The Spirit-Filled Life: First Published in 1894 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781502745590)

John MacNeil was born October 19, 1854 in Scotland. His family attended the Free Church which had seceded from the Church of Scotland in 1843. In 1860, the MacNeil family including John and his younger brother moved to Ballarat, Victoria in Australia where John's father worked constructing railroads. John too took up this vocation until he felt the call to ministry. He described his spiritual awakening as slow and gentle until an experience while he sat in the back of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Melbourne opened his eyes. In 1871, he left for university in Melbourne and supported his studies with railroad work until 1876 when he travelled to Scotland to complete his theological studies. In 1879, he returned to the dry air of Australia for health reasons and to begin his ministry. For the next four years, John travelled as an evangelist holding meetings all over Southern Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. It was during this time that he received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit which became a vital focus of his ministry going forward. Prayer meetings led to a Keswick style convention which he held with George Grubb in Geelong. In 1883, John met Hannah Thomas at a meeting he was holding in Golden Square, Bendigo. In April, 1884, they were married and over the next eleven years they had five children. In 1894, John published, The Spirit-Filled Life which sold out in four months. In 1896, John was at the end of another long campaign in Brisbane when he collapsed and died in a portmanteau shop. Hannah received the news through a friend who had been notified by telegram. Hannah's biography of her husband's ministry was published the following year. To follow, Hannah oversaw publications of her husband's writings which she titled, Even So Come, Some One is Coming, and Honey Gathered and Stored.