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  (THE HOLY SPIRIT) 7. THE BAPTISM WITH FIRE
  by A.B. Simpson
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"He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." Matthew 3:
11. "For our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12: 29. Fire is one of
the most powerful and striking elements of the material world. It has
always been an object of importance and of superstitious regard in the
religious ideas and customs of all nations. In ancient Greece and Rome
the sacred fire was guarded by consecrated priests and vestal virgins,
and was the center of the commonwealth and the home. When the fire went
out, all executive and national affairs were suspended, and it had to be
rekindled, either from the lightnings of the skies, from the
concentrated rays of the sun, or by the process of friction and the
rubbing together of two pieces of wood.

The foreign ambassador had to walk by the holy fire before he could be
received in the Council of State. The Slavonic and Teutonic bride had to
bow before the holy fire as she entered her new home. The Red Indian
sachem walked thrice around the camp-fire before he would give his
counsel or confer with his public visitor. The twelve Grecian tribes
brought their twelve firebrands to Theseus, and were thus consolidated
into the State, and their sacred fires were combined in the Oracle of
Delphi. The Persian fire-worshipers looked upon the sun and the flame as
sacred things, and it was an unpardonable profanity to spit in the fire
or commit any impropriety in the presence of these holy elements. Fire
was recognized as identical with life, and the Parsees of India today
worship it with holy veneration.

God had always recognized it in His Word, not as an object of
superstitious regard, but as the symbol of His own transcendent glory,
and the power of His presence and His Holy Spirit.

As the discoveries of science and the progress of human knowledge
increase, we learn to trace the deeper analogies and more significant
lessons in this sacred symbolism. Fire is the most valuable physical
force with which we are acquainted. In yonder sun it is the center of
power in our whole planetary system. Stored up in our vast coal-mines,
it is the power that drives the engines of commerce and the wheels of
industry throughout the world. We see it in the tremendous forces of
modern artillery, the torpedo, the bomb, the dynamite, the nitro-
glycerine, and the death-dealing cannon. It is the prime factor in all
the implements of modern warfare.

In the still higher forces of electricity, with their countless and
ever-increasing adaptations, it is revolutionizing all the methods of
modern business, and directing the whole course of trade and labor.
Science is beginning to believe that the ultimate force of all nature is
just electricity, and that the power that moves the planets in their
orbits and the stars in their courses is but a form of electric fire.
The truth is, that when they get to the end of their ultimatum they will
find that God Himself is there, the personal source of all these forces,
and by His own will directing this tremendous battery by which the
universe is kept in motion. For "power belongeth unto God." and He is
the "Consuming Fire" from whose bosom all other forces emanate.

The Holy Ghost Himself has taught us to recognize in this tremendous
force His own appropriate symbol, "He shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost and with fire." There is something very striking in the analogy
between the story of fire and the dispensational unfolding of the Holy
Ghost. There was a time in the history of the natural world when yonder
celestial fires were the objects of mystery, uncertainty, and almost
dread. The lightnings of the skies were known to be real forces, but men
knew not when they would strike, and dared not attempt to use or control
them. But in these last days science has scaled the heavens, has caught
the lightnings, and has brought the tremendous forces of electricity
under the direction of such laws that the simplest child can use them at
pleasure. They have become the instruments of our everyday life, ringing
our front doorbells, driving our streetcars, lighting our chambers and
our streets, moving our machinery, carrying on our business, and even
conveying our messages on the phonographic and telegraphic wires over
the world.

So, in like manner, there was a time when the Holy Ghost\

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/ab-simpson/the-holy-spirit-7-the-baptism-with-fire/
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