have read of the Spirit's descent, but we do _not_ read of _His_ ascension. A Christian man came to me once and said--expecting a word of encouragement and approval--"I have been seeking that blessing for over thirty years." "Brother, it's nearly time you got it then!" was the swift rejoinder. For all these years during which the man was crying, "Give, give, give!" God was saying, "Take, take, take! Receive, receive! for I _do_ give!" If I heard my little girl of three years old crying piteously for a piece of bread, knowing that she must be very hungry, and having the bread by me would I tell her to cry on for another hour and that then I might attend to her wants? "How much more," oh! "_How much more_ will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" But what if, in spite of her crying and of my offering, she would not take the bread I offered, but still went on with her crying, "Father! oh, father! do give me a piece of bread, I am so hungry!" You silly child! Oh, how many silly children has the Father in His family, crying year in and year out, "Give, give!" and Father all the while yearning over them and saying, "Take, take, My child!" Let some of us give over crying and set to work "receiving." Take and thank! Receive and thank! "That we might receive the promise of the Spirit _through faith_." CHAPTER XIV. _HOW DOES IT COME?_ How does the Filling of the Spirit come? "Does it come once for all? or is it _always_ coming, as it were?" was a question addressed to me once by a young candidate for the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. There are many asking the same question. We have considered how the Fullness is obtained, but now we proceed to consider, How does the Fullness come? In speaking of the blessing of being filled with the Spirit, the New Testament writers use three tenses in the Greek--the Aorist, the Imperfect, and the Present. Each of these tenses has a different shade of meaning. The inspiring Spirit has employed these different tenses for a purpose, and it will be to our profit to try and get at that purpose, to note the differences, and to learn His meaning. (1) The Aorist tense--a tense to which the English language is a stranger--denotes generally "a sudden, definite act of the past," "something done and finished with"--"They were filled"--as in Acts ii. 4. (2) The Imperfect tense, denoting, as in English, just what its name implies--"They were being filled" (literally)--as in Acts xiii. 52. (3) The Present tense, also denoting, as in English, just what its name implies--"Full," the normal condition--as in Acts xi. 24. The following are the passages in the Acts in which the various tenses are found:-- (1) _Aorist_:-- Acts ii. 2, "It filled all the house." Acts ii. 4, "They were all filled." Acts iv. 8, "Peter filled with the Holy Ghost." Peter was already "filled," in ch. ii. 4.