Charles Spurgeon is by no means infallible, but his sermons have been helpful to many. As I study the subject of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, I have learned it to be a historic event in which the church that followed the first century enjoys as streams already poured into a city. With that said, Spurgeon’s teaching on this subject is helpful. In one sermon he describes this baptism as historical but continuing to benefit the church today. I find this quote the most outstanding one in terms of help to keep our moorings when dealing with this subject:

This promise is partly fulfilled before your own eyes this day; for the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, and he has never returned. Jesus said, “He shall abide with you for ever.” The Holy Dove has often been greatly grieved, but he has never spread his wings to depart. This is still the dispensation of the Spirit. You hardly need to pray to have the Spirit poured out; for that has been done. What you need is, a baptism of the Holy Spirit; namely, to go down personally into that glorious flood which has been poured forth.1

Nonetheless, Spurgeon did not refrain at an earlier time of saying that this baptism is to be sought in his day in order to have the life of God continued in their midst against deceivers:

Pestilent heresies, advocated by cunning and crafty men, who lay in wait to deceive, are endeavoring to sap the foundations of all our churches, and our only safety lies in adhering tenaciously to the old truth, and seeking a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit, that the life of God may be continued in our midst. “Hold fast the form of sound words.”2

Furthermore, Spurgeon maintains that this historic event continues to have lasting consequences.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a choice result of our Lord’s work among men. Jesus spake of giving to men living water, which should be in them as a springing well, and this spake he of the Spirit, which was given when Jesus was glorified. After his resurrection he breathed on his disciples, and said, “receive ye the Holy Ghost,” But indeed, the whole ministry of Jesus was a revelation of the things of the Spirit. He did not preach upon points of ritual and ceremonial observation, but he went into inward matters, and with the fan in his hand thoroughly purged his floor.

His precepts concern not the washing of hands, the straining out of gnats, the wearing of phylacteries, and the observance of holy days; but they deal with the heart, the affections, the spiritual nature of man, and so are far removed from the traditions of superstition and the frivolities of false philosophy. Beyond all this, beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ, at his ascension, procured for us the descent of the Holy Spirit. “It is expedient for you that I go away,” said he, “for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.” He rose to his leather, and when the fullness of time was come, the rushing, mighty wind was heard, and the cloven tongues, as it were fire, were seen sitting upon the disciples, and from that moment the Church of God was baptized into the Holy Spirit. God grant that she may never forget that day of days, but walk in the power bestowed upon her at Pentecost. On that glorious day, the word of the Lord by the prophet Joel was fulfilled: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit.” This being so gloriously fulfilled, we are waiting for that other promise, “I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for their sine.” Hence the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, because he is the choice gift of our ascended Lord.3

It is possible according to Spurgeon to be baptized into water and not baptized into water but not into Christ. So, he preached of this danger speaking of the solution as receiving the grace of God, a common synonym for the Spirit of God, saying,

I wish this blessing to you all, my dear brothers and sisters. Whatever you may miss, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be always with you. In whatsoever points you or any of us may fail, may we never come short of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. What if the preacher should preach to others, and himself be a castaway! Pray that it be not so. What if a deacon or elder should lead the flock of Christ, and yet the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ should not be with him! He would become another Judas or Demas. That would be dreadful. What if you should teach the little ones in the school, and yet not learn yourselves! It would be a sad thing to have come to the Lord’s Supper, and yet never to have eaten his flesh and drunk his blood: to be immersed in water, but never to have known the baptism of the Holy Spirit, nor to have been baptized into Christ with the spiritual baptism. What a thing it will be, if, after all our professions, and all our labors, and all our teachings, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ should not be with us. I pray, brethren, whatever other prayer may not be granted, that this may be, concerning every member of this church, and every member of every church of Jesus Christ, that at any rate the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be with us. We cannot do with less than this, and we do not want more than this. If we got grace from Jesus we shall have glory with Jesus, but without it we are without hope.4

Surprisingly, Spurgeon also taught that this is something one should pray for when facing error. He said,

Oh, that he would gird his sword upon his thigh, and ride forth to the battle because of truth and righteousness! Let us, when we meet by two and three, make a point of bowing the knee together for this object. This will suggest larger meetings, and then, best of all, we will hope that the pastors will call the churches together, and say, “There is need of special prayer for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the overthrow of error.” If this could be done by all faithful ministers, the church would not be long without a heavenly refreshment. Personally, I beg my beloved brethren to praise God with me for very remarkable help lately sent me in an hour of severe trial, and also to entreat the Lord on my behalf that I may be kept steadfast, and peaceful, and made wise under the peculiar circumstances of the present severe conflict. What I have done hitherto I have done under pressure of a necessity which no faithful man could have resisted. I have nothing to regret, nothing about which I have a shadow of a question. I could do no other than I have done.5

Spurgeon speaks of the need for the church as a whole to experience this in his day for the sometimes benefit of those preaching to the church. He says,

“Well,” says one, “what we want in our place is for the ministry itself to be supplied.” Yes, that is what we want everywhere. If the minister himself is dry, what is to be done? Find fault with him, and leave him? No, dear friend, if he is a man of God, pray for him, and never rest till the Lord makes the dry land springs of water. We poor mortals, whom God has called to be preachers, are desperately dependent upon our congregations. I do not say that we rest on you first, our chief dependence must be upon God; but a praying; loving, earnest, wakeful people will keep the minister awake; and when the people decline, and there is no life in them, it sometimes happens that the minister gets dry, too. I remember that, when Mr. Matthew Wilks was comparing preachers to pens, he said that some of them spluttered, and others did not make any mark at all. “What is to be done with them?” said he, and then he answered his own question, ‘Pray the Lord to dip them in the ink.” I think that we must pray for all the pens that God would dip them in the ink again. Oh, for another baptism of the Holy Spirit, to put more divine power upon them! Then, when we begin to speak, God will open rivers in high places, and make the wilderness a pool of water.

But what is wanted, too, is the same blessing upon the helpers. What is the preacher to do, what is the church to do, if the workers are half asleep?6

Spurgeon consistently speaks of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as a weapon against idolators. He said,

Further, we still want “the Lord God of Elijah” as “the God that answereth by fire.” Today, in this country, we are undergoing very much the same sort of ordeal as Elijah had to endure. The priests of the modern Baal and of the groves swarm on every side. The mass and all the other idols of Rome are set up again in this land; they may be seen as objects of adoration even in our parish churches. The candle that Latimer lit, which never can be quite put out, seems as if it burns but very dimly in this land, and the old and glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was preached by Luther and by Calvin, and by our Lord and his apostles, has come to be regarded as an old worn-out-thing, to be thrown away and cast aside. Oh, for the God of Elias once again to answer by fire! We want a baptism of the Holy Spirit for all such as are spiritually alive, and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon such as know not the Lord, and obey not his truth. Oh, that we could see the Lord making bare his arm again in the midst of the land! When I think of how God visited Pharaoh, and magnified his might by smiting that stout-hearted rebel by plague after plague, my soul cries, “O Lord, wilt thou not rend the heavens, and come down, even if it be with a rod of iron, to dash in pieces, like a potter’s vessel, those who have so long resisted thy grace? Thy longsuffering seems to have been displayed long enough, and men grow bolder and yet bolder in their iniquity.” I can understand the spirit of Jonah—though I do not wish to fall into it—when he seemed to feel that Nineveh ought to be smitten for its enormous sin. At this day the world still lieth in the wicked one, and Christ crucified is disowned and derided. Perhaps London is more heathenish than ever it was since first the foot of savage walked among its woods; the people grow worse and worse in many respects, and there is less and less of vital godliness and of seeking after the Most High. O Lord, how long? “Pluck thy right hand out of thy bosom,” and once again, as on Carmel the fire descended, so let the sacred flame fall upon thy true Church, that we may no longer need to ask,“Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” We want Him, we want HIM beyond everything in these dead days.7

In one more instance, Spurgeon speaks of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, again in regards of dealing with his enemies. He says,

The day when the infant Church of Christ gathered in an upper room and sat there, all its members being of one heart and of one soul, and the Lord revealed his grace by the baptism of the Holy Spirit—when was heard the sound of the rushing mighty wind, when the tongues of fire sat on the disciples—when they began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance, and thousands were added to the Church, that was a day when the Lord alone was exalted. Was there any whisper on that day of honor to be given to Peter, or to John, or to James, in the Church of God? Think you there was any trace of the spirit that could say, “I am of Cephas,” and “I am of John’? Ah, no. The name of the Lord was very precious to his people that day. They gave glory to the Lord both in the temple and in their own houses, eating their bread with gladness of heart. Only let the Lord show himself in great blessing, then he alone is exalted. Behold, his enemies fly before him because of his grace.8

These are the explicit references that Spurgeon makes in his preaching about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. There are eight of them, from which we can gather that Spurgeon believed that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit was a historical event with lasting consequences for the church whereby the church may be revived and equipped to overcome all of their and God’s enemies. This is the sum of what I have gathered from Spurgeon on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.