When the Holy Ghost is Come | Page 8

enthrone Christ within.
"Here on earth a temple stands, Temple never built with hands; There

the Lord doth fill the place With the glory of His grace. Cleansed by
Christ's atoning blood, Thou art this fair house of God. Thoughts,
desires, that enter there, Should they not be pure and fair? Meet for
holy courts and blest, Courts of stillness and of rest, Where the soul, a
priest in white, Singeth praises day and night; Glory of the love divine,
Filling all this heart of mine."
My brother, my sister, what is your experience just now? Are you filled
with the Spirit? Or is the old man still warring against Him in your
heart? Oh, that you may receive Him fully by faith just now!
"Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?"

III.
IS THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT A THIRD
BLESSING?
"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."
There is much difference of opinion among many of God's children as
to the time and order of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and many
who believe that entire cleansing is subsequent to salvation, ask if the
baptism with the Spirit is not subsequent to cleansing, and, therefore, a
third blessing.
There are four classes of teachers whose views appear to differ about
this subject. There are:--
1. Those who emphasise cleansing; who say much of a clean heart, but
little, if anything, about the fullness of the Holy Spirit and power from
on High.
2. Those who emphasise the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fullness
of the Spirit, but say little or nothing of cleansing from inbred sin and
the destruction of the carnal mind.
3. Those who say much of both, but separate them into two distinct
experiences, often widely separated in time.
4. Those who teach that the truth is in the union of the two, and that,
while we may separate them in their order, putting cleansing first, we
cannot separate them as to time, since it is the baptism that cleanses,
just as the darkness vanishes before the flash of the electric light when
the right button is touched; just as the Augean stables were cleansed, in
the fabled story of Grecian mythology, when Hercules turned in the
floods of the River Arno; the refuse went out as the rushing waters

poured in.
There are three very blessed portions of Scripture which show us that
this is God's order, and two that plainly show us that cleansing and the
baptism are not separate in time.
In Psalm li. 10 and 12, David prays, "Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.... Uphold me with Thy free Spirit."
First the cleansing, then the filling that upholds: for as it is my spirit
within me that upholds my body, so it is God's Spirit within that
upholds my soul.
In Ezekiel xxxvi. 25 and 27, the Lord says, "Then will I sprinkle clean
water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and
from all your idols, will I cleanse you.... And I will put My Spirit
within you."
Here again, the order is first cleansing, then filling.
In John xvii. 15-26, Jesus prays for His disciples, and says: "I pray not
that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst
keep them from the evil.... Sanctify them;... that they all may be one; as
Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in
Us;... I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in
one;... that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them,
and I in them."
Here, again, it is first sanctification (cleansing, being made holy), then
filling, divine union with the Father and the Son through the Holy
Spirit.
These Scriptures make plain the order of God's work, and if we looked
at them alone, without diligently comparing Scripture with Scripture, as
God would have us do, we might perhaps conclude that the cleansing
and filling were as distinct and separate in time as they are in this order
of statement.
But other Scriptures give us abundant light on that side of the subject.
In Isaiah vi. 1-8, we have the record of the prophet's sanctification, and
we notice that the cleansing and the filling were not separate in time.
The cleansing was not before the baptism, but by the baptism. The "live
coal" was laid upon his mouth, and touched his lips; and by this fiery
baptism his iniquity was taken away and his sin was purged.
In Acts x. 44, we read of Peter's preaching Jesus to Cornelius, the
Roman centurion, and his household;