Hudson Taylor and the Holy Spirit

Hudson Taylor had an interesting perspective about the possibility of a gradual filling of the Holy Spirit. It's the first time I've come across that perspective and I'm not yet sure how fully I agree. I'm still working it out.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit is mentioned frequently in the book of Acts, and the terms does suggest a sudden, total and full immersion. Jesus specifically tells his disciples to "stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49), which again suggests a sudden and complete equipping of the saints for tasks to come.

In any case, here's the excerpt. I guess God is by no means constrained in the method he chooses to fill us with the Spirit. We may all experience it differently.

"Now the heart can no more be filled with two things at the same time than a tumbler can be filled with both air and water at the same time. If you want a tumbler full of water to be filled with air, it has first to be emptied of the water. This shows us why prayer to be filled with the Spirit is often gradually answered. We have to be shown our sins, our faults, our pre-possessions, and to be delivered from them. Faith is the channel be which all grace and blessing are received; and that which is accepted by faith, God bestows in fact. Being filled does not always lead to exalted feeling or uniform manifestation, but God always keeps his word. We have to look to His promises or rest in them, expecting their literal fulfillment. Some put asking in the place of accepting; some wish it were so, instead of believing that it is so. We have never to wait for God's giving, for God has already 'blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ'. We may reverently say, He has nothing more to give; for He has given His all. Yet, just as the room is full of air, but none can get into the tumbler save as far as the water is emptied out, so we may be unable to receive all He has given, if the self-life is filling to some extent our hearts and lives."
Biography of James Hudson Taylor, 1973 edition, p349