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Holy Spirit Power and
Soul Winning
by
Evangelist John R. Rice (1895 -
1980)
How Great Soul Winners Were Filled
With the Holy Spirit
by John R. Rice
"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all ]udaea,
and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." --Acts
1:8
".. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be
established." --II Corinthians 13:l
SOMEONE HAS SAID that one example is worth a thousand
arguments. We do not believe that one human illustration is worth more
than any statement of Scripture, and yet illustrations help us to
understand the statements of Scripture; and often one illustration
does more to show what the Bible really means by what it says than
much human logical explanation.
It is not wise to base a doctrine upon human experiences. For example,
thousands of people have been converted to God, really saved, at
mourners' benches. But that is not any reason for anybody to say that
a mourners' bench is essential to salvation. Some people delight in
their "experience," remembering that they felt a great ecstasy and
shouted the praises of God when they were born again. But it would be
foolish for us to thereby conclude that one cannot be saved without
shouting the praises of God. It is never wise to make a doctrine out
of our human experiences. Nevertheless, when the Bible clearly teaches
a truth. it is refreshing and helpful to have human experiences
testify to the truth of the Bible doctrine. So in this chapter I want
to tell the story of how great soul winners were filled with the Holy
Spirit. And we will find that the experiences of the greatest soul
winners verify the clear statements of Jesus Christ in Acts l:8, given
above. When great men of God were filled with the Holy Spirit they
received power for soul-winning witness and testimony. The best soul
winners did not talk in tongues, they did not claim to have the carnal
nature eradicated, but they did receive power from God for
soul-winning work.
In that great book, The Holy Spirit: Who
He Is, and What He Does, Dr. R. A. Torrey in chapter five gives
three defining statements as to what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is.
So, before we consider the experiences of great soul winners and how
they were filled with the Spirit, let us consider Dr. Torrey's
definition. Dr. Torrey says the following:
- In the first place, the Baptism of the
Holy Spirit is a definite experience of which one may know whether he
has received it or not ....
- In the second place, the Baptism with
the Holy Spirit is a work of the Holy Spirit distinct from and
additional to His regenerating work ....
- In the third place, the Baptism with the
Holy Spirit is a work of the Holy Spirit always connected with and
primarily for the purpose of testimony and service.
While we do not insist on the term, "the
Baptism with the Holy Spirit," we believe Dr. Torrey has given a good
definition of this special enduement of power from on high. With this in
mind, we will do well to consider the testimonies of great men who were
filled with the Holy Spirit and see that the fullness of the Holy Spirit
is indeed a special enduement of power fitting Christians to win souls,
and we will see how other Christians received this enduement of power.
D. L. Moody's Enduement
In The Life of D. L. Moody, written
by his son, is a very simple but striking account of the secret of D. L.
Moody's power. Here is the story of Mr. Moody's enduement of power, as
given on pages 146, 147, and 149.
The year 1871 was a critical one in Mr.
Moody's career. He realized more and more how little he was fired by
personal acquirements for his work. An intense hunger and thirst for
spiritual power were aroused in him by two women who used to attend the
meetings and sit on the front seat. He could see by the expression on
their faces that they were praying. At the close of services they would
say to him:
"We have been praying for you."
"Why don't you pray for the people?" Mr.
Moody would ask.
"Because you need the power of the Spirit,"
they would say.
"I need the power! Why," said Mr. Moody, in
relating the incident years after, "I thought I had power. I had the
largest congregations in Chicago, and there were many conversions. I was
in a sense satisfied. But right along those two godly women kept praying
for me, and their earnest talk about anointing for special service set
me to thinking. I asked them to come and talk with me, and they poured
out their hearts in prayer that I might receive the filling of the Holy
Spirit. There came a great hunger into my soul. I did not know what it
was. I began to cry out as I never did before. I really felt that I did
not want to live if I could not have this power for service."
Then the book tells of the great Chicago
fire, of D. L. Moody's relief work, the building of the north side
tabernacle, and of his visiting in the East to secure funds for his
work. Then the narrative continues:
During this Eastern visit the hunger for
more spiritual power was still upon Mr. Moody.
"My heart was not in the work of begging,"
he said. "I could not appeal. I was crying all the time that God would
fill me with His Spirit. Well, one day, in the city of New York -- oh,
what a day! -- I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost
too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an experience of which he
never spoke for fourteen years. I can only say that God revealed Himself
to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to
stay His hand. I went to preaching again. The sermons were not
different; I did not present any new truths, and yet hundreds were
converted. I would not now be placed back where I was before that
blessed experience if you should give me all the world -- it would be as
the small dust of the balance."
Notice in the above account, in the words
of D. L. Moody himself, that while he had great joy in the coming of the
Holy Spirit upon him in power, yet the principal result was:. "The
sermons were not different: I did not present any new truths, and yet
hundreds were converted."
D. L. Moody himself made much of this
doctrine that Christians should be filled with the Holy Spirit, or
baptized with the Holy Spirit, as he himself often put it.
In the book, Moody, His Words, Work, and
Workers, edited by Rev. W, H. Daniels, are given representative
doctrinal messages by D. L. Moody. I want to quote here from one
message, beginning on page 396 of that book, to show Moody's clear
doctrine on this matter of an enduement of power from on high.
D. L. Moody's Article on...
THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR SERVICE
In some sense, and to some extent, the Holy
Spirit dwells with every believer; but there is another gift, which may
be called the gift of the Holy Spirit for service. This gift, it strikes
me, is entirely distinct and separate from conversion and assurance. God
has a great many children that have no power, and the reason is, they
have. not the gift of the Holy Ghost for service. God doesn't seem to
work with them, and I believe it is because they have not sought this
gift.
In the opening of the eleventh chapter of
Luke we find the disciples asking Christ to teach them how to pray.
After doing so he goes on to explain it, and in the ninth, tenth, and
thirteenth verses says: "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given
you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
For every one that asketh receiveth .... If ye then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him!"
Now the lesson to be learned from this is,
that we must pray for the Holy Spirit for service; pray that we may be
anointed and qualified to do the work that God has for us to do. I
believe that Elisha was a child of God before Elijah met him; but he was
not qualified for the work of a prophet until the spirit of Elijah came
upon him. We have to ask for this blessing, to knock for it, to seek for
it, and find out why it does not come. If we regard iniquity in our
hearts, if we have some hidden sin, God is not going to give us the
baptism of power. We are not as "an empty vessel"; we are not ready to
receive the blessing, and so it doesn't come.
In the third chapter of Luke we find that
Christ was baptized by the Holy Ghost before he entered upon his
ministry. This should teach us to get anointed before starting out to do
the Lord's work. Christ was the Son of God just as much before his
baptism as afterward, but even he needed this power; and if the Son of
God, who never had sinned, needed it, how much more do we need it, and
how hopeless it will be if we attempt to work before we get it.
Again you will notice Mr. Moody's teaching
that the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Christians, what Moody and
Torrey and most other great soul winners have called "the baptism of the
Holy Spirit," is simply an enduement of power for soul-winning service;
that Christians should pray for this enduement of power from on high.
That Moody's work was done in the mighty
power of the Holy Spirit, that he really had upon him the power of
Pentecost, was obvious to all who knew him well. At Moody's funeral C.
I. Scofield, then about 56 years old, spoke. And though later -- when
there was such a hue and cry raised by the followers of Darby against
the terminology of Moody and Torrey and other great soul winners on this
matter of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or the fullness of the Spirit
-- Scofield avoided it, yet on this occasion he used the terminology of
Moody and of Torrey and of Finney. Here are Dr. Scofield's words over
the body of the great soul winner, Moody:
The secrets of Dwight L. Moody's power
were: First, in a definite experience of Christ's saving grace. He had
passed out of death into life, and he knew it. Secondly, he believed in
the divine authority of the Scriptures. The Bible was to him the voice
of God, and he made it resound as such in the consciences of men.
Thirdly, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit, and he knew it.
[Italics supplied] It was to him as definite an experience as his
conversion (The Life of D. L. Moody by his son, page 561 ).
Oh, how earnest was Moody in his burden to
keep the power of the Spirit of God upon him! He said once, in his
sermon on "Hindered Power," in the book, Secret Power, "I have
lived long enough to know that if I cannot have the power of the Spirit
of God on me to help me to work for Him, I would rather die, than to
live just for the sake of living."
In Dr. R. A. Torrey's great message on
Why God Used D. L. Moody, he named seven qualities that made Moody
the wonderfully used man that he was. And the seventh, last and most
important was that Moody was "definitely endued with power from on
high." Listen to what R. A. Torrey said (pages 51-55) about Mr. Moody:
The seventh thing that was the secret of
why God used D. L. Moody was that, he had a very definite enduement
with power from on high, a very clear and definite baptism with
the Holy Ghost. Mr. Moody knew he had the "baptism with the Holy
Ghost"; he had no doubt about it. In his early days he was a great
hustler, he had a tremendous desire to do something, but he had no real
power. He worked very largely in the energy of the flesh. But there were
two humble Free Methodist women who used to come over to his meetings in
the Y.M.C.A. One was "Auntie Cook" and the other Mrs. Snow. (I think her
name was not Snow at that time.) These two women would come to Mr. Moody
at the close of his meetings and say: "We are praying for you." Finally,
Mr. Moody became somewhat nettled and said to them one night: "Why are
you praying for me? Why don't you pray for the unsaved?" They replied:
"We are praying that you may get the power." Mr. Moody did not know what
that meant, but he got to thinking about it, and then went to these
women and said: "I wish you would tell me what you mean," and they told
him about the definite baptism with the Holy Ghost. Then he asked that
he might pray with them and not they merely pray for him.
Auntie Cook once told me of the intense
fervour with which Mr. Moody prayed on that occasion. She told me in
words that I scarcely dare repeat, though I have never forgotten them.
And he not only prayed with them, but he also prayed alone. Not long
after, one day on his way to England, he was walking up Wall Street in
New York (Mr. Moody very seldom told this and I almost hesitate to tell
it) and in the midst of the bustle and hurry of that city his prayer was
answered; the power of God fell upon him as he walked up the street and
he had to hurry off to the house of a friend and ask that he might have
a room by himself, and in that room he stayed alone for hours; and the
Holy Ghost came upon him filling his soul with such joy that at last he
had to ask God to withhold His hand, lest he die on the spot from very
joy. He went out from that place with the power of the Holy Ghost upon
him, and when he got to London (partly through the prayers of a
bedridden saint in Mr. Lessey's church) the power of God wrought through
him mightily in North London and hundreds were added to the churches,
and that was what led to his being invited over to the wonderful
campaign that followed in later years.
Time and again Mr. Moody would come to me
and say: "Torrey, I want you to preach on baptism with the Holy Ghost."
I do not know how many times he asked me to speak on that subject. Once,
when I had been invited to preach in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian
Church, New York (invited at Mr. Moody's suggestion; had it not been for
his suggestion the invitation would never have been extended to me),
just before I started for New York, Mr. Moody drove up to my house and
said: "Torrey, they want you to preach at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian
Church in New York. It is a great, big church, cost a million dollars to
build it." Then he continued: "Torrey, I just want to ask one thing of
you. I want to tell you what to preach about. You will preach that
sermon of yours on 'Ten Reasons Why I Believe the Bible to Be the Word
of God' and your sermon on 'The Baptism With the Holy Ghost.'" Time and
again, when a call came to me to go off to some church, he would come up
to me and say: "Now, Torrey, be sure and preach on the baptism with the
Holy Ghost."
Oh, if we had more men filled with the Holy
Spirit, endued with power from on high as Moody was, we would have more
men showing Moody's results!
R. A. Torrey Was Definitely Filled With
the
Holy Ghost for Soul-Winning Power
Already you know, by what Dr. Torrey said
about D. L Moody, that he believed, as Moody did, that one to win souls
for Christ must have the power of God. A special enduement of power,
that is, must be filled with the Spirit of God. Torrey was in some sense
the successor of D. L. Moody. He was certainly Moody's most trusted
helper. In one world-wide tour R. A. Torrey's campaigns resulted in a
hundred thousand souls saved. So says George T. B. Davis in his book,
Twice Around the World With Alexander. Mr. Davis says that Torrey
and Alexander were the "successors of Moody and Sankey." Telling of
Torrey's and Alexander's campaigns in England, Davis said, "In
Birmingham during a single month's campaign 7,700 confessed Christ;
while in London, in a five months' Mission, held in Royal Albert Hall,
England's finest auditorium, and in two specially erected iron
buildings, about 17,000 made public profession. In all, during the three
years' work in the British Isles, about 80,000 converts were recorded .
. ." Thousands of others were saved in Australia; and of course many,
many thousands in campaigns in America. So the scholarly Torrey walked
in the steps of the uneducated Moody. Both of them alike were filled
with the Holy Spirit. And let us read what Dr. Torrey says about
himself.
In his book, The Holy Spirit: Who He Is,
and What He Does, in the chapter, "The Baptism With the Holy
Spirit," pages 107-108, Dr. Torrey says:
The address of this afternoon, and the
addresses of the days immediately to follow, are the outcome of an
experience, and that experience was the outcome of a study of the Word
of God. After I had been a Christian for some years, and after I had
been in the ministry for some years, my attention was strongly attracted
to certain phrases found in the Gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles,
and in the Epistles, such as "baptized with the Holy Spirit," "filled
with the Spirit," "the Holy Spirit fell upon them," "the gift of the
Holy Spirit," "endued with power from on high," and other closely allied
phrases. As I studied these various phrases in their context, it became
clear to me that they all stood for essentially the same experience; and
it also became clear to me that God has provided for each child of His
in this present dispensation that they should be thus "baptized with the
Spirit," or, "filled with the Spirit."
As I studied the subject still further, I
became convinced that they described an experience which I did not
myself possess, and I went to work to secure for myself the experience
thus described. I sought earnestly that I might "be baptized with the
Holy Spirit." I went at it very ignorantly. I have often wondered if
anyone ever went at it any more ignorantly than I did. But while I was
ignorant, I was thoroughly sincere and in earnest, and God met me, as He
always meets the sincere and earnest soul, no matter how ignorant he may
be; and God gave me what I sought, I was "baptized with the Holy
Spirit." And the result was a transformed Christian life and a
transformed ministry.
Torrey, too, was filled with the Holy
Spirit. He did not talk in tongues, he never claimed to have the carnal
nature eradicated, but he did receive a mighty enduement of power from
on high. It came after he was saved and made him a mighty soul winner.
In the book, Holiness and Power,
pages 337-338, Rev. A. M. Hills tells of a letter from Dr. Torrey in the
following words:
I wrote a letter to Brother Torrey of
Chicago, a month ago, asking him to tell me how he came to seek the
baptism of the Holy Spirit, and what the blessing had done for him. He
replied as follows: "I was led to seek the baptism with the Holy Spirit
because I became convinced from the study of the Acts of the Apostles
that no one had a right to preach the gospel until he had been baptized
with the Holy Spirit. At last I was led to the place where I said that I
would never enter the pulpit again until I had been baptized with the
Holy Ghost and knew it, or until God in some way told me to go. I
obtained the blessing in less than a week. If I had understood the Bible
as I do now there need not have passed any days.
"As to what the blessing has done for me, I
could not begin to tell. It has brought a joy into my soul that I never
dreamed of before; a liberty in preaching that makes preaching an
unspeakable delight where before it was a matter of dread; it has opened
to me a door of usefulness, so that now, instead of preaching to a very
little church, I have calls every year to proclaim the truth to very
many thousands, being invited to conventions in every part of the land
to address vast audiences; and I have a church today, in addition to my
work in the Institute, that has a membership of upwards of thirteen
hundred, with an evening audience that sometimes overflows the
auditorium of the church, into which we can pack twenty-five hundred
people, into the lecture-room below."
This letter by Dr. Torrey was written
before he made his world-wide tour and before he was in a life of
evangelistic campaigns. Yet he knew that he had been definitely endued
with power from on high. He had had a definite time of seeking the power
of God and knew that he had found that which he sought. God gave him
power in preaching the Word and teaching and it resulted in multitudes
saved.
Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman Filled With the Holy
Spirit
Rev. A. M. Hills was state evangelist in
Michigan for the Congregational church. His book, Holiness and Power,
is a good book, though we do not vouch for Brother Hills' position on
holiness. But Hills tells in the following words, page 336, of a time
when Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman went before God and sought His power and
found it:
Dr. Wilbur Chapman tells us how he went
before God and consecrated himself and then said in faith, "My Father, I
now claim from Thee the infilling of the Holy Ghost," and he says: "From
that moment to this He has been a living reality. I never knew what it
was to love my family before. I never knew what it was to study the
Bible before. And why should I, for had I not just then found the key? I
never knew what it was to preach before. 'Old things have passed away'
in my experience. 'Behold all things have become new.'"
Even more revealing of Dr. Chapman's
teaching and practice and experience in the power of the Holy Spirit is
the following passage by Dr. Chapman:
"I had," said Dr. Chapman, "an ignorant man
in my church, in Philadelphia, by the name of S., who utterly murdered
the king's English. When he first stood up to talk, and you heard him
for the first time, you would be amazed, and would hope that he would
not speak long. But soon you would begin to wonder at the marvelous
power of his words. I will tell you the secret of it. I once called
thirty of the workers of my church together to pray for the baptism of
power for a special work. He rose and left the room. I afterward found
him alone in a little room of the church pleading in prayer: 'O Lord,
take all sin from me. Teach me what it is that hinders Thy coming. I
will give up everything. Come, O Holy Spirit, come and take possession
of me, and help me to win men.' He arose from his knees and met me face
to face, and said: 'Pastor, I have received the Holy Ghost.' To my
certain knowledge, since that time (about three years) that ignorant man
has led more than a hundred men to Jesus." (Holiness and Power,
pages 329-30).
The marvelous ministry of J. Wilbur Chapman
can be explained only by the fact that he, like Moody and Torrey, was
filled with the Holy Spirit, definitely endued with the Holy Spirit, or
filled with the Holy Spirit, or baptized with the Holy Spirit, whichever
term you care to use. Chapman was associated with Moody, was selected by
Moody to be vice-president of Moody Bible Institute and was the author
of the book, The Life and Work of D. L. Moody. In fact, Dr.
Chapman tells us that it was Moody himself who led Chapman to the first
full assurance of salvation.
In the biography of J. Wilbur Chapman by
Ottman, is this striking statement: "He had witnessed such marvelous
manifestations of the Spirit of God in so many of his meetings that he
felt a keen disappointment when the tide failed to reach the full
flood." He was a mighty, heart-moving preacher, filled with the Holy
Ghost. Chapman himself had prayed for the fullness of the Spirit He
taught others to pray for "the baptism of power for a special work."
Billy Sunday, Who Won Over a Million Souls
to Christ,
Was Definitely Filled With the Holy Spirit
Mr. Homer Rodeheaver, Billy Sunday's song
leader for the most powerful years of his ministry, has the following to
say about Mr. Sunday:
Mr. Sunday was criticized as few men. He
could stand criticism. Put the spotlight on Mr. Sunday from any point of
view. The result is to expose the pitiable smallness of his critics. He
did things that were epic. Under his ministry more lives were changed
than by any man who has preached the gospel. More than a million men and
women "hit the sawdust trail." He was responsible for multitudes of
ministers, missionaries, revived churches, Bible schools, and Christian
activities that reach to the four corners of the earth (Twenty Years
With Billy Sunday, p. 24).
It seems probable that in a harder day and
with greater competition, Billy Sunday won more souls than did D. L.
Moody, or any other single man who ever lived, as Mr. Rodeheaver says.
Again Mr. Rodeheaver says, "No doubt he spoke directly to more people in
the course of his career than any other man in the world. He did this
without amplifiers or mechanical devices to carry his voice" (Twenty
Years With Billy Sunday, p. 18).
Now was Billy Sunday himself filled with
the Holy Spirit? Did he have a special anointing of God, an enduement of
power from on high such as made possible the ministry of Moody and of
Torrey and of Chapman and of other great soul winners? Beyond any shadow
of doubt, Billy Sunday did have such an enduement of power, such a
definite filling of the Spirit!
When I first considered this matter I was
disappointed that we did not have from Billy Sunday's lips the naming of
a certain date and the description of a certain experience, when the
Spirit of the Lord came upon him in a special enduement of soul-winning
power. I rather wanted it down in black and white in Billy Sunday's own
words, some account of a wonderful period of emotion and crisis and
glory to which we could point. I do not know of any such statement by
Billy Sunday or of any published record of a time when Billy Sunday was
definitely endued with power. And the more I think about it and pray
about it the more clearly God has seemed to speak to my heart in this
matter, and to show me His infinite wisdom in not allowing us to have a
definite description of the time when Sunday was first filled with the
Holy Spirit. I cannot describe the first time I myself was filled with
the Holy Spirit. For one thing, I began soul winning when I was fifteen
years old. For another thing, I had the mighty power of God upon me in
soul winning before I understood the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. I
prayed for power before I knew the Bible terminology for the power I
needed and wanted. I made the surrender to the will of God and gave
myself wholly to soul-winning work before I knew that these were the
requirements which God made for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. So I
cannot describe a certain climax and crisis of emotion and glorious
assurance to mark the first time I was filled with the Holy Spirit. And
the same thing seems to have been true about Billy Sunday and of
thousands of other remarkable soul winners. No doubt God in His mercy
wanted us to see that the evidence that He himself describes in Acts
l:8: "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you..." is enough. Soul-winning power is enough.
But was Billy Sunday conscious of being
filled with the Holy Spirit? Did he meet the requirements for a special
enduement of power as other soul winners have, the same conditions? Was
he conscious of a supernatural enabling that turned the hearts of
sinners to Christ when he preached? Assuredly, beyond any shadow of
doubt, he not only had met God's requirements, the same requirements
that other men met, and had the same supernatural enabling, the same
enduement of power; but he was definitely conscious of that fullness of
the Spirit and relied upon the Holy Spirit to do His wondrous
Pentecostal work through him, Mr. Sunday, in saving souls.
We would not need further evidence on this
matter than the million souls, and more, who turned to God under Mr.
Sunday's preaching. Souls are saved by the power of the Holy Spirit. No
one ever wins souls through any other power. Not human zeal, not human
personality, not scholarship nor even the preaching of the Word of God
in human wisdom can save souls. Even of the Word of God itself we are
told, "the letter killeth..." (II Cor. 3:6). So if I never had a word
from Billy Sunday, never had any indication of his doctrinal position on
this matter, I would know that Mr. Sunday was mightily filled with the
Spirit of God for winning souls.
But the evidence is overwhelming that Billy
Sunday knew what God's conditions were, that he consciously met those
conditions, and that he knew he was supremely filled with the Spirit of
God.
Remember, first, that Billy Sunday was a
disciple of J. Wilbur Chapman. He worked with the famous evangelist
three years when Mr. Chapman was having great union revival campaigns.
Then when Billy Sunday started his own work as an evangelist, it was
sermons by Dr. Chapman which he preached. "Seven sermons given him by
Dr. Chapman, plus his own testimony, made the eight with which he
started his evangelistic career" (Twenty Years With Billy Sunday,
p. 21). His three years under J. Wilbur Chapman molded his doctrine on
the power of the Holy Spirit just as Moody's influence molded Dr.
Chapman's. Billy Sunday always gave more credit to Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman
for his preaching than to anybody else. Hence, Billy Sunday believed in
and preached a definite fullness of the Holy Spirit as Dr. Chapman
believed and preached it.
Billy Sunday's position on this matter is
made clear all the more by his own preaching. I have, for example, his
printed sermons preached in the Omaha, Nebraska, campaign in 1915. He
preached one time on "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye
believed?" (Acts 19:2); once on "But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem,
until. ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49); once on "But
ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and
ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and
in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8); and
once on "The Revival at Pentecost." Those sermons upon those texts and
subjects indicate the importance Billy Sunday himself placed upon a
definite enduement of power from on high for soul winning.
But there is an even more remarkable
evidence that Billy Sunday felt he was endued with power from on high
and that he preached in a wonderful anointing from Heaven. Every time
Billy Sunday preached he opened his Bible to one text of Scripture that
declares, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath
anointed me to preach...", laid his sermon notes upon that Scripture and
preached with the fire and power of God! On this matter Mr. Rodeheaver,
his assistant for twenty years, says:
"Invariably he opened the Bible and placed
his sermon notes upon the passage in Isaiah, first verse of the
sixty-first chapter, which reads: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me;
because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek;
He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to
the captives, and the opening of the prisons to them that are bound.'
"Many people wanted to possess the Bible
Mr. Sunday had used during a campaign. When he granted the request it
would be found that these pages in the book of Isaiah were almost worn
out" (Twenty Years With Billy Sunday, by Homer Rodeheaver, p.
10).
What experience with God did Billy Sunday
have that made him always open the Bible to that one verse of Scripture?
What holy vow, what compact with God moved this mighty soul winner that
always when he preached the Gospel his Bible lay open on the pulpit with
these words, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord
hath anointed me to preach..."? Surely Mr. Sunday knew beyond a shadow
of doubt that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. And he surely knew
that he was anointed to preach. I have no doubt he treasured, beyond any
other knowledge, the knowledge that his power was the power of God and
that he dare not trifle with it. Knowing that he had a holy anointing,
he pleased God instead of men, he preached without any compromise,
preached in a way that offended, that cut, that burned and that
assaulted and captured the castles of men's hearts for Christ. If Billy
Sunday had told me with his own voice, looking me in the face, that he
knew he had a definite enduement of power from God for soul winning and
that it was a holy trust with which he dared not trifle but must keep
its conditions always in mind, it would not be more certain in my mind
than it is. When Mr. Sunday and I were on a radio program together, sat
on the same platform, and were once guests at the same table he did not
tell me of such a definite secret experience. But he was filled with the
Holy Ghost and knew it, and claimed this as his treasure above all
treasure, his one indispensable equipment for soul winning. That we
certainly know by his own emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit in
his preaching and by the fact that he always opened his Bible to this
one text in Isaiah 61:1 before preaching the Gospel.
Other people may not have known where Billy
Sunday got his power. But he knew, he knew! And he reminded himself of
the one source from which he could have blessing and power every time he
ever preached! And we are justified in supposing that every time Billy
Sunday opened his Bible to Isaiah 61:l and laid it on the pulpit before
him before beginning his sermon, he made a fresh covenant with God,
relying upon the power of the Holy Spirit for that sermon and humbly
beseeching God for His blessing. A definite enduement of power from on
high is the only possible explanation of Billy Sunday's ministry.
Charles G. Finney, Mighty Soul Winner,
Baptized
With the Holy Ghost!
The Autobiography of Charles G. Finney
is one of the most helpful books in print. It was one of four books that
have had the greatest influence on my Christian life and ministry. The
others were George Muller of Bristol by A. T. Pierson, How to
Pray by R. A. Torrey and In His Steps or What Would Jesus
Do? by Charles M. Sheldon. But for a pungent and powerful revelation
of how God works in soul winning and revival, few if any books ever
written can exceed the Autobiography of Charles G. Finney. Finney
won multiplied thousands of souls. Although he preached in a smaller
area, and though he was handicapped by some errors in theology, Finney
probably had as powerful a manifestation of the power of God upon his
ministry as did D. L. Moody or any other preacher since the days of
Paul, and in the smaller area which he covered in his revival work a
larger proportion of the population was saved than has been true, we
suppose, in the ministry of any other great evangelist. How he was
filled with the Holy Spirit is told on pages 19-23 of the autobiography.
Elsewhere Charles G. Finney writes, as quoted by Dr. Oswald J. Smith, in
The Revival We Need:
I was powerfully converted on the morning
of the month of October, 1822. In the evening of the same day I received
overwhelming baptisms of the Holy Ghost, that went through me, as it
seemed to me, body and soul. I immediately found myself endued with such
power from on high that a few words dropped here and there to
individuals were the means of their immediate conversion. My words
seemed to fasten like barbed arrows in the souls of men. They cut like a
sword. They broke the heart like a hammer. Multitudes can attest to
this. Oftentimes a word dropped without my remembering it would fasten
conviction, and often result in almost immediate conversion. Sometimes I
would find myself, in a great measure, empty of this power. I would go
and visit, and find that I made no saving impression. I would exhort and
pray, with the same result. I would then set apart a day for private
fasting and prayer, fearing that this power had departed from me, and
would inquire anxiously after the reason of this apparent emptiness.
After humbling myself, and crying out for help, the power would return
upon me with all its freshness. This has been the experience of my life.
This power is a great marvel. I have many
times seen people unable to endure the Word. The most simple and
ordinary statements would cut men off their seats like a sword, would
take away their strength, and render them almost helpless as dead men.
Several times it has been true in my experience that I could not raise
my voice, or say anything in prayer or exhortation, except in the
mildest manner, without overcoming them. This power seems sometimes to
pervade the atmosphere of the one who is highly charged with it. Many
times great numbers of persons in a community will be clothed with this
power when the very atmosphere of the whole place seems to be charged
with the life of God. Strangers coming into it, and passing through the
place will be instantly smitten with conviction of sin and in many
instances converted to Christ. When Christians humble themselves and
consecrate their all afresh to Christ, and ask for this power, they will
often receive such a baptism that they will be instrumental in
converting more souls in one day than in all their lifetime before.
While Christians remain humble enough to retain this power, the work of
conversion will go on, till whole communities and regions of country are
converted to Christ. The same is true of the ministry.
It is important to notice that Charles G.
Finney uses the term, "baptisms of the Holy Ghost." We do not insist
upon the term, but sensible people ought not to scoff at the term, a
scriptural term, as understood and used by Finney, Moody, Torrey and
Chapman. Note also that this fullness of the Spirit comes, says Finney,
in answer to prayer. He says that when he found himself losing power, "I
would then set apart a day for private fasting and prayer...." Then he
says, "After humbling myself, and crying out for help, the power would
return upon me with all its freshness. This has been the experience of
my life."
Note again that Charles G. Finney is not
talking about the eradication of the carnal nature. He did not talk in
tongues. He was not seeking some special feeling, though he did have a
wonderful sense of God's presence upon him. He sought and found an
enduement of power from on high that made him a mighty soul winner!
Charles H. Spurgeon, Spirit-Filled Soul
Winner
Charles H. Spurgeon, pastor of the
Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, had as profound an effect on his age
as D. L. Moody. In England he was even more eminent, we suppose, than
Moody was in America. It is doubtful if any man who ever lived would be
a serious competitor to Spurgeon for the title of the greatest preacher
since Paul. W. Robertson Nicholl says, "...His was a ministry
unparalleled in the whole history of the Christian church. No one but
Mr. Spurgeon has steadily preached for forty years and three times a
week to such audiences as he commanded.
"There were hundreds of thousands who owed
him their own souls."
I do not find from Mr. Spurgeon's pen a
description of a certain time and crisis when he was obviously and
consciously filled for the first time with the Holy Spirit. But perhaps
that is well. We should do wrong to expect every man to have the same
kind of experience as far as outward manifestation and feeling are
concerned. More than that, we should do wrong to believe that any such
conscious period of joy or perfect understanding of the fullness of God
should necessarily come at once like a glory light shining from Heaven.
I am as certain as I can be that the breath of God, the power of the
Holy Spirit, has, in God's great mercy, been breathed upon me. Yet I
cannot name the day nor describe the experience. So Spurgeon, like Billy
Sunday, has left no record of the particular time when he was first
mightily filled with the power of God for soul winning. Yet the mighty
anointing of the Spirit was on Spurgeon. That, we know, is the only
explanation for the hundreds of thousands saved under his ministry. He
himself knew that, too; and many quotations from his sermons give
witness to his consciousness of the Spirit's mighty power.
In the book, Twelve Sermons on the Holy
Spirit, and in the sermon, "The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit" (p.
50), Spurgeon says:
Jesus Christ said, "Greater works than
these shall ye do because I go to my Father, in order to send the Holy
Spirit"; and recollect that those few who were converted under Christ's
ministry, were not converted by Him, but by the Holy Spirit that rested
upon Him at that time. Jesus of Nazareth was anointed of the Holy
Spirit. Now then, if Jesus Christ, the great founder of our religion,
needed to be anointed of the Holy Spirit, how much more our ministers?
Again in the same sermon, on page 51,
Spurgeon says:
Let the preacher always confess before he
preaches that he relies upon the Holy Spirit. Let him burn his
manuscript and depend upon the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit does not come
to help him, let him be still and let the people go home and pray that
the Spirit will help him next Sunday.
And best of all, if you would have the Holy
Spirit, let us meet together earnestly to pray for Him. Remember, the
Holy Spirit will not come to us as a church, unless we seek Him. "For
this thing will I be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for
them." "Prove me now here, saith the Lord of hosts, and see if I do not
pour you out a blessing so that there shall not be room enough to
receive it." Let us meet and pray, and if God doth not hear us, it will
be the first time He has broken His promise.
In the same book, in the sermon on "The
Indwelling and Outflowing of the Holy Spirit" (pp. 113,114), Spurgeon
says:
But there is another thing to be done as
well, and that is to pray; and here I want to remind you of those
blessed words of the Master, "Every one that asketh receiveth; and he
that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a
son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a
stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if
he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more
shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"
You see, there is s distinct promise to the children of God, that their
heavenly Father will give them the Holy Spirit if they ask for His
power; and that promise is made to be exceedingly strong by the
instances joined to it. But he says, "How much more shall your
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" He makes it
a stronger case than that of an ordinary parent. The Lord must give us
the Spirit when we ask Him, for He has herein bound Himself by no
ordinary pledge. He has used a simile which would bring dishonour on His
own name, and that of the very grossest kind, if He did not give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.
Oh, then, let us ask Him at once, with all
of our hearts. Am I not so happy as to have in this audience some who
will immediately ask? I pray that some who have never received the Holy
Spirit at all may now be led, while I am speaking, to pray, "Blessed
Spirit, visit me; lead me to Jesus." But especially those of you that
are the children of God, -- to you is this promise especially made. Ask
God to make you all that the Spirit of God can make you, not only a
satisfied believer who has drunk for himself, but a useful believer, who
overflows the neighborhood with blessing. I see here a number of friends
from the country who have come to spend their holiday in London. What a
blessing it would be if they went back to their respective churches
overflowing; for there are numbers of churches that need flooding; they
are dry as a barn-floor, and little dew ever falls on them. Oh that they
might be flooded!
I was delighted to find what I did not know
before, that Spurgeon understood how Jesus our Saviour was filled with
the Holy Spirit as our example, and how all Christ's marvelous ministry
on earth was done in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in His own power.
And Spurgeon, I find, understood what I had found from the Scriptures,
that the parable of the importunate friend in Luke, chapter 11, begging
for bread for a friend who had journeyed to the pleader's house,
pictured a Christian waiting on God for the power of the Holy Spirit to
carry bread for sinners!
Let us say, then, that Spurgeon was
conscious of the fullness of the Holy Spirit upon himself and that he
knew whence his power came. We see also that this mighty power of God
came on Spurgeon in answer to pleading prayer, yea, in answer to prayer
this power came again and again upon the mighty "prince of preachers."
Ivan Roberts, Welsh Evangelist, Filled
With the Holy Ghost
Dr. Oswald J. Smith, in his book, The
Revival We Need, pages 42,43, has the following quotation from Evan
Roberts, Welsh evangelist:
"For thirteen years," writes Evan Roberts,
"I had prayed for the Spirit; and this is the way I was led to pray.
William Davies, the deacon, said one night in the society: 'Remember to
be faithful. What if the Spirit descended and you were absent? Remember
Thomas! What a loss he had!'
"I said to myself: 'I will have the Spirit'
and through every kind of weather and in spite of all difficulties, I
went to the meetings. Many times, on seeing other boys with the boats on
the tide, I was tempted to turn back and join them. But, no. I said to
myself: 'Remember your resolve,' and on I went. I went faithfully to the
meetings for prayer throughout the ten or eleven years I prayed for a
Revival. It was the Spirit that moved me thus to think."
At a certain morning meeting which Evan
Roberts attended, the evangelist in one of his petitions besought that
the Lord would "bend us." The Spirit seemed to say to Roberts: "That's
what you need, to be bent." And thus he describes his experience: "I
felt a living force coming into my bosom. This grew and grew, and I was
almost bursting. My bosom was boiling. What boiled in me was that verse:
'God commending His love.' I fell on my knees with my arms over the seat
in front of me; the tears and perspiration flowed freely. I thought
blood was gushing forth." Certain friends approached to wipe his face.
Meanwhile he was crying out, "O Lord, bend me! Bend me!" Then suddenly
the glory broke.
Mr. Roberts adds: "After I was bent, a wave
of peace came over me, and the audience sang, 'I hear Thy welcome
voice.' And as they sang I thought about the bending at the Judgment
Day, and I was filled with compassion for those that would have to bend
on that day, and I wept.
"Henceforth, the salvation of souls became
the burden of my heart. From that time I was on fire with a desire to go
through all Wales, and if it were possible, I was willing to pay God for
the privilege of going."
Note that Evan Roberts prayed for thirteen
years before the mighty revival for which he prayed came, and that the
fullness of the Spirit made him the great soul winner that he became.
Many Other Mighty Soul Winners Claimed to
Be
Definitely Filled With the Holy Spirit
We do not have space here to give accounts
of all the great men of God of whom we have a record who definitely
claimed that they had a mighty enduement of power from on high, which
came to them aside from their conversion to Christ. Let us mention
briefly some of them.
Rev. A. B. Earle, D.D., was a Baptist
evangelist who began preaching in 1830. He wrote a book, The Rest of
Faith, telling of some of his experiences. In the introduction to
one of his books, Evangelist Earle said that God had enabled him to lead
157,000 souls to Christ, and Hills in his book, Holiness and Power,
says, "A book lies before me which says that 'he had no special power as
a preacher before the Holy Ghost fell upon him.'" Dr. Earle came before
D. L. Moody, but was a union evangelist wonderfully blessed of God. And
he attributed his power to a definite enduement from Heaven, the
fullness of the Holy Spirit for soul winning.
Mr. Hills says of A. T. Pierson, "Dr. A. T.
Pierson preached eighteen years trusting to literary power and oratory
and culture. He then sought and obtained 'holiness and power' by the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. He afterward testified to a body of
ministers: 'Brethren, I have seen more conversions and accomplished more
in the eighteen months since I received that blessing than in the
eighteen years previous.'" (Holiness and Power, page 336). And
those who know the writings of Dr. Pierson will understand that he did
not mean that he had had the carnal nature eradicated, nor that he had
talked in tongues, but that he received power from on high for winning
souls.
How many more greatly used men of God,
anointed soul winners, have testified that they had a definite time, in
response to earnest prayer for the power of God in soul winning, when
they were filled with the Holy Spirit. There was Christmas Evans, the
one-eyed Welsh evangelist wonderfully filled with the Spirit after three
hours of pleading with God. There was Len G. Broughton, Southern Baptist
pastor whose ministry was transformed one night as he knelt at an altar
and pleaded with God for the fullness of the Spirit and claimed that
power and went back to baptize three hundred converts within the year
and began a marvelously increased ministry of soul winning. There was
"Praying Hyde," the missionary to India. As he sailed from America a
friend handed him a sealed note which he later found said, "Are you
filled with the Holy Spirit?" He was first angry, then troubled, and
then sought God with all of his heart until he was wonderfully filled.
Great revivals with the winning of thousands of souls in India resulted.
There was Dr. L. R. Scarborough, president of the Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary, who had won twenty thousand souls for Christ and
taught in our class on evangelism the need for a definite enduement of
power from on high, a fullness of the Holy Spirit, which he himself had
definitely received.
Mighty Lessons From the Testimony of These
Spirit-Filled Giants
Every reader who is familiar with the
history of great revival movements in modern times must be impressed
with the fact that we have in this chapter given the position and
testimony of all the mightiest soul winners -- Moody, Torrey, Chapman,
Sunday, Finney, Spurgeon. Who else was of their stature in revivals and
soul winning? Other mighty men organized much, built great
denominations, founded great schools; but the men we have named in this
chapter won more souls and preached with more power than any men who
have lived since the Apostle Paul, as far as we know. And it seems
wonderful, to me, that these spiritual giants, manifestly filled with
the power of God, were all united on the essential facts regarding the
fullness of the Holy Spirit, or baptism of the Spirit, the mighty
anointing of God, the power of Pentecost.
Some of the men named were better
theologians than others. Some had better education than others. But all
of them were mightily filled with the power of God and knew how they
were filled. And all of them were agreed on the essentials of this power
of Pentecost. Notice, then, some lessons from the testimony of these
mighty men.
- All of them believed that the fullness
of the Holy Spirit as experienced by Christians in the book of Acts is
for us today! In fact, each claimed for himself and offered for his
hearers the power of the Holy Spirit.
- All of them, without exception, believed
that the fullness of the Holy Spirit was given for Soul-Winning power.
- Every one of these mighty men believed
that the power of Pentecost, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, came in
answer to prevailing prayer.
- How many of these soul winners, the
greatest of these twenty centuries, believed that speaking in tongues
was the necessary sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Not a one of
them! None of them "spoke in tongues" and none of them preached that
speaking in tongues was necessary or desirable as a sign of the
fullness of the Holy Spirit!
- None of the greatest soul winners of the
centuries claimed the eradication of the carnal nature nor that the
baptism of the Holy Spirit brought sinlessness! Charles G. Finney
later taught a doctrine of sanctification but never did claim that his
own mighty baptism with the Spirit (that is what he called it) made
him sinless or eradicated the carnal nature at the time. (See his
autobiography.) Even John Wesley, whose testimony is not given here,
did not develop his idea of Christian perfection until long after he
himself had his wonderful Aldersgate experience with the Holy Spirit.
I believe that the experience and the
testimony of the mighty men of God whose words we have given in this
chapter are overwhelming in their unity. Let no one think that the
doctrine of this book is new or strange. Essentially it is the same as
the teaching of Spurgeon, Moody, Torrey, Chapman, Sunday, Finney,
Christmas Evans, A. T. Pierson, Len G. Broughton, "Praying Hyde," A. B.
Earle, and L. R. Scarborough.
Those who have gone away from the doctrine
of the fullness of the Spirit, the power of Pentecost, as a special
enduement of power for soul winning possible for every Christian and to
be sought with prevailing prayer, have departed from the position of the
great soul winners. This falling away in doctrine came with the falling
away from revival! Men do not believe in the power of Pentecost simply
because they do not themselves have the power of Pentecost.
I leave this subject feeling that every
reader will be held accountable to God for what he does about the
overwhelming testimony of the great soul-winning giants of the centuries
who say that they themselves were mightily filled with the Holy Spirit
for soul winning, and in answer to prayer, and that this mighty
enduement of power did not cause them to speak in tongues, did not
eradicate the carnal nature. May God speak to every humble heart who
reads and make him willing to receive the testimony of those upon whom
God has breathed in His mighty power.
Contacting Sword of the Lord
This, and other booklets, can be obtained
by contacting Sword of the Lord Publishers directly, please do not
direct your queries to Roy Lister (me), though I will be happy to answer
any questions regarding the subject matter of the material shown here.
Sword of the Lord Publishers
Po Box 1099
Murfreesboro
Tennessee, 37133
U.S.A
© Copyright 1949 by John R. Rice
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