e is yet in the presence of
all those who were present at his baptism and heard John say, "Behold the
Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." The Savior now calls
about him twelve disciples, and they make and baptize many more disciples.
John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, as prophets, were under the influence
of the Holy Spirit, and were engaged in the grandest work ever known among
men. But, so far as a wicked world was concerned, it must be redeemed from
moral pollution first, and then await the day of Pentecost for the gift of
the Holy Spirit. Thus keeping before our minds his relations to men, we
ask what was his work and relations from Pentecost and onward? On that day
he came upon the disciples, who were already converted and pardoned; so it
was not for _those purposes_ that they were baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Jesus had said to them, long before this, "Now ye are clean through the
words which I have spoken unto you." And the wicked Jews had "closed their
eyes and stopped their ears, lest they should see with their eyes and hear
with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted and
healed." And Satan himself took the word out of the hearts of some "lest
they should believe and be saved."

And all this took place before the Holy Spirit was given to any, whether
good or bad. So we must look outside of sinners for the presence and
wonderful work of the Spirit of God, and also outside of their conversion
for its immediate and direct agency. Jesus said to his disciples, "If I go
away I will send you ANOTHER comforter, even the Spirit of Truth, _whom
the world can not receive_." And again, he said, "Howbeit, when he, the
Spirit of Truth, is come, he shall guide you into all truth." "He will
show you things to come." "He shall take of the things of mine and shall
show them unto you." "He shall testify of me." Does this look like
extraordinary work? Was it to be continued? Did it not belong to a
creative period, that was to be followed by the existence of a system, or
government, in which law and order would take the place of the
extraordinary operations of the Spirit of God?

I wish to present the promise of God which relates to the baptism of the
disciples in the Holy Spirit upon Pentecost, that we may discover, upon an
analysis of its terms, its nature and place in the reign of favor. It is
in these words: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I
will pour out of my spirit