EVERYBODY'S NEED.
Some have the idea that this blessing of the Fullness is only for a favored few, for such as have some special work to do for God, but not for ordinary folk, "for auld wives and wabsters" in their homespun. Surely this is one of the devil's champion lies! Alas! alas! that it has found such credence! The Infilling is what makes this promise true, "He that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God" (Zech. xii. 8), so that "one man of you shall chase a thousand" (Josh. xxiii. 10). This means defeat for the devil, so no wonder that he strives to keep us back from the "Fullness"! We are here on earth that through us Christ may be glorified; but there is only One Person that can glorify Christ, and that is the Holy Ghost. "He shall glorify Me" (John xvi. 14). To the glorifying of Christ as He ought to be and might be glorified, the filling with the Spirit is necessary. Mothers in the home, "with thronging duties pressed," need the "Fullness" to enable them to glorify Christ as surely as the apostles needed it; the washerwoman needs it as well as the pastor; the tradesman as well as the evangelist. To live the Christ-glorifying life in the station in which God has placed us, we individually need to be filled with the Spirit. "They were all filled" (Acts ii. 4), men and women, the one hundred and twenty in the upper room, the rank and file as well as the apostles. "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" (Acts ii. 38, 39). From Acts viii. 17 we gather that all the converts in Samaria, without any favor or distinction, "received the Holy Ghost." From Acts x. 47 we gather that all in the house of Cornelius "received the Holy Ghost" while Peter was speaking. From Acts xix. 6 we gather that "the Holy Ghost came on" all the disciples to whom Paul was speaking. They all received because they all needed. Do not we all need? why then should we not all receive? And if we do not receive we will suffer loss, the Church will suffer loss, the world will suffer loss, and, above and beyond all, Christ will suffer loss.
CHAPTER VI.
PREVENTIVE AGAINST BACKSLIDING.
It is most instructive to note how exceedingly anxious the early Christians were, that, as soon as a man was converted, he should be "filled with the Holy Ghost." They knew no reason why weary wastes of disappointing years should stretch between Bethel and Peniel, between the Cross and Pentecost. They knew it was not God's will that forty years of wilderness wanderings should lie between Egypt and the Promised Land (Deut. i. 2). When Peter and John came to the Samaritans, and found that they were really turned to God, their first concern was to get them filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts viii. 15). When Ananias came to the newly-converted Saul of Tarsus, his first word was, "Jesus … hath sent me, that thou mayest … be filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts ix. 17). When Paul found certain disciples at Ephesus, his first business with them was to find out if they had "received the Holy Ghost" (Acts xix. 2). These early teachers did not wait for a few months or years till the young converts had become thoroughly disheartened because of the disappointments of the way, thoroughly demoralized by encountering defeats where they had been led to expect that they would come off "more than conquerors;" neither did they wait until the novices had become more established or more fully instructed in the things of God; but straightway, at once, they introduced them to Fullness of blessing, taught them the open secret of the overcoming, ever-victorious life, and they did not leave them until the secret was their very own. Has modern practice been in accord with apostolic practice in this respect? The only possible answer is in the negative. Have we improved then on the apostolic method? Scarcely. But our modern method is very largely responsible for the large percentage of backsliding that one meets with in the Church to-day. Many of these backsliders were soundly converted to God, but unfortunately for them, no Peter or John, no Ananias or Paul, met them in the beginning of their Pilgrimage to compel their attention to the "one thing needful" for the people of the Pilgrimage; so they started out but ill provided, and after a longer or shorter time they became thoroughly dispirited; and then asking, "Is this all that is in it?" they threw their profession overboard; and one can scarcely wonder at it. Prevention is better than cure. Let our young converts be fully instructed and fully equipped with the glorious Fullness provided for them by the gracious Father, and we will hear less about backsliding. Do you know why Peter and John, Ananias and Paul, spake of the Fullness of the Spirit? Because they possessed and enjoyed the blessing themselves, and they could not but speak of the blessing that had done so much for them. Do you know why we have not spoken of it to our converts and young Christians? Because we did not know of it ourselves! If we "receive" the Spirit we will "minister" the Spirit; and if we do not "minister," why is it?—but because we have not "received."
CHAPTER VII.
HOW LONG BETWEEN?
It is often asked what time must elapse between the regenerating by the Spirit and the filling with the Spirit? for be it remembered the Filling is as real and distinct and definite a blessing as the regenerating. Many people know the moment of their new birth; they were conscious of the change; so also many know when they were "filled with the Holy Ghost;" it was a blessed, bright, conscious experience, and it is as impossible to argue them out of the one experience as out of the other. On the other hand, some people do not know the time when they were born "again;" they simply have come to know by many infallible signs that the great change has taken place; so in like manner some do not know when the Fullness came to them, but they have been gently awaked to the fact that "Jesus came, He filled my soul;" and such people may be as truly "filled with the Spirit" as those who can tell when and where and how the blessing came to them. Now as to the period intervening between the two blessings, we know that in the case of the apostles in Acts ii. 4, three or three and a half years elapsed between the day when they heard the "Follow Me," and the day when they were "filled;" in the cases of the Samaritans in Acts viii. 17, and of the Ephesians in Acts xix. 1-7, some weeks; in the case of Saul in Acts ix. 17, three days. But as we have already noticed in the case of Cornelius and his household in Acts x. 44, they were regenerated and filled the same day. From this we gather that, as far as God is concerned, there is no needs-be for any intervening period, but that the believer may be "filled" as soon as he is "born again;" the "Life" almost as soon as we get it may blossom into "Life abundantly." If we did not "receive the Holy Ghost when" we believed, and if we have not "received" Him since we believed, and are not living now the Spirit-filled life, at whose door then does the blame lie?