APPENDIX B.

THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST: MR. FINNEY'S EXPERIENCE.

Ir is very generally supposed that the Baptism of the Holy Ghost consists in a higher degree of spiritual life, and a more complete consecration to the service of God. This is quite a mistake. During the Old Testament dispensation there were men who have never been surpassed in the holiness of their lives, the strength of their faith, and their close walk with God. But there had not one of them received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost to endue them with evangelistic power, and could not be, because Christ was not yet glorified. Peter in one day brought more souls into the kingdom, after he had got the baptism, than Noah did by a hundred and twenty years' preaching.

It will be observed that in the case of Mr. Finney, when he received the baptism, the effect was shown in the conviction and conversion of every person to whom he spoke that day. The power did not lie in the words that he spoke, because there was nothing remarkable in them. Any person might speak them without having any effect. It was the presence of the Holy Ghost in the man that made him speak with power; in a sense it was not he that spoke but the Spirit of the Father that spoke in him. When this baptism was general in the Church, and the exceptions were those that had it not, as we have shown in the text, we need not wonder to find that Christianity.

spread itself over the whole Roman Empire in so short a time; and now, were the Spirit to be poured out again upon the whole Church with pentecostal power, instead of only a comparatively few individuals as at present, the result would be that the Gospel would spread over the world with even greater rapidity than at first in apostolic times. Mr. Finney says,

"The morning of which I have just spoken, I went down into the office, and there I was having these mighty waves of love and salvation flowing over me, when Squire W———— came into the office. I said a few words to him on the subject of his salvation. He looked at me with astonishment, but made no reply whatever that I recollect. He dropped his head, and after standing a few minutes left the office. I thought no more of it then, but afterwards found that the remark I made pierced him like a sword, and he did not recover from it till he was converted.

"Soon after Mr. W left the office, Deacon B- came into the office and said to me, Mr. Finney, do you recollect that my cause is to be tried at ten o'clock this morning? I suppose you are ready?' I had been retained to attend this suit as his attorney. I replied to him, Deacon B, I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead His cause, and I cannot plead yours. He looked at me with astonishment, and said, 'What do you mean?' I told him in a few words that I had enlisted in the cause of Christ, and then repeated that I had a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead His cause, and that he must go and get somebody else to attend his lawsuit; I could not do it. He dropped his head, and, without making any reply, went out. A few moments later, in passing the window, I observed that he was standing in the road, seemingly lost in deep meditation. He went away, as I afterwards learned, and immediately settled his suit. He then betook him

self to prayer, and soon got into a much higher religious state than he had ever been in before.

"I soon sallied forth from the office to converse with those whom I should meet about their souls. I had the impression which has never left my mind, that God wanted me to preach the Gospel, and that I must begin immediately. I somehow seemed to know it. If you ask me how I knew it, I cannot tell how I knew it, any more than I can tell how I knew that that was the love of God, and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost which I had received. I did it somehow with a certainty that was past all possibility of doubt. And so I seemed to know that the Lord commissioned me to preach the Gospel.

"When I was first convicted, the thought had occurred to my mind that if I was ever converted I should be obliged to leave my profession, of which I was very fond, and go to preaching the Gospel. This at first stumbled me. I thought I had taken. too much pains, and spent too much time and study in my profession to think now of becoming a Christian, if by doing so I should be obliged to preach the Gospel. However I at last came to the conclusion that I must submit that question to God, that I had never commenced the study of law from any regard to God, and that I had no right to make conditions with Him, and I had therefore laid aside the thought of becoming a minister, until it was sprung in my mind, as I have related, on my way to the woods.

"But now after receiving these Baptisms of the Spirit, I was quite willing to preach the Gospel. Nay, I found that I was unwilling to do anything else. I had no longer any desire to practise law. Everything in that direction was shut up, and had no longer any attractions for me at all. I had no disposition to make money. I had no hungering and thirsting after worldly pleasures and amusements in any direction. My

whole mind was taken up with Jesus and His salvation, and the world seemed to me of very little consequence. Nothing it seemed to me could be put in competition with the worth of souls, and no labour I thought could be so sweet, and no labour so exalted, as that of holding up Christ to a dying world.

"With this impression, as I said, I sallied forth to converse with any with whom I might meet. I first dropped in at the shop of a shoemaker, who was a pious man, and one of the most praying Christians as I thought in the church. I found him in conversation with a son of one of the elders of the church, and this young man was defending Universalism. Mr. W, the shoemaker, turned to me and said, 'Mr. Finney, what do you think of the argument of this young man?' and he then stated what he had been saying in defence of Universalism. The answer appeared to me so ready that in a moment I was enabled to blow the argument to the wind. The young man saw at once that his argument was gone, and he rose up without making any reply, and went suddenly out. But soon I observed, as I stood in the middle of the room, that the young man instead of going along the street, had passed round the shop, had climbed over the fence, and was steering straight across the fields towards the woods. I thought no more of it until the evening, when the young man came out, and appeared to be a bright convert, giving a relation of his experience. He went into the woods, and there, as he said, gave his heart to God.

"I spoke with many persons that day, and I believe the Spirit of God made lasting impressions upon every one of them. I cannot remember one whom I spoke with who was not soon after converted. Just at evening I called at the house of a friend, where a young man lived who was employed in distil

ling whisky. The family had heard that I had become a Christian, and as they were about to sit down to tea, they urged me to sit down and take tea with them. The man of the house and his wife were both professors of religion, but a sister of the lady, who was present, was an unconverted girl, and this young man of whom I have spoken, a distant relative of the family, was a professed Universalist. He was rather an outspoken and talkative Universalist, and a young man of a good deal of energy of character.

"I sat down with them to tea and they requested me to ask a blessing. It was what I had never done, but I did not hesitate a moment, but commenced to ask a blessing of God as we sat round the table. I had scarcely more than begun before the state of these young people rose before my mind, and excited so much compassion that I burst into weeping, and was unable to proceed. Everyone around the table sat speechless for a short time, while I continued to weep. Directly the young man moved back from the table, and rushed out of the room. He fled to his room and locked himself in, and was not scen again till the next morning, when he came out expressing a blessed hope in Christ. He has been for many years an able minister of the Gospel.

"In the course of the day, a good deal of excitement was created in the village by its being reported what the Lord had done for my soul. At evening without any appointment having been made, I observed that the people were going to the place where they held their meetings. I went there myself. No one seemed ready to open the meeting, but I did not wait for anybody, but told such parts of my experience as it seemed important for me to tell. What the Lord enabled me to say seemed to take a wonderful hold upon the people. Mr. C

got up, pressed through the crowd, and went home leaving his