May 1, 1907

“Unto Service” The Medical Missionary, 16, 18, p. 139.

ATJ

ALONZO T. JONES

THE baptism of the Holy Spirit is only unto service.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.1

Anybody who wants the baptism, or the gift, of the Holy Ghost, in order that he may be lifted up in an ecstasy and kept there, swinging, like a canary, in an ecstatic feeling the rest of his days, will never get it.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.2

Yet this is about the idea that thousands of people have of the purpose and the effect of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Therefore their favorite song is,—MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.3

“O, could I ever, ever stayMEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.4

In such a frame as this,MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.5

I’d sit and sing myself awayMEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.6

To everlasting bliss!”MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.7

Christ never was in such a “frame” as this, thank the Lord; if he had been, we should be eternally lost. But those people think that such is exactly the “frame” that becomes heaven. Yet if they would really think, they would see in a moment that it is altogether a false conception.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.8

Jesus was in heaven. He was there the possessor, by divine right forevermore, of all the bliss that heaven can possibly know. Yet, knowing and possessing all this, he did not sit and sing himself away to everlasting bliss.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.9

No. He left it all behind, and came down to earth, and spent his life here in the service of a poor, ruined people, laden with iniquity, to bring to these the knowledge of God, and all the good which that knowledge brings.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.10

And to him this was bliss. To him this was more than to be in heaven itself. It was not to him more nor less than heaven itself; it simply was heaven itself; for when he came down to earth, he did not, strictly speaking, leave heaven behind—he brought it along, and linked it to earth in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.11

To him this was better than to stay in heaven. He voluntarily chose to do this; therefore he did it because he would rather do it than to stay in heaven.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.12

Thus of his own free choice he came out of heaven to the earth, and stayed here as long as men would let him stay.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.13

As long as he could stay here and work for mankind, he would rather do so than go to heaven.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.14

And this is Christianity.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.15

Unto this glorious mission the Lord Jesus was born of the Holy Ghost, and was baptized and anointed with the Holy Ghost. And this is the purpose of the birth, the baptism, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, upon every soul who receives him.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.16

“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good.” “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.17

This is what the baptism of the Holy Ghost was for then; and this is what it is for forever.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.18

What an astonishing conception of Christianity it is, indeed, that he who had received the greatest degree of its spirit should forget everybody but himself; and thinking nothing, caring nothing, for the sin, the distress, and the misery of the multitudes of the lost all around him, should “sit” pampering himself in a hilarious mood, and “sing himself away to everlasting bliss!”MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.19

Such is not the Spirit of Christianity. It is simply the spirit of the supremely selfish, shirking, lazy loafer.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.20

No; the spirit of Christianity is the spirit of the Lord Jesus himself, and he who has the greatest degree of it, instead of sitting and singing himself away to everlasting bliss, stands up, in the conscious surety of everlasting bliss, and works with all power in heaven and earth, and sings while he works, to draw all others from the darkness and woe of this world of sin, unto the everlasting bliss of the glorious liberty of the sons of God.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.21

He does not care to go to heaven till his work in the world is done. Give him his choice any day, and he would rather stay in this world, and work, than to go to heaven. He knows that in Christ, who is his life, heaven is sure to him. And having found in his blessed Lord, and by his Spirit, the connection between heaven and earth, to him it is heaven to work to get other people into the knowledge and surety of heaven.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.22

O, let us be only such Christians as Christ was in the world! Then we shall be of profit to the world, and the world will know that God sent Jesus into the world.MEDM May 1, 1907, page 139.23