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POWER FOR Service

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 10, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 41.

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POWER FOR Service

By A. F. Ballenger

"The disciples were baptized on the day of Pentecost with power, and the accompanying manifestations of power were not to convince them that they were baptized, but to qualify them for the work of that very hour. They did not spend the day in feeling; they spent the day in working."
"This is written to show that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is for practical service, and not for physical sensation. Whatever there be of the manifestation of tongues of fire or shining faces, these are not so much for the benefit of the shining saint as for the shining multitude."
"There has been much noisy demonstration among a class who seem to think that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is primarily for the benefit of the receiver, to be enjoyed amid noisy demonstrations of feeling. But the threshing-machine is not run to make the threshing-machine feel good, but to thresh out the grain. When a farmer boy I noticed that the threshing-machine running empty made more noise than when filled. I noticed that when the “feeder” ran out of grain, the driver hastened to halt the horses. The power was for threshing the wheat, not for shaking the machine. I noticed when the machine was at work, the deafening rattle of empty machinery softened into a subdued song of service."
"The trouble with some of the teaching and practise on this important theme is that its advocates seem to think that the power was intended more for the machine than for the grain; consequently there has been much of what might be termed running empty. Power is never applied to threshing-machines except for threshing purposes, and in like manner power for service is never applied by the great Master-builder to His servants except when they are ready to serve and there is some one to serve. Don’t ask the Lord to turn on the power and rattle the machinery to prove to you that the Lord will do what He has promised."
The above is an extract from the new book on the Holy Spirit, by A. F. Ballenger, entitled

Power for Witnessing

OVER 200 PAGES CLOTH BOUND
75 CENTS
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.
OAKLAND, CAL.
39 Bond Street New York City
18 W. 5th Street Kansas City, Mo.