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THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The Love of the Spirit. ROMANS xv. 30.
BY
S. W. PRATT,
AUTHOR OF U A SUMMER AT PEACE COTTAGE."
NEW YORK :
.AN'SON D. F.
38 WfiST TWENTY-THIRD STREET.
,:: /.'.)
;\/^^iX,
COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY
ANSON D. F, RANDOLPH & COMPANY.
TO THE
HON. CALVIN T. HULBURD,
WHO FIRST CALLED MY ATTENTION TO THE
LOVE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,
Wx 38ook
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
INTRODUCTION.
THERE is a Gospel of the Holy Spirit as well as
a Gospel of Jesus Christ ; and neither is complete
without the other.
This Gospel of the Spirit is to be found in the
New Testament, and is to be read between its lines ;
and being unread, the Gospel of Christ is only half
read. Man has a body, but is a spirit. The spirit
is immortal. It is this that worships, having per-
sonal relations with the Holy Spirit. The highest
thing in man is love, and the summary of the
Divine character is this, " God is Love." This
means that the. Father is Love and the Son is Love
and the Holy Spirit is Love. The fact, however,
that the Holy Spirit is Love equally with the
Father and the Son, and is doing a work for us
which shows the same Divine Love, is little known
and less appreciated by the Church.
The Father's love is revealed by what He gave ;
and the Son's by what He suffered ; while the love
of the Spirit is revealed by what He does.
Vi INTRODUCTION.
We now live under the administration of the
Holy Spirit, through whom the Godhead is dealing
directly with the world.
This is the age of the Holy Spirit. He is the
Spirit of Truth, who convicts of sin, and also re-
news and sanctifies the heart, maMng Christ's work
effectual for salvation ; but for whose work all that
Christ said and did would be in vain for man.
We may not only pray for the Holy Spirit, but
pray in Him and to Him ; and He also prays
with us.
Man's probation is of the Holy Spirit, and de-
pends entirely upon His love.
He is the Divine Comforter and Helper, and as
an ever-present Christ.
The communion of the Holy Spirit means all
spiritual and divine blessings in one. No doctrine,
therefore, can be more practical for the Church,
and more profitable to know and experience, than
this of the Love of the Holy Spirit ; if, indeed, this
be not the department of Divine knowledge and
revelation in whose unveiling lies a future develop-
ment of Christian doctrine. Here, if anywhere,
is the field for any new theology.
This book has been written as a devotional help
for the Church at large ; to promote her spiritual-
INTRODUCTION. Vll
ity, and to lead to a closer communion with the
Holy Spirit.
The author would gratefully acknowledge the
kindness of his beloved preceptor, the late Presi-
dent Mark Hopkins, who read, during the last year
of his lif e, the outlines of this book, and to him he
is indebted for words of encouragement and valu-
able suggestions.
"The subject," he wrote, "is one of supreme im-
portance, audit is not apprehended as it should be,
and you are right in thinking there is room and a
call for a book on this subject."
He would also express his obligations to the late
Prof. Eansom B, Welch, of Auburn, for reading
the same manuscript, and for helpful criticisms.
Philip's " Love of the Spirit " has been an invalu-
able aid, and will be often referred to in this
volume.
John Howe's rich treasury on the Holy Spirit,
and Hare's " Mission of the Comforter," and other
books bearing on the subject, have been carefully
studied. The writer has simply undertaken to
translate and re-write for this generation the work
of a former one.
In an introductory note to " The Tongue of Fire"
Dr. William M. Taylor well says : "Though we are
Vlll INTEODUCTION.
living under the dispensation of the Spirit, it is re-
markable that the work of the Holy Spirit has not
received anything like the attention which it de-
mands and deserves. Few sermons are preached
upon it, few treatises are written upon it ; it does
not enter into the thoughts and prayers of the
people of God ; and in this, perhaps, more than in
most things, we may find the explanation of the
comparative feebleness and insufficiency of modern
piety."
It is in the hope of meeting this want ; of
helping to open up this almost unexplored territory
of the Gospel ; of revealing more clearly to its
readers the person, and power, and grace, and love
of the Holy Spirit ; of bringing them into a more
intimate and loving communion with Him ; and of
awakening them to a more earnest co-operation
with Him in the work of bringing the world to
Christ, that this book is written.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT,
The Mystery of Godliness A Bible Doctrine
The Divinity of Christ The Divinity of the
Spirit A Practical Doctrine Its Truth Illus-
tratedThe Godhead Trebly Glorified
Names and Relations The Work of Re-
demptionThe Spirit's Work The Divine
Glory.
CHAPTER II.
THE HOLY SPIRIT, ...... 17
The Personality of the Spirit His Holy Char-
acterHis Holy Methods His Holy Mani-
festations The Sanctifier The Holy Com-
forterThe Spirit of Truth.
CHAPTER III.
THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT, - 31
The Ministration of the Law A New Covenant
The Law of the Spirit The Atonement of
Christ Righteousness Apart from the Law
The Dispensation of Grace The Spirit the
Holy Executive The Period of Redemption.
(ix)
X CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV. PAGE
THE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, - 44
The Spirit in the Old Testament Christ Filled
with the Spirit Christ's Promise of the
Spirit The Acts of the Apostles The Spirit
at Pentecost The Key to the Acts The
Spirit in Stephen The Spirit in the
Apostles The Spirit in Paul The Act of
Regeneration The Spirit in the Saints The
Fruits of the Spirit.
CHAPTER V.
THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT, .... 60
Do you Love the Holy Spirit ? The Spirit, Divine
Love Love shown in Works Christ's Love
Rejected Christ's Love made Efficacious
The Love of the Trinity Compared The Con-
descension of the Spirit The Patience of the
Spirit.
CHAPTER VI.
THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT IN CONVICTING OF SIN, 76
The Enmity of the Carnal Heart The Faithful-
ness of the Spirit The Righteousness of
Christ The Spirit's Love in Regeneration
Witness to Sonship The Spirit of Truth
His Love in Defeating Satan His Love unto
Glorification.
CONTENTS. XI
CHAPTER VII. PAGE
THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT IN SANCTIFICATION, 90
His Love in Regeneration and Justification The
Paraclete and Standby and Helper His Love
in Adoption The Law of Sanctification
The Object of Suffering His Love in Disci-
" pline The Spirit a Deliverer.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SPIRIT A COMFORTER, - - - - 104
Better than Christ's Presence Kept for Jesus
Christ Afflictions and Chastisements The
Giver of Blessings In Sickness and Death
Thy Will be Done Complete in Christ
Helping our Infirmities.
CHAPTER IX.
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PRAYER, - - - 119
The Gift of Gifts The Inspirer and Teacher of
Prayer Praying for the Spirit Praying to
the Spirit Praying in the Spirit The In-
stinct of Humanity The Philosophy of
Prayer The Spirit's Indwelling The Duty
of Prayer.
CHAPTER X.
THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT, - - 133
The Need of Intercession Prayer and Tempta-
tion Teaching how to Pray Moving to
Pray Answers to Prayer Thy Will be
Done All Prayer in One The Intercession
of Christ Loving Faithfulness.
Xll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI. PAQE
PROBATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, ... 147
Blasphemy The Sin against the Holy Spirit
Never Forgiveness Sensitiveness to Sin
The Exceeding Sinful ness of Sin The Priv-
ilege of Choice The Effect of Choice The
Length of Probation Man must be Saved
Dependence upon the Spirit The Crisis of
Eternity Longer Probation Unavailing
The Spirit Grieved.
CHAPTER XII.
THE COMMUNION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, - 164
The Apostolic Benediction Man a Spirit Spirit-
ual Worship The Law of Spiritual Life The
Cost of Redemption Pentecost The Love
of the Spirit Friendship and Fellowship
Prayer Service Growth in Grace The
Communion of Saints Divine Fellowship.
THE
GOSPEL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
CHAPTER I.
FATHEE, SON, AND HOLY SPIEIT.
THE doctrine of the Trinity is altogether a
Bible doctrine. It stands or falls with the sacred
Scriptures. Man, unaided by revelation, has be-
lieved in theism, polytheism, and atheism; but
never in a Godhead of three persons.
God may be known from His works and from
man His image. Further knowledge He must re-
veal to us. Such a revelation we have in the
Bible, and this is all that it has pleased Him to
give to us. Here we may expect to find the high-
est conception of His being and character ; as full
a revelation as we can comprehend, and all that
we need to know for our present want. But
neither now nor ever. may man expect to find out
the Almighty unto perfection. There shall ever
be growing knowledge and fuller revelation.
" Great," says St. Paul, " is the mystery of god-
liness "; and the mystery shall grow even with the
largest knowledge, and new mysteries shall ap-
2 THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS.
pear. There shall be unfathomable depths and
unattainable heights, and unmeasurable lengths
and unexplored breadths in the Godhead.
It is conceivable that there are other modes
of spiritual existence and other spiritual attributes
than those we know; and that there are more
wonderful revelations yet to be made. A God
in whose knowledge there were no mysteries
would be no God at all. The very idea of revela-
tion implies mysteries, knowledge superhuman.
And a mystery, like a revelation, can be proved
but not explained. The only question which can
reasonably be raised concerning it is, Is it true ?
Does it^ stand on sufficient evidence ? Its truth-
fulness does not depend upon the limitation of
our minds. It matters not how strange or con-
tradictory or absurd any truth may seem to be, it
is to be believed, if it comes with reasonable proof.
Having proved the inspiration of the Bible, it is
then to be believed as the Word of God, and all
of it is to be received as His word. The province
of reason, after deciding upon its evidence, is to
ascertain what it teaches, and to put faith in it.
A brief argument for the inspiration of the
Scriptures, or the truth of their revelation, is that
they stand or fall with the person and character
and claims of Jesus Christ. If He be the Son of
God we are to hear Him as divine authority.
And He sanctions the Old Testament and gives
FATHEE, SON, AND HOLY SPIEIT. 3
authority to the New as written by men moved
by the Holy Ghost.
The doctrine of the Trinity is found in the
Bible as its revelation of the being of God, and
is the grandest revelation ever made of Him,
giving the highest conceptions of His being.
There is, perhaps, no better brief statement of
this doctrine than is found in the Westminster
Catechism : " There are three persons in the
Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost ; and these three are one God, the same in
substance, and equal in power and glory."
Our present purpose is briefly to summarize
the doctrine from the Scriptures and to illustrate
it, with particular reference to the relation of the
Holy Spirit to the other persons of the Godhead
on the one hand, and to the spirit of man on
the other.
In the account of the creation the name of
God is plural, "Let us make man"; and else-
where the work of creation is ascribed to the Son
and to the Spirit as well as to the Father. The
theophanies, or personal appearances of God, are,
in the Old Testament, ascribed to the Angel of
God ; while, in the New Testament, it is taught
that, " No man hath seen God at any time ; the
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him." He was God
manifest, and Christ said that after His ascension
4 THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.
the Spirit should personally reveal Him unto us.
In the Psalms, Christ is called the Son of God and
David's Lord ; and to Him are ascribed universal
authority and an eternal throne, which is refer-
red to in the New Testament as showing His
divinity. Elsewhere He is called the Messiah
who should come to be Emmanuel and God man-
ifest in the flesh. Divine titles are given to
Him, and He claims to be one with the Father,
and that He is in the Father and the Father in
Him, and that knowing Him we know the
Father, He was in the beginning with God, and
God. John wrote his gospel for the very pur-
pose of proving that " Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God." Divine perfections are ascribed to Him,
such as eternity, immutability, omnipresence, omni-
science, and omnipotence. Divine works are also
ascribed to Him, as creation, preservation, provi-
dence, miracles, resurrection, life, and judgment.
And He is worshipped by the angels ; and is to
receive supreme worship from all creatures, which
is the especial prerogative of divinity.
The proof of the divine personality of Christ
argues the same for the Holy Spirit, so far at
least as to remove any presumption against it.
Christ promises the Spirit to His disciples as one
like Himself, who should take His place and reveal
Him ; through whom He and the Father would
come to them ; and the disciples recognized Him
FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT. 5
at Pentecost as the Spirit of promise and wor-
shipped Him. The Spirit performs personal acts?
such as knowing, searching, teaching, convicting,
testifying, brooding, interceding, and loving ; and
executes such offices as inspiring, revealing, justi-
fying, sanctifying, comforting, Wj and miracle-work-
ing, being the Spirit of truth. He is given, sent,
and poured out ; He conies and fills and abides.
Not only is creation ascribed to Him, but also re :
generation, and the resurrection of the dead, and
the application of grace in redemption. He may
be sinned against; and the unpardonable sin is
against Him, which puts special spiritual honor
upon Him ; and man's probation is also in His
hands.
At the baptism of Christ we have heaven
opened and the Holy Spirit descending upon
Him, while the Father proclaims Him His be-
loved Son in whom He is well pleased. In
His last charge, just before His ascension, Christ
sums up His mission and the work of His king-
dom ; and, claiming all power in heaven and on
earth, commands His disciples, " Go ye therefore
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing
them into the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I commanded you ;
and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end
of the world," or " the consummation of the age."
6 THE DIVINITY OF THE SPIRIT.
This makes the name of the -Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost alike in authority
and importance; and faith in them the confes-
sion and condition of discipleship for all who
hear the Gospel.
In the apostolic benediction, which prays,
" The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the
love of God, and the communion of the Holy
Ghost, be with you all," we have the same three
distinct personal names and agencies of the one
divine being.
At the death of Stephen, the protomartyr,
" full of the Holy Ghost," looks up into heaven
and sees the glory of God, and Jesus standing at
the right hand of God.
The apostle Paul beseeches the Romans "for
the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of
the Spirit," that they strive together with him in
their prayers to God for him, making the Spir-
it's love an argument for prayer equal with the
name of Christ.
JSTot to draw out these proofs at greater length,
we find the divine titles, and attributes, and per-
fections, words and works and worship, equally
and alike, given to the persons of the Father, and
the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Bible. They
are made to address one another as I, thou, and
lie, and not as three relations or exhibitions of
one person. They are thus revealed as '''the
FATHEE, SON, AND HOLY SPIEIT. 7
same in substance, and equal in power and glory";
one God in three persons, co-equally divine, self-
existent, infinite, eternal, and omnipotent, the
Lord Jehovah. The Father is God, and the Son
is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and these
three are one God in the glorious mystery of the
divine being and Godhead. The characteristic of
the first person of the Godhead is, that He is the
Eternal Father ; of the second, that He is the
Eternal Son ; and of the third, that He is the
Eternal Spirit. This does not allow of posteri-
ority, or inferiority, or subordination, except as
each person has His own part in the work of re-
demption ; but they exist in union, communion,
and inhabitation.
The Father is said to give and send the Son
with the sanction of the Spirit ; and the Father
and Son give and send the Spirit ; and the Son
and Spirit come to glorify the Father, and each
gives Himself to us and is our God.
This revelation enlarges our idea of the divine
being and glory beyond anything which other-
wise could be conceived, and adds greatly to our
spiritual knowledge and development and joy.
It matters not how mysterious and incompre-
hensible this doctrine may be, since it is taught
in the Word of God, and is true as that is
true.
It has, however, most important and practical
8 A PRACTICAL DOCTRINE.
relations to man, and for this reason it was re-
vealed to him.
The glory of man is his personality, his self-
conscious, free, and responsible being.
He can know and be known, love and be loved,
serve and be served, and can worship. Man
has personal relations with each person of the
Godhead, through whom he knows and loves and
worships God, and is known and loved and
blessed by God.
At first his relations were more distinctly per-
sonal with God the Father, and later with Christ
the Son, and now with the Holy Spirit, so that there
is no more important and practical spiritual know-
ledge than that which pertains to the personality
of the Holy Spirit and His relations to our spirit.
This doctrine may be illustrated by analogies
from nature and man, which, while they may not
help us to understand the mystery, will show that
it is~not impossible or unreasonable, and will help
us the more easily to conceive of a Trinity of
persons in a unity of being.
In the formation of a mineral there are united
the three forces of attraction and cohesion and
chemical affinity, and, as presented to the eye,
there is in the same mineral another trinity of
color, shape, and size, giving the idea of body.
A trinity of sides and angles is necessary to the
unity of every triangle.
FATHEE, SON, AND HOLY SPIEIT. 9
The sun, upon whose shining the earth de-
pends for its light and heat, and life and growth,
presents a mystery in its every ray, which is a
trinity, not only of light and heat and actinism,
each having its own character and effect, but
may also be refracted into the seven prismatic
colors. That one can see, and be warmed, and
take a photograph by the same sunlight, and at
the same time, is a mystery equally true and inex-
plicable with the Trinity of the Godhead.
Man is a trinity of spirit, soul, and body, three
separate kinds of life in one, which he may so
11 ve~ that one may at times be almost unconscious
of the others, and one may subordinate the others '
in a willing harmony. Within the body of man
also, and necessary to its life, are eight or ten separ-
ate and interdependent and harmonious systems.
Still more mysterious is the operation within
the one spirit of man of the intellect and suscep-
tibilities and will, three distinct relations in one
consciousness; and in the same man there also
seems at times to be three persons one a carnal
and the other a spiritual, and a third judging
between these two a duality as well as a trinity.
In the marriage union, husband and wife, twain,
are one flesh, of which the man is the head ; and
in the family there is a still more intimate unity
in the trinity of father and mother and child, the
last proceeding from the other two. So also in
10 ITS TEUTH ILLUSTEATED.
government are the legislative, executive, and
judicial functions of the one authority and power.
In the one perfect law, written by God, we
find provision for the unity and development of
man in the three organizations of the family and
the State and the Church, inter-related and nec-
essary to the life of man, and all centering in
God.
JSTor is it uncommon to find a trinity in a word,
such as love, which may mean a passion, a friend-
ship, or holy love ; and there is the love of be-
nevolence, of gratitude, and of complacency. So
the word sin may mean a single sin, a habit of
sin, or a sinful nature.
The being and nature of God are the foun-
dation of religion, to know which is the highest
practical wisdom for man ; and since He has re-
vealed Himself as Father and Son and Holy
Spirit, whatever pertains to the relations of each
of these to the other and to man is of first im-
portance. While searching into these may be
like looking into the heavens to find their infinite
limit, yet by looking there have been discovered
stars and suns and systems, stretching out as far as
eye can pierce, and glories beyond the power of
words to describe.
The development of this doctrine will yet re-
veal realms of knowledge and glorious relations,
now only dimly seen or still undiscovered. To
FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT. 11
the writer there has seemed t.o be a loneliness, if
not selfishness, in the divine being which is re-
lieved and explained and made glorious by the
knowledge and relations of the three persons in
the Godhead.
The Godhead is thus trebly enriched for man's
knowledge and love and worship; and man is
trebly glorified by being in the image of the
triune God. Such a divine Trinity can be pos-
sible only by a unity of nature and character and
purpose ; and such an One in three, and three in
One, would appear to be a higher perfection of
being than any other idea of being ever con-
ceived or revealed.
The Father is holy, and the Son is holy, while
the Spirit is the Holy Spirit. The Father is
love, and the Son is love, and the Spirit is love,
and God is love; and the same is true of the
divine justice and mercy and truth. And each
is personal in manifesting these attributes, and
thus holds personal relations to us ; so that our
thought and will, and affections and conscious-
ness, may respond to each in His operations;
and while we ascribe all the manifestations of
each person to God, we shall fail of person-
al knowledge and communion and blessing if
we do not know them in their personal re-
lations.
While each possesses all the attributes of the
12 NAMES AND RELATIONS.
others, there is in their official relations and work
an exhibition of personal characteristics.
The difficulty in expressing clearly spiritual
ideas and relations with words belonging to natu-
ral relations, which is great enough, is intensified
when we undertake by the same words also to
express divine being and relations. The names
Father, Son, and Spirit are given to the persons
of the Godhead because these human relations best
reveal to us their personalities as manifested in
the work of redemption. Fatherhood and Son-
ship expressed to a Jew the closest and dearest
possible relationship; and in the name of the
Holy Spirit as the Comforter there is also the
idea of Motherhood. These words are not in-
tended to convey to us any idea of procedure, or
subordination or inequality, but only to aid us to
a better understanding of the divine being and
character, and especially the divine love for man.
"When the Father is said to so love the world, as to
give His only begotten Son, words are exhausted in
revealing His love ; and when the Father and
the Son are said to give the Holy Spirit, it means
that their love withheld nothing. There can be no
greater revelation of the divine love. And it
is in connection with the wonderful work of re-
demption that these relations are revealed and
have practical reference to us. Thus it is
that a knowledge of the persons and offices
FATHEB, SON, AND HOLT SPIEIT. 13
of the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit is neces-
sary to our fullest faith and peace and blessedness.
Here the mystery of- godliness becomes glorious
beyond expression.
In the fullness of the Divine love for a fallen
and lost race the Godhead plans its redemption,
wherein the Father lays upon the Son its ransom,
and covenants to give Him a kingdom out of the
world ; and the Son offers Himself as a propitia-
tion for their sins, to humble Himself to the
human nature, and to bear the penalty of man's
sin on the cross ; and the Holy Spirit justifies the
plan as satisfying the divine 'character, and also
covenants to come and make effectual the sacri-
fice of the Son. Thus all three have a part in the
covenant and work and glory of redemption, and
also in the covenant and work of grace with man-
kind. The Father manifests His love in giving
and sending the Son ; the Son His love in com-
ing and suffering, and the Spirit His love in up-
holding the Son and in coming and abiding.
The Father shows mercy, the Son saves, and the
Spirit sanctifies. The Father plans, the Son
purchases, and the Spirit completes the redemp-
tion ; which shows the grace of God in its offer,
the grace of the Son in its provision, and the
grace of the Spirit in its effectual application.
The love of the Father in giving and the love
of the Son in suffering is no greater than that of
14 THE SPIRIT'S WOEK.
the Spirit in working, although the latter has not
been magnified as it ought. Not only was the
Son justified by the Spirit in the covenant of re-
demption, but He was prophesied and revealed
in types and symbols until the fullness of time
was prepared, and then was conceived of the
Holy Spirit in His human nature ; announced by
Him as born the Christ, the Lord ; anointed by
Him as the Son of God at His baptism, strength-
ened by Him in all His sufferings, raised by Him
from the dead, exalted by Him to glory ; when
the Spirit came to build up His church, Christ's
bride, convicting the world of sin, working re-
pentance, shedding abroad the love of Christ,
speaking forgiveness, witnessing adoption, keep-
ing for Christ until His kingdom shall have come
on earth, when He will present it to Him to the
glory of His grace.
Until the Son came into the world, God the
Father was more manifest in the work of creation
and providence; then the Son manifested God
in the flesh in the work of grace as our Eedeemer ;
and since He left the world, God the Spirit is
manifest in teaching, regenerating, and sanctify-
ing, that grace may be unto salvation ; and this
day of salvation is the age of the Spirit's divine
administration in the world.
The Father and the Son sent the Spirit, and
through His presence they come and abide with
FATHEK, SOW, AND HOLY SPIRIT. 15
us. And the Holy Spirit is God present with us,
better than the Son's brief manifestation in the
flesh, gracious and glorious as that was. It was
necessary that the Spirit should reveal God in
Christ to the world, and personally dwell with us,
working with divine power and love in and with
and for us.
The Father and the Spirit glorify the Son ; the
Son and the Spirit glorify the Father, and the
Father and the Son glorify the Spirit ; and the
Spirit is now glorifying the Father's law of right-
eousness and the Son's law of grace in love for
Them and for man ; not speaking of Himself, but
magnifying the Son to the glory of God the
Father.
The honor of one is the honor of all ; the love
of one, the love of all ; the service of one, the
service of all ; and worshipping one, we worship all.
Here we get a glimpse of the glorious trinity
in unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Ghost in its nature and character and end, as mani-
fest in the person and work of each in relation
to man, and see a little into the blessedness of
their presence and indwelling as we behold the
co-working and harmony of the divine love
where each gives His person and glory and serv-
ice to the other, in the manifestation of the di-
vine being and the bestowal of the divine bless-
edness.
16 THE DIVIDE GLOEY.
Thus we have in the love of God, our Heavenly
Father, and in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
our elder Brother, and in the communion of the
Holy Ghost, our Comforter, a benediction of ex-
haustless, abiding, and eternal blessing, and would
live by and die in the faith of the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
Well may we sing,
" Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and
to the Holy Ghost ; as it was in the beginning, is
now, and ever shall be ; world without end.
Amen."
CHAPTEE II.
THE HOLY SPIEIT.
THE disciples at Ephesus believed in Christ,
but " had not so much as heard whether there be
any Holy Ghost"; and there are many in the
Church to-day who know little, if anything, of
the Holy Spirit. We, who are baptized into the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit, cannot know too much of, nor too
well, the persons and offices of the divine Trinity,
in their being and character, and in their relations
to ourselves. And, although it is true that less
is said in the Bible of the Holy Spirit than of the
other persons of the Godhead, for He speaks not
of Himself, yet as much may be known of Him.
He it is who reveals the Father and the Son,
and thereby also reveals Himself, while His works
clearly and continually manifest Him.
There is no more interesting, or profitable, or
practical knowledge than that which concerns the
person and character and work of the Holy Spirit.
If there be any person in the universe whom we
need to know, with whom we ought to be well
(17)
18 THE SPIEIT A PERSON.
and personally acquainted, to whom we want to
be devotedly attached, and with whom we want
to be in constant communion, that person is the
Holy Spirit.
In order to do this we must first realize that He
is a Person.
Christ manifested G-od in the flesh so that the
divine personality might be known, through the
flesh, as that of any other person is known. He
said : " Ye believe in God, believe also in me ";
" I and my Father are one "; and " He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father."
Christ is now none the less a person because
ascended and glorified. Nor is the Holy Spirit
any the less a person because a spirit. Man is
body, soul, and spirit, but the body and soul are
not the person. When the body perishes the
person still lives. He acts outside of and apart
from the body, and his identity is not dependent
upon the body, but upon his own being. The
person is the I, the ego ; the being who knows
and chooses and feels and wills, who reasons
and uses causes, who is capable of character, hav-
ing a sense of responsibility and accountability
concerning right and wrong.
This personality is his spiritual being, and its
exercise his spiritual life. He knows himself in '
his own conscious personality, which goes with
him in all his actions, and is himself acting and
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 19
responsible. It is the person who worships and .
is worshipped, of man and of God. And it is as
a person, a personal spirit, that man is in the
image of God. And the Holy Spirit differs not
from man as a person, except that He is eternally
self-existent and divine in being and attributes,
which carries divine perfection into all His acts.
The Holy Spirit has intellect and will and
affections. In intellect He is omniscient; in
power, omnipotent; in righteousness, holy; in
justice, impartial ; and in benevolence, love. He
is eternal and infinite and perfect in everything'
which characterizes spirit in its being and mani-
festations. He knows, teaches, guides, and strives,
approves and condemns, loves and hates, and may
be known, entertained, loved, and obeyed, or
grieved, provoked, and rejected. We may thus
commune with Him as with any other person.
As a divine person and the executor of the
holy law of God, and the renewer of the heart
and the applier of grace, we must have most
important dealings with Him, and these will de-
pend upon His character. His character will
decide all our spiritual relations. That which
distinguishes one person from another and deter-
mines what he will do personally is the character
of His being, or His personal character. His
character will be manifest in all He does, and
will be known by what He does.
20 HIS HOLY CHARACTER.
We are to believe in, and trust, and worship
the Holy Spirit, "because His person and words
and works are divine.
That which characterizes the Godhead, but
peculiarly the Holy Spirit, is holiness, for which
the Spirit is named.
He is the Holy Spirit.
The manifestation and preservation of the
divine holiness and the holy administration of
the divine government are in His hands. He
reveals and magnifies the Godhead in all things
as holy ; the Father is the holy Father, and the
Son the holy Son ; the law is the holy law ; the
Word is the holy Word ; the love of God is holy
love; the name of God is the holy name; the
place of His manifestation is holy ground ; and
His dwelling-place is holy heaven. They before
the throne " rest not day and night, saying, Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and
is, and is to come." Even the Son of God in
His work of redemption must be justified of the
Spirit in the holy ransom of sinners, that He
may also justify sinners who believe in Christ.
Holiness is the eternal essence of His being,
and He can be only holy, and will be pleased with
nothing except holiness in any part of the uni-
verse. He is the Spirit of holiness. It is His
life. In creating and revealing, in regenerating
and justifying, in sanctifying and ruling, in the'
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 21
Law and the Gospel He is holy. He teaches, com-
mands, promotes, delights in and blesses holiness,
and abhors and condemns unholiness and destroys
it forever from His presence and glory. It is
ungodliness and enmity and sin. It is the Spirit
who commands, " Be ye holy, for I am holy,"
and " follow after holiness, without which no man
shall see the Lord." He will have no dealings
with us except in holiness, and all His offices
toward us are to make us holy and fit us for the
holy presence of God. So prominent is holiness
in the divine being that we call its exhibition
spirituality, or the real manifestation of the spir-
itual life of God.
It is evident from these things that the Holy
Spirit holds no second or subordinate place in the
Godhead and is doing no inferior work. And
man cannot know how holy God is, or what holi-
ness is, except he be taught of the Spirit ; much
less can he become holy without His divine aid. No
more can he know what- sin is, nor how exceed-
ing sinful it is, except the Spirit teach him ; much
less can he save himself from sin without the
Spirit's help. Sin in man is the opposite of holi-
ness in God, and the Holy Spirit, by His very
nature, is the eternal enemy of sin and sinners.
And it is as the teacher and promoter of holiness
and the destroyer and punisher of sin that He
works among men.
22 HIS HOLY METHODS.
Throughout the Scriptures we see His holy
methods by which He would turn and save men
from sin and sanctify them unto heavenly fellow-
ship.
First, He separated a man and then a people
that they might be a holy people ; and by won-
derful works taught them God's being and power
and providence, and ordained for them a course
of instruction and discipline that they might
learn His holy character and render Him holy
worship.
He dwelt among them in fire and cloud, and in
the holy of holies, unapproachable and most glori-
ous. They might not come near the holy mount
or touch the ark of the Lord lest they die.
Their persons and dress and food and con-
tact and habits must be pure and clean, and
their offerings and sacrifices without spot or
blemish. Everything pertaining to the divine
worship must be purified by water or by blood.
Water and wind and fire were the emblems of
purification of the heart. Places and instru-
ments, and persons and sacrifices, were to be con-
secrated and sanctified to the Lord. Nothing
that defileth, or worketh abomination, or maketh
a lie should enter the place and presence of the
Lord. Thus holiness to the Lord was impressed
upon all their thoughts and worship.
The law was given most solemnly to 'promote
THE HOLY SPIEIT. 23
holy obedience and life. It is holy and just
and good, the Spirit's standard and rule of holy
living toward God and toward men, and its fear-
ful penalty shows its holiness and the smfulness
of disobedience.
The gift and sacrifice of the holy Son of God
was the least that the Holy Spirit could accept
as a justification of, and penalty for, His violated
law. And the life of Christ was the incarnation
of divine- holiness. His Sermon on the Mount
declares the pure in heart blessed, for they shall
see God. The appearances of the Son of God
are light above the brightness of the sun, and gar-
ments white as no fuller can whiten them ; and
they who sit down at the marriage supper of the
Lamb must have on the white robe of His right-
eousness.
Thus is the holiness of the Spirit manifested
in spotless purity and unalloyed sanctity, in the
blessing of His holy law and the wrath of its
holy penalty; in holy grace in mercy; in holy
pardon through the sacrifice of Christ ; in holy
benevolence, saving through a divine Redeemer ;
in holy power in regeneration, and in holy pa-
tience in the sanctification of believers. And
yet none of these, nor all of them, give any ade-
quate idea of His holiness, any more than earthly
illustrations set forth God and heaven.
We can only say that holiness is the infiaite
24 HIS HOLY MANIFESTATIONS.
moral excellence and purity of the divine nature
and character shining out as the light from the
sun, and illuminating all the other divine perfec-
tions.
The Spirit of God is holy in His being, nature,
and character ; in all His attributes and perfections
and words and works ; holy in thought, feeling,
will, love, and judgment ; holy in person, mani-
festation, and companionship.
In olden time none might come into the holy
of holies, where shone the glory of the divine
Presence, except the high-priest with the blood
of purification; but after Christ came the veil
was rent, signifying an immediate approach to
God by all in Christ's name. And now also in
the name of Christ and because of His sacrifice,
the Holy Spirit comes nearer to man than under
the dispensation of law, to make known a holy
righteousness apart from the law, which is by
faith of Christ Jesus upon all that believe ; His
new law of life in Christ Jesus which frees from
sin and death.
Another important manifestation of the Spirit
is that of the spiritual power of the Godhead.
Christ commanded His disciples to tarry in
Jerusalem until they should be endued with
power from on high, and promised them that
they should receive power when the Holy Ghost
should come upon them. The Spirit had hitherto
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 25
manifested His power in creation and in miracles
and in gifts to men ; but now greater works than
these are to be done, works of spiritual grace
in the hearts of men ; Christ having gone to the
Father and having finished His work which made
the way for the Spirit's - work of grace. Man
must be born of the Spirit to enter the kingdom
of heaven ; and this work of regeneration is not
possible by any other might or power, or by the
will of the flesh, but only by the Spirit of God.
Christ taught this to Nicodemus as a prime truth,
a first necessity. Spirit must be born of Spirit.
The provision which Christ made for redemption
was all vain unless the Spirit made it efficacious
through His regenerating work.
Eor its further existence and growth the Church
is now dependent upon the power of the Spirit,
through His personal work with its members and
in the world. And this power, which is so mani-
fest in regeneration, He will also manifest in the
work of sanctification until He shall present the
Church to Christ, holy and without blemish.
The methods of the Spirit's work are likened
unto the action of water and wind and fire, the
great purifying elements of nature. He may
come like the gentle shower, the running brook,
the great river, or the ocean-tide in His cleansing
power, and like the mountain torrent, or the over-
whelming flood, or the tidal-wave in His holy
26 THE SA1STOTIFIEE.
wrath. Sweetness and purity follow and every-
thing is refreshed and renewed.
At Pentecost His coming was as the rushing,
mighty wind, which purifies and also vivifies.
We know not whence it cometh nor whither it
goeth, but its effects are manifest. So is the
work of the Spirit. Now He whispers as the
gentle breeze, as a still small voice, so that one
scarcely recognizes His presence ; again He comes
as the tempest and hurricane and cyclone, when
nothing can withstand Him. The place is shaken
with His presence, and strong men bow before
Him ; again His power sweeps over the country
like a storm-wave of spiritual influence from the
mountains to the sea. The power of His coming
at Pentecost was also like fire, which can warm
and bless with heat and light, or beginning in a
match devastate and devour a forest or prairie, or
city in its blackening course. This is also the great
purifier by which the gold is refined from the dross,
or the germs of contagion and plague are destroyed.
So does His holy power bless the righteous and
punish the wicked, separating righteousness and
sin. The prophet saw the blessed time in the
latter days, when God would pour out of His
Spirit upon all flesh, and it should come to pass
that whosoever should call on the name of the
Lord should be saved. This outpouring character-
izes the era of salvation.
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 27
And the same holy power which works like
the wind and water and fire comes also like a dove,
as when He descended upon Christ at His baptism
and annunciation, the Spirit of gentleness and
peace, of brooding mother-love and help, full of
sympathy and kindness, benevolent and benefi-
cent.
The Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus Christ
and filled and sustained Him, and He in all His
words and works and ways manifested the Spirit's
character and work, and never man spoke or
acted or loved like Christ, whose gentleness made
Him greater than king or hero or conqueror.
Again, the Spirit is called the Comforter or
Paraclete, the Advocate, the Standby and Helper,
who should take Christ's place and be to all the
Church what He was to His disciples, present
always with divine power to heal and help and
comfort and save, by whom the Father and the
Son would come to us and dwell in us, bestowing
the peace of God.
As the Comforter He is very near and dear to
the ignorant and erring and weak and faint
and troubled disciples. Nor does He afflict will-
ingly, but as a friend, wise and good, who knows
how to comfort those in affliction with the com-
fort of G-od.
In this connection He is called the Spirit of
Truth. He is the revealer and teacher of truth.
28 THE HOLY COMFOKTEK.
And truth is only another name for the divine
character and will in their unehangeableness,
which is the basis of faith. His word is truth,
and whether in law or prophecy, or Psalm or
Gospel, is holy. And in precept and command
and promise the Spirit verifies and sanctions it
with sure rewards and penalties, magnifying His
truth, above all His name.
And Christ is the Truth which is the power of
the Spirit unto salvation, which He most delights
to teach and verify. Christ is the one divine
fact and reality and verity, so great that there is
nothing else to be believed or known by the sin-
ner, since to know Him is life eternal. He said
of the Spirit: "He shall teach you "all things,
and bring all things to your remembrance what-
soever I have said unto you "; " He will guide
you into all truth "; " He shall take of mine and
shall declare it unto you."
Again, and this shows what truth the world
needs above all else : " And He, when He is come,
will convict the world in respect of sin and of
righteousness and of judgment ; of sin, because
they believe not on me ; of righteousness, because
I go to the Father and ye behold rne no more ;
of judgment, because the prince of this world
hath been judged."
He does not say smooth things and deceive or
leave in sin to perish ; but reproves and con-
THE HOLY SPIEIT. 29
viets that He may bring to repentance, and also
that He may show the righteousness of Christ
without the law, and give peace to those who be-
lieve in Him. His comfort is true and abiding,
helpful and saving unto eternal life to believers,
upon whom He bestows His regenerating power
and grace. He convicts of sin that sinners may
know their sin and their need of Christ, and em-
brace Him. And the greatest sin of all in the
eyes of the Spirit is their unbelief in Christ, when
His death shows the exceeding sinfulness of their
sin and their condemnation of God, in that the
Son of God must die that the Spirit might come
to them or do aught for them* so that every gra-
cious manifestation of His holy power and grace
is through Christ.
The Spirit's comfort is all in Christ, and while
He can do nothing except in His name, He can
wash and justify and sanctify in His name an
idolater or blasphemer or drunkard, even the
chief of sinners, making him a new creature in
Christ Jesus. And this same holy power which
is manifest in regenerating, quickening from
death in sin, will also keep alive and strengthen
and sanctify until the sinner shall be made com-
plete in Christ, and be presented in His name
without reproof and blameless and with exceed-
ing joy, in the great day, saved evermore. By
the power with which He delivered Jesus from
30 THE SPIEIT OF TKUTH.
Satan and raised Him from the dead, will He de-
liver His saints and raise them up with Him.
Freed from sin, the death of the body shall not
separate them from Christ, but rather bring them
to His presence to behold and partake of His
glory.
The power of the Holy Spirit in promoting
holiness is like Christ full of grace and truth.
To Him are committed all the benefits and bless-
ings of the Father's love and the Son's sacrifice,
so that as the promise of the Father and the gift
of the Son without measure, He is indeed the
Holy Spirit of Truth and the Comforter. Noth-
ing shall separate u's from the love and power of
the Hoty Spirit, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Whom He has justified and sealed as Christ's He
will also sanctify and glorify.
Seeing, therefore, that all things of Christ and
salvation are in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and
that we now live under His divine administration,
shall we .not prize it, as the best and greatest of
all our privileges and blessings, to have the per-
sonal acquaintance and friendship and love and
communion of the Holy Spirit ?
CHAPTER III.
THE MINISTEATION OF THE SPIEIT.
THEEE are revealed in the Bible glimpses of
the administration of the divine government, in
the fall of the angels who left their first estate
and were reserved in everlasting chains under
darkness unto judgment ; in the covenant of re-
demption ; in the councils of eternity ; in the crea-
tion of the world ; in the fall of man ; in the
incarnation of Christ ; in the judgment of the
great day and in the final glory of heaven.
The period of creation ended and that of re-
demption began when God rested from His la-
bors ; and ours is the day of salvation, the age of
redemption, which shall continue until the con-
summation of the age in the glory of the general
judgment.
God's ministration in nature was to the glory
of the divine power and wisdom and goodness,
but the ministration of redemption excels in the
supreme glory of the divine grace. So far as we
know, this is the crowning glory of the ages and
kingdoms of God's eternity, and the last and
highest revelation of His being ; yet there may
(31)
32 THE MINISTRATION OF THE LAW.
be divine attributes to be revealed which shall
shine brighter even than mercy, glories which
excel.
In the divine administration of human affairs
there are two periods the ministration of the
Jaw and the ministration of the Spirit ; the law
represented by Moses, and the Spirit by grace
and truth which came by Jesus Christ, called
sometimes the Old and New Testaments or cov-
enants, or the Law and the Gospel.
The ministration of the law, which was of
death, written and graven on stones, had such
glory that the children of Israel could not look
on the face of Moses for the splendor of his coun-
tenance ; but this was not abiding. So did the
majesty of God appear when He gave the com-
mandments with awful solemnity and sanctions
of life and death, that Sinai flamed and smoked
and quaked and thundered, and the people dared
not come near nor touch it lest they should die.
The law revealed the holiness of the divine being
and character and gave heaven's standard of eternal
righteousness, and set forth the rule of man's per-
fection. Well is Moses called the greatest law-
giver of the old world. This was the perfect law
of God, benevolent and beneficent in its end and
work, the law of spiritual order and beauty and
peace and blessing. As universal ruin and chaos
would follow the overthrow of the divine author-
THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 33
ity through natural laws, so would spiritual death
follow disobedience to His laws written on stone
and in the heart of man.
The glory of government, divine and human,
is in good laws and in their faithful execution.
Upon this, in large measure, depend the welfare
and happiness of the governed.
And this law given by Moses is as good as it
is holy and just. It blesses the obedient unspeak-
ably, and restrains and punishes only the evil.
The second table would give us perfect homes
and all personal rights, securing life, chastity,
property, reputation, and good-will, and promot-
ing temperance, virtue, honesty, truthfulness, and
brotherly love. And toward God the first table
provides for knowledge, reverence, worship, and
supreme love and choice and service, forbidding
atheism, idolatry, and profanity. Under such a
law and for such a glory was man created the
law and glory of heaven as well as of earth.
It is evident that any change in the law, or any
failure in its execution, would be dishonorable to
God and injurious to man. No penalty could be
too severe for disobedience when its reward was
life eternal. The welfare of the universe turns
upon its supreme authority and unchangeableness.
The glory of its justice is as great as that of its
holiness and goodness ; and this shall be manifest
in the great day alongside the glory of redemp.
34 A NEW COVENANT.
tion. This law is called the ministration of death,
because it reveals and condemns sin, whose work
and wages are death. It remains, however, al-
ways and everywhere the holy law of God, and
its glory shall never be taken away. Under it
sinless man would attain perfect blessedness in
the glory of the divine presence forever.
And under the ministration of the Spirit there
is not a whit abated of its holiness and condem-
nation of sin ; but rather is the law magnified
and made more glorious in its everlasting righte-
ousness.
But how shall the Holy Spirit with this His
law, whose glory must never be tarnished, min-
ister anything but death to the disobedient?
And under its covenant of works no man can be
saved.
Not interfering with this covenant, not abro-
gating one letter of the law, but honoring it, a
new covenant has been made without the law ;
yet in the very spirit of the law.
In the counsels of the Godhead, born of the
love of the triune God, the covenant of redemp-
tion was made ; planned by the Father, procured
by the Son, and ratified by the Holy Spirit, in
which, because of the love of the Father, the sac-
rifice of the Son, and the work of the Spirit, the
covenant of grace a new and still more glorious
covenant than that of works under the law, and
THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIEIT. 35
yet in harmony with that was offered to man.
And this covenant or dispensation of grace was to be
under the special administration of the Holy Spirit.
Attention, however, is given both to the Spirit's
work in administering redemption and to the
work of Christ in providing it, when it is called
the dispensation of the Gospel of Christ.
In the Levitical law and in the Prophets the
Spirit foretells, in what might be called His dis-
pensation of prophecy, the glory of the coming
of Christ, and the greater blessings of the dis-
pensation of grace. The sacrifices foreshadowed
the Lamb of God, who should take away the sins
of the world. Its rituals told of cleansing and
forgiveness and reconciliation. The Son of God
must be made in the likeness of sinful flesh;
made under the law and fulfil its righteousness ;
upon Him were laid the sins of the world, and
He should suffer their penalty : pouring out His
soul unto death, the substitute and sacrifice and
ransom for guilty man. It pleased the Lord to
bruise Him, and the Spirit of the Lord was upon
Him: filling Him and sustaining Him in His
mission, to which He publicly anointed Him.
The righteousness of the law was fulfilled in
Christ and He became the end of the law for
righteousness to every one that believeth. God
was just, and the justifier of him who believed
in Christ. .
36 THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST.
The ministration of death had its satisfaction
in the sacrifice of Christ, by which believers
were freed from the law of sin and death.
The proclamation of the Spirit by Isaiah of
the new covenant, even the sure mercies of David,
was now made to the world. For three short
years the Son of God f uliilled His divine mission,
walking, talking, and living among men, revealing
more clearly the kingdom of heaven and laying
the foundation of the Christian Church. During
this time, He to whom was given the heathen
for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for a possession, administered on His foot-
stool His own rightful and purchased kingdom.
But He, the Prince Koyal of the kingdom of
Heaven, in whom at last every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess to the glory of God the
Father, was a man of sorrows and a servant in
His own dominion ; whose own received Him not,
but denied and rejected Him and put Him to
death; knowing not that He should draw all
men unto Him, when lifted up, as between
heaven and earth, Lord over both. Now was
come the long-prophesied fullness of time, when
Christ was personally present with His Church.
No wonder the disciples would not allow the
thought that He should go away, and could not
take in the meaning of His death. What could
be more glorious than His presence and work I
THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 37
It seemed as if all would be lost and the king-
dom of heaven would come to an inglorious end.
But He says to His disciples, " It is expedient
for you that I go away." There was yet to come
the glory that excelleth. Again He says, as He
died, " I have finished the work which the Father
gave me to do." Until this was done, the Com-
forter, the greatest gift of the Father and of the
Son to the Church, and whose ministration should
bring in the final glory, could not come unto us.
He who discerned spiritual things and whose
was the power of God, should abide with us for-
ever and show unto us the things of Christ;
glorifying Him as He was not glorified when on
earth. Without the Spirit's coming and work all
that Christ did would be vain, and the kingdoms
of this earth would not become the kingdoms of
our Lord and His Christ. The Spirit should
manifest the glory of God in the salvation of the
Church of Christ and be even more to it and
nearer than a present Christ.
Old John Owen, whose writings concerning
the Holy Spirit are a rich treasure, says:*
" When God designed the great and glorious
work of recovering fallen man, and the saving of
sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace,
He appointed in His infinite wisdom two great
means thereof. The one was the giving of His
* Owen on the Holy Spirit, Book I., chap. i.
38 THE DISPENSATION OF GKACE.
Son for them ; and the other the giving of His
Spirit unto them. And hereby way was made
for the manifestation of the whole blessed Trin-
ity, which is the utmost end of all the works of
God. Hereby were the love, grace, and wisdom
of the Father, in the design and projection of the
whole ; the love, grace, and condescension of the
Son, in the execution, purchase, and procurement
of grace and salvation for sinners ; with the love,
grace, and power of the Holy Spirit, in the effect-
ual application of all unto the souls of men,
made gloriously conspicuous." " But when once
that first work was fully accomplished, when the
Son of God came and had destroyed the works
of the devil, the principal remaining promise of
the New Testament, the spring of all the rest,
concerned the sending of the Holy Spirit unto
the accomplishment of His part of the great
work which God had designed. Hence the doc-
trine concerning His person, His works, and His
grace, is the peculiar and principal subject of the
New Testament, and a most immediate object of
the faith of them that do believe."
Christ laid the foundations of the Church, and
the Holy Spirit builds thereon the glorious tem-
ple until the top-stone thereof shall be laid with
shoutings of " grace, grace unto it." The Holy
Spirit's presence more than makes up the ab-
sence of Christ, and is God manifesting Himself
- THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 39
to us in the place of a present Christ. He is the
operative and efficient source of all spiritual good.
The Church must have His presence and be
endued with His power for her work.
The Spirit and the Word of. God go together
as the hand and the sword, the hand giving
power to the sword. The Father and the Son
send the Spirit, who is the present and all-power-
ful teacher and sanctifier and comforter of the
Church.
We cannot have too exalted a conception of
the gift of the Spirit's divine, personal presence,
who has all knowledge and wisdom and power
and grace and love in the application, and perfec-
tion and sealing of the grace of God in redemp-
tion ; nor can we feel too deeply our dependence
upon and need of Him in all His offices ; nor
shall we get the full measure of His blessing if
we fail to see in all His operations the work of
His own personal, free, and sovereign will.
And while He does not speak of Himself, but
works in the name of Christ, yet He works with
His own divine power and manifests His own
grace and glory.
While Christ is the author and finisher of that
which makes faith possible, and upon which it
rests for salvation, the Holy Spirit is the author
and finisher of our participation in and union
with Christ by faith. So dependent are we on
40 THE SPIRIT THE EXECUTIVE,
Him that no man can say that Jesus is the Christ
but by the Spirit of God.
Thus it appears that, since the coming of
Christ and His death, and because of these, the
administration of the divine sovereignty has been
in the hands of the Holy Spirit, as the executive
officer of the Godhead; so that we now live
under the administration of the Holy Spirit, and
have to do with Him immediately and practically
in all our relations to God ; and are dependent
upon His illumination and power and grace for
our knowledge and help and hope. This, the
Christian dispensation, and the golden age of the
Church, and the glory of the ages, is the period
of the administration of the Holy Spirit, through
whose divine offices we are brought out from the
bondage of death into the glorious liberty of the
sons of God.
This phase of the divine government finds
illustration and parallel in human governments
which are also ordained of God. While a gov-
ernment is one and in all departments equally
sovereign, it naturally divides into the legislative
and executive and judicial departments, each of
which exists for the other and supplements the
other, all necessary to sovereignty.
In the kingdom and sovereignty of God, the
divine Father is the head of authority, the Law-
giver ; the divine Son is the Judge, to whom is
THE MTNISTRATiON OP THE SPIEIT. 41
given the salvation and judgment of this world ;
and the divine Spirit is the Executive, admin-
istering the Law and the Gospel and building the
kingdom of Christ.
When Christ left the heavenly glory, and took
upon Him the nature of man, and became obedi-
ent unto the death of the cross, He came not to
rule, but to mediate peace.
The executive efficiency, the personally pres-
ent power, must needs be the divine Spirit, who
knows the mind of God, being Himself divine ;
and so is at one in His administration with
the divine being and character and will ;
and who as a Spirit knows also immediately
the spirit of man, "before whom it is trans-
parent.
By His divine and human nature Christ could
sympathize with man and mediate with the
Father. Being a Spirit, and coming immedi-
ately into His very consciousness, into personal
contact with His mind and will and sensibilities
and conscience; illuminating, convicting, actu-
ating, regenerating ; working repentance and
faith and all graces, the Holy Spirit, as none
other, can reveal and teach and work the works
of God directly in man. He by His omnipres-
ence could come nearer to each one and to all the
world than could God manifest in the flesh, so
that the administration of the personally present
42 THE PERIOD OF REDEMPTION.
Spirit meets exactly and fully all the wants of
the universal Church.
Christ was with us in the body and limited
by the body ; the Holy Spirit is with us and in-
us, always and everywhere abiding and minister-
ing.
Coleridge brings out these relations of the God-
head as " the I Am empowering, the Word in-
forming, and the Spirit actuating." *
Spurgeon says : " Christ is the medicine and
the Spirit is the physician."
The work of the Father and the Son is com-
pleted, so far as the Law and the Word are con-
cerned, except judgment, and nothing more is to
be added to the revelation of righteousness or
grace.
The executive acts under the constitution of
the government and according to the decrees of
the legislative and judicial departments, conduct-
ing the sovereignty for the glory of the sovereign
and the good of the subjects. The character of
the administration of the Holy Spirit is already
determined by His own holiness, and by the law
and the Gospel its limits are denned. He is the
Holy Spirit and the Spirit of truth. Whatever
is the Father's will and the will of the Son is the
will and the work of the Spirit. Whatever is
* "Moral and Religious Aphorisms/' vi.
THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT. 43
anti-Christ is anti-Spirit, for He works only in
Christ's name and for His glory. Man is now
dealing directly with the Spirit of God, and comes
to God through Him, and is dependent on Him
for light and strength and grace.
To sin against the Holy Ghost is worse than
idolatry of old ; is to drive Him out of one's
heart and make the body a temple of mammon.
To neglect, to despise, to grieve, to reject Him, is to
bring upon us the displeasure of the Godhead.
And nothing so offends the Holy Spirit as disbelief
and neglect and rejection of Christ, except to
call Him, the Holy Spirit, unclean and His work
that of the evil one, which hath never forgiveness.
The glory of God, the redemption of Christ,
and all the affairs of His Church are now in the
hands of the Holy Spirit, whose administration is
the most glorious period of the divine sovereignty,
in the ministration of the covenant of grace ; and
to live in this age and under His administration
is the most blessed privilege man has enjoyed.
And when this period shall be finished and the
work and day of redemption shall be ended, then
the Spirit shall gather up and commit all things
of this world to Christ, when He shall come with
the glory of the Father and the holy angels to
judge the world, when all shall confess in the
name of Christ that He is Lord to the glory of
God the Father.
CHAPTEE IY.
THE ACTS OF THE HOLT SPIRIT.
LIVING as we do under the dispensation of the
Holy Spirit, having to deal with Him directly
and immediately in all our divine relations, and
dependent upon Him for instruction and strength
and grace, it becomes an object of first and deep-
est importance to know His character and will
and acts. The constitution of the government
and the platform of the dominant party will set
forth, in general, the character of an administra-
tion ; yet we await with solicitude the President's
inaugural and the selection of his Cabinet and
the exercise of his official authority, to learn in
particular what will be the policy of an executive.
In general, the Spirit of God has all divine
attributes and perfections, but He is particularly
the Holy Spirit, working with divine power in
personal relations with men. He is also known
by His Law, which gives the great principles of
righteousness and their practical application to
the affairs of life. The G-ospel further sets forth
His new law of grace in Jesus Christ. Then
comes the practical development of these princi-
(44)
THE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIEIT. 45
pies of righteousness and grace in His personal
administration and upbuilding of the Church of
Christ.
In the days of Noah the Spirit of God strove
with that generation, and in vain, until there was
no other alternative except their destruction. He
was promised unto the house of Israel to be poured
out on them ; and, looking forward to His ad-
ministration in the last days, the days of salva-
tion, the prophets foretell that the Spirit of God
shall be poured out on all flesh, and they shall
prophesy and see signs and do wonders, and who-
soever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved. It is especially foretold of the Christ that
the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, and
this shall be the moving of His wonderful works.
In connection with His incarnation the parents
of John the Baptist, His forerunner, and Mary,
His mother, were full of the Holy Spirit, who
also came upon the aged Simeon, and John him-
self was also full of the Spirit from his birth.
Christ was baptized with the Spirit and an-
nounced by Him as the Son of God, and filled
with His presence and power. So He endured
the temptation in the wilderness and went forth
upon His mission until He was offered up of the
Spirit for the salvation of the Church. Thus
anointed, filled with and strengthened by the Spirit,
whatever Christ manifested of the Godhead, and
46 CHRIST FILLED WITH THE SPIEIT.
said and did, was also moved by, and sanctioned
and done by, the Holy Spirit. The Life of
Christ was the manifestation in the flesh of the
personal character of the Spirit, as also were flis
words and work. He was God with us showing
what God the Spirit would be and do in us and
with us and for us ; when He should complete in
His administration what was begun by Christ,
doing all in His name.
"When Christ sent forth His disciples He
promised them the presence of the Spirit, who
should speak through them, and guide and protect
them. And just before His death He revealed
the Spirit's coming as the special promise of the
Father, whose spiritual presence should be better
than His own bodily presence ; who should be
the Comforter of the Church, teaching them all
things, and especially the things of Himself, and
glorifying Him ; and thus it was that He would
be with them always, even unto the end of the
world. They could do nothing without the Spirit,
and should tarry in Jerusalem until they were en-
dued with His power from on high. So in prayer
they awaited the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It
was His coming upon them that made them effi-
cient witnesses of the Word of God, and enabled
them to do the work of Christ. And the truth
of the common-law maxim holds good here as in
other cases, that what one does through another
THE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 47
he does himself, making their words and works
also those of the Holy Spirit.
. The book of the Acts of the Apostles would
better be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. It
really concerns but two of the apostles ; and v
ends its account of the Acts of the Spirit by
Peter, where those of Paul began ; and gives of
their Acts only those which pertain to the Acts
of the Spirit through them in laying the foun-
dation of the Christian Church and in preparing
the way for its spread among the Gentiles, or its
universality. As soon as Paul reaches Kome and
has fulfilled his mission as the Apostle to the
Gentiles the book closes.
The first things of a government, or church or
other institutions, are most important in determin-
ing their character and the law and life of their
development. For this reason we give great rev-
erence to the fathers who laid the foundations of
our government and consult their writings in the
interpretation of its constitution. In the Acts of
the Apostles we have the first things, the prec-
edents, for the constitution and life and work of
the Church.
Here we are to look for its organization and
government and spirit. As the life of Christ is
our example for living, so the work of the Spirit
is our example for working. Further revelation
of divine truth was to be in words and in acts.
48 THE SPIEIT AT PENTECOST.
The day of Pentecost was the beginning of the
dispensation of the Spirit, the inaugural day of
His work, the era-marking day of the Church
of Christ. Here we have the firstfruits of the
Spirit, a sample of what He will always do, and
an earnest and pledge of the continuance of His
whole work until its consummation in glory. Th ere
is little danger of our making too much of this
day, or of resting too strongly upon its promise.
Preparation was ended; Christ had gone to
His Father, and greater works are to be done
than the Church had hitherto seen. The Holy
Spirit now shows forth His policy practically by
His work, and His methods of work by working,
and His application of grace by ordaining means
of grace.
The constitution of Christ's kingdom has been
established unchangeably, and now we are to have
its development. Doctrine is to be made duty,
and principle to become practice and spirit life.
On this^day the Spirit was poured out with a full-
ness and power and presence never before known.
His coming was as a rushing mighty wind, and
like as a fire which sat upon each of them, the
symbols of spiritual presence and power. " And
they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and be-
gan to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance."
In these words, " filled with the Holy Spirit,"
repeated nearly a score of times in the Acts,
THE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 49
J>
words which cannot be magnified too highly by
the Church, we find the key to the whole
book. He filled the apostles and disciples so that
they did His acts, working through His power
and gifts.
His first gift to them and work through them
was utterance. So wonderful was this that it
amazed all who heard them. Peter, filled with
the Spirit, had a new understanding of the
things of Christ ; and with all boldness began to
preach Jesus the Christ, as prophesied in the
Scriptures, and as manifested in His life and
death and resurrection; and that this which
they now saw of the work of the Spirit was the
promise of the Father and of Christ; and the
effect of his preaching was that men were
pricked in their hearts and brought to repentance
and received of the gift of the Spirit, and three
thousand were added to the Church.
Again, after working miracles and wonders
and praying, the place where they were assembled
was shaken, and they were all filled with- the
Holy Spirit, and witnessed of Christ with great
power ; and great grace was upon them, and a
spirit of self-denial and love for the poor was
wrought in them.
Ananias and Sapphira in trying to deceive the
apostles were charged with lying to the Holy
Spirit and with tempting the Spirit of the Lord,
50 THE SPIRIT IN STEPHEN.
and were smitten with death as an example to all
time to come of the solemnity of dealing with
the Holy Spirit and of His jealousy for the honor
of the Church of Christ. Peter preaches again
that God had exalted Christ to give repentance
and remission of sins, and that the Holy Spirit is
witness with them of these things.
Stephen is a marked example of one full of the
Holy Spirit and power ; who wrought wonders
among the people and preached Christ with all
boldness ; whose very face shone with His in-
dwelling as the face of an angel ; who went to
martyrdom as to triumph, seeing the heavens
opened and the glory of God and Jesus Christ
standing on the right hand of God ; and who,
committing his spirit to the Lord Jesus, fell
asleep. Full of the Spirit, Stephen lived blame-
lessly, preached boldly, trusted joyfully in Christ,
suffered patiently, forgave freely, and died tri-
umphantly.
We find Peter and John laying their hands on
the people and imparting the gift of the Holy
Spirit. Philip, one of the deacons, was also filled
with the Holy Spirit and directed in his work,
and, in one marked instance, was sent toward
Gaza, there to meet the Ethiopian eunuch, and,
having instructed and baptized him, was caught
away. One of the most celebrated instances of
His power and work a sample, not of what He
THE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 51
usually does, but of what He ean do, that the
Church may not despair of any was the conver-
sion of Saul of Tarsus, whom He met on his per-
secuting tour, and brought to see that he was per-
secuting the Christ, and to acknowledge Him as the
Lord. And to him also He sent Ananias, who was
told that he should find Paul a praying disciple.
Paul was also filled with the Holy Spirit and
began at once to preach Christ, and went forth
as the apostle to the Gentiles. The Spirit at this
time prepared Peter by a vision to go to Cornelius, a
Gentile, and to show Christ to him, and then fell
on them all alike, that they might know that " to
the Gentiles .God had granted repentance unto
life." Barnabas, who was full of the Holy Spirit
and faith, went forth to preach, and much peo-
ple were added to the Lord. The Spirit also
watched over imprisoned Peter, and delivered
him to his praying brethren.
At His command and under His direction Paul
went forth on his mission to the Gentiles, and
His disciples were filled with joy and with the
Holy Spirit ; and the special proof of his minis-
try was that the Holy Spirit was given to the
Gentiles. At one time the Spirit forbade his
going to Asia, nor suffered him to go to By-
thinia, but sent him over to heed the voice from
Macedonia to a Eoman colony, to begin the eon-
quest of the Latin races for Christ.
52 THE SPIRIT IN THE APOSTLES.
The ministers whom Paul set apart were made
overseers by the Holy Spirit to feed the Church
of Christ. Throughout his three great missionary
tours the Spirit guided and sustained and filled
him with wisdom and grace and power, and then
prophesied his imprisonment and his journey to
Borne, where he gave favor and power to his
preaching until the Church was established in the
centre of the world, and the way was prepared
for its spread over all the earth. The secret of
Paul's glorious ministry the hiding of his power
was that he was filled with the Holy Spirit,
who was building up through him the Church of
Christ.
Thus are we warranted in claiming that the
Acts of the Apostles are the acts of the Holy
Spirit, and intended to teach the character and
methods of His administration of the kingdom of
God on earth. He took of the things of Christ
and showed them unto His disciples, and gave them
understanding and utterance and wisdom and
strength ; so filling them that they preached with
such power over men's consciences that they
trembled and repented, and great grace was upon
them, so that they were enabled to endure trials
and afflictions with joy for Christ's sake ; and by
them the Church was spread abroad over Asia
and Macedonia and Greece, and even to Rome
and Ethiopia.
THE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIEIT. 53
"With these acts of the Holy Spirit before us,
we shall not hesitate to receive the further testi-
mony of the apostles concerning His teaching
and work. The words of those so filled with the
Holy Spirit and doing His works must be true,
and the words of inspiration. And this they
claim that, as in the Scriptures of the Old Testa-
ment, " Holy men of God spake as they were
moved by the Holy Spirit "; so they were chosen
and set apart to bear witness to Christ and His
resurrection ; and their words were not the words
of men, but in truth the words of God. This
truth of His inspiration He makes still plainer by
His illumination of it, showing His mind in it
and bringing to light the deep things of God ;
and thus, by enlightening the understanding of
the reader, applying it to the heart and conscience ;
searching even to the dividing of soul and spirit
and discerning the thoughts and intents of the
heart ; making it piercing as a sharp two-edged
sword, He convicts of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment as Christ foretold of Him. He is
the wisdom and the power behind the word and
preaching of Christ ; and in all the work of the
Church He wields the sword, the Word of God,
and makes all means of grace effectual to their
appointed ends. In that greatest spiritual work,
wherein a sinner is renewed in the spirit of his
mind, and becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus,
54 THE SPIRIT IN REGENERATION.
enabled to repent and embrace Him by faith, lie
is born of the Spirit. He enters the kingdom of
God only through the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Spirit. The cleansing
of the heart, the speaking of pardon and peace,
the spreading abroad of the love of Christ, the
witness of adoption, are all His blessed work.
The whole change from the carnal to the spiritual,
whereby idolaters, drunkards, the worst of men
and the chief of sinners, are washed and sancti-
fied and justified, is in the name of the Lord
Jesus and by the Spirit of God. And so are
they changed, who were walking in the lusts of
the flesh, that they live in the Spirit and bring
forth His fruits of love, joy, peace, long-suffer-
ing, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and
temperance, and walk in all goodness and right-
eousness and truth.
In His work of sanctification He keeps from
the love of sin, delivers from temptation, and
works all righteousness ; sustains in trials, disci-
plines in holiness, guards from the evil one, makes
to grow in grace, teaches to pray, gives His fel-
lowship, fills with love and joy and hope of glory,
seals unto the day of redemption, when He pre-
sents those whom He has justified in Christ fault-
less and blameless before Him with exceeding
joy-
Thus the help of the impenitent and the hope
THE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIEIT. 55
of the renewed are alike and always in the work of
the Spirit, beginning and ending their salvation
through Christ. Here in the power and grace
and love of the Spirit we have the assurance of
the perseverance of the saints. And the sain o
power of the Spirit which raised Christ from the
dead, and which raised the sinner from his death
in sin, shall also raise up those who are Christ's
to everlasting life.
As in the time of Zerubbabel the ruined tem-
ple was built, not by might, nor by power, but
by the Spirit of God, much more now cannot the
body of flesh become a temple of the Holy
Ghost, and the spiritual temple of Christ on
earth, His Church, go up, but by the Spirit of
God. For its edification He gave apostles, teach-
ers, helps, and divers gifts ; and now Himself
dwells in and works with it with divine power.
Through His word and with His gifts and grace
He is now making Christ's redemption effectual
to the world. The Spirit and the Bride are now
inviting all who will to come and take freely of
the water of life.
From the words and works and lives of those
who are filled with the Spirit, and upon whose
ministry He is poured out with blessing, we may
truly judge of the person and character and will
and work of the Spirit Himself in His administra-
tion of the kingdom of Christ.
56 THE SPIEIT IN THE SAINTS.
The Foreign Secretary of the American Board
said, at one of its annual meetings, that he was
accustomed to give to outgoing missionaries, as a
complete manual of instructions, a copy of the
Acts of the Apostles.
The Epistles are written to teach true doctrine
and holy living, being about equally divided be-
tween both ; requiring that the faith of Christ
shall bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. The
Christian should believe the words, live the life,
and do the works of the Spirit.
And the messages of the Spirit to the seven
churches of Asia are equally His messages to the
churches to-day. He does not cease to keep be-
fore them the glory of the Son of God and to
magnify Him in the midst of them. He knows
their works and trials, and would give them the
same counsels and admonitions, and the same
encouragements and promises. The Church and
the work of Christ are His care and delight, and
Christians and their work are dearer to Him
than all else of earth. He abides with them that
they may continue faithful and fruitful.
If now it shall be asked, how we may know
that any one is filled with the Spirit, and how
any word or work is of the Spirit, the answer is
at hand. He Himself bids us "try the spirits
whether they be of G-od." And the first criterion
is this, " Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus
THE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 57
Christ is eome In the flesh is of G-od, and every
spirit which eonfesseth not Jesus is not of God,"
is anti-Christ and anti-Holy Spirit. The whole
work of the Spirit is in the name of Christ, and
on no other ground than His atonement for sin
does He have aught to do with or for sinners ;
and His administration is for the glory of Christ.
He teaches the things of Christ ; and " no man
speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus ac-
cursed, and no man can say that Jesus is the Lord
but by the Holy Spirit. Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God the Spirit.
So also is he who loves the children of God, and
he who keeps His commandments born of the
Spirit"
The carnally-minded is at enmity with God,
but he who minds the things of the Spirit has
life and peace; and whosoever overcometh the
world, gaming his victory through faith in Christ,
is of the Spirit. The Spirit alone casts out devils,
and in the name of Christ.
All the Christian graces are His fruits, and the
evidences of His gracious work in the heart. He
is the Spirit of truth, and Christ is the Truth.
That which Christ is and manifested of God, what
He said and promised, His Gospel, is emphatically
and supremely the truth. And the interpreta-
tion of this truth of Christ must be according to
the proportion or analogy of faith to be of the
58 THE FRUITS OF THE SPIKIT.
Spirit. Faith in Jesus Christ is the one. instru-
mental condition through which the Spirit com-
municates His efficacious grace.
We may try any spirit by his own words and
works, by his spirit of love and obedience, and
by his relation to Christ. This latter is the touch-
stone of all spiritual truth and life. All things
are in the name of the Lord Jesus which are by
the Spirit of God. To be filled with the Holy
Spirit is to be filled with light and truth and
love, with grace and strength and faith, with
praise and joy and hope, with the indwelling
and communion and blessing of the Spirit of
Christ.
And this same mighty and blessed work of
the Spirit of God has been manifest in every age
of the Church ; and to-day, more than ever be-
fore, the Gospel, preached by men filled with the
Holy Spirit, is the power of God unto salva-
tion.
Christianity is the one great, universal fact,
and the ministration of the Spirit the one enlight-
ening, moulding, and saving power of the world.
A missionary goes forth, single-handed, and lays
siege at the gate of a nation, and in the name of
Christ, sets up his banners, and conquers by the
power of the Spirit ; walls of ignorance and super-
stition and evil falling before the blast of his
Gospel trumpet. And this work shall go on,
THE ACTS OF THE HOLY SPIEIT. 59
more and more gloriously, until the Gospel shall
be preached in all the world to every creature ;
until through the spread of the Church of
Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, the kingdoms
of this earth shall become the kingdoms of our
Lord and His Christ.
Christ's promise : " Lo, I am with you alway,
even unto the end of the world," unto " the con-
summation of the ages," is fulfilled in the gift
and presence and work of the Spirit.
CHAPTEE Y.
THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT.
IF one should be asked, " Do you love the Holy
Spirit ? " he would not have an answer ready as
if the question were, " Do you love Jesus ? "
Or., if the question were, "Does the Holy Spirit
love you ? " would the answer be as certain as if
it were, " Does (rod love you ? "
Probably you have not got much beyond the
Apostles' Creed, " I believe in the Holy Ghost ";
or, if you have prayed for His presence as a Spirit
of Power, you never have thought of Him as the
Spirit of Love, who loves you personally with
Divine love unspeakable.
You often have wished that you had lived when
Christ was in the flesh. Could you see His face,
and walk with Him in the way, and hear His
words, and talk with Him, you would understand
Him and believe Him and love Him, and would
follow Him even unto death, forgetting how
Peter and the other disciples forsook Him and
fled. He said it was better for them, and for us,
that He should go away, that the Comforter might
(60)
THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT. 61
come, whom. He would send to more than fill
His place, and to be with us forever.
And His going by the way of the cross was the
very condition of the Spirit's coming, the pur-
chase of His blessing and ministry. Since then
the Holy Spirit has dwelt personally with the
Church, filling her that He might reveal and
glorify Christ ; and so He has been the efficient
instrument in the upbuilding of the kingdom of
Christ. Yet the Church has not given Him the
welcome nor the honor that He merits, nor the
equal place in her heart and her prayers that He
deserves.
"We pray for the Holy Spirit, we invoke His
divine presence and almighty power, but seldom
do we pray to Him personally and give Him
thanks ; much less do we express our love to Him,
and ask Him to bestow His divine love upon us.
And in whatever way we have failed to exalt
Him in our thoughts, or to love Him in our
hearts, or to worship Him in our devotions, we
have failed of receiving the fullness of His blessed
fellowship.
The Church has yet very much to learn con-
cerning the Holy Spirit ; if, indeed, this is not the
special department of divine knowledge and reve-
lation which she needs just now to know experi-
mentally, and in whose unveiling lies her still
more glorious development.
62 THE SPIEIT DIVINE LOYE.
"While the Holy Spirit is divine power and
wisdom and truth, He has equally all the divine
attributes and. perfections ; but is, in a special
manner in His relations to the Church, Divine
Love ; and until we know and worship Him as
Divine Love we can hardly be said to know Him
at all.
It is not only difficult, but in many respects it
is impossible to distinguish the persons of the
Godhead ; and to take in this mystery of godli-
ness is, of course, beyond the stretch of finite
mind. It will ever be a growing mystery with
increasing knowledge in the ages to come. "When-
ever we think of one, we cannot forget the other
persons of the blessed Trinity ; for in all divine
revelations each strives to glorify the other, and
each is equally interested in and glorified by the
others' glory.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit pro-
mote, partake of, and enjoy one another's glory,
and by their benevolence towards and complacency
in one another exhibit the divine unity. In all
their relations to us they manifest, not only their
divine love for us, but also, and equally, their
love for one another. And while it is not always
easy to distinguish their personal love to us, so
united are they in the work of our redemption,
yet so marked is this as the characteristic
of the Godhead, that we can only and fully ex-
THE LOVE OF THE SPIEIT. 63
press it by saying, God the Father is Divine Love,
God the Son is Divine Love, and God the Spirit
is Divine Love ; and then gather all in one, and
say, as does St. John, " God is love "; and he
knows Him not in His fullness of divine love
who loves not Father and Son and Holy Spirit.
There is, however, a clear distinction in their
personal love to us, which is manifested in their
offices and work, and which indicates their per-
sonal relations to us.
And while we have constantly dwelt on and
rejoiced in the love of the Father and the love of
the Son, have we thought sufficiently, if at aD, of
the love of the Spirit toward us ?
Yet it is a blessed truth that the Spirit loves us
equally with the Father and the Son, and is now
doing a work of love for us as divine as theirs. It
is, indeed, true that the love of the Father and the
love of the Son are often mentioned in the Word
of God, while the love of the Spirit, the Inspirer
of the Scriptures, is mentioned directly but once ;
yet this agrees with what Christ taught concern-
ing His work, " He shall not speak of Himself,"
" He shall glorify inc." And in this He mani-
fests a divine self-forgetfulness and benevolence,
like that of Christ in the flesh, which subordinates
His own glory to the glory of Christ.
In Eomans xv. 30, where St. Paul mentions
the love of the Spirit, he is speaking of " the
64 LOVE SHOWN IN WOEKS.
fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ ";
and adds, " Now I beseech you, brethren, for
our Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of
the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in
your prayers to God for me," thus making the
love of the Spirit and the glory of Christ equally
strong inducements to faith and prayer.
The old adage, "Actions speak louder than
words," applies to the Spirit's work of love above
that of all others. Wherever the work of the
Spirit is mentioned, and wherever it is seen, His
love is implied or manifested. Love is every-
where its inspiration. The Acts of the Apostles,
being those of men full of the Holy Spirit,
show His love on every page of their record.
And His administration of the Church in and
since their day attests the same Divine Love.
No doctrine, therefore, can be more practical
and profitable, for the Church to know by a
living experience, than this of the Divine love of
the Holy Spirit ; and it should also be the joy of
every Christian that his Teacher and Sanctifier
and Comforter is Divine Love.
For the unfolding of this truth, the writer is
greatly indebted to a work of an old English
author, Eev. Eobert Philip, entitled " The Love
of the Spirit," which has been blessed not a little
to his own Christian experience, and from which
he will have occasion often to quote, since he can-
THE LOVE OE THE SPIRIT. 65
not hope to improve upon the beauty and force
of his words.
That the Love of the Spirit may be clearly
seen in His work, it will be necessary to notice
briefly the love of the Father and the love of the
Son in the work of redemption. Man was fallen,
ruined, 'and lost, without help or hope; justly
condemned by the holy and righteous and good
law of God ; when the Divine love of the Father
was so moved with compassion toward this apos-
tate world that " He gave His only-begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth on Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life."
The Divine Son held the most intimate pos-
sible relation to the Father ; and was the only-
begotten, the only one He could give and not
replace, and the only one who could pay the
price of the world's redemption. Him the Father
gave up to humiliation and death, laying the
burden and penalty of the world's sin and guilt
upon Him. " It pleased the Lord to bruise Him,"
so did He love us.
And when the Father asked for some one to
i
become a substitute and sacrifice to bear the sins
of the world and redeem it from its curse, the
Divine Son also so loved us as to give Himself
for us, saying, "Here am I; send me." He
"came into the world to save sinners," and
"while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
66 CHEIST'S LOVE KEJEOTED.
He drank the bitter cup of our sins in sad Geth-
semane, and poured out His soul unto -death for
us on Calvary ; without which our salvation was
impossible.
Thus He bought the privilege of proclaiming
to the world, through the Spirit and the Church,
salvation to the uttermost through Himself.
The love of Christ for us as that of the Father
passeth knowledge broad as the universe, long
as eternity, deep as sin, and high as heaven.
But how did sinners treat His gift of saving
grace, purchased at such a price ? " Ye will not
come unto me that ye might have life," Christ
exclaims in an agony of disappointment. It was
this rejection of His love that made him " a man
of sorrows." His most pathetic wail over Jeru-
salem was only the prelude to His death of a
broken heart on the cross, because man would
not take His gift of love.
And no man of his own will ever has come to
Christ for salvation ; and except the Father draw
Him by His Spirit none ever will be saved
through Him. Did the Divine love end here all
were lost, and the cross were vain to man. And
nothing could show greater love before high
heaven than to provide at such a sacrifice grace
unto salvation for sinful man.
But the Divine love did not end here; the
love of the Spirit is yet to be most gloriously
THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT. 67
revealed. The Father and the Son gave and sent
Him to complete the work of redemption. There
is now no more need of sacrifice and suffering ;
the price is paid, and redemption is free; but
that the gift of Christ may become saving grace,
it must become regenerating and sanctifying
grace. The sinner must be convicted of his sin,
and enabled to accept Christ as his Saviour ; his
heart must be renewed by the Holy Spirit ; and
then he must be sanctified until he shall be made
meet for heaven. The Holy Spirit must give
him entrance into the kingdom of heaven through
Christ the way. Christ wrought salvation for
the sinner ; but the Spirit's work is further nec-
essary to work salvation in the sinner one
is the complement of the other.
The love of the Spirit is just as necessary, in
its place, to the salvation of a sinner as that of
the Father and the Son ; and it will detract noth-
ing from their love to magnify the love of the
Spirit, but will rather glorify it.
I cannot make this plainer than does Mr.
Philip.* "The real question is now, "What was
wanted after Christ had finished His atoning
work? There was His sacrifice, perfect, all-
sufficient, and glorious ! Nothing could be added
to its merits, or its efficacy, or its acceptableness
* "Love of the Spirit," chap. i.
68 CHRIST'S LOVE MADE EFFICACIOUS.
before God as a ransom for souls. But still
around that sacrifice stood a world, yea, a Church,
which knew neither its merits nor its meaning,
and which never could have understood them
had not the Spirit explained them, and never
would have employed them had He not applied
them. Thus, although the fountain for sin and
uncleanness was opened by the death of Christ,
there were none to wash their robes in the blood
of the Lamb until the love of the Spirit enlight-
ened and led them. But for His love, therefore,
the love of Christ would have remained unap-
preciated and unknown both to the world and to
the Church."
" But for what the Spirit did, all that Christ en-
dured would have had no saving effect upon man.
It is the very glory of the Saviour's love that it
depended as much on the sanctifying love of the
Spirit, as the paternal love did on the blood of
the Lamb."
Dr. "Wardlaw also well says: "The work of
Christ and the work of the Spirit are mutually
necessary to each other's efficacy ; and are thus
both alike indispensable to the salvation of a sin-
ner. Without the work of Christ the Spirit
would want the means, or the instrument of His
operation ; and without the work of the Spirit
the means would remain inefficacious and fruit-
less."
THE LOVE OF THE SPIEIT. 69
The necessity of the work of the Spirit to the
efficacy of the work of Christ could not be more
strongly put than by St. Paul, when he says,
" No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by
the Holy Spirit."
Concerning the motive of the Spirit's work,
Dr. Owen says : " The principle or foundation of
all the Spirit's actings for our consolation is His
own infinite love and condescension. He will-
ingly proceeded and came forth from the Father
to be our Comforter. He knew what we were
and what would be our dealings with Him. He
knew we would grieve Him, provoke Him,
quench His motion, defile His dwelling-place,
and yet He would come to be our Comforter."
Thus the fullness of the Divine love appears
only when we try to measure the love of the
Father in planning, the love of the Son in pro-
curing, and the love of the Spirit in applying re-
demption. The grace of God came from the
Father, through the Son and by the Spirit, bring-
ing salvation ; originating in the love of the
Father, made free by the love of the Son. and
efficacious by the love of the Spirit. The Father
shows His Jove by what He gave ; the Son His
love in what He suffered, and the Spirit His Jove
in what He does ; and this is intensified beyond
measure by the fact, that it is Divine love for the
ungodly, for sinners, for the enemies of God.
70 LOVE OF THE TRINITY OONTEASTED.
The love of the Father and the Son also sent
the Spirit into the world, that He should, with
His own Divine love and power and grace, be our
personal Comforter, to dwell and work in and
with us forever.
The Father's love was infinite benevolence, di-
vinest compassion toward a perishing world ; de-
serving to perish as sinners against His holy law.
For the same sinners, and while they were yet
sinners, Christ died, the just for the unjust, love
passing knowledge. To the same sinners the
Holy Spirit came and gave Himself to abide
with them.
The incarnation of the Son of God, with His
humiliation and suffering in the flesh, is the great
mystery of godliness. For three-and-thirty years
He lived on this earth, buffeted of Satan and dis-
owned and despised and rejected of men ; when
He rose from the dead : ascended into heaven,
and is now at the right hand of the Majesty on
high, our ever-living Intercessor.
Is it not also a like humiliation for the Holy
Spirit to come from Heaven to earth to live with
and dwell in sinful flesh to the end of the world \
The association with and contradiction of sin-
ners which Christ endured so meekly a few years,
the Spirit endures continually in His love for
Christ and for us. This appears still more vividly
when we consider that the Spirit is the Holy
THE LOVE OF THE SPIEIT. 71
Spirit; holy in His nature and character, and
will and work'; infinitely delighting in holiness
and utterly abhorring sin ; the giver and executor
of the holy law ; the very conscience of the God-
head itself ; who could not look upon sin, or do
aught but take holy vengeance upon it, except
through the blood of Christ ; who also approved
of Christ as a sin-offering before ever He would
undertake to atone for man's guilt or bear its
penalty. Conceive of what it would be for the
saintliest man of earth to go into a saloon and
stay there in association with the intemperate;
amidst the smoke of tobacco and the fumes of
liquor ; obliged to listen to the coarse blasphemy
and the disgusting vileness of its inmates, and we
get a faint idea of what it means for the Holy
Spirit to come to strive with sinful man even to
save him.
For Him to have anything to do with sin, to
be where it is, to dwell in the midst of it, to
show it any favor, would be infinite condescen-
sion and boundless love.
He who finally destroys forever from the pres-
ence of the Lord and the glory of His power
sinners out of Christ ; preserving and maintain-
ing eternally the purity of holy heaven; yet
comes to this sinful and accursed earth to abide ;
the very last place, in the universe of G-od, where
we would expect to find the Holy Spirit, except
72 THE CONDESCENSION OF THE SPIKIT.
it were in hell itself ; and sinful earth must be
as a hell to Him.
The sacrifice of Christ was the only condition
on which He could or would sanction the offer of
pardon and grace to sinners ; and only in Christ's
name does He come to a sinner to offer or bestow
grace. And what makes the love of the Holy
Spirit more remarkable, is the fact, that He knew
into just what kind of a world He was coming,
He knew the nature of the carnal heart \ its dis-
obedience to the holy law ; its deceitf ulness and
desperate wickedness , its enmity against God and
all good. He knew how Christ was despised and
rejected of men ; and put to death by those He
came to save, and that He Himself would receive
exactly the same treatment. As it is not possible
to conceive of admitting sin into holy heaven
and its remaining holy and God's throne and
dwelling-place, no more can we conceive how the
Holy Spirit can endure to dwell in this sinful
world, and not destroy its sin with immediate
destruction. Nor can sinful man himself con-
ceive of the exceeding sinfulness of his sin.
Only the Holy Spirit can reveal its evil and de-
sert ; and His measure of it is only partly con-
veyed to us by the everlasting penalty of the law,
and the infinite sacrifice of Christ. The very
holiness of the Spirit conceals His love while it
reveals it ; as the light blinds our eyes with its
THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT. 73
very purity so that we forget that it also gives
light and warmth.
It is a wonder of wonders that the Holy Spirit
ever comes to a sinner and has any dealings with
him except to execute judgment.
It is a still greater wonder that He stays so
long and waits so patiently ; and it is a miracle
of love, Divine love and grace, that He makes
a sinful heart a fit temple for His indwelling here,
and meet for the fellowship of heaven here-
after.
And He comes, not only to the worthiest and
best, but even to the chief of sinners, and under-
takes to save the worst and the vilest. And this He
does without being under any personal obligation
or necessity ; and when it seems almost to be un-
holy ; the moving of it being altogether apart
from man; and from His own divine benevo-
lence ; made possible by the love and righteous-
ness of Christ.
In all this work, He is a free Spirit, and His
work is one of personal, Divine love.
And He is not grieved away, nor quenched ;
but stays and works, for weeks and months and
years, until love has conquered sin, and the sin-
ner has become a saint, and the saint is glorified
in Christ.
The long-suffering patience of the Holy Spirit
with the sinner is infinite forbearance and kind-
74 THE PATIENCE OP THE SPIRIT.
ness, and His patience with the saints is also the
patience of Divine love unwearied.
Owen, in his work on " Spiritual-Mindedness,"
says that " the thoughts of spiritual things are
with many as guests that come into an inn, and
not like children that dwell in the house." His
guests come and go and are entertained for a time
and forgotten ; and the innkeeper knows little of
them, having no personal interest in them, and
entertains all alike courteously. If a great or a
royal one comes, unannounced, he is treated like
others, and at times angels are entertained un-
awares. The Holy Spirit comes into the heart
unrecognized ; or instead of being given a place
to dwell, or welcomed even as a guest, is turned
away, not as a stranger, but as an enemy ; or, if
He must be admitted for a time, is given a place
with one's worldly thoughts instead of a sanc-
tuary. The Lord is in the heart and is unknown.
A more than angelic messenger and minister,
who comes with glad tidings and would stay and
bless with all Divine blessings, is turned away,
neglected, grieved, and provoked, it may be so
as never to return again. Engrossed with the
trifles and vanities of earth, God is forgotten and
heaven is lost.
" What but love," exclaims Mr. Philip,* " could
* " Love of the Spirit," chap. i.
THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT. 75
have induced the Holy Spirit to strive with us at
all? and He might justly have passed us by
when we first resisted Him. Did He not love
equally with the Father and the Son, He never
would have tried to make a holy temple of your
heart and mine."
Open wide your hearts, beloved, to the love of
the Spirit; watch eagerly for His coming, and
give Him a joyful welcome; listen eagerly to
His sweet pleadings, and make Him a sanctuary.
Dwell in His blessed fellowship, and grieve Him
not for your life ; and, when He convicts of sin,
depart from it at any cost ; when He takes of the
things of Christ, and shows them unto you, ac-
cept them with all your hearts, that He may
apply them to your salvation and sanctification.
What better thing can one ask for you than
that the love of the Holy Spirit may be with you.
CHAPTER VI.
THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT IN CONVICTING
OF SIN.
HAVING considered the love of God, that the
Father is Divine Love, and the Son is Divine
Love, and the Spirit is Divine Love, and how
each of the Blessed Three personally manifests
the Divine Love to us the Father in what He
gave, the Son in what He suffered, and the Spirit
in what He does we shall be ready to give to
the Holy Spirit His equal place, and to notice in
particular the works which manifest His personal
love to us in His present and personal adminis-
tration of the kingdom of heaven.
Our Lord promised to send the Spirit to be
our present and personal divine Comforter, and
told us how He should perform this gracious
office. " And when He is come He will reprove,"
or convict, " the world of sin and of righteous-
ness and of judgment."
A strange way this, it would seem at first
thought, to help and comfort, and not so much
to manifest love as severity.
The word " convict," which is the rendering of
(76)
HIS LOVE IN CONVICTING OF SIN. 77
the revised version, gives us the true idea of His
work. He does more than to reprove the world ;
He convicts it.
This shows no approbation of or sympathy
with sin, but condemnation of it ; and is gener- ,
ally a most thankless office.
Few have the moral courage, not to speak of
the love, to tell even their dearest friends their
faults, and point out to them faithfully but kindly
their sins; and fewer still will receive such re-
proof in a spirit of meekness.
Not many can say with the Psalmist: "Let
the righteous smite me, and it shall be a kindness.
Let him reprove me, and it shall be an excellent
oil which shall not break my head." To give or
to receive such a reproof in the right spirit is a
distinguishing grace. But simply to reprove the
world of sin is not worthy of the Comforter, and
does not take the place of Christ's personal pres-
ence.
Archdeacon Hare, in his " Mission of the Com-
forter," says : * " We did not need that the Spirit
of God should come down from heaven to re-
prove the world of sin the words of men would
have been sufficient for this."
The Holy Spirit knew sin in its Satanic na-
ture, in its vileness and deadly wickedness, and
* p. 36.
78 THE ENMITY OF THE CARNAL HEART.
sought nothing less than its utter destruction.
He would exterminate it root and branch.
lie knew that the heart of man was carnal, and
would mind the things of the flesh ; was enmity
against God, and would not be subject to His
law. He saw the choice, the will, the affections,
the conscience, the very nature of man depraved,
needing not only light, but life. Christ had
come, and had been despised and rejected and
put to death by those He came to save.
Yain would Jiave been His coming and His
love had not the Spirit been sent for a greater
work than reproof or warning or invitation. The
love of Christ had already done all this. The
Spirit came to convict the world of sin, and this
conviction was not merely to make the world
know its sin this it already knew but to convict
with reference to an end worthy of His coming ;
to convict unto repentance and salvation ; to con-
vict of sin because they believed not on Christ,
and that they should believe on Him.
His work of conviction was a means, not an
end. It looked Christward and was for His
glory. Christ was " the way and the truth and
the life," and the Spirit would lead the sinner in
the way, through the truth, to the life in Christ.
In the hands even of the Spirit the Law is a law
of sin and death, and He has no law of life except
in Christ Jesus.
HIS LOVE IN CONVICTING OF SIN. 79
Mr. Philip says :* " There is no conversion
from sin until there be conviction of sin ; and
there is no conviction of sin which tends to Christ
or to holiness, but that which the Holy Spirit plants
in the soul."
Christ's death was the divinest expression of the
sinfulness and ruin of sin and of man's perishing
need of mercy. This was the precious price of
redemption. Man was condemned already, and
neither Christ nor the Spirit came to show this,
but that he might be saved. And now that
Christ has died, the sinner's condemnation is be-
cause he will not believe on Him. The Spirit
came for, and is intent on, producing conviction
of this one sin of unbelief and rejection of Christ.
Even His divine love would not have brought
Him to the world for any other purpose. He
could not convict with any promise of peace or
help or hope except through Christ. Like Him
He came into the world to save sinners.
See now the love of the Spirit as He conde-
scends to us sinners, searching the heart, piercing
it with truth, troubling conscience, reproving,
threatening, condemning, showing delusions, strip-
ping off self -righteousness ; while we are provoked
at Him and hate Him for it, and quench Him and
grieve Him more and more ; His pure eyes be-
holding the vileness of our sin, the stench of it
* " Love of the Spirit," chap. ii.
80 THE FAITHFULNESS OF THE SPIEIT.
coming up into His nostrils, its profanity and
blasphemy filling His ears ; yet with divine long-
suffering and infinite compassion He tells us faith-
fully the truth and leaves us not, but comes again
and again, for months and years, even down to
old age, that He may lead us to repentance and
reception of Christ.
In all this He is a faithful friend, a true com-
forter, never deceiving with false hopes, never
speaking peace to the wicked, pointing always
and only to Christ. But for Christ's redemption He
could not do this ; but for His own great love He
would not, and for our sakes He does it that we
may live and not die.
The sin of unbelief is that for which finally
the impenitent perish. All other sins culminate
in this which rejects Christ. For other sins there
is hope until this last hope is cut off. Unbelief
in Christ is also and equally rejection of the love
of the Father and of the Holy Spirit.
The law punishes sin against its command-
ments with severity. " Of how much sorer pun-
ishment," says the Epistle to the Hebrews, " shall
he be thought worthy who hath trodden under-
foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an
unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit
of grace?" He shall fall into the hands of the
living God, who taketh vengeance.
HIS LOVE IN CONVICTING OF SIN. 81
Having convinced us of sin, until we see and
feel its guilt and danger, and are ready humbly
to confess it and to turn from it with hatred of
it, until perhaps we so feel our helpless and lost
condition that we know not how such a sinner
can be saved, the Spirit takes of the things of
Christ and shows them unto us, making Him all-
glorious as a Saviour.
This is the second step in His work of convic-
tion, to testify of the righteousness of Christ, who
is gone to the Father, having finished the work
given Him to do, and is become our Mediator.
As the sinner has no true sense of his sin until
the Spirit convinces him of it, so he cannot know
the purity of righteousness and the beauty of holi-
ness, or appreciate the righteousness of Christ,
and will not care for a part in His imputed right-
eousness who bore the penalty of his sin until
taught of the Spirit. He does not see that his
own righteousnesses are as " filthy rags," and^that
his self-righteousness only plunges him deeper
and deeper into the mire, until the Spirit, in His
faithful love, makes him to see his uncleanness.
Not until then can the Spirit present the right-
eousness of Christ with any success. And He is
not such a Comforter that He will be content with
any half-way work, with simply producing " the
sorrow of the world, 1 ' which acts from fear of con-
sequences, and not from conviction of the sinful-
82 LOVE FOE THE CHIEF OF SINNEKS.
ness of sin and the need of Christ's righteousness ;
but will work that repentance which is Godly sor-
row, which turns from sin and seeks the mercy
of God.
Nothing shows more clearly the long-suffering,
the patient, the inexhaustible love of the Spirit in
convicting of the sin of unbelief and of the need
of Christ's righteousness, than to consider the
classes of sinners to which He comes and the
changes He works in them, as given by St. Paul :
" Know you not that the unrighteous shall not in-
herit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived,
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunk-
ards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit
the kingdom of God. And such were some of
you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God."
The Spirit goes to the lowest and vilest and
worst, and brings them into the kingdom of God.
Again, while "the flesh lusteth against the
Spirit," and " the works of the flesh are adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wrath, factions,
divisions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revel-
lings, and such like," He comes to the flesh and
works conviction and repentance until it is changed
HIS LOVE IN CONVICTING OF SIN. 83
to bring forth the fruits of " love, joy, peace, long-
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meek-
ness, and temperance," the works of righteousness.
Even to the apostle who wrote these things,
and when he was breathing out threatenings and
slaughter against the disciples of the Lord and
persecuting Him, the Spirit came ; not in venge-
ance, but in convicting love, removing the
scales from Saul's blind eyes, until it was said of
Him, "behold, he prayeth "; and afterwards Paul
presents himself to the world as an example of
the divine long-suffering and mercy.
The Spirit comes by the still small voice ; and
if the sinner will not listen to that, He comes
with a startling providence, or severe affliction ;
and at times when the sinner is most desperate
in sin and in places where we would least expect
the Holy Spirit to go, He goes a faithful Com-
forter seeking to save.
No mother was ever so patient with a disobe-
dient child, no father ever so grieved over a
prodigal son, no wife ever so bore with a drunken
husband as the Spirit of God bears with rebel-
lious and hardened and lost sinners.
To know and receive Him when He comes in
conviction is the very first step in the way of sal-
vation. By this means He is seeking to stop sin-
ners in the road to destruction ; and to arrest their
thoughts and turn them to Christ.
84 HIS LOVE IN REGENERATION.
Let one receive Him in conviction and the
Spirit will soon lead him to Christ, working re-
pentance of sin, and faith in Christ's blood and
righteousness.
Now, if one goes to Christ as the Spirit leads
and seeks mercy in His name, the Spirit not only
has authority and power to grant it, but takes
greatest delight in answering his prayer. He can
and will do all things for any sinner who asks in
Jesus' name.
By His own almighty power and in His own
mysterious way, the Spirit creates in him a clean
heart and renews a right spirit within him.
The sinner experiences " the washing of regen-
eration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,"
and becomes " a new creature in Christ Jesus."
Being now washed from sin the Spirit can take
complacent delight in him ; and being also united
to Christ, having become a partaker of His grace,
the Spirit loves him even as he loves Christ,
whose he now is. And here His love seems to
change entirely, and besides being long-suffering
and compassionate and convicting, is also joyful
and personal, and approving and complacent.
He sheds abroad in the sinner's heart the love of
God and bears witness to his pardon. The change
is in the sinner and not in the Holy Spirit.
Now, the Spirit manifests the same love in his
justification, not only by showing the things of
HIS LOVE IN CONVICTING OP SIN. 85
Christ unto him, but by applying them to his par-
don and acceptance as righteous. The Spirit's love
glows and beams as with a flame as He witnesses
to the sinner that his sins are forgiven and he is
reconciled to God.
He speaks peace to his conscience and gives
him joy in the hope of the glory of God, while
He admits him to all the rights and privileges of
the sons of God.
And when the Spirit sheds abroad the love of
God in his heart, the believer experiences a new-
born love which realizes for the first time that
God is love and sees Christ as " the chiefest
among ten thousand," and " altogether lovely."
All his spiritual powers are quickened and
ruled by the love of God; humility and peni-
tence and faith are mingled with peace and joy
and hope, while sin is crucified and righteousness
is chosen and loved. The Holy Spirit is a welcome
guest where once the door was shut to Him.
His presence gives unspeakable joy and comfort
and His fellowship is esteemed the choicest friend-
ship.
Thus it is evident that it is as the Spirit of
Truth that the Holy Spirit is our real Comforter.
Christ, as God manifest in the flesh, is the
Truth, who purchases and proclaims redemp-
tion ' in comparison with which nothing else is
truth to man.
86 THE SPIKIT OF TEUTH.
To know God, and Jesus Christ whom He
hath sent, is prime truth and all knowledge, even
eternal life. Christ is all and in all.
And the Spirit is also the Truth in revealing
Christ to us, in convincing us of the sin of un-
belief as our great sin, and of the righteousness
of Christ as the only ground and hope of our
salvation.
When, therefore, you ask of the Spirit of God,
" What is truth ? " His answer is, " Christ is the
Truth." He is, as He said, " the way, the truth,
and the life." No man cometh to the Father
but by Him. The washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost is poured on us
richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
And the Church in her ministry of reconcilia-
tion has borne her witness that, " God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them," and " hath
made Him to be sin for. us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in
Him."
And in further convincing the world " of judg-
ment, because the prince of this world hath been
judged," the Spirit shows the benefit of the
righteousness of Christ and its acceptance with
the Father and Himself as a ground of justifica-
tion for those who trust in it; and also how
Christ is the righteous judge who shall crown
HIS LOVE IN CONVICTING OF SIN. 87
with righteousness them that believe on Him ;
and reward the saints with eternal life ; and so
shall His kingdom be established forever.
In his masterpiece of strategy, in the tempta-
tion in the wilderness, Satan was repulsed by
Christ through His faith in God and obedience
to His will. So again in his master-stroke of
malignity, whereby he thought to destroy His
kingdom and prevent the salvation of the world,
by accomplishing Christ's death, Satan only estab-
lished the righteousness of Christ forever, and
gave Him an inviolable title to His kingdom ;
and secured the purchase of redemption for all
who shall believe in Him.
They who are in Christ need have no fear of
Satan's utmost attacks on them, when Christ in
whom they trust has been the death of death ;
slaying their last enemy and giving victory for-
ever to the saints.
In His judgment every knee shall bow, and
every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ to
the glory of God the Father.
Of this also the Spirit convinces them who
trust in the righteousness of Christ, when He
speaks peace to them and assures them of the
hope of the glory of God, enabling them to say
" Abba, Father." Whom He justifies, them He
will also glorify. Nothing shall separate them from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
88 HIS LOVE UNTO GLOEIPIC ATIOtf.
But for the love of God the Father, intending
Christ, the world had perished without help or
hope.
But for the love of Christ in giving up His
life to provide a righteousness for us, we had re-
mained under condemnation and " dead in tres-
passes and sins."
And but for the same infinite love of the Spirit
we would inevitably have perished in our sin and
hardness and unbelief, and have been lost in the
very sight of the cross. The way to heaven would
have been made with none to walk in it, and the
gate of heaven open with none to enter in.
Thus the great love of the Spirit in conviction
is manifest in the end He seeks by it, the .salva-
tion of the sinner and the glory of Christ. .Nor
does His love end when He has brought the sin-
ner to Christ, penitent and justified, but has only
just begun. He has only introduced him to
Christ, the way ; and will, with the same patient,
faithful Divine love, be his Comforter until the
end is consummated in glory. And although
His love seems to be different after He begins to
bestow the grace of Christ upon the sinner, it is
the same.
He did not convict the sinner to taunt him
with his sins and condemnation, and to make
him wretched, but to bring him to Christ ; and
now He abides with him in whom He has begun
HIS LOVE IN CONVICTING OF SIN. 89
a good work, to sanctify him and make him com-
plete in Christ. The Christian has only just
begun to drink of the fountain of His divine
love.
When the man of God goes into a saloon,
or a gambling-hell, or brothel, we know that
nothing but love for their wretched inmates
takes him there, and his object is their salvation ;
while his very presence there produces conviction
of sin and shame, and is as light in darkness;
and we call his spirit one of Christian compassion
and heaven-born charity. It is angelic, yea !
Christ-like work.
So, for the Holy Spirit to come to this lost
world to convict it of sin, to abide and suffer long
and wait to save, is even better for us than to
have Christ with us in the body.
Blot out from the earth all the sweet ministries
of love, born of the Spirit in Christian charity,
and this world were a wilderness and a desert of
sin and death. Had not the Holy Spirit come to
earth with His convicting, comforting, saving
love and grace, blackness of darkness had settled
down upon it in an everlasting night of death
and despair.
Surely the Spirit of God is the Comforter
divinely sent, and is Himself Divine love, and as
an ever-present Christ.
CHAPTER VII.
THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT IN SANCTIFICA-
TION.
GKEAT as is the love of the Spirit in convict-
ing us of sin, His love does not end with this ;
indeed, He has only just begun to manifest it and
we to experience it. The Holy Spirit will not
leave us until He has made us holy like Himself.
Paul writes to the Corinthians as " unto them
that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be
saints "; and to the Thessalonians, " The very
God of peace sanctify you wholly." Peter writes
to Christians as " elect through sanctification of
the Spirit."
This shows the further work which remains to
be done by the Spirit until we shall become saints
indeed, fitted for glory. Christ, who has been
made unto us wisdom and righteousness, is yet to
be made unto sanctification and redemption be-
fore our salvation shall be completed. We were
washed and justified, now we are to be sanctified,
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of our God.
As Christ was our justification and the Spirit
(90)
HIS LOVE IN 8 A NOTIFICATION. 91
our Justifier, so also is Christ our sanctification
and the Spirit our Sanctifier.
We who were born of the Spirit are spirit;
who were carnally-minded are spiritually-minded.
We walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit ;
are not under the law of sin and death, but under
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. We
are new creatures in Christ, yet as new-born
babes in Him, crying for light, needing the sin-
cere milk of the Word ; learning to walk, we arc
to grow up to youth and manhood and a ripe
spiritual age, as from the blade to the ear and to
the full corn in the ear. Having been made par-
takers of the 'imputed and justifying righteous-
ness of Christ, we are to become really and per-
sonally and practically righteous.
As babes and children need constantly a moth-
er's care, so we need the instruction and guidance
and strengthening and comfort of the loving
Spirit.
While our conviction of sin and of righteousness
may have been a long and gradual process, our
regeneration and justification were immediate ;
our sanctification being, as the word implies, also
a process of the Spirit, a making holy, to continue
while we are in the flesh.
Yet it will not be improper, and will simplify
our idea of it, to regard the whole work of the
Spirit, from conviction of sin to glorification, as
92 HIS LOVE IN KEGENEKATION.
the one work of sanetification ; the .regeneration
being the crisis of the work ; that without which
nothing more could be done.
In regeneration, when the choice is made of
holiness, one becomes spiritual, and whether the
change seems gradual or sudden, the whole work
must be attributed to the power and love of the
Spirit.
It was not in the nature or desire or will of the
carnal heart to change ; so that where we find
any hatred of sin and desire for holiness, any love
for Christ or other fruits of the Spirit, we need
not hesitate to ascribe them to the Spirit, or to
say of one who bears them that he is born of the
Spirit.*
But we would not expect a child to be as a
man, so we should not look for perfection in the
regenerate. He is a new creature and complete
in Christ, yet very imperfect in himself. "While
a Christian is renewed in heart and purpose and
affection, and has begun a spiritual life, he has
the same body with its appetites and passions, and
the same mind with its desires, that he had before
conversion. And the mind and will and affec-
tions are not easily turned from the old ways of
thinking and feeling and action, and the habits of
years are not quickly changed. And no old facul-
" Summer at Peace Cottage," chap, xxii
HIS LOVE IN SANCTIFICATION. 93
ties are removed, nor are any new powers added
by regeneration.
The old servants of sin must be taught and
trained in the way of righteousness, and this will
not be an easy or rapid process, but comes of long
discipline and much experience. The flesh lust-
eth against the Spirit, sin dwelleth in him, evil is
present when he would do good, the old man of
sin dies hard, and there goes on an internal war-
fare in which one is often brought into captivity
to the flesh. The natural disposition will be the
same, but will be turned into holy channels, and
easily-besetting sins will be the enemies to be
watched and fought against. But there will be
this marked difference, that now one does not
allow, nor love, nor glory in sin, but grieves over
it and strives to overcome it.
On the other hand, that which was good will
become better, the gentleman will be more gentle,
the sympathetic more tender, the benevolent more
charitable, and the moral more upright. Each in
his place and work will" be better for having be-
come a Christian.
Mr. Goulbourn speaks thus 'encouragingly of
this beginning : " The more earnest desire for a
holier life, which is often found in the soul, is
something, nay, it is much, it is the fruit of grace ;
earnest desire of holiness is holiness in the germ
thereof. Soon shalt thou know if thou follow
94 THE PARACLETE AND HELPER.
on to know the Lord. But take one short and
plain caution before we start. Sanctification is
JL
not the work of a day, but of a life. Growth in
grace is subject to the same law of gradual and
imperceptible advance as growth in nature." *
Let no one think that this process will be an
easy one, or that sin can be overcome in any other
way than by the constant help of the Holy Spirit.
And this shows the great love of the Spirit, that
in addition to all He has done for us in bringing
us to Christ, He has undertaken our sanctifica-
tion. And as this is like in character to His pre-
vious work, so it is to be accomplished by the
same means. As we were justified through faith
in Christ, and in His name, so we are to continue
in union with Him by a life of faith for sanctifi-
cation. And in all this work the Spirit is our most
faithful and loving friend and comforter. There is,
however, this difference, that, whereas formerly the
heart was carnal, and He found nothing to please
and could only convict of sin ; now it is spiritual,
and He comes into it with approving and com-
placent love ; to convict still of sin, if sin remains,
and to grieve over its backsliding and unbelief if
it departs from Christ. He knows how weak we
are, how prone to sin ; but, instead of casting us
off, would be our Paraclete or Standby and Helper.
* " Thoughts on Personal Keligion," p. 18.
HIS LOVE IN SANCTIFICATION. 95
As He shed abroad the love of Christ in our
hearts at conversion, so that we were ravished
with His love, so He would more and more
reveal Christ's love in its breadth and depth and
length and height that we may know and partake
of its fullness. His convicting faithfulness and
regenerating power and grace and witness of jus-
tification are but foretastes of what He will do
for us the first-fruits and earnest of the Spirit,
the pledge of our sanctification.
The first office-work of the Spirit after uniting
us to Christ is that of Adoption. " To them that
receive Christ He gives the power or right to
become the sons of God, even to them that be-
lieve on His name. Led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God ; minding the things of
the Spirit, they show the work of the Spirit in
their hearts. Now they receive the Spirit of
adoption whereby they cry, Abba, Father."
" The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our
spirit that we are children of God ; and if chil-
dren, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him
that we may also be glorified together."
An incident is at hand which shows what the
Spirit undertakes in our adoption.*
Jim, a street-arab, a little bootblack of five
* Illustrated Christian Weekly, "Adopted Jim."
96 HIS LOVE IN ADOPTION
years, had attracted the attention of a benevolent
woman, who finally said to him : " I want you to
go home with me and be my boy. You shall have
my name, and I will adopt you. Will you go ? "
He knew where she lived, and had often wished
to have such a home ; but now it was not easy to
leave his old companions and give up his old life ;
yet with a strong resolution he said he would go.
He was told that he was to put off his old ways and
adopt her ways, and take her for his mother. But
his old companions did not let him go to and fro
without jeers and insults, until one day his tem-
per gave way entirely, and he fought with them
and became again as torn and dirty as when a
bootblack. Then he said : " It's of no use. I'll
not go home again. I'm only Jim, after all."
Not so the mother, who went after him, and said
in reply to his refusal to go back : " James, I
adopted you. I have taken you into the family ;
I have given you my name. You are my heir.
I love you." She took him home again, and he
said : " I'm not Jini, after all, and will try harder
to please."
So the Spirit, not once or twice, but as often as
needs be, witnesses to our adoption.
When one is adopted as a son of God, his citizen-
ship is in heaven. He is to live as a son, to be sub-
ject to the laws and grow into the ways of the Spirit,
and to that end receive the discipline of a son.
HIS LOVE IN SANCTIFICATION. 97
~v
He cannot any longer live after the flesh, but
must mortify the deeds of the body and live
after the Spirit. There cannot be life and peace,
harmony within oneself and with his divine rela-
tions, unless there be spiritual-mindedness. In
order to sanctification one must mind and love
the things of the Spirit. And the Spirit dwells
in the spiritual ; but, if carnality be there, He will
change it to spirituality, or else move out of its
presence.
It is to be particularly noticed that the Spirit
which dwells in us is the Spirit of Christ, and
that it is through our union with Christ that we
are to grow in Christ-likeness.
As the branch abides in the vine, so we abide
in Christ ; and this is expressed by our faith, but
the vital power by which we bear fruit is of the
Spirit. Growth is the evidence of spiritual life,
and faith in Christ is the condition and means of
growth. Paul lived by the faith of the Son of
God. "We shall not therefore grow by our own
struggles, but through faith. The life of the
branch comes from the vine ; and severed from
it, the branch dies. A stone cannot of itself '
enter into the life of a plant, or a plant into that
of an animal or of a man, except the higher life
reaches down and appropriates and lifts up and
assimilates the lower, and that by its own vital
power; so the carnal does not become spiritual
98 THE T^W OF SANCTIFICATION.
except as the Spirit converts it into His mind and
service.
The law of life is the Spirit's law of sanctifica-
tion or spiritual growth. All growth of the
higher life is through the death of the life below
it, by which it is nourished.
Mr. Drummond makes clear this process, where
he says : * " The methods by which the spiritual
man is to withdraw himself from the old environ-
ment, or from that part of it which will directly
hinder the spiritual life, are three in number.
First, suicide ; second, mortification ; third, lim-
itation. These meet the different kinds of temp-
tation ..... In suicide he must ' die unto sin,'
and if he does not kill sin, sin will inevitably kill
him. There are many sins which must be dealt
with suddenly, or not at all. These are generally
of the appetites and passions ..... If thine
appetite offend thee, cut it off. Fatal desire in
one organ will pay the penalty of life.' 1 Here
there needs to be for safety total abstinence.
As to mortification, St. Paul says: "If ye
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the
body, ye shall live"; and beseeches, "Present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God." It requires watchfulness and long
discipline to bring the body under. "With refer-
* " Natural Law in the Spiritual World," p. 182.
HIS LOVE IN SANOTIFICATIOlsr. 99
ence to the desires of the mind, such as for wealth
and learning and honor and power, there must;
be limitation at the point where they cease to
serve the higher life. Beyond this they do injury
and become sinful.
And with reference to the world, the same
apostle also beseeches, " Be not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind, that ye may prove what is that good
and acceptable and perfect will of God." This
metamorphosis from the worldly to the spiritual
is of the Spirit. "While the branch is joined to
the vine for its life, it has also to do with the
wind and rain and sun in its life and growth.
One must fight the good fight of faith and lay
hold on eternal life. And while without Christ
and the Spirit he can do nothing, he can do all
things through their help I
Our Saviour made the condition of disciple-
ship that one should deny himself and take up
his cross ; which gives the method of sanctifica-
tion ; self-denial of whatever hinders spirituality,
cross-bearing of whatever promotes it ; obedience
to the law becoming easier as one progresses in
sanctification until it becomes a delight.
The precious eighth chapter of Eomans meets
the Christian at the point where he needs encour-
agement and help in fighting the old man of sin,
and gives assurance of hope and of perseverance
100 THE OBJECT OF SUFFERING.
unto victory. Being freed from condemnation
and under the law of the Spirit, of life in Christ
Jesus ; and haying become spiritually-minded, he
receives the adoption of a son and is an heir of
God. Yet he suffers with Christ, but these suffer-
ings are for a purpose, even his sanctification ;
that he may be fitted for glory with Christ. He
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
All the time he has the help and comfort of the
Spirit, who will make all things work together
for his good ; and having predestinated and called
and justified him, will also glorify him. God
who spared not His own Son will with Him also,
through the Spirit, freely give His saint all things,
and nothing shall be able to separate him from
the love of God. Who but the Spirit could de-
fend him from all his enemies, and keep him united
to Christ until his sanctification is completed ?
It may seem strange that sufferings should be
mentioned immediately after the witness of the
Spirit to sonship. These sufferings are of the
creature and are necessary for its deliverance from
the bondage of corruption ; and are like the trials
and afflictions which beset the children of Israel
in the wilderness, when the Lord delivered them
from the bondage of Egypt and led them to Canaan.
They came not from the Lord nor from the
way, but from their own unbelief and hardness
HIS LOVE IN SANCTIFICATION. 101
of heart. The Lord would have given them im-
mediate entrance into the land of promise had
they been ready for it or willing to enter it ; but
the long wilderness wandering was a necessary
discipline to wean them from idolatry and to fit
them to occupy the land for Him.
The Spirit would spare us from trial and would
give us blessings as fast as we are ready to
receive them and as many as we are fitted to
enjoy. All the good in Christ comes through
our growth in grace; and our holiness is the
measure of our receptivity ; so that the Spirit is
only good in using whatever means are necessary
for our sanctification. He loves us in discipline
even more than in blessing, and loves us too well
to allow us to be led astray from Christ by the
world or the flesh or the evil one ; His love is
manifest in taking away as well as in giving.
Mr. Philip says : * " His work is in tender love
when we suspect Him of desertion and denial.
.... Some think nothing love but comfort,
nothing sympathy but consolation, and as these
seem incompatible, they are ready to conclude
that they are unconverted and thus not loved by
the Spirit at all. They are wrong, sadly wrong,
in thus suspecting the heart or the hand of the
all-gracious Spirit; but as the Spirit of life in
* " Love of the Spirit," chap. v.
102 HIS LOVE IN DISCIPLINE.
Christ Jesus He must give death-wounds to the
love of sin and to the pride of the heart and to
the power of self-righteousness. It is not the
'begun work of the Holy Spirit on the heart ; but
the finished work of Christ on the cross that
gives real comfort." Again he says:* "The
Holy Spirit will not wink at sin, nor connive at
sloth, nor overlook worldly-mindedness. It is His
great object to cure these faults and therefore He
must convict us for them instead of consoling us
under them. And this is true kindness as well
as real prudence."
A faith in Jesus Christ for salvation will stand
any test which can be brought upon it through
the world or the flesh ; and the Spirit would not
have us deceived, nor will He allow us to be
tried beyond our ability. St. Paul writes : " We
glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience ; and patience, proof or a test ;
and proof, hope ; and hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God hath been shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which hath been
given to us." The object of this tribulation is
our sanctification, and is wisely as well as lov-
ingly permitted.
And Peter writes of " the elect through sancti-
fication of the Spirit," that they are " kept through
the power of God," and if in " heaviness through
* Chap, xiii.
HIS LOVE IN SANCTIFIOATION. 103
manifold temptations "; yet it is that the " test of
their faith, more precious than gold, may be
found unto praise and honor and glory at the
appearing of Christ Jesus." The help as the joy
of those in heaviness is in the Holy Spirit. He
searches our hearts and reveals the hidden evil,
not that He may discourage us, but that He may
lead us to forsake the sin and look away to Christ
for forgiveness and peace. Our doubts and fears
arise from ourselves, and not from looking up to
Christ.
Cheer up, then, ye fainting and fearful ones.
Your very faintness and fears are evidences of
the Spirit's loving patience, and show that He
stands ready to help ; and you may rest in the
assurance that He who has begun a good work in
you will continue it until the day of Jesus Christ.
" The natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God ; neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned." "Eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man " the natural man " the
things which God hath prepared for them that
love Him. But God hath revealed them to us
by His Spirit."
By such spiritual illumination and revelation
of the things of God, blessed and glorious, the
Spirit would also lead us from the world and
sin to Christ and to the glory of the saints.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SPIEIT A COMFORTER.
ON His way to Gethsemane and Calvary our
Lord forgot Himself in seeking to comfort His
disciples ; and even in the garden, while Himself
drinking the bitter cup, He excused the weak-
ness of their flesh.
Their hearts were sore troubled because He
was going away, and He assures them with the
promise : " I will not leave you comfortless. I
will come unto you "; and " I will pray the
Father, and He shall give you another Comforter
that He may abide with you forever." The
word " Comforter" is marginally rendered Helper
or Standby, indicating present help and strength
and comfort.
" It is expedient for you," says Christ, " that I
should go away, for if I go not away the Com-
forter will not come unto you ; but if I go I will
send Him unto you."
By the Spirit He comes and abides with us.
And for the glory of Christ and for the great
love He Himself has for us, the Spirit comes to
(104)
THE SPIEIT A COMFORTER. 105
be our Comforter. There was none other, in
heaven or in earth, who could take the place of
Jesus.
He alone had the knowledge and strength and
love and patience necessary for our weakness and
waywardness and need. He knew our hearts
and what we lacked and needed as well as Jesus
did. Jesus kept His disciples in the Father's
name ; now we are to be " kept for Jesus Christ "
by the Spirit. And we may be persuaded that He
is able to keep that which we have committed to
Him, when our Saviour has also and first com-
mitted our keeping to Him. A keep is a strong-
hold, high and secure, and the Spirit is now
our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble.
The last prayer of our Lord for His disciples
would ask for them what was important for their
good, and this was: "I pray not that Thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that
Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one."
In the simple prayer, which He taught them for
daily use, they are to pray : " Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
" Spare us from unnecessary trial, and guard
from the power of Satan." What we call mys-
terious providences might be very plain if we
knew the deceitfulness of sin or saw through the
wiles of the devil. He who tried to seduce Christ
106 THE SPIRIT A DELIVERER.
Himself when Ee was an hungered in the wilder-
ness, will also take us at every disadvantage and
attack us in our weakest spot; will tempt our
appetite, natter our pride, and provoke our ambi-
tion ; and even try to lead us to presume upon
our faith, or to give it up ; will do anything to
seduce us from Christ and steal from Him our
souls.
If he can keep the sinner from thinking about
religion he is sure of his destruction ; but if he
will think, Satan will try to make him believe a
lie ; and if almost persuaded to be a Christian, he
will plead for procrastination ; and even after one
believes in Christ, the evil one will try in every
way to lead him astray ; and when he has brought
him into backsliding, he will try to make him be-
lieve that he never was a Christian, or that he
has utterly fallen from grace, or that he has com-
mitted the unpardonable sin, and that there is no
hope for him.
But the Holy Spirit, who knows, the end from
the beginning, would keep us from the very be-
ginnings of evil, and would deliver us from all the
wiles of the devil.
He knows, too, what is necessary to this end,
and the means He uses are never more severe than
are required for our deliverance. If His provi-
dence seems severe it is because severe measures
alone will cure and save us. It may be necessary
THE SPIRIT A COMFORTER. 107
even to take us from the world, or, if not, to take
the world from us. Just as we would take away
from our children sharp tools which they had not
learned to use and with which they would injure
themselves ; so He takes from us those things which
would pierce our hearts ; or, as we would keep
them from going where they might receive harm,
so He keeps us from our desires and plans and
ambitions, which would bring us into evil or
bring evil to us.
Loss of property or position or reputation,
failures, humiliations, and defeats, are not the
worst things that befall us, but often prove to be
our best blessings in disguise. It is hard to give
up and come down, but this may be the very
means of a surer and safer exaltation. Yery much
of this mystery of providence shall be made clear
as we go on in life and get a broader outlook over
its course. What we know not now we shall
know hereafter. That is truest comfort which
deals with us in faithfulness, even when it is un-
pleasant to the Comforter and grievous to us.
He is love even more in taking away than in
giving, and we may learn to say trustfully, if not
joyfully, " The Lord gave and the Lord hath
taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord."
If we fail to recognize the love of the Spirit in
our afflictions, we shall fail not only of His com-
fort, but of our own peace and hope, and have
108 AFFLICTIONS AND CHASTISEMENTS.
no support when we need to realize His presence
and to rest in Him.
James writes concerning afflictions : " Take,
my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in
the name of the Lord, for an example of suffer-
ing, affliction, and patience. Behold, we call them
blessed which endure. Ye have heard of the
patience of Job and have seen the end of the
Lord, how that the Lord is full of pity and mer-
ciful."
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, after the roll-
call of the heroes of faith, among whom Abraham
offered up Isaac in faith that God could, if need
be, raise him even from the dead, to keep His
covenant ; and Moses, who chose rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin for a season, and who endured
as seeing Him who was invisible, there follows :
" Ye have not resisted unto blood, striving against
sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation
which reasoneth with you as sons. My son,
regard not lightly the chastisement of the Lord,
nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him ; for
whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourg-
eth every son whom He receiveth." " All chas-
tening seemeth for the present to be not joyous,
but grievous ; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable
fruit unto them that are exercised thereby, even
the fruit of righteousness."
THE SPIRIT A COMFORTER. 109
Here we see the patient and faithful mother-
love of the Spirit in training the sons of God.
And this agrees with what St. Paul says, in the
precious and comforting eighth chapter of Ro-
mans, to which reference has already been made,
where, after he speaks of the witness of the Spirit
to our adoption as sons of God and to our free-
dom and joy and heirship, he immediately men-
tions suffering with Christ and like Him, that we
maybe glorified together ; and then, as if some one
had broken in with the question," Why do you men-
tion suffering so abruptly, if at all ? " he replies,
" I reckon that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory
that shall be revealed to usward." Further on
he speaks of the hope that, " the creature itself
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the liberty of the glory of the children of God ."
Again, he writes to the Corinthians : " For our
light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh
for us more and more exceedingly an eternal
weight of glory."
In the 119th Psalm, in which the psalmist gath-
ers up all wisdom, he gives this as his experience :
" Before I was afflicted I went away ; but now
have I kept Thy word It is good for me
that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Thy
statutes Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted
me."
110 THE GIVEE OF BLESSINGS.
We can make no greater mistake than to refuse
to see the hand and hear the voice of God in our
afflictions. Failing in this we lose the help of
the Comforter and become rebellious, hardening
our hearts. The same sun and rain which mellow
at one time, harden at another, according as the
soil receives them. Instead of showing that He
has gone far away and forgotten and forsaken us
and is our enemy, they prove the very opposite :
that He loves us, and is our true and faithful
friend. By this means He would save us from
some greater loss or evil, or prepare us for
some greater blessing. The blessings He would
have given us are more than we have received,
and those He has prepared for us are more than
we desire. He has a storehouse full of the
missed and reserved blessings of the saints.
If we will go after and worship an idol to our
debasement, He destroys it ; or, if we will sleep
in the midst of danger, He awakens and alarms
us. And He awakens us sometimes with a crash
that we may hear. When we come to love dark-
ness and shut out the light, it is a mercy if He
smashes in the blinds and windows. When a storm
is brooding He startles us with His thunder.
Whatever means He finds necessary to use will
be blessed to us, if we see His hand in them.
And it will be wise even to kiss the hand that
holds the rod of reproof.
THE SPIEIT A COMFORTER. Ill
Nothing is sadder than to see the afflicted ag-
gravate their afflictions by staying away from
God, and seeking comfort from every other
source, miserable comforters all ; instead of going
to the God of all comfort who alone can sustain ,
and heal; and who has afflicted only that they
might be made willing to accept His help. If
we could but see it, the Spirit's ministry of afflic-
tion is, like His work in the conviction of sin, a
marked evidence of His love. Instead of com-
plaining, "Why should God permit me to be so
afflicted?" we should rather say, "Why should
He love me so ? " Neither Christ nor the Spirit
came to punish, but to save ; and their discipline
is in love.
The word chastisement, which expresses the
nature of the affliction, means originally the
bringing up or training of a child, and from that
derives a secondary meaning of education, dis-
cipline, or chastisement. Its object is not penal,
but disciplinary. Christians are in the school of
the Spirit, preparing for a heavenly life.
In the case of the backslider and prodigal it is
easy to see the great love that bears long with
them, and follows them until they are brought to
repentance. This is expressed in the exhortation,
" Turn, backsliding children," saith the Lord,
" for I am married unto you," a spiritual union
which knows no divorce.
112 SICKNESS AND DEATH.
The ultimate object of the captivity of the
children of Israel was that they might forever be
cured of idolatry ; and none of them were brought
back until it was certain that they, would never
again fall into that sin.
And even when affliction comes in the death
of our dearest beloved, the Spirit is most our
Comforter and loves us best. "There is no
experience which comes to our homes which
so affects and changes our lives as sickness;
and should the sickness be unto death, a lesson
has been learned which can never be forgotten.
The glory of God never so fills our houses as
when the angel of death is there, and the dear
dust, which still retains the features of our be-
loved, awaits its burial in the sleeping-place. If
we can realize that the Spirit has gone to God
who gave it and hear Jesus say, ' I am the resur-
rection and the life,' we have learned the best
lesson of life." *
We should be silent then, for God speaks. David
did not murmur at such a time, but was dumb,
for God did it. How gently the Spirit deals with
us ! How softly He whispers peace to our hearts !
How He longs to make this a great blessing to
us, revealing Christ and opening heaven as never
before. And when the dear one goes home in
peace, and the weary one enters into rest eternal,
* " Summer at Peace Cottage," p. 817.
THE SPIRIT A COMFORTER. 113
and the sufferer has no more tears forever ; when
faith rejoices and triumphs in victory and the
anchor holds within the veil ; then do we also
triumph in the same faith both for ourselves and
our loved one and thank God, " who giveth us
the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord." We
do not now speak of cold submission to God,
that any philosopher can counsel ; but we do far
more, for we believe in Christ, we cast ourselves
into the comforting arms, we weep on the heart
whose every beat is love ; we go and tell Jesus,
and know that He doeth all things well. We do
indeed submit ; but it is a trustful, restful, joyful
submission, which says in fullness of faith, " Not
my will, but Thine be done."
We would not dare for a moment to have our
own way. Even in the loss of our dearest treas-
ures, the failure of our most cherished ambitions,
the death of our best beloved, we would say, first
of all, "Thy will be done."
That which is nearest to our hearts we would
have in the hands of God to be guided by His
wisdom and love. While his child was yet alive,
David wept and fasted and prayed ; but when the
child died, and God had spoken, he arose and ate
bread and went about his work.
There is greatest comfort in the assurance that
" He who spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all, will with Him also freely give
114 THY WILL BE DONE.
us all things," and that, " Nothing shall separate
us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ
our Lord."
When we consider the Captain of our salvation,
who was made perfect through sufferings, we do
not wonder that afflictions are necessary for our
sanctrfi cation.
We also learn to say, " Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
mercies and the God of all comfort, who com-
forteth us in all our afflictions, that we may be
able to comfort them that are in any affliction
with the comfort wherewith we ourselves are
comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, even so our comfort aboundeth
through Christ."
If, therefore, we be comfortless it cannot be
the fault of the Holy Comforter. He would
ever say to us, " God rules, God knows, God
loves "; and we may also say in holy confidence
with Eli : " It is the Lord, let Him do what
seemeth Him good "; or with Job, " Though He
slay me, yet will I trust in Him "; or with the
Shunamite, " It is well "; or, better, with Christ
Himself, when He drank the bitter cup to its
dregs in dark Gethsemane, " If it be possible, let
this cup pass from me ; nevertheless not my will
but Thine be done."
We see also that our afflictions are intended to
THE SPIEIT A COMFOKTEE. 115
make us workers together with the Spirit in com-
forting others. If we would be comforters we
must first ourselves have wept. And as we were
" created unto good works " by the Spirit, so we
are to increase and abound more and more, We
are to be brought into sympathy with Christ in
all things, walking in the Spirit and working in
the Spirit. Not only will he who has been com-
forted comfort others, but he who has been saved
will seek to save others. Chastisement and dis-
cipline will make one more useful and faithful,
abounding in good works. It is difficult to be-
lieve that a man, particularly a rich man, has
faith in Christ unless he be liberal and active in
spreading the Gospel. One cannot have much, of
the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, who is not in
fullest sympathy with the work of missions. We
are convicted and regenerated and sanctified for
something more than our own salvation. We
should be one with the Spirit in seeking the glory
of Christ.
Christ, who is all and in all, should be in all our
thoughts and plans ; in our business and in all
" our living, as well as in our dying. We are to
serve Him on earth, and thereby be prepared to
adorn as well as to enjoy heaven. We are to en-
gage in heavenly service as well as to partake of
heavenly bliss, and for this we must be fully
sanctified. Christians are called witnesses and
116 COMPLETE IN CHEIST.
confessors, and this often requires that they be-
come, as the original implies, martyrs. They
best save the life who lose it.
Among those whom the seer, in the vision of
the Apocalypse, saw in white robes as peculiarly
blessed, were those "who came out of great
tribulation, and who washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb."
The diamond is the perfect gem, but that its
utmost brilliancy may be brought out it must be
ground until as many facets as possible shall re-
flect the light of the sun.
Mr. Philip says :* " Tell to yourself the kind
and degree of sanctifying influence, which the
Holy Spirit must put forth upon your heart and
character, before you are ' meet to be a partaker of
the inheritance of the saints in light.' Only con-
sider how much He must do in you and for you
even before your calling and election be sure to
yourself. And now think, and think deeply,
what He must do when you are dying, in order
to fit you for a/ny kind of an entrance into the
everlasting kingdom of Grod, of holiness, of glory !
What finishing touches He must give to the
divine image, now so faint and imperfect in your
soul. "What ripeness He must produce, then, in
all the fruits of holiness now so unripe. What
* "Love of the Spirit," chap. x.
THE SPIRIT A COMFOETEE. 117
a volume of holy fire He must throw into and
around your spirit, to prepare you fully to meet
God, to see the Lamb on His throne, to mingle
with the general assembly of perfect saints, to
sustain the blaze and weight and work of un-
veiled immortality."
We are complete in Christ, and the Holy Spirit
has undertaken to make us complete in ourselves.
Christ was touched with a feeling of our infirmi-
ties, and ministered unto us even to laying down
His life for us ; the Spirit " helpeth our infirmi-
ties " and abides our Comforter and Helper, in
life and in death, sanctifying until He can pre-
sent us holy and unblamable and unreprovable
in His sight.
Counting fully all the cost of a Christian life :
its self-denial and cross-bearing, its mortification
of the body, its separation from the world, its
death to sin ; all its trials and sufferings, who
that has ever believed in Christ for the forgive-
ness of sin and the salvation of his soul, would
exchange his portion for all that the world can
give ? Compared with the comfort of the Holy
Spirit in the love of Christ, in the peace of God
and in the hope of glory, all others are miserable
comforters indeed.
Who does not rejoice as much that the Holy
Spirit is his Sanctifier, as that Christ is his sancti-
fication ?
118 HELPING OUR INFIRMITIES.
Who would Lave the will of God anything
less than our sanctification, when the Spirit mak-
eth intercession for the saints according to the
will of God, whatever means He may use,
until we shall be presented perfect in Christ
Jesus ?
Blessed be God, the Holy Spirit, the God of
all comfort.
CHAPTER IX.
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PEAYER.
THBKE is no more encouraging promise than
that of our Saviour, in which He assures us that
our Heavenly Father is more willing to give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask Him than earthly
parents are to give good gifts to their children.
The gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of gifts,
all gifts in one. His is the coming of the King.
He is God abiding in us, the Author of gifts and
graces. And He was purchased for us at price-
less cost and is given without measure to the
Church.
Pentecost revealed the fullness and power and
glory of His coming, the first-fruits and earnest
of His work. And He is given freely to them
that ask Him ; and in answer to prayer, goes to
those that ask Him not. We may not only come
to God as the Hearer of prayej, and to His throne
as to a throne of grace ; but may say, " Our Father
which art in Heaven," with the promise, " Ask
and it shall be given you ; seek and ye shall find ;
knock and it shall be opened unto you," having
no limit except what is contained in the words,
" Heavenly Father."
(119)
120 PKAYETO FOE THE SPIKIT.
Better still, we may pray for the Holy Spirit,
and tins will put all prayers into one ; for having
the Holy Spirit we have the divine presence and
power. He is a present divine Teacher, and
Helper, and Comforter; dwelling ever in our
hearts.
Our Saviour assured His disciples that whatso-
ever they should ask in His name He would do,
that the Father might be glorified in the Son.
The Spirit also glorifies the Father in the Son, and
is given and .comes and works in Jesus' name.
Thus the love of the Father and the love of the
Son and the love of the Spirit in the glorious
plan of redemption, shine forth again in prayer,
to hear which appears as one of the immutable
and eternal characteristics of the divine govern-
ment.
Everything that pertains to prayer is under the
direction of the divine love, and especially that
part which relates to the Holy Spirit.
This great privilege, purchased by the love of
Christ, is enjoyed through the love of the Spirit.
When His disciples asked Him, "Lord, teach
us to pray," our Lord taught them, the prayer
commonly called " The Lord's Prayer."
But when He promised to send them the Com-
forter, He gave them the Inspirer and Teacher
of Prayer, for an ever-present Helper, who would
show. them the way to the Father through the
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PKAYEE. 121
Son and lead and keep them in it. Living as we
now do under the dispensation of the Spirit, and
having to do with Him in all our relations to the
Godhead and dependent directly on Him for all
spiritual blessings, what can be better for us than
the promise and gift of the Spirit when we ask
for Him ?
Having this gift we pray in the Spirit. Pray-
ing in the Spirit, Jude says we build ourselves
up in the faith and keep ourselves in the love of
God. And St. Paul writes to the Ephesiaus, ex-
horting, " Praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit."
All kinds and parts of prayer and at all seasons
are to be in the Spirit, and there is no praying
apart from the Spirit. There is as much need of
praying in the Spirit as there is of praying in the
name of Christ. We will not pray and know
not how to pray, or what to pray for as we ought,
or how even to plead Jesus' name except the
Spirit moves and teaches and helps us. Praying
in the Spirit is praying with the Spirit ; co-oper-
ating with Him as He influences and directs us to
pray ; praying when He prays in and with us.
We are in the Spirit when we think and feel
and love and act as He would have us, when we
are willing and trusting and obedient, when He
dwells in us and we have His communion.
Stephen, "full of the Holy Ghost," prayed,
122 PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT.
" seeing the heavens opened." The colored man
explained how we could be in the Spirit and the
Spirit in us, by the illustration of the red-hot
poker, a The fire was in the poker when the poker
was in the fire."
Praying for the Spirit is praying for all that
His presence and work implies, for convicting
power, for regenerating power, for gracious power,
and these are illustrated by pentecostal power.
Following this is illuminating and sanctifying
power, the power of an endless life. When this
power is present the Church is endued also with
power from on high, and sinners cry out to know
what they must do to be saved ; blessings are
poured out more than there is room to receive.
Its influence is like showers of refreshing from
the presence of the Lord. Without this gift
there could be no Church.
Our Saviour's promise to His disciples to be in
their midst when two or three are gathered to-
gether in His name has in it the presence and
potency of the Holy Spirit at the command of
the Church. And it is also in this connection
that He gives the Church the keys by which
heaven is opened and shut. Heaven is opened by
prayer. It is in the prayer-meeting that the
Church is filled with the Holy Ghost, and they
who love the place of prayer will be in the Spirit.
Praying in the Spirit, one has power with God
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PRAYER. 123
and with men ; the Spirit ministers to him, and
at his request, and his prayer belts the globe.
Prayer moves the power that moves the world.
But there is something more and even better
for us than praying for and praying in the Spirit,
blessed as are these privileges.
We may pray to the Spirit.
, Prayer may be offered directly to Him as well
as to the Father and to the Son, and all the more
now that we are under the dispensation of the
Spirit. Praying to the Spirit, we shall more
easily recognize His presence and indwelling, and,
realizing this with His personal love for us, we
have not only the greatest privilege, but also
greatest joy in the communion of the Holy Spirit.
Some one has said : " In prayer we talk with
Grod, and in the Word God talks with us." Praying
to the Spirit will be like conversing with a personal
and present friend and helper. He will indeed
be a very present help in trouble.
This enlarges our idea of prayer by as much as
it increases its privilege and blessing, adding a
third person to its scope. Until we pray to the
Spirit we shall fail to realize His divinity as we
might. That we may pray for Him and in Him
and to Him greatly enriches prayer and doubly
assures of what we ask.
Here, then, is a wide scope for the practical
development of Christian doctrine, as well as a
124 PRAYING TO THE SPIRIT.
rich field for the development of religious expe-
rience. The Church does not yet know the full-
ness of its creed, " I believe in the Holy Ghost,"
and has not yet begun to learn to pray to Him.
Very seldom in the rituals of the Church do we
find any direct personal petitions' to the Holy
Spirit, while everywhere we find petitions for
Him.
Here, also, the Spirit's benevolence and His
absorption in the glory of Christ appear in
that, while we must pray in the name of Christ
and in the Spirit, He does not speak of His own
love as manifest in what He does ; but delights
to magnify Christ's love in what He suffered and
the Father's love in what He gave for us.
In connection with prayer to the Holy Spirit,
we see the genius of poetry by which the poet,
with his spiritual insight, utters spiritual truths
not found in formulas of doctrine and duty. In
our hymnology we pray to, as well as praise, the
Holy Spirit, directly and naturally, as is witnessed
by the fact that in the most popular collection of
spiritual songs, out of thirty hymns under the
head of the Holy Spirit, twenty-three are direct
petitions to the Spirit.
These will be recognized at once as the most
precious of our hymns, showing how practically
we have learned more than we have realized of
this precious privilege and truth of prayer to the
THE HOLY SPIEIT IN PRAYER. 125
Spirit. The opening lines of a few of these
hymns show this peculiarity of hymnology :
" Come, Holy Spirit, come."
" Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove."
" Come, Creator, Spirit, blest."
" Eternal Spirit, we confess."
" Blest Comforter Divine."
" Holy Ghost, the Infinite."
" Spirit of the Living God."
" Gracious Spirit, love Divine."
Such direct address to the Spirit will not only
increase the preciousness and power of prayer,
but will add greatly to our knowledge of and
faith in the Spirit Himself.
We shall never again be content to pray sim-
ply for the Spirit great as is that privilege now
that we know the other and still greater privilege ;
but shall feel the same liberty in coming to Him
that we do in coming to the Father and to the
Son, and all the more boldly shall we come to Him
also in Jesus' name. We shall also the more
joyfully welcome Him when He graciously comes
to us, and shall give Him a sanctuary in our
hearts.
We cannot realize too strongly not only the
importance of prayer, but also its very necessity
to any spiritual life and growth. It holds a first
place in the plan of God for saving sinners and
sanctifying the saints.
126 THE INSTINCT OP HUMANITY.
" Prayer was appointed to convey
The blessings God designs to give."
Only by prayer do we reach the throne of
grace and make known our wants to God. Un-
less some one prays for the impenitent, the way
is not open for the Spirit to go to him according
to the honorable condition of divine reconcilia-
tion. Acceptable prayer must be in the name
of Christ, to be also in the Spirit. And such
prayer is the substance of all worship. In prayer
we first lisp in spiritual speech ; we confess our
sins and cry out for mercy ; we ask for daily
bread, and pour out to God our adoration and
praise and thanksgiving, and commune in rapt
devotion and exalted communion. Prayer is like
the simple cry of an infant for light and food and
mother-love, and the relation of parent and child
is not more natural than the Fatherhood of God
and the Brotherhood of the Son and the Mother-
hood of the Spirit. As asking is the way of
getting others to do for us what we need, so
prayer is the natural expression of our filial rela-
tion to God.
And while it has in it childlike simplicity and
naturalness, it also engages all one's powers, and
is the highest and most glorious activity of the
human spirit. Well has prayer been called " the
instinct of humanity."
Knowledge of God and growth in grace as
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PRAYER. 127
well as divine help come through prayer. A
Christian cannot live a spiritual life without it.
It is no exaggeration to say that
" Prayer is the Christian's vital breath,
The Christian's native air."
And as parents must teach their children how
to ask and what to ask for, and train them in the
doing of it, so the children of God need to be
taught and trained by the Spirit in prayer.
And they who are full of the Holy Spirit
become mighty in prayer and prevail with God.
The more we magnify prayer the greater ap-
pears the privilege of praying to the Spirit ; and
no one will think of praying except in the Spirit.
Mr. Philip says : * " We must no more allow
ourselves to forget the Spirit when we open our
Bible, or enter the sanctuary, or engage in prayer
than we overlook the Father and the Son. We
are to be as afraid of grieving Him as of dis-
honoring them ; for as we profess to ascribe equal
and everlasting glory to Father, Son, and Spirit,
we ought to pay them equal attention."
Praying to the Spirit is not only more direct
than praying for the Spirit, but one thus realizes
c n cS in no other way His presence, and takes hold
more strongly on His power; and while he wor-
ships Him directly, he asks more boldly and freely
* " Love of the Spirit," chap. viii.
128 THE PHILOSOPHY OP PEAYEE.
His help and grace, and feels more assured of
His love.
There is a divine philosophy in prayer in har-
mony with the human environment by which it
develops the highest that is in man through the
laws of mind and spirit with which he was cre-
ated. Thus prayer has a more intimate connec-
tion with his sanctification by the Spirit than any
other instrumentality.
No one can come to God in any part of prayer
without spiritual uplift and blessing. Not only
does God hear and answer prayer, but we by
prayer are fitted to receive the answer to the very
prayer we offer. The reflex influence of prayer
is often its greatest blessing. We are transformed
into the image of Him to whom we pray in all
true worship.
When one draws near to God in prayer he
realizes the divine presence as not at other times,
and opens his heart as a sanctuary, which for the
time becomes a Bethel, a house of God a ladder
is let down from heaven on which angels ascend
and descend. He bares his head and stands on
holy ground, for he sees God face to face. And
as he looks upon His face of insufferable splendor,
the divine being and perfections shine forth with
an effulgence which reveals more and more the
glory of God, until his eyes are blinded by the
very brightness of the light.
THE HOLY SPIEIT IN PEAYEE. 129
The Spirit takes the things of Christ and shows
them unto Mm, and sheds abroad the love of
Christ in his heart, until he is rapt with Him
who is altogether lovely, and filled with wonder,
love, and praise. He breaks forth in adoration,
ascribing to God His honors and perfections.
" Hallowed be Thy name," he prays ; and such
is seen to be the glory of His sovereignty that he
continues, "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven."
Another important effect of prayer is that
when one draws near to God he sees more vividly
by comparison his own sinfulness; and as the
Spirit reveals the divine holiness, the sinner is
convicted of sin, and will confess it and repent of
it in deepest humiliation. Prayer will teach him
his need of pardon and grace, and lead him to
cry for mercy.
When the Spirit renews the heart and wit-
nesses of pardon and justification and adoption,
it sings a doxology of praise and thanksgiving.
Then, made bold by its success, it goes on more
freely, and becomes a suppliant, presenting freely
and boldly, not only personal petitions in the
name of Christ, but also pleads for others, becom-
ijig in turn an intercessor.
Thus every time one engages in prayer he feels
the sanctifying touch of the Holy Spirit upon
him, and prayer becomes the chief means of sane-
130 THE SPIRIT'S INDWELLING.
tification. And we are commanded to pray with-
out ceasing, which means that we are to sanctify
the Holy Spirit in our hearts, so that we can at
any time withdraw into the chamber of our con-
sciousness, and meet Him there and hold com-
munion with Him. And having the Spirit with
us in consciousness, we shall not only "be kept
from sinning, but shall be strong in His help.
The presence of a great and good man would
keep one from profanity and intemperance and
other sins ; much more will the presence of the
Holy Spirit, who mightily helpeth our infirmi-
ties, keep us from falling.
But we are yet far from seeing all of the love
of the Spirit in prayer. Having noticed its
blessed privilege and its sanctifying influence, we
do not wonder that the Spirit, in His love for us,
would have us ever in a prayerful frame and grow
into the fullest measure of this grace. We may
not only pray for the Spirit and in the Spirit and
to the Spirit; but, what is equally blessed, He
moves us to pray, and would teach us how to pray
and pray with us, suggesting prayer to us, inter-
ceding with us to pray in time of need ; and
when we know not what to pray for as we ought,
" He maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered." Such is His love for
us that He makes our infirmities His own and
bears our burdens with us. And the love of the
THE HOLT SPIRIT IN PRATER. 131
Godhead is equally manifested in the privilege
and blessing of prayer ; for as it was in accordance
with the divine plan from all eternity to hear
prayer, so prayer was presupposed in the plan and
work of redemption as the chief means through
which the love of the Father in giving Christ,
and of Christ in dying for our salvation, and of
the Spirit in applying His redemption, should be
known and received by us ; so that the prayer of
faith is the channel of blessing.
Mr. Philip sets this forth with such richness
and clearness that I quote him at length.*
" It is just as true that the Spirit ever liveth
to help our infirmities by suggesting prayer, as
that the Saviour ever liveth to intercede for the
prayerful. Indeed the respective offices of the
Father, Son, and Spirit, in reference to prayer,
seem to sustain each other. The Father's readi-
ness to hear seems to be as much as the Spirit's
reason for helping our infirmities and the Son's
reason for pleading His own merits on our behalf,
as their joint intercession is the Father's reason
for answering prayer. He answers it because the
Spirit suggests it and the Son presents it, and
they promote it thus because He delights to hear
it." .... Again, " Christ will no more put heart-
less prayers into His censer than God will answer
* " Love of the Spirit," chap. vii.
132 THE DUTY OF PRAYER.
Christless prayer Whosoever will not pray
in the name of Jesus, the Father will not answer
him, and whosoever will not yield to the strivings
of the Spirit, the Son will not own him."
Thus the way to God in prayer is all prepared
in love, and no one has any excuse for not pray-
ing, and for this reason all are commanded to
pray, and not to pray is a chief sin. And the
excuse that one has not the Spirit is the most in-
sincere of all. One may go to the Spirit as freely
as to his Bible. And no one is long without the
strivings of the Spirit ; even from youth to old
age He pleads and waits and would be gracious.
Long ago would He have left the "sinner had
He not been divine love. The trouble is, the sin-
ner has already more striving of the Spirit than
He likes, than is agreeable with His sin and
worldliness ; and must either turn from his sin or
shut the door on the Spirit. He stops his ear
to His entreaties and grieves and provokes and
quenches and even blasphemes Him, and sins be-
fore Him and sins against Him.
And yet, "God is more willing to give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask Him than earthly
parents are to give good gifts to their children,"
and the Holy Spirit is just as willing to come.
CHAPTER X.
THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIEIT.
WHEN one first begins to pray there is a joy in
the Holy Spirit which he never knew before;
and there is joy with the saints and the angels of
God when it can be said of a sinner, " Behold, he
prayeth." And one who has experienced this
knows that joy and peace will be found again at
the throne of grace, and only there, however far
he may have wandered from God.
All the Spirit's dealings with the backslider are
to bring him back again to his closet.
And the only safety for any Christian is in a
habit of prayer, which implies constant commun-
ion with the Spirit.
Besides this, we are warned to " watch unto
prayer," and to "watch and pray lest we enter
into temptation." And in His great love, un-
wearied, the Spirit watches with us, and while we
sleep watches over and for us. So that when we
feel His awakening touch we should arouse our-
selves at once and arm for some conflict, or be
ready for duty, or it may be to receive a much
needed blessing.
(133)
134 NEED OF HIS INTERCESSION.
Mr. Philip puts it in this way :* " There is, de-
pend upon it, a strong needs-be whenever the Holy
Spirit bears in upon the mind the conviction
that there must be more prayer than usual. He
foresees some imminent or real danger to our
principles, our character, or our peace, whenever
He stirs us to cry mightily to God. This is the
signal He gives to warn us of approaching trials,
of something about to happen which, we are not
prepared for by our ordinary devotions. Either
trouble is coming, which we are not fit to sus-
tain with our present strength, or temptations are
coming which we are not able to overcome by it ;
either our spiritual affairs are on the eve of some
turn, or Satan has taken measures to ' sift us as
wheat,' and therefore we must fail unless our
Intercessor in heaven pray for us. The Spirit
foresees and forewarns and intercedes that Christ .
may intercede for us Oh, what falls and
shipwrecks and apostasies and backslidings might
have been prevented had all those who are thus
challenged and charged, when they began to de-
cline from their first love, been obedient to the
heavenly vision."
When our Lord was about to enter on any
great crisis of His ministry, such as the choosing
of His disciples, or the refusing of earthly king-
* il Love of the Spirit," chap. vii.
THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 135
dom, or the laying down of His life, He spent all
night in prayer.
We shall be blessed when we endure tempta-
tion, but this blessedness will not be ours without
the help of the Holy Spirit. Only in His strength
shall we grow strong. And we should go on
from strength to strength, and growth in and
through prayer will be the best growth in grace.
This will increase access to grace and grasp all
blessing.
The Spirit will not leave us satisfied with for-
giveness of sin and union with Christ ; He would
have us perfect in Christ Jesus. We are to in-
herit all the promises, and in order to this He
must " bring them to our remembrance and build
them up in our prayers." He gives us the argu-
ments we make before the throne, and furnishes
our pleas in prayer, and teaches us what is ac-
cording to the will of God.
He awakens the hunger and thirst after right-
eousness we feel. It is as important that we have
a sense of our privileges and a holy ambition after
likeness to Christ and witness for heaven as that
we be kept in temptation. And what light and
grace we need to fit us " to see as we are seen
and to know as we are known "; to be " at home
in Heaven." And prayer in the Spirit is the
nearest earth gets to heaven. We open as well
as enter heaven with prayer.
136 TEACHING HOW TO PRAY.
St. Paul hints at depths of ignorance, both of
ourselves and of God, when he says, " We know
not what we should pray for as we ought." Our
sinful nature, our weakness, our easily besetting
sins, our lack of wisdom, the power of the evil
one, are all included in this ignorance concern-
ing our praying. But he adds, and here is our
help and victory, " The Spirit helpeth our in-
firmities." And what help can compare with
His help. When we are weak and go to Him,
then are we strong ; His help is divine help and
wisdom and strength ; help that never leaves nor
forsakes ; help that never fails. He taketh our
infirmities upon Himself, and is so one with us,
that " He maketh intercession for us with groan-
ings that cannot be uttered." This reveals a per-
sonal love that cannot be measured or exhausted.
His very spirit agonizes over and for and with
us in our spiritual infirmities ; and His grief over
us is because we do not or will not allow Him to
deliver us, and bestow the fullness of the peace
and liberty of Christ, and lead us into the full-
ness of blessing. How many blessings we have
lost ; even so many are yet in store for us if we
will have them. His is the spirit of a pitying
Helper, and not of a condemning Judge. And
such a time is a spiritual crisis, when we are in
imminent danger of being overcome of evil or of
losing a most needed blessing. To grieve the
THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 137
Spirit at such a time is fearful beyond ex-
pression.
We may not realize it, but the angels do, and
wait with bated breath when we are in danger of
refusing the intercession of the Holy Spirit.
When He moves us to prayer, it is the drawing
of our wisest and best Friend in His perfect knowl-
edge and most faithful love.
Sometimes there is . such urgency in it that
there is time only to ejaculate a cry for help, like
that of sinking Peter, " Lord, save ! I perish ! "
But some one may ask, u If these things be so ;
if the Spirit so loves to help us in prayer, why is
it that our prayers so often go unanswered ? " It
is true indeed that many prayers, which we think
were offered in -the Spirit, are not yet answered.
It is also possible that we may be deceived about
the spirit of our prayers, or that the best time for
their answer has not yet come. The smoke of
the incense of these prayers of the saints, if they
were moved by the Spirit, has come before God,
and in good time He will pour out answers of
blessing.
In the chapter on Prayer, in " The Law of
Love," President Mark Hopkins says : * " Asking
is not simply desire expressed, but paramount
desire. There must be a desire for the thing
asked greater than for anything else that would
*"Lawof Love, "p. 315.
138 MOVING TO PEAT.
be incompatible with it Prayer is an act
of choice Prayer is more than desire,
more than sincere desire. It is paramount desire
offered to God with a filial spirit."
We may greatly desire what we know is good,
and ask for it, when at the same time we desire
something else, and choose and seek that. The
head may pray for one thing and the heart for
another. We may assent to and yield to the
Spirit's intercession in part, and not trust Him
fully so as to put ourselves unreservedly under
His guidance. We ask according to our own
wills, and not according to the will of God. God
will be sought and found only with the whole
heart, and cannot accept less. We may not make
conditions in our prayers. Oftener than we
know we deceive ourselves even in our prayers.
And we may not ask for, nor will the Spirit
help us to get, what we can obtain for ourselves.
There is no need that He should assist us, nor
that we should plead the name of Christ for what
we can get in our own name. The Spirit helps
our weakness, and not our strength. And His
best help is given when He helps us to help our-
selves. This is wisest aid. He works in us and
through us, when anything can be done in this
way, and not independent of us. He can and
will work superhuman and miraculous works for
us when they become necessary. He intercedes
THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 139
with us and teaches us how to pray, and what to
pray for, and moves us mightily and strengthens
us with all grace, and even groans within us in
His desire to help us; but He does not finally
choose for us: that is our own responsible and
sovereign act. Everything that the most loving
and powerful and wisest friend can do for us He
does for us, and stops not short of our final choice.
It can never be the Spirit's fault if our prayers
are unanswered.
" When God inclines the heart to pray,
He has an ear to hear."
And the Spirit's intercessions are according to
the will of God.
St. James says : " Ye ask and receive not be-
cause ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it on your
sins."
No wise parent will give his son money to
spend in sin, but he will spend his money for
him until he learns to use it wisely for himself.
God will give us as much as we can use and as
fast as we can use it. Many unanswered prayers
are for what we can get ourselves by common
means, Many are unanswered for want of co-
operation in that part we can answer ourselves.
Many are lazy prayers which we care too little
about to follow up; many selfish that we may
get blessings without effort; many thoughtless,
140 ANSWEES TO PEATER.
which we would not have answered if we knew
their cost, and the answer is withheld in mercy ;
and many are unanswered because we do not ask
in whole-hearted sincerity. "We pray,
" Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee,
E'en though it be a cross
That raiselh me,"
when we would be unwilling to take up the cross,
which would have to be laid upon us to bring
us nearer. And it may be that our prayers are
Christless prayers, not offered in penitence for
sin and with realization of our need of mercy and
help, and therefore not according to the promise,
asking blessings upon our sin ; prayers for escape
from the penalty of sin, and not for freedom
from sin itself.
Then again our prayers may lack that filial
trust which becomes the sons of God. We have
not faith in the Spirit's guidance, which is the
same as lack of faith in Christ. Faith trusts all
and obeys. There is need of resignation and sub-
mission in prayer as in no other act.
We are asking of God as suppliants and chil-
dren, and not dictating to Him how or when our
prayers shall be answered. Nor do we ask in
our own name, nor for any merit in us, but as
sinners and in Christ's name. The prayer of
prayers is this: "Not my will, but Thine be
THE INTEKCESSION OF THE SPIEIT. 141
done"; and as our urgency increases and we draw
nearer God, the better will we be satisfied with
this one petition. We would not dare to dictate
or press our dearest desire, and say, "My will,
not Thine be done "; but would always say, " It
is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth Him
good."
President Mark Hopkins related an incident of
a fond mother, who went away and prayed when
her boy of three years lay dying, having been
given up of the physicians : " Not Thy will, but
mine be done. Give me the life of my boy."
And the boy grew up to be a murderer, and died
on the gallows.
We do well to ask the Spirit to teach us how
to pray over our unanswered prayers, or to help
us to wait patiently God's time to answer them.
But for the love of the Spirit in prayer, we
would make sad work even of our prayers ; with
His intercession we may "come boldly to the
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in our time of need."
There is still another phase of prayer which
deserves more than a passing notice.
In prayer, we become unselfish like the Spirit,
pleading the glory of God ; which is also the
highest good of all His creatures ; for glorifying
Him as his chief end, one enjoys Him forever,
is blessed evermore. Since prayer is the channel
142 THY WILL BE DONE.
of the Divine blessing, we become ourselves inter-
cessors, with. Christ and the Spirit, for others.
As our heart's adoration and love go out to God
in gratitude and praise, we pray, " Thy will be
done." And in the proportion that we love our
friends and our fellow-men, and have felt the
grace of God, do we want them to know and love
our Saviour and to receive the gracious influences
of the Spirit. "We press them upon the Spirit's
attention and plead with Him in Jesus' name to
go to them as He once came to us. "We enter
into fullest sympathy with the Spirit in seeking
the glory of Christ, praying that He may see of
the travail of His soul for a lost world. "We labor
and pray, devotedly and continually, for the up-
building of His Church, the spread of the Gospel,
and the work of missions. "We would have the
heathen become His inheritance and the utter-
most parts of the earth Plis possession.
Every one, full of the Spirit, is full of zeal for
the salvation of sinners and prays unceasingly,
" Thy kingdom and Thy will be done in earth
as it is in heaven." In answer to such prayer
the Holy Spirit may go and will go to sinners,
even to the chief of sinners, and to the abodes
of sin and death, and offer salvation through Christ
full and free. Our prayers may belt the world
with more than electric speed.
When our friends will not pray for .themselves,
THE mTEKOESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 143
who can tell what dangers they escape, and what
blessings 4hey receive when we pray for them at
the intercession of the Spirit? Little does the
sinner realize how much he owes to the prayers
of his friends, and often he is forced to say, in
connection with the Spirit's influence in some to
him otherwise inexplicable providence, "Some
one has been praying for me."
As we may not resist the Spirit's strivings with
us to pray for ourselves, so we may not refuse to
pray for others when He moves us, for thus we
answer their cry for help. It may be spiritual
life to them. There is through the Spirit a di-
rect connection between our prayers and the sal-
vation of sinners, and He loves to help us pray
for them more than we iove to pray.
Joel in his prophecy, as Peter in its fulfil-
ment, connects the promise of God to " pour out
of His Spirit upon all flesh," with the other
promise that, " Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved." Pentecost was the
answer to prayer ; and this is always the Spirit's
method of working.
Kevivals of religion are the outpouring of the
Spirit in answer to prayer, and are revivals of
prayer in the Spirit ; and so long as the prayer
continues, so long the shower of refreshing will
be poured out from the opened windows of
heaven. Always to the end of the world, " to
144 THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST.
the consummation of the age," Christ will be with
His Church through the Spirit, ever living to in-
tercede for all who yield to the spirit's strivings
to call upon His name.
Mr. Philip beautifully says : * " Yielding to
the Spirit's intercession with us, secures Christ's,
intercession for us; Christ will put no prayer
into His censer of much incense, which has not
been put into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
And, on the other hand, it is just as true that
Christ will not exclude from His golden censer
any prayer which the Holy Spirit excites. It
may not be answered at once, but it is sure to be
presented, accepted, and remembered. It is as
kmlj filed at the throne of God as it was felt by
the heart or breathed by the lips."
The prayerless man must be very ignorant of
experimental theology and of Christian life.
The spirituality of an individual, as of a church,
will be measured by his prayer in the Spirit.
Unless one has " a still hour," a " sweet hour of
prayer," he has not progressed very far in heav-
enly citizenship.
It will not be uncharitable, in view of what we
have learned of the love of the Spirit in prayer ;
of His burning desire to bring us to Christ and
to sanctify us through prayer; of His grace to
* " Love of the Spirit," chap. vii.
THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 145
help all our infirmities ; and of the necessity of
prayer in the Spirit to secure the intercession of
Christ and the answer of the Father, if we say
that the prayerless man must remain a Godless
man and a Christless man and a Spiritless man.
He abides in the sin and shame and condemna-
tion of the carnal nature, and cannot see the king-
dom of God except he be born of the Spirit of
prayer. If for the Christian to cease praying be
spiritual decline, never to pray is never to have
entered into the life of God, is to live in an abid-
ing state of spiritual death.
Christ was so touched with a feeling of our
infirmities that He ministered to us even to the
laying down of His life for us. With the same
love, and with all divine power and grace, the
Spirit comes to abide with us, to work in us and
with us, to help our infirmities. Helpless and
hopeless, as well as heartless, must he be who will
not welcome and trust the Spirit of love.
As the high-priest wore upon his breast a
breast-plate graven with the names of the twelve
tribes of the children of Israel, and upon his shoul-
ders stones graven also with their names, so Christ
with every beat of His heart bears His own in love
before the Father, and upholds them continually
with His strength. Their names are graven upon
His palms, where they are ever before His eyes.
Even so with the same divine love and the same
146 LOVING FAITHFULNESS.
divine strength the Spirit abides with the dis-
ciples of Christ, and would keep them ever united
to Him by His continual intercession with them,
that He may present them at last without fault
and blameless among the redeemed and glorified
throng before the throne of Grod in heaven.
CHAPTER XI.
PROBATION OF THE HOLY SPIEIT.
THERE is no passage of the Scriptures which
brings out more clearly the intimate relation of
the Holy Spirit to Christ, and His co-operation
with Christ in the work of redemption, and the
absolute necessity of the spirit's help in making
salvation effectual to the sinner, than that in
which our Saviour rebukes the Scribes for their
blasphemy in calling the spirit in Him that of
Satan, and His work the work of Satan. He
speaks here with strong affirmation and with
divine authority: "Verily, I say unto you, all
sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men,
and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blas-
pheme ; but he that shall blaspheme against the
Holy G-host hath never forgiveness, but is in
danger of eternal damnation." The revision ren-
ders the last clause, " But is guilty of an eternal
sin."
Note the strong words which the merciful
Saviour here uses : " all sins," " wherewith
soever," " never forgiveness," and " eternal sin."
(147)
148 SIN AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The forgiveness of sin, a Divine prerogative, is
connected directly with one's treatment of the
Holy Spirit, and one may commit against Him
a sin which hath never forgiveness eternally.
Here is the crisis of such a sinner for eternity.
To call the Hcly Spirit of Christ an unclean
spirit, and His -work the work of the devil, the
great arch-enemy of Christ, whom He utterly
and infinitely abhors, and whose works He came
to destroy, and whom He judges and punishes
with everlasting vengeance, is the height of blas-
phemous sin. Not to give the Holy Spirit the
honor due to Him ; not to receive Him and be-
lieve Him and obey Him, is heinous sin in the
sight of the Father and the Son who sent Him
into the world. And to sin against Him is to
sin against Father and Son as well as the Holy
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is most keenly sensitive to
sin ; not so sensitive is the photographer's plate
to the sun, or the needle to the magnet. He is
holy, and sin is Satanic ; He is pure, and sin is
vile ; He is light, and sin is darkness ; He is life,
and sin is death. One is the destroyer of the
other, and where sin is He must depart. He is
holy in eternal being, nature, will, truth, and
work ; and dwells in holy heaven, the abode of
holy and sanctified spirits. Sin must eternally
be shut out of heaven, or it is defiled so as to be
PROBATION OF THE HOLY SPIEIT. 149
unfit for His dwelling-place. It must be shut up
in hell, or it will spread over and corrupt the
universe. For sin to enter heaven would be ca-
lamity unutterable, disaster irretrievable, anarchy
universal. There is no other alternative for sin
except death, its own wages.
A little child was troubled about the doom of
a murderer, whose awful crime excited the horror
of 'the community, and asked her mother again
and again what God would do with him. The
mother had told her child of heaven, but not of
hell, and did not wish her to know anything
about the latter place, and put her off with unsat-
isfactory answers, bidding her to wait for the
solution of such questions until she was older.
But the child could not so easily put aside the
question, now that it was raised ; and worked out
the problem alone, and said to her mother : " God
and I cannot let that murderer into heaven, for
he would kill some one there. We will make a
place outside of heaven, and shut him up there."
This is the logic of holiness which cannot be
refuted.
To sin before the Holy Spirit is most offensive ;
to sin against Him is most insulting ; to call Him
a sinner and a devil is blasphemy unpardonable.
To neglect, to grieve, to deny, to provoke Him
calls for holy vengeance.
The fearfulness of sin against the Holy Spirit
150 THE EXCEEDING SINFULNESS OF SIN.
cannot be too deeply impressed. In any degree
it is guilt deserving the penalty of the holy law,
and has forgiveness only through the sacrifice of
Christ; and there is a sin against Him which
hath never forgiveness, but is an eternal sin, de-
serving eternal damnation.
The relation 'of the Holy Spirit to sin and of
sin to the Holy Spirit has not enough been
thought of, either by the Church or the world.
God alone can reveal the exceeding sinfulness
of sin, who alone knows its nature and vileness,
and its evil and deadly results. It is sin against
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost ; against His eternal being and character ;
against His law and love and grace ; against His
creatures and His universe, its order and harmony
and peace and blessing. It is disobedience, rebel-
lion, and destruction ; becoming worse and worse
as time goes on ; and sinners by their very sinful-
ness are less able to understand and realize its
evil to them and to others.
There is one phase of this subject which is of
unspeakable importance to man, which has scarce-
ly been noticed, if written upon at all : that of the
Spirit's relation to man's probation. A probation
is a time of trial ; the time of opportunity for a
change, when alternatives of choice are open.
Joshua called the Israelites before him and
said, " Choose ye this day whom ye will serve,"
PROBATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 151
whether the idol gods or Jehovah. Their pro-
bation of choice was for that day, and the alter-
natives were blessing and cursing, life and death.
The choice was decisive, once for all, of the life
service.
There is a supreme choice which is one's char-
acter, which is made according to the nature of
the man, and is either carnal or spiritual ; and this
choice underlies and determines, all acts of the
will., and sets the current of being and life for
or against God.
On the top of the Kocky Mountains is a water-
shed, where rain-drops from the same shower
separate: some to go to the Atlantic and others
to the Pacific, continent- wide apart at last. Such
is a character-making and destiny-determining
choice made in time and for eternity.
When now we consider that man is a sinner
by nature carnally-minded, which is death ; that
his being and life are of God and continually
upheld by His power ; that time is God's ; that
sin is ever under condemnation and deserves im-
mediate death ; and that the wrath of God is just
as great against sin now as it will be at death, and
in the judgment of the great day; that sin in
man is as evil as it is in Satan and his fallen
hosts, to have given us the alternative of life in-
stead of death which we deserve ; the privilege of
choosing again through the power of the Holy
152 THE PRIVILEGE OF CHOICE.
Spirit and in the name of Christ, is an unspeak-
able blessing supremely and eternally precious ;
and shows how the long-suffering of God alone
is our salvation.
Right here arises a momentous question, how
long will this probation last? Any probation,
even a single choice, woufd be a blessed privilege.
A debtor would consider the extension of time
for the payment of his debt a favor, and a re-
prieve from the execution of a death sentence
would be the last hope of the doomed prisoner.
Surely no rational man would refuse to embrace
the first chance for pardon of sin, and put off to
the very last his choice of life, and sin against
the mercy of God as long as possible !
If an inhabitant of another planet, where sin
and death were unknown, should visit the earth,
he would be astonished first of all to find sin
here; and still more to find that sin was not
visited with immediate death ; and then, if possi-
ble, he would be still more astonished, even
amazed beyond measure, to learn that, after all
God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
had done to save sinners, every sinner did not
immediately and with all his heart embrace the
offer of salvation, and think of and care for
nothing else until he was assured of forgiveness
and peace with God.
The whole trend of the Scriptures favors the
PEOBATION OF THE HOLY SPIEIT. 153
view that death ends probation; and that after
death comes the judgment ; yet there are those
who think they find some hope that there is a
probation, at least for a part of the race, after
death ; and others who argue that the boundless
mercy of God will save all, or will continue pro-
bation beyond the grave until the general judg-
ment, or if needs be through eternity.
It would seem at first thought a blessed thing
if this larger hope were true, even if there were
eternal hope.
But our final appeal must be to the Word of
God ; and here the answer will be given, not so
certain by quoting detached passages of Scripture
on either side, as by the teaching of the Scriptures
concerning the relation of the Holy Spirit to
man's probation ; for his salvation depends en-
tirely upon what the Holy Spirit can and will do
in the matter and is altogether in His hands.
Probation here or hereafter is of the Holy
Spirit.
Man was banished from Paradise by his sin,
and cannot return except God remove the cheru-
bim and flaming sword which guard the tree
of life. Sin must be forgiven and cleansed, and
God alone can forgive sin ; and how He will for-
give He alone can tell. There is no salvation
here or hereafter outside the covenants of re-
demption and grace.
154 MAN MUST BE SAVED.
According to these God, in His love for the
perishing world, gave His only-begotten Son,
that the world should have eternal life through
believing in Him and perish not. And there
is no other way revealed by which to come to
the Father; "none other name under heaven,
given among men, whereby we must be saved."
The Son of God Himself became his Kedeemer,
the only Substitute and Intercessor for sinful
man.
But, as we have seen, the love of the Father
was all in vain for him, and the sacrifice of Christ
availed him not so long as man refused to come
to the Father through the Son for life. There
was further needed the love and work of the
Holy Spirit to lead him to accept the covenant
of grace, ever so freely offered. Unless the Spirit
had undertaken to make effectual the redemption
purchased by Christ, all were lost in the very
sight of the cross.
The whole plan of redemption was of the
mercy of God ; and was formed outside of man
and apart from the holy law ; yet fulfilling the
righteousness of th law. This wonderful re-
demption involving the gift of the Father, the
sacrifice of Christ, and the sanctification of the
Spirit was wholly of grace, in its inception, its
offer and its application. The covenant of grace
was in the hands of the Holy Spirit for ratifica-
PROBATION OF THE HOLT SPIRIT. 155
tion ; and its final condition was His work of love
with the sinner.
He sustained Christ in all His humiliation and
suffering ; and now, because of His sacrifice, will
justify all who believe in Him.
The whole work of redemption, the interests
of the Father and the Son in the world, all their
relations of love and grace toward sinners, are in
the hands of the Holy Spirit, and are now under
His administration of the kingdom of heaven ;
and His authority shall continue until the day of
Jesus Christ, when the work of redemption shall
be closed up forever. Pentecost ushered in His
personal administration : manifesting its power
and grace and glory. He who inspired the Word
must give it power in the hearts of men. He
filled the apostles when laying the foundations
of the Church. His is the work of convicting
the world of sin. But for His convicting love
and faithfulness no sinner would know or feel his
sinf ulness, so as to repent of it, and his need of the
intercession of Jesus Christ.
But for His help no one would be persuaded
or enabled to come to Christ for salvation. " Ex-
cept a man be born of the Spirit he cannot enter
into the kingdom, of God." Regeneration is
wholly His work here, and in the possibility of the
hereafter. Every saved sinner must be washed,
and justified and sanctified, in the name of the Lord
156 DEPENDENCE UPON THE SPIEIT.
Jesus and by the Spirit of God ; must be made
" a new creature in Christ Jesus." And after re-
generation, lie must be "kept from falling," and
made complete, sanctified fully and fitted for glory
by the work of the Holy Spirit.
There is not a moment from the beginning to
the end of his redemption in which he is not
dependent on the love and work of the Spirit.
The Spirit must teach him how to pray, and
pray with him, and help him in his infirmities
through all his sanctification. And we may not
forget that He continues to be the same Hol/y
Spirit all the time He is dwelling with us and
dealing with our sinfulness and unbelief; and
that all His work is in Divine love: done for
nothing in us and while we are sinful and evil.
It is plain that we are shut up to the Spirit's
help in all our salvation. He may help when He
pleases and while He pleases and as He pleases ;
and would help all. Whenever and wherever He
comes to help, salvation is not only possible, but
assured for all who trust in Christ. And we are
exhorted to "seek the Lord while He may be
found, and to call on Him while He is near."
When He helps, " He maketh intercession for
us according to the will of God," and Christ also
intercedes for us and the Spirit presents our
petitions.
And " that which is born of the flesh is flesh,"
PROBATION OP THE HOLT SPIRIT. 157
remains flesh, and " that which is bora of the
Spirit is spirit." The carnal heart cannot, will
not change itself, nor of itself repent and accept
Christ, be its probation longer or shorter.
If, therefore, the Holy Spirit does not come to
a sinner at all, there is never any salvation for
him forever ; or if He leaves him, not to retnrn,
there can never be any salvation for him ; and
when He finally departs, his probation is thereby
forever ended his doom is sealed. That last sin,
be it great or small, which wears out the patience
of the Spirit of Grod and grieves Him to depart ;
at which He finally leaves a sinner to himself, is
necessarily an eternal sin. It abides sin eternally
and decides eternity.
There will be no more strivings of the Spirit ;
no more offers of forgiveness ; no more possibil-
ity of regeneration ; no more sanctifying grace ;
no more prayer in the Spirit. The sinner is not
only spiritually dead, but dead and buried, help-
less and hopeless forever. He has said to the
Holy Spirit, depart; and Christ on the throne
will say to him, depart everlastingly. Probation
for time and eternity ends whenever the Spirit's
love and grace are finally accepted or rejected.
The probation of Christians ends when they
believe in Christ, and at the time of their regen-
erationends in salvation. They are henceforth
in Christ, united to Him, and sons of God, which
158 THE CRISIS OF ETEENITY.
is eternal life. " He that believeth on the Son
hath eternal life."
In the same sense the probation of unbelievers
ends when the Spirit finally leaves them to them-
selves, at the crisis of choice which rejects His
help ; it may be in youth, or in middle life, or at
old age. They need not wait until death to end
their probation. With all it is in the body and
therefore in this world being decided by the
"deeds done in the body," according to which judg-
ment is rendered. The last possible hope will be
in dying light and dying grace ; and we would
not limit the almighty power and infinite love of
the Spirit in this last extremity ; for the blood of
Christ is adequate to the cleansing from all sin,
and His righteousness would justify salvation to
the uttermost.
The Bible was given by the Spirit for this
life ; and Christ was made flesh for this world,
and His resurrection from the dead was to teach
us in this world of the future life and of the
relation of the present to the future.
The Spirit conies to this world to convict of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment, none
of which were necessary at such a sacrifice, except
as affecting probation in this life.
After death comes immediately the individual
judgment, when believers are received by Christ
to Himself ; and at the end of the world, when
PROBATION OF THE HOLY SPIEIT. 159
the probation of the race is ended, comes the
general judgment, which is not so much a judg-
ment as an exhibition of the justice of God in
saving sinners through the sacrifice of Christ,
and the grand triumphal jubilee of redemption,
which concerns not so much the judgment of
man as the eternal glory of God.
Then certainly all things concerning the Spirit's
work in redemption are ended forever, and the
kingdom of Christ is fully come. Hereafter there
is no more probation of the Spirit, or redemption
by Christ the books are sealed forever.
There is also to be considered another fact :
that more time, without the Spirit's work, would
be of no avail whatsoever in making choice.
Any longer probation would mean more sin, and
growth in sin ; and indefinite probation, indefinite
sinning. The tendency of sin is to permanency ;
it grows worse and worse with time, and the
conscience hardens. The sinner under a limited
probation, if uncertain, loses feeling, and easily
becomes thoughtless, and even a blasphemer.
Liberty becomes license, and license recklessness.
First ungodly, then a sinner, and then an enemy
of God is the order of sin's progression.
The shorter the limit of life the less will there
be of sin ; and the shorter the limit of probation
the greater the probability of repentance. When
men lived nearly a thousand years they became
160 LONGEK PROBATION UNAVAILING.
very great sinners, and God had to destroy them
from the face of the earth with a flood. It was
then said, " My Spirit shall not always strive with
man." Life was shortened after the flood for the
greater salvation of the race.
The sinner goes into the other life with the
same carnal heart, with its sinful momentum of
years, to be under the same holy law; and if
there should be any further probation under the
same conditions, with no other grace of Christ or
influence of the Spirit, there would be no more
hope of change. He would grow worse instead
of better under unlimited probation. What more
or better could the Spirit do or offer in another
life than He has already done here ?
Our Saviour taught that between Lazarus and
Dives there was a "great gulf fixed, so that they
that would pass from one to the other could not,"
and that if they on earth would not hear Moses
and the prophets, they would not hear though
one rose from the dead.
" Who resist the blood-stained cross,
Eesist the uttermost that heaven can do."
The whole plan and history of redemption;
all the invitations and warnings and promises of
the Grospel, so urgent and fearful and blessed, are
predicted on a present probation.
We are exhorted, "Quench not the Spirit,"
PKOBATION OF THE HOLT SPIRIT. 161
and " Grieve not the Spirit of God whereby ye
are sealed unto the day of redemption." That
by which we are acknowledged and confirmed as
Christ's in the day of redemption is the seal of
the Spirit, and where He is grieved there is no
seal.
The Jews were guilty of resisting the Holy
Spirit, and were exhorted, "To-day if ye will
hear His voice harden not your hearts," as those
to whom He sware in His wrath they should not
enter into His rest ; and much more is this true
of this "day of salvation" in which is our pro-
bation.
"When holy love such as that the Spirit shows to
sinners becomes holy wrath, in view of their sins
and impenitence and unbelief, it is as fearful
as the love was blessed. Divine justice is no fic-
tion, and the wrath of the Lamb must be unen-
durable.
There is an awful majesty in these words from
the Epistle to the Hebrews, " He that despised
Moses' law died without mercy under two or
three witnesses ; of how much sorer punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath
counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he
was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done
despite to the Spirit of grace? For we know
Him that saith,Yengeance is mine ; I will recom-
162 THE SPIRIT GRIEVED.
pense, saith the Lord." " It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God."
The terrible punishment visited upon Ananias
and Sapphira was intended to be an example of
the Holy Spirit's wrath against those who would
deceive Him and abuse His mercy,
The Spirit comes in the name of the Father
and the Son, and will resent any affront put on
them, as they will any sin against Him. His
work is the last effort of the long-suffering of
Divine love to save the sinner ; and when He is
driven away grieved, there is nothing more that
can be done for his salvation. Divine love is ex-
hausted. His condemnation is as certain as if he
were already dead, and had passed the ordeal of
judgment. He is already and always condemned
who does not believe in Christ ; not to add the
sin against the Holy Spirit.
It may not be in itself a worse sin than others ;
it may be a seemingly small offense which finally
grieves the Spirit to depart forever. Persistent
unbelief will quench His strivings until He leaves,
nevermore to return, after which the door of
hope is shut.
While blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
"hath never forgiveness," and is an "eternal
sin," the final act of unbelief has the same effect,
and is also an eternal sin.
Probation is of the Spirit in any case, and
PROBATION OF THE HOLY SPIEIT. 163
when He finally leaves the sinner there is no
more offer of grace, no opportunity for repent-
ance and renewal. Hope dies forever. The sin-
ner has died the second death ; closed his proba-
tion by his own act, and banished himself from
God and heaven forever.
Yengeauce is rendered " to them that know not
God and to them that obey not the Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ : who shall suffer punishment,
even eternal destruction from the face of the
Lord and the glory of His might, when He shall
come to be glorified in His saints, and to be mar-
velled at in all them that believe, in that day."
Unbelief shuts the gate of heaven. It is no
fiction of Dante's which writes over the gate of
hell,
" All hope abandon, ye who enter here."
CHAPTER XII.
THE COMMUNION OF THE HOLT SPIRIT.
THE Apostle Paul had a beautiful custom, in
common with all the world, of gathering up at
the close of his epistles all good wishes in one
prayer of valediction.
At the close of the second epistle to the Cor-
inthians he reaches the climax of blessing in what
is called, because of its supreme excellence, the
Apostolic benediction " The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God and the com-
munion of the Holy Ghost be with you all."
This is the trinity of divine blessing in the plan-
ning and procuring and communication of re-
demption ; originating in the love of the Father,
purchased by the grace of Christ, and received
through the fellowship of the Spirit. This bless-
ing finds its culmination in the " communion of
the Holy Ghost," the channel through which it
reaches us, so that, in the final analysis of re-
demption, the vital link is the work of the Spirit,
without which the love of the Father and the
grace of Christ would be fruitless. And the word
(164)
! THE COMMUNION OF THE HOLT SPIRIT. 165
" Communion " expresses the fullness of the bless-
edness of the relation of the Spirit to us, or rather
of our mutual relationship. The apostle prays
that we may have all things in common with the
Holy Spirit ; so that there may be between us and
Him an unbroken intercourse, a mutual giving and
receiving, a friendly conversation and fellowship.
We find at the outset a difficulty in under-
standing how there can be such communion be-
tween manand the Spiritof God. " GodisaSpirit,
and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth." Man is more than spirit,
" spirit, soul, and body" and herein lies the diffi-
culty in understanding how the Spirit of God,
unseen and unheard, can come into communion
with him. This is made plain when we consider
that man is also a spirit and has all the attributes
and qualities of spirit ; and that his spirit is the
highest part of man, which should rule his mind
and body for spiritual service. His spirit is his
very person, that which is the ruling and re-
sponsible part, and in which he is in the image of
God. His spirit manifests itself in conscious-
ness, intelligence, choice, will, affections, and
moral feelings, and through these powers he holds
communion with his fellow-men, and in the same
way also with the Spirit of God with this
difference, however, that the Spirit of God comes
into direct and immediate and personal contact
166 SPIEITUAL WORSHIP.
with man's spirit in his very consciousness, where
they can commune face to face, eye to eye,
thought to thought, feeling to feeling, will to
will, heart to heart, the spirit of man transparent
to the Holy Spirit ; who is able to come into the
inner sanctuary of his conscious being, so that
his body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit,
and he can thus glorify God in his body and his
spirit, which are God's.
This access of spirit to spirit gives scope for
worship, which must, of course, be sincere to be
acceptable, since the Holy Spirit knows imme-
diately what is in man. In worship man ex-
presses the true and natural relation between
himself and his Creator. Man is a religious or
worshipping being, and is not satisfied until he
finds God. Spiritual worship will be the out-
going of intelligence, emotion, affection, choice,
will, and conscience to God in answer to the
corresponding relations in him. Knowledge,
love, and service will be given to God. Wor-
ship finds expression in prayer and devotion, but
its culmination and perfection are in the com-
munion of the Holy Spirit, which is a conscious,
abiding fellowship of the spirit of man with the
Spirit of God, in the fulfillment of every spiritual
relation ; the perfect harmony and intercourse of
spiritual environment.
The law of spiritual life which shall produce
THE COMMUNION OP THE HOLY SPIEIT. 167
such worship would subordinate the body and
the desires of this world to the spirit's life, and
submit and devote everything to God.
And while this demands self-denial and sac-
rifice, and even the death of all below, and finally
death to the world itself, it is the law of the
spirit's highest life, and brings it to the fruition
of the glory of God. Willing obedience to this
law implies a state of spiritual-mindedness, which
sets the choice and current of being, the supreme
love of the human spirit on God, which is the
condition of the Holy Spirit's indwelling and
communion.
But, right here, we are met with the fact that
man is not obedient to the law of his spirit, and
will not have the communion of the Holy Spirit,
however important and precious this privilege
may be. He is carnal, and is not subject to the
law of God, and will not be ; and there is noth-
ing in him in which the Spirit can take delight.
The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, holy in being
and character, in all His attributes and perfections
and words and works ; in thought and desire and
feeling; in person and manifestation and com-
panionship, and man is under the government of
His holy power according to His holy law. In
His sight sin is exceeding sinful even unto death,
to be banished forever from His presence and the
glory of His power.
168 THE COST OF REDEMPTION.
Now appears the love of God to man passing
knowledge, as revealed in the wondrous plan of
redemption. The Father in His divine compas-
sion saw His once upright creature, made in His
image, fallen, ruined, and lost ; and asked for one
to take his place and bear his guilt and make
atonement ; when the Son of God, in pity, offered
Himself asinan's Redeemer ; and the Father in His
great love gave Him up and sent Him into the
world to save sinners ; while the Holy Spirit also
sanctioned this plan of redemption, and on His
part offered His power and presence to make
effectual the sacrifice of Christ in its application
to man's salvation. Thus the love of the Father
planned, the love of the Son purchased, and the
love of the Spirit completed the redemption of
man. The Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate,
was obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross; paid the price, rose from the dead, and
ascended up to the right hand of God, having
purchased the privilege of an everlasting Inter-
cessor, until the kingdoms of this world should
become His, according to the promise of the
Father.
Thus He fulfilled the conditions upon which
He could proclaim the covenant of grace to sin-
ners, and freely invite all to come to Him and be
saved.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the
THE COMMUNION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 169
supreme blessing of His love. While He was
with His disciples in the world, they thought
themselves divinely favored, and that nothing
could be better for them than His presence ; but
He tells them that it would be better for them if
He should go away that He might send another
Comforter unto them, who should abide with
them forever. This Comforter the Father and
Himself would give unto them without measure,
and He would reveal and apply the things of
Christ, glorifying Him, convincing the world of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
Pentecost witnessed the power and glory of
the Spirit's coming ; as He was poured out like
a rushing wind and like a flaming fire, when He
began to establish the Church of Christ in its
new testament ; and the whole record of the
Acts of the Apostles is His account of His own
acts as He taught and filled the Apostles, and
worked through them, showing how He would
work in and with and for the Church in all time.
And we now live under the administration of
the Holy Spirit, which is even more glorious
than that of the law and of Christ in person. He
is fitted to be the Divine Executive, who knows
the mind of God, and also as a Spirit knows im-
mediately the mind of man, and can reveal and
teach the things of God, illuminating, convicting,
and working with all power, and grace, and tr
170 THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT.
As the executive of the holy law the Spirit
has no other alternative for the sinner than obe-
dience or death. But Christ was the end of the
law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
All who believe in Him are saved from the curse
of the law of sin and death. Yet He is forced
to exclaim, " Ye will not come to me that ye
might have life." The carnal heart will not
change itself, and cannot, and no one of himself
will ever come to Him. The death of Christ,
which provided an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin,
and purchased full and free redemption, would
avail nothing, unless some one shall lead the sin-
ner to accept its benefits. All that is expressed
in His cross were lost to mankind, great as was the
love of the Father, and the Son, had not the
Spirit come to make it effectual. But for the
sacrifice of Christ, the Holy Spirit could have
nothing to do with man, and it is only in Christ's
name that He undertakes his salvation. All
things done by the Spirit in His administration
are in the name of Christ. In His own great
love He comes even into a sinner's heart to
cleanse and change and sanctify it until it shall,
through the grace of Christ, be fitted for glory.
Thus we have the origin and ground and privi-
lege of the communion of the Holy Spirit. He
would take of the things of Christ, and shew
them unto us for His glory and our glorification.
THE COMMUNION OF THE HOLT SPIRIT. 171
* At first the friendship is all on one side,
and His coming is uninvited and unwelcome;
and we shut our ears to His message and our
hearts to His love. He comes in faithful love
to discover to us our sin and to convict us of its
guilt ; a most unpleasant work for Him, but nec-
essary for us, that we may see our lost condition
and our need of the grace and intercession of
Christ. He convicts of sin that He may per-
suade us to trust in the righteousness of Christ.
When we do this He speaks pardon and peace,
and sheds abroad the love of Christ in our
hearts, and gives us the joy of adoption ; bearing
witness that we are the children of God. Until
then we knew not the love of Christ and had no
joy in the Holy Ghost, and cared not for His
communion.
Now begins a fellowship that shall become
nearer and dearer as time goes on. Having re-
newed our hearts by His power and grace, He
takes personal delight in us and will not cease
His friendship till He presents us to the Father,
in the name of Christ, complete and glorified.
He makes our bodies the place of His indwell-
ing, and we give Him a sanctuary in our hearts.
The things which the eye hath not seen, nor the
ear heard, nor have entered into the mind of the
carnal man, He shows unto us. Having begun
in us a good work, He will, as our Sanctifier, con-
172 FRIENDSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP.
tinue it until the day of Jesus Christ. He be-
comes our Teacher and leads us into all truth, call-
ing it to remembrance, illuminating with His
light, strengthening in temptation and trial, up-
holding and comforting in all afflictions, helping
our infirmities, making all things work together
for our good, that He may make Christ unto us
wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and
redemption.
Having this communion, we "pray in the
Spirit," and He also prays with us that we may
seek the fullness of the blessing of the interces-
sion of Christ for us; and when we know not
what to pray for as we ought, He maketh inter-
cession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered. Through prayer He brings us to God
face to face, and calls out our minds and wills
and affections God ward ; especially does He re-
veal sin and keep from sin, and help to overcome
easily besetting sins, and bestow all grace to help
in every time of need. As He communes with
us thus, we are brought more and more into sym-
pathy with Him in glorifying the love of Christ,
and in efforts to spread abroad His kingdom.
And He would train us for usefulness and honor
in His service. He would work all spiritual
grapes in us, that He might also bestow all spirit-
ual gifts upon us and use us in all good works.
The more He reveals to us the love of Christ the
THE COMMUNION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 173
more do we pray and labor for the coming of
His kingdom and the doing of His will. We
give ourselves joyfully to the work of His Church
and enter heartily into her most blessed mission
of giving the Gospel to every creature.
Every spiritual blessing depends on the com-
munion of the Holy Spirit. But for Him we
never would have known the sinfulness of sin,
never have sought the grace of Christ, never
have been born into spiritual life, never have
become sons of Grod, never have persevered in a
Christian life, never have lived lives of prayer,
never have become workers together with Christ,
never have been able to rejoice in the hope of the
glory of Grod. And it will be only as we keep
our minds on the things of the Spirit that we
shall attain to the fullness of life and to abiding
peace. "We must be Jcept by the Spirit, and our
sanctification will not be completed so long as we
are in the flesh.
We shall need His teaching and help and com-
fort continually.
Daily shall we need grace and deliverance from
evil. Our discipline in righteousness is not yet
ended. Sufferings and afflictions, like those of
the Master, are before us. There will be many a
contest with sin before we lay hold on eternal
life. .Not for a moment may we undertake to
live without the help of the Spirit in our infirm-
174 GEOWTH IN GEACB.
ities. And there are graces in which we are to
grow; with which He would ornament our char-
acters, which we would have Him work in us,
adding grace to grace. There are deep mines of
precious truth yet undiscovered or unused, bo-
nanzas of spiritual riches awaiting us, and heav-
enly treasures inexhaustible, which may be laid
up in store. There are heights of spiritual knowl-
edge stretching out before us from which we may
catch visions of heavenly glory. We have not yet
known all the sinfulness of sin, nor all the right-
eousness of Christ. The love of Christ, which has
heights and depths and length and breadth passing
knowledge, is yet to be shed abroad in our hearts
until we are filled with the fullness of God. With
this knowledge of Christ we see the prince of
this world judged ; and that nothing in this
world, and no power of evil, can separate us from
the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our
Lord ; and this begets within us a peace, a con-
fidence, an assurance, full and abiding, of a faith
which rejoices and triumphs in victory through
Christ, giving thanks as if it were already ours,
counting even death a release to our heavenly
home.
With such communion of the Spirit we shall
not enter heaven as strangers, for our citizenship
is there already ; but we shall be at home there,
having our joys, our loves, our hopes, our friends,
THE COMMUNION THE HOLY SPIETT. 175
our hearts already there. Along with this com-
munion of the Holy Spirit goes the communion
of saints, the fellowship of friend with friend,
bound together by a common love for Christ,
having their faith and joy and hope in common,
and often sitting together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus ; a fellowship that shall abide with
the communion of the Spirit, to become nearer
and dearer through the clearer revelation and per-
fect sight of heavenly vision, face to face.
It is evident from what we have seen of the
love of the Spirit that nothing on His part will
break or alloy this blessed communion, founded
in the love of the Father and the grace of Christ.
If we fail of it in any measure it will be the
fault of our own sin and unbelief and unfaithful-
ness. If we banish Him from our thoughts and
keep not our minds on the things of the Spirit ;
if we turn His temple into a house of merchan-
dise, or devote it to pleasure and worldliness
instead of prayer ; if we defile it with sin ; if we
give place to the evil one and allow him to fill
our hearts ; if we neglect or cease to trust in and
love Christ ; if we leave our Bibles unread, and
our closets unopened, and cease to frequent the
house of Grod, and the place of prayer, and to
engage in the work of the Lord, then He must
withdraw from us and withhold His grace and
leave us to ourselves, until we learn by a sad
176 DIVINE FELLOWSHIP.
experience our ignorance and weakness and folly,
and do again the first works. Not to open our
hearts to Him, not to give Him a welcome and an
abiding-place, to grieve Him, to provoke Him, to
quench Him, is ingratitude and unbelief, most
dangerous and most sinful ; for should He finally
depart, the love of the Father and the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ were all vain to us, and
the door of hope is shut and heavenly fellowship
is impossible evermore.
To know Him and to be known of Him is to
know and be known of God and Jesus Christ,
whom He has sent, which is eternal life. To see
Him and be seen of Him is to see heaven and
have heaven begun in us ; to love Him and to be
loved of Him is to have the love of the Father
and the Son perfected in us.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled
with all the fullness of God ; and to be taught of
Him is to have heaven opened, and to see Jesus
Christ sitting on the right hand of God. . To
have His communion is to have Jesus Christ
Himself abiding with us through a Comforter,
who is better than His earthly presence. Com-
muning with the Holy Spirit, we have forgive-
ness of sins, justification, adoption, and sanctifica-
tion; peace, joy, and hope of glory; light in
darkness, strength in weakness, and comfort in
affliction. At times even here we know not
THE COMMUNION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 177
whether we are in the body or out of the body,
so does He fill us with His glory, taking us up
into the third heaven of delight. Then again
we are with Christ on the mount of transfigura-
tion, ravished with His presence and His love.
Waiting in this tabernacle, we groan, being bur-
dened, looking not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are unseen and eternal,
longing until mortality shall be swallowed up of
life.
If the communion of the Holy Spirit and the
communion of saints be such sweet and blessed
fellowship here below, what shall be their fruition
in the clear sight of heavenly glory ?
Having all things in common with the Holy
Spirit, the good of earth is ours and heaven is
ours, the Father is ours and Christ is ours ; all
things are ours of life and life eternal.
We gather up all blessings and put all prayers
in one when we pray : " The communion of the
Holy Spirit be with you alL"
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
50 707 107
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
