receive power when
the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Acts i. 8). And we see that, in
compliance with the commands of their Master, no service of any kind did
these men attempt till "the day of Pentecost was fully come" (Acts ii. 1).

"Theirs not to make reply!
Theirs not to reason why!"

Their business was simply to _obey_. With the promised "Baptism" they
entered upon a new phase of life, experience, and service, and this
"Baptism" need not be repeated; but not so the "Filling." Peter was
"filled" in Acts ii. 4, again in Acts iv. 31. The "Filling" may be, and
ought to be, repeated over and over and over again; the "Baptism" need be
but once. In support of this, note how frequently the word "filled" is
used in the Acts and Epistles compared with the word "baptized." The
Baptism which we are considering here must not be confounded with the
baptism in 1 Cor. xii. 13, the "Being baptized into one body." Paul is
speaking there of every believer having been quickened from the dead by
the agency of the Holy Spirit, and thus made a member of Christ's
mystical body. This is a Pauline way of stating the being "born again" of
John iii. 7. It was to those who already had been "baptized into one
body" that Christ gave the promise, "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy
Ghost" (Acts i. 5). In view then of this word of Christ, "Ye shall be
baptized," and of the word of John the Baptist, recorded in John i.
29-33, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world
... the same is He that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit" (the same
promise is also recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke), it surely cannot be
unscriptural for a believer--painfully conscious that as yet this word
has not been fulfilled in his experience, that for him as yet the day of
Pentecost has not fully come--to pray "Lord Jesus, baptize me with the
Holy Ghost!" Why should this be regarded as unscriptural, when in view of
the word, "Be filled with the Spirit," the prayer, "Lord, fill me with
the Spirit," is considered to be in accord with Scripture? Surely the one
prayer in its proper place is as scriptural as the other! To know Christ
as the Sin-bearer is but _half_ salvation; to know Him also as the great
Baptist is _full_ salvation. How many there are who know Christ as their
Sin-bearer who have no experimental acquaintance with Him as the Baptizer
with the Holy Ghost! One cannot think that it would be grieving to the
Holy One that such people should cry