for the promised Baptism; but
then, when it has been received, let us bear in mind the
difference, already pointed out, between "baptized" and "filled;" that
now that "the day of Pentecost has fully come," and that he has been
baptized with the Spirit, he must not continue praying for the baptism,
for that cannot be repeated; whereas he may ask and obtain a fresh
filling, a refilling with the Holy Ghost every day of his life.

_2. "Rivers of living water."_

"He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit,
which they that believed on Him were to receive: for the Spirit was not
yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John vii. 38, 39). One
may ask, what is it to be "filled with the Spirit"? The Teacher Himself
makes answer: It is to have "rivers of living water flowing" from one's
soul. See the universality of the promise, "He that believeth on Me;"
_no_ believer, even the weakest, obscurest, is outside its
magnificent sweep, unless by his unbelief he puts himself there. This is
not a promise for the Spiritual aristocracy of the Church, as some, with
more heat than sense, maintain. Let us have done with whittling away the
vast Godlike promises of the Divine Word, till they come within the
cramped limits of our poverty-stricken experience, and let us set to work
in earnest to bring our experience abreast of God's promises. This
promise is for _you_. Has it then been verified in your life and
experience? If not, why not? Is there not a cause? But note more closely
its hugeness, its Godlike vastness, "Rivers!" not a tricklet, or a
babbling brook--by its babbling proclaiming its shallowness--or a stream,
or a river, but Rivers! What Divine prodigality! It is the Brisbane, the
Clarence, the Hawkesbury, the Murray, the Murrumbidgee, the Tamar and the
Derwent all rolled into one--_Rivers_! By the widest, wildest stretch of
imagination could it be said of you that "Rivers of living water" are
flowing from you--"flowing," mind you, "flowing"? See the freshness, the
freedom, and the spontaneity of the service; no force-pump work about the
flowing of the Rivers; none of the hard labor of the "soul in prison"
(Ps. cxlii. 7). When the "Rivers" begin to flow the worker may sell his
force-pump; his prayer has been answered, "Bring my soul out of prison."

It is worth noting the gradation in John iii., iv., vii. In John iii. 7
we have