The Person and Work of The Holy SpiritTorrey, R. A. (Reuben Archer)
Religion
The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit
Torrey, R. A. (Reuben Archer)
Holy Spirit
A lady and gentleman once came to me at a convention and told me how,
though they had never seen me before, they had read the report of an
address on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit delivered in Boston at a
Christian Workers’ Convention and that they had sought this baptism and
had received it. The man then told me the blessing that had come into his
service as superintendent of the Sunday-school. When he had finished, his
wife broke in and said, “Yes, and the best part of it is, I have been able
to get into the hearts of my own children, which I was never able to do
before.” Here were three distinctly different lines of service, but there
was power in each case. The results of that power may not, however, be
manifest at once in conversions. Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit,
but as he witnessed in the power of the Holy Spirit for his risen Lord, he
saw no conversions at the time. All he saw was the gnashing of the teeth,
the angry looks and the merciless rocks, and so it may be with us. But
there was a conversion, even in that case, though it was a long time
before it was seen, and that conversion, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus,
was worth more than hundreds of ordinary conversions.
5. Another result of the baptism with the Holy Spirit will be _boldness in
testimony and service_. We read in Acts iv. 31, “And when they had prayed,
the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost, and they _spake the word of God with
boldness_.” The baptism with the Holy Spirit imparts to those who receive
it new liberty and fearlessness in testimony for Christ. It converts
cowards into heroes. Peter upon the night of our Lord’s crucifixion proved
himself a craven coward. He denied with oaths and curses that he knew the
Lord. But after Pentecost, this same Peter was brought before the very
council that had condemned Jesus to death, and he himself was threatened,
but filled with the Holy Ghost, he said, “Ye rulers of the people, and
elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the
impotent man, by what means he is made whole; be it known unto you all,
and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, _whom ye crucified_, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him
doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set
at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither
is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts iv. 8-12). A little later
when the council commanded him and his companion, John, not to speak or
teach in the name of Jesus, they answered, “Whether it be right in the
sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we
cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts iv. 19,
20). On a still later occasion, when they were threatened and commanded
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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