LAYING ON OF HANDS FOR IMPARTING THE HOLY GHOST
True faith in God, repentance true,
Sins remitted by immersion;
The humble soul is born anew,
And the spirit takes possession.
By laying on of holy hands,
Of God's own servants here on earth;
Those who've obeyed the Lord's commands,
Will realize the Spirit's birth.
After the candidate for eternal life has been baptized for the remission of his sins, and has sought unto the Lord in faith, honestly repenting of his sins, and has obtained the forgiveness of all his past transgressions, he is entitled to the gift of the Holy Ghost. He should seek for it, for the Lord has promised that he shall receive it, but He has established a certain ordinance through which He bestows this precious gift. That ordinance is the "Laying on of hands." Many may question this, but the scriptures should decide the matter. Let us see how Paul received the Holy Ghost. Ananias received a mission to visit Paul, and entered into the house where he was staying, "and putting his hands on him said: Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." (Acts ix. 17.) But why not fill him with the Holy Ghost without any administration of Ananias, seeing that he had faith, and was repenting and fasting and praying before the Lord? Because the Lord had established an order in the plan of salvation. He had authorized His servants to observe that order in ministering the spirit as well as the water, and they were to minister the spirit by the laying on of hands.
How did Paul administer the spirit? It is possible that he obtained his first lesson, in the administration of baptism and the laying on of hands, from Ananias when he himself was baptized and confirmed; but, whether this was his first lesson or not, he, no doubt, learned to administer the ordinances of the gospel correctly. And when he came to Ephesus and found about twelve men who had been baptized "unto John's baptism," "they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus," "and when Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues, and prophesied." (Acts xix. 1-6.) Thus, we see Paul administered the Holy Ghost by "the laying on of hands."
When Philip preached to the Samaritans, they believed and were baptized both men and women. "Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost; (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then laid they their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost. (Acts viii, 14-17.)
Now, as they were apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, faithful men whose prayers God would hear and answer, why did not the Lord bestow upon those Samaritans the gift of the Holy Ghost in answer to the earnest prayers of His faithful servants, without the ordinance of the laying on of hands? Because that would have been contrary to the law laid down for the ministering of the spirit. Peter and John were anxious that the Lord should bless their administration for the benefit of those baptized believers. They desired that the Holy Ghost should rest down upon them in mighty power. But they could not exercise the authority of the apostleship in and of themselves, and independently of the Lord, hence they prayed for themselves, no doubt, and that the Samaritans "might receive the Holy Ghost." Then they performed the proper ordinance, God honored the administration in answer to their prayer, and those baptized believers "received the Holy Ghost." (Acts viii, 17).
The laying on of hands, then, is the Lord's ordinance for imparting the Holy Ghost to His believing, repentant, and baptized children, and He has never made it void, or authorized any man to change it, or to teach the inhabitants of the earth that it is done away and no longer needed.