Holy Spirit! "John bore record and said, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven as a dove and it abode upon him." And in his first recorded sermon, He said "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach." And if a being exalted like Him, with wisdom and miraculous power, and of life absolutely perfect did not think himself qualified to preach the glad tidings, till first, specially endowed by the Holy Ghost if his inspired Apostles also must have the same great gift, what presumption in us to enter the work as if qualified without it! Is it not going in the face of the most impressive example, in all the Book of God? And why, let me ask, was that great example recorded and set before us? Leaving these considerations we proceed to lay before the reader, other and more direct arguments which we think fully prove that the outpouring of the Spirit in Pentecostal richness, was designed for our age not less than for the Apostolic.

1st. Because we need it and must have it for personal sanctification. By sanctification I mean establishment and confirmation in the ways of God. A Seventh Chapter of Roman's experience, so largely prevalent in our Churches, cries piteously towards heaven for an endowment of Spiritual power far beyond ^that received in conversion! That was -precious; a gift beyond all price! It convicted of sin, it led to Christ, it secured forgiveness. To use a figure of speech, it delivered us from Pharaoh! It led us across the Red Sea, and put a new song in our mouth as we stood on the other shore! But is this all our God has for us? Are we to stay here in this comparatively barren land all our days? No! No! there is a land of Canaan over yonder richer far than this, and itself a type of a still better land beyond. We need not stay here coursing back and forth in the wilderness of Sinai, struggling with foes and oft times with doubtful success. True, there is distance and obstacles between us and our inheritance. But Joshua's and Caleb's have been over there, and have brought to our sight the fruits of the land. More over we have a leader who will conduct us there, with pillar of clouds by day and of fire by night! Rise let us go and take quick possession! No careful reader of the New Testament has failed to see that the Pentecostal Baptism, effected a great moral and Spiritual change in the Apostles and their companions. They were no more vacillating, cowardly, unbelieving and weak. On the other hand they were strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Hear them say "He that is born of God overcomes the world /" "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world," and "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling clown of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing which exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ! "Now thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ." k 2 Cor. 2 :14. Indeed, sanctification, victory over sin, holiness, is all through the Bible ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Not that we are inactive in the matter, but the Great Agency is his. If therefore we would be holy, we must have the Holy Spirit come and dwell in us. We must have the Pentecostal baptism. That which sanctified the Apostles can sanctify us, and nothing short of it will answer our turn.

'2d. We need the additional endowment to win others to the Lord. Before the Apostles received it, they had little power as preachers and conveyancers of truth to men. They were weak, they were human, what could they do in a contest with the depravity of the human heart and all the powers of darkness?

Christ knew their incapacity but told them they should receive power not many days hence; and bade them tarry in Jerusalem till that power was given in the baptism of the Holy Ghost. So it is with Christians in modern days, who have to contend with the same great obstacles; they need and must have the same Great Helper working with them and speaking through them with Pentecostal power. Since then we need so greatly this baptism, both for the work within and that without, is not the presumption rational, that he who has done so much else for us, will do this also? Paul said, "My God shall supply all you need," and if this is not our great necessity, who can tell us what that necessity is?

3d. The promises of this great gift look beyond Apostolic days. Peter said, referring to it and it alone. "The promise is unto you and to your children" This means, even tying the words down to absolute literalness, the extension of the blessing to the next generation. But properly interpreted, and according to Bible usage, it means to your descendants. But he adds "to all that are afar off" the fair construction is, afar off in time, as well as in space. But lest we should limit it to that age, as so many are disposed to do, he adds, "Even to as many as the Lord our God shall call." This settles the matter. It shows that the offer of the Pentecostal baptism is made to all who hear the Gospel call, in any age, in any land, be they Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, young or old, in Asia or Europe, or the Isles of the Ocean. No matter when or where they shall hear the Gospel's call, with it also shall go the offer of the baptism of the Holy Ghost! If then, serious minded reader, the Lord our God has sent his call to you, to repent, believe and be forgiven, let me ask you to read and reflect on Peter's assurance, that a further gift is in store for you also such as he and his brethren had just received, the Baptism of the Holy Ghost!

And yet again hear the Master say, "I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter, and he shall abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But ye knew him, for he dwellcth with you, and shall be in you!" This passage also I take to mean that the Comforter whom the father was to send in baptismal power, did not come on a visit, brief and confined to Apostolic days, but to remain through the ages till this world is brought back to God. His was to be a permanent residence! He was "to abide with us forever !"

4. The Conversion of the Nations, foretold by the prophets as taking place down the ages, far beyond Calvary, and hard by the millennium, clearly shows a power of the Holy Ghost, displayed on a scale far beyond that exhibited at Pentecost! Thus speaks Isaiah in the 60th Chapter of his prophecy. "The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising! Lift up thine eyes round about and see! All they gather themselves together! they come to thee! Thy sons shall come from far and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side! The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, and the forces of the Gentiles shall come to thee! Thy gates shall be open continually! they shall not be shut day nor night, that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be bought!" In the 2nd Chapter the same Prophet referring to this same time, says "It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and all nations shall flow into it. And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Other old testaments prophets foresaw and described in graphic verse the great revival in which the nations of the earth, as with one heart shall turn to the Lord! Paul also speaks of "the fullness of the Gentiles" coming into the fold of Christ and after that the Jewish nation coming too! Romans, 11:25.

That this great revival has not occurred is obvious. That it is yet to occur is certain. The question we propose is, how is it to be brought about? The obvious answer is, "the Holy Ghost still abiding in the Churches, will yet exert a power on the Church and on the nations, far beyond that which Peter witnessed in the Great Pentecostal revival at Jerusalem! Since this latter brought to Christ only a few thousands, while the former is to bring into the kingdom, the great nations of the earth!

5th. Another argument which proves that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit belongs to our age, as well as to the Apostolic, and one which seems to us unanswerable is the commandment laid upon us, to be filled with the Spirit. "Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit." This is the Saviour's voice to us, spoken through his servant, Paul. The command implies the ability as well as the duty and the privilege. But the expression "Filled with the Spirit," is the equivalent of "Baptised with the Holy Ghost." Take a few passages like the following: "They were fill filled with the Holy Ghost!" Acts 2: 4. "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake, &c.," "That thou mightest receive thy sight and befitted with the Holy Ghost." Acts 9: 17. I need not quote other passages, since the command to be filled with the Spirit, means that w r e should receive as large an induement as our capacities will allow or our cup contain. More than this Pentecost did not give. Less than this all our limited capacities can receive and use, will neither meet the requirement, "be filled with the Spirit," or our obvious duty and our need. And should any of our brethren deny the immanence in the Church, of the privilege and duty of receiving the Pentecostal baptism, they will surely admit the duty and privilege of being filled 'with the Hob) Spirit. Well, brethren, we will meet you there, and be content, if you will inquire at God's altar, how large a measure of the Spirit received is implied in being filled with Him, and with the further purpose not to rest till that measure is received, and you are filled with all the fullness of God, and your cup can contain no more!

One more argument we urge to show that this great induement belongs to us, equally with the Apostolic Church. It is that work that time till now, God has been raising up witnesses who have confessed the reception of this baptism, and whose lives and successes have shown that they were not mistaken. We refer to such eminent workers in the Church as Luther, Zwingle, Wesley, Whitfield, Finney, Mills and Moody, who have told us how they sought this blessing, and how they received it. Conspicuous among them was John Wesley. This remarkable man laid the greatest stress upon this gift, and even insisted that no preacher was fitted for his work, till indued with special power from on high! He called it the "full assurance of faith," and a conscious indwelling of the Spirit. Accordingly great numbers of Methodist preachers were led to seek and receive the great blessing, and hence the power and unparalleled growth of their Church.

Beginning but a little over a century ago, preaching the Gospel to the poor, beside the highways and hedges, without a house of worship, a college or seminary, they went forward converting sinners, forming classes of inquirers and converts, ordaining class leaders, exhorters, preachers and elders, often, and generally uneducated, but full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and men in whose mouths burned the tongue of fire! What has God wrought by these obscure and feeble men, since our century began? Long since they shot by all other Protestant denominations and left them far behind, in numbers of churches, communicants and hearers! Whence this wonderful growth? We answer, the other Protestant bodies have depended largely on human learning, prestige, patronage and power, and very little on the Holy Ghost! Hence their slow growth and weakness. But with the Methodists, the baptism of the Holy Ghost was everything, hence their success and in that was the hiding of their power.

Chapter 6 Blessings of this Baptism confers upon the Christian personally.

1st. It will vivify his consciousness of the presence of God. Why not? Since in it God says " / will dwell in them and walk in them!" And this indwelling of the Spirit is too great a matter to escape a vivid consciousness of a new source of life and power within. This consciousness of God's presence, is of great importance in the Christian life. When we have it we are strong. When it is absent we are weak. God has put great stress upon it. Hence he has sought to impress his presence upon us by works of artistic skill, which meet us wherever we turn, saying, “Lo! God is here! behold his handiwork! “Prayer is largely an effort on our part to get near to God, in the sense of becoming more deeply impressed with a sense of His presence and love. But in spite of both, a majority of Christians complain of a lack of this abiding sense of the Divine presence. Even in closet prayer, while on their knees they often detect a forgetfulness of God, shocking and sinful. How shall this defect be remedied? We reply, the remedy is found alone in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, John 14: 16 and 17, "I will pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter, and He shall abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you!” And His indwelling will give vividness and constancy to our sense of His presence. And there is nothing like the sense of God's presence and power, to give the Christain strength, confidence and peace.

2d. This baptism removes all doubts of acceptance. John says "We know that He abideth in us by the Spirit He hath given us." And Paul says, " The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God." With this baptism the last doubt in regard to that great matter takes its final departure. As well could the Prodigal Son have doubted his reconciliation with his father, when clothed from his ward-robe, sitting at his table, and music and dancing filling all the house with joy. This inward witness of acceptance, received on shipboard by Wesley returning to England from Georgia, was the first token of his having been baptised by the Holy Spirit.

3d. This baptism fills the soul with love to God. Many Christians, and perhaps we may save all, before its reception are often troubled by a conscious absence of that love to God which he claims, and which they know is his proper due. They are conscious of ardent love of human beings, but alas! the barrenness of the heart on the side towards God! And they mourn over it. And they wonder how it was that David, in that far back time, could say, “Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee!" Sometimes, indeed, they are conscious of emotions of love to God, but they are so far short of what they should be, they derive little comfort there from. But when the baptism comes, and the Holy Ghost enters the home of the soul, and His train fills the earthly temple, the things of God and of Christ are so presented that the fountains of the heart are opened and love flows forth from God into the soul and ebbs back from it to Him, and the whole house is filled and flooded. So it was on the day of Pentecost, and so it ever has been, is now and ever will be, where this Great Gift is bestowed. Other means to awaken love towards God in these sin-frozen hearts of ours, it is quite proper we should use, but the chief and only effectual power which will elicit it in fulness, will be the power from on high the Holy Ghost. This is Bible teaching and this is experience an experience we all need and ail may have, and one we all shall have if we set our hearts upon it and cry mightily unto God for it. For there is not one among all His gifts He is more anxious to bestow. " If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him."

4th. It greatly quickens the conscience and enlarges the area of apprehension of right and wrong. The Holy Spirit becomes our guardian, an instant prompter when sin and Satan draw nigh. He -cannot endure to have his temple denied his ward taken captive and led astray. Accordingly, the baptised soul instantly sees the rightness or wrongness of a multitude of things not thought of as such before. Said an Apostle, “The anointing ye have received abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you, but as that same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth." And Jesus said, “False prophets should arise after Him and deceive, if it were possible, the very elect." Implying extreme difficulty in their case, if not absolute impossibility. And that because of an inward light which would reveal to them the wolf though clad in the clothing of a sheep. There is nothing which will so effectually guard people from error as the entrance within of the Spirit of God. But if we discard Him the great Teacher and trust to human learning, and human reason, there is no telling how far we may go astray. Error will spread in our Churches in proportion as they become destitute of vital piety and the Holy Ghost. No creeds can hold them then, and of what use would it be if they could?

5th. This baptism restores dwarfed and distorted mental faculties to symmetry and balance again. Sin has wrought sad distortions among the faculties of the human soul. The ancient equilibrium is largely lost. Lost partly by inheritance from a wicked ancestry, and in part by our own wicked conduct. Men are lame, halt, blind, and paralyzed in mind as well as in body. And when the Spirit undertakes the work of re-construction, a great work indeed is before him. One is a giant in intellect, but in sensibility a dwarf.

In another the sensibility is unnaturally developed and the passion of the moment carries all before it I In another the will power is abnormally developed and stubbornness is characteristic. In another carnality reigns supreme. But why enumerate, when scarce a man is found who is not conscious of some mental or moral weakness which limits his usefulness, mars his character and disturbs his peace. And the perfect symmetry of the primeval man as lie came forth fresh from the hand of God, where, Oh where shall we find it? Alas! the distortions sin has made! Thanks to God the Holy Ghost has come, to restore the balance and repair the wreck. Let me give an example : While the writer was in the Theological Seminary he had a class-mate who was a specialist in mathematics. They were his hobby in college and in the seminary his taste in that direction was scarcely diminished. And why he studied Theology, we, his class mates could scarcely divine, save that an aunt who paid his bills desired it. I remember how languidly he was wont to come into our prayer meetings and what an iceberg he was while there. If he took any part it was so formal, and so cold. As we neared the time of graduation and licensure, a great revival occurred, and in it our friend was visited by the world's Great Healer. He saw as never before, his great defects, and prominent among them this want of sensibility towards moral and spiritual things. That part of his nature was torpid The old hymn expresses his state when it says :

The rocks can rend,

The earth can quake,

The mountains to their centre shake. Of feeling all things show some sign, But this unfeeling heart of mine.

Others talked of love but he had none. The Bible gave him no comfort.

He saw also that this moral torpor must be removed, or His ministry would be barren. He came to believe that the Holy Spirit could remove this defect. That it was one specialty of His mission to restore the lost balance sin had made, and repair the wreck the Devil had wrought. Earnestly he sought the assistance of the Great Helper in this matter. Importunately he prayed. For nearly a week the struggle lasted. But it ended in victory. A victory as wonderful to the writer and probably to the subject of this spirit-healing, as would have been the restoration of a paralyzed arm to its normal condition and use. And we doubt whether the subjects of the Pentecostal baptism were, on an average, changed more than he. He was filled with the Spirit. His tongue was loosed, and he praised God as the Spirit gave him utterance. In our prayer meetings he became, after this, one of the first to speak or pray, and God gave him the tongue of fire. Often his deep feeling quite choked his utterance. In the years of his subsequent service in the ministry, deep feeling on his part, and on that of his hearers, became a characteristic of his religious services. And so it was till he was not, for God took him. This example was not alone in that revival. Others in different lines of mental and moral derangement received like restoration and help.

Allow us to mention another. He was also a Theological student. In early life he had been a sailor. I believe a mid-ship man in the Navy. He had visited many ports of the world, and like many seamen, had indulged in vices of the lowest type, until his soul as well as his body had become polluted almost beyond description. In his deep degradation, the Spirit sought him out, he was converted and began a course of studies for the ministry. When I knew him he had reached the Theological Seminary. But Oh! the stains still left behind in the soul, by those sins of his youth. Oh! the pictures still unerased in the chambers of imagery. How could they be effaced? In the great revival the Pentecost in our Seminary, he came to believe that the Holy Ghost coming to abide in fullness with him could cleanse the temple and cast out these loathsome pictures. Earnestly he asked and the Spirit came and cast out those odious things and cleansed the Leper. Thenceforth he became one of the purest men in thought, in feeling and imagination I ever knew. It was to him wonderful! wonderful! wonderful! It was wonderful to us all who were intimate with him and to whom he told in confidence, what great things the Lord had done for him. He preached many years, but has gone to his home and has doubtless realized the truth of Christ's words, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. " A Theological Professor who was very intimate with this man, said to me : " He was so thoroughly cleansed from his former foulness of thought that I came to regard him as the purest minded man I ever knew. " Brethren, may the Holy Spirit reveal to each of us our sad defects and the changes needful to give us symmetry in mental and moral traits. And in seeking restoration of the lost balance, may we not, by unbelief limit the Holy one of Israel. Is it too much to ask the Great Deliverer to do for us a thing so great? Paul says of him : " He is able to do for ns exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or even think! "

6th. This baptism of the Spirit is indispemible to an appreciation of the Sacred Scriptures. The 2d Chapter of 2d Cor. is almost wholly devoted to an elaboration of this truth. In it Paul says, "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 man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things which are freely given us of God. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, for they are Spiritually discerned."

The Holy Spirit is the world's Great Teacher. And while He instructs his pupils in all kinds of knowledge, His especial and most loved work is within moral and Spiritual lines. Why should it not be? Since there are laid the eternal foundations of character, of growth, of usefulness and happiness. And there our need of an instructor is great, not alone because of the superior importance of these things, but because of the error, and darkness and depravity, which Sin and Satan have brought into our world. We know it, we all know it, and feel it at times and cry out for some one to lead the blind by a way they know not. Then comes the Holy Helper, and offers us His hand. But what if we thrust Him away and proudly trust to the rush-light of human reason to guide us in these great matters, as the irreligious scientists and unbaptised teachers of Theology in Germany and America have done and are doing? What, but that our feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while we look for light he turns it into the shadow of death and makes it gross darkness. This need of the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, to enable us to understand and appreciate the Scriptures, is witnessed by human experience. There are millions of people who will testify, that before conversion the book of God had little interest to them, but after conversion became the book above all others, filled with interest and precious truth. And the more we have of the Spirit's light, the more golden its pages, and the richer its mines of truth. Therefore it is that to appreciate this Book of books we must have the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Knowledge of the ancient languages, of Hebrew, Greek, Latin and German, can never take its place. No more can the lore of the library or the discipline of the schools. Give a man all these and base them on superior natural parts, and he will be a child in the knowledge of God's word compared with men filled with the Spirit, like Finney, Moody and Spurgeon Standing, therefore, in the light of God's Word, and of human experience as well, we declare no man fitted to preach the Gospel, or to interpret it to others, until he has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Did not Christ assume this when he bade the disciples not to go out to preach till they received it, and when he said of the Holy Spirit, “When He, the Spirit of Truth is come He will lead you into all truth."

And when the Spirit did come what a wonderful enlightenment the minds of Peter and his fellow-disciples received, in regard to the teachings of the Bible. Yet how largely is this Divine qualification to preach or teach theology, ignored in our Churches. For example, when our Churches, especially the larger ones and the most wealthy, want a minister, they usually look for a man learned, eloquent and attractive. One who is orthodox according to the standards of their denomination, one who has pleasing manners, and will be likely to fill their house of worship, and reduce to a minimum the financial burden. The ordinary piety, such as is deemed necessary to Church membership, of course, is required. But the question, has he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit since he believed, is never asked, or deemed of any special importance. His views regarding water baptism and its proper subjects are often closely questioned. But the baptism of the Holy Ghost, or his views regarding that, is passed over as of no account.

So when we are looking for a man to fill a chair in a Theological Seminary, we inquire after some one learned in the theological lore of America, and England, and Germany; one who understands the ancient languages, has fair qualities as a lecturer or teacher, and the ordinary reputation for piety and orthodoxy* Satisfied on these points he is inducted into his office as one fully qualified for his place. When! Oh! when is the question asked, what he knows about this baptism personally, and when is the question asked even as to his views of the matter? So when candidates for license or ordination come before ecclesiastical bodies, who ever heard of their being asked, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" No. A hundred other questions, not a tenth part as important are asked and discussed, but that one left out entirely. But should it happen to be asked, and were the candidates to reply that they knew nothing of such baptism, where is there the council, which like the Master would remand them to the Seminary, till imbued with power from on high? True it is, we lay our hands on them according to the ancient custom. But what does it mean? Do we expect them through us to receive the holy baptism, as the Apostles did when they laid their hands On the converts in Samaria and elsewhere? No, this is not the expectation of the candidates, or of those who thus set them apart to their work. What is it but a form whose ancient power has long since departed? Alas! How can those who never received this gift impart it to others? "Such as I have give I thee," is all we can do or say.

7th. Another result of this baptism is the sanctification of the body. By this we mean a subjugation of the passions, virtually constant and complete. " He is the saviour of the body. " In this baptism the Spirit enters the body and makes it his temple in a special and larger sense than ever before. Henceforth he is to be consulted as to its use and is to be appealed unto for help in the government of its impulses and passions. And while he will never interfere with the divinely established supremacy of the will, He nevertheless assists it in bringing them into subjection to the Divine will. This is indeed a great victory, the conquest over the carnal appetites and their subjection to the rules of conscience and duty. The power of the carnal forces know all men, especially those who have made a serious effort to bring them under. This is most graphically portrayed in the seventh chapter of Romans, ending in the despairing cry, " Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" But when the Holy Spirit enters in force and takes a part in the conflict, the flesh weakens and the Spirit triumphs, and the freed soul says with Paul, " I keep my body under, " and " thanks be to God who giveth us the victory. " And since that day unnumbered witnesses have risen up and testified to the power of the indwelling Spirit, to give a victory over the flesh, they had never found feasible before.

8th. Another blessing which comes with this gift, is the sanctification of the soul and all its wonderful faculties. Because the Spirit invests it and them with influences which work to conform them to the Christlike pattern and as Paul says, " Brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. " Bad as is the work of sin and Satan in the body, it is worse in the soul. What a nest of foul things is there! "What rebellion, what hatred, what envy, pride and malice! How filled with unbelief, murmuring, ingratitude, selfishness and lust. The intellect imbruted! the will enslaved! The conscience seared! The imagination roving uncurbed among scenes of corruption and sin! The sensibilities clinging to things unworthy and rejecting God and all things holy " And God saw that the iniquity of man was great upon the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil and only evil continually! " To remedy such a condition of the human soul demands a baptism of the Spirit, rich Pentecostal and persistent. And nothing else will ever do it.

9th. There is nothing like the Baptism of the Holy Ghost to give a man dauntless courage in declaring God's truth and standing* by the right in the face of opposition no matter how great, how relentless and cruel! If God is in the soul, enthroned there in this baptism, why should the man be afraid? David said, "Though an host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident." The Apostles before the baptism were cowardly like other men, but no sooner did they receive this great gift, than they preached the word with all boldness a boldness that astonished the multitude and so cowed the rulers and the priesthood that when they apprehended them, they did it carefully and " without violence. " So onward, wherever they went preaching Christ and his Gospel, opposition and cruelty had no terrors to these men, for the Holy Ghost was in them. Had not Jesus told them, “When brought before kings and magistrates take no thought what ye shall say for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost that speaketh in you?” In the great anti-slavery agitation which occurred during the half century before the Civil War, how cowardly the conduct of a vast majority of the ministers and church members in the slave States! How fearful about saying a word against the slavery which surrounded them, albeit like Wesley, they knew it to be “The sum of all the villainies!”

And the ministers and Church members of the North were scarcely less timid than they. Alas! the record of cowardice these men have left behind! Who of them but is ashamed today of the record then made? Had these men been baptised with the Holy Spirit, as were Peter and John at Pentecost, they would have seen with clear vision the gigantic sinfulness of slavery; they would have held it up in all its hideousness, before its patrons and their rabble following, and God would have been with them, and have given power to their words. Possibly a few of them might have been martyred. But not many. The hanging of 500 ministers in the South by proslavery mobs and politicians, would have aroused in all the South a power of conscience and sympathy with their martyred ministers, against which the nullifiers and nabobs of the South could not have stood up for an hour. If ten men of God could have saved Sodom, five hundred such men could have saved the South; saved us the horrors of the war, its carnage of 500,000 men, and its vast financial and moral losses. Indeed, slavery could never have gotten a foothold in America, had its preachers fought it with unflinching courage. But the ten men were not in Sodom, nor the 500 in all the South. A like want of courage, in the ministry and Church in the matter of temperance, is today making a like record for men and devils to sneer at half a century hence. O! for the courage and faith which says, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble! therefore we will not fear tho' the earth be removed! though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea! tho' the waters thereof roar and be troubled, and the mountains shake with the swelling thereof!" O! for a seeking of such courage as Peter sought and found in the baptism of the Holy Ghost! Alas! the moral cowardice which so largely pervades our pulpits, and annually comes forth from our seminaries. Once fill these men with a sense of the Infinite God in them, and Peter's and Paul's courage would instantly leap into the saddle all along the line, the hosts of heaven would join them, and victory and conquest be wide-spread and speedy.

10th. The baptism of the Spirit imparts a new unction and power in prayer. I have known Christians and even ministers, whose prayers seemed forced and formal, an official service they must needs go through, in obedience to the demands of custom, and one which was neither blessed to themselves or others. Some follow a round of topics, with little variation from year to year. Others supply the want of spontaneity an d the spirits promptings, by the use of a book of prayers written a century ago and abounding in antique and sonorous phrases.

Others there are, who hasten to the mercy seat, as if a great attraction drew them there! They love to pray and it is with a special unction that they sing, “Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!" They have joy and liberty in prayer. Nor they alone! Others are uplifted thereby! Often more than by the sermon which precedes or follows. I have heard people say, “That prayer was the best of all the service to-day!” Oh! the value of these prayers in the Holy Ghost, which bring people into the Audience Chamber of God! No preacher is fit for its most important work unless he knows what it is to “pray in the Holy Ghost " and have the Spirit help his infirmities. No doubt Peter and John and James and the rest could pray with an unction after the baptism they never had before. Even so it is today. In nearly all our Churches there are men and women of limited education and slow of speech, everywhere else, save at the mercy seat. There the tongue is loosed and with remarkable ability and propriety, they pour forth their wants and those of the people before God. What propriety of expression! and often a wealth of imagery, not their own but evidently of God. But more startling still is the power which attends the prayer. We are told of the dying master whose pampered pastor had tried in vain to help him in his dying struggle, who sent to the field for the slave, " Tom," to come and pray for him. When Tom came in, hat in hand, barefoot and covered with sweat and dust, the dying master grasped his hand like a drowning man and said, "Tom your master is a great sinner. God won't hear his cry for mercy. But I have stood outside your cabin and heard you pray and I felt that God was hearing you. Can you pray for your dying master? And how the aged field hand Tom bowed and talked with God and how the Holy Ghost came down and brought salvation to the dying man. Finney in his auto-Biography, often speaks of " Father Nash " an old man who attended the great revival meetings in Western New York, whose prayers carried with them results wonderful, Divine. The prayers of John Knox have a world wide fame. Such prayers are among the gifts imparted in the Pentecostal baptism. No Christian should rest until he knows what it is to pray in the Holy Ghost.

llth. this after conversion induement confirms us in the way of holiness. This is Bible testimony and experience also. Says Paul in Eph. 1 : 13, " In whom (Christ) after ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. " The holy Spirit of promise refersto the promised baptism of the Holy Ghost, inaugurated at Pentecost. He came " after they believed " and His coming sealed them for God's service and kingdom In another letter, that to the Corinthians, 2d Cor. 1 : 22, He says, "Now he that established us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us is God, Who also hath sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. " In this he tells us, that not alone does that Gift of the Spirit seal, or confirm us as Children of God, but brings us a foretaste of the heavenly life. This sealing is signally set forth in the case of the Apostles and those who received its first installment. Vacillating, weak and easily turned aside before, now they move off before us with a strength of purpose and firmness of step, which shows the strengthening and healing power of the Holy Ghost. And as it was with them so it has been with thousands since, who have sought for and received the same blessing. And if we desire this sealing, this confirmation in God's service, we must seek it in the Holy Baptism administered by that Great High Priest who alone baptises with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

12th. Finally the baptism of the Holy Ghost, creating and maintaining a high degree of spirituality in our Churches, alone will keep them from gross departures from the standards of Orthodoxy, the Bible and true religion. The spiritual man believes the Bible. It is luminous to him. The Holy Ghost has made it so. All its doctrines just fit his nature and wants. It furnishes spiritual food as plainly from heaven, as the manna that sustained Israel for forty years. He needs the Bible revelation of a heavenly Father's love and care. He needs and must have Jesus, the God-man as his redeemer, and he cannot live without the Holy Spirit resident in his very body sanctifying it and helping him to control its turbulent passions, and his language is, " How sweet are thy words to my taste sweeter than the honey and the honey comb. " Once let him become cold in his love and remiss in duty, and skepticism begins to creep in insidiously and gain larger and larger place, till at last seven devils more wicked than the first enter in and take possession of the house where once an Orthodox life and unwavering faith walked hand in hand lovingly toward heaven Confessions of faith, iron-clad creeds, never yet kept a denomination or a Church, or an individual from wandering from the great standard of truth and falling into heresies absurd and fatal. But let the Holy Ghost enter an Apostate Church or a skeptics heart and how swift the return to the path of truth and the obvious teachings of God's holy word.

Illustrations of this abound in the history of nearly all our revivals of religion. We will give one out of a thousand which could be given. A Unitarian lawyer of eminence, called upon Mr. Finney while engaged in revival labors in Rochester, New York, and proposed to discuss with him the question of our Lord's Divinity. Mr. Finney said I will do so, provided, you will kneel down with me and pledge yourself to the Lord, that from this time on you will follow the light" so fast as He reveals it. The lawyer was angry, and denounced the evangelist as cowardly and ungentlemanly. A legal friend suggested that Mr. Finney's request was rational, for said he, "Of what use would it be for him to spend his valuable time in communicating further truth to a man, who don't follow the light he now has, and will not promise to follow the further light which may dawn upon him. " I think it was the Judge at whose bar he was wont to plead who said this. After some days of struggle between his pride of opinion and position on one side, and his conscience and the Spirit on the other, the lawyer entered his office, barred the door, and on his knees surrendered himself to the leadings of conscience and the Holy Spirit. And then, the sight of sinfulness and guilt immeasurable, a lifelong alienation from God, a rejection of infinite claims arose in gigantic proportions before him. Could such a sinner as he be pardoned? And then he saw that the Jesus of Unitarianism was not enough for him. He needed the God man to meet a case like his, and when he had found him, he rushed into the evangelist's room and said, "Now I know that Jesus is Divine, for none but an infinite Savior could atone for such sins as mine. " "Whoever shall do my will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." Brethren, solicitous about the orthodoxy of the Church, behold its great Conservator. It is the Holy Ghost; the Spirit of Truth. Once in the soul, the letter will not long be wanting there.

Chapter 7. How this great blessing adds to our ability to do good to others.

The personal blessings we have been considering imparted in the holy baptism, cannot be confined to ourselves. The candle lighted from heaven refuses to be hid under a bushel. It shines on ail around. Each of the personal gifts enumerated in the foregoing chapter has its outgoing influence adopted to bless as many as it shall reach. But there are certain other advantages it gives to Christians and ministers of the Gospel, to which we desire to call special attention.

1st. The recipient of this blessing will know how to lead others up into it. In all our churches there are men and women hungry for this higher blessing. Their pastor should be to them a Joshua or a Caleb, who has been over into the promised land and therefore knows the way and can lead them there. And sadly lacking is the preacher who has no experience in this line, having only received the first installment of spiritual power that which accompanies the ordinary conversion. In this matter he is a blind guide. And when his people come to him and ask him about the higher heights of Christian experience, he is obliged to say, " I know nothing of them, I have not been there. " I a in reminded of a. clergyman who under great distress of mind, because of his spiritual weakness and carnality, his leanness within and barrenness without, went to the President of a noted Theological Seminary for counsel. He opened his heart to the President, who asked him, after all, if he regarded himself as a Christian? And when our friend replied in the affirmative, he closed the interview by saying, " We here have come to regard the ordinary Christian as a pretty good thing. " As the inquiring minister left the President's study, he asked himself, " Is this poor pittance which I enjoy, all the rich Gospel was designed to give? " and he came back and told me the story, a discouraged and almost broken hearted man. Brother preacher, when your hungry flock come to you with like questions, must you for want of experience answer them in like manner? And “when they ask for bread, give them a stone. "

2d. As a rule also it will give him a fertility of speech, an aptness of illustration, and a power in appeal, which he will feel is imparted by the Spirit. Others, too, will be in like manner impressed. Paul recognizes this and its great importance, when he asks the Ephesian Church to pray for him, "that utterance might be given him, that he might open his mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel." The Pentecostal baptism gave to Peter and all his brethren a power of utterance to which they had been strangers heretofore. And the tongue of fire that sat upon each, was a type of the new power of speech the Spirit imparted. Jesus promised this help of the Spirit in speech when he said, "It shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak! For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in yon" Matt. 10: Spurgeon and Moody and Finney, and all successful evangelists and many others, recognize this great help of the Spirit in their work. Spurgeon used often to pause in mid-discourse, and placing his hand on his brow, would say " Brethren, pray for me, I must have more of the power of the Holy Ghost." Finney did the same. We do not claim that those who have received this baptism at all times are conscious of this help, this unction from the Holy Spirit in speech. I judge Paul did not at times, for he tells the Corinthians, how he "was with them in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." He confesses that in speech he was rude, (2 Cor. 11: 6) and that his alienated brethren said "his speech was contemptible." I judge he was not always remarkable for eloquence. But Paul tells us that however weak he might appear in speech, the Holy Ghost so much the more gave power to his words, and made them successful, and God was the more glorified thereby. Not infrequently the Holy Spirit is doing his mightiest work in the congregation when the preacher is imagining his address a failure. Why this occasional absence of unction, we may not fully know, but that it answers important purposes we can plainly see. We will mention some which occur to us. 1. It deepens the sense of gratitude for the gift when it is enjoyed. The State of Grace is contrasted so vividly in our experience with that of Nature. 2. It serves as a reminder of our personal weakness. It bids us cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils and depend wholly on God. 3. It serves the great purpose of maintaining the Spirit of prayer in a Church for its pastor, while he dispenses the Word. Thus when the Spirit of prayer began to flag in Spurgeon's congregation, and when he put his hand upon his brow and said, "Brethren, pray for me, I need more help from above," then a thousand heads were bowed, the help came; the preachers strength was renewed and God was glorified. This was a very common occurrence in Mr. Finney's labors. Away back in Moses' time, we find the same feature of Divine working forcibly presented. It is recorded in Ex. 17: 11 and 12, "And it came to pass when Moses held up his hands Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hands Amalek prevailed. But Moses hands were heavy, and Aaron and HUT stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun, and Joshua discomfited Amalek." So ever since, the Heralds of Divine truth, although the} T had been anointed and Baptised by the Holy Ghost, have been greatly dependent for sustained unction on the prayers of the brethren. The Holy Spirit thus by the occasional weakening of the preacher's hands, teaching the brethren to be constant in prayer. Of this I feel certain, that this occasional absence of conscious help from the Spirit, cannot in all cases be charged to some overt act of Sin.

3d. The baptism of the Spirit will give the preacher great confidence in the Gospel and the remedies it offers. All about in his field he will find men groaning under the power of sin. Men who have striven often and long to break its dominion over them, but have failed. And now courage and confidence almost gone, they are inclined to give up the struggle and float downward with the stream. But if the preacher evinces in his confident words and in his holy life, his faith in One Mighty to Save such men will come to him, as once Nicodemus came to Jesus, by night,' to ask him how deliverance can be obtained. Blessed my brother will you be, if with a strong voice, you can tell them the story of your own deliverance and give them the assurance that he who saved you, can save them also. So too it will be when you stand before the people declaring all the words of this Divine life if you can add, " / speak what I know and testify to what I have seen. " The experience of a baptism of the Holy Ghost forms a background of confidence in preaching, nothing else can supply.

4th. We do not see how a preacher can select wisely his field of labor unless he lives on most intimate terms of communion with God. We believe the Holy Spirit will indicate to the preacher who walks close with him, where his proper field is, and where it is not, as He did to Paul and Phillip. And that it is these spiritual indications which should determine this matter and not the wedge of gold or the Babylonian garment. So too his messages will be suggested and opened to him by that Spirit, which all abroad in his congregation knows the message needed.

5th. This baptism will impart force to the preacher's words and carry conviction of their truth to the hearer's heart. After Jesus had been inducted into the preacher's office by the baptism of water at Jordan and by the Holy Ghost, we are told that his hearers were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with power. The Apostles before they received the baptism at Pentecost, spoke only as men endowed with the ordinary and natural unction. After it with an effect astonishing and a force well nigh irresistible! They were endowed with power from on high. This new and enlarged power of the Spirit attending their labors was their great dependence, as from Jerusalem they went forth to preach repentance to a sin-loving world. Paul says, “My speech and my preaching was not with persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” 1 Cor. 2:4. To the Thessalonians he writes, “Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost," 1. Thess. 1:5. Moody says after seeking this baptism and receiving it, “I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different. I did not present new truths. And yet hundreds were converted! I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience if 'you would give me all Glasgow." Rev. B. Fay Mills gives similar testimony and ascribes the marvelous success attending his evangelistic labors to a baptism of the Holy Ghost, received some years after his conversion. Brethren in the ministry, have you received this power Christ promised the disciples? Can you obtain it? Have you sought it as for hidden treasure? Can you do ^our work without it? Let me suggest that you not only set your heart on gaming it, but ask some of your devout brothers and sisters to help you in prayer to God that you may receive the anointing and that they pray for you while you preach. Let me add that almost without exception, the men of power in all our denominations laboring now or in the past, have confessed their indebtedness to a special baptism received in answer to fervent prayer, for their great success and the power which attended their speech.

6th. This alliance of the Holy Spirit with the soul of man, was designed to afford important aid in ones calling, whatever it may be. The man who works in the coal mine and the woman at the washtub, can each expect the Holy Spirit's aid as truly as the minister in the cathedral or the monarch on his throne. So that he may do his work the better and with richer enjoyment, because of the great gift. O! for the time when the farmer, the tradesman, the blacksmith, the doctor, the lawyer and the politician shall each consecrate his business to God and cry mightily to Him, to set apart by a special baptism, himself and his business to His glory! No doubt the average Christian prays for and expects a measure of Divine aid in his work. A small measure at least. What we plead for is the larger measure, the cup full and overflowing, made possible, where our Redeemer ascended on high, leading captivity captive and giving gifts to men. Few there are who do not feel at times that they are living far below their privilege. The writer once said to a member of his Church, "Dr. S., what a mighty man you would be if baptised with the Holy Spirit and your powers were fully awakened, sanctified and brought into action! " He made no reply, and as he walked away I fancied I had offended him. Some days after, meeting me, he said, " No, I am not half the man I ought to be. And as the spirit of the Lord often stirred up Sampson between Dan and Bethel before his great power was developed, so it is with me. The Holy Ghost often reproves me for my imbecility and barrenness, and tells me what I might be and ought to be. But alas! The vision passes and I subside back within the old lines of spiritual weakness and inefficiency. The full grown man in Christ, endowed with His strength and power, I am not and fear I never shall be." Alas! Who can measure this vast reservoir of latent power in our Churches? How shall it be developed, brought forth and applied to the world's conversion? Our answer is, The baptism of the Holy Ghost alone will do it. That which made the early Churches so mighty in doing the work of God the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that and that alone will develop this power with God and men. But that day will never come, till the Churches of God come to believe that such a blessing is in store for them and seek after it in faith and an importunity like that evinced in the great ten-days prayer meeting which preceded its first bestowal.

Chapter 8. We pass now to consider the terms on which the Great Gift is bestowed.

1st. We must pray for it as a definite induement offered by Christ to his people. It stands out before us as quite distinct from the measure bestowed in conversion, in the prophecy of Joel. So also in the Saviour's promise of it in the After Passover discourse. And it was treated as such, by the disciples in the ten-day's prayer meeting, held by them in Jerusalem, before the blessing came. For it they waited. For it they prayed, nor would they leave the holy city until it came! And in that waiting, and in that praying for ten successive days, for a blessing supplementary to conversion, what an example they left behind, for the imitation of the Church in the subsequent ages! God loves to have us pray for definite objects. Such prayers mean something. General prayers very little. And when the prayer for a specific object is answered, then we know that God hath heard us, and our faith is strengthened.

Had the Apostles and their brethren in that upper room, neglected to concentrate their united petitions on the great blessing promised, and for which they were required to wait; and had they spent their time in prayers for other and general objects of human need, would they have received it? In the writer's opinion, they would not. In all revivals of religion, it is the prayer/or definite objects the Spirit indites and the Spirit answers. In a town the writer once visited, there lived a Presbyterian minister, noted for his conservatism and love of order. In a revival which visited his people, he became very anxious for the conversion of a lady parishioner. After a very earnest conversation with her at her house, he called upon an Elder to pray. Now the Elder had his round of orderly prayer and he was proceeding with his routine of confession, ascription, thanksgiving, etc., when the minister cried out, "Yes, Yes, Lord, but what we want now is Mrs. 's conversion!"

And that is the way this gift comes to men if it comes at all. It is definitely prayed for, definitely sought and definitely bestowed. And if in its coming, it brings the wealth of gifts narrated in a previous chapter, it is worthy of such seeking and they who will not so seek it, it is not fit that they should obtain it. If this view be correct, is it any marvel that so few of our ministers and Church members receive the blessing, since so little is said about it, in the pulpit or in the seminary, that the great majority have no very definite views regarding it? The rule for the acquisition of this great gift is thus given by the wise man: "If thou criest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hidden treasure, then shall thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. "

2d. Another condition of its bestowal is persevering and importunate prayer. This feature of prevailing prayer is very impressively brought to view in different parts of the Bible. There is Jacob's all night wrestling with the Angel, and the morning's persistency, when halting on his dislocated thigh he cried out, "/ will not let thee go until thou bless me. " There is the SyroPhenician woman, following Jesus so long and refusing to be turned back by the rebuking disciples and even the Master's apparent rejection of her suit for a time. More to the point still stands out before us that ten days prayer meeting, in which the disciples daily met, and continued to pray till the blessing came. Who ever heard of a prayer meeting so long and for one definite object before or since? We are told that immediately after the ascension of our Lord from Mount Olivet, the disciples returned to the city, went up into an upper room and began to pray and prepare for the Great Gift, which the Saviour had promised to send from the Father. They continued thus to meet for prayer and conference over the matter, until the morning of the tenth day when the answer came.

That they were tempted to give up the search before the ten days had passed, cannot be doubted, for they were human. God be praised that they did not. And whensoever the modern Church shall accept the prophecy of Joel as applicable to it, in all its essential richness, and shall seek for the great blessing with the purpose to obtain it evinced in those ten days of conference and prayer, then we may lift up our eyes, for the blessing will be at hand. Possibly some reader may wonder at the withholding of this most important endowment so long. They ask, “Why was it not bestowed at once, when the first prayer was offered for it in that upper room? Or at least after one day of prayer, and thus have saved nine days of valuable time for preaching the Gospel?" We reply, 1st. The time required in the seeking was suggestive of the great value of the gift. The gift is wonderful! The Holy Spirit coming to take up his residence in our poor dwelling! In the bestowal ought not God to require efforts on our part, which show that we appreciate the gift? 2d. In those ten days of prayer, the disciples were being prepared to receive the Heavenly resident, as is the broken ground for the seed and for the shower. Step by step God was revealing to each of them, in clearer and yet clearer vision, a personal destitution and weakness, the Holy Ghost alone could remedy. And thus when he should come, awaken a degree of gratitude, which else has not been felt and returned to God.

Another reason for the delay, and for the earnest and protracted seeking required was, that so sought and obtained, they would be more careful to cherish and hold it fast. What costs us little is lightly prized. What costs us much, is, as a rule, tenaciously retained.

Other reasons there doubtless are in the mind of God, for earnest and often protracted seeking, before we receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. God has set a price upon wisdom and a thousand other blessings and time and effort are indispensable conditions of attainment, and why should this be an exception? Why should not the effort to gain it be proportioned to its value? If we are not willing to strive earnestly and long if need be for so great a gift, is it safe that God should entrust us with it? But lest this long seeking and prayer by the Apostles for the gift before they received it, should lead the Church of subsequent ages and Christians of all conditions, to anticipate a similar delay in their case, we are immediately given examples of its quick reception after prayer and effort for it. Such was the case of the Samaritan converts, on whom Peter and John laid their hands and prayed, and they received the Holy Ghost. Such was that of the Gentile Cornelius and his family, who received the Holy Baptism under the first sermon which Peter preached. So it was with those partially enlightened disciples at Ephesus, who had not so much as heard that the Holy Ghost had been given. Under a single discourse upon the matter, they sought and received it. These are exterior boundaries drawn for us, encouraging the seeker to hope for its quick reception; but if delayed, to persevere, assured that he will reap if he faints not. Thus it is in modern Christian experience; some receive the gift the baptism, after a brief seeking and some perhaps on the very day of conversion. Others climb slowly upon the rock, with many a backward slip and fall, before their feet are establised there. Their experience seems well described by Job, when he says, " Behold, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him, On the right hand where He doth work, but I cannot behold him! He hideth Himself on the right hand that I cannot see Him! But He knoweth the way that I take when He hath tried me I shall come forth as Gold" Job. 23: 10. 3d. The gift must be sought in faith. "Without faith it is impossible to please God." "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a re warder of those who diligently seek him." To be successful in this matter, the seeker must believe in view of the evidence before him, that there is such an after-conversion induement in store for God's people. And this faith is in part intellectual and in part volitional. The intellect affirming the proof sufficient, that God has offered to his people this larger measure of the Spirit spoken of. The will pledging hearty support and cooperation in efforts to obtain it. The doubter will not succeed. Let not that man think he shall receive anything from the Lord. The faith we are now speaking of is generic, and though of vast importance, is to be distinguished from the more specific and appropriating faith to be considered further on.

4th. Another Condition, is the purpose to give the Spirit entire sway, in the control of our persons and affairs. He will brook no rival on the throne when He comes to reign within. It is an additional realm He proposes to add to our domain, and a new and larger consecration is suitable and is demanded. And hence in the experience of receivers of this, double portion of the Spirit, there has usually been at the threshold, a struggle of soul like that at conversion, as if the Saviour stood before them saying, "Are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink of, and to be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with"? Nor is the gift bestowed, till consent is given and the consecration made.

5th. Another very important condition of its bestowment is a purpose to make suitable confession of God's mercy in the gift, after it has been received. " Come," said the Psalmist : " All ye that fear the Lord and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul." Said Paul : "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation." Rom. 10: 10. The Baptism the Apostles received at Pentecost, they freely confessed before the world, and Luke was inspired to record it. Wherever they went, they testified to this supplementary gift of the Holy Ghost, as a part of their witness of what Christ had done for them, and was ready to do for others. And if J -there be such a gift for the Lord's people, and we have received it, why should we not confess it to the glory of God, and encourage others to seek the same? A purpose to keep still about it, and not confess it, we all know is fatal to a sinner's effort to find God. Not less so is the effort to gain this baptism, while our proud heart is purposed to hide the lamp under a bushel! This is the testimony given to UB by nearly all the men of power, whose experiences in this line have come down to us. We need not adopt any specific phraseology. We need not say we are "perfect," or have "perfect love," or are "wholly sanctified," or have lived such and such lengths of time without sin. No! No! this is not our meaning. To the writer all these terms are more or less objectionable. But we can confess that we have received a Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Have obtained thereby victories over beseting sins, never found practicable before. That we have a peace which passes our power of utterance are enabled to live for considerable periods of time with a conscience void of offense towards God and man, and that we know by blessed experience the force of the words " His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." Be the terms what they may, they must involve a frank and fearless confession of the great blessing, or God will count us unfit to receive it. Not a few receivers of this gift, have made confession of having been long held back from it, by the fear of man the loss of ecclesiastical standing, and the censure of men they held in profound respect. And not till this was overcome, and reputation was laid on the Altar of Sacrifice was the gift received. But thousands come up to that high barrier, as once Israel came to Kadesh Barnea, stopped there, and turned back into the wilderness again! The fear of man bringeth a snare.

6th. The final conditions, we mention, on which the baptism of the Spirit is imparted, is a personal application of the promise. We will designate the exercise we have in mind appropriating faith.

Thus it is taught in the Bible. " Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them. " Mark. II: 24. " And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will he heareth us. And if we know that He heareth us, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." John. 5: 15 and 16. " If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord. " James 1 : 5, 7. This faith is yet more strongly placed before us by our Saviour in Mark 11: 23, " Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, whosover shall say to this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. " All these passages enjoin the faith of expectancy, or as we have designated it above, appropriating faith before its reception. The last passage startles us! A mountain plucked up by the roots by faith and cast into the sea! Of course it is a figurative mountain, a moral mountain, Christ has in view. The natural mountains are well enough where they are. It is only those moral mountains, which rise between our souls and duty our souls and heaven, that need to be torn up and cast away. And the duty taught is that when we ask the Lord to help us remove them from the path to Him and heaven, that we shall not doubt that he hears us, begins at once the work, and will cast them into the sea, if we hold fast without wavering our faith. This faith is immensely important. The want of it shuts great multitudes out of the kingdom of God and out of the enjoyment of religion. Great multitudes of serious minded men and of convicted sinners, go by themselves to pray; they confess their sins, they try to give their hearts to God, they ask help from above and then instead of believing in the mercy and generosity of God, and relying on His simple word, they look after some feeling or experience, before they cast themselves on His mercy and take Him at His word and march off in the performance of duty. They seek after a sign. Whereas the thing to be done in such an hour, is to believe. Repentance first, belief second, and neither acceptable without the other.

So it is with this great Messianic Gift, of a double portion of the Divine Spirit. If we want it were to ask for it, read what God has said about it, awaken ourselves to the importance of receiving it, and when we begin to pray for it, believe that God is deeply interested in our receiving it, and then and there lovingly takes our hand and will lead us into it, if we persevere and faint not. This is the road to it, the path which, if pursued will lead one to where he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost. In conversing on this subject, some days since with a clergyman, he said in substance, " I have been seeking after this blessing of which you speak, I have been searching after those sins of heart which limit the work of the Spirit in me and through me. I have tried to consecrate myself anew, I have asked for the Holy Baptism, I have done so again and again, but I do not obtain it I remain the same as I have been for years! Tell me, what is in the way What more can I do?" I replied, you can believe. What you should have done after the consecration you speak of, was to believe that then and there your -loving and infinitely interested Heavenly Father did join hands with you and say, " It is enough " / accept the consecration. Do not question my generosity and love, but rise up, ask for light and expect it. When a duty comes before you, ask me to" help you to lean on my arm.

When the Tempter assails, fight him not alone, but call on the name of the Lord. " And when I repeated to my friend the words of Jesus, "Whatsoever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them," and asked, did you believe that you were receiving them? He shook his head and said, " I did not." And when I asked what advice he would give to a sinner who was trying to give up all to God's control and had done so as far as he could see, but got no relief, the obvious answer was, "I would tell him to believe that God did accept him for it cannot be that God will not accept a soul that is intent on a life of loyalty and love. I would tell him to have faith in God. To give firm credit to God's representation of himself in His word."

If to this it be objected that we may be deceived in the matter of consecration, albeit we may sincerely strive to give up all and think we have done so. We reply this is scarcely possible, for it cannot be that God, who is so deeply interested in our salvation, will fail to show us wherein we come short, when He sees us desirous of seeing our sin and putting it away. What would we do in case of our child, desirous of knowing if anything he did was offensive? We would surely make it known to him. One passage of God's Word shows what God