BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY GHOST -- By P. F. Bresee, Los Angeles, Calif.
(Preached at a National Camp Meeting For the Promotion of Holiness)

	I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire (Matt. 3:11).

	For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence (Acts 1:5).

	The dispensation of the Holy Ghost was ushered in soon after the ascension of Jesus, by His coming upon the apostles and disciples in sanctifying and filling power. This was in accord with this prophecy of John the Baptist, in reference to Jesus and His baptism, and Jesus own statement just preceding His ascension, after referring to John's prophecy, and emphasizing his work, that it should be fulfilled not many days hence. This He also declared was in accord with the promise of the Father, which they had heard of Him, evidently referring to His statement to them in view of His expected departure, that He would send the Comforter -- the Holy Ghost -- who was to abide with them forever. All of this was fulfilled as they were gathered together in one place, of one mind, waiting with prayer and supplication, believing the words of Jesus.

	No doubt that up to that time, that was the greatest day the church ever saw. It was the ripe fruitage of all the dispensations which had preceded it. It was the beginning of the time of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was, in a more general sense, the establishment of the kingdom of heaven in human hearts. John the Baptist had said, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus, Himself, when He began to preach also said, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," He commissioned His disciples, when He sent them out, to say the same thing; but now the kingdom is set up and established within. Believers on Jesus Christ are brought into closest unity and fellowship with Him, their King, being made partakers of the same baptism, and thus of the same nature.

	There are two questions connected with this subject which I desire to ask:

	1. Does Jesus still baptize with the Holy Ghost?

	2. What did the Holy Ghost baptism do for the early church?

	First: Does Jesus still baptize with the Holy Ghost. I ask this first, as it makes but little difference to us what this baptism did for believers eighteen hundred years ago, unless Jesus is still in the midst carrying on His ministry of baptism with the Holy Ghost. But if this is the day of this ministry, it is of the utmost importance what was done in and for them, as the same will be done in and for us.

	It would not seem necessary to urge at length that these are the days of the Holy Ghost baptism. It would not seem as if any student of the Word could doubt it. It is certainly the teaching of all prophecy bearing upon this sending of the Comforter, which was the Holy Ghost, by the ministry of Jesus: that it was not to be a momentary flash, not an aurora which was to fade away into darkness, but a glorious day -- a consummation -- a blessed fruitage of all that had preceded it. Joel had said that in the last days the Spirit was to be poured out upon all the flesh; sons and daughters were to prophesy, servants and handmaidens were to receive this divine blessing, and their mouths were to be filled with this new prophecy. This certainly takes in a wider scope than a few disciples and a few days.

	Jesus said that the Comforter would abide forever. Certainly, not simply through the lives of the first disciples, for in same connection Jesus prays for all that should believe on Him through their word, and the promise seems as broad as the prayer. Jesus said it was better that He go away and the Comforter come. Evidently not a temporary gift, but to abide in the church and in the hearts of believers, while He was absent, or until His coming again.

	The great gift of God to man is the Holy Spirit. It was His coming that was to pierce the hearts of men, convince of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. It is He always who regenerates. His coming is incomprehensible, but brings birth into a new life. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and ye hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh and whether it goeth, so is every one born of the Spirit." It is also He who sanctifies and endures unto the end. As Paul says; "Being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." Jesus' great promise of the Spirit, the first time, so far as we know that he alluded to the Holy Spirit in his teaching, is, "Ask and ye shall receive," etc. And then after referring to the earthly father's faithfulness to give what his child asks, adds as an explanation of our heavenly Father's faithfulness and what the great gift is, "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." This certainly was not a temporary promise, but as Peter said, amid the glory of the Pentecost, "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." It was regarded by the early church as the inheritance of all believers. They were everywhere prayed for and urged, and led on that they might receive it. Paul did receive it, three days after his conversion, through the ministry of Ananias. The converts at the city of Samaria, who were so clearly and wonderfully converted through the ministry of the evangelist Philip, received the baptism with the Holy Ghost, through the ministry of Peter and John, who were sent down from Jerusalem, evidently for the purpose of leading them in. At Corinth and Philippi and Ephesus, those who had not received this baptism were prayed for and urged to enter in.

	It was in reference to this that Peter said, the Lord had put no difference between Jew and Gentile -- not only no difference because of race, but there was no difference because of the time which had elapsed between the baptism at Jerusalem and that at Cornelius' house -- and there was as much difference in those few years, as unto this day, for with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

	The church in theory believes that this is the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, and that the last of the last days has not yet passed. We say in our creed, "I believe in the Holy Ghost." It is in our songs. We still sing

"Holy Ghost no more delay,
Come and to Thy temple stay;
Now Thine inward witness bear,
Strong and permanent and clear;
Spring of Life, Thyself impart:
Rise eternal in my heart."

How often we lift up our voices and sing

"Oh, that it now from heaven might fall,
And all my sins consume;
Come, Holy Ghost, for Thee I call,
Spirit of burning come."

	Better than all, it is in the experience of the church. Many of God's dear children have taken His yoke upon them, and learned of Him, who is meek and lowly of heart, and have found that rest to the soul, that second rest -- of which Charles Wesley speaks when he says

"A rest where all the soul's desire
Is fixed on things above;
Where fear, and sin, and grief expire,
Cast out by perfect love."

	This is the day of the Spirit's power. Jesus still baptizes with the Holy Ghost and fire.

	Perhaps I ought to say that no one can be a candidate for the baptism with the Holy Ghost but one who is a child of God -- one who is living in conscious favor with the Lord. If you are not converted, there is but one thing that you can do, and that is to repent, to surrender to God, and get saved. The one great thing for you is to receive pardon, and be adopted into the family of God. Then being a child, you are an heir, and may press your claims to the inheritance among them that are sanctified. It seems that the question was pressed in the early church, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" I am aware that some who have confounded the witness of the Spirit, with the baptism with the Holy Ghost, have thought that the translation in the revised version indicates that, whatever was meant by that question, it was received at conversion. The revised version reads, "Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?" But the literal rendering of the text is, "Having believed, did ye receive the Holy Ghost?" and the circumstances preclude its meaning anything but a further blessing after conversion.

	When Paul asked the brethren at Ephesus this question, John the Baptist, whose disciples they were, had probably been dead for twenty years. John the Baptist preached a gospel of salvation. The Holy Ghost said of him that he was "to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins." These men were his disciples, and had been evidently walking in the light for all these years. They were doubtless faithful men of God, for they were ready to receive the truth which Paul preached to them. Now, it is evident that they did not receive the Holy Ghost when they believed. They did not yet know of the baptism with the Holy Ghost. But as soon as they did know, they pressed in -- a good example to all converted people. And this is the way that those who are converted and are walking up to the light they have, will do. The question really was, Did you, in your early Christian life, receive this baptism? Did you early come to your Pentecost?" The apostles were converted before they received the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Probably no one would question this. But Jesus sets the matter at rest in His prayer the night before He suffered, in which He says of them to the Father, They are Thine, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world," etc., certain evidence that they were converted men. Peter, who had fallen by the way, had been restored and recommissioned by Jesus, who after thrice probing him as to his love for Him had told him to feed His sheep, and after holding before him the martyr's death, by which he should glorify God, had bidden him to follow Him, which he had gladly done. They were converted, and not backslidden, when the blessed baptism came.

	Now, as such, what did it do for them? We know they needed something more, for Jesus told them to tarry at Jerusalem not to attempt to carry out the commission He had given them, until they received the fulfillment of the promise of the Father the baptism of the Holy Ghost. No student of their lives can fail to see how great their need was and how completely the Pentecost baptism supplied their needs. So, we ask again, "What did the baptism with the Holy Ghost do for them?" And we ask it with the assurance that it will do the same for the children of the Lord today.

	It purified their hearts. This, Peter clearly declares in the council at Jerusalem, telling them how God led him, and justified his going to Cornelius, a Gentile, by the fact that the Holy Ghost fell upon him and those gathered, as it did, upon them in the beginning, and put no difference between them "purifying their hearts by faith " evidently declaring that the baptism of the Holy Ghost purifies the heart. This was the case with the apostles. Before, they had worldly ambitions, fear and selfish purposes. Afterwards, these had disappeared, and in their place, ardent zeal, holy loves, and lives swallowed up in God. We have but to appeal to the deepest experiences of Christians all about us, who are converted and earnestly walking in the light, to have witnesses on every side, of the need of a further cleansing. Christians who confess that their love to God is not complete; that they do not always seek His glory; that there are in them many selfish and worldly aims; that they do not always burn with desire for the salvation of men; that they do not have love towards all; that there is not always an amen in their hearts to the will of God; that close, earnest preaching is not always acceptable to them -- such can scarce doubt their need to have their hearts purified through the same baptism that purified the hearts of the apostles and disciples on the day of Pentecost, and Cornelius and his house, when Peter preached to them. The Holy Ghost baptism will meet this need.

	This baptism also reveals Jesus, the King of Glory, in the soul. There is a very precious meaning in the words of Paul, when giving his experience; he says, "When it pleased God, who called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me." The promise of Jesus in reference to the ministry of the Comforter, "He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you." It is the office of the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus in the soul. Those baptized with the Holy Spirit are to see visions -- evidently revelations to the soul -- of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is true in experience. Never was Jesus so near and precious. He who was with us, is revealed in us, never before so completely -- "The chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely." It is in the coming of the Comforter, in the baptism of the Holy Ghost, that this is promised and received. In the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost there is the continued revelation of Jesus Christ. This is the marvelous and blessed life to which we are called.

	In this baptism the Holy Spirit becomes also a revealer of the Word of God. The Holy Ghost is the Great Teacher. Under the light of His fire the Word yields up its mysteries. By His presence, the veil is taken away, and we are initiated into the blessed mysteries of redemption. To eyes not anointed, the Bible is largely a sealed book. Flashes break out here and there -- enough to guide the wanderer's feet to Calvary -- and on to gaze up to the ascended Lord, and receive this great gift that makes the sacred page flame with light, and gives to these sacred messages of God a sweetness and glory that is altogether inexpressible. The Book, that before had but little real interest to us, and was read as a duty and studied professionally, now becomes our joy by day and our solace by night. This baptism with the Holy Ghost imparts power to the soul. We see that when this baptism came upon the early church, it at once became a conquering army. It brings not the power of great deeds. Great men and great deeds have little place in the thought of men illuminated by the Holy Ghost. But the power of humility, of gentleness, tenderness, power to be broken-hearted and contrite; power of unworldliness, whose gaze is on the unseen glories the power of being so lost to self, that God can shine. Not the power of genius, or human learning, or eloquence, but the power to be an empty vessel, that God can use to pour the water of life through. Power, not to do great things, but to testify to the abounding grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me."

	Such may lose many things. The apostles suffered the loss of all things. Saul of Tarsus counted the things that were gain unto him as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. So, today, a man may lose position, and friendship, and worldly gain; but he will not be left alone. The inheritance among them that are sanctified far outweighs all else. Nothing is sacrificed, but highest, sweetest privilege to give all to Jesus our Lord, and to have Him and be with Him forever.

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