Chapter IX
‘word “thirst,” “‘Our Lord Jesus
But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him were to receive.” Here again we have the first step upon which we dwelt it
yesterday, name aith in. Jesus Chri Hle...tha be-) a But we have also a fifth step in the
doubtless had in mind when He uttered these words Isaiah 44:3, “For I will pour water upon bi tht as
thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: J will pour my
S piri it ice thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.’ or carefully the words “upon him that +.
tHirsty.” |The fth step, then, is thirsty Do you know what it means to be th irsty, were you ever real thirsty? I have been, when I was with the troops at Chickamauga Park during the Spanish-American War. where 60,000 soldiers were gathered together and where there was no rain for many days, and the air was full of dust thirty feet high day and night, and we ate dust and drank dust and slept dust and dreamt dust, and no water fit to drink; I surely knew what it meant to be thirsty. Again, when I was in Southern China in 1902, the cholera was raging and one needed to exercise the utmost care in regard to what water he drank, I knew what it meant to be thirsty then. When a man really thirsts, it seems as if every pore in his body had just one cry, ‘‘ Water, water, water.” Now apply this to the matter in hand. When a man thirsts spiritually, his whole being has just one cry, “‘The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, O God, give me the Holy Spirit.”
Just as long as we think we can get on some way without the definite Baptism with the Holy Spirit we are not going to have it. Just as long as we are seeking to accomplish by new tricks of oratory, or by a skillful use of words, or by all sorts of psychological and other trick methods to influence people, we are not going to have the Baptism with the Holy Spirit; but when we come to the place that we realize our utter need of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit if we are to do effective service for God, and long for it at any cost, then it will be ours, and not till then,
Let me illustrate what I mean by two ministers. The first one heard me speaking at the State Convention of the Y. M. C. A. of New York State, at Jamestown, N. Y. I spoke upon this same subject upon which I am speaking to you today, and said very many of the same things I am saying now and said yesterday. This minister, coming out of the hall with another minister, said to him, “That kind of teaching (that is, the kind I have just been giving you) leads either to fanaticism or to despair.” He did not ask whether it was scriptural or not. He could not deny that it was scriptural, and he was condemned by it, and tried to escape the condemnation of his own conscience by this smart remark. Now such a man as that is not going to receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.
But take another minister. This was at Northfield at one of Mr. Moody’s conferences. I had spoken on Saturday night on “The Baptism with the Holy Spirit; What It Is and What It Does, Its Necessity, and Who Can Have It.” I was to speak on that Sunday morning on “The Baptism with the Holy Spirit, How to Get It.” Early in the morning, this minister came around to the house where I was stopping, and said, “Mr. Torrey, I have come from (naming a city in New Jersey where he was pastor) to Northfield for just one purpose, the purpose of being baptized with the Holy Spirit, and
I would rather die than go back to my church without it.” I said to him, “My brother, you are going to have it.” The following Monday morning he had to leave by an early train, but he came around to see me before he went, and said, “I want to tell you I have received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.”
Do you thirst? Do you long for the Baptism with the Holy Spirit whatever it may involve and whatever it may cost? It may cost you a good deal. It may take you out of a nice, comfortable place here in America to China or to India or the heart of Africa.
Some years ago I was at the International Christian Workers’ Conference at Hartford, Conn. At the close of one of my addresses on this subject, the pastor and assistant pastor of the church came to me and asked me to pray with them that the visitor for the church might be baptized with the Holy Spirit; and, when the crowd had gone we knelt together and prayed that she might be thus baptized. A year later one of the pastors said to me, “I hardly know whether we would have asked you to pray that our church visitor might be baptized with the Holy Spirit, if we had known what it meant, for we have lost her. She has gone as a foreign missionary,” and it may take some of you from a place of ease and comfort to a place of hardship and sacrifice, if you really are baptized with the Holy Spirit. Do you want the Holy Spirit at any cost? If you do not, there is no good whatever in your praying that you may be filled with the Holy Spirit, nothing will come of your prayer.
Before i leave this part of the subject ae me say that
You must desire the Baptism with the Holy Spirit in order that you may honour God with more effective service and not merely that you may get a new power or a new influence, or it may be a larger salary.
One of the most solemn passages in the Bible on this whole subject brings this out in a very solemn way. You will find it in Acts 8: 20-22, “Peter said unto him, thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be obtained with money. ‘Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. ‘Repent therefore of this t i: -. thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.’ cere the magician, had seen the power that Peter and John had because they had been baptized with the Holy Spirit, and he desired a similar power for himself. He was willing to pay large money for it and offered it, but his unholy desire, intense though it was, only brought denunciation and not a blessing on his head. Be very careful at this point. Get alone with God and ask God to search you and show you whether your desire for this wonderful blessing is a pure desire, in order that you may glorify God as you ought, or a selfish, unholy desire, simply in order that you may get greater joy or greater power for yourself.
IL Tar Sixte Sire You will find the sixth step in a very familiar passage of Scripture, Luke 11:13, “If ye then, being a know how to give good gifts unto your children: more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy. oie to, HAT IS THE SIXTH STEP, JUST & ask Him, That is, ask God definitely for the definite
Baptism with the Holy Spirit. THe stxTH STEP Ig DEFI-NITE PRAYER FOR THIS DEFINITE BLESSING. There are many in these days, “and ‘they are often well known men, excellent men, too, who tell us that we ought not to pray for the Holy Spirit, and they reason it out very speciously. They say “the Holy Spirit was given to the Church as an abiding possession at Pentecost” (that is true), and then they ask “why pray for what you have already got?” To this the late Dr. A. J. Gordon replied conclusively, e“‘ Jesus Christ was given to the world as an abiding gift at Calvary (which is certainly true, see John 3:16), He was given to the world as a whole, but each individual in the world must appropriate this gift for himself. Just so the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to the whole Church at Pentecost, but it was given to the Church as a whole, and each individual member of the Church must
PPA OAS I PTE DS
“appropriate the. “gift for ‘himself, and God’s way of appropriation is prayer.’ Sr scien cee But these brethren often go still further, and they say “every individual believer in Christ has the Holy Spirit,” and that is true also, as we saw a few days ago. We are told definitely in Romans 8:9, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ (and “the Spirit of Christ” here does not mean a Christlike spirit as it is so often misinterpreted, but is a name of the Holy Spirit), he is none of His;” so it is clear that every believer has the Holy Spirit in some sense. And these brethren go on and say if then every believer already has the Holy Spirit why pray for Him? ‘To which the all-sufficient answer is, that it is one thing to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us (as He does in every believer) way back in some hidden corner of our being where we are not distinctly conscious of His presence, and quite another thing and a far more glorious thing to have this indwelling Spirit take entire possession of the house that He inhabits, as He does when one is baptized (or, filled) with the Holy Spirit.:
Anyway, against all these specious reasonings of men we put the plain, unquestionable utterance of Jesus Christ, Luke 11:13, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.”
Some years ago I was on a program of the International Christian Workers’ Convention at Boston, to speak on the subject of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, on the last evening of the convention, One of the men came to me at the noon hour (a most excellent brother) and he said, “I notice you are on the program this evening to speak on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.” I said, “Yes.” Then he said, “I think that is the most important subject on the program.” I replied, “I think it is important.” “Be sure to tell them,” he continued, “not to pray for the Holy Spirit.” “My brother,” I replied, “TI will tell them to do the very thing that you tell me to tell them not to do; for God has said, ‘how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.” “Oh, yes,” he said, “but that was before Pentecost.” “All right,” I said, “how about Acts 4:31, was that before Pentecost or after?” He replied, “It was certainly after.” “Well,” I said, “take it and read it — And when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” ‘‘ How about Acts 8:15, 16, was that before or after Pentecost?” ‘ Well,” he said, “it was certainly after Pentecost.” I said, “Take it and read it.’ He read, “Peter and John when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized unto the name of the Lord Jesus).” So you may go right through your Bible, and after Pentecost.as well as before Pentecost you will find both by explicit statement and by illustrative example that men and women were “baptized,” or were “filled with the Holy Spirit,” when they prayed,
But with me this is not a mere matter of mere exegesis. If it were, I would believe it whether I had experience or not, for when I find a thing written in the Bible I believe it, experience or no experience, for I do not believe in trying to bring the Bible down to the level of our experience but in bringing our experience up to the level of the Bible. But with me this is a matter of definite and absolutely certain experience. I know that God baptizes men with the Holy Spirit as they pray, and that He fills those that have been baptized with the Holy Spirit anew with the Holy Spirit as they pray, just as definitely as I know that water quenches thirst and that food satisfies hunger. I know it from my own personal experience. How often as I have prayed alone, or as I have prayed in the company of like-minded believers, the Holy Spirit has fallen upon us just as definitely and consciously as I have heard the rain falling on the roof of a building or felt it pouring down over my whole body.
Let me give you one illustration. Some years ago the ministers of Chicago were holding daily noon prayer-meetings in the Y. M. C. A. building in Chicago as a preparation for an expected visit of Mr, Moody to that city. It was my privilege to preside at those prayer-meetings. One noon in the midst of the meeting a
Baptist minister sprang to his feet and said, “Brother Torrey, what we need here in Chicago is an all-night prayer-meeting of the ministers.” “Very well,” I replied, “if the ministers of Chicago desire an all-night prayermeeting, if they will come up to the Chicago Avenue Church (the Moody Church) next Friday night at ten o’clock, we will have a prayer-meeting and if God keeps us there all night we will stay all night, we will stay as long as God keeps us.” That night at lten o’clock, perhaps six or seven hundred gathered in the prayer-meeting room of the Chicago Avenue Church. They were not all ministers. There were many other Christian workers, as well as some Christian women,
Were you ever in a meeting where the devil made a dead set to spoil the meeting? Well, that was the kind of a meeting that we had at first. For example, three men got down near the door at the far end of the room by three chairs and commenced to pound and shout and shriek in a pretense of prayer, and when someone expostulated with them, saying that things should “be done decently and in order,” they swore at the man who expostulated with them. A little later a man sprang to his feet over at my left and proclaimed that he was Elijah. The man was not to blame, he was a lunatic. There were seven of whom I knew in the United States at that time who claimed to be Elijah, and he was one of the seven. Some of the more timid ones began to think, “Well, if this is the kind of a meeting it is going to be, I am going home.” But the great bulk of us were there for a blessing and we were determined to stay until we got it.
About midnight God gave us complete victory. All the discordant elements were eliminated; and oh! what praying there was from that time on up to a little after two in the morning. I think I had never heard such praying before and have seldom heard such praying since. At 2:15 (I know the time, for I had taken out my watch a few moments before), we were all on our knees, and suddenly the Holy Spirit fell upon us. No one could speak, no one could pray, no one could sing. All you could hear was the subdued sobbing of joy unspeakable and full of glory. It seemed to me as I knelt there that if I had looked up I would fairly have seen the Holy Spirit in that place. This was early Saturday morning. The following morning, Sunday morning, at the close of my morning service, one of my deacons came to me, he could hardly speak yet, and grasped my hand and whispered, “Brother Torrey, I will never forget yesterday morning to the latest day of my life.”
But it was not all mere emotion, no, thank God, no. Men went out from that meeting in the early morning hours to different places with the power of God resting upon them, One business man went down to Missouri on an early morning train. After he had transacted his business he asked the proprietor of the hotel if there was any meeting going on in that town. He replied, “Yes, Brother W.-, there is a protracted meeting going on up at the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.” The man was a Cumberland Presbyterian himself, and he went up to the church, After the meeting was opened, he arose in his seat, he was a well known man in his denomination, and asked the minister if he could say a few words. ‘The minister replied, “Certainly, Brother W — — .” ‘That man poured out his soul, and a little after I heard that there were fifty-eight people converted while he was speaking. Another young man, Emil Lindfield, who afterwards died as a very successful missionary in South Africa, went in the early morning hours to Baraboo, Wisconsin, and I soon heard from Baraboo that there had been thirty-eight young men and boys converted while he spoke. And a little while later, I received a letter from a Methodist minister in Wisconsin, near Milwaukee, asking me if we had a young man named Samuel J. in our Institute. He said that a young man had appeared in their midst, a perfect stranger, and said that he was Samuel J, of the Bible Institute of Chicago, that he had been speaking in the schoolhouses, Methodist Church and Soldiers’ Home and that there were conversions wherever he spoke. This man also had gone out early that morning and up to that section with the Spirit of God resting upon him.
As I went around the world, in 1902 and the years that followed, in pretty much every field that I visited, Japan, China, New Zealand, Australia, England, Scotland and Ireland, and other lands, I met with men or women who had gone out from that meeting with the power of God resting upon them. Yes, and we today can go out from this meeting to the uttermost parts of the earth, with the power of God resting upon us, to accomplish mighty things for Him. Yes, beyond the possibility of honest question, God does baptize men and “women with the Holy Spirit, and fill anew with the Holy
Spiritthose..who..haye already beenthus. baptized, as” II. Tue SEVENTH STEP We have now come to the seventh and last step, in
some respects the simplest of all and yet to many the most difficult of all, and also the place where more people miss the blessing than almost anywhere else. You will find this step set forth in the words of Christ in Mark 11:24: “Therefore I say unto you, what things soever.
ye desire, when ye pray, believe that eive th and yeshall have,them.. The seventh step is git SMU pl ion.
‘ expecti Qf LOM GO ANAL. YOU ask THE..BaAr PTISM...WI jcHe, Hoty. SPIRI No matter how definite any prom:
Ase of God’s “Word. may be, we, never. “realize. it,in. our
Voy expe ence,.until,,.we,..believe..it.. For example, we are told in James 1:5, “If any of you lacketh wisdom, Jet him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and cupbraideth not; and i shall be given him.” Now that 1S certainly unqualifiedly positive, nothing could possibly be more positive. But ie did not stop there, he went on to say, “But let, him, aie hing, doubt. ing: for he that doubteth is life the ort of ‘the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.” Just ) 80 it is in this matter,.God’s. promise. is. s, definite enough, but unless we believe the.promise and confiden: God to do what He has,so, definitely. promised to. do,.our;
prayer will ‘bring 1 no result. Here is where a countless multitude of earnest seekers for the Baptism with the Holy Spirit fail of obtaining the blessing, they do not confidently expect. They meet the other conditions, they pray definitely and earnestly, but they do not confidently expect and therefore they do not get.
j But there SQ ih the
There is a faith’ the hat puts out its hand and takes on Une
“spot t uething it asks of cat That comes out in ‘the Revised Version of Mark 24: “Therefore I say
unto you, all things aherdoevee ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.” (The American Standard Revision has gone back to the translation of the Authorized Version, “believe that ye receive them,” but without warrant in the Greek text. Indeed, they say themselves in the margin, ‘ Greek, received, well if that is the Greek why do they not put it into the text, for we ought to know exactly what Jesus Christ said). This change in the Revised Version greatly bothered me when it first appeared. I got one of the earliest copies of the Revised New Testament. You will remember that the New Testament came out before the Old did, and I secured one of the very earliest copies. 1 started in at the first chapter of Matthew, at the first verse, and noted every change in the Revised Version from “the Authorized Version,” and compared them both with the best Greek text, and noted every change in the margin of my own Bible with my own hand. I do not need to do that any longer; for the Oxford Publishing Company has published a Bible, the Two Version Bible, in which the changes are indicated in the margin. I got on very nicely for the most part, and saw in how many instances the Revised Version was from a better Greek text than “the Authorized Version,” or a more accurate translation, or a more modern rendering of the words and therefore in more easily understandable English. But one day I came to Mark 11:24, and I read the Authorized Version, “What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.” ‘That was plain enough; then I turned to the Revised Version and read, “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for believe that ye have received them and ye shall have them.” I said to myself, what nonsense, what a confusion of the tenses, “believe that ye have received them,” past tense, “and ye shall have them,”
future tense, in other words, “believe that you have received” and “you shall have what you have already got.”
Then I turned to the Greek text, and I found out that whether it was sense or nonsense, the Revised Version was the right rendering of the Greek text, only it should have used the aorist instead of the perfect tense. “Well,” I said, “it must be so, but what does it mean,” and for the life of me I could not tell and I did not discover for years. But some years later I said to my people in Minneapolis, “I am going to take you through the First Epistle of John, verse by verse. I will study the verses during the week and will give to you on the Lord’s Day what I find during the week, and if I find anything in First John that does not agree with my theology, I will change my theology at that point.” Well, I got on very nicely until I got to the last chapter, although I did have to change my theology at some points. One day in my study, I came to 1 John 5: 14, 15, “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him.” And then I understood Mark 11:24. Do you see it?
I see that some of you do and some of you do not. Well, I will explain it so that every child here can understand it. When you come to God in prayer, the first question to ask is, “Is that petition that I asked of God ‘according to His will’?” If it is definitely promised in His Word, then, of course, you know it is “according to His will.” Now then read 1 John 5: 14, “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.”, Then saying to yourself, “I asked this definite thing, I know it is according to God’s will because it is definitely promised in His Word, therefore according to 1 John 5:14 I know that He has heard me.” Then read the fifteenth verse, “And if we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him,” and claim the thing as yours, not because you feel it but because God so definitely says so in His Word.
Now apply this to the matter of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. You have taken all the other six steps, and you have come to God and asked Him definitely to baptize you with the Holy Spirit (or, to fill you with the Holy Spirit, as the case may be). Then ask yourself, “Is this petition of mine according to His will?” You know that it is because Acts 2:39 and Luke 11:13 say so. Then read 1 John 5:14, “This is the confidence that we have toward Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.’ Then say, “I asked the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, I know that is according to His will because God says so in Luke 11:13 and Acts 2:39, therefore, I know He has heard me.” ‘Then read the fifteenth verse, “and if we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him.” ‘The petition I asked was the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, I know He has heard me, I know I have what I asked, I kKNow I HAvE THE Bap-TISM WITH THE Hoy Spirit. And wuHat you THUS TAKE UPON NAKED FAITH IN THE WorpD OF God, YOU SHALL AFTERWARDS HAVE IN ACTUAL EXPERIMENTAL, POSSESSION.
Let me give you a concrete illustration. Mr. F. B. Meyer, of London, and I had gone together to a Students’ Conference at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He spoke that night on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. When he finished he said, “If any of you wish to speak to Mr. Torrey or myself about this matter, we will stay and talk with you after the meeting is over.” A young man came to me who had just graduated from the Illinois College. He said, “I heard of this blessing a month ago and [ have been praying for it ever since but I do not get it, what is the matter?” I said, “Is your will laid down, is your will fully surrendered to God?” He replied, “No, I don’t think it is.” I said, “Well, your praying will do no good until your will is laid down. Will you lay your will down now?” He said, “I cannot.” Then I said, “Are you willing that God should lay it down for you?” He said, “I am.” Then I said, “Let us kneel down and ask God to do it.” I put two chairs side by side, and we knelt down by them. I opened my Bible to 1 John 5:14. 15 and laid it open on the chair in front of the young man. “Now,’ I said, “ask God to lay your will down for you.” He prayed, “Heavenly Father, lay my will down for me, empty me of my self-will, bring my will into absolute surrender to Thine own, I ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus.” I said, “Is it done?” He said, “It must be, I have asked something according to His will and I know He has heard me and I know He has done what I ask of Him.” I said, “All right. What is it you want?” He replied, “I want the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.” I said, “Ask for it.” Again he prayed, “Heavenly Father, baptize me with the Holy Spirit right now. I ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus.” I asked, “Is it done?” “He said, “I don’t feel it.”oul said) That is not what I asked you. Read again the verse before you,” and he read, “This is the confidence we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.” I said, “Was what you asked something according to His will?” He said, “It was, Luke 11:13 and Acts 2:39 say so.” Then I said, “What, then, do you know?” He said, “I know He hears me.” “All right, read the next verse,” and he read, “And if we know He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” I said, “What do you know?” He said, “I know that I have the petition that I have asked of Him.” I said, “What is the petition that you asked of Him?” He said, “The Baptism with the Holy Spirit.” I said, “What do you know?” He replied, “J know that I have the Baptism with the Holy Spirit; I don’t feel it, but God says so.” We got up; I had a few more words with him and he went to his tent and I went to mine.
The next morning I took the boat for an early train to Chicago. I came back a few days later; I saw this young man down in the audience, and standing on the platform I looked over to him where he was sitting in the amphitheatre and said, “Did you really receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit?” He did not need to answer, for his face told the story. But he did answer, that he had. Two or three years later I told this incident at a meeting of the Methodist ministers in Chicago, and an inquisitive brother asked me, “Well, what became of the young man?” JI had to reply, “I do not know.” But within two weeks, as I was sitting in my office in the Bible Institute of Chicago, there came a rap at my door. I said, “Come in.” A fine-looking young fellow walked in. He said, “Do you recognize me?” [I replied, “I know I have seen you somewhere, but I cannot place you.” Weal, it was this young man. He was now in the Chicago Theological Seminary. A few days later a group of students from the Chicago Theological Seminary came over to invite me to speak at the seminary on the Day of
Prayer for Colleges. I asked them how this young man
was getting on, and they told me he was getting on in a
wonderful way, that although he was only a middler in
the seminary, the seminary had already given him a church up in Wisconsin, which, they added, was a very
unusual thing, but they said something better still, “He
is having conversions all the time.”
When The Day of Prayer came, I went over to the seminary and spoke on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God came upon them. After I had left the room they began praying in English, French, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and German — no supernatural gift of tongues, these were the native languages of the different students — and President Fiske, President of the seminary at that time, wrote to the Boston Congregationalist that they had a perfect Pentecost; and it all came through this young fellow who took the Baptism with the Holy Spirit by naked faith in the simple Word of God, at Lake Geneva, and any one in this auditorium this morning can take it the same way right now.
IV. THREE QUESTIONS
Now there are some very important questions that some of you would like to ask me, so I am going to ask them for you.
1. The first question that some of you will want to ask is, MUST WE KNOW NOT THAT WE HAVE THE BAPTISM WITH THE HoLy SPIRIT BEFORE WE TAKE UP OUR WORK? Yes, we certainly should. Bur How KNow? ‘There are two ways of knowing things: First, by the plain statement of God’s Word, and Second, by experience; and knowing by God’s Word is a surer way of knowing than knowing by experience. Our experiences, or at least, our feelings, come and go, according to what we are eating or the state of our health; but the Word of God always remains the same; and as we have just seen, you can know by the naked Word of God right today that you have received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. Whether you have felt it or not, you can claim it by simple faith in the inerrantly inspired Word of God.
2. But some of you will desire to ask a second question, May WE NoT HAVE TO WAIT FOR SOME TIME FOR THE BapTisM WITH THE Hoty Spirit just as the Apostles had to wait ten days between the day when the Lord Jesus gave the promise and Pentecost? In answer to this question, I would ask, “Have you never noticed that the Bible tells us just why the disciples had to wait ten days?” Read Acts 2:1, 2 and you will find out just why the disciples had to wait ten days: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come (the Greek is, ‘was being fulfilled’), they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.” In other words, the Holy Ghost could not come upon them until the day of Pentecost had fully come, Way back in the Old Testament types, yes, way back in the eternal counsels of God, the Day of Pentecost was set for the imparting of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gathering of the Church; and He could not be given therefore until the Day of Pentecost was fully come. But now the Day of Pentecost has fully come and THERE IS NO NEED OF TARRYING Now. Was there any waiting after Pentecost? Read Acts 4:31, “And when they had prayed the place was shaken wherein they were gathered together; they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.”
Was there any waiting in the household of Cornelius? They were listening to the first gospel sermon they had ever heard and Peter reached the climax of his sermon, Acts 10:43, “’To Him (that is, to the Lord Jesus) give all the prophets witness, that through His name every one that believeth on Him shall receive remission of sins,” and instantly they all believed and immediately the Holy Ghost fell upon them, right then and there. Was there any waiting in the case of Saul of Tarsus? We read in Acts 9:17, “And Ananias departed, and entered into the house (that is, the house where Saul of Tarsus was waiting in his blindness); and laying his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way which thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.” And he took him and baptized him, then prayed with him, and immediately he was filled with the Holy Ghost, baptized with the Holy Ghost; and we read two verses farther down, “And straightway in the synagogues he proclaimed Jesus, that He is the Son of God. And all that heard him were amazed and said, is not this he that in Jerusalem made havoc of them which called on this name? ... But Saul, increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the Christ.”
They did have to wait at Ephesus, but simply because the fault was entirely in themselves, they did not know that the Holy Spirit was yet given; but when Paul told them He had been given and they took the necessary steps, they were all baptized with the Holy Ghost right then and there, before the meeting broke up. So you may have to wait, but if so, the reason of waiting will not be in God but in yourself. It is the will of God that every child of His who has not already been baptized with the Holy Spirit should be so baptized today, but you may delay the blessing by not resting upon the finished work of Christ as the sole ground of your acceptance before God, or by not putting away every known sin, or by not openly confessing your renunciation of sin and your acceptance of Christ before the world, or by not making a full surrender to God, or by not desiring the blessing at any cost, or by not definitely praying, or by not expecting and claiming it right here now. But if you do have to wait ten days or even ten minutes, the trouble will be entirely with you and not with God. ANy ONE oF you MAY BE BAPTIZED WITH THE HoLy SPIRIT BEFORE YOU LEAVE THIS BUILDING, or if you have already been thus baptized, be filled anew.
3. But there is a third question that some of you will wish to ask, and it is a very important one, and that is this: WILL, THERE BE NO MANIFESTATION OF THE BAp-TISM WITH THE Hoty SPIRIT WHEN WE ARE THUS BAPTIZED, AND WILL EVERYTHING BE JUST THE SAME AS IT WAS BEFORE, AND IF IT IS, WHAT IS THE GOOD OF IT ANYWAY? Yes, indeed, there will be a manifestation; but please notice two things: First, the character of the manifestation; Second, the time of the manifestation.
First, let us take up The Character of the Manifestation, or, How the Baptism with the Holy Spirit Will Manifest Itself in Your Case. Some of you possibly expect the manifestation to be “the gift of tongues,” or “speaking in tongues,” and expect no other; but, as we saw the other day, such expectation is entirely unscriptural and such dictation to the Holy Spirit is contrary to the plain teaching of the Word of God. But some of you will expect an entirely different manifestation. Very likely you have read the story of the experience of John Wesley, and Charles G. Finney, and D. L. Moody. All of these tell very nearly the same story. Mr. Finney put it about this way, that when he was baptized with the Holy Ghost, great waves like electricity swept over him, and he had to pray to God to withhold his hand lest he die from very ecstasy on the spot. Mr. Moody, though he seldom told it, had a somewhat similar experience. Now many of you expect something like that. I do not deny the reality of these experiences. The word of men like Charles G. Finney and D. L. Moody is to be believed; and there is another reason why I do not deny them, which I probably would better not mention. But I challenge any one to show me anywhere in the Bible one single record of any such an experience. I am inclined to think that the apostles had them; but if they did they kept them to themselves, and I am glad they did, for if any one of them had described such an experience that is what we would all have been looking for.
What was the manifestation in every case recorded in the Bible? SomMx NEW POWER IN SERVICE. On the Day of Pentecost, they spoke with the tongues of the different people who were there present, spoke “the mighty works of God” in those tongues (Acts 2:6, 8, 11). They were understood by the people there present, resulting in a great number of definite conversions of people who heard them speaking in the tongues in which they were born. The “speaking with other tongues” on this occasion had not the slightest resemblance to the “pee with tongues” of which some boast today.
In the case of Saul of Tarsus, there was no record of his speaking in tongues at that time, although we have reason to know that Paul did at some times alone by himself speak with tongues, but he declared that in the public assembly, “I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (1 Cor. 14:19). What was the manifestation in Paul’s case? Turn to Acts 9:17-22, and you will find the manifestation was simply this, that he proclaimed Jesus as the Christ with irresistible power; and THAT WILL BE THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTER OF THE MANIFESTATION IN YOUR CASE, NEW POWER IN THE WORK THAT GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO DO.
Now let us look at THE TIME OF THE MANIFESTATION. When will the manifestation come? AFTER WE TAKE THE BAPTISM WITH THE SPIRIT ON SIMPLE FAITH IN THE NAKED Worp oF God. God’s order is this: First, God’s Word, God’s promise; Second, our faith in the Word of God, simply because God says it; Third — experience. The human heart tries to change God’s order and have First, the Word, the promise of God; Second, experience; and then Third, faith. But that is not faith at all, Take the case of Abraham. God told Abraham that he was to be a father of many nations. Abraham had no reason for believing it other than the Word of God. In itself it was incredible; he was 100 years old and his wife nearly that, They were both beyond the age of having children, but the record is that “Abraham believed God,’ and “God reckoned” Abraham’s simple faith in the unsupported Word of God (just because God said it) “for righteousness.” Abraham had no thrills then! No, just God’s Word, that and that alone. He had thrills enough when the child was born, and he saw Isaac with his own eyes, because he believed God’s naked Word, T HE ONE THING THAT GOD DEMANDS OF MEN IS THAT MEN BE-LIEVE WHAT HE SAYS JUST BECAUSE HE says IT; that’s faith. Whenever you require some feeling or some experience before you believe God’s Word, you are making God a liar.
Take my own experience. I had been a minister for some years before I came to the place where I saw that I had no right to preach until I was definitely baptized with the Holy Ghost. I went to a business friend of mine and said to him in private, “I am never going to enter my pulpit again until I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and know it, or until God in some way tells me to go.” Then, just as far as I could, I shut myself up alone in my study and spent the time continually on my knees asking God to baptize me with the Holy Spirit. As the days passed, the devil tried to tempt me by saying, “Suppose Sunday comes and you are not baptized with the Holy Spirit, what then?” I replied, “Whatever comes, I will not go into my pulpit and preach again until I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and know it, or God in some way tells me to go; even though I have to tell my people that I have never been fit to preach.” But Sunday did not come before the blessing came. I had it more or less definitely mapped out in my mind what would happen; but what I had mapped out in my mind did not happen. I recall the exact spot where I was kneeling in prayer in my study. I could go to the very spot in that house at 1348 N. Adams St., Minneapolis. It was a very quiet moment, one of the most quiet mo-. ments I ever knew; indeed, I think one reason I had to wait so long was because it took that long before my soul could get quiet before God. Then God simply said to me, not in any audible voice, but in my heart, “It’s yours. Now go and preach.” Oh, if I had only known my Bible better. He had already said it to me in His Word in 1 John 5:14, 15; but I did not then know my Bible as well as I know it now, and God had pity on my ignorance and said it directly to my soul. You do not need to have it said directly to your soul; for I have shown it to you this morning in His Word.
I went and preached, and I have been a new minister from that day to this. I was then the pastor of a very small and obscure church, though I had taken two degrees at Yale and had studied at two German universities, But from that time my field began to wonderfully enlarge until at last I had preached the gospel around the world and had seen I suppose hundreds of thousands converted to Christ.
Some time after this experience (I do not recall just how long after), while sitting in my room one day, that very same room, I recall just where I was sitting, before my revolving bookcase, I do not know whether I was thinking about this subject at all, I do not remember, but suddenly, as near as I can describe it, though it does not exactly describe it, I was struck from my chair on to the floor and I found myself shouting (I was not brought up to shout and I am not of a shouting temperament, but I shouted like the loudest shouting Methodist) “glory to God, glory to God, glory to God,” and I could not stop. I tried to stop, but it was just as if some other power than my own was moving my jaws. At last, when I had succeeded in pulling myself together, I went down-stairs and told my wife what had happened. But that was not when I was baptized with the Holy Spirit. I was baptized with the Holy Spirit when I took Him by simple faith in the naked Word of God, and any one of you can be thus baptized today, yes, you can be thus baptized before you leave this building this afternoon. God grant that you may be. What I am trying to get you to do more than all else is just to get you to believe God’
Word without any other guarantee and.to.take.the Bap-| tism with the Holy Spirit by simple faith.in God’s Word.
Let me tell you one more incident before I close. July’
8, 1894, I was at a Students’ Convention at Northfield, Mass. The preceding night I had spoken in Stone Hall upon “The Baptism with the Holy Spirit; What It Is, What It Does, Who Needs It, and Who Can Have It,” and now the closing Sunday morning service was being held in the Congregational Church, and I was speaking on “The Baptism with the Holy Spirit, How To Obtain It.” I said very much what I have said to you this afternoon and yesterday afternoon. As I finished, I took out my watch and saw that it was exactly twelve o’clock. I turned to that great body of students and said, “Mr. Moody has invited us to go up on the mountain this afternoon at three o’clock to pray that we may receive the Holy Spirit. It is now exactly twelve o’clock, it is three hours to three o’clock, some of you cannot wait three hours and you do not need to. Go to your room in the hotel, go to your room in the buildings, go to your tent, go out into the woods, go anywhere where you can get alone with God and have this matter out with God.”
That afternoon at three o’clock we all met up in front of Mr. Moody’s mother’s house, she was still living then. Then we went down through the lane and through the gate, 456 of us in all, Paul Moody counted us as we went through the gate. Four hundred and fifty-six men from Yale, Harvard Amherst, Dartmouth and other Eastern colleges, and went up the mountain side. After we had gone some distance, Mr. Moody said, “I think we do not need to go any farther, let us stop here.” He sat down on a stump, others sat down on logs, or on the ground. Mr. Moody said, “Before we go to God in prayer, have any of you anything to say?” One after another of those men arose, I should think about seventy-five in all (as I recall it), and said in substance, “Mr. Moody, I could not wait until three o’clock, I have been alone with God and I believe I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit.” When these testimonies were over, Mr. Moody said, “I can see no reason why we should not kneel down right here now and ask God that the Holy Spirit may come upon us just as definitely as He came upon the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost. Let us pray.” We knelt in prayer, some of us lay on the ground on our faces (there were no women present; all men), and we began to pray. As we had gone up the mountain side clouds had been gathering over the mountain, and as we began to pray, the clouds broke and the raindrops began to fall upon us through the overhanging pine needles, But another cloud ‘had been gathering over Northfield for ten days, a coud! big with the grace and power of God. As we began to ‘pray our prayers seemed to pierce that cloud, and the /Hol Ghost fell upon us. jf * “Men and women, if T am any judge, a cloud has been “gathering over this building for some days, a cloud big with the grace and power of God. Why not pierce that cloud with our prayers right now?
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