What of the Result?

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” — Acts i. 8.

“P EFERRING again to the river from the sanctuary, we get the best answer to this question. The river ran into the desert. The Spirit of God always leads us into the world, that we may go to the lost and tell them of life, bidding them in the name of Christ and on the authority of the Word and by

RECEll/ED YE THE HOLY GHOST?

the power of the Spirit to believe in him, that their position may be changed — a good illustration of which is Mephibosheth. He dwelt at Lo-debar (which means “the place of no pasture “), but through the kindness of David, for Jonathan’s sake, he is brought to the king’s table that he may have plenty. The river was healing, for we read that, running into the sea, the waters thereof were healed. The river was life-giving:” And it shall come to pass, that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live.” (Ezek. xlvii. 9.) It is fruit-producing and food-providing. What a river it was! But there was one thing it could not do, namely, change the marshy places:” But the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall

WHAT OF THE RESULT?

not be healed; they shall be given to salt.” (Ezek. xlvii. ii.) The Spirit does not come to improve man’s carnal nature. ‘’ That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and always will be. But all that the river does, as described above, we may have repeated in our lives. Our position is ^’ in the world, but not of it.” We have had placed in our keeping for wounded hearts the very balm of Gilead. We have the words of eternal life, we have the very bread of heaven — in fact, we have all things in Christ. There would be a marvelous change in the church as well as in the individual if only we were “filled with the Spirit.” We have to-day in the church men enough, and they have money enough, and, humanly speaking, we have power enough to put to flight the enemy, if only we were ‘’ filled with the Holy Ghost.”

I have a friend in New York City, a most remarkable woman. She has turned away from her social position, given up, for the time being, her home, with the full consent of her family, and devotes all her time and her strength to the rescuing of ‘’fallen girls.” She has literally prayed up the Door of Hope, an institution which is a refuge for all such; and there is never a night so dark or so long but the doors of this home are open for the wanderer. One night at midnight, leaving her home, going out on an expedition through the slums of New York, she held in her hand a beautiful pink rose. She said to one of her friends, ‘’ I will give this rose to the vilest girl I meet in my wanderings.”

She made her way to Mulberry Street, a place which is a veritable hell. It is the place where men and women go when all hope has fled from them and they are ready to throw themselves into perdition. In one of the subcellars, surrounded by some of New York’s worst characters, was the girl whom Mrs. Whittemore, in her mind, had been seeking. This was the description she gave of her: her hair was torn out as if she had been in a recent brawl, as they found out afterward she had; her face bore the marks of sin; her clothing hung in rags from her poor, thin shoulders; her feet were pressing their way through her old shoes; her eyes were as blue as the sky, and for that reason she was called by her companions “Blue Bird.” As my friend stood looking at her, she told me that the vilest profanity she had ever heard was falling from her lips. She pushed her way through the crowd of men, and placed in the girl’s hand the pink rose, saying as she did so: “My dear, if ever in your life you want a J friend, come to the Door of Hope, and I will be a mother to you.” The girl lat once replied, “I’m too sinful to be /saved or helped.” But Mrs. Whittemore I left her that night with the prayer that! she might come. Several days after, just as my friend was going into the ‘’. Door of Hope, she found Blue Bird, looking more miserable than before. The first thought was one of discouragement, and the second almost a determination to put her out into the street, for it did seem impossible, even with God, to help her. Then she said:

“I looked down at her in her misery, and thought, There is a soul for whom Christ died, and if she had been the onlylost one in the world he would have suffered and died for her. Then I forgot her sin and saw her soul. I forgot her misery, and my heart was filled with love for her. I stooped, and taking her sin-stained face in both my hands, I kissed her first upon one cheek, then upon the other, and that broke her heart; she fell sobbing before me. We put her in bed, nursed her back to a semblance of strength, and then she went forth, herself a missionary, down into the Mulberry Street dives, out into Sing Sing prison, everywhere where she felt that she might win a soul for Christ. She went by day and night. After a few months of active service God called her to himself, but she had been instrumental in leading over one hundred girls like herself into the knowledge of a Saviour.” I asked my friend, Mr. Hadley, Jerry McAuley’s successor in the old Water Street Mission: “Mr. Hadley, how did Blue Bird look: was she beautiful?” His reply was: ‘^ If you had seen her face in repose you might have said that she was homely, for her face still bore the marks of her sin; but,” said he, ‘’ if you had seen her in the Water Street Mission, and heard her tell the story of her conversion, and then seen her stand with face uplifted, as if she were looking into the very face of Him who had made her free, and heard her as she repeated his name over and over — ‘jESUs! Jesus! Jesus!’ — you would have said, I am sure, that she looked like an angel.” Then I asked him, “What was the secret of her power?” He gave me two reasons. “First of all,” he said, ‘’ she was fully saved; then after that “he said, ‘’ she was filled with the Spirit. Blue Bird had never a thought of her own; she belonged to him body, soul, and spirit.” And when he told me that, I said: “Blessed God, if thou canst take a poor fallen girl and so fill her with thy Spirit that she could be transformed into a soul-winner, thou canst fill me;” and I beHeve he can — nay, more, I believe he did; and what he has done for one he can do for all, for, as has been said, he is no respecter of persons. But there are certain particular results which would be manifest in the life of every one who would give the Spirit undisputed possession of his life.

First. We should know God better: “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 might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receivth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (i Cor. ii. 1 1-14.)

Seco7id. We should be better able to apprehend Christ, for you will remember that the Spirit came into the world to testify of him. There is a hint of this in the very course of the river which ran from the sanctuary. There would have been no point at all if any other direction had been given as the course of the river, but the east is most significant. The camp of Israel was always pitched toward the east — the sunrising — because Israel was looking and longing for the coming of the Messiah. The east is connected with the resurrection and with the coming glory of Christ. What can the course of the river signify but the fact that the Spirit always runs, if we may so speak of him, toward Christ? — to know one is to know the other. Do you not remember that when Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, ‘’ Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” it was after

His resurrection? Was he not then, in the gift of the Spirit, just giving them the first taste of *’ resurrection life “for themselves? And this is, in fact, what the indwelling of the Spirit may mean for every one. We are “risen with Christ,” and the Spirit just reveals to us what that means. And yet with all the joy that is imparted here in this present time, this is but the earnest of what is coming by and by. He is called the Earnest, as, for example: “Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” (2 Cor. i. 21, 22.) An earnest is often represented as a pledge, but this does not give the real idea. It is rather part of the purchase-money, paid down as the guaranty and security that the full amount will be handed over at the time stipulated in the contract. The meaning, then, is simply this: all that the indwelHng Spirit may have meant to you in the past in the way of sweetness of experience, depth of joy, delight in communion, or manifestation of power — these things are just the foretaste of what is coming after a while. When the fullness of time is come, if this is the first-fruit, then what must the harvest be? Here we have thought about him, he has come to us in the night visions, we have said over and over his dear name, but then we shall see him and we shall be like him.

‘Well, the delightful day will come When my dear Lord will bring me honi And I shall see his face.

Then with my Saviour, Brother, Friend, A blest eternity I’ll spend. Triumphant in his grace.”

Third. There will be growth. This would naturally follow because of what we have found the Spirit to be. He is the wind, the dew, the rain, and many other things, all of which induce growth in the natural world. There will be a growth downward: “Rooted and built up in him “(Col. ii. 7); growth upward: “Into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” (Eph. iv. 15); growth outward in all the fruit of the Spirit. I am sure that, with this thought of growth in mind, many of the troublesome questions in the life of the church might be settled. Paul had this in mind when he said, ‘’ When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child,

WHAT OF THE RESULT?

I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away chil.dish things.” (i Cor. xiii. 1 1.)

Try the question of the so-called popular amusements of the day with this idea of growth in mind. See how quickly it could be settled. It is not to be denied that there is a certain kind of pleasure in some of the things which are manifestly inconsistent in the lives of professing Christians. But it is just as true that the real Christian has in his life that which is far beyond the mere pleasure of the world — that they are not comparable: but there must be growth to appreciate this. You remember the island of which we read in mythology — the island on which the sirens sang so sweetly that when a ship would come near its sailors would be charmed with the music. They would leave their posts of duty, and the vessel would be wrecked on the rocks. Then the sirens would put forth from the island to gather the spoil. One day a vessel neared the island having Ulysses as commander. He filled the sailors’ ears with wax, and bade them fasten him to the mast, and then forbade their releasing him, whatever his commands might be under the spell of the music. When they neared the island it seemed as if the sirens had never sung so sweetly. Ulysses struggled to be free; he shouted to the sailors to let him go, but they did not hear him, and they would not let him go. They passed the island in safety. This was one way of going by. It is the way some would have us settle the question of “amusements for the church.” But there is a better way. Another vessel came near the island of the sirens. The officers did not order wax to be placed in the sailors’ ears, neither was the commander fastened to the mast. The sirens sang their sweetest songs, they played their most entrancing music, but the sailors did not turn their heads to listen, and for this reason: they had Orpheus on board, and Orpheus sang a sweeter song than the sirens ever knew. Thanks be unto God, we may have Orpheus on / board: we have a peace the world can 1 never know! But the ear must be trained to hear the music. Just as when Jesus was on earth, at one time it was I said: ‘’ Then came there a voice from / heaven, saying, I have both glorified it,? and will glorify it again. The people

RECEIVED YE THE HOLY GHGST?

therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him.” (John xii. 28, 29.) I beHeve it was the voice of God to him — what some called thunder, and others an angel’s voice. He called the voice of God to himself; they heard with their ears, he with his soul.

There is something very suggestive to me in the fact that the river increased in depth as it ran to the sea. “And when the man that had a line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits.” (Ezek. xlvii. 3.) At this first measurement the “waters were to the ankles.” I use my ankles to walk with; I could hardly walk without them; and I believe it to be a hint, at least, of the fact that when one has been filled with the Holy Ghost he will manifest the fact in his daily walk. What is it to walk in the Spirit? It is to have him so enthroned in the soul, and to live in such habitual and uninterrupted communion with him, that we do not take a step without his direction. It is to recognize his abiding presence, to heed his slightest suggestion, to be lifted into a purer and sweeter atmosphere than that which surrounds the world. The second measurement, and the ‘’ waters were to the knees.” I bow the knees to pray. No one really knows how to pray until he knows the Spirit. How often we wonder why our prayers have not been answered! I doubt not but that the real reason could be found just here: we did not ask in the right way. ‘* Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Rom. viii. 26.) The third measurement, and the “waters were to the loins.” The loins are always in the Scripture the symbol of strength, and what can this suggest but that the Spirit is the strength of our life? With him temptation is easily met, burden-bearing becomes a delight, and we can do all things just because he fills us. “Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.” (Ezek. xlvii. 5.) There is one thing about swimming which every swimmer knows, namely, this: when he swims he brings into play every muscle of his body — not one is inactive. Thanks be unto God, the Spirit may sway every power of my being: the heart purified, the mind quickened, the soul upHfted! He gives me a new name, a new song, a new hope — in fact, ‘’ old things are passed away;” the very world itself becomes new.

But one of the very best things we read about the river is this: ‘’And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.”

(Ezek. xlvii. 12.) There was new fruit every month — what a river it must have been! I do not know anything better about the Spirit than this: he brings not only things old, but things new, before us. We shall not need to live on old manna if we have him. We shall not need to be rehearsing old experiences told a thousand times if we know him; but the world will be a new world, the Bible a new book, all things will wear a dififerent face to us, if we be ‘’ filled with the Spirit.” I know of no better illustration to make plain what his indwelling may mean than that which has been given us in the life and death of one of earth’s noble women. Over In London, some time ago, a noble woman died. God touched her eyes, and they were closed; her heart, and it ceased its

beating. They carried her into one of the greatest auditoriums, that the city and the world might pay her honor. A representative of the Queen honored herself by being present. Lords and ladies were there; the rich people of England came to look and weep. At last the poor people came pressing their way into the great building. The weeping thousands passed beside the sleeping woman. At last a very poor woman made her way down the aisle. She had every mark of poverty; she carried a child on one arm, and led another by the hand. When she reached the coffin she put the baby on the floor, loosed the clasp of the older child’s hand, and then stooped to kiss the glass which covered the face. She thereby stopped the passing of the throng. The guard, stepping forward, took her by the shoulder, saying as he did so: “Woman, you will have to move on; you are stopping the people.” She lifted her face to his for a moment, and then, turning to the surging mass of people in the building, she cried out: ‘’ My friends, I will not move on! I have walked sixty miles, and carried my baby, that I might look upon this woman’s face. She saved my boys from hell, and I have a right to look and to weep.” Then bending down she kissed again and again the glass covering the face, while the multitude sobbed in sympathy with her. Who was she sleeping in the coffin yonder? Why, that was Mrs. Booth, the mother of the Salvation Army, one of the grandest women God has ever called into his service, and I am sure you know why: not

because her social position was better than yours, for that might not be true; not because her intellectual qualifications were superior to yours, for that might be untrue; but because she was filled with the Holy Ghost. That is always the secret of POWER.