Plainly we see how Christ was our pattern and exemplar in his relation to the Holy Spirit. He had been begotten of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin, and had lived that holy and obedient life which this divine nativity would imply. But when he would enter upon his public ministry, he waited for the Spirit to come upon him, as he had hitherto been in him. For this anointing we find him praying: "Jesus also being baptized and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a {76} dove upon him" (Luke 3: 22). Had he any "promise of the Father" to plead, as he now asked the anointing of the Spirit, if as we may believe this was the subject of his prayer? Yes; it had been written in the prophets concerning the rod out of the stem of Jesse: "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him; the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord" (Isa. 11: 2). "The promise of the seven-fold Spirit," the Jewish commentators call it. Certainly it was literally fulfilled upon the Son of God at the Jordan, when God gave him the Spirit without measure. For he who was now baptized was in turn to be baptizer. "Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost" (John 1: 33). "I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I . . . he shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire" (Matt. 3: 11, R. V.). And now being at the right hand exalted, and having "the seven spirits of God" (Rev. 3: 3), the fullness of the Holy Ghost, he will shed forth his power upon those who pray for it, even as the Father shed it forth upon himself. Let us observe now the symbols and descriptions of the enduement of the Spirit which are applied equally to Christ and to the disciples of Christ. {77}