ersuade himself that he has received the baptism with the Holy Spirit
when he really has not, he is not going to receive the baptism with the
Holy Spirit. But when one gets to the place where he sees the absolute
necessity that he be baptized with the Holy Spirit as a definite
experience and desires this blessing at any cost, he is far on the way
towards receiving it. At a state Young Men's Christian Association
Convention, where I had spoken on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, two
ministers went out of the meeting side by side. One said to the other,
"That kind of teaching leads either to fanaticism or despair." He did not
attempt to show that it was unscriptural. He felt condemned and was not
willing to admit his lack and seek to have it supplied, and so he tried to
avoid the condemnation that came from the Word by this bright remark,
"that kind of teaching leads either to fanaticism or despair." Such a man
will not receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit until he is brought to
himself and acknowledges honestly his need and intensely desires to have
it supplied. How different another minister of the same denomination who
came to me one Sunday morning at Northfield. I was to speak that morning
on How to Receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. He said to me, "I have
come to Northfield from ---- for just one purpose, to receive the baptism
with the Holy Spirit, and I would rather die than go back to my church
without receiving it." I said, "My brother, you are going to receive it."
The following morning he came very early to my house. He said, "I have to
go away on the early train but I came around to tell you before I went
that I have received the baptism with the Holy Spirit."

6. The sixth step _is definite prayer for the baptism with the Holy
Spirit_. Jesus says in Luke xi. 13, "If ye then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit _to them that ask Him_." This is very
explicit. Jesus teaches us that the Holy Spirit is given in answer to
definite prayer--just ask Him. There are many who tell us that we should
not pray for the Holy Spirit, and they reason it out very speciously. They
say that the Holy Spirit was given as an abiding gift to the church at
Pentecost, and why pray for what is already given? To this the late Rev.
Dr. A. J. Gordon well replied that Jesus Christ was given as an abiding
gift to the world at Calvary (John iii. 16