Standards of Life and Service Part 8

XIII

The Baptism of the Spirit

'_And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.... And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost._' (Acts ii.

2, 4.)

The Holy Ghost is the active force in all spiritual life. It is, therefore, important that we should realize the close connexion between the experience of Holiness and that 'Promise of the Father' for which the early disciples were to wait. All followers of Jesus should realize, as truly as the disciples did on that historic day, that their day of Pentecost has fully come, and each of us should be able to say, 'Not only was the Holy Ghost outpoured upon the waiting host in that Jewish centre, but Pentecost has come to my heart. The Spirit of the living G.o.d has come to me.'

Now, whatever manifestations of the Holy Ghost there might have been in Old Testament times--and without question there were some wonderful displays--the age in which we live is the dispensation of the Holy Ghost for us. Our Lord said that He should come to convince the world of sin, and to produce many other mighty effects.

To my mind, that Pentecostal event was like the launching of G.o.d's great campaign for the evangelization of the world. The world without the Holy Ghost would be as dark, spiritually, as the material world was in the beginning before the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters, and G.o.d said, 'Let there be light'.

Going over Peter's sermon on that occasion, we find him quoting Joel's very wonderful prophecy, claiming its fulfilment that day. And amongst all the glorious truths that have been proclaimed in our own time, there is none grander than that G.o.d will dwell with men--yea, the Spirit of G.o.d will dwell _in_ men.

You cannot read your Bibles, nor look through the books of human experience, without seeing that G.o.d's great purpose in the outpouring of the Spirit was the setting up of His Kingdom upon the earth. And we see that as the Son of G.o.d humbled Himself to earth's poverty, ignominy, and death, to redeem men, so the Holy Ghost is sent to be the great operating force in leading the world back to G.o.d. The hope of the world is in the presence of the Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ.

_It is so in relation to the individual soul._ The Holy Ghost stands at the door of the Kingdom of G.o.d, either to bar the entrance or to fit the soul to enter. You remember the Saviour's words to Nicodemus, 'Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of G.o.d'. There is, and can be, no entrance without conversion.

'No man', says Paul, 'can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.' And when some would have put outward religion or the profession of it in the place of this conversion, the deciding point was stated in unmistakable terms: 'If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His.' The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Health, the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of Power, and there would be no hope for the human soul or the individual life apart from His gracious presence and influence.

This matter cannot be explained in terms of ordinary language, but it is none the less real and definite in human experience. To Nicodemus, Jesus said, 'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit'. The Spirit, like the wind, is mysterious in movement, uncontrolled by human restriction, and yet its influences are all-pervading. The courses of the wind are to be discerned by the effects; equally so will the Spirit's operations; mysterious, unfettered, unexplainable these operations may be, but the effects are discernible in ourselves and others.

a.n.a.lysing the purpose of G.o.d in the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, _we see its application to ourselves in several ways_.

There is the rectification of our own hearts, the revealing of Divine things within us, the transforming of our characters. All these are indications of the Holy Ghost's work in ourselves; and then comes the power to help and bless and save others, G.o.d making us channels of blessing, and instruments by which His Kingdom can be extended.

In this connexion there are two sayings of Jesus, which, although the figure is changed, come up together in my mind. The first is in the story of the woman at the well in Samaria. The Saviour said to her what is very applicable to you, 'Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life'.

Later, on the last day of the feast, Jesus said, 'He that believeth on Me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water'. Do you see what those two sayings of Jesus set before us? The one shows how the Baptism of the Spirit provides the inward spring, the inward supply, bubbling up within, fresh, clean, sweet, and vitalizing like a 'fountain ever springing'; the other indicates the outflow, from us to others, of this spiritual force and blessing.

Now, you want both the inward spring and the outward flow. Some of you are very desirous about the second provision: 'Out of you shall flow rivers of living water'. It is good that you have such desires; but before you can become a channel through which the vital force can flow for the Salvation of others, you must yourselves be the subject of the Spirit's operations within you. Not only as the great Revealer must the Holy Ghost make Divine things real to you, but as a purifying flame He must change your nature, purging away the natural corruption and sinfulness of your heart.

An Eastern legend says that an angel once rested by a fair fountain. In a favoured hour he infused it with a mysterious power, so that if only some drops of its water were scattered in a barren plain, a fountain of sweet water would spring up. Any traveller who henceforth came to the spring might, after refreshing himself, take some portion from it, and carry with him the secret of unfailing springs, and suffer no fear of thirst either for himself or those with him.

We are such travellers, and for us the water which Christ gives is better than that fabled fountain, for he who carries the precious water may drop it in places where no spiritual water is, and so bring life and blessing to the mult.i.tudes of needy souls. Oh, note the words, 'The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up', and 'out of him shall flow rivers of living water'. This He spake of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should afterwards receive.

That is a very blessed promise, 'Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you'; and yet, so far as we understand the prevailing experience of Christian people, the promises of power are very feebly realized, and very slowly acted upon. When we see the manifest lack of the Holy Ghost in the experience, and ask, 'Why is this?' we know that the cause may lie in certain easily defined facts.

One reason may be the actual _existence of sin in the heart_--some hidden or secret wrong. There are numbers in whose hearts there is something wrong. Is it so with you? Is there some inward love of or desire for evil? Or the world spirit--is that there? Or anything of a similar character? Now, before the Holy Ghost can flow into you, to say nothing of Him flowing through and out of you, these wrong things must be purged away by the cleansing stream; or, to change the figure, the purifying flame must

_Burn up the dross of base desire, And make the mountains flow._

Or the hindrance may lie in a _want of surrender and faith_, without which the Spirit cannot possess and use us. I am not speaking of some act of surrender or faith only, but also of that condition which must be maintained. It is just that neglect or withdrawal which disturbs the touch with G.o.d, and so the connexion is broken. You are all familiar with the electric switch and the light. You know how slight is the thing which connects or disconnects the current. A child's finger can touch a b.u.t.ton which will turn on enough electricity to blast a rock or move the machinery of a great factory.

And so I tell you that little things which are held on to against G.o.d's will switch off the Power. That unwillingness in some hearts to follow the Lord, and do as He commands, will switch it off; that spirit which chooses to do this, but won't do that; which says, 'I will go here, but I won't go there', that sort of thing breaks the connexion.

This comes home very close to some of you, for, alas! it is just there that your power fails. You must ask yourselves what are the hindrances, if any, in your hearts and lives? Some of you are weak, wavering, wobbling, and uncertain. If you look closely you will find the secret of that in your want of surrender and faith. Do not make a mistake; the inward experience is closely related to the outward service. G.o.d's plan is first to do the cleansing, and then the filling; first the inward spring, and then the outward flowing river.

One other important thing. If you have not got the Holy Spirit abiding within you, _no subst.i.tute will meet the need_. Many try to make other things produce the same effects--religious talking, singing, energetic service, or the memories of spiritual experiences. These are all very good, but of themselves they will no more meet the necessities of your hearts and lives than a picture of a fire will warm the man who spreads out his hands before it. You must have the real thing--the power of the Holy Ghost.

Now, the Lord is around and among us, saying, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost'; and whether you are an enslaved sinner, or a backslider in heart; or whether it is the a.s.surance of Salvation, cleansing from sin, or power for service, which you lack, the Holy Ghost will meet your particular need. Let G.o.d work His will in you, and in Jesus Christ's name I say, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost'.

_'Tis fire we want, for fire we plead, Send the fire!

The fire will meet our every need, Send the fire!

For strength to ever do the right, For grace to conquer in the fight, For power to walk the world in white, Send the fire!_

_To make our weak hearts strong and brave, Send the fire!

To live a dying world to save, Send the fire!

Oh, see us on Thy altar lay Our lives, our all, this very day-- To crown the offering now we pray, Send the fire!_

XIV

Lost Earnings

'_He that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes._' (Haggai i. 6.)

In our Holiness Meetings we often speak of Full Salvation as a blessing to be obtained, and also a blessing to be retained; but I want now to turn the truth the other way round, and speak about 'losing the blessing'. These words of Haggai about the man who lost his earnings through a faulty bag will serve me as a text, and are very significant.

As a figure of speech, the words are well understood. From the boy who, by holding a horse, or running errands, earns threepence, and puts it into a pocket with a hole at the bottom, to the man or woman who puts the savings of years into a rotten speculation, all know the literal meaning of Haggai's text, 'He that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes'.

The central idea is that something gained by hard effort has been lost, and that the loss was due to the man's own fault. The man had earned his wages, and then let what he had won by toil slip through holes in the bag into which he put it. The possibility of this in relation to spiritual blessings is a danger we are warned against in G.o.d's Word, and the necessity for guarding against such losses is one of the important lessons to be learned.

This text reminds me of an incident and parable in the Book of Kings.

During the progress of a battle one of the leaders, having captured a prisoner, called to a subordinate and placed the captive in his care, to be kept at the risk of his life. Later, the man had to give an account, and when admitting the loss of the prisoner he said, 'As thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone'. Alas! there are many whose spiritual acquisitions have slipped away like that.

The spiritual application of this thought is brought home to us by a verse in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 'Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip'. If you look in the margin of your Bible, you will see the words, 'run out as leaking vessels', and in the Revised Version the words read, 'drift away from them'. You see the idea is, that unless you are careful you will lose your blessing after having enjoyed it.

Looking round my audiences I can with fitness use these figures, and apply the idea to many who, after tears and agonies of heart, secured the Salvation of their souls, and the heavenly treasure which only the pardoned sinner knows; but, alas! through the faulty bag, or pocket with holes, their earnings slipped away, and they are now spiritual bankrupts, their latter state being worse than the first. Thank G.o.d, if those who have thus lost their Salvation and peace will truly repent and do their first works, they may again obtain heavenly treasure, and with it grace and wisdom to prevent the repet.i.tion of past follies. Let others learn and take heed lest they also drift away, as the Apostle puts it.

My chief purpose, however, relates to those who, though they once _had the blessing of a clean heart, have lost it_. Their present lack is not due to their having exhausted their earnings in lawful pursuits, or because they invested their treasure in sanctified enterprises, but because they have let the blessing slip; or, turning back to Haggai's words, they have been as him 'that earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes'. The experience is a thing of the past. At times they are tempted to say that they were deluded, and never had the blessing, or that they were as a man who only dreamed that he had his wages; but that is not so. The wages were earned, but lost.

So you must not regard your experience as the sensations of a dream.

You had the blessing right enough, and some of you had secured it at no small sacrifice; but, alas! you let it slip out of your possession, and you woke up to find it gone.

It is remarkable how many sanctified people have to testify that before they settled into the regular experience of Full Salvation they lost the blessing which they had received; in fact, some eminent saints have recorded repeated experiences of loss before they learned how to carry themselves and guard against the dangers.

Perhaps here I ought to say definitely, that the Bible does not tell us of any stage in our heavenward journey at which we can be saved from the possibility of losing the blessing. This blessed treasure of perfect purity, peace which pa.s.seth all understanding, and joy unspeakable, is only ours so long as we maintain that entire consecration and faith which are the conditions on which the blessing is received. There is no spot where the advice is not necessary--'Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life'.

Paul put it clearly, 'Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall', and showed how seriously he regarded the matter when he declared that he had to keep his body under and in hand, lest after preaching to others he should himself become a castaway.

I have called to mind two remarkable touches of Bunyan, in his 'Pilgrim's Progress'. The first picture shows us Christian, weary with climbing the Hill Difficulty, turning aside into a pleasant arbour where he sat down to rest. For the comfort of his own heart he pulled out his roll of a.s.surance. He also began to examine with great satisfaction the coat which had been given to him, and 'after pleasing himself for a while' he fell into a slumber, and in his sleep let the roll fall from his hand.