heard a man of to-day lay claim to being guided "into
all truth by the Spirit," who did not say something foolish in the next
five minutes. If any man claims the direct guidance of the Spirit
to-day, he can not consistently deny that same claim to others. But we
have all sorts of men teaching all sorts of doctrines, often
contradicting each other. Does the Spirit guide one man to preach up
Universalism and another man to preach it down! The same is true of
Calvinism, Mormonism or any other ism.

This teaching places the Spirit in a very unenviable position, that of
preaching four or five different teachings at the same time, each
within a half-mile of the other. Suppose a preacher were to do that!
What would the people think of him? It would ruin the reputation of any
preacher in Christendom. There is something wrong, and that something is
_to apply to the world_ the promise of the Paraclete, which was _only
given to the apostles_.

Paul tells Timothy: "The things thou hast heard of me among many
witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to
teach others also." Was that not an impertinence in Paul if Timothy had
the same divine leading as he? Was it not impertinence in Jude to say
that the faith was "once for all delivered to the saints," if there were
deliverances being constantly made? What need to preach the gospel to
the heathen world if God is directly leading men into the truth? What
need for a New Testament if all men possess this Paraclete? How can one
man deny the claims of another whom he admits to be divinely guided into
all truth?

Some have thought that Christ bestowed the Paraclete upon the apostles
when he breathed upon them and said: "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." At
best that was a prophetic and not an actual bestowal, for after that
onbreathing we find Peter (Acts I) calling upon the assembly of brethren
to _take a vote_ as to who should succeed Judas in the apostolic
college. If he had possessed the Paraclete at that time, he would not
have been compelled to resort to the judgment of his brethren to
determine such a question. Moreover, Christ indicated when the Paraclete
would come, by stating the work that would follow his coming: "_When he
is come_ he shall convict the world [age] of sin, of righteousness and
of judgment." How did he do this?

1. His first act at his coming was to baptize the apostles in the Spirit
and endow them with the Paraclete. "Ye shall be baptized in