W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

Especially in the South, pyrolatry has prevailed in different localities, and somewhat in the West. I have
encountered people who preach a baptism of fire separate and distinct from that of the Holy Ghost. Their
principal Scripture is Matthew 3:11, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance ... but He will baptize you
with the Holy Ghost and fire.” The English version erroneously says, “He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost
and with fire.” N. B. The last “with” is not in the original. The true reading is, “He will baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and fire.” In Ephesians 4:5, Paul positively tells us that there is but one baptism; that our Savior
Himself administers with the Holy Ghost and fire. I Cor. 12:13, “By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body
... and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” Here you see the charming beauty of the spiritual unity
which characterizes the kingdom of God. There is but one body in all the earth, and that body is the Church, as
the Word positively says.
The moment a soul is regenerated with the Holy Ghost, “born from above,” (John 3:7) that soul becomes a
member of God's universal Church, the body of Christ. Jesus never baptizes the devil's children: the children of
God only are subjects of His baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. No one can possibly deny that this one
baptism is that which the Savior gives with the Holy Ghost and fire, as Paul here catalogues it in the beautiful
chain of salvation, which consists of seven links – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one body, one hope, one
God the Father, one Holy Spirit – constituting an indefragable chain which lifts every faithful soul from earth to
glory; and all pure as gold. Surely no one would be so silly as to put a water link in that chain, since you know
in that case the chain would be weak as water, as it can be no stronger than its weakest link.
There is no danger of getting too much fire, if it is that of the Holy Ghost which God gives. But remember,
Satan is the great counterfeiter who actually counterfeits everything that God does in order to deceive the
uncircumcised. Therefore take all the fire you can get, if you are sure it is the fire of the Holy Ghost. How can I
know that? Because it will be the fire of perfect Divine love, for God and all mankind; and this can only come
into your heart when the Holy Ghost pours it out.
Romans 5:5, “The Divine love of God is poured out,” not shed abroad, as in the E. V., (which might apply to
human love, which has no salvation in it); but this Divine agapee is only native in the heart of God, and always
exotic in the human heart, in which the philia, human love, is indigenous; but it has no salvation in it. You see
that the rich man in Hell had the latter; he loved his brothers and wanted to send a missionary to get them saved
before they came on his track to that awful place of torment.
Perfect love is the hottest thing you will find in the world. When people profess sanctification, like some
identified with the “Burning Bush,” and yet mercilessly cartoon the Lord's people, they thus advertise their own
spurious profession to the world, as perfect love speaks no ill of its neighbor. This perfect love discriminates
between sin and the sinner loving the latter enough die for him, but hating the former with an uncompromising
indignation, as God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. When people become unteachable,
we know that old Adam is not dead in them, for in that case they would be meek lowly humble and teachable,
like little Samuel whom God called to the prophet's office at the early age of six years and who said, “Speak,
Lord for thy servant heareth.” O how unteachable people need the one baptism which Jesus alone can give, to
burn up their pride, egotism and vanity, with the fires of the Holy Ghost.
There is no probability that you will ever get too much fire if it is the right kind. N. B. It must be the fire of the
Holy Ghost, burning up carnality and making the love which you received in regeneration, perfect. Satan was
the great archangel Lucifer, before he fell, towering above the heavenly host in his transcendent intellectual
induement. A great preacher loses his hold on God and backslides, but still to a large extent retains his
intellectual power and brilliancy. He still has that copious thesaurus of classical lore and diversified learning,
intellectual, metaphysical, ethical, aesthetical and historical, which characterized him while walking with God in
the beauty of holiness.
After Lucifer in Heaven forfeited his allegiance to God, and was cast out, he still retained, and to this day very
largely retains, his wonderful power of diagnosis, interpenetrating, stratagem, acumen and shrewdness, which he
brings into availability in the abduction of millions from the ways of truths and righteousness. When you go to
seeking fire, he is ready, robed as an angel of light, to slip in adroitly and quietly like a weasel and give you
wild-fire and fox-fire, to magnetize your longing eyes, bewilder and lead you astray like the will-o'-the-wisp, till