And as His baptism was open to all who chose to avail themselves of it, so would be the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. John could not have had any special hierarchy or select company or line of men in view, but as many as would claim the marvellous privilege. when Peter on the day of Pentecost addressed the mixed multitude drawn together to hear the Gospel, and was asked by anxious souls, "What shall we do?" his reply was, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." And that Jesus meant that all might claim the gift is evident from his words. "If any man thirst let him come to me and drink; and he that believeth on me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water." This spake He of the Spirit which they should receive who believe on Him. Possibly some Christian, possibly many, may receive little because of little faith, and may care for small service, and therefore for small enduement of power. But the longing soul that thirsts for all the fulness of the indwelling comfort and revelation, the indwelling love and power for service, shall receive most lovingly and largely from the Giver of this marvellous gift. No gifts of God are useless, and it is not likely that very large endowments of spiritual power and spiritual graces will be given to slothful servants or dull sluggish souls who aspire no higher than to be "saved though as by fire.' Of this, as of other gifts, blessed are they that do hunger and thirst, for they shall be filled. The thirsty soul thirsting after the realisation of the love of God, and for power for service in winning souls, shall receive the baptism of the Spirit, and find that the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit given unto him, and that power of tenderness and utterance and insight into the things of Christ will be given to him in a really wonderful degree. "If we have not, it is because we ask not, or because we ask amiss." It is not usual for God to give these blessings for self-congratulation and self-glorification, or that a man may feel endowed and big with glory. And many souls have failed to realise the special baptism of the Spirit because it has only been sought as a glory and something to rejoice in as a gift. But really, even God the Holy Ghost does not desire to be an ornament to a man, or something about which he may boast. Let a man, however, give up all of self, be willing to be emptied by God, be ready to be used for Him and by Him-thirst with long-drawn thirst, and go to Christ and drink, and he shall find this wondrous gift. It is not straining the truth to say that many Christians do not live even in desire up to their privileges. I do not speak now of failing to reach the high standard they have before them, and rightly saying, "I count not myself to have attained," but I speak of the absence even of yearning after their privileges, and of mourning that they do not reach even near to them. But who would not have Thee, O priceless gift, the very indwelling Holy Spirit, moving, subduing, stirring, filling, overpowering, and burning like a fire in the bones! Oh, who would not have Thee, tender, loving, mighty, quiet, and yet resistless Spirit, enduing all the life with love and power and joy unspeakable and full of glory! Who would not have Thee saturating every thought and feeling, every desire and hope, every aspiration and motive, with Divine and quickening life! Who would not have Thee giving utterance, taking of the things of Christ, and showing them unto the soul, showing things to come, guiding into all truth, bringing Christ's truths ever again to remembrance, glorifying the Saviour, giving assurance of His indwelling, and fitting the whole life to be a testimony for Jesus, convincing the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment ! And yet how saddening that so many seem to be asleep to the truth that they may have comfort and joy in the Holy Ghost, and be endued with power after they have received the Holy Ghost, and be witnesses for Christ wherever they go! Can it be that they "have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost?" Can it be that they think it is not for them, but only for some favoured eminent few, specially gifted of God for some recondite reasons, hid in His own inscrutable will? Or is it that they are in a haze of confused ideas about this matter, which they have not striven with God-given might to remove, by coming to "the Light which disperses all such mists." Beloved readers, I am sure that our heavenly Lord, the Light, will give us light on this most important subject, so important for special enlightment in the Christian life, and for special power for service in witnessing for Him. "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." "As my Father sent me into the world, even so send I you." "The Spirit of the Lord rested upon me, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge . . . and of quick understanding." "Even so send I you into the world." But do not let us suppose that these precious gifts come as a matter of course, whether we are tarrying and praying for them, or quietly dozing away our life in slowness of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. We must tarry in Jerusalem till we be endued with power from on high ; tarry in prayer and supplication with great faith, remembering that the promise is also to us and to our very children. "Ye shall be endued with power not many days hence." "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. And he that believeth on me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water.' The great question now placed before us here is not, Are we as Christians regenerated by the Spirit? Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.' It is not, Are we the temples of the Holy Ghost? All Christians are temples of the Holy Ghost. Even in the same chapters in which the Apostle Paul speaks to the Corinthians: "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ". "-he says, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." But the temple of the Lord may possibly be like the temple in the time of Christ, full of unholy traffic. The question is not, Does the Holy Spirit work in us, or strive with us? The Holy Ghost from the beginning has had a work on the spirit of man, and whatever work has been carried on in the soul of any man must have been by the operation of God's Holy Spirit. Yet there may be very feeble life, held as it were by one fibre of living connection, like a branch which is broken, but has only just sufficient connection with the stem to keep life in it. The current and power of life, and the working of the spiritual forces of life within us, may be lamentably feeble. And yet this feeble work is by the Holy Spirit. But the question, with very grave emphasis, is, Are we " filled with the Spirit;" "immersed in the Holy Spirit and in fire"? Are we saturated in the Holy Spirit as a sponge in water, of which it can be said, it is both baptized in the water, and the water is in it; or as a piece of iron in a state of white heat within a fire, of which it may be said, it is both baptized in the fire, and the fire is in it? Is the promise being fulfilled in our individual case, that out of us are flowing "rivers of living water"? Have we received power after the Spirit of God has come upon us, and are we witnesses of Christ, wherever we are called to go, in the true sense of being martyrs, ready to shed the last drop of martyr blood for Christ? Are we full of joy and the Holy Ghost, as were many in the early Church? Everything seems to be pointing on to a marvellous Pentecost, when the Church shall be widely awake to the fulness of the promise, and every Christian shall claim the magnificent, generous gift of the overflowing fulness of the Spirit-the very baptism in the Holy Ghost and fire. God, the loving Lord, hasten it. And you, beloved Christian, who may read this, claim your inestimable privilege, as many are doing it in these last days, so that in your individual case, it may fulfilled with assurance: be "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and shall be witnesses [μáprupes] unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." "GOD'S RAVEN." A LADY who lived on the north side of London, set out one day to see a poor sick friend living in Drury Lane, and took with her a basket provided with tea, butter, and food. The day was fine and clear when she started; but as she drew near Islington a thick fog came on and somewhat frightened her, as she was deaf and feared it might be dangerous in the streets if she could not see. Thicker and darker the fog became; they lighted the lamps, and the omnibus went at a walking pace. She might have got into another omnibus and returned; but a strong feeling which she could not explain made her go on. When they reached the Strand they could see nothing. At last the omnibus stopped, and the conductor guided her to the footpath. As she was groping her way along the fog cleared up just at the entrance to Drury Lane, and even the blue sky was seen. She now easily found the narrow court, rang the No. 5 bell, and climbed to the fifth story. She knocked at the door, and a little girl opened it. "How is grandmother?" Come in, Mrs. A- ,"answered the grandmother. "How did you get here? We have been in thick darkness all day." The room was exceedingly neat, and the kettle stood boiling on a small clear fire. Everything was in perfect order; on the table stood a little tea-tray ready for use. The sick woman was in bed, and her daughter sat working in a corner of the room. "I see you are ready for tea," said the lady; "I have brought something more to place upon the table." With clasped hands the woman breathed a few words of thanksgiving first, and then said, "Oh, Mrs. A- -, you are indeed God's raven, sent by Him to bring us food to-day, for we have not tasted any yet. I felt sure He would care for us." "But you have the kettle ready for tea ?" 66 Yes, ma'am," said the daughter; "mother would have me set it on the fire; and when I said, What is the use of doing so? you know we have nothing in the house,' she still would have it, and said, My child, God will provide. Thirty years He has already provided for me, through all my pain and helplessness, and He will not leave me to starve at last: He will send us help, though we do not yet see how.' In this expectation mother has been waiting all day, quite sure that some one would come and supply our need. But we did not think of the possibility of your coming from such a distance on such a day. Indeed, it must be God who sent you to us." "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles." FAITHFUL SAYINGS. NOTES ON THE DECLARATIONS SO TERMED IN THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. BY THE REV. H. C. LEONARD, M.A. IN entering on the consideration of the third of these "sayings' we are met by a preliminary difficulty. Shall we find the text in the sentence before or after the emphatic words which declare the "faith fulness"? Either part of the context might be thought sufficiently important. Following the weight of authority, and especially remembering the character of the quotations before us as "words of wisdom" prompted by the Spirit of truth in the Christian assemblies, we pass by the double promise of godliness and find our "saying" in 1 Tim. iv. 9, 10. III. "FAITHFUL IS THE SAYING AND WORTHY OF ALL ACCEPTATION, FOR THEREFORE WE BOTH TOIL AND ENDURE REPROACH BECAUSE WE HAVE FIXED OUR HOPE ON THE LIVING GOD, WHO IS THE SAVIOUR OF ALL MEN, SPECIALLY OF THEM THAT BELIEVE. The former declarations have had to do with the outward gifts of salvation and ministry. Now we are brought into the inner region of Christian experience, while still, as in them all, there is a doctrinal lesson. Here then are set forth the Christian's endurance and the secret of that endurance. 1. The Christian's endurance.-"We toil and endure reproach." It is the utterance of early Christian experience, an experience often repeated in the following ages, the experience of many Christians now, yet not necessarily our experience or that of all believers. The mistake is often made of repeating expressions which burst from brave and suffering hearts in times very different from ours, as though, because we find them in the Bible, they must necessarily suit our case. There is more poetry than truth in the words we sometimes sing: "No sweeter is the cup, Nor less our lot of ill; 'Twas tribulation ages since, Truly the cup and the lot of St. Paul, and of many likeminded with him, differed much from ours. Listen to his description: "In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." Such was the Christian life then, and such to some is the Christian life now. But, it may be asked, is not this the common lot? Toil and suffering are not peculiar to Christians. "Men must work and women must weep!" It was a busy world then, and it is a busy world now. Men toil in the pursuits of war, of commerce, of political and social life, and often it is the women who work, and sometimes it is the men who weep. Most of us know what it is to labour and to suffer. But the labours here spoken of are beyond and above the common lot of humanity. They are toils freely taken up, the toils of Christian workers and specially (no doubt) the labours of evangelists. It is true that toils, that active self-denying labours, are not peculiar to Christians any more than other labours are. The children of light may learn something here from the children of this |
