ld them, yet we are justified, I
think, in saying that this emblem of fire regards mainly the former of
these and not the latter. The principal ideas in it seem to be swift
energy and penetrating power, which cleanses and transforms. It is fire
as the source of light and heat; it is fire, not so much as burning up
what it seizes into ashes, but rather as laying hold upon cold dead
matter, making it sparkle and blaze, and turning it into the likeness of
its own leaping brightness; it is fire as springing heavenwards, and
bearing up earthly particles in its shooting spires; it is fire, as
least gross of visible things;--in a word, it is fire as life, and not
as death, that is the symbol of God. It speaks of the might of His
transforming power, the melting, cleansing, vitalising influence of His
communicated grace, the warmth of His conquering love. It has, indeed,
an under side of possible judgment, punishment, and destruction, but it
has a face of blessing, of life-giving, of sanctifying power. And
therefore the Baptist spake glad tidings when he said, 'He shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.'

II. Christ plunges us into this divine fire.

I presume that scarcely any one will deny that our version weakens the
force of John's words by translating '_with_ water, _with_ the Holy
Ghost,' instead of 'in water, in the Holy Ghost.' One of the most
accurate of recent commentators,[2] for instance, in his remarks on this
verse, says that the preposition here 'is to be understood in accordance
with the idea of baptism that is immersion, not as expressing the
instrument with which, but as meaning "in," and expressing the element
in which the immersion takes place.' I suppose that very few persons
would hesitate to agree with that statement. If it is correct, what a
grand idea is conveyed by that metaphor of the completeness of the
contact with the Spirit of God into which we are brought! How it
represents all our being as flooded with that transforming power! But,
apart from the intensity communicated to the promise by such a figure,
there is another important matter brought distinctly before us by the
words, and that is Christ's personal agency in effecting this saturating
of man's coldness with the fire from God. This testimony of John's is in
full accord with Christ's claims for Himself, and with the whole tenor
of Scripture on the subject. He is the Lord of the Spirit. He is come to
scatter that fire on the ea