THE FULLNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

• I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever. St. John 14:16.

• Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Eph. 5:18.

• Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine; no more can ye except ye abide in Me. If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in My love even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. St. John 15:4, 10.

• Avoid foolish questions and genalogies and contentions, and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain. Titus 3

• The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. Exodus 14:14.

• He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me. S. John 6:56.

• Yield yourselves unto the Lord as those alive from the dead. Romans 6:13.

• What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

• For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your Spirit, which are God's. 1 Cor. 19:20.

1. These texts indicate that Christians may have different impartations of the Holy Spirit. At first he came in visions, entreating and warning the world, and often said “My Spirit shall not always strive with man/' Then when Jesus was here, the Spirit gave them the new birth and was with the disciples. Then when Pentecost came the Holy Spirit came to abide. The Jews limited God in the wilderness and they limited Jesus and grieved Him by their unbelief. So we are limiting, ignoring and grieving the Holy Spirit. On account of fears, prejudice, ignorance or stubborn wills, He is often repressed and only manifests himself in a few of His offices. When believers lift up the repressive force of their wills; throw their fears to the winds and declare that sink or swim, live or die, they are wholly and forever the Lord's. Then the Spirit will keep them filled.

2. The text, is in the present tense, the Command to tarry and wait, agonize, beg and weep for the Spirit does not belong to this dispensation. When Jesus said “Wait” the Spirit had not been given. When He came, then while Peter preached He fell on them and they were filled. When the disciples prayed they received and did not have a revival like an April shower and then the pitiful dribble of an August drought, but were constantly and continuously filled as the blood fills the veins and arteries, as physical life fills the body, as air fills the space, as light fills the air, they were filled with the Spirit, then they were “speaking among themselves, and in the psalms and hymns singing and making melody in their hearts unto the Lord.” John Wesley said unless you bring the people to receive while you preach, you have missed the mark almost as much as if you allowed them to put it off till death.

Be filled with the Spirit, then you will give to humanity not because it is pumped out of you by some great beggar, but because you would sooner die than not to give.

Be filled with the Spirit, then you will work not because the preacher calls or duty presses you into service, but because work is in you and must come out. The cry of our heart at God's altar will be. “Here am I Lord, send me, send me.”

Be filled with the Spirit, then your wisdom will not be cunning, craftiness and guile. Your position will never be a fortress from which to hurl the mean arrows of anger or pride taken from the Devil’s girdle.

Be filled with the Spirit, then you will not smoke and snap and growl under the providence of God, but you will be a blazing fire on God’s hearth where men may come and be warmed.

Be filled with the Spirit, then your whole being will be like a tuned instrument, ready for the musician’s touch and you will be responsive to every word of grace and every providence of God — there will be music in your soul and you will not be “fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.”

Be filled with the Spirit, then everything unholy, unclean, uncharitable and unbelieving will be taken away and all honest men will be compelled to join with God and the angels, saying, “See how these Christians live.”

Our high tides of religious life do not make good; they are as far apart, as the tides of the sea, and between the tides there is that long stretch of foul, oozy, barren heath, when the waters are out and all is desolation and deadness.

3. The text does not say make preparation, take steps and get ready, but “be filled with the Spirit.” When sinners feel their need of salvation, they think they are not ready, “while all the fitness he requires is to feel their need of him. And if they tarry till they are better they will never come at all.” So believers will consecrate over and over but fail to be filled, because after yielding themselves unto the Lord they feel so unworthy that they do not receive by faith, and claim the Holy Spirit’s fulness, while God’s way is to yield and be filled all the time.

4. This being filled with the Spirit is not optional with us. It is not merely a privilege or a proper thing, but it is imperative and mandatory. You will notice there are two commands in the text.. One not to be drunk with wine, the other to be filled with the Spirit. One is positive and the other is negative. Just as many people as are commanded not to be drunk with wine are commanded to be filled with the Spirit.

If it is a sin to be drunk with wine, then it is a sin not to be filled with the Spirit. If I ask, Do you obey the command be not drunk with wine, and you say, Yes, then you have a good conscience and have missed the woes of the wine-cup, but if I ask, Have you obeyed the positive commandment? and you say No, I have not been filled with the Spirit. Then that is the door through which all your fears and doubts and unbeliefs enter into your life; for peace, love and joy cannot flow out of the soul unless it is filled with the spirit. Whoever knows the condition of the church to-day knows there is the fatal lack among Christians. The experience is not what it was expected to be. Instead of victory it is defeat; instead of fulness it is hunger; instead of rest and peace it is struggle and disquietude; instead of constant progress it is frequent backsliding; instead of courage and victory it is often cowardice and defeat. The fullness of the Spirit is the answer to all this disappointment.

Then be filled with the Spirit. This is a command of God binding on all Christians. This is the great need of believers. No one is excepted; no true believer wishes to be excepted.

If we consult men concerning our need, the first suggestion would be; we need a restatement of theology, or we need more modern truth, the old truth that our fathers fed upon and grew so great has become antiquated; some may think we need an emancipation from the sharp-cornered, dark visaged theology of the past; others more culture or wealth, or better facilities for reaching the masses.

We will doubtless be safer to inquire of God' concerning our necessities.

In the prophecy of Zechariah he says: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” So that neither national favor nor ecclestiastical power are absolutely necessary to the victories of the cross.

When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent unto them Peter and John to pray for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. When Paul was in the house of Judas the Lord sent Ananias unto him with this message: “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus that appeared unto thee by the way as thou earnest, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” When Paul went to the church at Ephesus, the first question he asked them was: “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?” Then he prayed for them and laid his hands on them and they received the Spirit.

The church of God to-day may be in great need of other things, of money, education, churches, preachers, but my inmost conviction is that our greatest need is to obey this command of our Lord and Master and be filled with the Spirit.

1. What is it to be filled with the Spirit? It seems to have been a general experience in the early church. What was it that Paul received when Ananias laid his hands on him? What did the Ephesians receive when Paul prayed and laid his hands on them? What was it that fell upon Cornelius and his household when Peter spoke the words of God unto them? It was not eloquence, the greatest orators of the world) never knew of Christ; it was not pathos or mental power. When the war was in this country, the people were filled with patriotism, soldiers on the field of battle; men, women and children at home were talking and working and fighting for the country,. They were filled with patriotism.

You know what it is to be filled with business. Early in the morning, late at night, you are filled with business, till you can do nothing else. You know what it is to be filled with pleasure — one play or game or amusement after another until you are drunk with pleasure.

Well, says one, I am disturbed and cannot rest; I want peace in my soul. Well peace is a part of the fruit of the Spirit. Another says, I want joy, I have so much trouble, I want joy. Well joy is another part of the fruit of the Spirit. So another wants patience. I am so irritable that I am offensive to myself. Patience is another part of the fruit of the Spirit. I want a thrilling sensation, like I had touched a galvanic battery. That would be only a sense of His presence, or it might be something else.

Another says, I believe it is Purity. Well, that is the work of the Spirit; but what is meant by the text is not one or all of these things, but the specific reception and enthronement of the Third Person in the adorable Trinity. The reception of the Official Successor of Jesus Christ, who has been sent in Jesus' name to administer on His estate. When you have received Him, love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, patience, faithfulness and self-control will daily fill your mind and heart. Just as patriotism, business or pleasure fill the mind of the world.

2. How will the Spirit fill me? I do not believe that we are filled in a twinkling of an eye, like a flash of lightning — without our seeking, or without any preparation, yet all the symbols of the Scripture represent his coming as a definite experience. When Jesus was baptized with water, while he was praying, the Holy Spirit like a dove lighted upon him. John says: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him.”

It is symbolized by the act of drinking water, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink” — this spake he of the Spirit. It is symbolized by the act of water baptism. “John indeed baptized you with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.”

It was symbolized by the anointing of oil, the prophet taking a horn of oil and pouring it on the head, introducing the man into the prophetic or kingly office. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.”

It is compared to the royal act of a king placing his seal upon a document. “In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise and then we were exhorted “not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

The greatest absurdity in the ecclesiastical world is the thought of growing into the pentecostal baptism of the Holy Spirit. There is no case of record in the Bible where the Spirit was received, where it is not absolutely certain that He came as a definite specific experience to men and women who were already Christians.

3. What Benefit will it be to Character? He will keep all the doubts out of the soul of the believer. When doubts are in the soul the man often hesitates and fears the result of prompt obedience to God. He will have a cautious look, a guarded gait and a timid step. When a man is "filled with the Spirit, like the son of a king he can walk the shining highway without fear or doubts. The doubting that secretly lurks among some professors of religion only reveals their need of a supernatural visitation. It will not be news to you to say that in these times there are church members who are doubting the fundamental truths of religion.

Regeneration, justification by faith, entire sanctification and the witness of the Spirit to our personal salvation are actually doubted by many church members.

These doubts are not in the biographies, nor creeds, nor songs of the church, nor in the heads, nor on the lips of the professors but in the hearts of many who are out in the fogs floundering, hardly knowing which way to go when they ought to be in the vineyards laboring for God with all their might.

4. He will keep all that secret crookedness out of a man's heart so that life will be straight. Jesus says: straight is the way. If a man walks in a

straight road his life is straight. When Ezekiel saw the messengers they had straight feet and walked in a straight way. God wants us to walk straight, believe straight and testify straight while we are in this crooked world.

He swung his plummet down from the throne by the side of one of the old patriarchs and said, “Be thou upright/’ “be thou perpendicular,” and when the Holy Spirit fills men, they will not be warped and crooked in their words and works. They will not stoop nor bend to do wrong things, they will be downright, upright, outright and all right Christians. How the church has suffered because brethren were so selfish or worldly that they would not even do right or talk right.

5. He warms the heart and makes us fervent in Spirit so we can render lively service. What a blessing it is for a man to get warm. Watch yourself as you enter your house on a winter’s night. You are chilled and cold — you are silent and raspy even to the children — you do not observe common courtesy, but in a few minutes your blood begins to flow and your spirits revive and you are your old self again. The fire has warmed you. Go into a church when the Holy Spirit has been grieved, the religious life is cold, benumbed. The people’s hearts do not burn by the presence of the Unseen — Jesus. They do not want you to pray; they pay for that. You are not urged to sing; they pay for that; they do not want you to exhort; they do not know what that is. You sit there alone with no flowing of spirit until you are exhausted and all your own fire has gone out and you are willing to give io or 25 cents to get out of the house and that is the only part of the service you enjoy. But when the Spirit comes in that very church they will want you to sing and pray and shake hands, and as Christian hand clasps Christian hand and smiling face greets smiling face, you feel like giving everything you have to Jesus; and you want all the people to come and join in the feast of love. The Holy Spirit’s fire is the only fire that can keep a church warm — all the year round.

6. The Holy Spirit will give us a perpetual full assurance of hope. Paul prayed for the Romans that they might abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The disciples before Pentecost were despondent and melancholy at times. They whispered together. They questioned each other. They longed for the restoration of Israel. They wanted the thrones of power, the right hand and the left hand places; they wanted to get good positions and wanted to hold them; but after Pentecost there were no more whisperings; they had the full assurance of hope. No more plans for places. No intrigues for the success of their party. No despair on account of the opposition. Now go to a church where the Holy Spirit is grieved. They have all kinds of flank movements on the enemy. They will decoy the theater goers by having parlor operas — in the churches. They would persuade the gambler to be religious by games of whist and progressive euchre parties. They are always having some scheme to get money. They cannot bear to have a political convention or beastly show come along without squeezing some money out of them in one way or another. But go into their prayer meetings when your heart wants comfort and peace. You might as well go into a dissecting room, — the cold chills will run up and down your back like a blizzard had struck you from North Dakota before the first prayer is ended. What hope you have will be dead and buried before the meeting closes. There is just one cure — it is God's remedy — the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

7. The presence of the Holy Spirit will destroy affectation and conceit. Affectation and conceit are produced by the admiration of self. “How provoking it is to see a mortal man jig and amble and lisp in a proud and conceited way." “Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" But little things are always highly valued by men who never sow greater. If men consider nothing but themselves and their interests they will grow conceited and proud. Nothing will cure affectation and conceit quicker than meditation on the really great. Every man can see his own littleness by looking upon true greatness in others. The little strutting chit of a pig-widgeon seems invincible and all important of himself, but side by side with a true giant he will easily collapse.

The village schoolmaster may highly esteem his own deftness in mathematics, but when he measures out into the far-reaching calculations of Newton or Le Ferrier he will not be exalted any longer by his own ciphering. The local poet may boast his own genius or report his own verses for the press with satisfaction, but when he sees the conceptions and harmonies of Shakespeare and Milton, he will take his cherished verses and make a bonfire.

Nothing will cure the affectation of the soul like meditation on God. He is so great, generous and splendid.

If the mind withdraws from the Lord Jesus and dwells upon self it will be puffed up and behave itself unseemly; but lifted up into the communion with the Great One, its self-conceit will fall off and all its praise and adoration will be given unto Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write.

8. If the Holy Spirit fills us we can patiently endure little troubles. Herbert says: “My friends may spit upon my curious floor.” He loved his friends so much he was willing to be troubled by their bad habits. It is only when the Spirit dwells within us that we can stand their filthy habits. Because the Lord loved Israel He endured their manners 40 years in the wilderness. There are some parents who seem to love their children — troublesome blessings — but do not enjoy their presence; they are so noisy that the little bothersome blessings are sent to school as soon as they are able to go. Then there are others who enjoy the presence of their children. They would rather have the carpets stained and soiled, the chairs bruised and marred and the whole house littered from one end to the other than to have the children away. There is such a charm in the presence of their children.

When the soul is filled with the Spirit of Jesus, no service is too menial, no gift is too costly, no yoke is too heavy, no suffering is too painful; for Jesus’ sake. Our own beloved shall do as He pleases. He may enter the office though he carries whip-cord and creates some disturbance and commotion — still He is welcome. He may enter the parlor though He should break a picture and His feet should stain our beautiful car- 1 pets, still He is welcome. He may enter the closets though He should find some old skeletons of pride or garments of covetousness that we stowed away in secret, still he is welcome. He may have the keys of every room in our bodies, souls and minds and have the freedom of the whole city of Man-soul. Hallelujah.