Effects Of Sanctification -- Love, Assurance, Peace, Self-Control, Sensitiveness Of Conscience, Apprehension Of Truth, Utterance, Courage, Loss Of Unholy Ambition, A Passion For Souls, A Fullness Of Life

Isaiah xxxii. 15-17: "Until the Spirit be poured out upon us from on high ..... Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever." Rom. v. 5: "The love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost who was given unto us."

The question arises, is the "Baptism with the Holy Spirit" worth having. We have seen that it requires some trouble to the "old man" of our heart. It requires self-humiliation, self-surrender, a giving up of idols, a submission of the will, a going apart from the world, a consecration of everything to God, a death to the world and the customs and fashions thereof, -- a literal crucifixion of self. It is a good deal. Crucifixions never were pleasant experiences. Soul Gethsemanes and Calvaries never were pleasant places. It is a via dolorosa and not a holiday excursion that leads to the soul's crown and throne. "He that loses his life loses it, and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." "This is the will of God even your sanctification." Is it worth while that God's will should be done in us? Is it worth all it costs to be sanctified, -- filled with the Spirit of God? Does God amply reward his faithful servants who implicitly obey him in the pursuit of holiness? Let us name some of the results of being filled with the Spirit.

1. The love of God is shed abroad in the heart as a mighty reality. Of course, all Christians have a dim, nebulous belief that God loves them. But with many it is scarcely more than a trembling hope that hardly amounts to confidence. There is very little exultation in it. Now it goes without saying that this is not ideal Christian living. God never intended that his adopted, blood-bought children should live at such a poor dying rate. A vigorous faith in Jesus ought to be as tuneful as a bird, and as full of joy as a June morning. Let perfect confidence and faith in Christ for a complete salvation rise like a full-orbed sun upon the soul, and how will hope sing in exultation, and every power rejoice in the conscious love of God. But how can we come into such a state? What hand shall open the door into the kingdom of love, and bid us welcome to the chief bliss of the redeemed? Not our own human strivings surely; for then would many of us have had experiences long ago to which our hearts have been strangers. The Apostle Paul with his diviner life and light of inspiration pointed out the way: "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us."

And again he says: "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." It is this baptism with the Spirit that makes God's love a blessed reality to the soul, out of which come hope and peace and joy and all other foretastes of heaven. His coming into the heart brings such disclosures of the divine nature, such revelations of mercy and grace, such exhibitions of infinite affection, that the poor heart feels itself surrounded and bathed in the love of God. Let the experience of God's dear saints elucidate this truth. All are aware that the savour of the writings of Merle D'Aubigne has been, throughout Christendom, ''as ointment poured forth." What was the cause of this? Several years after his conversion, when at Kiel, in company with Rev. F. Monod, of Paris, Rev. C. Riell, of Jutland, and Klenker, Biblical Professor of the University there, in the course of their conversation upon the Scriptures, the aged Professor refused t o enter into any detailed solution of difficulties presented, saying that the first step was to be "firmly settled in the grace of Christ," and that "the light which proceeds from Him will disperse all darkness." " We were studying," says D'Aubigne, "the Epistle to the Ephesians, and had got to the end of the third chapter. When we read the last two verses, 'Now unto him that can do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us ' -- this expression fell upon my soul as a revelation from God. 'He can do, by his power,' I said to myself, 'above all that we ask, above all, even, that we think, nay, exceeding abundantly above all.' A full trust in Christ for the work to be done in my poor heart now filled my soul. We knelt together in prayer. When I arose, I felt as if my wings had been renewed as the eagle's. All my doubts were removed, my anguish was quelled, and the Lord extended peace to me as a river. Then I could 'comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and depth, and length, and height and know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. Then was I able to say, 'Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee!' Under the influence of that baptism of the Spirit, D' Aubigne wrote the "History of the Reformation," the most spiritual history ever penned outside of the Bible.

Mrs. President Edwards received the Holy Spirit baptism in 1742, and she gives her own experience in these words: "I can not find language to express how certain the everlasting love of God appeared; the everlasting mountains and hills were but shadows to it. My safety, and happiness, and eternal enjoyment of God's immutable love seemed as durable and unchangeable as God himself. Melted and overcome by the sweetness of this assurance, I fell into a great flow of tears, and could not forbear weeping aloud. The presence of God was so near and so real, that I seemed scarcely conscious of anything else. At night my soul seemed to be filled with an inexpressibly sweet and pure love to God and to the children of God, with a refreshing consolation and solace of soul which made me willing to lie on the earth at the feet of the servants of God, to declare his gracious dealing with me, and breathe forth before them my love and gratitude and praise. All night I continued in a constant, clear, and lively sense of the heavenly sweetness of Christ's excellent and transcendent love, of his nearness to me, and of my dearness to him, with an inexpressibly sweet calmness of soul in an entire rest in him. My soul remained in a heavenly elysium. I think what I felt each minute during the continuance of the whole time worth more than all the outward comfort and pleasure which I had enjoyed in my whole life put together. ... This exaltation of soul subsided into a heavenly calm and rest of soul in God, which was even sweeter than what preceded it" (Perfect Love, pp. 132, 133).

2. The filling of the Spirit brings a fuller persuasion of soul. "The effect of righteousness is assurance forever." There is no more saying, "I guess I am a Christian," or "I hope I am a Christian," after the Spirit takes up his permanent abode in the heart. There is an assured confidence in God's salvation. "Ye shall be witnesses unto me," says God. Jesus is still on trial, and his cause and his gospel, in the court of a wicked world. Guesses and surmises and "I hope so," are ruled out of court. The enemies of our Lord cry out peremptorily, "None of your guesses; tell us what you know." The one that has a soul experience of some significance, that he knows about, is the only witness whose testimony commands the slightest respect. Last evening I was leading a revival meeting here in Cleveland, Ohio, where I am now writing these lines. A stranger rose up in the after-meeting and electrified the audience by saying: "I was for many long years a Christless, wicked infidel. But five years ago God took it all out of me, and brought me to the Saviour's feet. Now it is the joy of my life to be preaching Jesus every day. I rejoice in a full salvation. I believe in sanctification, and know what it means, blessed be God!" The witness did not say much, but what he said moved everybody; for he had an experience. He told what he knew. Peter said to a Jerusalem mob: "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly." Whoever receives the baptism with the Spirit will have a testimony to give of something that he knows.

3. "The work of righteousness shall be peace." O, the sad lack of this peace, this holy calm, in average Christian hearts. So many lives are consciously the helpless victims of all the vicissitudes and unhappy circumstances of life. They fume and fret and chafe at every discomfort and annoyance and disappointment. Their religion is like a mountain stream, rushing and tumbling and whirling, pouring fretfully over every opposing stone, and fuming around every unexpected curve, a perpetual roar and dash and foam, and not very much water either. But when the Holy Spirit comes the stream of life suddenly widens and deepens, and becomes like that same mountain stream when it has reached the plain and grown into a mighty river and flows on quiet but resistless to the sea. Isn't that what God meant when he said: "Then had thy peace been as a river and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." We all sorely need so much grace that we can move like an iceberg through the seas of circumstances unaffected by t he surface billows, ever quiet and steady and calm, whether seas be smooth or rough. Dr. Carradine says: "Sanctification has saved him from irritability of temper and disposition. Regeneration saved him from giving vent to it in speech and act, but did not eliminate the dark, disturbing spirit from the heart. Sanctification, glory be to God! has done this blessed interior work. The hot, impatient flush, the hasty impulse to angry speech, the gun powdery expression of thought and word -- all have been taken away in a moment of time by the blessed Son of God. The man in the enjoyment of such a deliverance will read John viii. 36, with a gladness and appreciation that he never did before: 'If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.' This was a promise not made to sinners but to Christians. Every regenerated man knows the set of circumstances that conspire to produce irritability. The coming home wearied and hungry, the aching head, the noisy children, the absent servant, the delayed meal, the fireless grate, the general influence of a cold, cloudy, rainy day, or a day of sweltering power. Here is a battlefield indeed, and here many a regenerated man goes down in temporary defeat. And here is the easy victory of the sanctified. What a state is that in which a man is kept sweet-spirited, calm and gentle in heart and voice in the midst of multiplied annoyances" (Sanctification, pp. 172-174).

The ability to endure with equanimity whatever comes of adversity or misfortune in our lot is the gift of the blessed Spirit. Madam Guyon, for proclaiming the doctrine of sanctification by faith, spent some fourteen years as a culprit in the prisons of France, and a large portion of these in the Bastile, with "the Man in the Iron Mask" passing daily the door of her cell. But prison walls could not shut out from her heart the light or the peace of God. Behind the prison bars she wrote: "I passed my time in great peace, content to pass the rest of my life there if such was the will of God. I sang songs of joy, which the maid who served me learned by heart as fast as I made them, and we together sang Thy praises, O my God! The stones of my prison looked, in my eyes, like rubies. I esteemed them more than all the gaudy brilliancy of the world. My heart was full of that joy Thou give to them that love Thee, in the midst of their greatest crosses."

The following is one of her songs, setting forth the heavenly peace of her soul:
A little bird I am,
Shut out from fields of air,
And in my cage I sit and sing
To Him who placed me there;
Well pleased a prisoner to be,
Because, my God, it pleases Thee.

Nought have I else to do;
I sing the whole day long;
And He whom most I love to please
Doth listen to my song;
He caught and bound my wandering wing
Put still he bends to hear me sing.

Oh! it is good to soar,
These bolts and bars above,
To Him whose purpose I adore,
Whose providence I love;
And in Thy mighty will to find
The joy, the freedom of the mind.

(See Double Cure, p. 16, and Baptism of Holy Ghost, pp. 93, 94.)

St. Paul had this same imperturbable peace after he received the Holy Spirit, so that he could say: "Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure it; and being defamed, we entreat"; "none of these things move me"; "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong" and "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." O, when shall Christians generally become so "filled with the Spirit," that "the peace of God that passes understanding shall keep their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." "The sun shall be no more their light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto then; but the Lord shall be unto them an everlasting light, and their God their glory."

4. There is vouchsafed to those who are filled with the Holy Spirit a peculiar, special self-control and divine equanimity of mind which is wholly foreign to the natural man, and which not even sickness, or disease, or pain can break down. Some extreme cases will cover all lesser ones and show the truth in its glory. The writer has stood by a beloved Christian woman in the grip of sciatic rheumatism of an extreme form, when the sufferer said: "It seems as if a red-hot gimlet was boring into me along the whole line of the nerve. I can not help tears coming to my eyes from the excruciating pain, but I never was so happy in God and never felt such keeping grace in my life." Another instance was given by a minister of his mother: "I wish you could see my mother. To give you some idea of what a monument of grace she is, I would state that in early life she was spoiled by training. She had one of the worst and most ungovernable tempers I ever knew. For years past she has been wholly confined to her bed from nervous prostration. During the early part of this period it did seem that nobody could take care of her, or endure her continued manifestations of irritability, impatience, fretfulness, and furious anger. Right there she became fully convinced that through grace and the baptism of the Spirit, she could have perfect rest, quietude and self-control. She set her whole heart upon attaining that state. Such was her fervency of spirit, and earnestness in prayer, that her friends thought she would become deranged, and urged her to cease seeking and prayer. 'I die in the effort,' was her reply, 'or I obtain what I know to be in reserve for me.' At length the baptism came gently upon her. From that hour there has not been the slightest indication of even the remains of that temper. Her quietude and assurance have been absolute, and her sweetness of Spirit 'as ointment poured forth.' It is no trouble to any one now, but a privilege to all, to care for her. Many come even from long distances, to listen to her divine discourse. From the hour of her baptism to that of her death, that ineffable sweetness of temper was never for a moment interrupted. I witnessed the closing scene. She died of cholera, and in the greatest conceivable agony. Yet such patience, serenity of hope, and such quiet waiting for the coming of the Lord, I hardly before deemed possible. 'My son,' she would say, 'nature has had a hard struggle; but it will soon be over, and I shall enter into the rest that remains for the people of God.' '

It was this Baptism with the Holy Spirit that made the martyr-age of the Church so glorious. "By reason of our strange and wonderful courage and strength," says Lactantius, "new additions are made to us; for when people see men torn to pieces with infinite variety of torments, and yet maintain a patience unconquerable, and able to tire out their tormentors, they begin to think (what the truth is) that the consent of so many, and the perseverance of dying persons, can not be in vain; nor that patience itself, were it not from God, could hold out under such racks and tortures. Thieves and men of robust bodies are not able to bear such tearing to pieces; they groan and cry out, and are overcome with pain, because not endued with divine patience; but our very women and children (to say nothing of men) do with silence conquer their tormentors; nor can the hottest fire force the least groan from them." The places of martyrdom became the holy places of victory and triumph, where the greatest numbers were converted to the hated faith, till the Roman Emperors were forced to prohibit the public execution of the saints of God. (Baptism of Holy Ghost, p. 82.) " By the power of the Spirit," says Mahan, ",we can rule our own spirits. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us." Yes; there is no temper, appetite, passion or circumstance, but this baptism can subdue into calmness, sobriety, peace and love.

5. The Holy Spirit in the heart produces a remarkable sensitiveness of conscience that was before wholly unknown. Things about which the writer was once utterly thoughtless, he is now held back from by this inward Monitor. Things that once he indulged in, without so much as questioning their propriety, have suddenly become distasteful to him and even positively painful. This indwelling Spirit leads the soul that welcomes him to cheerfully surrender the long list of doubtful things, and to "avoid the very appearance of evil." Things of speech and habit that once seemed to have no moral bearing whatever suddenly put on an unsuspected importance. There is a quickened detection of the presence of the adversary in things that wear such a harmless guise, that they once never roused a suspicion of their being displeasing to God or perilous to the soul. One becomes strangely aware of the approach of danger, where formerly danger was the last thing thought of. I know from testimony on all sides that this is the case with others. What Christians have done unquestioningly for a score of years they find suddenly, after the Spirit comes, that they are sweetly constrained not to do, and know that they can not do without grieving the indwelling Spirit. Dr. Steele has this striking passage: "It is a coat of mail amid the arrows of temptation. Hence the most extended definition of Christian perfection is found in Heb. v. 14: 'But solid food is for perfect men, even those who by reason of use (habit) have their (spiritual) perceptions exercised to discern good and evil.' love is the medium through which the spiritual eye clearly discerns, if it be not that eye itself, as St. John intimates 'He that loves not knows not God.' Ever-increasing love is ever-increasing spiritual discernment of the true nature, good or bad, of each circumstance, case, or object which experience may present. A sensitively correct moral perception can not be too highly prized. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit improved and intensified by us e. It is the opinion of Mr. Whewell, a distinguished moral philosopher, that our power of moral discrimination may become so acute as to discern a moral element in acts now considered morally indifferent, such as the question, shall I ride to town or walk; shall I wear boots or shoes, gloves or mittens; take an umbrella or run the risk of rain? If there is a moral element at the bottom of all these apparently trivial choices, it is evident that it is the design of God that we should acquire a spiritual perspicacity sharp enough to discern it. But spiritual perception is not an end in itself, but only a means to an ultimate end -- right conduct and holy character, 'that ye may be sincere and without offence against the day of Christ' " (Half Hours, pp. 28, 29).

Satan is perpetually here with his gilded temptations laying his snares for our feet. How often are the good enticed and blinded and seduced from the path of wisdom and rectitude. How often do even the earnest and serious-minded lose their reckoning in the labyrinths of human affairs and make grievous mistakes and blunders that in their serious effects are almost equal to crimes. Satan would deceive if possible the very elect. Only the Spirit of God can enable us to perceive the unsuspected evils and fathom his subtlest wiles.

6. The Holy Spirit coming into the heart with Pentecostal power will beget a clear apprehension and just appreciation of the truths of the Bible. Jesus himself said, "The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you."

The Apostle Paul tells us that the mysteries of God's wisdom are "revealed unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God." Is not this the most pointed intimation that we need the Holy Spirit's illumination in order to understand the Word? There is much in the Scriptures that the unaided intellect will never discover, appreciate, or understand. It is the Spirit's Book, and the Spirit is its best Commentator and Interpreter. "As long," says Dr. Whedon, "as we possess the holy chrism (anointing) we will adhere to holy Christ." Dr. Steele very justly observes "All who have the anointing, know and honour the Christ, the anointed." " No man speaking in the Spirit of God saith, Jesus is anathema; and no man can say Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit. The doctrine of the supreme divinity of Christ, revealed to the soul only by the anointing, protects all the other doctrines of the evangelical system. The unction of the Holy Spirit is the highway to all knowledge. This is especially true of all insight into theology. Hence the Holy Ghost is the only conservator of orthodoxy. The thumbscrew as a substitute is a stupendous failure, as is proven by the ghastly history of the Inquisition. The soft doctrines of liberalism creep into churches which do not honour the Third Person of the adorable Trinity, except with their lips while their hearts are without this indwelling. Departures from the Spirit, whether new or old, are always departures from the evangelical standard" (Half Hours, p. 120). Says Samuel Rutherford: "If you would be a deep divine I recommend to you sanctification." German rationalism, and all the aping of it in England and America, and all semi-infidel liberalism that is paralysing the Church life of the day, would never have been heard of, had all the ministry and theological instructors been Spirit-led and Spirit-filled. The only thing that can save our churches from this onsweeping wave of loose thought is to get back to the Pentecostal faith and experience. Rev. A. B. Simpson says: "It is wonderful how the untutored mind will often, in a short time, by the simple touch of the Holy Spirit, be filled with the most profound and Scriptural teaching of God, and the plan of salvation through Christ. We once knew a poor girl, saved from a life of infamy and but little educated. in a few days rise to the most extraordinary acquaintance with the Scriptures, and the whole plan of redemption through the simple anointing of the Holy Spirit. We simply give to Him our spirit, that it may know Him, and He fills it wit h His light and revelation" (Wholly Sanctified, pp. 60, 61).

7. This Holy Spirit, filling and sanctifying the soul, gives a power of utterance to the lips to say what God wants his witnesses to say, and a peculiar savour to the life that drives home the message. Moses distrusted his ability to be the mouth-piece of God. "And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant; but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? Or who makes the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." Jesus gave a similar promise to his disciples: "For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist." They were to have no needless embarrassment or confusion of thought. And whether they said much or little, whether they spoke well or ill, God would use it for his glory. A Christian man full of the Holy Spirit sought an infidel's conversion. He filled his mind with arguments against infidelity and went to see him, hoping to argue him out of unbelief. When he reached the man's house, God kindly took all the vain arguments out of his mind, and he could not recall one of them. He laid his hand on the infidel's shoulder and wept, and could only say, "My dear brother, I am concerned for your soul." He went away filled with confusion over his failure but God used it to the infidel's conversion. The method that God selected was the best possible way to reach his heart. Rev. S. J. Wilson, D. D., in closing a fifteen years pastorate with the Sixth Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg, to become a Professor in Allegheny Theological Seminary, bore this testimony "When I have leaned on God in my weakness I have never been deserted; but when I have trusted to my own wisdom and strength I have always been discomfited. I have come into this pulpit more than once without either text or sermon; but if I came in the rig ht spirit [with the Holy Spirit power upon him] I was always carried through, whereas if I trusted to finely elaborated trains of thought, I proceeded as heavily as the wheelless chariots of Pharoah in the Red Sea. The years in which my preaching was most extemporaneous, and, according to my own judgment and criticism, most worthless, were the years in which we reaped the richest harvests, while the year in which I preached the most elaborate sermons during my ministry here was the year in which there were fewer additions to the church than in any other year in all the fifteen. When I was best prepared intellectually, I ordinarily preached the worst. When I preached with some kind of intellectual complacency, I have never heard that any good came of it; but when I have so preached that I was ashamed to face the congregation in pronouncing the benediction I have heard of souls being converted by the sermons. 'When we are weak then are we strong.' " The above illustration offers no premium to laziness ; but it does teach that the Holy Spirit is the preacher's greatest dependence, and that he should preach leaning hard on God. "A very bigoted Irish Roman Catholic had occasion to board for a time in a family where the wife had for years 'walked in the light of God.' This man had from childhood been taught, and had believed that 'out of the mother church salvation is impossible.' His attention, however, was soon arrested by the peculiar spirit and sanctified conversation of that woman. He would frequently stop after meals, and continue conversation with her upon Christ, purity, and heaven. At the close of such a conversation one day, he said: ' Madam, you will get to heaven before you die.' That man was as profane and wicked as he was bigoted; yet such a character as hers could not lift its benign form before his mind without his recognizing it as unearthly, and divine, and as advancing heavenward" (Baptism of Holy Ghost, p. 92). A young man converted outside of Chicago, and wholly uneducated, was commended to Brother Torrey as one who might be invited to address one of his meetings in the city. Torrey asked the young man to address a certain meeting in a tent where a bigoted mob had assaulted them the week before. He began to speak, and Torrey says he could see nothing remarkable about the address but the grammatical blunders. Yet at the close of that blundering and crude speech men rose for prayers all over the tent. It was Holy Spirit power; not the power of human wisdom or eloquence, but the power of God. I have read in two or three volumes lately of an Australian servant girl who sought and obtained the promise of the Spirit, and then moved to distant parts and engaged in domestic service where she was wholly unknown. Her pastor wrote back to England: "As I listened to the remarks of that young woman in the class and prayer-meetings, one fact very deeply impressed my mind, namely: that she was possessed of a power that I had not. So deep did that impression at length become that I went to her and requested her to tell me the secret of that divine life she was living. In listening to her I saw clearly my own deficiency and need, and sought and obtained an 'enduement of power from on high.' The result has been a total revolution in my church and the addition to its membership of between six and seven hundred converts, and the work of the Lord is still going forward from strength to strength." The sweet savour of this life even in a servant girl could not be hid, and worked like a divine leaven until the whole community was moved heavenward.

8. The Holy Spirit, filling the soul, imparts to it a holy courage, not naturally its own. Peter was a miserable craven before the maid-servant; but he was bold as a lion at Pentecost. It was divinely imparted courage. "Paul and Barnabas spake out boldly" before the jealous, blaspheming persecutors at Antioch. The most timid and gentle souls no longer fear the face of man when filled with the Holy Spirit. We have countless thousands in our churches who can not speak for Jesus, and can not lead in prayer, and can not speak to anybody about their souls because of a slavish fear of man. A sanctifying baptism with the Holy Spirit would take it all out of them.

Dear Amanda Smith, the coloured evangelist already referred to, says: "I used to be so afraid of white folks I couldn't speak before them, but when the Spirit came he took all that out of me."

President Mahan tells us of one Anna Fothergill, of England, one of the most modest, reserved, and unobtrusive women be ever met. She said of herself: Naturally, I was ridiculously timid." But this timid creature sought and obtained the "Baptism with the Holy Ghost," and at the time God gave her for her motto: "Whatsoever he saith to you do it." Soon after, while worshiping with her own people, the Friends, she was prompted to tell what the Lord had done for her. Immediately her natural timidity arose and made it seemingly impossible. She sat in silence and lifted a prayer to Christ to take fear away. In an instant the prayer was consciously answered. A moment later she rose, perfectly self-possessed, and electrified the audience by her testimony. Soon after a large Bible-class of young women was put into her hands, and in a few weeks all were converted. Then she was asked to take charge of a band of forty boys, just coming to manhood, who had been so very lawless and unruly that their expulsion from the Sabbath-school had been determined on. The first time she met them she held their breathless attention for an hour, and on Tuesday evening one came to her house for religious conversation, and was converted. The next week six were converted. Soon the whole "awkward squad," as they had been called, became a devout praying band. They brought others and filled her rooms, and they were "flooded with converts and inquirers." A larger room was procured. Then she had to hold another weekly meeting for young women; then another still for children; and lastly, a weekly meeting for elderly people. In five years there were over five hundred conversions in her meetings. Then she was called to continual religious service. A gentleman said of her in Nottingham: "There is something mysterious about that young woman. Her voice is feeble, her whole manner the most unassuming and simple conceivable. Yet, while she has great power in drawing believers towards the Higher Life, the impenitent seem to be powerless to resist the truth as she presents it; " (Autobiography, pp. 422-424).

Not all who receive this sanctifying baptism will be just like Annie Fothergill, but all of them will have a holy unction given to them as witnesses for Christ. Power to prophesy -- that is to "speak unto men for consolation, for exhortation, and edification," with a divine persuasiveness, with an earnestness commensurate with the cause and the occasion -- will be the experience of those who receive the great gift of God. Such a power is not and can not be hidden. God bestows the wondrous blessing not to be a private luxury, but "to profit withal," and if it is not used for him it will soon be taken away. Moreover, without the slightest loss of modesty or womanly grace and gentleness, a holy courage will supplant all weak timidity, and utterly vanquish the unworthy fear of the face of man. God is no admirer of weakness or the dumb mouth of man or woman in the presence of his foes.

9. Again, the filling of the Spirit takes away that restless ambition, that unseemly desire for place and power and fame, and displaces it by a longing to be useful in service. The disciples had it, and actually quarrelled about the first positions in the kingdom when their Lord and Master was at that very hour on the way to Jerusalem to be crucified. With infinite pitying patience and gentle rebuke he said to them: "He that would be greatest let him be the servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minuter, and to give his life a ransom for many." In other words, true greatness consists in greatness of service. When the Spirit-baptism came the disciples no longer had that distressing itch for first positions; but in the place of it they had a Christlike passion for efficiency of service. Rev. J. O. Peck mentions, as the first result of the coming of the sanctifying Spirit to his soul: "I have not had an ambition or plan or purpose that was not formed in the desire t o glorify God. Not faultless, nor mistakenless, nor errorless, yet the whole purpose of my life has been to please him." Dr. Carradine writes: "Sanctification has quenched an un-Christlike ambition. It makes one willing to be overlooked and unknown. The fever for place and prominence is taken out. The eye is not fixed on certain honours and promotions and appointments and high places. A light stealing in has either revealed the unsatisfactoriness of these things, or a life filling the nature gives the soul something better to think of and strive after. All dreamings in this direction are ended. The prayer now and the hope is not for the 'right hand nor the left hand' of power, but to be where Mary sat, at the feet of Jesus" (Sanctification, p. 170).

10. The Baptism with the Spirit gives an enduring fullness of spiritual life that is characterized by a great passion for souls. Says Dr. Peck: "I have had a greater love for my work. I always loved it intensely, but it has seemed to possess me. The salvation of dying men has been a passion. I love the work with glowing affection." David Brainerd said of himself: "I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ. While I was asleep I dreamed of these things; and when I waked, the first thing I thought of was this great work. All my desire was for the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was in God." John Smith, the mighty Wesleyan preacher of England, used to say: "I am a broken-hearted man; not for myself but on account of others. God has given me such a sight of the value of precious souls, that I can not live if souls are not saved. O give me souls, or else I die!" Of Alleine, author of "The Alarm to Unconverted Sinners," it is said that "he was infinitely and insatiably greedy of the conversion of souls; and to this end he poured out his very heart in prayer and preaching." Bunyan said: "In my preaching I could not be satisfied unless some fruits did appear in my work." Doddridge wrote to a friend: "I long for the conversion of souls, more sensibly than for anything besides. Methinks I could not only labour for it, but die for it with pleasure." Whitefield said: "O God, give me souls or take my soul." God has set his heart on the conversion of sinners. It was Jesus' passion for souls that brought him to Calvary that he might seek and save the lost." Whoever is baptised with the Holy Ghost will have a kindred passion for souls. Minister or layman, man or woman, will feel this passion to win the perishing, for it is "the mind of Christ." A lady heard the author preach last year, and prayed most earnestly for the Spirit and for this passion. Two or three months later she said to him: "I used to dislike the sinful around me; now I have such a passion for their souls that it seems as if it were the only thing worth living for." That was the normal work of the Holy Spirit in her heart.

"What is the remedy," asks Dr. Cuyler, "for this fitful, periodic piety, this disgraceful alternation of revival and declension, of foaming fullness and fitful dribble of August drought? Did God decree that his people should run low like summer brooks, and is this the normal condition of the Church which Christ redeemed unto himself? Is there not a divine fullness which can keep a believer always full to the brim, and can make the whole Church as steady in its flow as the majestic currents of the Niagara?" ''Yes," says President Mahan, "there is a remedy, known, full, complete and permanent, 'for this fitful and periodic piety, this disgraceful alternation of revival and declension, of foaming fullness and fitful dribble of August drought.' The Apostles found for their own, life-enduring stability, and revealed for our enduement 'with everlasting strength,' this sovereign remedy at the Pentecost; and we find the same by 'waiting for the promise of the Father,' as they did" (Autobiography, p. 425).