When the Holy Ghost is Come

by Samuel Logan Brengle

There are three very blessed portions of Scripture which show us that this is God’s order, and two that plainly show us that cleansing and the baptism are not separate in time.

In Psalm li. 10 and 12, David prays, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.... Uphold me with Thy free Spirit.” First the cleansing, then the filling that upholds: for as it is my spirit within me that upholds my body, so it is God’s Spirit within that upholds my soul.

In Ezekiel xxxvi. 25 and 27, the Lord says, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.... And I will put My Spirit within you.”

Here again, the order is first cleansing, then filling.

In John xvii. 15-26, Jesus prays for His disciples, and says: “I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil.... Sanctify them;... that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us;... I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one;... that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Here, again, it is first sanctification (cleansing, being made holy), then filling, divine union with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit.

These Scriptures make plain the order of God’s work, and if we looked at them alone, without diligently comparing Scripture with Scripture, as God would have us do, we might perhaps conclude that the cleansing and filling were as distinct and separate in time as they are in this order of statement.

But other Scriptures give us abundant light on that side of the subject. In Isaiah vi. 1-8, we have the record of the prophet’s sanctification, and we notice that the cleansing and the filling were not separate in time. The cleansing was not before the baptism, but by the baptism. The “live coal” was laid upon his mouth, and touched his lips; and by this fiery baptism his iniquity was taken away and his sin was purged.

In Acts x. 44, we read of Peter’s preaching Jesus to Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and his household; and “while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word”; and in Acts xv. 7-9, at the first Council in Jerusalem, we have Peter’s rehearsal of the experience of Cornelius and his household. Peter says: “Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the Gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” Here we see that their believing, and the sudden descent of the Holy Ghost with cleansing power into their hearts, constitute one blessed experience.

What patient, waiting, expectant faith reckons done, the baptism with the Holy Ghost actually accomplishes. Between the act of faith by which a man begins to reckon himself “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans vi. 11), and the act of the Holy Spirit, which makes the reckoning good, there may be an interval of time, “a little while” (Hebrews x. 37); but the act and state of steadfastly, patiently, joyously, perfectly believing, which is man’s part, and the act of baptising with the Holy Ghost, cleansing as by fire, which is God’s part, bring about the one experience of entire sanctification, and must not and cannot be logically looked upon as two distinct blessings, any more than the act of the husband and the act of the wife can be separated in the one experience of marriage.