42

TEACHING OF THE SPIRIT.

and clearest perception of the relative nature of things, and who has the greatest capability of continued application, and the greatest originality of invention, is capable of making the greatest progress in all worldly knowledge: yet He, and He alone, knows the things of God, who obeys His will, manifested in the secret of his heart,* and all who obey Him are His children, and all His children are taught of their Heavenly Father, and great shall be the peace of His children.† So it was with the apostles, and so it has been and will be with all other christians, that the things of God are spiritually discerned; and unless we know them by Revelation, we know them not at all, though we may think we know them. Even His disciples, up to the period of His resurrection, did not understand the Scriptures; but, just as He was about to return to the Everlasting Father, "He opened their understandings, that they might understand them."§ And even after He had bestowed this precious understanding upon them, they were bidden to “ Tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high."|| And the gospel of John winds up the account with this remarkable testimony, "There are also many other things which Jesus did; the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." And well might he suppose so on recollecting that the worldly part, the worldly wisdom, in the disciples themselves, never could contain the purposes or the end of the coming of the Messiah: thus exhibiting a practical illustration of the reply of Abraham to the covetous and selfish Dives:

* Luke viii. 21. † Isaiah liv. 13. || Luke xxiv. 49.

1 Cor. ii. 14. § Luke xxiv. 45. John xxi. 25.

THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST.

43

"If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead."*

As christians of the present day vary in their views of the nature of the Baptism commanded by the Saviour of Man, in His exhortation immediately before He ascended to Heaven, it seems desirable to read and consider, first what He said on that occasion: secondly, how His disciples understood the command: and, thirdly, the confirmation of either opinion by the miracles that accompanied and followed the obedience of the disciples, to what they believed the command to relate to. All power

Matthew's account thereof is as follows. is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world: Amen."† Here we may see that all power is given, not to John, but Christ: that they were to baptize, not in the name of John, but in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them whatsoever Christ had commanded, not what John had commanded; (though, doubtless, the divine message to repent, whether delivered by John, or by other prophets, will remain, while one sin remains to be repented of); and they were assured, not that John, or his Baptism, would be with them to the end of the world, but, that Jesus Himself would be so : and He is, to the present day, with His disciples at every Baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is His Baptism: let him that can receive it, receive it.

44

THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST.

preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned."* Is John's Gospel or Christ's Gospel here directed to be preached? Doubtless Christ's Gospel. Is John's Baptism, or Christ's Baptism, here described in connection with belief as inheriting salvation? If John's Baptism, how is it that the population, which more than any other in any age or country united with John's Baptism, yet perpetrated the murder of the body of Jesus Christ? How is it that they who, almost without exception, received John's Baptism, and counted him as a prophet, yet were so much more obdurate than even the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Tyre and Sidon, that the Lip of Truth declared " Woe unto thee, Chorazin; Woe unto thee Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, at the day of judgment, than for you! And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto Heaven, shalt be brought down to Hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee." So it will be more tolerable for the inhabitants of a city which contained not so many as ten righteous persons, than for the inhabitants of those cities which, more than any other people, had adopted Water Baptism. And why? Because they rested in the form, and did despite unto the Revelation of the will of God, manifested to them by the Son of God, and by His Holy Spirit.

* Mark xvi. 15, 16. † Matt. xi. 21. 24.

THE BAPTISM BY THE HOLY GHOST.

45

This same spiritual tendency is likewise instructively observable in Luke's and John's accounts of the last verbal communication of the Blessed Redeemer, although the word Baptism is not mentioned. In Acts, the account plainly puts Water Baptism aside, as a thing departed and done with; and, in contradistinction to that, Christ directs the attention to His own Baptism, in these words: Wait for the promise of the Father, which ye have heard of me; for John truly baptized with Water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence."* And again, “But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight."+ Now who, on reading the first few chapters of the Acts, can doubt as to which Baptism the disciples understood their Divine Master to refer to. There are, in these few chapters, several instances in which the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, His offices, His effects, and His accompaniments, are recorded; but not one mention or hint of John, or his Baptism, or of Water, except once, and then, only to describe it as a bye gone thing, in contradistinction to what they were to look for and value. And the miracles that accompanied and followed the Baptism of the Holy Ghost are also conclusive evidence that, in thus understanding their Lord's will, they understood it aright; not that in their own wills they could effect any good thing, nor in their own power. Yet some will say this command of Christ, to go, baptize, applies to His disciples in every age. I don't know that I ever doubted of it. Then, say they,

this must mean Water Baptism, for who can baptize with the Holy Ghost? Now I would rejoin, and who can baptize with water either? The virtue is not in the slightest degree either in the Water, or in the hand that dispenses it; but all the virtue, all the efficacy, all the reality, is in the power of God, even of Water Baptism, as well as of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Where men attempt to baptize, unless they are moved thereto by the spirit, it is no more Baptism than the splashing from a sportive goose in a pond would be Baptism. Yet, in defiance of the evidence of Christs commands; in defiance of the apostles' comprehension of those commands; in defiance of the proof which miracles afford, that by this baptism is meant no less, and no other, than the Baptism by the Holy Ghost and by fire; yet some will have it that it means Water Baptism; because, say they, men cannot baptize with the Holy Ghost, but they can baptize with water. Oh, most fallacious notion. What! is it possible a christian can suppose there is any life, any reality in either Baptism, except of the power of God? Is it possible any christian can deliberately believe that the very smallest part of the efficacy of any Baptism is in poor silly man? No! No! The sole virtue, the only circumstance which really constitutes it Baptism, is the presence and power of God. Oh! the need of more simple spirituality in the church of Christ up to this very moment. How different was the experience of the apostles immediately after the ascension. When they were endued with power from on high they were so filled with the Holy Ghost, they dwelt so sweetly in the power of God, that these beggarly elements do not appear to have been even thought of.

And why should man, after having learned some of the rudiments of christianity; after being in some degree