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4 I 'A: wIH- 7 ® IM' I w o | 1 I B'is (1| & J IH| 1 II lit I % The Promise of the Father. “Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”—Luke 24:49. We have here our Lord’s last command. Soon he is to depart from the earth to take up his work at the right hand of the Father. The great task of making disciples of the nations had been committed to his little band of followers, and through them handed down to the church in all the ages. Jesus here is commanding them concerning their equip ment for this great work. Let us get clearly in our minds the picture: Jesus and his disciples are together for the last time. It is a very tender and interesting occasion. They have had something to eat, and Jesus has giv en them the command to make disciples of all na tions, a task which from a human standpoint is impossible. Jesus, however, does not intend that they shall view it from a human standpoint. He has an equipment which will change the nature of their task. The fact that he is soon to go away does not alter his interest in the work that is to be done. His going is to make way for the coming of the Holy Ghost. Said he, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” The Promise of the Father. In prefacing this last command Jesus r?G ~ ' “the promise of the Father.” This is unquestiona bly a reference to the prophecy of Joel: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. . . . And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered.” The going of Jesus, therefore, meant the coming of the Holy Spirit, which had been arranged in the counsels of the Trinity and foretold by the proph ets. The Purpose of the Spirit. The purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirt was to carry on the works of Christ. We read in the first account of the Acts of the Spirit, called the Acts of the Apostles, that “After he was received up, he gave commandment through the Holy Spirit unto the apostles whom he had chosen.” If any one should ask me to tell in a single sen tence, the office work of the Spirit, I would say, “To carry on the work that Jesus began.” There was nothing that interested Jesus Christ that did not afterward interest the Holy Spirit. The plan and pattern that he left was adhered to by the Spirit in everything that he did. The Spirit had nothing new to give to the apostles other than that which was planned by Jesus Christ. Pentecost itself was his plan. The Spirit came to carry it into effect. It is just so at the present day. There is noth- Whe-I Bi®s4aiJKJ Braaaifflr ing that the Spirit has to bestow upon the* church that was not planned by Jesus Christ. In the econ omy of grace is made the center of attraction; He is the beloved Son. The mission of the Spirit is. to reveal Him; to reveal Him in all the beauty of His character; to reveal Him in His marvelous plan of redemption; and to reveal Him in His will concern ing the church. How important it is that we see this! I fear, sometimes, we are in danger of leaving Christ out in so much talk about the Spirit. Os course if we understand that the Spirit in everything is revealing Christ; and if our talk of the Spirit is with the view of getting a fuller vision of Him, there is no danger; indeed, it is proper. But let us see to it that that is true. Christ is the great magnet. He said Himself, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me.” We want to keep Christ ever before us; the Christ of the cross, the Christ of life, the Christ of the church. It is the mission of the Spirit to perpetuate this picture; to keep it ever fresh before us, and to so direct the affairs of the church as to reveal the full ness of Christ. This is why the Spirit was promised, and it is for this purpose that the apostles were directed to tarry in Jerusalem until His coming. The Meaning of Enduement. They were not simply to remain until the advent of the Spirit; what Jesus meant was that they should be endued with the power from on high. It is one thing for the Spirit to be present, and the enduement of the Spirit is another. To be endued is to be clothed, possessed, enveloped, baptized. The Holy Spirit might have come on the day of Pentecost and remained as he was promised, but unless these followers received his enduement there would have been no Pentecostal manifestation. I am sure here is where the church of today is making its greatest mistake. Generally speaking, its theology concerning the Spirit is correct. It be lieves in the third person of the Trinity. It be lieves that he has come, but experimentally it is getting very little out of his presence. The church lacks enduement; it is not clothed with the power from on high. What we want is to emphasize this fact. We w’ant to put just as much force in the emphasis as possible. We have, it seems to me, all the equip ment that we need; certainly we have a great deal. We have money and intelligence. We have people who are saved, but there is a lack of power that im presses every one who studies the situation. We want enduement of power. We do not want sim ply to realize the presence of the Holy Spirit in us and with us, but we want his energy, his strength, his power. Natural versus Supernatural. There is too much dependence upon the natural. The church is not a natural force, nor is it to be governed by natural law. It is supernatural in its birth, supernatural in its life, and supernatural in its destiny. What the church needs is to realize its dependence upon supernatural power. This is true of Pentecost which was an expression of supernatural power. The occasion itself was supernaturally arranged. It was at a time when the people from all parts of the world were gathered in Jerusalem. This was not an accident; God had arranged it. He wanted the news of Pentecost scattered throughout the world. God always works at both ends of the line. A woman came to me once saying, “The Holy Ghost has sent me to you for $10.00.” I said, “Sister, I guess there must be some doubt about this.” She The Golden Age for May 17, 1906. Le n G. Broughton said, “No, I am sure the Holy Ghost sent me.” I said, “It cannot be true, because I have not the SIO.OO, and the Holy Ghost knows it.” When God went to inaugurate Pentecost, He ar ranged for the Spirit to descend upon the disciples at"the time when the people were gathered at Je .rusalem from all parts of the world. What a great God He is! How blessed is the man who finds it easy to trust Him. The selection of Peter to preach the sermon < n th« day of Pentecost was supernatural. We would have felt more like putting him out of the church than letting him preach. He had denied the Lord; he had lied in doing it. But the Holy Ghost saw some thing in Peter that we would not have discovered. The doctrine Peter preached was supernatural. He preached the resurrection of the dead, the opera tion of the Holy Ghost, the foreknowledge of God, and the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ. The effect of the sermon was also supernatural. In the first place they were confounded; their wis dom was set aside. They could not understand the gift of tongues. In the second place three thousand were converted. This certainly marked the whole Pentecostal occurrence as having come from God. Man’s wisdom works just the opposite of what we see here. Oh, if the church could see this, the arm of flesh would be less relied upon, and the Holy Ghost would be kept on the throne. Pentecost Repeated. But some one asks, “can Pentecost be repeated?” Most certainly the good things of Pentecost can be repeated. The average church has many more mem bers than assembled in that upper room. They have more culture and more wealth. Surely the number and quality of the believers at that time can be re peated. The Holy Ghost can be repeated, for he came once for all. What the church wants today is to stop quib bling about technicalities and receive the enduement of power. But how is this done? There are three sugges tions that I have to make in answer to this ques tion. First, unwavering faith in the willingness and power of the Holy Ghost to work today as in the days of the apostolic church. To limit Irm in the slightest degree means to reject him entirely. Second, renunciation of all self, with its plans and purposes. There is no use seeking the Holy Ghost for his enduement so long as there is not complete surrender. Third, a faith that receives him as definitely as Jesus has been received. There is no doubt but that the Holy Ghost is to be received by faith for ser vice just as Christ is to be received for salvation. This may be called by some, a second blessing. If so, never mind. In the provision of God there is everything in regeneration, but experience de pends upon the appropriation of the provision. The question for the church of today is the apos tolic question: “Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?” I fear the large majority of believers, like those to whom Paul addressed the question, cannot answer yes. Oh, Christian, do not allow anything to keep you away from this blessing. Without it your life of service will lack the power ’of the supernatural. There is nothing that can take the place of it. When the Holy Ghost came upon those disciples in the upper room, he came to impart unto them power which the natural man could not command. He will do the same thing today. He is in the world for that business, and the church or the individual that fails to give him the right of way will be left to the energy of the flesh. This is how we account for the lack of enthusiasm among many Christians and churches. They ate at-