God Is Not Restricted to One Way of Doing Things
By Emma Hildreth Adams
PERHAPS no scenes or circumstances portrayed in the Bible more clearly depict this important fact than those attending the bestowal of the Holy Spirit on different occasions. Were it not for the certainty that devout, penetrative study of the Word of God is in fullest harmony with His will, one would shrink from putting pen to picturing the mysterious dealings of the mighty, all-knowing Spirit of God with mankind, frail, unstable, stained with sin. And yet this very study is of gravest importance to, is indispensable to, every person seeking earnestly eternal life. For it is by this omnipresent Spirit only, through the Spirit's influence and leading, and loyal presentation of Christ sacrificed for us, that life, bountiful life, endless life, becomes our possession, blessed, everlasting. Christ, a few days before He became, for us, a voluntary, efficient, finished sin-offering, said (John 16: 7, 13): "It is expedient [requisite] for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter [even "the Spirit of truth"] will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. . . . He will guide you into all truth." "He shall . . . bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14: 26. Reader, since the office and mission of the Spirit of God concern us so deeply, so gravely, we shall find intensely interesting the varied accounts of His proceedings in the diffusion of the Gospel and the establishment of the church of God in apostolic times. Let us consider some of these operations, both for the profitable lessons they teach, and for the profound thinking they excite; prefacing that part of this article, however, with a brief, earnest study of the beautiful story of the descent of the Spirit upon Christ at His baptism in the Jordan. The varied particulars of the event given by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are strikingly suggestive of the mental personality of the writers, and add interest to the transaction. Matthew penned his account as follows: And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, THIS is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Mark's recital really varies from this only in the final sentence: "Thou art My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Luke paints the beautiful scene with one or two touches of distinct color, thus: Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased. But the "beloved disciple" opens to us the specially interested heart of John the Baptist at this ceremony — without like in human history — thus: And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not; but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. And I saw, and bare record that this [man] is the Son of God. It is interesting to notice that this striking manifestation of the divine Spirit occurred over three years previous to Christ's giving His great promise to send the Holy Spirit upon His disciples, and previous to the astonishing fulfilment of that pledge on the Day of Pentecost. The words of the Baptist reveal the fact that the manner of the descent of the Spirit upon the Saviour had been distinctly foretold to John, since it was through the peculiar form assumed by the Spirit, that John first recognized that the Man asking baptism at his hand was He who should "take away the sin of the world." Previously, indeed, John had told the people: "There cometh One mightier than I after me. . . . I indeed have baptized you with water: but He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit." This decisive utterance of him who baptized in Jordan, was a direct prophecy of that amazing shower of courage, fortitude, and power which fell upon the disciples in that upper room in Jerusalem, anno Domini 31. Also, that wonderful infusion of mental and spiritual force and foresight, accomplished at Pentecost, was a far-reaching, vastly effective fulfilment both of the Baptist's prediction and of Christ's promise to His disciples. John 14: 16, 17, 26. Reader, rest assured that paying spiritual uplift, and waneless light by which to live, come from thinking down, far down, into the force and application of these Bible incidents. But there is more to the deep, wide effect and influence of the Holy Spirit upon the mission and work of the Gospel early in this dispensation. It is most interesting, and always profitable, to note how varied, how unpromising sometimes, yet how successful in every case, were the methods adopted by the divine Spirit. Consider His unusual, incomparable course at the Jewish festival of Pentecost, on the fiftieth day after the Passover. Acts 2: 1-18; 1: 14.6God," astonishing the brethren who accompanied Peter from Joppa. The circumstances recall the scene at Pentecost. The great power fell suddenly. Quickly appeared the remarkable fruitage — the speaking with tongues — following their faith, without offering of prayer, without laying on of hands. Acts 10: 44-46. Quite unlike that event at Cæsarea, was a baptismal scene which occurred at Ephesus, in Asia Minor, fourteen years afterward. Paul, coming to Ephesus from the north, found there believers in Christ who had been baptized "unto John's baptism" only, but had no knowledge of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Instructed by Paul, "they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve." Acts 19: 5-7. Other instances might be cited showing that the operations of the divine Spirit are not confined, limited, restricted, to any fixed order of circumstances, but that Spirit has perfect freedom to act as time, place, seasons, persons — any conditions — render opportune, feasible. That the Spirit was a mighty agency during the introduction of the Gospel, using conditions as they were found, or changing them as God ordered, is a fact of great consequence. To-day His power is not diminished. It is unlimited. Now a sad, tragic death overtook those who had lied to Him, as did Ananias and Sapphira; now He imparted astonishing faith, fervor, foresight, to dying Stephen; now He refused irrevocably to bestow His marvelous gifts upon a sorcerer who sought them with money; now He ordered the church at Antioch, in Syria, to separate to the ministry of the Gospel Barnabas and Saul — as they fasted and prayed — for work to which He had called them; now, filling Saul with His own great might, the latter "set his eyes" upon Elymas the sorcerer, and said, "The hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind . . . for a season." "Immediately" "a mist and a darkness" fell upon the man, and he had to be led about. All these are "the Lord's doing." They are "marvelous in our eyes."