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
received a certain amount of education, including it may be a college and
seminary course, but have not as yet been baptized with the Holy Spirit.
We think that if a man is hopefully pious and has had a college and
seminary education and comes out of it reasonably orthodox, he is now
ready that we should lay our hands upon him and ordain him to preach the
Gospel. But Jesus Christ says, “No.” There is another preparation so all
essential that a man must not undertake this work until he has received
it. “Tarry ye (literally ‘sit ye down’) until ye be endued with power from
on high.” A distinguished theological professor has said that the question
ought to be put to every candidate for the ministry, “Have you met God?”
Yes, but we ought to go farther than this and be even more definite; to
every candidate for the ministry we should put the question, “Have you
been baptized with the Holy Spirit?” and if not, we should say to him as
Jesus said to the first preachers of the Gospel, “Sit down until you are
endued with power from on high.”
But not only is this true of ordained ministers, it is true of every
Christian, for all Christians are called to ministry of some kind. Any man
who is in Christian work, who has not received the baptism with the Holy
Spirit, ought to stop his work right where he is and not go on with it
until he has been “clothed with power from on high.” But what will our
work do while we are waiting? The question can be answered by asking
another, “What did the world do during these ten days while the early
disciples were waiting?” They knew the saving truth, they alone knew it;
yet in obedience to the Lord’s command they were silent. The world was no
loser. Beyond a doubt, when the power came, they accomplished more in one
day than they would have accomplished in years if they had gone on in
self-confident defiance and disobedience to Christ’s command. We too after
that we have received the baptism with the Spirit will accomplish more of
real work for our Lord in one day than we ever would in years without this
power. Even if it were necessary to spend days in waiting, they would be
well spent, but we shall see later that there is no need that we spend
days in waiting, that the baptism with the Holy Spirit may be received
to-day. Some one may say that the Apostles had gone on missionary tours
during Christ’s lifetime, even before they were baptized with the Holy
Spirit. This is true, but that was before the Holy Spirit was given, and
before the command was given, “Tarry ye until ye be clothed with power
from on high.” After that it would have been disobedience and folly and
presumption to have gone forth without this enduement, and we are living
to-day after the Holy Spirit has been given and after the charge has been
given to tarry until clothed.
WHO CAN BE BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account