e Lamb of God who beareth away the sin of the
world"; and then he added, and the word comes to us with the peculiar
emphasis of repetition by each of the four gospel scribes--"this is He
that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit." That was spoken to them originally
without doubt in a national sense. It just as surely applies to every
one of us in a personal sense.

Mark also the emphasis of _Jesus' own teachings_ regarding this second
part of His mission. At the very beginning He spoke the decided words
about the necessity of being born of the Spirit. And we are all
impressed with that fact. But observe that several times, in the brief
gospel record, He refers the disciples to the overshadowing importance
of the _Spirit's control in the life_. And that He devotes a large part
of that last long confidential talk which John records, to this special
subject, pointing out the new experiences to come with the coming of the
Spirit, and holding out to them as the greatest evidence of His own love
_the promise of power_.

It adds intense emphasis to all this to note that Jesus Himself, very
Son of God, was in that wonderful human life of His utterly dependent
upon the Holy Spirit. At the very outset, before venturing upon a single
act or word of His appointed ministry, He waits at the Jordan waters,
until the promised anointing of power came. What a picture does that
prayerfully waiting Jesus present to powerless men to-day! From that
moment every bit and part of His life was under the control of that Holy
Spirit. Impelled into the wilderness for that fierce set-to with Satan,
coming back to Galilee within the power of the Spirit, He himself
clearly stated more than once, that it was through this anointing that
He preached, and taught, and healed, and cast out demons. The writer to
the Hebrews assures us that it was through the power of the Eternal
Spirit that He was enabled to go through the awful experiences of
Gethsemane and Calvary. And Luke adds that it was through the same
empowering Spirit that He gave commandment to the apostles for the
stupendous task of world-wide evangelization. And then at the very last
referring them to that life of His, He said: "As the father hath sent Me
even so send I you." Let me ask if He, very God of very God, yet in His
earthly life intensely human, needed that anointing, do not we? If He
waited for that experience before venturing upon any service, shall not
you and I?

But we must turn to th