Significance of Forrest Home in Spiritual Movements

May I be permitted to add to the announcements that have been made? Don Botsford is here representing Forrest Home. I'd like to urge you, if you get the opportunity of serving God down there, by all means take it. To my mind, the most significant conference I've ever visited. It was there that Billy Graham had an anointing of the Holy Spirit to prepare him for the Los Angeles Crusade. It was there that Campus Crusade really broke forth in the dedication of Bill Bright. It was there that a little entertainer came up to speak to me after a meeting and invited me to meet some of her friends in Beverly Hills. The result of that was the Hollywood Christian Group. It was there that the ministers had their prayer conferences. Forrest Home is far from being perfect, it's just a human company of people, but I have never known a place where there has been so much blessing. So if you, as students, get a chance to work down there, jump at it. It's well worth your while.

The students have come up to me in the student union, the coffee shop, and so forth, asking me to autograph their books. I'm very happy to do so, but I'm leaving today for Los Angeles. I have to go to Washington, D.C., to the presidential breakfast next week. I'll be home just for the weekend. But if any others want an autograph, if you promise to pray for me, I'll be glad to put my name in your book. I'll go over to the bookstore directly after this service, and I may even leave a few autographed ones for those who have classes at that time. The books have been largely cleaned out, but there's still a few left.

Once again, thank you for the welcome to Seattle Pacific. I always feel at home here, and as I have traveled around the world and people have asked me for examples of real revival, I say, well, I remember once I saw a real outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That was 1950, when the Lord worked so powerfully at Seattle Pacific and other schools in this neighborhood. Perhaps I'll come back again. In fact, I might even conduct a series for your children. I've been in the work now thirty years. I hope the Lord spares me to continue much longer. I like speaking to students. I don't know if they enjoy it as much as I do, but I enjoy speaking to students. Then, of course, you have the privilege of making friendships that are never forgotten. For instance, Skip Matthews will never forget me. I don't think I'll forget him, either.

I was lecturing in fifty theological colleges in Britain last year, spoke in nine Episcopal colleges and three Pentecostal. The Episcopalians were asking me question after question about the Pentecostals, the Pentecostals were asking me question after question about the Episcopalians. I said, I think it's significant. At one time in our Protestant denominations, the two horns of the crescent were the Episcopalians on one side, traditional, dignified, liturgical. On the other side, the Pentecostals, informal, chorobantic. Now, it's just as if the Lord took the two horns of the crescent and turned them towards each other. And as you read in the papers, the President of the Assemblies of God and the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, with churchmen from both sides, have been having conversations to see what they can learn from one another.

Why? I believe we've been in a time of revival since 1948. We're in a recession behind a first wave. I'm hoping and praying that the next wave of blessing that comes to this country will be deeper, because the first wave was overtaken by a great movement of religious superficiality. There was a genuine movement in 1950, but then the world cashed in on it. But I find since that time a tremendous interest among Christians of all denominations in the things of the Holy Spirit. So in the brief time at my disposal, I would like to speak to you on that deeper experience of the Holy Spirit. I wish I had an hour and a half to talk about this, or two hours, but I'm going to just try and give you just a simple outline, something you can remember for yourself.

Every true believer is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, assured by the Holy Spirit, sealed by the Holy Spirit, guaranteed by the Holy Spirit, and baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:13, for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. I won't give you the text for the other references, you can look them up for yourself. You say, but I thought that the baptism of the Spirit was the deeper experience. The term baptism is used in two different ways in Scripture. For instance, in this baptism of personal incorporation, being made one with the body of Christ, for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. The Spirit baptizes the believer into Christ. The Spirit is the agent, the element is Christ. But in the baptism of personal endowment, Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, where John the Baptist said, I indeed baptize with water unto repentance, but there's one coming after me. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. In the baptism of personal endowment, it is Christ who is the agent, baptizing the believer, and the element is the Spirit. So the word is used two very different ways.

Some of you may say, then, do you follow the habit of our Pentecostal and Christian Missionary Alliance and Salvation Army and other friends who speak of the deeper experience as the baptism of the Spirit? I'll accept that. But I don't use the term the way some people do, have you been baptized in the Spirit? You say, why don't you use that? There are several reasons. When I was a chaplain and had to ask questions of a man about his marital status, I didn't say to him, have you had your honeymoon? I said, are you married? Which was the more important question? Second, the Holy Spirit, by the pen of Dr. Luke in writing the Acts, every time a man had a deeper experience of the Holy Spirit, uses the term filled. I like to use that term, filled, or full. Third, there's no exhortation but be baptized in the Spirit, but there is one, but be filled in the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit.

Fourth, if you talk to someone with a Scofield Bible, somebody perhaps from the Bible Institutes or Plymouth Brethren or some Baptists and so forth, they will use the word filled with the Spirit to describe the believer being baptized into the body of Christ, which happens at his conversion. But if you talk to a Christian Missionary Alliance, Pentecostal, others, they will talk about the baptism in the Spirit, the endowment of power from on high. And because there's confusion, I'd prefer to use the term filled, which is accepted by both. I wonder if I said that clearly enough. One school of thought uses the term baptism in the Spirit to describe the baptism of the believer into the body of Christ. The other school of thought uses the term baptism in the Spirit to describe the endowment of power from on high. But they both accept the term filling. We can talk of an initial filling and subsequent fillings.

Now we take the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Most pastors reading this from the pulpit quickly make a change and say, out of his inmost being shall flow rivers of living water. The other word is obsolete. I asked Dr. Julius Manti, my professor of Greek, what is the actual meaning of this Greek word here? He said it's a collective singular describing the vital organs of the body. A man may lose an ear and survive. He may lose a leg and survive. He may lose an eye and survive. But there are vital organs without which he cannot live. I said, then you could say, out of his vitals shall flow rivers of living water. He said, yes. Or vitality.

Somebody might say, well that's for every believer, he who believes in me. That's the option of every believer. But if you look around our churches, whether Free Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian or what have you, would you dare say that every member of the church, every believer, has rivers of living water flowing from him? It's far from that case, I'm sorry to say. But the promise is there. And this is the endowment of power that the Lord has promised to us. And here we have the exhortation of the Apostle Paul, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

When I started as a local preacher, I used to preach on be filled with the Spirit, but I always left out the part about being drunk with wine. I thought it was an unfortunate comparison. I find that I had to learn my lesson. There's both a comparison and a contrast here. When a man is drunk, he's not himself, he's a man possessed. Actually, his personality is possessed by a chemical, it's a strange thing. But what does the alcohol do to him? It suppresses his higher nature, brings out his lower nature, and he acts like an animal. When you describe a drunk man, if you hear people who get angry with them, what kind of words do they use? They say drunken pig, drunken dog, and so forth. He acts like an animal. But when a man is filled with the Holy Spirit, a person, not a chemical, when he's filled with the Holy Spirit, he is not himself. His personality is there, but controlled by the Holy Spirit.

And what does the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit suppresses his lower nature, brings out the best in him, and he is Christlike. So you see, there is both a comparison and a contrast. I said to you that every true believer is indwelled by the Holy Spirit, but I should make quite clear that a believer may or may not be filled with the Spirit. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, far from an ideal church, a carnal company. He said, don't you know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and that God's Spirit dwells in you? So that even a carnal Christian may say he's indwelled by the Holy Spirit, if he's a true Christian at all. But to be filled with the Holy Spirit is something quite apart from that. And we have that challenge, be filled with the Spirit.

I notice in the Acts of the Apostles that the purpose of the filling is often made clear in the very next words, for witness, for preaching, for suffering, for service. You were the men who were filled with the Holy Spirit. Take Peter, impetuous Peter, who denied his Lord with oaths and curses. Yet he stood before that vast throng who could have torn him apart, and he preached the word so powerfully that three thousand were converted, they were pricked in their hearts. What happened? Peter was filled with the Spirit. He was filled again, and five thousand heads of family professed conversion. Have we any right to say he backslid in between the two occasions? None at all. I believe the filling of the Holy Spirit is not given as a restorative for backsliding. I know in some of our hymns we sing about the fire, the Spirit's fire consuming the dross. I can't find any scriptural reference for that. Now are ye clean through the word that I have spoken unto you, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. The cleansing comes through the word and the blood, because the fire falls only on a clean sacrifice, it doesn't burn off the dross.

The Apostle Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit, subsequent to his conversion, he became the great missionary. Stephen was a man full of the Holy Ghost, Philip likewise, one became the first martyr, the other the first great evangelist. You say, yes, but that might have been for the interim, before the New Testament was given. I've heard so many people say this. Then what about today? John Wesley was a man filled with the Holy Spirit, so was Charles Finney, so was William Booth, so was D.L. Moody. Ludwig Janssen of Oslo, a friend of mine, since gone home, told me that he was standing on the platform of a station in Connecticut when he saw Mr. Moody. He hesitated to intrude, but then he went up and raised his hat politely, as Scandinavians do, and he said, Mr. Moody, I am from Oslo in Norway, I don't want to intrude upon you, but I would like to ask a question before I go back to Norway. Were you filled with the Holy Spirit from the time you were converted? Mr. Moody said, not at all. I was what they called a successful evangelist for a number of years before I realized that the power of God was for me. You could say the same thing of Resenius of Sweden, Hudson Taylor, A.B. Simpson. I remember reading the life of Lionel Fletcher, the great British evangelist, that the greatest moment in his life after his conversion was when he realized that the power of God was for men today, as well as men of old.

If you look up Christianity Today, you may have a file of it in the library, you'll find Billy Graham wrote an article called, Biblical Authority and Evangelism, in which he describes his experience at Forrest's home. I was there, I believe the Lord filled him with the Spirit for the movement that was to follow in Los Angeles. You say, yes, but you've mentioned the Apostles Peter and Paul, and the evangelists Stephen and Philip, and Wesley, and Finney, and Moody, and Hudson Taylor, Billy Graham, but they were all big people. What about us? In the upper room on the day of Pentecost, there were 120, or as the scripture says, about 120. If I gave you a piece of paper and said, write down the names of the people whom you feel sure were there, you could write down the names of 11 disciples. Judas was dead. Two candidates for Judas's place. Mary the mother of Jesus, that's 14. The four half-brothers of Jesus, 18. Mary and Martha, 20. You could perhaps supply a few more names, but you could say, about 20. Subtract about 20 from about 120, and you find there were 100 anonymous believers in the upper room. You never learn their names, but they were filled with the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit is not only for the great evangelists of the order of Billy Graham, but for us.

I remember in the Mato Grosso of Brazil, there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in 1952 in a place called Campo Grande. There was a Presbyterian mission church there with 75 members. In one week, they took in 37 converts, 18 restored backsliders, 11 candidates from the ministry for one church. I met Professor Floyd Grady of Princeton, who was a missionary there at that time, but now a seminary professor. He said, oh, that revival went on for five years. In fact, he said, I left after five years, and I understand it's still going on. And it came through an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon pastor and janitor, and all between them.

You say, well, what's the evidence of the filling of the Holy Spirit? Now we get somewhat on the controversial ground, yet I think what I say you will accept. The primary evidence is power. Ye shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, was the prediction of the Lord Jesus himself. The filling of the Holy Spirit is not given to us for an ecstasy, or a thrill, or something exotic, but for power. Could you imagine, for instance, driving through hillbilly country in Tennessee, and you decide you won't take your car any further, so you give it to some local yokel? But you forget to tell him he's supposed to put gasoline in it. So he uses it to coast down the hill, and then he gets four other fellas to push him up the next one. You say, you haven't got the idea yet, brother. You need power. Well, living the Christian life without the power of the Holy Spirit is exactly like that. The primary evidence is the power. The rivers of living water flow out.

A Presbyterian minister in Brazil asked me a question I thought at first was facetious. He said, is it possible for a man to be half-filled with the Holy Spirit? I said, well, half-filled would also be half-empty. I could see he was deadly in earnest, so I said, if you take a gallon can and put in half a gallon, it's half-filled. Put in three-quarters of a gallon, it's three-quarters filled, but quarter empty. Put in a gallon, it looks full, but if you're not sure, pour in a little more. If it overflows, you know it's full. The test of the filling is the overflowing, and a person who's filled with the Holy Spirit has an overflow of blessing for others. I say that's the primary evidence. You mustn't get the idea that a Spirit-filled person is living at spiritual tension all the time.

I read a biography of D.L. Moody. I didn't like it, although it's very popular. It was a fictionalized biography. The author took liberties to make it a good story. I asked Moody's son-in-law, I was staying in the home of his granddaughter, Emma Moody Powell, where did he get some of those things? He said, he made them up. But I said, look at this. He says here that after the great Chicago Exposition campaign, his greatest campaign, he knelt at midnight and he said, Lord God of heaven and earth, how I thank thee for bringing me to this hour, and I said, that's the most beautiful prayer, it should be in the prayer book. Now, at the end of a campaign, I don't feel like that, and I wondered if Moody did. So I said to A.P. Fitt, his son-in-law, did that actually happen? No, he said, I was with my father-in-law at the time. He said, Mr. Moody was an old-fashioned man, and he wore an old-fashioned nightshirt, and he jumped from the middle of the room into the middle of the bed, and he said, good night, Lord, I'm tired. And my opinion of Moody went up like that. To be filled with the Holy Spirit doesn't mean that you're just tense all the time. No, no, you're available to be used at any time.

Well then, what's the abiding evidence? What is the evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit that stays with us? I'm quite sure someone will hear say, the gifts. Some folks are still surprised to find a Baptist preaching in a free Methodist school. You may be even more surprised to hear that I, as a Baptist minister, heartily believe in all nine of the gifts of the Spirit, including the controversial ones. I believe in the gifts, but I don't believe that the gifts of the Spirit are the abiding evidence of being filled. You say, what do you mean by that? Someone came up to me the other day and said, I heard you preach in Chicago in 1936, I think it was. I said, the Coliseum? He said, yes. I said, it was the 13th of January, 1936. There were 11,000 people there.

The other speaker, I was a young man and I was put on first, was twice my age, but a world-famous man. He preached a fine evangelistic sermon with great power, and 400 people came forward to accept Christ. That man was sadly out of God's will at the time. I didn't know it; I had a funny feeling about him, though. He was kicked out of the ministry the following year for seducing the married daughter of one of his friends, yet he got people forward. One of the most prominent evangelists of our time became a heavy drinker and a less than moral man, yet the last I heard of him, except one thing I won't mention otherwise you might identify him, was that he was preaching again in Texas. He still could get people forward.

It's possible to have a gift and be out of God's will, because the Scripture says very plainly, the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. The word there is metemalaia, without remorse. Or in the Amplified Version, which is very useful here, God's gifts and call are irrevocable. Over in Britain they say irrevocable; I'm not quite sure what you say up in the Northwest here. But it means when God gives a man a gift or a call, he doesn't take it away from him. You say, why? Because whether you look at it from an Arminian point of view or a Calvinist point of view, the Arminian point of view, for instance, is that God's preordination, God's ordination of things is his foreknowledge. God knows the end from the beginning, he knows whether the man will abuse the gift or not, but he in his supreme wisdom decides he will give him this gift for the time being. He takes the man away rather than the gift, takes the man away rather than the call.

I have known of men, in fact, I was talking to the president of one of the largest universities in the country, and he mentioned a certain preacher to me. He said, you know, he came to have a united campaign in such-and-such a place in Oklahoma, and he said so-and-so mentioned the pastor's name, ran him out of town, because they found he'd installed a woman in a motel twenty miles away and was driving back and forth while he was running the campaign. God help us. Yet that man must have had the power sometime or other.

You say, well, why are you saying this? In Birmingham, in England, last year, I was very discouraged. The churches are empty. The Central Baptist Church in Birmingham seats a thousand, but there are not more than a hundred and thirty at worship, the biggest service. I went over there, and then the Lord directed me off into the colleges instead of into the churches. I was feeling depressed. I went one morning to hear Brian Greene, but my wife had a headache, and I took my boy David with me instead, and my wife stayed at home. I was late for the parish church, so I went to the Elam Pentecostal Church. Just like a Baptist service, except that instead of the pastoral prayer, they opened the meeting for prayer. One prayed, another prayed, and a pastor stepped forward and spoke in tongues. I listened very carefully. It was coherent. I didn't understand a word of it, didn't recognize it as anything I knew, and I know a smattering of various languages, but it was coherent and, in fact, even melodious. So I was just technically interested to see. Then a woman stepped forward and gave the interpretation, and it was a message for me. Do you light a candle in a bright place? No. Candles are needed in the dark. And have I not brought you here? Why then do you grumble in your heart? I went home and I said, I'm sure the Lord spoke to me this morning. I was feeling depressed about this program, but if he wants me to speak in theological colleges, I'm going. I got into all the modernist colleges as well as all the fundamentalist ones and stayed there for a year. I'll give that as a testimony that I believe there is a genuine gift of tongues.

But I want to add this word. One of my dearest friends, who at one time was in happy fellowship with a Pentecostal church, fell into sin, became enamored of another woman, divorced his wife, married the other woman, became a rather worldly fellow. They put him out of the church of which he was a member. He joined another church. He still speaks in tongues. And I've asked my friends in the Assembly of God, is that an unfair observation? They said, no. We know of people who speak in tongues who are not living right. Well, I said, would you say it was a fake from the start? No, but it's just this, they're out of God's will now. Well, that's exactly what I say here. I believe in the gifts of the Spirit, but the primary evidence is the power and the abiding evidence of the fruit of the Spirit.

If you are filled with the Spirit of God, it will show in your character. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, moderation. Nine fruit, not fruits, it's a singular. If you're one, you have all. If you're full of love, you're full of joy. Could you imagine coming back from a conference and saying, my heart's full of love and joy, but I'm worried sick? Well, you wouldn't be worried sick if you're full of love and joy. You're full of love, joy, and peace. If you're full of love, joy, and peace, you're full of patience. If you lose your patience, you lose your peace. If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're not a fanatic because the fruit of the Spirit is moderation. If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're not arrogant, the fruit of the Spirit is meekness. If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're not undisciplined, the fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness, fidelity. That's the abiding evidence.

If you say, what kind of tree is that? I say, I don't know, it looks like an apple tree to me, but it might be a pear tree. You say, well, it's an apple tree. What kind of apples do you think? I say, I don't know. When would I know? When the blossoms come? No. When the leaves come? No. But if that tree is loaded with Macintosh red apples, I know it's a Macintosh red apple tree. And if a man is filled with the Holy Spirit, his life will show the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, moderation.

And even in the Corinthian letter, which deals so much about tongues and the other unusual gifts of the Spirit, look at the beginning of the chapter on love, the thirteenth chapter. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, that's the gift of tongues, and have not charity, I'm a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy, that's the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, that's the gift of wisdom, and all knowledge, that's the gift of knowledge. And though I have all faith, that's the gift of faith, so that I can remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing. Because the gifts are like weapons. When a soldier, a man enlists in the army to be a soldier, they train him to use a weapon. They may teach him to use radar. They may tell him how to string up telephone wires. They may give him a tommy gun. They may give him a bazooka. They may give him a typewriter. They'll give him something to use, and they'll train him in it. But a soldier with a tommy gun could go berserk and hold up a bank. And I have found men who had gifts from God who have gone out of the way.

Therefore, I insist again, the question is, if you want to know if a man is filled with the Spirit, look at his life. If his life shows the fruit of the Spirit, that's the abiding evidence. I hope you don't misunderstand me. When I surrendered my life to the Lord for the first time, I was working in the office of a bakery. I was twenty-one. On my knees, I had a strange feeling I was to ask for a measure of faith. The Holy Spirit gives the gifts as he will. He answered my prayer.

In Norway, during the great revival of the 1930s, when the churches were filled everywhere, I had a most uneasy feeling. I seemed to be out of touch with things. People would stand up and speak in Norwegian, and I would say, what did he say? What did she say? I wanted to know what was happening. I asked God to give me a measure of discernment, and I must testify. Only when the Spirit of God is working in a meeting do I become peculiarly aware of the reactions in people's hearts, the spirits of the meeting. It's a strange thing, it's not even rational, I can't explain it. I just mention it to your fellow man.

Now it brings us to a last point. You say, I'm an ordinary Christian, how can I be a Spirit-filled Christian? Well, we take the word of Jesus. I'll quote it in a modern word, supposing a friend comes to you at midnight and says, could you lend me some bread? Friends of ours have come a long way, and we don't have a thing in the house. You say, don't bother me, we're all in bed. I can't get up.

I tell you, said the Lord Jesus, although you won't get up to give because he's your friend, you will get up and give him if he keeps on knocking, says he, because of his importunity. You say, does it mean that I've got to beg and plead from God to bless me like this? The importunity's not for his sake, it's for our sake.

If this was midsummer and I said, after the meeting there'll be ice-cold lemonade for all who come down in the basement, bring your own glasses, I've got a pitcher. Supposing some student, to be facetious, comes to me with his glass turned upside down, I say, I can't fill your glass. He turns it sideways, I can't fill your glass. He turns it three-quarters up, I say, I'm going to spill it. Turn it into lineman.

No doubt there are students here saying, Lord, I want to be filled with the Spirit of God. And the Lord has been trying to tell you for months, you're plain lazy. Why should I give you power? Perhaps some other student is saying, Lord, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And the Lord is trying to tell you, you have compromised your testimony often enough by impurity. I know you don't want to be impure, but you haven't got victory on that yet. The opportunity is for our sake, and then it's by faith we ask. Ask and it shall be given you. The Greek is, keep on asking. Keep on seeking, you'll find. Keep on knocking, it'll be opened unto you.

If a son should ask his father for bread, would he give him instead a stone? If he asks for fish, would he give him instead a snake? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? Some of you might say, well, that might be regeneration. He was speaking to disciples, and I think it's meant for disciples today.

You say, then, what's the connection between the crisis of sanctification and the filling of the Holy Spirit? It's very simple. Just as conversion is the human side of a transaction, and regeneration is the divine side. In other words, you don't say, Lord, convert me. The Bible says, be converted. That's your job. You turn. You turn. But the Holy Spirit regenerates you. You can't do that for yourself. In the same way, the believer surrenders. The Greek word is presents. Verses 12 and 1, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. The best translation of that, I'm quoting from the C. B. Williams translation, is make a decisive dedication. Dedicate decisively.

If my Free Methodist friends want to call that the second blessing, I won't argue about numerals. I believe there are many blessings beyond this, but I certainly believe it is a deeper blessing, and I believe there should be such a crisis in the life of every Christian when he gets to the end of himself and says, I can't live the Christian life by myself, but the Holy Spirit can live it in me. So that full surrender is the human side of a transaction, and the filling of the Holy Spirit is what God does. So if you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you must surrender all. Not only confess any known sin, but surrender your will.

I'm going to read something to you in conclusion. There was a Sunday school teacher in Minneapolis, a young lady teaching chemistry in high school, and she wanted to be filled with the Spirit of God. She waited behind in some meetings. She talked to conference speakers, to evangelists, to pastors. In fact, she went around a different number of churches just to see if she couldn't find the secret. She went forward to be prayed for. She prayed all night. She fasted. She did all sorts of things, and nothing happened.

One Friday night, as she was kneeling in prayer, the thought occurred to her, I've looked for signs rather than exercising faith. So she said, Lord, in simple faith, I will ask thee now to fill me with the Holy Spirit. As in the words of A.B. Simpson, I take the promised Holy Ghost, I take the power of Pentecost to fill me to the uttermost, I take, he undertakes. She still felt nothing. She tried not to be disappointed. Well, I've asked God, now it's with him. Next morning, Saturday morning, it was still vivid in her mind. Still no feeling. Saturday evening, no feeling. Sunday morning, no feeling. But then she went to teach her Sunday school class, her chore, the lowliest form of Christian service in the minds of some. Just a girl teaching Sunday school, and more than half of her class was converted. She had the power. She has the power to this day. She is superintendent, or she's retired now, director emeritus, I think, of the largest Sunday school in the world, Presbyterian, her name is Henrietta Mears. I know 315 Presbyterian ministers in the ministry as a result of her testimony. You say, what kind of Presbyterian ministers? Dr. Robert Munger is one of them. I'm an American Baptist. The largest Baptist church in the American Baptist Convention, and one of the most spiritual, in fact, I don't know of another one more spiritual, is First Baptist in Pomona. The pastor is Dr. Ted Cole, another convert of Henrietta Mears.

This is what she wrote in her diary: I will win the personal allegiance of every one of my class to the Lord Jesus Christ. I will talk, I will write, I will pray. I will remain close to them until they're established. I will associate with them in fellowship. I will make myself available to them always. I will see that they're committed to some definite class. I will put the cross into my Christianity, and I'll pray as I've never prayed before for a new vision of God. I will spend and be spent in this battle, and I will not seek rest nor ease. I will seek fellowship with the man of sorrows as he walks through this stricken world, and I will not fail.

A girl who taught Sunday school, one of the most influential Christians in America today. Why do I quote her? She asked God for power in what she was doing. What are you doing? You think, well, I'll get through here, I'm going to be a wonderful Christian. What are you doing now? Do you show up at student prayer meetings? Do you teach Sunday school? Are you even a faithful student? That's the point.

A boy in Kimberley said to me, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I said, how old are you, son? He said, 19. I said, what are you doing for God? Well, he says, I'm a Christian. I said, do you teach Sunday school? No, he says, well, I said, what do you do? Well, he didn't do anything. I said, if you were a telegram delivery boy, South Africa delivered telegrams on a bicycle. I said, if you were riding a bicycle, do you think if you went to the director of telegraphs and said, I'd like to have a Cadillac, he'd give you a Cadillac for delivering telegrams? He'd say, you get along with your bicycle. And some people, for instance, who do nothing but serve their own interests, they say, I want to have power in my life. Why should God give you power? Why? What for? What to do? They draft you in the army. Go up to ask the commanding officer, will you give me a jeep? If you have something to do for the government, they'll give you a jeep. And the same way, if you want the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, you get into line by importunity and faith. And don't let go of God till he blesses you.

I'm not going to give an invitation. You're adults. I could arrange with someone to play the piano very softly and we could all hum. And then I could try and get a few of you to stand up and then try and get a few more to stand up and so forth. You're adults. Go to your room at the first opportunity. Or make an appointment with God for tonight. Or arrange to talk to him first thing tomorrow morning. Or take Sunday as a day of dedication and say, Lord, I'm going to pray through on this and I won't let you go till you bless me. I'm not interested in statistics. I'd rather come back ten years from now and find you on the ball for God and say, I was helped back then.

Let us stand for prayer. For he satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness. For they shall be filled. Will you pray with me? O God, increase my hunger for thee. Give me a thirst for the water of life. That out of my vitals shall flow rivers of living water. Fill us, Lord, with thy spirit. Amen.

Don't forget that Dr. Orr will be over in the bookstore.