" "What
do you know?" I asked. "I know I have the petition I asked of Him." "What
was the petition you asked of Him?" "The baptism with the Holy Spirit."
"What do you know?" "I know I have the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I
don't feel it, but God says so." We arose from our knees and after a short
conversation separated. I left Lake Geneva the next morning, but returned
in a few days. I met the young man and asked if he had really received the
baptism with the Holy Spirit. He did not need to answer. His face told the
story, but he did answer. He went into a theological seminary the
following autumn, was given a church his junior year in the seminary, had
conversions from the outset, and the next year on the Day of Prayer for
Colleges, largely through his influence there came a mighty outpouring of
the Spirit upon the seminary of which the president of the seminary wrote
to a denominational paper, that it was a veritable Pentecost, and it all
came through this young man who received the baptism with the Holy Spirit
through simple faith in the Word of God. Any one who will accept Jesus as
their Saviour and their Lord, put away all sin out of their life, publicly
confess their renunciation of sin and acceptance of Jesus Christ,
surrender absolutely to God, and ask God for the baptism with the Holy
Spirit, and take it by simple faith in the naked Word of God, can receive
the baptism with the Holy Spirit right now. There are some who so
emphasize the matter of absolute surrender that they ignore, or even deny,
the necessity of prayer. It is always unfortunate when one so emphasizes
one side of truth that he loses sight of another side which may be equally
important. In this way, many lose the blessing which God has provided for
them.

The seven steps given above lead with absolute certainty into the
blessing. But several questions arise:

1. _Must we not wait until we know we have received the baptism with the
Holy Spirit before we take up Christian work?_ Yes, but how shall we know?
There are two ways of knowing anything in the Christian life. First, by
the Word of God; second, by experience or feeling. God's order is to know
things first of all by the Word of God. How one may know by the Word of
God that they have received the baptism with the Holy Spirit has just been
told. We have a right when we have met the conditions and have definitely
asked for the baptism with the Holy Spirit to say, "It is mine," and to
get up a