"Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" III. IS THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT A THIRD BLESSING? "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." There is much difference of opinion among many of God's children as to the time and order of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and many who believe that entire cleansing is subsequent to salvation, ask if the baptism with the Spirit is not subsequent to cleansing, and, therefore, a third blessing. There are four classes of teachers whose views appear to differ about this subject. There are:-- 1. Those who emphasise cleansing; who say much of a clean heart, but little, if anything, about the fullness of the Holy Spirit and power from on High. 2. Those who emphasise the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fullness of the Spirit, but say little or nothing of cleansing from inbred sin and the destruction of the carnal mind. 3. Those who say much of both, but separate them into two distinct experiences, often widely separated in time. 4. Those who teach that the truth is in the union of the two, and that, while we may separate them in their order, putting cleansing first, we cannot separate them as to time, since it is the baptism that cleanses, just as the darkness vanishes before the flash of the electric light when the right button is touched; just as the Augean stables were cleansed, in the fabled story of Grecian mythology, when Hercules turned in the floods of the River Arno; the refuse went out as the rushing waters poured in. 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.