“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” IT Tim. 1:7. - “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints . . . Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order.”’ 1 Cor. 14:33, 39, 40.
When a little girl, I frequently amused myself by walking the steel tracks of the railroad.
Watchful concentration was needed to keep one’s balance. . One could not lean long in one or the other direction geen falling off into the gully by the side of the road.
Now, grown older, I find myself still walking a narrow road.
Watchful concentration, coupled with the balancing rod of Prayer and the Word, are necessary to maintain one’s equilibrium and avoid stepping off on either side of the road.
On the left hand lie the icebergs of Formalism.
Stiff, still, frigid! Not an “Amen!” Not a “‘Hallelujah!’’ No real revival spirit.
Deserted altars! 186 THE HOLy STIRIT
Half-empty pews!
Singing, “Hark from the tombs a doleful sound,’ and “How tedious and tasteless the hours.”
No all-night prayer meetings. No old-fashioned calling upon God with travail of spirit.
Dead, and don’t know it!
On the right hand, burn the wild-fires of Fanaticism.
On fire for God; but ofttimes having “zeal without knowledge.”’
Ringing Hallelujahs and earnestness of spirit; but lacking a balanced understanding of the harmony of the Scriptures; prone to be overbalanced upon the side of manifestations and side issues; minus due teaching and regard for the broader and more complete concepts of Christian vision and soul winning.
They have the light upon the Baptism of the Spirit. Many, indeed, were once filled with the Spirit; but they have so far over-emphasized manifestations, perhaps in an effort to offset the coldness with which the matter has been treated by the formal churches, that they have quite departed from world evangelism in its broader sense.
They are good people; but they have gotten themselves cornered in the Upper Room Missions and the Basement Halls. The city at large has never heard their message. All that the world knows of their existence is that somewhere there is an organization of fervent people who have mockingly been referred to as “Holy Rollers,’ or some such ill-fitting term.
But as to sane, powerful, acceptable, resultful, soul winning in the busy marts of civic life, they have apparently never had the vision. They have never tapped the great central stream of that arresting Evangelism which is city reaching and community shaking in scope and message.
They are perhaps in the position of Peter, when, with James and John, he had beholden the glory of the Lord upon the Mount of Transfiguration. Overcome with rapture and joy in the Divine Presence, they have cried out from their Pentecostal Mount:
“Lord it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.”’ Matt. 17:4.
Peter was so charmed and delighted with the ecstatic blessing and soul-surging glory of the sacred spot that he desired to remain and build.
Small wonder he longed to dwell and labor there indefinitely. Had he ever been so blessedly conscious of God’s presence elsewhere? Could any other place be so precious, so inexpressibly filled with God’s glory? Then why not leave the plains of men entirely, forget sin’s ugly hold upon life’s valleys and dwell for aye upon the Mount of Transfiguration?
But see the Saviour lead the group of three Disciples down the edge of the cliff! See Him lead the way down to the multitudes of hungering, needy, sinridden souls in the valley below!
There stands the man with the epileptic son; yonder are the dying and the heavy laden of soul. They are waiting, waiting for the Gospel; waiting for the Bread of Life from Heaven.
The same situation exists today. Shall the sin-sick be denied that we may dwell upon the Mount and experience the ecstatic surgings of spiritual seas?
No! A thousand times no!
The richest mountain top experience is only desirable insofar as it fits the recipient for more practical, level-headed, sober, and Spirit-filled soul winning in the valley lands of life!
Thank God for the mountain top experience! Without it we would be unfitted for service in the valley. We would be dull, and clad in the sombre shades of the abysmal sorrows about us. We would be deprived of the shine upon the face, the spiritual uplift which sweeps one above the shadows and gives one the power to stretch out a firm, strong, sure hand unto others. Such exaltation gives perspective, and contrast. It sets a standard of values, weights and measures otherwise unattainable.
Thank God for the Upper Room Baptism of the Spirit!
Were it not for that, one would be sent forth as a soldier without a sword, a lamp without oil or flame, a trumpet without a player. One would be as Adam, moulded and shapen into the image of God, but lacking the breath which gives the spark of life.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit, received on those upper plains of blessing, means power for service, flooding, warm-bosomed rivers of sermon, song and praise with which to woo the valley dweller to Christ; a heavenly vision and understanding which serves as a charmed mantle making it possible to live in the world without being of it.
God’s children were never intended to abide in the Upper Room! It is not a place of permanent residence. It is a filling station, a power house!
Our business is not building three tabernacles upon a Mount. Our duty is to be filled with the Spirit, to Av 1ew O f the inte rior of Angelus Temple,
on he vast auditorium and a typical congregati
then receive a clear vision of the Transfigured One,
and the needy in the valle y, with return to the sinful
una clearer eye, a steadier hand, a more loving and
for derstanding heart; to return to practical service the Master.
Glorious as is the experience and the revelation
skies received in the Upper Room, where heavenly
that alone are opened before adoring, prayerful eyes,
Our is not the goal of the Christian soul winner.
for servi ce, business upon earth, after we are equipped is to go out and go on with the work.
Ours is a stupendous task! The most tremendo
for man or angel has undertaking ever blueprinted
elize the been given us! We are called upon to evang
unto every creat ure; to world, to preach the gospel
reach the utte rmost Christianize all nations and fringes of earth’s remotest shore.
So here we are.
On the left hand — Formalism.
On the right hand — Fanaticism.
The Refrigerator or the Wild-fire, which will choose?
spirit-
Indeed, there is little choice between being ical
fanat ually frozen to death or being consumed with r the fire. But, thank God, one need not take eithe
burning path over the frozen, immobile peaks, or the but unprogressive hills.
Down
There is a middle-of-the-road experience. re this straight, narrow, center line the Foursqua
in sane, Gospel followers are endeavoring to march Spirit-filled formation.
square
When God first gave the author the Four Vision, and called her to preach and advocate this middle-of-the-road walk, she shuddered away from the light!
“O Lord,” she cried, “may I not stand favorably with one side or the other? May I not either march on with the Formal, Ritualistic Churches or throw in my lot completely with the present day Pentecostal ranks?
“May I not so preach and conduct my services that either one or the other of these two sides will wholeheartedly own and sponsor me?”
But the Lord had chalked out a line for her feet, a line which, running betwixt and between the two, constitutes a medium of communication between the opposite camps, which have erstwhile been standing off and eyeing each other with a baneful look of disapproval and even condemnation.
A line, banked and supported on the left hand by the orthodoxy and glorious fundamental facts and teachings upon which denominations, now grown cold, were once founded in the fervent days of their infancy; and on the right hand by the power and glory bestowed in Pentecostal fulness upon those who tarry for the infilling.
A line, retaining all the fundamentals of the Faith, but coupling with them the power of the Spirit whereby to make proclamation thereof.
A line, advocating moderation and power under control; a line, contending that the same powerful but sensible and resultful gospel as that which crowned the labors of the early church, can be advanced and preached successfully today.
When the Lord first called the author to walk down this line, it seemed to require all of the old balancing powers of walking those steel rails of childhood days. The path promised to be a very lonely one, as but few stood forth thereon at that time.
But maintaining a balance proved to be not as difficult as it had at first seemed. There was such good support on either side! There were many strong hands to uphold one — smiting hands!
God bless them!
On the one side they of the denominations rose up to smite and said:
“Sister McPherson is too radical! She is too literal in interpreting the Bible; too Pentecostal in method and preaching. She borders on the fanatical.”
Whilst upon the other hand they of the Mission Hall and Upper Room of present day Pentecostal ranks cried out:
“Oh, Sister is not Pentecostal! She is compromising! She quenches the manifestations of the Spirit! She is placing her hand on the Ark to steady it and will come to some dire end!”
“Too Pentecostal!’’ one cried.
“To9 Churchey!” the other wailed.
“Too Pentecostal!”’
“Too Churchey!”
With each administering a resounding slap from pulpit and pen, there was good support on each side and one was enabled to keep an even equilibrium without unwonted effort.
It was necessary to keep the eyes straight ahead upon the Word of God. Laboring under the impression that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, and that the Holy Spirit’s power is still available to the church of the hour, and that He is not the Author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches, faith mounted and claimed the promises. Surely one could still have the old time Power and yet all the sober, reasoning powers with which to grapple with the situations of the day in which we live.
At first it was a lonely walk.
Both sides naturally.eyed me as I launched those first evangelistic campaigns after adopting this policy of moderation. God was gracious, and His Word was glorious in accomplishing that whereunto it was sent, so that it was granted favor with sinner and saint. The great national auditoriums, some of them holding as many as fourteen and sixteen thousand, were filled to capacity, sometimes at three sessions a day. Sinners came to the altars by the thousand, sick were healed and beds deserted by erstwhile invalids.
When I looked up from my task of pointing tearful men and women to the Christ, I made the heartening discovery that I was no longer alone! Godly men and women by the tens of thousands were scrambling up the embankment at both sides and marching on in the middle path!
They came from the churches, saying:
“Here is a gospel of power which, while sacrificing none of the old foundation truths of the inspiration of the Scriptures, the Virgin Birth of our Lord, the Atonement, the Resurrection, the Born Again experience, etc., is scripturally sane.”’
They who had been turned out or frozen out of the Churches, came from Mission and Cottage Prayermeetings, saying:
“Here are all the old fundamental truths of the church, coupled with the power of Pentecost, drawing — men and women to full altars, awakening city-wide, yea world-wide interest, and creating respect for this Holy Ghost ministry. Here is church sanctity and reverence combined, without sacrifice of the power of the Spirit.”
ae now a veritable army marches upon the middle road!
Methodist, Baptist, Episcopalian, Salvationist, Pentecostal, Congregationalist, Mormon, Catholic and Jew are scrambling up the steep sides of the embankments to the middle of the road, catching up the Foursquare banners and striding forward, proclaiming Jesus Christ the Saviour, the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, the Great Physician, and the soon Coming King.
Perhaps I should be more explicit in explaining just what is meant by the middle road walk.
Here is a concrete example:
Some years ago I was called by an Interdenominational Committee to conduct a Foursquare Campaign in the Forum at Wichita, Kansas. Anticipation and preparations were at flood tide. Only one great handicap, the usual one, was facing us. The new middle of the road policy had been taken but shortly prior to this and the church folk were saying to the members of the Committee on arrangements:
“You will see shortly that Sister McPherson will conduct her meetings in an unseemly and fanatical order. People will be rolling on the floor at the altar, men and women screaming and calling it praising the Lord, etc., etc., etc.”
The reader is doubtless aware of the usual fears with which one vests all that portends getting back to the old time religion of power, and is probably familiar with the usual scarecrows and bugaboos which the devil causes to be erected in a hope of keeping God’s children back from their real inheritance.
Of these warnings to my friends I was conscious, and was determined to hold to the center of the road.
The time of the first service arrived.
It was Sunday afternoon and the entire building was packed to capacity! I chose a disarming subject, intended to win both factions to a sensible and central viewpoint which would get them within speaking distance of each other and center the thoughts of all upon the one main issue, soul winning.
Choosing the text, ‘‘He that winneth souls is wise,” I proceeded to set forth what I considered the vital need of the hour, a real awakening to the value of the soul, the unveiling of our eyes to the need of the whitened harvest field and the glorious reward of the faithful at the end of life’s short day.
I besought all to lay aside every prejudice and join hands and efforts in the great cause of preaching Christ and Him crucified, unto the lost. I told the story of the little boy who was lost in the great wheat fields of Canada, and of the frantic but futile manner in which the two hundred laborers and neighbors banded together to search for the little one. But in their search they criss-crossed each other and none was able to locate the little toddler, until at last one man had a brilliant idea.
“Men,” he said, “we have been working at crosspurposes this way. Let us stop searching in this single and independent manner. Let us join hands and walk straight across the field and we shall find him shortly.”
This they did, making a great unbroken line of pees The child was soon found and joy over-
owed.
“Amens” came rolling in from every side of the mighty Forum.
The Christian workers from both elements began to say to one another:
Stasi ee
“That’s exactly what we need.”
“Why this is not an irrational or a fanatical doctrine. We all know that we need more power by which to accomplish this great task of soul winning!”
It was then that I did a very daring thing. Impressed that the Lord was in the midst and that His dear Spirit was dealing with men and women concerning their soul’s salvation, even though this was but an introductory talk to line up workers for the evangelistic campaign which was scheduled to begin that night, I gave an altar call.
No sooner had the altar been opened for sinners to become converts of the Christ than they began to pour down the aisles. They came from balconies and from the main floor, trooping toward the front.
So fearful was I that the enemies of the Spiritfilled life might say that “excitement” brought them to the altar, or that I was “hypnotizing” them or make some such ridiculous charge by way of explaining away this marked sign of God’s approval, that I fell down upon my knees by the altar and simply remained with closed eyes leading the audience in that glorious song of invitation:
“Just as I am without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come!’’
The altars were filling rapidly as men and women came to kneel before the Christ who said: ‘‘Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.”
My heart was bursting with happiness. Others were coming down the aisles. The spirit of the meeting was quickened, joy shone upon faces everywhere. Here was God’s stamp of approval upon His own Word.
Then suddenly it happened!
At the sound which assailed my ears, it seemed as though every drop of blood in my veins congealed.
A large woman with amply proportioned lungs, overcome with emotion and joy at the sight of men and women kneeling at the altars for conversion, suddenly threw herself back in the front seat where she had been seated and emitted one cry after another.
“Q-0-0-0-0-0--oh!”” she cried, following one shout with another as quickly as she could draw her breath between times.
She did not shout ‘‘Praise the Lord”’ or cry ‘‘Hallelujah,” she just screamed.
Startled penitents at the altar leaped to their feet and looked about wildly. Those in the aisles, enroute to the altar, turned about and went back to their seats. The audience arose and heads were turned to see what was wrong.
They who had just been waiting for some such thing to happen, said:
“There now, didn’t I tell you so?”
I have never been able to remember how I got off the platform and reached that dear woman on the front seat. I only know that one moment I was kneeling there by the pulpit and the next I was standing beside her, shaking from head to foot, as I grasped her shoulder and said in a low but desperate voice:
“Sister, in the Name of the Lord, stop!”
It was necessary for me to speak to her several times in order to gain her silent attention.
Then she looked up into my face with an expression so utterly horrified that it would have been amusing had the situation not been so tragically grave.
“Why! Sister McPherson!” she gasped, ‘You are quenching the Holy Spirit!”’
In my relief I laughed nervously, thankful that she had stopped screaming even to scold me. Somehow
I had managed to start another song and the meeting
was going on, though all eyes were turned in our
general direction.
“Sister dear,” I replied, “I have not grieved the
Holy Spirit! Possibly I have grieved your spirit but
not His. What in the world are you screaming for?”
“Why I was praising the Lord!’ she replied, sur-
prised. “I was praising the Lord that He had brought
all those unsaved people to the altar. Why I have not
seen so many converts at one time in my life!’’
For a moment I thought she was going to start
again.
“But, Sister,’ I reasoned. ‘Look about you now.
The altars are empty. They were frightened almost
out of their wits, and those who were in the aisles ’ timidly making their way to Christ are returned in confusion to their places. The altar call is ruined and the enemy is pleased.”
She was instantly penitent.
“Oh! I am sorry!” she gasped.
“Sister,” I pressed home my opportunity of reasoning with so evidently a reasonable and spiritual woman, “Sister, you do love the Lord, don’t you?”
“Oh,” she answered, “indeed I do!’’
“Of course you do,” I replied, “‘and you love to praise Him. But suppose now that you could see the Lord’s visible presence this afternoon, suppose for a moment that He was sitting here on this chair.” I indicated an empty altar chair near her. ‘‘And supposing that you desired to praise and worship Him, would you kneel reverently before Him and sob out: ‘Jesus, I adore and worship Thee. Hallelujah to Thy Holy Name! With all my heart I thank Thee and praise Thee,’ or would you be apt to bring your face close to His divine ear and scream at Him?”
Instantly she saw the point and had the grace to clasp my hand and smile up through her tears:
“Say no more! I see it all now! You will have no further trouble with me.”’
And I did not. She became my official “Amen Corner” and was one of the most sensible, spiritual workers in the thronged and successful campaign which followed.
This is simply one incident which illustrates my point. .
The dear people on the strongly demonstrative side need teaching, and respond to reason. They love the Lord dearly, they are filled with the Spirit, but lack wisdom in moderation. By ungoverned manifestations of the aforesaid type, the general public has been repelled rather than attracted to the work. And yet, when teaching is given along the line of all things being done to the “edifying of the church,” they are amenable to reason.
Perhaps the reason that fanaticism has crept in among the ranks of those on the one hand, is because they were forced to leave the cold churches and conduct their meetings throughout the whole world in cottages and mission halls without the sound teachers which should have been theirs had the Spirit been welcomed into the churches.
The moment the Foursquare Program, with the middle of the road course, was outlined, a multitude came swinging to the ranks of Spirit-filled soul winning. We have our tarrying meetings for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit first, and counsel all to be endued with power for service.
And the power does fall!
Streaming down from Heaven in great floods of glory, the Spirit mightily baptizes those who seek Him. ‘The Upper Room is the scene of old time Pentecostal demonstration and power. Saints are swept down under the power of God and, filled with the Spirit, they speak with other tongues as did they of the Upper Room so long ago.
Then coming down into the valley of service in the church, their faces are lighted by the shining of His presence. Their testimonies ring with assurance. Their prayers reach up and grip the very Throne of God. They are tireless, unselfish and humble workers. No burden is too great, no hour of service is too long, nothing is too much trouble. They preach in the factory and the foundry at noons, visit the fatherless and the widows in distress. They pray beside the hospital bed, clothe the naked and feed the hungry.
In other words, the Upper Room is the power house, the Mount of Transfiguration, as it were. The Church and the field constitute the great harvest land, and the Spirit-filled are winners of souls therein; quiet, moderate, efficient, spiritual workers.
“Power under control.”
Perhaps those words most nearly describe tersely that which I am endeavoring to say in this chapter.
Let us take a homely example:
An electric light and power wire properly strung and insulated, is of immeasurable benefit to the community. It bears light, heat and power.
But let that same wire fall to the street where pedestrians are walking, and it will work incalculable havoe and do irreparable injury to life and limb.
“But if I feel the power of the Spirit, I’m not going to quench the Spirit for anyone,” a certain brother once said a little defiantly.
“My Brother,” I answered. “I have an automobile standing across the street yonder, which is said to be capable of developing a speed of at least one hundred miles per hour. When I am driving it, I feel the power of the motor responding to the accelerator beneath my foot. But does that give me the right to step on
Houy SPIRIT 201
fares of this the gas and tear down the main thorough pedestrians or city at the risk of the life and limb of other motorists?”
ledged it.
The answer was apparent, and he acknow
ect to the
“The spirits of the prophets are subj prophets.
usion, but of
“For God is not the author of conf
ches of the saints.”’ 1 Cor. 14:33. peace, as in all chur
of gasoline and
One can touch a match toa bucket ything in the
ever eause an explosion that will wreck
one can plac e that sam e bucket of gasovicinity. Or run the car for line in the tank of an automobile and efrom. several miles on the power derived ther
at once and be
So one can explode all his blessings itual power for dry thereafter, or conserve that spir
salvation of precious the edification of the saints, the
it of the Master souls and the tender, forgiving spir
nt life. wrought out in a daily consiste
h many ministers
On the other side, the trouble wit
n some ungoverned and laymen is this: they look upoentire subject aside, life, and immediately cast the
with the Baptism and refuse to have anything to do of the Holy Ghost.
proven to our own
That which we have learned and years, is that it is
complete satisfaction through Baptism of the Spirit
possible to have the Pen tec ost al
love and of power and
and have therewith the spirit of
of a sound mind.
d should
Common sense and the rule of the Wor should
illed life . One
always be the guide of the Spirit-fthe edification of the
ever ask one’s heart, “‘Is this to the Lord?
church? Will this draw a soul closer Will that cause the sinner to be attracted to the Christ of Calvary?”
If this plumbline is dropped down beside our spiritual life, its measurements will be those of God’s own planning, and the unlearned and the unbeliever shall have no occasion to say of those in assembly: “Ye are mad.” 1 Cor. 14:23.
One can always tell genuine from counterfeit. That which is of the Spirit will bear the stamp of Spiritempowered soul winning.