Peter
himself afterwards describing this experience in Jerusalem tells the story
in this way, "And as I began to speak, _the Holy Ghost fell on them_, as
on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that
He said, John indeed baptized with water; but _ye shall be baptized with
the Holy Ghost_. Forasmuch then as _God gave them the like gift as He did
unto us_ who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could
withstand God?" (Acts xi. 15-17). Here Peter distinctly calls the
experience which came to Cornelius and his household, being _baptized with
the Holy Ghost_, so we see that the expression "the Holy Ghost fell" and
"the gift of the Holy Ghost" are practically synonymous expressions with
"baptized with the Holy Ghost." Still other expressions are used to
describe this blessing, such as "receive the Holy Ghost" (Acts ii. 38;
xix. 2-6); "the Holy Ghost came on them" (Acts xix. 2-6); "gift of the
Holy Ghost" (Heb. ii. 4; 1 Cor. xii. 4, 11, 13); "I send the promise of My
Father upon you;" and "endued with power from on high" (Luke xxiv. 49).

_What is the baptism with the Holy Spirit?_

In the first place _the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a definite
experience of which one may and ought to know __ whether he has received
it or not_. This is evident from our Lord's command to His disciples in
Luke xxiv. 49 and in Acts i. 4, that they should not depart from Jerusalem
to undertake the work which He had commissioned them to do until they had
received this promise of the Father. It is also evident from the eighth
chapter of Acts, fifteenth and sixteenth verses, where we are distinctly
told, "_the Holy Spirit had not as yet fallen upon any of them_." It is
evident also from the nineteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the
second verse, R. V., where Paul put to the little group of disciples at
Ephesus the definite question, "Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye
believed?" It is evident that the receiving of the Holy Ghost was an
experience so definite that one could answer yes or no to the question
whether they had received the Holy Spirit. In this case the disciples
definitely answered, "No," that they did not so much as hear whether the
Holy Ghost was given. They did not say what our Authorized Version makes
them say, that they did not so much as hear whether there was any Holy
Ghost. They knew that there was a Holy Ghost; they knew furthermore that
there was a definite promise of