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J. Wilbur Chapman tells of a young Irishman who was a member of his Church, and who had not had the educational advantages many young people have. Dr. Chapman says: "With a heart burdened for the men of the city, I called together a few of the men of the Church, and laying before them the plan I had in mind, told them first of all that we could do nothing without the 'infilling of the Holy Ghost.
It is within, because It is the innermost Soul of all creatures; and It is without as the essence of the whole external universe, infilling it like the all-pervading ether. He who perceives the Self everywhere never shrinks from anything, because through his higher consciousness he feels united with all life.
Sanctification affects the heart, and its work is to take out evil, the sin in the nature, and make it holy and pure. Also it means an infilling of God's Spirit, which pervades our nature after sanctification just as sin pervaded it before. But sanctification does not eliminate humanity from our nature. Mistakes, therefore, are the common lot of all sinners, believers, and sanctified ones.
Group up those four things obedience; the never-to-be-forgotten infilling; the controlling guidance; and intimate companionship. That is the very best illustration I can find of the meaning of that word which Jesus now chooses out and uses as the new name which would most vividly tell what the Holy Spirit was to be to all believers after His own departure.
It is both a cleansing from sin and an infilling of righteousness. It has negative and positive aspects. It takes away from and adds to. Not that sin is a sort of root or germ. It is an evil that affects our nature. This evil is destroyed, and its effects banished. The Holy Spirit comes in, filling the nature of man with righteousness and purity.
Preacher Crookshank flourished contemporaneously with John Barleycorn. To be frank, he and John were bosom friends. In fact, it was reported that Crookshank was never at his best in preaching except when he had an infilling of the "spirit" of the Barleycorn type. He had a certain long-tailed coat, said to have been given to him by a fellow member of the Legislature.
"Earnest" is the prophetic word, pointing us forward to the Master's coming back to claim His own, and to bestow the full measure of the Spirit's presence. And to-night we want to get some hint of how to have this infilling, which shall also be an anointing of power and a seal of ownership and an earnest of greater things at Jesus' return. Broken Couplings.
It is evident that He expected that the age which Pentecost was to inaugurate, and to which He so frequently refers as "in that day," would in a special sense be the Age of Prayer. Clearly the infilling of the Holy Spirit has a special bearing on the prayerfulness of the individual and the Church. But this will unfold as we proceed.
The Saviour prayed to the Father, and He gave another Comforter. Nor has He ceased in this sublime quest. It is not improbable that every revival of religion, every fresh and deeper baptism of the Spirit, every new infilling of individual souls, has been due to our Saviour's strong cryings on our behalf.
Whether the poet ascribes his infilling to a specific goddess of song or to a mysterious harmony between his soul and the world spirit, a coming "into tune with the infinite," as it has been called, the mode of his communion is identical.
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