General Conference Bulletin, vol. 6
Bible Study
S. N. HASKELL
PREPARATION FOR RECEPTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
May 20, 9:15 A. M.
It has been suggested that we hold a Bible study this morning on the preparation for receiving the Holy Spirit; but before we begin to read any scripture, I wish to make a few remarks. Those who can best appreciate what I am about to say are the ones who knew this truth before it had crossed the continent. GCB May 21, 1909, page 92.15
What your eyes have seen here on this encampment, and what your ears have heard, is the most tremendous miracle that has existed since the days of the apostles, as I look upon it. I have been keeping the Sabbath for about 57 years; and since coming to this General Conference I have met a son of the man who gave me the first tract I ever had on the Sabbath question. I took the tract, which was “Elihu on the Sabbath,” and read it as I was going to Canada. When I read that tract, I was perfectly astonished; for I had never heard of such a thing before; but I could see nothing but Bible for the seventh-day Sabbath, so when the next Sabbath came, I went out into the woods with my Bible and the tract, and before night I concluded that I would keep the seventh day as the Sabbath until I got further light. I have no further light yet to show that Sunday is the sabbath. GCB May 21, 1909, page 92.16
I knew nothing about the Seventh-day Adventists at that time, but a short time afterward Elder Joseph Bates came to my house, having been advised by this same brother to come and see me. Brother Bates preached to us (there were only two of us) from morning until noon, and from noon until night, and then in the evening until the time we went to bed. He did that for ten successive days, and I have been a Seventh-day Adventist ever since. That was the beginning of my keeping the Sabbath. GCB May 21, 1909, page 92.17
At that time the truth had not crossed the continent. And I remember very well when Brother Loughborough had a burden to go to California, and we thought it was a tremendous undertaking to go there and preach the third angel’s message. But he went, and you know the result. GCB May 21, 1909, page 92.18
We had never thought of going into any other country. It had never entered our minds; for we expected the people from other countries would come over here and get the truth, and then go back, and that would be the way it would spread. But soon we began to send workers to the foreign fields, and for a long time I was acquainted with every worker who went, and the circumstances which surrounded his going. So it is a matter of great interest to me to see and to hear what I have seen and heard on this encampment. It shows that the life of God is in this movement, and you can no more stop it than you can stop the wind from blowing. GCB May 21, 1909, page 92.19
I am reminded of an instance away back in the 70’s when a brother by the name of Parmele told me how the children preached in Sweden in the 1844 movement. I was engaged at that time in missionary work, and was traveling from State to State in its interests, and I often related this experience of the children preaching the message. I finally went back to Battle Creek and I told it to almost everybody there. When Sunday night came Sister White preached on the question of the children’s preaching in Sweden: and when she she began, I asked Brother James White if he had been telling her what I had told him, and he said he had not. So he interrupted her and asked if she was telling what somebody had told her, or what had been revealed to her. She replied that it was what had been revealed to her. Then she went on, and told things that Brother Parmele had not even told me. GCB May 21, 1909, page 92.20
When Sister White said there would be issued publications, Brother White asked her what nation had been shown to her as having in its language some of our publications. She replied, I can not call to mind the different nations, but I remember that the angel spoke of Australia. GCB May 21, 1909, page 92.21
If we had believed God then, and had gone to Australia, we should have found there a man of immense wealth which he would have laid down at the feet of the Sabbath cause. But it took us ten years to act on the message. During this delay, this man gave up the Sabbath and came back to this country. Elder M. C. Israel and I met him, and he told us these things. GCB May 21, 1909, page 93.1
I remember well the beginning of the rise of the health reform message, and all these great reform movements. And to-day, to see how this truth has encircled the earth, to see these brethren gathered here telling how God is blessing the work in their home countries, is to me a stupendous miracle. GCB May 21, 1909, page 93.2
You may say there are objections to this work. Of course there are. Satan has raised objections all they way along. But the message as we have heard it constitutes the track on which we shall run right through to the end, as Brother Butler said last night, and those who keep aboard will go through triumphantly. GCB May 21, 1909, page 93.3
To my mind there is another evidence—God is pouring out his Spirit. I do not mean in an ordinary manner, but in a special manner. Do you not see, brethren, how God has his people raised up, little companies here and there in all parts of the world? And before we get through, we shall see that there is a wonderful connection between these companies. The whole world is to be warned. God says, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” GCB May 21, 1909, page 93.4
Where does this word “here” apply? Does it apply in Africa? There will not be a spot on the earth where we can not say, “Here they are.” The devil will know it. He will say, “Here are the people that are breaking the laws of the land.” And the Lord will say, “Here are those that are letting their light shine.” GCB May 21, 1909, page 93.5
We are right in the time of this closing work. God wants to pour out his Spirit in a larger measure. We have instances now and then; there are occasional showers. I might relate many of these if I had time. GCB May 21, 1909, page 93.6
Let us read what I consider the most wonderful promise in the Bible. It is found in Luke 11:19-13 [reading]. This promise is stated in these verses in nine different ways. But the best of all is given in the thirteenth verse: “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?” GCB May 21, 1909, page 93.7
If you believe that text, and have asked for the Holy Spirit, and have not received it, there is surely something wrong. Something is standing in the way, and the sooner you can get that out of the way, the sooner you will receive the promise. If I ask and do not receive, it is because I ask amiss in some way, or because there is something wrong in my own heart. That must be just as certain as that the Saviour’s words are true. GCB May 21, 1909, page 93.8
Many people say, O, that we had the power! My friends, if God should give some of us the power of the Holy Spirit with the condition our hearts are in, it would be our eternal ruin. God works for our eternal good. If the Spirit of GCB May 21, 1909, page 93.9