TJ Fire represents the Divine nature as it flames against sin to consume it (Heb. xii. 29). This is the fire of God's anger. But there is also the fire of His love. We may have the fire of sun- shine, or the cheery fire of the hearth, or the fire which melts away the dross, as well as the fire of the conflagration which burns and destroys. It is this beneficent ministry of fire which symbolizes the Spirit of God. The emblem speaks to us of the Divine love kindled in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, the love that purifies and cleanses. The very same word is used (Acts ii. 33) to describe the outpouring of the Spirit which is employed (Eom. v. 5) to express His shedding abroad of love in our hearts : evidently the gift of the Spirit and of love are one and the same. As St. Augustine says : " The Spirit is Himself the love of God : and when He is given to a man He kindles in him the fire of love to God and his neighbour." So Charles Wesley speaks of the " flame of sacred love," and likens " all-victorious love " to the refining fire of the Holy Spirit. " The same idea is expressed by the common phrases of every language. We talk about the warmth of affection, the blaze of enthusiasm, the fire of emotion. Christians are to be set on fire of God " — that is, the celestial flame of love is to burn intensely in their hearts. The Spirit's baptism of fire is His baptism of love.2
III.
The baptism of fire searches and cleanses as water cannot do. There are some deeply established uncleannesses for which the action of water is not sufficiently stringent. In many cases of contagious disease, if we are to rid ourselves of every vestige of corruption, there are many things which must be burnt. The germs of the contagion cannot be washed away. They must be consumed away. Water would be altogether insufficient. We
1 Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, ii. 72. 3 J. H. Hodsou, Symbols of the Holy Spirit, 35.
4o THE TWO BAPTISMS
need fire. Fire is our most effective purifying minister, a powerful and relentless enemy of disease.
There can be no doubt that it was mainly this thought that was before the Baptist's mind when he spoke the words with which we are dealing. The symbol of his own work was water, and there is a great deal, in the way of cleansing, that water can do. It can remove the worst of the defilement to be seen anywhere, and make unsightly things fairly pleasing to look at. As he preached and pleaded with men his words had a certain, even striking, effect; the reformation that set in for the time being changed the face of society. But there are stains which no water can erase, inward impurities which it cannot reach. These must be burned out if they are to disappear. And this Jesus effects through His gift of the Holy Ghost. He breathes flame through men's hearts, and makes them pure.
TJ In 1665 London was in the grip of that terrible Plague, the horrors of which may still be felt through the pages of Defoe. The disease germs were hiding and breeding and multiplying everywhere. Every corner became a nest of contagion. Nothing could be found to displace it. In the following year the Great Fire broke out, and the plague-smitten city was possessed by the spirit of burning. London was literally baptized with fire, which sought out the most secret haunts of the contagion, and in the fiery baptism the evil genius of corruption gave place to the sweet and friendly genius of health. Fire accomplished quite easily what water would never have attained. And so in a comparison of fire and water as cleansing and redeeming agencies, common experience tells us that fire is the keener, the more searching, the more power- ful, the more intense.1
TI To me it seemed that God's most vehement utterances had been in flames of fire. The most tremendous lesson He ever gave to New York was in the conflagration of 1835 ; to Chicago in the conflagration of 1871 ; to Boston in the conflagration of 1872 ; to my own congregation in the fiery downfall of the Tabernacle at Brooklyn. Some saw in the flames that roared through its organ pipes a requiem, nothing but unmitigated disaster, while others of us heard the voice of God, as from heaven, sounding through the crackling thunder of that awful day, saying, " He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire " ! 2
1 J. H. Jowctt, Apostolic Optimism, 209. 1 The AiUobiography of Dr. Talmoyc, 2'i\.
ST. MATTHEW in. n 4i
1. The fire has a refining power on true character. Partly by the fiery trials of human life, partly by the test of sore tempta- tion, partly by the fire of disappointment, partly by the shattering of vain ideals and the scattering of earthly hopes, partly by all that sobers and deepens us, by the fire of bodily pain, by the fire of mental anguish, by every action of the Eternal Spirit of the living God, instructing, guiding, warning, rebuking, judging, haunt- ing, condemning, up to the sorrows of death and beyond it ; by all these each soul is tried in the baptism by fire whereby the good is refined and the evil destroyed.