and working miracles is connected with justifying faith, in Gal. 3: 5, 6. Is it so now?

The One Baptism of I Cor. 12: is essentially connected with Miracle and Supernatural

Gifts. Is it so now? Do members of the One Body possess the power to prophesy, speak

with tongues, take up serpents, and drink deadly things unhurt? Do they really believe

the words to be true of themselves, "They shall LAY HANDS on the sick, and they

SHALL recover"?

In a former day, Paul could raise the dead and heal the sick: but this was before

Acts 28:

After Acts 28: he instructs Timothy to use wine medicinally, and

leaves a valued helper behind, sick! Faith to believe that the Lord can heal one, however,

must not be confused with these miraculous gifts.

The Baptism of the Spirit in Pentecostal times was subsequent to salvation: often by

the space of days, weeks, and months;  whereas Eph. 1: 13 says that "we are sealed

`upon believing' (pisteusantes) with the Holy Spirit of promise, Who is the Earnest of our

inheritance".

Eph. 2: 15, 16, links the One Body with the Work of Calvary, "For to make in

Himself of the twain ONE NEW MAN", "And that He might reconcile both unto God in

ONE BODY by the cross". When the Holy Spirit quickens a dead sinner into life, He, at

the same moment links him for ever WITH CHRIST; raising him up, together and

seating him together with Christ in the heavenlies. This union with the Risen Saviour

makes the believer a member of the ONE BODY, and neither the "laying on of hands"

can confer, nor the "excommunication" of men take away, this blessed position of grace.

The One Body of I Cor. 12: was evidenced by "signs" and "wonders". The Unity of the

Spirit is without any such evidence; in fact, it is belied by many who profess to be upon

the ground of the One Body, by their manifest divisions; it is belied by the ignorance of

the vast number who seem hardly conscious of its existence on the page of Scripture. No

visible signs attest its reality. It is among the things "not seen, yet eternal", which faith

receives. A man may have evidences of salvation--but the truth of the One Body is

totally independent of any and every appeal to sight, rite or ordinance.

Let the reader now turn to the Acts and note how vitally "Water Baptism" is

connected with the Baptism of the Spirit. See, for example, Acts 10: 44-48.

The subject of Water Baptism is a large one.  The writer believes that its

administration was by Immersion; and was only that of believers. But the question of

"administration" is only of importance if Water Baptism is a "command" for us to-day, in

this dispensation; the greater question being "Does Water Baptism belong to the present

No one can read the opening chapters of the Acts without at once seeing that the cry of

John the Baptist "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand", and the baptism that

accompanied that proclamation, are there taken up again. The baptism, truly, is no longer

"John's baptism", but in many ways it is the same.