st? If we will turn
to Luke iii. 21, 22, and Luke iv. 1, 4, 17, 18, we will get our answer. In
Luke iii. 21, 22, R. V., we read that after Jesus had been baptized and
was praying, "The heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a
bodily form, as a dove, upon Him, and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art
My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased." Then the next thing that we
read, with nothing intervening but the human genealogy of Jesus, is "And
Jesus, _full of the Holy Spirit_, returned from the Jordan, and was led by
the Spirit in the wilderness" (Luke iv. 1). Then follows the story of His
temptation; then in the fourteenth verse we read, "And Jesus returned _in
the power of the Spirit_ into Galilee: and a fame went out concerning Him
through all the region round about." And in the seventeenth and eighteenth
verses, "And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah.
And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, The
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because _He hath anointed Me to preach_,
etc." Evidently then, it was at the Jordan in connection with His baptism
that Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, and He did not
enter upon His public ministry until He was thus baptized with the Holy
Spirit. And who was Jesus? It is the common belief of Christendom that He
had been supernaturally conceived through the Holy Spirit's power, that He
was the only begotten Son of God, that He was Divine, very God of very
God, and yet truly man. If such an One "leaving us an example that we
should follow His steps" did not venture upon His ministry, for which the
Father had sent Him, until thus definitely baptized with the Holy Spirit,
what is it for us to dare to do it? If in the light of these recorded
facts we dare to do it, does it not seem like the most unpardonable
presumption? Doubtless it has been done in ignorance by many of us, but
can we plead ignorance any longer? It is evident that the baptism with the
Holy Spirit is an absolutely necessary preparation for effective work for
Christ along every line of service. We may have a very clear call to
service, as clear it may be as the Apostles had, but the charge is laid
upon us as upon them, that before we begin that service we must tarry
until we are clothed with power from on high. This enduement of power is
through the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

But this is not all even yet. We read in Acts vii. 14-16, "Now when the
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