12 - Chapter 12
CHAPTER XII.
Experiences of this Baptism testified unto by eminent Christians. This appeal to the Churches would be incomplete, were the writer to omit in conclusion, the giving of samples of experiences of this Baptism of the Spirit, testified unto by men and women eminent for consecration and usefulness. We will first present that of Dwight L. Moody, as given by him in a great revival meeting in the City of Glasgow, Scotland. Mr. Moody said : "I can myself go back almost twelve years, and remember two holy women who used to come to my meetings. It was delightful to see them there! When I began to preach I could tell by the expression of their faces, that they were praying for me. At the close of the Sabbath evening meeting they would say to me, ’We have been praying for you/ I said ’why don’t you pray for the people?’ They answered, ’you need the power.’ I need the power? I said to myself! why, I thought I had power. I had a large Sabbath School and the largest evening congregation in Chicago. There were some conversions at the time. I was in a sense satisfied. But right along these two Godly women kept praying for me, and their earnest talk about a ’special anointing’ set me to thinking. I asked them to come and talk with me, and we got down on our knees. They poured out their hearts that I might receive an anointing from the Holy Spirit; and there arose a great hunger in my soul. I did not know what it was. I began to cry as never before. The hunger increased. I was crying all the time that God would fill me with his Spirit. Well, one day in the city of New York, Oh! what a day! I cannot describe it. I seldom refer to it. It is almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for fourteen years. I can only say that God then revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love, that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different. I did not present any new truths. And yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience, if you would give me all of Glasgow. It would be but the small dust of the balance." On another occasion Mr. Moody said, referring to this experience, "The blessing came upon me suddenly like a flash of lightning. For months I had been hungering for this power of service, I had come to a point where I think I should have died if I had not got it. Since then I have never lost the assurance that I am walking in communion with God, and I have a joy in his service which makes it easy work." This experience has a bearing on the questions Should this baptism be definitely sought, and does it sometimes come suddenly, and does it abide now, as in the days of Peter and Paul?
REV. B. FAY MILLS. This distinguished Evangelist, whom the Holy Spirit is leading from State to State, and from city to city, and through whom he is working with wonderful power, is also one who like Moody, and Finney, and Wesley, and Whitfield, and Peter and Paul, believes in a Special Baptism of the Holy Spirit. He is one, too, who like them sought it, and as he believes received it, and hence mighty works da show forth themselves in his labors. In a letter to the Author, he thus alludes to his experience "You are right in thinking I have received an especial Baptism of the Holy Spirit. I had been preaching for a number of years, and with considerable success, before I so much as realized, what was meant by the power of the Holy Ghost. The blessing came to me, as the result of the emptying of my heart and life before God, and the shutting up of myself to Him, and a subsequent season of severe testing. My life has been transformed by the definite fulfillment of the promise of God, in the joy and strength and power of the Holy Ghost."
We submit that the testimony of such a man, whose success is so marvelous, and whose praise is in all the Churches, as to the way by which the Lord led him into the baptism, which has so revolutionized his life and his labors, should have especial weight with all practical and earnest men.
MISS FEANCES E. WILLAED.
We next give the testimony of Miss Frances E. Willard, President of the National W. C. T. U., and the most distinguished Christian woman of America, if not of the world. This lady was hopefully converted at Evanston, 111., in A. D. 1859. For some six or seven years she lived the usual halting and advancing lower plane Christian life. Then a great change came over her an uplift in experience, in vision and in power a baptism of the Holy Ghost! Thus she speaks of it and thus she was led thereto. "In 1886, Mrs. Bishop Hamline came to our village. This saintly woman placed in my hands the life of Hester Ann Eodgers, Life of Carvosso, Life of Mrs. Fletcher, Wesley’s sermons on Christaiu Perfection and Mrs. Palmer’s Guide to Holiness. My reading of these books and my talks with Mrs. Hamline deeply impressed me. Soon after Dr. and Mrs. Phebe Palmer came to Evanston and held meetings in our Church. One evening when Mrs. Palmer had spoken with marvelous clearness and power, she asked those who were desirous of entering into the higher Christian life, to come forward and kneel at the Altar. I and my mother went and kneeling, in utter self abandonment I consecrated myself anew to God." Then there arose a severe testing, such as Mr. Mills alludes to, in which one sacrifice after another came before her, as the conditions of receiving the Great Gift she longed for. One after another were laid on the Altar, even to “the pretty little jewels" on her person. This done, she writes: "A great peace came to my soul. I cannot describe the deep welling up of joy that gradually possessed me. I was utterly free from care. I was blithe as a bird that is good for nothing but to sing. I did not ask, ’ Is it duty? * but intuitively knew what to do. The conscious emotional presence of Christ, through the Holy Spirit, held me. I ran about upon his errands just from love! Life was a halcyon day!" This continued without interruption till it was somewhat dimmed by yielding to advice not to confess the gift of God, in a new place to which she went to live, and where the doctrine had been brought into disrepute by the strange freaks and follies of some professing the Gift. This she mourned over as a grievous mistake and a sin, nevertheless she largely recovered the lost ground and still enjoys a large measure of the early joy, and grace and power.
REV. EDWARD PAYSON. In the State of Maine, no minister has ever equaled Edward Payson, in power as a preacher, or in religious influence over the people. That he received this Baptism of the Holy Spirit, is evident from such records of his words and writings as follow. In a letter to a friend thus he writes: " Were I to adopt the figurative language of Bunyan, I should date this letter from the Land of Beulah, of which I have been for some time a happy inhabitant. I can find no words to describe my happiness. I seem swimming in a river of pleasure, which is carrying me to the great fountain! God is now, literally, my all and in all, and while He is present with me, no event can in the least diminish my happiness, and were the whole world at my feet, trying to minister to my comfort, they could not add one drop to my cup." A similar experience is described by President Edwards of a pious lady whom h6 knew. The Tennant brothers of New Jersey, have left behind a like record of their own experiences. And the death-beds of ten thousand Christians have evinced a power of the Holy Ghost, triumphant over disease, weakness and pain, super-human, Divine and semi-miraculous. One question we wish to ask the reader in view of them, viz: Is it not possible to have this rich endowment this vivid sense of God’s presence this victory over temptation this full assurance of faith, and power of utterance long before we reach the chamber of death? We need it in the open field of active labor, where we can use it for the Glory of God, and the Salvation of men.
Admit we need dying grace, more yet we need the grace to live, and work for Christ.
We have the testimony of several others at hand, such as James Brainard Taylor, Rev. Chas. G. Finney, etc., but they accord so perfectly with those already given, that it seems superfluous to add them. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. We will add however some points on which all the witnesses agree those withheld, and those given.
1st. They all confess the reception of this blessing, at periods considerably distant from conversion. In nearly all cases years after, as was true of the Apostles.
2d. That it did not come to them, till definitely sought, and that too, with strong persistency and importunate prayer.
3d. That its coming was not after the ideal of a gradual growth, advocated by many, but rather after the Pentecostal pattern, and so marked by peculiar experiences that ihey could not doubt it was from God.
4th. They each confess to a severe testing of their willingness to do and suffer for Christ, somewhat like that which takes place at conversion, before the Spirit in double portion came upon them.
5th. That with the blessing, there came an enlarged sense of the Divine presence, a new faith in His power, victory over sinful propensities, courage and liberty in declaring God’s will, peace, joy, and an assurance of acceptance^ which made doubt thenceforth impossible. In these things and more they all agree. It will hardly do for Christians lightly to set aside the testimony of these witnesses, backed as they are by Apostolic example, and warranted by the promises of our Lord. Nor is it safe to look around and ask, "Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees had this experience? and gauge our privileges in this line, or our duty to God, by attainments common in the Churches. It is to the Bible we must go, and to its exceeding great and precious promises, to learn the measure of our privileges and duties, and not to the ever-varying phases of religious life and doctrine prevalent in religious circles.