"Wait for the promise of the Father, which * * * ye have heard of me. For John, truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."[A]
[Footnote A: Acts i:4, 5.]
The reference to the promise made through John the Baptist is obvious; and the disciples who had anxiously looked for its accomplishment were now informed that its fulfillment was not many days hence.
The promise was fulfilled, for in about seven days[A] after the Messiah's ascension, on the day of Pentecost, the disciples being assembled with one accord, in one place, "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."[B]
[Footnote A: Pentecost came fifty days after the Passover, (reckoning from the second day of the Passover—the 16th of the Month Nisan) on which day the Lord Jesus was crucified. Allowing that he laid three days in the tomb, and was with his disciples forty days after his resurrection (Acts i:3), forty-three days of the fifty between Passover and Pentecost was accounted for, leaving but seven between his ascension and the day of Pentecost, when the promise of the baptism of the Spirit was fulfilled.]
[Footnote B: Acts ii 2-4.]
Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, so abundantly given to himself and companions on that day, preached a discourse which convinced thousands that Jesus was both Lord and Christ, the Savior of the world; and in answering the question of the multitude as to what they should do, after telling them to repent, and to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins, he added: "And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For 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."[A]
[Footnote A: Acts ii:38,39.]
I call attention to the universality of this promise. It was made to those who were listening to the apostles; but not to them alone, it extended to their children, to them also that were afar off—to those who were a hundred years off, or five hundred, or five or ten thousand years off; the promise was to them; and as if this was not sufficiently universal, the apostle adds, "even to as many as the Lord our God shall call"—call to what? to as many, of course, as are called to yield obedience to the gospel—to all such the promise extends.
4. Special Promise of the Holy Ghost in the New Dispensation of the Gospel: As the promise made by John was repeated and emphasized by the Savior, so, likewise, has this general promise made by the Apostle Peter been repeated and emphasized by the Lord, in restoring the gospel to the earth in this dispensation in which we live. To the first elders of the Church in our day, he said: