not, they could then take the steps
whereby they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit as a matter of
definite, personal experience.

The next thing which is clear from the teaching of Scripture is that _the
baptism with the Holy Spirit is always connected with, and primarily for
the purpose of testimony and service_.

Our Lord in speaking of this baptism which they were so soon to receive in
Luke xxiv. 49 said, "And behold I send the promise of My Father upon you:
but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be _endued with power from
on high_." And again He said in Acts i. 5, 8, "For John truly baptized
with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days
hence.... 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." In
the record of the fulfillment of this promise of our Lord in Acts ii. 4,
we read, "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak
with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Then follows the
detailed account of what Peter said and of the result. The result was that
Peter and the other Apostles spoke with such power that three thousand
persons that day were convicted of sin, renounced their sin and confessed
their acceptance of Jesus Christ in baptism and continued steadfastly in
the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in
prayers ever afterwards. In the fourth chapter of Acts, the thirty-first
to the thirty-third verses, we read that when the Apostles on another
occasion were filled with the Holy Spirit, the result was that they
"_spake the word of God with boldness_" and that "_with great power gave
the Apostles their witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus_." And in
the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we have a description of
Paul's being baptized with the Holy Spirit. We read in the seventeenth to
the twentieth verses, "And Ananias went his way, and entered into the
house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even
Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me,
that thou mightest receive thy sight, and _be filled with the Holy Ghost_.
And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he
received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had
received meat, he was strengthened