.... And _straightway, he preached
Christ_ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God," and in the
twenty-second verse we read that he "confounded the Jews which dwelt at
Damascus, proving that this is the Christ" (R. V.). In 1 Cor. xii. we have
the fullest discussion of the baptism with the Holy Spirit found in any
passage in the Bible. This is the classical passage on the whole subject.
And the results there recorded are gifts for service. The baptism with the
Holy Spirit is not primarily intended to make believers happy, but to make
them useful. It is not intended merely for the ecstasy of the individual
believer, it is intended primarily for his efficiency in service. I do not
say that the baptism with the Holy Spirit will not make the believer
happy; for as part of the fruit of the Spirit is "joy," if one is baptized
with the Holy Spirit, joy must inevitably result. I have never known one
to be baptized with the Holy Spirit into whose life there did not come,
sooner or later, a new joy, a higher and purer and fuller joy than he had
ever known before. But this is not the prime purpose of the baptism nor
the most important and prominent result. Great emphasis needs to be laid
upon this point, for there are many Christians who in seeking the baptism
with the Spirit are seeking personal ecstasy and rapture. They go to
conventions and conferences for the deepening of the Christian life and
come back and tell what a wonderful blessing they have received, referring
to some new ecstasy that has come into their heart, but when you watch
them, it is difficult to see that they are any more useful to their
pastors or their churches than they were before, and one is compelled to
think that whatever they have received, they have not received the real
baptism with the Holy Spirit. Ecstasies and raptures are all right in
their places. When they come, thank God for them--the writer knows
something about them--but in a world such as we live in to-day where sin
and self-righteousness and unbelief are so triumphant, where there is such
an awful tide of men, women and young people sweeping on towards eternal
perdition, I would rather go through my whole life and never have one
touch of ecstasy but have power to witness for Christ and win others for
Christ and thus to save them, than to have raptures 365 days in the year
but no power to stem the awful tide of sin and bring men, women and
children to a saving knowledge of my Lord and Savi