The Apostolic Faith “Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”—Jude 3 Vol. I. No.6 Los Angeles, Cal., February – March, 1907 Subscription Free PENTECOST BOTH SIDES THE OCEAN God is still manifesting His power in Los Angeles. * * * The Pentecost has crossed the water on both sides to the Hawaiian Islands on the west, and England, Norway, Sweden, and India on the east. * * * A brother in Honolulu received the Pentecost, by hearing of God's work through the paper. He said when he got down to seeking in earnest, the Lord baptized him with the Holy Ghost and he spoke in two languages. * * * We rejoice to hear that Pentecost has fallen in Calcutta, India, over ten thousand miles away on the other side of the world: Praise God. We have letters from China, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, England, Ireland, Australia, and other countries from hungry souls that want their Pentecost. Some of these letters are in foreign languages. Missionaries write that they are hungry for this outpouring of the Spirit which they believe to be the real Pentecost. The world seems ripe for the Pentecost in all lands and God is sending it. Amen. * * * One of the missionaries from Los Angeles in Liberia, Africa, had been able to speak to the people in the Cru tongue. Another sister there wrote in an unknown language under the power of the Spirit, and it was understood and read by one of the native kings there. * * * Requests for prayer from hungry souls are coming in from all over. They want salvation from sin, and sanctification, and the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and healing of their bodies. So the requests are presented and handkerchiefs are blest and the power of God comes upon us in praying for them; and we receive letters saying that they are receiving their Pentecost and being healed. Praise God. * * * March 19th was a wonderful day at the Mission on Azusa St. Three ministers from Tennessee received the enduement of power from on high and the glory of God filled the upper room. Others received the anointing of the Spirit and some were slain under the power of God. * * * Bro. Stewart from Phoenix, Arizona, came to Azusa Mission and sought the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and God laid him out under the power of the Spirit and took complete control of him, speaking through him in tongues. He was filled and overflowing with the Holy Ghost when he returned to Arizona. And Mother Griffith, also from Phoenix, has come and received her baptism. * * * The work at Azusa Mission is growing deeper and more powerful than ever. Praise God. Meetings continue every day with seekers at every service, and the three meetings run very near together. All day meetings on Sunday. Three other Apostolic Faith Missions continue in the city and God's blessing is upon them. The workers from these missions and from suburban towns meet together for conference on Mondays to study the Scriptures and get deeper into the things of God and for conference in the work of the Lord. The spirit of unity, love and power is manifest. Other like missions are being established in a number of towns. * * * Bro. Andrews and wife, Gospel workers from Tennessee, came to Azusa Mission for the express purpose of receiving their Pentecost and Bro. Andrews has been baptized with the Holy Ghost and is filled and overflowing with the Spirit. He and his wife were so hungry and had such faith that the Lord wanted them to come, that, not having the means, they started and walked quite a distance, till the Lord gave them the fare, and He is abundantly rewarding them. * * * Bro. W.H. Durham of 943 North Ave., Chicago, Ill., and Bro. H.L. Blake of Ruthton, Minn., who are both preachers of the Gospel, came to Los Angeles to see and investigate what God was doing. They both were baptized with the Holy Ghost and went back filled and saturated with the power of God, speaking in tongues and magnifying God. It was a great blessing to us to have them with us and see what great things the Lord did for them and the blessing overflowed upon all God's children. They are members of the World's Faith Missionary Association. * * * Sister Rees from Oakland visited Azusa Mission recently. She brought a report from the saints in Oakland that a leader was needed there in the work, one called and prepared of the Lord. We prayed for God to call someone. Bro. Irwin received the call and went with his wife. His report comes just as the paper is going to press: Oakland, Cal., March 21.-"God is undertaking for us here. Two received their Pentecost last night with Bible evidence. Others are seeking pardon, sanctification, the promise of the Father." -B.H. Irwin. * * * A number from Winnipeg, Canada, have come to Los Angeles and are now rejoicing in the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Others have come from the Atlantic coast and from Colorado and different states and they have received a Bible Pentecost, evidenced by speaking in tongues, and from other centers workers are going out to the ends of the earth, till we cannot keep track of them. The Lord is speedily preparing His people for His coming. * * * We cannot give a report of all that have gone out into the work since the last paper, for they are going almost every day. Bro. and Sister H. McLain have gone to San Jose, Cal., to take charge of the work there and Sister Agnes Jacobson and Bro. Harmon Clifford are also in the work in San Jose. See report from there of how God is working. Bro. Turney and wife who were at San Jose are now in Honolulu. Bro. and Sister E.W. Vinton from near Boston, Mass., who received their Pentecost in Los Angeles, have returned to tell the glad tidings. Their address is 12 Leyden St., Medford, Mass. Bro. C.E. Marsh expects to join them there in preaching this Gospel. Bands of workers have gone out to other places and started the work. * * * Since the last paper, Bro. Seymour visited San Francisco and San Jose and reported that God had some of the most precious saints there filled with the Holy Ghost and shining for God that he had ever seen and that the power of God was wonderfully manifest. * * * There are a number of papers on the Apostolic line that are springing up. We cannot tell how many there are, because we hear of new ones we have not seen. But there are three clean cut papers besides Apostolic Faith, out and out for a Bible Pentecost according to Acts. 2:4 and with subscription free. They are the Apostolic Light, Portland, Ore., The New Acts, Alliance, Ohio (which now includes Pentecostal Wonders) and The Apostolic Evangel, Royston, Ga. (formerly Live Coals.) These papers are all about the size of the January number of this paper and they are filled with the wonderful works of God, and are spreading the glad tidings of another Pentecost all over the world. They are all supported entirely by free will offerings. PENTECOST IN OTHER LANDS. In London. 23 Gairloch Road, Camberwell, S.E., London, Jan. 20.—A little band of Christians have been waiting here about nine months for their Pentecost and am glad to say that one sister has received her Pentecost with tongues. Praise Him! Will you continue to pray that all may receive, the writer included. I feel very hungry. Yours in Jesus Christ, C.H. Hook. In Stockholm. Stockholm, Sweden, March 4.—Please, dear ones, help us to praise the Lord. The first soul came through tonight receiving the baptism with the Holy Ghost and Bible evidence. Bless God!-Eric Hollingsworth and wife. This message was just received from our brother and sister who have gone to Sweden with this precious Gospel. They wrote of the salvation and sanctification of souls and now we rejoice with them that Pentecost has fallen in Sweden's capitol. In Sweden. We are having a wonderful time in Sweden. Hundreds have been saved and sanctified. Over a hundred baptized with the Holy Ghost. Praise God! Glory! Glory! Glory! Many have been healed by the dear Lord. Signs as on the day of Pentecost are following, talking and singing in tongues. I cannot tell you all now that God has been doing. The work is spreading fast. Many are seeking for a clean heart and there is oneness among God's people. God shall have all the glory. I am still talking and writing in tongues. A missionary interpreted what I have been writing in Syriac and Armenian. I was singing Chinese one night, a missionary said. I am busy every day and going from place to place. Strong opposition from many, but God gives the victory. Glory! Andrew G. Johnson, Address, 48 Skofde, Sweden. In Honolulu. Honolulu, Hawaii, March 11. —Immediately upon our arrival here, we found two wholly consecrated souls, hungering for more of God. Bro. Mayfield threw his mission open to us and told us to go to work. So we opened fire upon the enemy the first night of our arrival here. God owned and blest the truth. Nine have received their Pentecost, and in every case they have spoken in new tongues. Sister Mayfield has received her Pentecost and healing for lung trouble. Myself and wife have both spoken in the Korean language, Koreans present testifying to the same. We believe that will be our next field of labor.—H.M. Turney and wife. IN CALCUTTA, INDIA. Feb. 21.-The Lord has led Sister Nelson and myself here to Calcutta to behold the wonderful works of God. He has sent three of His witnesses from America, filled with the Holy Ghost, to show forth His power and proclaim this wonderful Gospel which we and many others have been hungering for so long. Praise His dear name! It is Mr. and Mrs. A.G. Garr and Miss Gammon. God is working in mighty power in our midst. Several have received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and speak with tongues, and many have been saved. We have meetings every day beginning about four p.m. and go on as long as the Lord leads. We are so hungry and do believe that God will soon satisfy our longing souls. Mary Johnson. Home address: Dehiwala, Court Lodge, Ceylon, India. In Norway. Solfies, Pl. 2, Christiania, Norway, Jan. 29. —God is wonderfully demonstrating His power here in the Norwegian capital. It is about ten days since I held the first meeting in the large gymnasium that will take when crowded from 1,500 to 2,000 people. People from all denominations are rushing to the meetings. Over twenty have received their Pentecost and are speaking in tongues. Several have been in trances and had heavenly visions. Some have seen Jesus at our meetings, and the tongues of fire have been seen again over my head by a freethinker, convincing him of the power of God. Many are seeking salvation and souls are being gloriously saved. Hundreds are seeking a clean heart, and the fire is falling on the purified sacrifice. The fire is spreading very rapidly. Glory to God! I received word from the country districts that the fire is falling there. People who have attended the meetings are taking the fire with them to the towns around about. The account of God's work for my soul has been inserted in many religious papers, and has caused a stir. All can see it is the work of God's Holy Spirit. Hallelujah! Some of the languages spoken are European. One man was thrown on his back, a preacher, last Sunday morning in the Student's Hall, and when he rose, he spoke in four languages, one of these was English. He could speak none of them before. After that, he prophesied and invited sinners to come to Christ. Numbers threw themselves down and cried for salvation, cleansing, and the fiery baptism with the Spirit. Praised be God! Several preachers are seeking their Pentecost. Go on praying for the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and King in this grand old country. Fraternal greetings from those baptized with the power and fire from on high. Yours in Christ Jesus, T.B. Barratt. If you get the light on your soul, you will go forward or else backslide. The more of the Holy Ghost you have, the more love, the more humility, the more praises. This is not a "do, do" religion, but it is the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Man has got to be born again. You cannot get it through moral culture, refinement, or giving up, but you must be born into it. It is through God's beloved Son who washes you, cleanses you, and makes you a fit subject for heaven. Every sanctified person has the abiding anointing in their soul, and they know His Blood cleanses every moment, but you need the baptism with the Holy Ghost which is the enduement of power, that will make you a witness to the uttermost parts of the earth. This Gospel cost us too much to run off into fanaticism and be led by visions and dreams. When we get spiritual, there is greater temptation to get puffed up. We must put all visions and dreams on the square of God's Word and try them. The Word must prove all things. When we throw down God's truth, the plummet of His Word, shows up the counterfeit. People receive the baptism with the Holy Ghost while about their work. One sister in Whittier received hers while she was baking a cake. The Holy Ghost is a real living Person that comes down upon you in great and mighty power. Dear loved ones, when He comes upon you, you know it. When He comes in, He comes talking. Your jaws will be unloosed, and He will commence speaking through you. We are Christ's spiritual bride now, but there is to be a real wedding take place and a real marriage supper. Those that sit down to this supper will be His queen, the ones that have made their robes white and have the seal of God in their foreheads. O let us not miss this supper. We are listening now for the sound of His chariot wheels. The Lord has taken Spiritualism and Christian Science out of people in this mission, and filled them with the Spirit, and they are sitting at the feet of Jesus. We teach against Theosophy, Christian Science, Magnetic Healing, Spiritualism, Hypnotism and all works of the devil. NEW SCANDINAVIAN REVIVAL. The Witness of "Tongues" Manifested in Christiania. The following report of the Pentecostal revival in Norway is published in the North Mail, Edinburg, England. It is a letter from the Vicar of All Saints, Sunderland, England, Bro. A.A. Body. He had been to Christiania, Norway, visiting Bro. Barratt's meeting. My four days in Christiania cannot easily be forgotten. I remember well the scenes two years ago, when I stood with Evan Roberts in the pulpit at Ton-y-Pandy, but, wonderful as such scenes in Wales were, the scenes in the Torvegadon Mission Room and other places were more supernatural. I believe that very soon we shall witness the same in England. Warmly welcomed by the pastor and his co-workers, I sat, of necessity, on the low, large platform, with its table and four forms. The room was an upper chamber, down a court out of a busy street. It was very bare, with forms without any backs. But the enthusiastic congregation did not think of comfort. Boys and girls around me, from seven to twelve years of age, were seeing visions and speaking in tongues—as well as older folk. A bright-faced lad cried out with intense vehemence (eyes closed, right hand on heart, left hand stretched out)—"Oh . . .I see the house of Satan thrust down and down . . . . . and now the host are entering Heaven. Oh!. . . they are going to shut the door! and some will be too late. Oh! Jesus, Jesus." Then he commenced to shout in a rapid unknown tongue, and a few minutes later he was just a simple, lovable Norwegian boy again. Then a university student (under the power of the Spirit) cries with great vehemence (to the "Djarvlen"), "Go . . .Will you go! . . . Will you go!” All this time perhaps a dozen are speaking or praying in Tongues, or prophesying, and prayer and praise "in the Spirit" is going on all over. Then suddenly a high-pitched musical voice is heard cutting into everything—prolonged, and then dying away. It is a woman praising Christ in the Spirit. A brother on my left breaks out into Tongues; three times in that meeting he did the same. First it seems to be in English, very rapidly spoken: "Come, come, come, come now to the Savior," etc. Then it seems to be like Chinese; "chung, chew, chow," etc., or words like these. Then he changes into a chattering sort of Tongue. I am assured that all these are Holy Ghost people. "The flesh may get in a little," says the good pastor, "but not much." "Tongues" at Keswick. People of course, ridicule; but those meetings go on every day, and twice a day, and not in one place of meeting only nor in one single town. At Christiansand and Frederickshaldt and many other places the same is going on, and it spreads quickly from each person who receives the Gift! A Christian merchant in a high position in Denmark came with others to see and hear, and he told me that he was convinced it is of God. The working people chiefly fill the meetings, and the difficulty is to get them to leave when the time comes to close. And, it must be added, practical results follow these strange meetings. Pastor Barratt (of whom more below) said that till recently it was difficult to attract to religious meetings. A Salvation Army officer advertised that a man would rise from his coffin and preach the Gospel, but even this did not effectively draw. But now twice a day and every day and week after week these meetings are thronged by enthusiastic crowds, who go out to spread the strange flame, which they are convinced is Pentecostal and Heavenly and Scriptural. The meetings are liable at any moment to be swept by a wave of spiritual power sweeping through all human arrangements. At times the noise is strangely awesome, almost appalling to an "outsider." Some of us ask ourselves the question, how will this affect the Keswick Convention meetings and other gatherings this year? Those who have "Tongues" will be present, and unable and unwilling to control them when moved by the Spirit. The Rev. Thomas Ball Barratt, the leader of this movement, is almost a Norwegian. He was four years old when his Cornish parents brought him to Hardanger. Eventually he became a missioner of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but he has practically detached himself from any church ties, and the world he feels is his parish. He was in New York last autumn when influences from the Los Angeles movement began to reach him, and he received a mighty "Pentecost," witnessed to by "Tongues." A letter he wrote home stirred up the spirit of expectancy, and on his arrival the work immediately began, and on New Year's Day in Norway the revival commenced, and has continued ever since, and is spreading all the time. Of my own inner experiences whilst in these meetings I must refrain from writing at this point, but I reverently thank God for the privilege of being present. "He will guide you into all truth." We ought to take the Holy Ghost before any other teacher. We should have no teacher between us and the Holy Ghost. Page 2 The Apostolic Faith 312 Azusa Street Published by THE APOSTOLIC FAITH MISSION Headquarters, Los Angeles SUBSCRIPTION FREE Please write very plainly in sending in your address for the paper. Some letters have to go into the waste basket, because the addresses are illegible or incomplete. If any fail to get the paper, please let us know. We send out papers free, but free will offerings have come in to enable us to publish and send to all that ask for them. We have been publishing 30,000 papers at an issue, and of this number 40,000 are printed. Anyone desiring to distribute papers, has only to drop us a card saying how many you can use to advantage, giving your address very plainly, and we will send by return mail or as quickly as possible. A convention of Prayer is to be held at Alliance, Ohio. The saints from Akron, Cleveland, Canton, and East Liverpool will meet there, and it will no doubt be a time of great power and blessing. The date is March 30th. TWO PAPERS IN ONE. This number six of the Apostolic Faith has been enlarged. It is a double paper, the February- March number. We have no stated time of publication but expect to get it out every month, the Lord willing. This time it has been unavoidably delayed. Many have been looking for it and wondering why it did not come before. We praise God for the privilege of sending it out now to hungry souls, and pray God that it will be a double blessing. The Lord has been greatly enlarging the work. Stacks of letters come in which we have not been able to answer, but may our correspondents take this paper as an answer, as our hands are so full of the precious work. We have received many blessed reports and testimonies which it has been hard to condense into this paper. Many precious letters had to be left out for lack of space. THE PURCHASE OF THE AZUSA MISSION. The lot and buildings at 312 Azusa Street have been purchased by the Apostolic Faith Mission, and five Holy Ghost men have been elected as trustees, who hold the property. We believe the Lord chose this spot for His work, for He has wonderfully poured out His Spirit in the mission, which started about a year ago from cottage prayer meetings where the Pentecost first fell. Now, through Spirit baptized ones who have gone out, and through papers published here, there has been raised up a mighty host. Praise God! The property was purchased for $15,000, and $4,000 has already been paid down on it. Any friends wishing to have a share in buying this Mission for the Lord may send offerings to Bro. Reuben Clark, who is secretary of the board of trustees. Address 312 Azusa St., Los Angeles. It was necessary to buy this mission as a headquarters for the work, in order to hold it, as it would soon have been sold for other purposes. The situation is favorable, being centrally located and in surroundings where no one will be disturbed by prayers or shouts going up sometimes all night. Praise God! The Mission building was formerly a place of worship where souls had been saved years ago, and the spot thus made sacred; and during the past year, hundreds have been saved, sanctified, healed, and baptized with the Holy Ghost. APRIL NINTH A JUBILEE DAY. To the Apostolic Faith People, Saints, and Friends; the ninth of April is the birthday of Pentecost to us, for the Pentecost fell here on April 9, 1906. May all that have received this precious gift, the baptism with the Holy Ghost, honor that day as a jubilee feast, in praise and thanks to God for sending the old time Pentecost back to earth again. We pray God that a great revival of salvation may flow in all missions on that day, and that we may all get in one accord; and we believe that the fire of God will fall in every mission, and that many will receive the baptism just as they received it on the day of Pentecost, according to the second chapter of Acts. Praise God! We have much to praise God for; in a year's time, He has spread this work over the earth. Hallelujah to His holy name! God is still working here in Los Angeles. Souls are receiving their personal Pentecost. Bless His holy name! We expect to hear from all the missions where this wonderful Gospel is preached, great victory on that memorable day. The Spirit takes the Word of God to reprove the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. He shows the sinner that he needs to be saved from a burning hell of fire and brimstone. You may say you do not believe it, but yet you read in the Bible where the rich man was "tormented in this flame" and called for Lazarus to bring a drop of water to cool his parched tongue. If the doctrine of annihilation were true, why was not the rich man burned up? VIRTUE IN THE PERFECT BODY OF JESUS. Jesus gave His perfect eyes for us, perfect hearing, perfect smelling, tasting and feeling; for Jesus gave a perfect body, that laid in the tomb three days and three nights and was raised by the power of the Holy Ghost. Those eyes that had slept in the tomb under the great power of death were quickened and brought to life again by the power of the Holy Ghost. So, through the perfect body of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can receive perfect healing of sight, hearing, tasting, smelling. We read in the precious Word of God (Ac. 2:26) where David is speaking of the Lord Jesus, "My heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad, moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: because Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption." And we find that Jesus body was one without carnality. It was a body that God prepared from heaven by the Holy Ghost and sent down into this world to be the Bread of Life. Therefore Jesus could speak with the authority in Jno. 6:51 saying, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world." The Jews could not understand this. They said," How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" Then Jesus said unto them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you." O how true this is. May we drink His Blood daily and eat His flesh, through faith in His word for salvation, health, and healing. If His flesh had seen corruption, then we could not have healing for the body nor look for an immortal body from heaven. So dear beloved, we get healing for our body, soul, and spirit and an immortal body from heaven at His coming, through the perfect body of Jesus. Praise our God! DIGGING FOR OIL. I once asked a man who was digging oil wells, how he found the oil. He said, "We bore down six to eight hundred feet, then we strike the rock. Then we bore through that rock about five feet, and on down to the second rock, about three feet thinner than the first. Then we strike a lake of oil." It reminded me of salvation. Digging down to the rock represents repentance. When you get through all the dirt and mud and strike the rock, that represents salvation in Christ, for Christ is the rock. But when we get upon the rock, we have to build. The man said they had to bore through two rocks before they struck the lake of oil. It reminded me of the two works of grace. We cross the Red Sea, then Jordan, and then we receive our inheritance. Elisha crossed Jordan and looked up into heaven as Elijah was caught up in the chariot of fire, and the mantle of Elijah fell upon Elisha. This is a type of receiving the baptism with the Holy Ghost, for Elisha prayed for a double portion of the spirit of Elijah. The second rock represents the second work of grace, sanctification. You go down through that rock and strike the lake of oil and it gushes out in plenty. The oil represents the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Some get the anointing and are filled with holy laughter, and take that to be the baptism. But if we go on through that other rock, we will get to where the lake of oil is. When we have the baptism of the Spirit, we have an experience according to Deut. 32:13, "He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine and milk of sheep with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape." Praise our God! We find that before people receive the Pentecost, they have hardly enough for themselves; but when they get over into Canaan, the promised land, which is the very type of our entering into the promise of the Father, they become rich and are able to lend and able to give, for they have fruit in abundance, everything plentiful. The baptism with the Holy Ghost gives us the rivers of salvation. Praise God! O may every child of God seek all that He has for them. NO EXCUSE FOR SIN. In justification, we can overcome all the power of the enemy. We have no right to live in sin at any time. Whom the Son makes free is "free indeed." What is he free from? From sin. Dear ones, we want to honor the Blood of Jesus. The Blood has never lost its saving efficacy. Just one drop of His Blood overcomes Satan. The one who is justified, with the Blood in his heart, if he will obey the Spirit, will always live free from sin. Every justified soul is being drawn of the Spirit to sanctification, though he may not know it. He is conscious of a hungering for more of God, and the Spirit continues to show him there is higher ground for him. If he continues to walk in the light, he will be led right into the fountain for sin and uncleanness, the Blood will cleanse him from all sin, the old man the body of sin will be hung on Calvary's cross and Christ enthroned in his heart. Bless God, when Christ is enthroned and crowned within, then old Ishmael, the bond woman's son, which is the old Adam and carnality, is put out. The soul is delivered from the warfare within. He does not have to live in the same house tormented by the inward foes of doubts and fears. The free child rules, which is Christ. HEAVENLY VISIONS. Thirteen saints met in a cottage prayer meeting in Los Angeles and all were in the Spirit and of one accord. They knelt in prayer expecting the Lord to manifest Himself. The power of God fell and every one was caught up in the Spirit and saw visions from God. Bro. McLain says he saw a beautiful white dove for some time on the back of his chair. One sister saw an angel come into their midst with a golden harp in her hand. Several had the same vision of the Savior. He held a book in His hand. They saw the nail print and the blood trickling down while He wrote their names in the book with His finger with the blood that ran from His pierced hand. He stood on the other side of a river. The waters of the river looked bloody. An angel about the size of a child twelve years of age stood in front of the Savior. It went about the room and hovered over the heads of all in the room. One brother had not yet received his Pentecost, and a star was seen to come and light on his forehead, while he was testifying. The brother that was healed of blindness by the power of God some time ago saw an angel with a golden candle stick about three feet high. Praise God. He is wonderfully fulfilling His Word in His children. Acts. 2:17. REBECCA; TYPE OF THE BRIDE OF CHRIST—Gen. 24. "I pray thee is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in?" These words were spoken by Eliezer, Abraham's eldest servant and steward of his house, to Rebecca when he had found her at the well in answer to his prayer. Eliezer (meaning "God's Helper") is a type of the Holy Spirit, and Isaac is a type of Christ. Now as Eliezer was seeking a bride for Isaac, the son of Abraham, so the Holy Spirit today is seeking a bride for the Lord Jesus, God's only begotten Son. Eliezer was sent to Abraham's country and to his kindred to take a wife for Isaac. So God our Father has sent the Holy Spirit from the glory land down into this world, and He, the Spirit of truth, is convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and is selecting out of the body of Christ His bride. He is seeking among His kindred, the sanctified, and Jesus is baptizing them with the Holy Ghost and fire, preparing them for the great marriage supper of the Lamb. Praise our God! Eliezer was under oath not to select the bride from the Canaanites but from Abraham's kindred. So God is not selecting a bride for Christ among the sinners, for a sinner must first get saved and sanctified before he can be one with the Lord Jesus. Heb. 2:11 says, "For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." So He is seeking a bride among His brethren, the sanctified. "Christ so loved the church that He gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word; that He might present it unto Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Eph. 5:25-27. So Jesus today is selecting a sanctified people, baptizing them with the Holy Ghost and fire to greet Him at His coming. Rebecca was a virgin, the type of a sanctified soul. So the Holy Ghost today is standing at the heart of every pure virgin (sanctified soul) pleading, "I pray thee is there room in thy heart that I may come in and lodge?" O beloved, we see many of the sanctified people today rejecting the Holy Spirit, just as people rejected Christ when He was on earth here. It seems there is no room in their hearts for the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire.