t is never said of them that they were
"filled with the Holy Spirit" till that morning in the upper room, for
the simple reason that it _could_ not be said of them, or "the Spirit was
not yet given" (John vii. 39). Yet these men were Christians before that
morning.

_2. Take the case of the Samaritans._

In Acts viii. 5-13 we find that under the preaching of Philip the
evangelist there was a work of grace in the city of Samaria, the people
believed and were baptized. These people, then, were Christians, but they
were not "filled with the Spirit" till Peter and John came down and
prayed for them, thus perfecting the work Philip had been doing (Acts
viii. 15-17).

_3. Take the case of Paul himself._

Saul was converted when the omnipotent, omnipresent Christ, standing as
Picket-guard for that little church at Damascus, unhorsed him, and took
him prisoner on the Damascus road. "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"
That question sounds like conversion, surely. For three days he lay in
darkness in Damascus, a surrendered, believing man, and therefore a
Christian man; but it was not till Ananias came to him that he was
"filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts ix. 17). And who was this Ananias
through whom this man Saul, destined to prove himself the truest, bravest,
grandest servant the Lord Jesus ever had--through whom even Saul received
the greatest of the New Testament blessings? He was an obscure obedient
believer, of whom we know nothing else than that he did this service for
Saul. Here is the ministry of the saints. So it may be to-day, some big
Paul may be blessed through the ministry of some little Ananias.

_4. Take the case of the Ephesians in Acts xix. 1-6._

Here were twelve men who were disciples, they had been believers for some
time when Paul found them; in other words, they were saved, they were
Christians. But Paul's first question to them was, "Have ye received the
Holy Ghost since ye believed?" Plainly showing that Paul thought it
possible for them to have been believers and yet _not_ to have received
the Holy Ghost. Indeed, in this case, what Paul deemed a possibility
turned out to be a fact; they had _not yet_ "received" the Spirit. Of
course, in a _certain_ sense, they had the Spirit; it was by the Spirit
they had believed, and if they had not the Spirit of Christ, they were
none of His; but for all that, they had not yet "received" the Spirit in
the Pentecostal sense of the word, in the sense in w