e {84} word with boldness" (Acts
4: 31), is a similar record. And they chose Stephen, a man _full_ of
faith and _of the Holy Ghost_, the narrative runs, regarding the choice
of deacons in Acts 6: 5. "And he, being _full of the Holy Ghost_," is
the keynote to his great martyr-sermon. This infilling of the Spirit
marks a decisive and most important crisis in the Christian life,
judging from the story of the apostle's conversion, to which we have
just referred.

But, as we have intimated, we are far from maintaining that this is an
experience once for all, as the sealing seems to be. As the words
"regeneration" and "renewal" used in Scripture mark respectively the
impartation of the divine life as a perpetual possession and its
increase by repeated communications, so in our sealing there is a
reception of the Spirit once for all, which reception may be followed
by repeated fillings. It is reasonable to conclude this since our
capacity is ever increasing and our need constantly recurring,
according to the beautiful saying of Godet: "Man is a vessel destined
to receive God, a vessel which must be enlarged in proportion as it is
filled and filled in proportion as it is enlarged."

And yet we confess here to a degree of uncertainty as to the use of
terms, and as to whether the two now under consideration are identical.
We may well pause therefore and lift a prayer, that since "we have
received not the spirit of {85} the world but the Spirit which is of
God, that we might know the things which are freely given to us of
God," this blessed Revelator and Interpreter may not only reveal to us
our privilege and inheritance in the Holy Ghost, but teach us to name
and distinguish the terms by which it is conveyed.

While the fact of which we are speaking seems undoubted, the exposition
of it is far from being easy. Therefore we should attach no little
value to a consensus of opinion on this subject from those who have
thought most carefully and searched most prayerfully concerning it
This is our apology for the multiplied quotations which we are
introducing into this chapter, believing that the Holy Spirit is most
likely to interpret himself through those who most honor him in seeking
his guidance and illumination.

In a recent work upon this subject, in which careful scholarship and
spiritual insight seem to be well united, the author thus states his
conclusions: "It seems to me beyond question, as a matter of experience
b