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diff --git a/25395-8.txt b/25395-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a66a8c --- /dev/null +++ b/25395-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6085 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Ministry of the Spirit, by A. J. Gordon + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Ministry of the Spirit + + +Author: A. J. Gordon + + + +Release Date: May 8, 2008 [eBook #25395] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Transcriber's note: + + Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in + curly braces, e.g. {99}. They have been located where page + breaks occurred in the original book. For its Scripture Index + and its General Index, a page number has been placed only at + the start of those sections. + + Footnotes have been renumbered sequentially and moved to the + end of their respective chapters. The book's Index has a + number of references to footnotes, e.g. the "96 n." entry under + "Assyrians." In such cases, check the referenced page to see + which footnote(s) are relevant. + + The Greek words in this e-book have been transliterated + according to Project Gutenberg's Greek How-To. Such words are + indicated with surrounding underscores. Underscores are also + used to indicate italicization of words, but in this e-book + such words are always English words. + + + + + +THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT + +by + +A. J. GORDON, D.D. + +With an Introduction by Rev. F. B. Meyer +Minister at Christ Church, London + + + + + + + +Philadelphia +American Baptist Publication Society +1420 Chestnut Street +1894 + +Copyright 1894 by the +American Baptist Publication Society + + + + +To the + +INHERITORS OF THE SPIRIT + + + + +{vii} + +PREFACE + +It is not claimed that in this little volume all has been said that +might be said upon the subject treated. On the contrary, the writer +has proceeded upon the belief that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit can +be better understood by limiting the sphere of discussion, rather than +by extending it to the largest bounds. For finite beings, at least, +presence is more intelligible than omnipresence. So, though the +subject of this book is in itself profoundly mysterious, we have sought +to simplify it by dwelling upon the time-ministry of the Holy Ghost +without entering upon the consideration of his eternal ministry. What +the Spirit did before the incarnation of Christ, and what he may do +hereafter beyond the second advent of Christ, is a question hardly +touched upon in this volume. We have sought rather to emphasize and to +magnify the great truth that the Paraclete is now present in the +church: that we are living in the dispensation of the Spirit, with all +the unspeakable blessing for the church and for the world which this +economy provides. Hence, as we speak of the ministry of Christ {viii} +meaning a service embraced within defined limits, so we name this +volume the "Ministry of the Spirit," as referring to the work of the +Comforter extending from Pentecost to the end of this dispensation. + +How deep a subject for a study! What prayer more becoming for those +entering upon it than the humble petition that the Spirit himself will +teach us concerning the Spirit! Deeply sensible of the imperfection of +this work, it is now committed to the use and blessing of that Divine +Person of the Godhead of whom it so unworthily speaks. + +A. J. G. + +BOSTON, Dec., 1894. + + + + +{ix} + +INTRODUCTION + +It is remarkable how many in these last days have been led to deal with +the sublime subject to which this treatise is devoted. Without doubt +the mind of the church is being instructed, and her heart prepared for +a recognition of the indwelling, administration, and co-operation of +the blessed Paraclete, which has never been excelled in her history, +and is fraught with the greatest promise both to her and to the world. + +Each of these treatises has brought out some new phase in respect to +the person or mission of the Holy Spirit, but I cannot recall one that +is so lucid, so suggestive, so scriptural, so deeply spiritual as this, +by my beloved friend, Dr. Gordon. The chapters on the Embodying, the +Enduement, and the Administration of the Spirit seem specially fresh +and helpful. But all is good, and deserving of prayerful perusal. Let +only such truths be well wrought into the mental and spiritual +constitution {x} of God's servants, and there would be such a revival +of pure and undefiled religion in the churches, and such marvelous +results through them on the world that the age would close with a +world-wide Pentecost. And there are many symptoms abroad that this +also is in the purpose of God. Nothing else can meet the deepest needs +and yearnings of our time. + +Christianity is beset with three powerful currents, which insidiously +operate to deflect her from her course. Materialism, which denies or +ignores the supernatural, and concentrates its heed on ameliorating the +outward conditions of human life; criticism, which is clever at +analysis and dissection, but cannot construct a foundation on which the +religious faculty may build and rest; and a fine literary taste, which +has greatly developed of late, and is disposed to judge of power by +force of words or by delicacy of expression. + +To all of these we have but one reply. And that is, not a system, a +creed, a church, but the living Christ, who was dead, but is alive +forevermore, and has the keys to unlock all perplexities, problems, and +failures. Though society could be {xi} reconstituted, and material +necessities be more evenly supplied, discontent would break out again +in some other form, unless the heart were satisfied with his love. The +truth which he reveals to the soul, and which is ensphered in him, is +alone able to appease the consuming hunger of the mind for data on +which to construct its answer to the questions of life and destiny and +God, which are ever knocking at its door for solution. And men have +yet to learn that the highest power is not in words or metaphors or +bursts of eloquence, but in the indwelling and out-working of the Word, +who is the wisdom and the power of God, and who deals with regions +below those where the mind vainly labors. + +Jesus Christ, the ever-living Son of God, is the one supreme answer to +the restlessness and travail of our day. But he cannot, he will not +reveal himself. Each person in the Holy Trinity reveals another. The +Son reveals the Father, but his own revelation awaits the testimony of +the Holy Ghost, which, though often given directly, is largely through +the church. What we need then, and what the world is waiting for, is +the Son of God, borne witness to and revealed in all his radiant {xii} +beauty of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, as he energizes with and +through the saints that make up the holy and mystical body, the church. + +It is needful to emphasize this distinction. In some quarters it seems +to be supposed that the Holy Spirit himself is the solution of the +perplexities of our time. Now what we may witness in some coming age +we know not, but in this it is clear that God in the person of Christ +is the one only and divine answer. Here is God's yea and amen, the +Alpha and Omega, sight for the blind, healing for the paralyzed, +cleansing for the polluted, life for the dead, the gospel for the poor +and sad and comfortless. Now we covet the gracious bestowal of the +Spirit, that he may take more deeply of the things of Christ, and +reveal them unto us. When the disciples sought to know the Father, the +Lord said, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. It is his glory +that shines on my face, his will that molds my life, his purpose that +is fulfilled in my ministry. So the blessed Paraclete would turn our +thought and attention from himself to him, with whom he is One in the +Holy Trinity, and whom he has come to reveal. + +{xiii} + +Throughout the so-called Christian centuries the voice of the Holy +Spirit has borne witness to the Lord, directly and mediately. +Directly, in each widespread quickening of the human conscience, in +each revival of religion, in each era of advance in the knowledge of +divine truth, in each soul that has been regenerated, comforted, or +taught. Mediately his work has been carried on through the church, the +body of those that believe. But, alas! how sadly his witness has been +weakened and hindered by the medium through which it has come. He has +not been able to do many mighty works because of the unbelief which has +kept closed and barred those avenues through which he would have poured +his glad testimony to the unseen and glorified Lord. + +The divisions of the church, her strife about matters of comparative +unimportance, her magnification of points of difference, her +materialism, her love of pelf and place and power, her accounting +herself rich and increased in goods and needing nothing, when she was +poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked--these things have not only +robbed her of her testimony, but have grieved and {xiv} quenched the +Holy Spirit, and nullified his testimony. + +We gladly hail the signs that this period of apathy and resistance is +coming to a close. The Church which is in the churches is making +herself felt, is arising from the dust and arraying herself in her +beautiful garments. There is a widespread recognition of the unity of +all who believe, together with an increasing desire to magnify the +points of agreement and minimize those of divergence. The great +conventions for the quickening of spiritual life on both sides of the +Atlantic in which believers meet, irrespective of name or sect, are +doing an incalculable amount of good in breaking down the old lines of +demarcation, and making real our spiritual oneness. The teaching of +consecration and cleanliness of heart and life is removing those +obstacles that have restrained and drowned the Spirit's still small +voice. The fuller's soap and the refiner's fire have been largely +resorted to, with the best results. And as believers have become more +consistent and devoted, they have grown increasingly sensitive to the +indwelling, energy, and co-witness of the Holy Spirit. + +{xv} + +If only this glorious movement is permitted to achieve its full +purpose, the effect will be transcendently glorious. The church will +become as pliant to the Divine Tenant as the resurrection body of our +Lord to the impulse of his divine nature. And so the Lord Jesus will +increasingly become the object of human hope, the center around which +the concentric circles of human life shall circle. + +That the Lord Jesus should be thus magnified and glorified through the +ministry of the Holy Spirit, and with this end in view, that the hearts +and lives of believers should be made more sensitive to and receptive +of his blessed energy, this treatise has been prepared; and I add my +testimony to the beloved author's, that in the mouth of two witnesses, +every word may be established; and my prayer to his that the yea of the +Spirit to the great voice of the gospel may be heard more mightily and +persistently amongst us. + + + + +{xvii} + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + +CHAPTER I. + +THE AGE-MISSION OF THE SPIRIT. INTRODUCTORY, . . . . . . . . . 11 + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 + 1. Sealing; 2. Filling; 3. Anointing. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 + 1. The Spirit of Life: Our Regeneration. + 2. The Spirit of Holiness: Our Sanctification. + 3. The Spirit of Glory: Our Transfiguration. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 + 1. In the Ministry and Government of the Church. + 2. In the Worship and Service of the Church. + 3. In the Missionary Enterprise of the Church. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 + 1. Of Sin; 2. Of Righteousness; 3. Of Judgment. + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE ASCENT OF THE SPIRIT, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 + + + + +{11} + +I + +THE AGE-MISSION OF THE SPIRIT + + + + +{12} + +"It is evident that the present dispensation under which we are is the +dispensation of the Spirit, or of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. +To him in the Divine economy, has been committed the office of applying +the redemption of the Son to the souls of men by the vocation, +justification, and salvation of the elect. We are therefore under the +personal guidance of the Third Person, as truly as the apostles were +under the guidance of the Second."--_Henry Edward Manning_. + + + + + + + + +{13} + +THE AGE-MISSION OF THE SPIRIT--INTRODUCTORY + +In some observations on the doctrine of the Spirit, which lie before us +as we write, an eminent professor of theology remarks on the +disproportionate attention which has been given to the person and work +of the Holy Spirit, as compared with that bestowed on the life and +ministry of Jesus Christ. It is affirmed, moreover, that in many of +the works upon the subject now extant there is a lack of definiteness +of impression which leaves much still to be desired in the treatment of +this subject. These observations lead us to ask: Why not employ the +same method in writing about the Third Person of the Trinity as we use +in considering the Second Person? Scores of excellent lives of Christ +have been written; and we find that in these, almost without exception, +the divine story begins with Bethlehem and ends with Olivet. Though +the Saviour lived before his incarnation, and continues to live after +his ascension, yet it gives a certain definiteness of impression to +limit one's view to his historic career, distinguishing his visible +life lived in time from his invisible life lived in eternity. + +{14} + +So in considering the Holy Spirit, we believe there is an advantage in +separating his ministry in time from his ministry before and after, +bounding it by Pentecost on the one side, and by Christ's second coming +on the other. We have to confess that in many respects one of the best +treatises on the Spirit which we have found is by a Roman +Catholic--Cardinal Manning. Notwithstanding the papistical errors +which abound in the volume, his general conception of the subject is in +some particulars admirable. His treatise is called "The Temporal +Mission of the Holy Ghost." How much is suggested by this title! Just +as Jesus Christ had a time-ministry which he came into the world to +fulfill, and having accomplished it returned to the Father, so the Holy +Spirit, for the fulfillment of a definite mission, came into the world +at an appointed time; he is now carrying on his ministry on earth, and +in due time he will complete it and ascend to heaven again--this is +what these words suggest, and what, as we believe, the Scriptures +teach. If we thus form a right conception of this present age-ministry +of the Spirit, we have a definite view-point from which to study his +operations in the ages past, and his greater mission, if there be such, +in the ages to come. + +Now we conceive that the vagueness and mystery attaching in many minds +to the doctrine of the Spirit, are due largely to a failure to +recognize his {15} time-ministry, distinct from all that went before +and introductory to all that is to come after--a ministry with a +definite beginning and a definite termination. Certainly no one can +read the farewell discourse of our Lord, as recorded by John, without +being impressed with the fact that just as distinctly as his own advent +was foretold by prophets and angels, he now announces the advent into +the world of another, co-equal with himself, his Divine successor, his +other self in the mysterious unity of the Godhead. And moreover, it +seems clear to us that he implied that this coming One was to appear +not only for an appointed work, but for an appointed period: "He shall +give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever"--_eis +ton aiơna_. If we translate literally and say "_for the age_," it +harmonizes with a parallel passage. In giving the great commission, +Jesus says: "And lo, I am with you alway, even _unto the end of the +age_." Here his presence by the Holy Ghost is evidently meant. The +perpetuity of that presence is guaranteed, "with you all the days"; and +its bound determined, "_unto the end of the age_." Not that it need be +argued that he shall not be here after this dispensation is finished; +but that there is such a thing as a temporal mission of the Holy Spirit +does seem to be implied. And a full study confirms the view. The +present is the dispensation of {16} the Holy Ghost; the age-work which +he inaugurated on the day of Pentecost is now going on, and it will +continue until the Lord Jesus returns from heaven, when another order +will be ushered in and another dispensational ministry succeed. + +In the well-known work of Moberly, on "The Administration of the Holy +Spirit in the Body of Christ," the author divides the course of +redemption thus far accomplished into these three stages: The first +age, God the Father; the second age, God the Son; and the third age, +God the Holy Ghost. This distribution seems to be correct, and so does +his remark upon the inauguration of the last of these periods on the +day of Pentecost. "At that moment," he says, "the third stage of the +development [manifestation] of God for the restoration of the world +finally began, never to come to an end or to be superseded on earth +till the restitution of all things, when the Son of Man shall come +again in the clouds of heaven, in like manner as his disciples saw him +go into heaven." And what shall be the next period, "the age to come," +whose powers they have already tasted who have been "made partakers of +the Holy Ghost"? This question need not be answered, as we have done +all that is required, defined the age of the Spirit which constitutes +the field in which our entire discussion lies. + + + + +{17} + +II + +THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT + + + + +{18} + +"Therefore the Holy Ghost on this day--Pentecost--descended into the +temple of his apostles, which he had prepared for himself, as a shower of +sanctification, appearing no more as a transient visitor, but as a +perpetual Comforter and as an eternal inhabitant. He came therefore on +this day to his disciples, no longer by the grace of visitation and +operation, but by the very presence of his majesty."--_Augustine_. + + + + +{19} + +II + +THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT + +"For _the Holy Ghost was not yet_," is the more than surprising saying of +Jesus when speaking of "the Spirit which they that believe on him should +receive." Had not the Spirit been seen descending upon Jesus like a dove +at his baptism, and remaining on him? Had he not been the divine agent +in creation, and in the illumination and inspiration of the patriarchs +and prophets and seers of the old dispensation? How then could Jesus say +that he "was not yet given," as the words read in our Common version? +The answer to this question furnishes our best point of departure for an +intelligent study of the doctrine of the Spirit. Augustine calls the day +of Pentecost the "_dies natalis_" of the Holy Ghost; and for the same +reason that the day when Mary "brought forth her first-born son" we name +"the birthday of Jesus Christ." Yet Jesus had existed before he lay in +the cradle at Bethlehem; he was "in the beginning with God"; he was the +agent in creation. By him all things were. But on the day of his birth +he became incarnate, that in the flesh he might fulfill his great {20} +ministry as the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, manifesting +God to men, and making himself an offering for the sins of the world. +Not until after his birth in Bethlehem was Jesus in the world in his +official capacity, in his divine ministry as mediator between man and +God; and so not till after the day of Pentecost was the Holy Spirit in +the world in his official sphere, as mediator between men and Christ. In +the following senses then is Augustine's saying true, which calls +Pentecost "the birthday of the Spirit": + +1. The Holy Spirit, from that time on, took up his residence on earth. +The Christian church throughout all this dispensation is the home of the +Spirit as truly as heaven, during this same period, is the home of Jesus +Christ. This is according to that sublime word of Jesus, called by one +"the highest promise which can be made to man": "If a man love me he will +keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, +_and make our abode with him_" (John 14: 23). This promise was fulfilled +at Pentecost, and the first two Persons of the Godhead now hold residence +in the church through the Third. The Holy Spirit during the present time +is in office on earth; and all spiritual presence and divine communion of +the Trinity with men are through him. In other words, while the Father +and the Son are visibly and personally in heaven, they are invisibly here +in the {21} body of the faithful by the indwelling of the Comforter. So +that though we affirm that on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came +to dwell upon earth for this entire dispensation, we do not imply that he +thereby ceased to be in heaven. Not with God, as with finite man, does +arrival in one place necessitate withdrawal from another. Jesus uttered +a saying concerning himself so mysterious and seemingly contradictory +that many attempts have been made to explain away its literal and obvious +meaning: "And no man hath ascended up to heaven but _he that came down +from heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven_"--Christ on earth, and +yet in glory; here and there, at the same time, just as a thought which +we embody in speech and send forth from the mind, yet remains in the mind +as really and distinctly as before it was expressed. Why should this +saying concerning our divine Lord seem incredible? And as with the Son, +so with the Spirit. The Holy Ghost is here, abiding perpetually in the +church; and he is likewise there, in communion with the Father and the +Son from whom he proceeds, and from whom, as co-equal partner in the +Godhead, he can never be separated any more than the sunbeam can be +dissociated from the sun in which it has its source. + +2. Again: The Holy Spirit, in a mystical but very real sense, became +embodied in the church on the day of Pentecost. Not that we would by any +{22} means put this embodiment on the same plane with the incarnation of +the Second Person of the Trinity. When "the Word was made flesh and +dwelt among us," it was God entering into union with sinless humanity; +here it is the Holy Spirit uniting himself with the church in its +imperfect and militant condition. Nevertheless, it is according to +literal Scripture that the body of the faithful is indwelt by the divine +Spirit. In this fact we have the distinguishing peculiarity of the +present dispensation. "For he dwelleth with you and _shall be in you_!" +said Jesus, speaking anticipatively of the coming of the Comforter; and +so truly was this prediction fulfilled that ever after the day of +Pentecost the Holy Spirit is spoken of as being in the church. "_If so +be that the Spirit of God dwell in you_" is the inspired assumption on +which the deep teaching in Romans eighth proceeds. All the recognition +and deference which the disciples paid to their Lord they now pay to the +Holy Spirit, his true vicar, his invisible self, present in the body of +believers. How artlessly and naturally this comes out in the findings of +the first council at Jerusalem: "It seemed good _to the Holy Ghost and to +us_" runs the record; as though it had been said: "Peter and James and +Barnabas and Saul and the rest were present, and also just as truly was +the Holy Ghost." + +And when the first capital sin was committed in the church, in the +conspiracy and falsehood {23} of Ananias and Sapphira, Peter's question +is: "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?" "How +is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Holy Ghost?" Not only is +the personal presence of the Spirit in the body of believers thus +distinctly recognized, but he is there in authority and supremacy, as the +center of the assembly. "Incarnated in the church!" do we say? We get +this conception by comparing together the inspired characterizations of +Christ and of the church. "This temple" was the name which he gave to +his own divine person, greatly to the scandal and indignation of the +Jews; and the evangelist explains to us that "he spoke of the temple of +his body." A metaphor, a type! do we say? No! He said so because it +was so. "The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld +his glory" (John 1: 14). This is temple imagery. "Tabernacled" +(_eschênôsen_) is the word used in Scripture for the dwelling of God with +men; and the temple is God's dwelling-place. The "glory" harmonizes with +the same idea. As the Shechinah cloud rested above the mercy-seat, the +symbol and sign of God's presence, so from the Holy of Holies of our +blessed Lord's heart did the glory of God shine forth, "the glory as of +the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," certifying him +to be the veritable temple of the Most High. + +After his ascension and the sending down of the {24} Spirit, the church +takes the name her Lord had borne before; she is the temple of God, and +the only temple which he has on earth during the present dispensation. +"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God +dwelleth in you?" asks the apostle. This he speaks to the church in its +corporate capacity. "A holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are +_builded together_ for a habitation of God through the Spirit," is the +sublime description in the Epistle to the Ephesians. It is enough that +we now emphasize the fact that the same language is here applied to the +church which Christ applies to himself. As with the Head, so with the +mystical body; each is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and thus is God in +some sense incarnated in both; and for the same reason. Christ was "the +Image of the Invisible God"; and when he stood before men in the flesh he +could say to them, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Not +otherwise than through the incarnation, so far as we know, could the +unknown God become known, and the unseen God become seen. So, after +Christ had returned to the Father, and the world saw him no more, he sent +the Paraclete to be incarnated in his mystical body, the church. As the +Father revealed himself through the Son, so the Son by the Holy Spirit +now reveals himself through the church; as Christ was the image of the +invisible God, so the church is appointed to be {25} the image of the +invisible Christ; and his members, when they are glorified with him, +shall be the express image of his person. + +This then is the mystery and the glory of this dispensation; not less +true because mysterious; not less practical because glorious. In an +admirable work on the Spirit, the distinction between the former and the +present relation of the Spirit is thus stated: "In the old dispensation +the Holy Spirit wrought _upon_ believers, but did not in his person dwell +in believers and abide permanently in them. He appeared unto men; he did +not incarnate himself in man. His action was intermittent; he went and +came like the dove which Noah sent forth from the ark, and which went to +and fro, finding no rest; while in the new dispensation he dwells, he +abides in the heart as the dove, his emblem, which John saw descending +and alighting on the head of Jesus. Affianced of the soul, the Spirit +went oft to see his betrothed, but was not yet one with her; the marriage +was not consummated until the Pentecost, after the glorification of Jesus +Christ."[1] + +3. A still more obvious reason why before the day of Pentecost it could +be said that "the Holy Ghost was not yet," is contained in the words, +"_Because that Jesus was not yet glorified_." In the order of the +unfolding ages we see each of the persons of the Godhead in turn +exercising an earthly {26} ministry and dealing with man in the work of +redemption. Under the law, God the Father comes down to earth and speaks +to men from the cloud of Sinai and from the glory above the mercy-seat; +under grace, God the Son is in the world, teaching, suffering, dying, and +rising again; under the dispensation of election and out-gathering now +going on, the Holy Spirit is here carrying on the work of renewing and +sanctifying the church, which is the body of Christ. There is a +necessary succession in these Divine ministries, both in time and in +character. In the days of Moses it might have been said: "Christ is not +yet," because the economy of God-Jehovah was not completed. The law must +first be given, with its sacrifices and types and ceremonies and shadows; +man must be put on trial under the law, till the appointed time of his +schooling should be completed. _Then_ must Christ come to fulfill all +types and terminate all sacrifices in himself; to do for us "what the law +could not do in that it was weak through the flesh," and to become "the +end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." When in +turn Christ had completed his redemption-work by dying on the cross for +our sins, and rising again from the dead for our justification, and had +taken his place at God's right hand for perpetual intercession, _then_ +the Holy Ghost came down to communicate and realize to the church the +finished work of Christ. {27} In a word, as God the Son fulfills to men +the work of God the Father, so God the Holy Ghost realizes to human +hearts the work of God the Son. + +There is a holy deference, if we may so say, between the Persons of the +Trinity in regard to their respective ministries. When Christ was in +office on earth, the Father commends us to him, speaking from heaven and +saying: "This is my beloved Son, hear ye him"; when the Holy Ghost had +entered upon his earthly office, Christ commends us to him, speaking +again from heaven with sevenfold reiteration, saying: "He that hath an +ear, let him hear what _the Spirit_ saith unto the churches."[2] As each +Person refers us to the teaching of the other, so in like manner does +each in turn consummate the ministry of the other. Christ's words and +works were not his own, but his Father's: "The words which I speak unto +you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me he doeth +the works."[3] The Spirit's teaching and communications are not his own, +but Christ's: "Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide +you into all truth; _for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he +shall hear that shall he speak_; and he will show you things to come." +"_He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine and show it unto +you._" + +This order in the ministries of the Persons of {28} the Godhead is so +fixed and eternal that we find it distinctly foreshadowed even in the +typical teaching of the Old Testament. Many speak slightingly of the +types, but they are as accurate as mathematics; they fix the sequence of +events in redemption as rigidly as the order of sunrise and noontide is +fixed in the heavens. Nowhere in tabernacle or in temple, shall we ever +find the laver placed before the altar. The altar is Calvary and the +laver is Pentecost; one stands for the sacrificial blood, the other for +the sanctifying Spirit. If any high priest were ignorantly to approach +the brazen laver without first having come to the brazen altar, we might +expect a rebuking voice to be heard from heaven: "Not yet the washing of +water"; and such a saying would signify exactly the same as: "Not yet the +Holy Ghost." + +Again, when the leper was to be cleansed, observe that the blood was to +be put upon the tip of his right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and +the great toe of his right foot; and then the oil was to be put upon the +right ear, the right thumb, and the right foot--_the oil upon the blood +of the trespass-offering_ (Lev. 14). Never, we venture to say, in all +the manifold repetitions of this divine ceremony, was this order once +inverted, so that the oil was first applied, and then the blood; which +means, interpreting type into antitype, that it was impossible that +Pentecost could have preceded Calvary, or {29} that the outpouring of the +Spirit should have anticipated the shedding of the blood. + +Then let us reflect, that not only the order of these two great events of +redemption was fixed from the beginning, but their dates were marked in +the calendar of typical time. The slaying of the paschal lamb told to +generation after generation, though they knew it not, the day of the year +and week on which Christ our Passover should be sacrificed for us. The +presentation of the wave sheaf before the Lord, "_on the morrow after the +Sabbath_"[1] had for long centuries fixed the time of our Lord's +resurrection on the first day of the week. And the command to "count +from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf +of the wave offering, _seven Sabbaths_,"[4] determined the day of +Pentecost as the time of the descent of the Spirit. We sometimes think +of the disciples waiting for an indefinite period in that upper room for +the fulfillment of the promise of the Father; but the time had been fixed +not only with God in eternity, but in the calendar of the Hebrew ritual +upon earth. They tarried in prayer for ten days, simply because after +the forty days of the Lord's sojourn on earth subsequent to his +resurrection, ten days remained of the "seven Sabbaths" period. + +To sum up what we are saying: The Spirit of God is the successor of the +Son of God in his {30} official ministry on earth. Until Christ's +earthly work for his church had been finished, the Spirit's work in this +world could not properly begin. The office of the Holy Ghost is to +communicate Christ to us--Christ in his entireness. However perfectly +the photographer's plate has been prepared, there can be no picture until +his subject steps into his place and stands before him. Our Saviour's +redemptive work was not completed when he died on the cross, or when he +rose from the dead, or even when he ascended from the brow of Olivet. +Not until he sat down in his Father's throne, summing up all his ministry +in himself,--"I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive +forevermore,"--did the full Christ stand ready to be communicated to his +church.[5] By the first Adam's sin, God's communion with man through the +Holy Ghost was broken, and their union ruptured. When the second Adam +came up from his cross and resurrection, and took his place at God's +right hand, there was a restoration of this broken fellowship. Very +beautiful are {31} the words of our risen Lord as bearing on this point: +"I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."[6] The +place which the divine Son had won for himself in the Father's heart, he +had won for us also. All of acceptance and standing and privilege which +was now his, was ours too, by redemptive right; and the Holy Ghost is +sent down to confirm and realize to us what he had won for us. Without +the expiatory work of Christ for us, the sanctifying work of the Spirit +in us were impossible; and on the other hand, without the work of the +Spirit within us, the work of Christ for us were without avail. + +"_And when the day of Pentecost was fully come._" What these words mean +historically, typically, and doctrinally, we are now prepared to see. +The true wave sheaf had been presented in the temple on high. Christ the +first-fruits, brought from the grave on "the morrow after the Sabbath," +or the first day of the week, now stands before God accepted on our +behalf; the seven Sabbaths from the resurrection day have been counted, +and Pentecost has come. Then suddenly, to those who were "all of one +accord in one place," "there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing +mighty wind, and it filled all {32} the house where they were sitting, +and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and sat +upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." As the +manger of Bethlehem was the cradle of the Son of God, so was the upper +room the cradle of the Spirit of God; as the advent of "the Holy Child" +was a testimony that God had "visited and redeemed his people," so was +the coming of the Holy Ghost. The fact that the Comforter is here, is +proof that the Advocate is there in the presence of the Father. Boldly +Peter and the other apostles now confront the rulers with their +testimony, "Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree . . . Him hath God exalted +with his right hand to be a prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to +Israel and forgiveness of sins; and we are his witnesses of these things; +_and so also is the Holy Ghost, whom God, hath given to them that obey +him_." As the sound of the golden bells upon the high priest's garments +within the Holiest gave evidence that he was alive, so the sound of the +Holy Ghost, proceeding from heaven and heard in that upper chamber, was +an incontestable witness that the great High Priest whom they had just +seen passing through the cloud-curtain, entering within the veil, was +still living for them in the presence of the Father. Thus has the "_dies +natalis_," the birthday of the Holy Spirit, come; and the events of his +earthly mission will now be considered in their order. + + + +[1] "The Work of the Holy Spirit in Man," by Pastor Tophel, p. 32. + +[2] See epistles to the seven churches: Rev 2: 11. + +[3] John 14: 10. + +[4] Lev. 23: 11-16. + +[5] "Christ having reached his goal, and not till then, bequeathes to his +followers the graces that invested his earthly course; the ascending +Elijah leaves his mantle behind him. It is only an extension of the same +principle, that the declared office of the Holy Spirit being to complete +the image of Christ in every faithful follower by effecting in this world +a spiritual death and resurrection,--a point attested in every +epistle,--_the image could not be stamped until the reality had been +wholly accomplished; the Divine Artist could not fitly descend to make +the copy before the entire original had been provided_."--_Archer Butler_. + +[6] John 20: 17. "Because though he and the Father are one, and the +Father his Father by the propriety of nature, to us God became a Father +through the Son, not by right of nature, but by grace."--_Ambrose_. + + + + +{33} + +III + +THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT + + + + +{34} + +"The name Paraclete is applied to Christ as well as to the Spirit; and +properly: For it is the common office of each to console and encourage +us and to preserve us by their defense. Christ was their [the +disciples'] patron so long as he lived in the world; he then committed +them to the guidance and protection of the Spirit. If any one asks us +whether we are not under the guidance of Christ, the answer is easy: +Christ is a perpetual guardian, but not visibly. As long as he walked +on the earth he appeared openly as their guardian: now he preserves us +by his Spirit. He calls the Spirit 'another Comforter,' in view of the +distinction which we observe in the blessings proceeding from +each."--_John Calvin_. + + + + +{35} + +III + +THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT + +The Son of God was named by the angel before he was conceived in the +womb: "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people +from their sins." Thus he came, not to receive a name, but to fulfill +a name already predetermined for him. In like manner was the Holy +Ghost named by our Lord before his advent into the world: "But when the +Paraclete is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father" (John 15: +26). This designation of the Holy Spirit here occurs for the first +time--a new name for the new ministry upon which he is now about to +enter. The reader will find in almost any critical commentary +discussions of the meaning of the word, and of the question of its +right translation, whether by "Comforter," or "Advocate," or "Teacher," +or "Helper." But the question cannot be fully settled by an appeal to +classical or patristic Greek, for the reason, we believe, that it is a +divinely given name whose real significance must be made manifest in +the actual life and history of the Spirit. The name is the person +himself, and only as we know the person can we interpret his name. Why +{36} attempt then to translate this word any more than we do the name +of Jesus? We might well transfer it into our English version, leaving +the history of the church from the Acts of the Apostles to the +experience of the latest saint to fill into it the great significance +which it was intended to contain. Certain it is that the language of +the Holy Ghost can never be fully understood by an appeal to the +lexicon. The heart of the church is the best dictionary of the Spirit. +While all the before-mentioned synonyms are correct, neither one is +adequate, nor are all together sufficient to bring out the full +significance of this great name, "The Paraclete." + +Let us consider, however, how much is suggested by the literal meaning +of this word, "the _Paracletos_" and by all that our Lord says +concerning him in his last discourse. "To call to one's aid," is the +meaning of the verb, _parachaleô_, from which the name is derived. +Very beautiful therefore is the word in its application to the +disciples of Christ at the time when the Spirit was given. They had +lost the visible presence of their Lord. The sorrow of his removal +from them through the cross and the sepulchre had after three days been +turned into joy by his resurrection. But now another separation had +come, in his departure to the Father after the cloud had received him +out of sight. In this last and longer bereavement, what should they +do? Their beloved Master had told them beforehand {37} what to do. +They were to call upon the Father to send them One to fill the vacant +place, and he who should be sent would be the "Paraclete," the "one +called to their help."[1] + +But what deep questionings must have arisen in their hearts as they +heard the Saviour's promise: "If I go not away the Paraclete will not +come unto you; but if I depart I will send him unto you." Did they +begin to ask whether the mysterious comer would be a "person"? +Impossible to imagine. For he was to take the place of that greatest +of persons; to do for them even greater things than he had done; and to +lead them into even larger knowledge than he had imparted. The +discussion of the personality of the Holy Ghost is so unnatural in the +light of Christ's last discourse that we studiously avoid it. Let us +treat the question, therefore, from the point of view of Christ's own +words, and try to put ourselves under the impression which they make +upon us. To state the matter as simply and familiarly as possible: +Jesus is about to vacate his office on earth as teacher and prophet; +but before doing so he would introduce us to his successor. As in a +complex problem we seek to determine an unknown quantity by the known, +so in this paschal discourse Jesus {38} aims to make us acquainted with +the mysterious, invisible coming personage whom he names the +"Paraclete" by comparing him with himself, the known and the visible +one. Collating his comparisons we may find in them several groups of +seeming contradictions, and just such contradictions as we should +expect if this comer is indeed a person of the Godhead. Of the coming +Paraclete then we find these intimations.[2] + +1. He is another, yet the same: "And I will pray the Father and he +shall give you another Comforter" (John 14: 16). By the use of this +expression "another" our Lord distinguishes the Paraclete from himself, +but he also puts him on the same plane with himself. For there is no +parity or even comparison between a person and an influence. If the +promised visitor were to be only an impersonal emanation from God, it +would seem impossible that our Lord should have so co-ordinated him +with himself as to say: "I go to be an Advocate for you in heaven (1 +John 2: 1), and I send another to be an Advocate for you on earth." + +{39} + +But if Christ thus distinguishes the Comforter from himself, he also +identifies him with himself: "I will not leave you orphans: _I will +come to you_" (John 14: 18). By common consent this promise refers to +the advent of the Spirit, for so the connection plainly indicates. And +yet almost in the same breath he says: "The Comforter whom I will send +unto you" (John 14: 26). Thus our Lord makes the same event to be at +once his coming and his sending; and he speaks of the Spirit now as his +own presence, and now as his substitute during his absence. So what +must we conclude but that the Paraclete is Christ's other self, a third +Person in that blessed Trinity of which he is the second. + +2. The Paraclete is subordinate yet superior in his ministry to the +church. "For he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall +hear that shall he speak. He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of +mine and show it unto you" (John 16: 13). + +Well may we mark the holy deference between the persons of the Trinity +which is here pointed out. Each receives from another what he +communicates, and each magnifies another in his praises. As Bengel +concisely states it: "The Son glorifies the Father; the Spirit +glorifies the Son." What then is the office of the Holy Ghost, so far +as we can interpret it, but that of communicating and applying the work +of Christ to human hearts? If he convinces of sin it is by exhibiting +the {40} gracious redemptive work of the Saviour and showing men their +guilt in not believing on him. If he witnesses to the penitent of his +acceptance it is by testifying of the atoning blood of Jesus in which +that acceptance is grounded; if he regenerates and sanctifies the heart +it is by communicating to it the life of the risen Lord. Christ is +"all" in himself, and through the Spirit "in all" those whom the Spirit +renews. This reverent subjection of the earthly Comforter to the +heavenly Christ contains a deep lesson for those who are indwelt by the +Spirit[3] and makes them rejoice evermore to be witnesses rather than +originators. + +With this subordination of the Holy Spirit to Christ, how is it yet +true that such a great advantage was to accrue to the church by the +departure of the Saviour and the consequent advent of the Spirit to +take his place? That it would be so is what is plainly affirmed in the +following text: "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is expedient +for you that I go away: for if I go not away the Comforter will not +come unto you; but if I depart I will send him unto you" (John 16: 7). +If the Spirit is simply the measure of the Son, his sole work being to +communicate the work of the Son, what gain could there be in the +departure of the one in order to {41} the coming of the other? Would +it not be simply the exchange of Christ for Christ?--his visible +presence for his invisible? + +To us the answer of this question is most obvious. It was not the +earthly Christ whom the Holy Ghost was to communicate to the church, +but the heavenly Christ,--the Christ re-invested with his eternal +power, re-clothed with the glory which he had with the Father before +the world was, and re-endowed with the infinite treasures of grace +which he had purchased by his death on the cross. It is as though--to +use a very inadequate illustration--a beloved father were to say to his +family: "My children, I have provided well for your needs; but your +condition is one of poverty compared with what it may become. By the +death of a kinsman in my native country I have become heir to an +immense estate. If you will only submit cheerfully to my leaving you +and crossing the sea, and entering into my inheritance, I will send you +back a thousand times more than you could have by my remaining with +you." Only in the instance we are considering, Christ is the +"testator" as well as the heir. By his death the inheritance becomes +available, and when he had ascended into heaven he sent down the Holy +Spirit to distribute the estate among those who were joint heirs with +him. What this estate is, may be best summarized in two beautiful +expressions of frequent recurrence in the {42} epistles of Paul, "The +riches of his grace" (Eph. 1: 7), and "The riches of his glory" (Eph. +3: 16). On the cross "the riches of his grace" was secured to us in +the forgiveness of sins; on the throne "the riches of his glory" was +secured to us in our being strengthened with all might by his Spirit in +the inner man; in the indwelling of Christ in our hearts by faith, and +in our infilling with all the fullness of God. The divine wealth only +becomes completely available on the death, resurrection, and ascension +of our Lord; so that the Holy Spirit, the divine Conveyancer, had not +the full inheritance to convey till Jesus was glorified. + +Observe therefore, in the valedictory discourse of our Lord, the +frequent recurrence of the words: "_Because I go to the Father_," one +of the sayings which greatly perplexed his disciples. In the light of +all which Jesus says in this connection, let us see if its meaning may +not be clear to us. "If ye loved me ye would rejoice because I go unto +the Father; for the Father is greater than I" (John 14: 28), he says in +the same connection. We cannot here enter into the deep question of +the _kenosis_, or self-emptying of the Son of God in his incarnation. +It is enough that we follow the plain teaching of the Scripture, that +though "being in the form of God, he counted it not a thing to be +grasped to be on an equality with God; but emptied himself, taking the +form of a servant" (Phil. 2: {43} 6, 7, R. V.). What now does his +going to the Father signify but a refilling with that of which he had +been emptied, or a resumption of his co-equality with God? The greater +blessing which he could confer upon his church by his departure seems +to lie in the fact of the greater power and glory into which he would +enter by his enthronement at God's right hand. As Luther pointedly +puts it: "Therefore do I go, he saith, where I shall be greater than I +now am, that is, to the Father, and it is better that I shall pass out +of this obscurity and weakness into the power and glory in which the +Father is." In the light of this interpretation the meaning of our +Lord's words above quoted does not seem difficult. The Paraclete was +to communicate Christ to his church,--his life, his power, his riches, +his glory. In his exaltation all these were to be very greatly +increased. "All things that the Father hath are mine" (John 16: 15), +he says. And though he had for a time voluntarily disinherited himself +of his heavenly possessions, he is now to be repossessed of them. +"Therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto +you" (16: 15). Christ at God's right hand will have more to give than +while on earth; therefore the church will have more to receive through +the Paraclete than through the visible Christ. What obvious +significance then do the following sayings from this farewell sermon of +Jesus have: "Verily {44} verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on +me the works that I do shall he do also; greater works than these shall +he do; _because I go unto the Father_" (John 14: 12). The earthly +Christ is equal only to himself thus conditioned; and if the Holy +Spirit shall communicate his power to his disciples, they will do the +same works that he does. But the heavenly Christ is co-equal with the +Father, therefore when he shall ascend to the Father, and the Spirit +shall take of his and communicate to his church, it will do greater +works than these. The stream of life, in other words, will have +greater power because of the higher source from which it proceeds. +Very deep are the mysteries here considered, and we can only speak of +them in the light which we get by comparing Scripture with Scripture. +Did the risen Christ breathe on his disciples and say to them: "Receive +ye the Holy Ghost"?[4] "It is enough, Lord, that we have received the +Spirit from thee," they might well have said. Yet it was not enough +for him to give; for looking on to the day of his enthronement, he +says: "But when the Paraclete is come, whom I will send unto you from +the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, +he shall testify of me" (John 15: 26). When Jesus hath ascended "on +high," then can the {45} Holy Ghost communicate "the power from on +high." Therefore it is expedient that he go away. + +As with the power which Christ was to impart to his church through the +Paraclete, so with the righteousness which he was both to impute and to +impart; its highest source must be found in heaven: "And when he, the +Comforter, is come, he will convince the world of righteousness; . . . +of righteousness _because I go to my father_, and ye see me no more" +(John 16: 8-10). We may say truly that the righteousness of Christ was +not completely finished and authenticated till he sat down at the right +hand of the majesty on high. By his death he perfectly satisfied the +claims of a violated law, but this fact was not attested until the +grave gave back the certificate of discharge in his released and risen +body. By his resurrection he was "declared to be the Son of God in +power, according to the Spirit of holiness" (Rom. 1: 4). But the fact +was not fully verified till God had "set him at his own right hand in +the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, +and dominion, and every name that is named" (Eph. 1: 20, 2l). Now in +his consummated glory he is prepared to be "made wisdom, and +righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" to his people. He +who had been "manifest in the flesh" that he might be made sin for us, +was now "justified in the Spirit" and "received up into glory," that he +might be made {46} righteousness to us, and that "we might be made the +righteousness of God in him." Christ's coronation, in a word, is the +indispensable condition to our justification. Till he who was made a +curse for us is crowned with glory and honor we cannot be assured of +our acceptance with the Father.[5] How deep the current of thought +which flows through this narrow channel--"Because I go to the Father." + +3. The Paraclete teaches only the things of Christ; yet teaches more +than Christ taught: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye +cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come, he +will guide you into all the truth" (John 16: 12, 13). It is as though +he had said: "I have brought you a little way in the knowledge of my +doctrine; he shall bring you all the way." One reason for this saying +seems plain: The teaching of Jesus during his earthly ministry waited +to be illumined by a light not risen--the light of the cross, the light +of the sepulchre, the light of the ascension. Therefore until these +events had come to pass, Christian doctrine was undeveloped, and could +not be fully communicated to the disciples of Christ. But this is not +all. The "because I go to the Father" still gives the key to our +Lord's meaning. "But what things {47} soever he shall hear, these +shall he speak, and he shall declare unto you things to come" (John 16: +13, R. V.). Very wonderful is this hint of the mutual converse of the +Godhead, so that the Paraclete is described as listening while he +leads, as having an ear in heaven attentive to the converse of the +Father and the glorified Son, while he extends an unseen guidance to +the flock on earth, communicating to them what he has heard from the +Father and the Son. And we may reverently ask, Has not the glorified +Christ more of knowledge and revelation to communicate than he had in +the days of his humiliation? Of "the things to come" has he not +secrets to impart which hitherto may have been hidden in the counsels +of the Father? To take a single illustration from the words of Christ. +Speaking of his second advent, he says: "But of that day or that hour +knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the +Father" (Mark 13: 32[6]). It is best that we should interpret these +words frankly, and instead of saying, with some, that he did not know +in the sense that he was not permitted to disclose, admit it possible +that while in his humiliation and under the veil of his incarnation, +this secret was hidden from his eyes. + +But is it not presumptuous for us to reason, that {48} therefore he +does not now know the day of his coming? How constantly is that text +quoted as a decisive and final prohibition of all inquiry into the +proximate time of our Lord's return in glory. But they who so use this +saying simply remand us to the childhood of the church, to the +spiritual nonage of the ante-Pentecostal days. Have we forgotten that +since our Lord ascended to the Father he has given us a further +revelation, that wondrous book of the Apocalypse, which opens and +closes with a beatitude upon those who read and faithfully keep the +words of this prophecy? And one characteristic feature of this book is +its chronological predictions concerning the time of the end, its +mystical dates, which have led many sober searchers of the word of God +to inquire diligently "what and what manner of time" the Spirit did +signify in giving us these way-marks in the wilderness. This being so, +we may ask: If we are not irreverent in concluding with many devout +expositors that our Saviour meant what he said in declaring that he did +"not yet" know the time of his advent, are we presumptuous in taking +literally the opening words of the Apocalypse?: "The Revelation of +Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants the +things which must shortly come to pass." It was because of his going +unto the Father that greater works and greater riches were to attend +the church after Pentecost. Why may we not assign to the same {49} +cause also the fuller revelation of the future and the leading into +completer truth concerning the blessed hope of the church? In other +words, if we may think of Christ as entering into larger revelation as +he returns to the glory which he had with the Father must we not think +of larger communications of truth by the blessed Paraclete? + +Have we not learned something of the nature and offices of the Spirit +by this study of his new name, and of all that the departing Lord says +in the wondrous discourse wherein he introduces him to his disciples? +At least the study should enable us to distinguish two inspired terms +which have been needlessly confounded by not a few writers, viz.: the +words "_Paraclete_," and "_Parousia_." The latter word, which +constantly occurs in Scripture as describing our Lord's second coming, +has been applied in several learned works to the advent of the Holy +Spirit; and since Christ came in the person of the Spirit, it has been +argued that the Redeemer's promised advent in glory has already taken +place. But this is to confuse terms whose use in Scripture marks them +as clearly distinct. Observe their difference: In the Paraclete, +Christ comes spiritually and invisibly; in the Parousia, he comes +bodily and gloriously. The advent of the Paraclete is really +conditioned on the Saviour's personal departure from his people: "If I +go not away the Paraclete will not come to you" (John 16: 7). {50} The +Parousia, on the other hand, is only realized in his personal return to +his people: "For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are +not even ye in the _presence_ of our Lord Jesus Christ _at his +coming_?" (1 Thess. 2: 19.) The Paraclete attends the church in the +days of her humiliation; the Parousia introduces the church into the +day of her glory. In the Paraclete, Christ came to dwell with the +church on earth: "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you" +(John 14: 18). In the Parousia, Christ comes to take the church to +dwell with himself in glory: "I will come again and receive you unto +myself; that where I am there ye may be also" (John 14: 3). Christ +prayed on behalf of his bereaved church for the coming of this +Paraclete: "And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another +Paraclete." The Holy Spirit now prays with the pilgrim-church for the +hastening of the Parousia. "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come" +(Rev. 22: 17). These two can only be understood in their mutual +relations. Christ, who gave the new name to the Holy Spirit, can best +interpret that name to us by making us acquainted with himself. May +that name be for us so real a symbol of personal presence that while +strangers and pilgrims in the earth we may walk evermore "in the +_paraclesis_ of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 9:31). + + + +[1] The word _paraklêtôr_ is used in the Septuagint (Job 16:2) with the +meaning of "_Comforter_," and the term _paraklêtos_ occurs in the +Talmud, signifying "_Interpreter_." + +[2] The most obvious reason for concluding that the Holy Spirit is a +person is that he performs actions and stands in relations which belong +only to a person, e. g.: _He speaks_ (Acts 1: 16); _he works miracles_ +(Acts 2: 4; 8: 39); _he sets ministers over churches_ (Acts 20: 28); +_he commands and forbids_ (Acts 8: 29; 11: 12; 13: 2; 16: 6, 7); _he +prays for us_ (Rom. 8: 26); _he witnesses_ (Rom. 8: 16); _he can be +grieved_ (Eph. 4: 30); _he can be blasphemed_ (Mark 3: 29); _he can be +resisted_ (Acts 7: 51, etc). + +[3] If the Holy Spirit may not speak of himself as preacher, how canst +thou draw thy preaching out of thyself--out of thine head or even out +of thine heart.--_Pastor Gossner_. + +[4] Let it be observed that in this communication of the risen Christ +it is not said, "Receive ye _the_ Holy Ghost"--the article being +significantly omitted--_Labete Pneuma agion_ (John 20: 22). + +[5] How righteous must he be, who will go to the Father from the cross +and the grave! Thus will the Holy Spirit convince the world that he is +a righteous man, and truly righteous for man.--_Roos_. + +[6] "Neither the Son": "It is more than _neither_; it is _not yet the +Son_," says Morrison the commentator. + + + + +{51} + +IV + +THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT + + + + +{52} + +"But now the Holy Ghost is given more perfectly, for he is no longer +present by his operation as of old, but is present with us so to speak, +and converses with us in a substantial manner. For it was fitting +that, as the Son had conversed with us in the body, the spirit should +also come among us in a bodily manner."--_Gregory Nazianzen_. + + + + +{53} + +IV + +THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT + +"The church, which is his body," began its history and development at +Pentecost. Believers had been saved, and the influences of the Spirit +had been manifested to men in all previous dispensations from Adam to +Christ. But now an _ecclesia_, an outgathering, was to be made to +constitute the mystical body of Christ, incorporated into him the Head +and indwelt by him through the Holy Ghost. The definition which we +sometimes hear, that a church is "a voluntary association of believers, +united together for the purposes of worship and edification" is most +inadequate, not to say incorrect. It is no more true than that hands +and feet and eyes and ears are voluntarily united in the human body for +the purposes of locomotion and work. The church is formed from within; +Christ present by the Holy Ghost, regenerating men by the sovereign +action of the Spirit, and organizing them into himself as the living +center. The Head and the body are therefore one, and predestined to +the same history of humiliation and glory. And as they are one in +fact, so are they one in name. He whom God anointed and filled with +the Holy Ghost {54} is called "the Christ," and the church, which is +his body and fullness, is also called "the Christ." "For as the body +is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, +being many, are one body, _so also is the Christ_" (1 Cor. 12: 12). +Here plainly and with wondrous honor the church is named _o Christos_, +commenting upon which fact Bishop Andrews beautifully says: "Christ is +both in heaven and on earth; as he is called the Head of his church, he +is in heaven; but in respect of his body which is called Christ, he is +on earth." + +So soon as the Holy Ghost was sent down from heaven this great work of +his embodying began, and it is to continue until the number of the +elect shall be accomplished, or unto the end of the present +dispensation. Christ, if we may say it reverently, became mystically a +babe again on the day of Pentecost, and the hundred and twenty were his +infantile body, as once more through the Holy Ghost he incarnated +himself in his flesh. Now he is growing and increasing in his members, +and so will he continue to do "till we all come in the unity of the +faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto +the measure of the stature of fullness of Christ." Then the Christ on +earth will be taken up into visible union with the Christ in heaven, +and the Head and the body be glorified together. Observe how the +history of the church's formation, as recorded in the Acts, harmonizes +with {55} the conception given above. The story of Pentecost +culminates in the words, "and the same day there were added about three +thousand souls" (Acts 2: 41). Added to whom? we naturally ask. And +the King James translators have answered our question by inserting in +italics "to them." But not so speaks the Holy Ghost. And when, a few +verses further on in the same chapter, we read: "And the Lord added to +the church daily such as should be saved," we need to be reminded that +the words "to the church" are spurious. All such glosses and +interpolations have only tended to mar the sublime teaching of this +first chapter of the Holy Spirit's history. "And believers were the +more added _to the Lord_" (Acts 5: 14.) "And much people were added +_unto the Lord_" (Acts 11: 24.) This is the language of +inspiration--Not the mutual union of believers, but their divine +co-uniting with Christ; not voluntary association of Christians, but +their sovereign incorporation into the Head and this incorporation +effected by the Head through the Holy Ghost. + +If we ask concerning the way of admission into this divine _ecclesia_, +the teaching of Scripture is explicit: "For in one Spirit were we all +baptized into one body" (1 Cor. 12: 13). The baptism in water marks +the formal introduction of the believer into the church; but this is +the symbol, not the substance. For observe the identity of form +between the ritual {56} and the spiritual. "I indeed baptize you in +water," . . . said John, "but he that cometh after me . . . shall +baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire" (Matt. 3: 11). As in the +one instance the disciple was submerged in the element of water, so in +the other he was to be submerged in the element of the Spirit. And +thus it was in actual historic fact. The upper room became the +Spirit's baptistery, if we may use the figure. His presence "filled +all the house where they were sitting," and "they were all filled with +the Holy Ghost." The baptistery would never need to be re-filled, for +Pentecost was once and for all, and the Spirit then came to abide in +the church perpetually. But each believer throughout the age would +need to be infilled with that Spirit which dwells in the body of +Christ. In other words, it seems clear that the baptism of the Spirit +was given once for the whole church, extending from Pentecost to +Parousia. "There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Eph. 4: 5). As +there is one body reaching through the entire dispensation, so there is +"one baptism" for that body given on the day of Pentecost. Thus if we +rightly understand the meaning of Scripture it is true, both as to time +and as to fact, that "in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, +whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free." + +The typical foreshadowing, as seen in the church in the wilderness, is +very suggestive at this point: "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye +should be {57} ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud +and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the +cloud and in the sea" (1 Cor. 10: 1). Baptized _into_ Moses by their +passage through the sea, identified with him as their leader, and +committed to him in corporate fellowship; even so were they also +baptized into Jehovah, who in the cloud of glory now took his place in +the midst of the camp and tabernacled henceforth with them. The type +is perfect as all inspired types are. The antitype first appears in +Christ our Lord, baptized in water at the Jordan, and then baptized in +the Holy Ghost which "descended from heaven like a dove and abode upon +him." Then it recurred again in the waiting disciples, who besides the +baptism of water, which had doubtless already been received, now were +baptized "in the Holy Ghost and in fire." Henceforth they were in the +divine element, as their fathers had been in the wilderness, "not in +the flesh but _in the Spirit_" (Rom. 8: 9); called "to live according +to God _in the Spirit_" (1 Peter 4: 6); to "walk _in the Spirit_" (Gal. +5: 25); "praying always with all prayer and supplication _in the +Spirit_" (Eph. 6: 18). In a word, on the day of Pentecost the entire +body of Christ was baptized into the element and presence of the Holy +Ghost as a permanent condition. And though one might object that the +body as a whole was not yet in existence, we reply that neither was the +complete church in {58} existence when Christ died on Calvary, yet all +believers are repeatedly said to have died with him. + +To change the figure of baptism for a moment to another which is used +synonymously, that of the anointing of the Spirit, we have in Exodus a +beautiful typical illustration of our thought. At Aaron's consecration +the precious ointment was not only poured upon his head, but ran down +in rich profusion upon his body and upon his priestly garments. This +fact is taken up by the psalmist when he sings: "Behold how good and +pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the +precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even +Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments" (Ps. 133: +1, 2). Of our great High Priest we read: "How God anointed Jesus of +Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power" (Acts 10: 38). But it was +not for himself alone but also for his brethren that he obtained this +holy unction. He received that he might communicate. "Upon whom thou +shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he +that baptizeth in the Holy Ghost" (John 1: 33). And now we behold our +Aaron, our great High Priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus +the Son of God, standing in the holiest in heaven. "Thou didst love +righteousness and didst hate iniquity," is the divine encomium now +passed upon him, "therefore God, thy God, anointed thee with the oil of +gladness {59} above thy fellows" (Heb. 1: 9). He, the _Christos_, the +Anointed, stands above and for the _Christoi_, his anointed brethren, +and from him the Head, the unction of the Holy Ghost descended on the +day of Pentecost. It was poured in rich profusion upon his mystical +body. It has been flowing down ever since, and will continue to do so +till the last member shall have been incorporated with himself, and so +anointed by the one Spirit into the one body, which is the church. + +It is true that in one instance subsequent to Pentecost the baptism in +the Holy Ghost is spoken of. When the Spirit fell on the house of +Cornelius, Peter is reminded of the word of the Lord, how that he said: +"John indeed baptized in water, but ye shall be baptized in the Holy +Ghost" (Acts 11: 16). This was a great crisis in the history of the +church, the opening of the door of faith to the Gentiles, and it would +seem that these new subjects of grace now came into participation of an +already present Spirit. Yet Pentecost still appears to have been the +age-baptism of the church. As Calvary was once for all, so was the +visitation of the upper room. + +Consider now that, as through the Holy Ghost we become incorporated +into the body of Christ, we are in the same way assimilated to the Head +of that body, which is Christ. An unsanctified church dishonors the +Lord, especially by its incongruity. A noble head, lofty-browed and +intellectual, upon a {60} deformed and stunted body, is a pitiable +sight. What, to the angels and principalities who gaze evermore upon +the face of Jesus, must be the sight of an unholy and misshapen church +on earth, standing in that place of honor called "his body." +Photographing in a sentence the _ecclesia_ of the earliest centuries, +Professor Harnack says: "_Originally the church was the heavenly bride +of Christ, and the abiding place of the Holy Spirit_." Let the reader +consider how much is involved in this definition. The first and most +sacred relation of the body is to the head. Watching for the return of +the Bridegroom induces holiness of life and conduct in the bride; and +the supreme work of the Spirit is directed to this end, that "He may +establish our hearts unblamable in holiness before God our Father, at +the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints" (1 Thess. 3: +13). In accomplishing this end he effects all other and subordinate +ends. The glorified Christ manifests himself to man through his body. +If there is a perfect correspondence between himself and his members, +then there will be a true manifestation of himself to the world.[1] +Therefore does the Spirit abide in the body, that the body may be +"inChristed," to {61} use an old phrase of the mystics; that is, +indwelt by Christ and transfigured into the likeness of Christ. Only +thus, as "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a +peculiar people," can it "shew forth the virtues of him who has called +us out of darkness into his marvelous light." And who is the Christ +that is thus to be manifested? From the throne he gives us his name: +"I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore" +(Rev. 1: 18). Christ in glory is not simply what he is, but what he +was and what he is to be. As a tree gathers up into itself all the +growths of former years, and contains them in its trunk, so Jesus on +the throne is all that he was and is and is to be. In other words, his +death is a perpetual fact as well as his life. + +And his church is predestined to be like him in this respect, since it +not only heads up in him, as saith the apostle, that ye "may grow up +into him in all things which is the Head, even Christ," but also bodies +itself forth from him, "from whom the whole body, fitly joined together +and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, . . . maketh +increase of the body" . . . (Eph. 4: 16). If the church will literally +manifest Christ, then she must be both a living and a dying church. To +this she is committed in the divinely given form of her baptism. "Know +ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were +baptized into his {62} death; therefore we were buried with him by +baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by +the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of +life" (Rom. 6: 3, 4). And the baptism of the Holy Ghost into which we +have been brought is designed to accomplish inwardly and spiritually +what the baptism of water foreshadows outwardly and typically, viz., to +reproduce in us the living and the dying of our Lord. + +First, the living. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus +hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8: 2). That is, +that which has been hitherto the actuating principle within us, viz., +sin and death, is now to be met and mastered by another principle, the +law of life, of which the Holy Spirit of God is the author and +sustainer. As by our natural spirit we are connected with the first +Adam, and made partakers of his fallen nature, so by the Holy Spirit we +are now united with the second Adam, and made partakers of his +glorified nature. To vivify the body of Christ by maintaining its +identity with the risen Head is, in a word, the unceasing work of the +Holy Ghost. + +Secondly, the dying of our Lord in his members is to be constantly +effected by the indwelling Spirit. The church, which is the fullness +of him that "filleth all in all," completes in the world his {63} +crucifixion as well as his resurrection. This is certainly Paul's +profound thought, when he speaks of filling up "that which is behind of +the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is +the church" (Col. 1: 24). In other words, the church, as the +complement of her Lord, must have a life experience and a death +experience running parallel. + +It is remarkable how exact is this figure of the body, which is +employed to symbolize the church. In the human system life and death +are constantly working together. A certain amount of tissue must die +every day and be cast out and buried, and a certain amount of new +tissue must also be created and nourished daily in the same body. +Arrest the death-process, and it is just as certain to produce disorder +as though you were to arrest the life-process. Literally is this true +of the corporate body also. The church must die daily in fulfillment +of the crucified life of her Head, as well as live daily in the +manifestation of his glorified life. This italicised sentence, which +we take from a recent book, is worthy to be made a golden text for +Christians: "_The Church is Christian no more than as it is the organ +of the continuous passion of Christ_." To sympathize, in the literal +sense of suffering with our sinning and lost humanity, is not only the +duty of the church, but the absolutely essential condition to her true +manifestation of her Lord. A {64} self-indulgent church disfigures +Christ; an avaricious church bears false witness against Christ; a +worldly church betrays Christ, and gives him over once more to be +mocked and reviled by his enemies. + +The resurrection of our Lord is prolonged in his body, as we all see +plainly. Every regeneration is a pulse-beat of his throne-life. But +too little do we recognize the fact that his crucifixion must be +prolonged side by side with his resurrection. "If any man will come +after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow +me." The church is called to live a glorified life in communion with +her Head, and a crucified life in her contact with the world. And the +Holy Spirit dwells evermore in the church to effect this twofold +manifestation of Christ. "But God be thanked, that ye have obeyed from +the heart that pattern of doctrine to which ye were delivered," writes +the apostle (Rom. 6: 17). The pattern, as the context shows, is Christ +dead and risen. If the church truly lives in the Spirit, he will keep +her so plastic that she will obey this divine mold as the metal +conforms to the die in which it is struck. If she yields to the sway +of "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," she +will be stereotyped according to the fashion of the world, and they +that look upon her will fail to see Christ in her. + + + +[1] "The Holy Spirit not only dwells in the church as his habitation, +but also uses her as the living organism whereby he moves and walks +forth in the world, and speaks to the world and acts upon the world. +He is the soul of the church which is Christ's body."--_Bishop Webb, +The Presence and Office of the Spirit_, p. 47. + + + + +{65} + +V + +THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT + + + + +{66} + +"To the disciples, the baptism of the Spirit was very distinctly not +his first bestowal for regeneration, but the definite communication of +his presence in power of their glorified Lord. Just as there was a +two-fold operation of the one Spirit in the Old and New Testaments, of +which the state of the disciples before and after Pentecost was the +striking illustration, so there may be, and in the great majority of +Christians is, a corresponding difference of experience. . . When once +the distinct recognition of what the indwelling of the Spirit was meant +to bring is brought home to the soul, and it is ready to give up all to +be made partaker of it, the believer may ask and expect what may be +termed a baptism of the Spirit. Praying to the Father in accordance to +the two prayers in Ephesians, and coming to Jesus in the renewed +surrender of faith and obedience, he may receive such an inflow of the +Holy Spirit as shall consciously lift him to a different level from the +one on which he has hitherto lived."--_Rev. Andrew Murray_. + + + + +{67} + +V + +THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT + +We have maintained in the previous chapter that the baptism in the Holy +Ghost was given once for all on the day of Pentecost, when the +Paraclete came in person to make his abode in the church. It does not +follow therefore that every believer has received this baptism. God's +gift is one thing; our appropriation of that gift is quite another +thing. Our relation to the second and to the third persons of the +Godhead is exactly parallel in this respect. "God so loved the world +that he _gave_ his only begotten Son" (John 3: 16). "But as many as +_received him_ to them gave he the right to become the children of God, +even to them that believe on his name" (John 1: 12). Here are the two +sides of salvation, the divine and the human, which are absolutely +co-essential. + +There is a doctrine somewhat in vogue, not inappropriately denominated +redemption by incarnation, which maintains that since God gave his Son +to the world, all the world has the Son, consciously or unconsciously, +and that therefore all the world will be saved. It need not be said +that a true evangelical teaching must reject this theory as utterly +{68} untenable, since it ignores the necessity of individual faith in +Christ. But some orthodox writers have urged an almost identical view +with respect to the Holy Ghost. They have contended that the enduement +of the Spirit is "not any special or more advanced experience, but +simply the condition of every one who is a child of God"; that +"believers converted after Pentecost, and living in other localities, +are just as really endowed with the indwelling Spirit as those who +actually partook of the Pentecostal blessing at Jerusalem."[1] + +On the contrary, it seems clear from the Scriptures that it is still +the duty and privilege of believers to receive the Holy Spirit by a +conscious, definite act of appropriating faith, just as they received +Jesus Christ. We base this conclusion on several grounds. Presumably +if the Paraclete is a person, coming down at a certain definite time to +make his abode in the church, for guiding, teaching, and sanctifying +the body of Christ, there is the same reason for our accepting him for +his special ministry as for accepting the Lord Jesus for his special +ministry. To say that in receiving Christ we necessarily received in +the same act the gift of the Spirit, seems to confound what the +Scriptures make distinct.[2] For it is as sinners that we accept {69} +Christ for our justification, but it is as sons that we accept the +Spirit for our sanctification: "And because ye are sons, God hath sent +forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father" +(Gal. 4: 6). Thus, when Peter preached his first sermon to the +multitude after the Spirit had been given, he said: "Repent and be +baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the +remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" +(Acts 2: 38). + +This passage shows that logically and chronologically the gift of the +Spirit is subsequent to repentance. Whether it follows as a necessary +and inseparable consequence, as might seem, we shall consider later. +Suffice that this point is clear, so clear that one of the most +conservative as well as ablest writers on this subject, in commenting +on this text in Acts, says: "Therefore it is evident that the reception +of the Holy Ghost, as here spoken of, has nothing whatever to do with +bringing men to believe and repent. It is a subsequent operation; it +is an additional and {70} separate blessing; it is a privilege founded +on faith already actively working in the heart. . . I do not mean to +deny that the gift of the Holy Ghost may be practically on the same +occasion, but never in the same moment. The reason is quite simple +too. The gift of the Holy Ghost _is grounded on the fact that we are +sons by faith in Christ, believers resting on redemption in him_. +Plainly, therefore, it appears that the Spirit of God has already +regenerated us."[3] + +Now, as we examine the Scriptures on this point, we shall see that we +are required to appropriate the Spirit as sons, in the same way that we +appropriated Christ as sinners. "As many as received him, even to them +that believe on his name," is the condition of becoming sons, as we +have already seen, receiving and believing being used as equivalent +terms. In a kind of foretaste of Pentecost, the risen Christ, standing +in the midst of his disciples, "breathed on them and said, Receive ye +the Holy Ghost." The verb is not passive, as our English version might +lead us to suppose, but has here as generally an active signification, +just as in the familiar passage in Revelation: "Whosoever will, let him +_take_ the water of life freely." Twice in the Epistle to the +Galatians the possession of the Holy Ghost is put on the same grounds +of active {71} appropriation through faith: "Received ye the Spirit by +the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?" (3: 2). "That ye +might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (3: 14). These +texts seem to imply that just as there is a "faith toward our Lord +Jesus Christ" for salvation, there is a faith toward the Holy Ghost for +power and consecration. + +If we turn from New Testament teaching to New Testament example we are +strongly confirmed in this impression. We begin with that striking +incident in the nineteenth chapter of Acts. Paul, having found certain +disciples at Ephesus, said unto them: "Did ye receive the Holy Ghost +when ye believed? And they said unto him, Nay; we did not so much as +hear whether there is a Holy Ghost." This passage seems decisive as +showing that one may be a disciple without having entered into +possession of the Spirit as God's gift to believers. Some admit this, +who yet deny any possible application of the incident to our own times, +alleging that it is the miraculous gifts of the Spirit which are here +under consideration, since, after recording that when Paul had laid his +hands upon them and "the Holy Ghost came upon them," it is added that +"they spake with tongues and prophesied." All that need be said upon +this point is simply that these Ephesian disciples, by the reception of +the Spirit, came into the same condition with the upper-room disciples +who {72} received him some twenty years before, and of whom it is +written that "they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to +speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." In other +words, these Ephesian disciples on receiving the Holy Ghost exhibited +the traits of the Spirit common to the other disciples of the apostolic +age. + +Whether those traits--the speaking of tongues and the working of +miracles--were intended to be perpetual or not we do not here discuss. +But that the presence of the personal Holy Spirit in the church was +intended to be perpetual there can be no question. And whatsoever +relations believers held to that Spirit in the beginning they have a +right to claim to-day. We must withhold our consent from the +inconsistent exegesis which would make the water baptism of the +apostolic times still rigidly binding, but would relegate the baptism +in the Spirit to a bygone dispensation. We hold indeed, that Pentecost +was once for all, but equally that the appropriation of the Spirit by +believers is always for all, and that the shutting up of certain great +blessings of the Holy Ghost within that ideal realm called "the +apostolic age," however convenient it may be as an escape from fancied +difficulties, may be the means of robbing believers of some of their +most precious covenant rights.[4] Let us {73} transfer this incident +of the Ephesian Christians to our own times. We need not bring forward +an imaginary case, for by the testimony of many experienced witnesses +the same condition is constantly encountered. Not only individual +Christians, but whole communities of disciples are found who have been +so imperfectly instructed that they have never known that there is a +Holy Spirit, except as an influence, an impersonal something to be +vaguely recognized. Of the Holy Ghost as a Divine Person, dwelling in +the church, to be honored and invoked and obeyed and implicitly +trusted, they know nothing. Is it conceivable that there could be any +deep spiritual life or any real sanctified energy for service in a +community like this? And what should a well-instructed teacher or +evangelist do, on discovering a church or an individual Christian in +such a condition? Let us turn to another passage of the Acts for an +answer: "Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that +Samaria had received the word of God they sent unto them Peter and +John, who when they were come down prayed for them that they might +receive the Holy Ghost; for as yet he had fallen upon none of them; +only they were baptized in the name {74} of the Lord Jesus. Then laid +they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost" (Acts 8: +14-17). + +Here were believers who had been baptized in water. But this was not +enough. The baptism in the Spirit, already bestowed at Pentecost, must +be appropriated. Hear the prayer of the apostles "that they might +receive the Holy Ghost." Such prayer we deem eminently proper for +those who today may be ignorant of the Comforter. And yet such prayer +should be followed by an act of believing acceptance on the part of the +willing disciple: "O Holy Spirit, I yield to thee now in humble +surrender. I receive thee as my Teacher, my Comforter, my Sanctifier, +and my Guide." Do not testimonies abound on every hand of new lives +resulting from such an act of consecration as this, lives full of peace +and power and victory among those who before had received the +forgiveness of sins but not the enduement of power? + +We conceive that the great end for which the enduement of the Spirit is +bestowed is our qualification for the highest and most effective +service in the church of Christ. Other effects will certainly attend +the blessing, a fixed assurance of our acceptance in Christ, and a holy +separateness from the world; but these results will be conducive to the +greatest and supreme end, our consecrated usefulness. + +{75} + +Let us observe that Christ, who is our example in this as in all +things, did not enter upon his ministry till he had received the Holy +Ghost. Not only so, but we see that all his service from his baptism +to his ascension was wrought in the Spirit. Ask concerning his +miracles, and we hear him saying: "I by the Spirit of God cast out +devils" (Matt. 12: 28). Ask concerning that decease which he +accomplished at Jerusalem, and we read "that he through the eternal +Spirit offered himself without spot unto God" (Heb. 9: 14). Ask +concerning the giving of the great commission, and we read that he was +received up "after that he through the Holy Ghost had given +commandments unto the apostles" (Acts 1: 2). Thus, though he was the +Son of God, he acted ever in supreme reliance upon him who has been +called the "Executive of the Godhead." + +Plainly we see how Christ was our pattern and exemplar in his relation +to the Holy Spirit. He had been begotten of the Holy Ghost in the womb +of the virgin, and had lived that holy and obedient life which this +divine nativity would imply. But when he would enter upon his public +ministry, he waited for the Spirit to come upon him, as he had hitherto +been in him. For this anointing we find him praying: "Jesus also being +baptized and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost +descended in a bodily shape like a {76} dove upon him" (Luke 3: 22). +Had he any "promise of the Father" to plead, as he now asked the +anointing of the Spirit, if as we may believe this was the subject of +his prayer? Yes; it had been written in the prophets concerning the +rod out of the stem of Jesse: "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest +upon him; the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel +and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord" (Isa. +11: 2). "The promise of the seven-fold Spirit," the Jewish +commentators call it. Certainly it was literally fulfilled upon the +Son of God at the Jordan, when God gave him the Spirit without measure. +For he who was now baptized was in turn to be baptizer. "Upon whom +thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is +he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost" (John 1: 33). "I indeed +baptize you in water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is +mightier than I . . . he shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in +fire" (Matt. 3: 11, R. V.). And now being at the right hand exalted, +and having "the seven spirits of God" (Rev. 3: 3), the fullness of the +Holy Ghost, he will shed forth his power upon those who pray for it, +even as the Father shed it forth upon himself. + +Let us observe now the symbols and descriptions of the enduement of the +Spirit which are applied equally to Christ and to the disciples of +Christ. + +{77} + +1. _The Sealing of the Spirit_. We hear Jesus saying to the multitude +that sought him for the loaves and fishes, "Labor not for the meat +which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto eternal life, +which the Son of man shall give unto you, _for him hath God the Father +sealed_" (John 6: 27). This sealing must evidently refer back to his +reception of the Spirit at the Jordan. One of the most instructive +writers on the Hebrew worship and ritual tells us that it was the +custom for the priest to whom the service pertained, having selected a +lamb from the flock, to inspect it with the most minute scrutiny, in +order to discover if it was without physical defect, and then to seal +it with the temple seal, thus certifying that it was fit for sacrifice +and for food. Behold the Lamb of God presenting himself for inspection +at the Jordan! Under the Father's omniscient scrutiny he is found to +be "a lamb without blemish and without spot." From the opening heaven +God gives witness to the fact in the words: "This is my beloved Son in +whom I am well pleased," and then he puts the Holy Ghost upon him, the +testimony to his sonship, the seal of his separation unto sacrifice and +service. + +The disciple is as his Lord in this experience. "In whom having also +believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1: 13). +As always in the statements of Scripture, this {78} transaction is +represented as subsequent to faith. It is not conversion, but +something done upon a converted soul, a kind of crown of consecration +put upon his faith. Indeed the two events stand in marked contrast. +In conversion the believer receives the testimony of God and "sets his +seal to that God is true" (John 3: 33). In consecration God sets his +seal upon the believer that he is true. The last is God's "Amen" to +the Christian, verifying the Christian's "Amen" to God. "Now he, which +establisheth us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God; _who also +sealed us_ and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (2 Cor. +1: 21, 22). + +If we ask to what we are committed and separated by this divine +transaction, we may learn by studying the church's monograph, if such +we may name what is brought out in a mysterious passage in one of the +pastoral epistles. In spite of the defection and unbelief of some, the +apostle says: "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having +this seal." Then he gives us the two inscriptions on the seal: "The +Lord knoweth them that are his"; and, "Let every one that nameth the +name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness" (2 Tim. 2: 19)--Ownership +and holiness. When we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit it is that +we may count ourselves henceforth and altogether Christ's. If any +shrink from this devotement, how can he {79} have the fullness of the +Spirit? God cannot put his signature upon what is not his. Hence, if +under the sway of a worldly spirit we withhold ourselves from God and +insist on self-ownership, we need not count it strange if God withholds +himself from us and denies us the seal of divine ownership. God is +very jealous of his divine signet. He graciously bestows it upon those +who are ready to devote themselves utterly and irrevocably to his +service, but he strenuously withholds it from those who, while +professing his name, are yet "serving divers lusts and pleasures." +There is a suggestive passage in the Gospel of John which, translated +so as to bring out the antitheses which it contains, reads thus: "Many +trusted in his name, beholding the signs which he did; but Jesus did +not trust himself to them" (John 2: 23, 24). Here is the great +essential to our having the seal of the Spirit. Can the Lord trust us? +Nay; the question is more serious. Can he trust himself to us? The +Holy Spirit, which is his signet ring, can he commit it to our use for +signing our prayers and for certifying ourselves, and his honor not be +compromised? + +The other inscription on the seal is: "Let every one that nameth the +name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness."[5] The possession of +the Spirit {80} commits us irrevocably to separation from sin. For +what is holiness but an emanation of the Spirit of holiness who dwells +within us? A sanctified life is therefore the print or impression of +his seal: "He can never own us without his mark, the stamp of holiness. +The devil's stamp is none of God's badge. Our spiritual extraction +from him is but pretended unless we do things worthy of so illustrious +birth and becoming the honor of so great a Father." The great office +of the Spirit in the present economy is to communicate Christ to his +church which is his body. And what is so truly essential of Christ as +holiness? "In him is no sin; whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." +The body can only be sinless by uninterrupted communion with the Head; +the Head will not maintain communion with the body except it be holy. + +The idea of ownership, just considered, comes out still further in the +words of the apostle: "And grieve not the Spirit of God in whom ye were +sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4: 30). The day of redemption +is at the advent of our Lord in glory, when he shall raise the dead and +translate the living. Now his own are in the world, but the world +knows them not. But he has put his mark and secret sign upon them, by +which he shall recognize them at his coming. In that great quickening, +at the Redeemer's advent, the Holy Spirit will be the seal by which the +saints will be recognized, {81} and the power through which they will +be drawn up to God. "If the Spirit that raised up Jesus dwell in you" +(Rom. 11: 9), is the great condition of final quickening. As the +magnet attracts the particles of iron and attaches them to itself by +first imparting its own magnetism to them, so Christ, having given his +Spirit to his own, will draw them to himself through the Spirit. We +are not questioning now that all who have eternal life dwelling in them +will share in the redemption of the body; we are simply entering into +the apostle's exhortation against grieving the Spirit. We must fear +lest we mar the seal by which we were stamped, lest we deface or +obscure the signature by which we are to be recognized in the day of +redemption.[6] + +In a word the sealing is the Spirit himself, now received by faith and +resting upon the believer, with all the results in assurance, in joy, +and in {82} empowering for service, which must follow his unhindered +sway in the soul. Dr. John Owen, who has written more intelligently +and more exhaustively on this subject than any with whom we are +acquainted, thus sums up the subject: "If we can learn aright how +Christ was sealed, we shall learn how we are sealed. The sealing of +Christ by the Father is the communication of the Holy Spirit in +fullness to him, authorizing him unto and acting his divine power in +all the acts and duties of his office, so as to evidence the presence +of God with him and approbation of him. God's sealing of believers +then is his gracious communication of the Holy Spirit unto them so to +act his divine power in them as to enable them unto all the duties of +their holy calling, evidencing them to be accepted with him both for +themselves and others, and asserting their preservation unto eternal +life."[7] + +2. _The Fullness of the Spirit_. Immediately upon his baptism we +read: "And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and +was led by the Spirit into the wilderness" (Luke 4: 1). The same +record is made concerning the upper-room, disciples, immediately after +the descent of the Spirit: "And they were all filled with the Holy +Spirit" (Acts 2: 4). What is here spoken of seems nothing different +from what in other Scriptures is {83} called the reception of the +Spirit. It is a transaction that may be repeated, and will be if we +are living in the Spirit. But it is clearly an experience belonging to +one who has already been converged. This comes out very plainly in the +life of Paul. If according to the opinion quoted in the early part of +this chapter, the reception of the Spirit is associated always and +inseparably with conversion, one will reasonably ask, why a conversion +so marked and so radical as that of the apostle to the Gentiles need be +followed by such an experience as that named in Acts 9: 17: "And +Ananias departed and entered into the house, and laying his hands on +him, said Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus who appeared unto thee in +the way which thou earnest, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy +sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost." We seem to have a clear +allusion here to that which so constantly appears in Scripture, both in +doctrine and in life, a divine something distinct from conversion and +subsequent to it, which we have called the reception of the Spirit. +"The enduement of power" we may well name it; for observe how +constantly throughout the book of Acts mighty works and mighty +utterances are connected with this qualification. "Then Peter, _filled +with the Holy Ghost_, said unto them" (Acts 4: 8), is the preface to +one of the apostle's most powerful sermons. "And they were _all filled +with the Holy Ghost_, and they spake the {84} word with boldness" (Acts +4: 31), is a similar record. And they chose Stephen, a man _full_ of +faith and _of the Holy Ghost_, the narrative runs, regarding the choice +of deacons in Acts 6: 5. "And he, being _full of the Holy Ghost_," is +the keynote to his great martyr-sermon. This infilling of the Spirit +marks a decisive and most important crisis in the Christian life, +judging from the story of the apostle's conversion, to which we have +just referred. + +But, as we have intimated, we are far from maintaining that this is an +experience once for all, as the sealing seems to be. As the words +"regeneration" and "renewal" used in Scripture mark respectively the +impartation of the divine life as a perpetual possession and its +increase by repeated communications, so in our sealing there is a +reception of the Spirit once for all, which reception may be followed +by repeated fillings. It is reasonable to conclude this since our +capacity is ever increasing and our need constantly recurring, +according to the beautiful saying of Godet: "Man is a vessel destined +to receive God, a vessel which must be enlarged in proportion as it is +filled and filled in proportion as it is enlarged." + +And yet we confess here to a degree of uncertainty as to the use of +terms, and as to whether the two now under consideration are identical. +We may well pause therefore and lift a prayer, that since "we have +received not the spirit of {85} the world but the Spirit which is of +God, that we might know the things which are freely given to us of +God," this blessed Revelator and Interpreter may not only reveal to us +our privilege and inheritance in the Holy Ghost, but teach us to name +and distinguish the terms by which it is conveyed. + +While the fact of which we are speaking seems undoubted, the exposition +of it is far from being easy. Therefore we should attach no little +value to a consensus of opinion on this subject from those who have +thought most carefully and searched most prayerfully concerning it +This is our apology for the multiplied quotations which we are +introducing into this chapter, believing that the Holy Spirit is most +likely to interpret himself through those who most honor him in seeking +his guidance and illumination. + +In a recent work upon this subject, in which careful scholarship and +spiritual insight seem to be well united, the author thus states his +conclusions: "It seems to me beyond question, as a matter of experience +both of Christians in the present day and of the early church, as +recorded by inspiration, that in addition to the gift of the Spirit +received at conversion, there is another blessing corresponding in its +signs and effects to the blessing received by the apostles at +Pentecost--a blessing to be asked for and expected by Christians still, +and to be described in language similar to that employed {86} in the +book of the Acts. Whatever that blessing may be, it is in immediate +connection with the Holy Ghost; and one of the terms by which we may +designate it is 'to be filled with the Spirit.' As with the early +Christians so with us now, the filling comes when there is special need +for it. . . And there is an occasion when that blessing comes to a man +for the first time. That first time is a spiritual crisis from which +his future spiritual life must be dated. There may be a question as to +what it is to be called, or at least by what name in Scripture we are +authorized to call it. . . Whether consciously or not, it is to the +fact of the Holy Spirit's coming in new power to the soul that all new +life is due; and the more that this is consciously understood the more +is the Holy Ghost in his due place in our hearts. It is only when he +is consciously accepted in all his power that we can be said to be +either 'baptized' or 'filled' with the Holy Ghost. I should like to +add that it is possible to maintain that God from the first offered to +his own people a higher position in this matter than they have +generally been able to occupy, in that the fullness of the Spirit was +and is offered to each soul at conversion; and that it is only from +want of faith that subsequent outpourings of the Holy Ghost become +needful."[8] + +{87} + +That the filling of the Spirit belongs to us as a covenant privilege +seems to be clear from the exhortation in the Epistle to the Ephesians, +which is confessedly of universal application: "Be not drunken with +wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5: 18). +The passive verb employed here is suggestive. The surrendered will, +the yielded body, the emptied heart, are the great requisites to his +incoming. And when he has come and filled the believer, the result is +a kind of passive activity, as of one wrought upon and controlled +rather than of one directing his own efforts. Under the influence of +strong drink there is an outpouring of all that the evil spirit +inspires--frivolity, profanity, and riotous conduct. "Be +God-intoxicated men," the apostle would seem to say; "let the Spirit of +God so control you that you shall pour yourself out in psalms and hymns +and spiritual songs." If such divine enthusiasm has its perils, we +believe that they are less to be dreaded than that "moderatism" which +makes the servants of God satisfied with the letter of Scripture if +only that letter be skillfully and scientifically handled, rather than +giving the supreme place to the Spirit as the inspirer and motor of all +Christian service. + +3. _The Anointing of the Spirit_. After the baptism and temptation we +find our Lord appropriating to himself the words of the prophet, as he +read them in the synagogue of Nazareth: {88} "The Spirit of the Lord is +upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the +poor" (Luke 4: 18). Twice in the Acts there is a reference to this +important event in similar terms: "Thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou +didst anoint" (Acts 4: 27, R. V.). "Jesus of Nazareth, how that God +anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power" (Acts 10: 38). And as +with the Lord so with his disciples: "Now he that establisheth us with +you in Christ, and anointed us, is God" (2 Cor. 1: 21, R. V.). + +A student of the Scriptures need not be told how closely the ceremony +of anointing was related to all important offices and ministries of the +servants of Jehovah under the old covenant. The priest was anointed +that he might be holy unto the Lord (Lev. 8: 12). The king was +anointed that the Spirit of the Lord might rest upon him in power (1 +Sam. 16: 15). The prophet was anointed that he might be the oracle of +God to the people (1 Kings 19: 16). No servant of Jehovah was deemed +qualified for his ministry without this holy sanctifying touch laid +upon him. Even in the cleansing of the leper this ceremony was not +wanting. The priest was required to dip his right finger in the oil +that was in his left hand and to put it upon the tip of the right ear, +upon the thumb of the right hand, and upon the great toe of the right +foot of him that was to be cleansed, the oil "_upon {89} the blood of +the trespass-offering_" (Lev. 14: 17). Thus with divine accuracy did +even the types foretell the two-fold provision for the Christian life, +cleansing by the blood and hallowing by the oil--justification in +Christ, sanctification in the Spirit. + +If we ask now what this anointing is, the reply is obviously the Holy +Spirit himself. As before he was the seal attesting us, so now he is +the oil sanctifying us--the same gift described by different symbols. +And as it was the Aaron who had been the first anointed who was +qualified to anoint others, so with our great High Priest. It is he +within the veil who gives the Spirit unto his own, that he may qualify +them to be "an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people +for God's own possession" (1 Peter 2: 9, R. V.). "But ye have an +anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things" (1 John 2: 20). +Christ in the New Testament is constantly called "the Holy One." And +because the Spirit was sent to communicate him to the people, they are +made partakers of his knowledge as well as of his holiness. If it +should be said that this unction of which John speaks is miraculous, +the divine illumination of evangelists and prophets who were +commissioned to be the vehicles of inspired Scripture, we must call +attention to other passages which connect the knowledge of God with the +Holy Ghost. "For who among men knoweth the things of a man save the +spirit of a man which {90} is in him; even so the things of God none +knoweth save the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2: 11, R. V.). The horse and +his rider may see the same magnificent piece of statuary in the park; +the one may be delighted with it as a work of human genius, but upon +the dull eye of the other it makes no impression, and for the reason +that it takes a human mind to appreciate the work of the human mind. +Likewise only the Spirit of God can know and make known the thoughts +and teachings and revelations of God. This seems to be the meaning of +John in his discourse concerning the divine unction: "But the anointing +which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any +man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things" (1 +John 2: 27). + +In nothing does the enduement of the Spirit more distinctly manifest +itself than in the fine discernment of revealed truth which it imparts. +As in service, the contrast between working in the power of the Spirit +and in the energy of the flesh is easily discernible, even more clearly +in knowledge and teaching is the contrast between the tuition of +learning and the intuition of the Spirit. While we should not +undervalue the former, it is striking to note how the Bible puts the +weightier emphasis on the latter; so that really the unspiritual hearer +is to be accounted less blameworthy for not discerning the truth than +the intellectual preacher is for {91} expecting him to do so. When, +for example, one attempts with the utmost learning to convince an +unbeliever of the deity of Christ and fails, the word of Scripture to +him is: "No man is able to say 'Lord Jesus' save in the Holy Ghost" (1 +Cor. 12: 3). + +The Spirit of Jesus can alone reveal to men the lordship of Jesus, and +this key of knowledge the Holy Ghost will never put into the hand of +any man however learned. As it is written that Christ is the "raying +forth" of the Father's glory, and "the express image of his person" +(Heb. 1: 3), thus by a beautiful figure reminding us that as we can +only see the sun in the rays of the sun, so we can only know God in +Jesus Christ, who is the manifestation of God. It is so likewise +between the second and third Persons of the Trinity. Christ is the +image of the invisible God; the Holy Ghost is the invisible image of +Christ. As Jesus manifested the Father outwardly, the Spirit manifests +Jesus inwardly, forming him within us as the hidden man of the heart, +imaging him to the spirit by an interior impression which no +intellectual instruction, however diligent, can effect. + +In his profound discourse concerning the "unction" and accompanying +illumination, John was only expounding by the Spirit what Jesus had +said before his departure: "Howbeit, when he the Spirit of truth is +come, he will guide you into all {92} truth; he shall glorify me; for +he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you" (John 16: 13). +"The Spirit of truth"--How much instruction and suggestion is conveyed +by this term! As he is called "the Spirit of Christ," as revealing +Christ in his suffering and glory, so he is called "the Spirit of +truth," as manifesting the truth in all its depths and heights. As +impossible as it is that we should know the person of Christ without +the Spirit of Christ who reveals him, so impossible it is that we +should know the truth as it is in Jesus without the Spirit of truth who +is appointed to convey it. "The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot +receive" (John 14: 17)--We must come to Christ before the Spirit can +come to us. "The Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father" +(John 15: 26)--He can only teach us in intelligent sonship to cry +"Abba, Father." "The Spirit of truth . . . shall guide you into all +truth" (John 16: 13). Divine knowledge is all and altogether in his +power to communicate, and without his illumination it must be hidden +from our understanding. + +Thus we have had the enduement of the Spirit presented to us under +three aspects--sealing, filling, and anointing--all of which terms, so +far as we can understand, signify the same thing--the gift of the Holy +Ghost appropriated through faith. Each of these terms is connected +with some special {93} Divine endowment--the seal with assurance and +consecration; the filling with power; and the anointing with knowledge. +All these gifts are wrapt up in the one gift in which they are +included, and without whom we are excluded from their possession. + +While thus we conclude that it is a Christian's privilege and duty to +claim a distinct anointing of the Spirit to qualify him for his work, +we would be careful not to prescribe any stereotyped exercises through +which one must necessarily pass in order to possess it. It is easy to +cite cases of decisive, vivid, and clearly marked experience of the +Spirit's enduement, as in the lives of Dr. Finney, James Brainard +Taylor, and many others. And instead of discrediting these +experiences--so definite as to time and so distinct as to accompanying +credentials--we would ask the reader to study them, and observe the +remarkable effects which followed in the ministry of those who enjoyed +them. The lives of many of the co-laborers with Wesley and Whitefield +give a striking confirmation of the doctrine which we are defending. +Years of barren ministry, in which the gospel was preached with +orthodox correctness and literary finish, followed, after the Holy +Spirit had been recognized and appropriated, by evangelistic pastorates +of the most fervent type, such is the history of not a few of these +mighty men of God. + +{94} + +Let not this great subject be embarrassed by too minute theological +definitions on the one hand, nor by the too exacting demand for +striking spiritual exercises on the other, lest we put upon simple +souls a burden greater than they can bear. Nevertheless we cannot +emphasize too strongly the divine crisis in the soul which a full +reception of the Holy Ghost may bring. "My little children, of whom I +travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4: 19), +writes the apostle to those who had already believed on the Son of God. +Whatever he may have meant in this fervent saying, we doubt not that +the deepest yearning of the Spirit is for the informing of Christ in +the heart, in order to that outward conformity to Christ which is the +supreme end of Christian nurture. If we conceive of the Christian life +as only a gradual growth in grace, is there not danger that we come to +regard this growth as both invisible and inevitable, and so take little +responsibility for its accomplishment? Let the believer receive the +Holy Ghost by a definite act of faith for his consecration, as he +received Christ by faith for his justification, and may he not be sure +that he is in a safe and scriptural way of acting? We know of no +plainer form of stating the matter than to speak of it as a simple +acceptance by faith, the faith which is + + An affirmation and an act, + Which bids eternal truth be present fact. + + +{95} + +It is a fact that Christ has made atonement for sin; in conversion +faith appropriates this fact in order to our justification. It is a +fact that the Holy Ghost has been given; in consecration faith +appropriates this fact for our sanctification. One who writes upon +this subject with a scholarship evidently illuminated by a deep +spiritual tuition, says: "If a reference to personal experience may be +permitted, I may indeed here 'set my seal.' Never shall I forget the +gain to conscious faith and peace which came to my own soul, not long +after a first decisive and appropriating view of the crucified Lord as +the sinner's sacrifice of peace, from a more intelligent and conscious +hold upon the living and most gracious personality of the Spirit +through whose mercy the soul had got that blessed view. It was a new +development of insight into the love of God. _It was a new contact as +it were with the inner and eternal movements of redeeming goodness and +power, a new discovery in divine resources._"[9] + +Well is our doctrine described in these italicised words: "_A contact +with the inner movements of Divine power_." The energy of the Spirit +appropriated, even as with uplifted finger the electric car touches the +current which is moving just above it in the wire and is borne +irresistibly on by it.--Thus does the power which is eternally for us +become a power within us; the law of Sinai, with {96} its tables of +stone, is replaced by "the law of the Spirit of life" in the fleshly +tables of the heart; the outward commandment is exchanged for an inward +decalogue; hard duty by holy delight, that henceforth the Christian +life may be "all in Christ, by the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God." + + + +[1] Rev. E. Boys, "Filled with the Spirit," p. 87. + +[2] It is assumed by some that because those that walked with Christ of +old received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire at Pentecost, more +than eighteen hundred years ago, therefore all believers now have +received the same. As well might the apostles, when first called, have +concluded that because at his baptism the Spirit like a dove rested +upon Christ, therefore they had equally received the same blessing. +Surely the Spirit has been given and the work in Christ wrought for +all; but to enter into possession, to be enlightened and made partakers +of the Holy Ghost, there must be a personal application to the Lord, +etc.--_Andrew Jukes_, "_The New Man_." + +[3] William Kelly, "Lectures on the New Testament Doctrine of the Holy +Spirit," p. 161. + +[4] It is a great mistake into which some have fallen, to suppose that +the results of Pentecost were chiefly miraculous and temporary. The +effect of such a view is to keep spiritual influences out of sight; and +it will be well ever to hold fast the assurance that a wide, deep, and +perpetual spiritual blessing in the church is that which above all +things else was secured by the descent of the Spirit after Christ was +glorified.--_Dr. J. Elder Cumming_, "_Through the Eternal Spirit_." + +[5] It will be observed that the inscription on the seal is +substantially the same as that upon the forehead of the High Priest, +[Hebrew characters]--HOLINESS TO THE LORD (Exod. 39: 30). + +[Transcriber's note: I have not attempted to insert the transliterated +Hebrew characters in the above footnote. As best my research can tell +me, they are, from left to right, H (het, hei), V/O/U (vav), H (het, +hei), Y (yod, yud), L (lamed), a blank space, S/Sh (shin), D (dalet) or +R (resh, reish), and Q (qof/kuf).] + +[6] The allusion to the seal as a pledge of purchase would be +peculiarly intelligible to the Ephesians, for Ephesus was a maritime +city, and an extensive trade in timber was carried on there by the +shipmasters of the neighboring ports. The method of purchase was this: +The merchant, after selecting his timber, stamped it with his own +signet, which was an acknowledged sign of ownership. He often did not +carry off his possession at the time; it was left in the harbor with +other floats of timber; but it was chosen, bought, and stamped; and in +due time the merchant sent a trusty agent with the signet, who finding +that timber which bore a corresponding impress, claimed and brought it +away for the master's use. Thus the Holy Spirit impresses on the soul +now the image of Jesus Christ; and this is the sure pledge of the +everlasting inheritance.--_E. H. Bickersteth, "The Spirit of Life," p. +176_. + +[7] John Owen, D. D., "Discourse Concerning the Spirit," pp. 406, 407. + +[8] "Through the Eternal Spirit," by James Elder Cumming, D.D., pp. +146, 147. + +[9] "_Veni Creator Spiritus_," by Principal H. C. G. Moule, p. 13. + + + + +{97} + +VI + +THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT + + + + +{98} + +"In his intimate union with his Son, the Holy Spirit is the unique +organ by which God wills to communicate to man his own life, the +supernatural life, the divine life--that is to say, his holiness, his +power, his love, his felicity. To this end the Son works outwardly, +the Holy Spirit inwardly."--_Pastor G. F. Tophel_. + + + + + + +{99} + +VI + +THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT + +The familiar benediction which invokes upon us the "communion of the +Holy Ghost" has probably a deeper meaning in it than has generally been +recognized. The word "communion"--_choinônia_--signifies the having in +common. It is used of the fellowship of believers one with another, +and also of their mutual fellowship with God. The Holy Spirit dwelling +in us is the agent through whom this community of life and love is +effected and maintained. "And truly our fellowship," says John, "is +with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1: 3). But this +having in common with the first two persons of the Godhead were only +possible through the communion of the Holy Ghost, the third person. In +his promise of the Comforter, Jesus said: "He shall take of mine and +show it unto you." As the Son while on earth communicated to men the +spiritual riches of the invisible Father, so the Spirit now +communicates to us the hidden things of the invisible Son; and if we +were required to describe in a word the present office-work of the Holy +Ghost, we should say that it is to make true _in_ us that which is +already true _for_ us in {100} our glorified Lord. All light and life +and warmth are stored up for us in the sun; but these can only reach us +through the atmosphere which stands between us and that sun as the +medium of communication; even so in Christ are "hidden all the +treasures of wisdom and knowledge," and by the Holy Spirit these are +made over to us. It will be our endeavor in this chapter to count up +our hid treasures in Christ, and to consider the Spirit in his various +offices of communication. + +1. _The Spirit of Life: Our Regeneration_. Not until our Lord took +his place at God's right hand did he assume his full prerogative as +life-giver to us. He was here in the flesh for our death; he took on +him our nature that he might in himself crucify our Adam-life and put +it away. But when he rose from the dead and sat down on his Father's +throne, he became the life-giver to all his mystical body, which is the +church. To talk of being saved by the earthly life of Jesus is to know +Christ only "after the flesh." True, the apostle says that "being +reconciled" by Christ's death, "much more being reconciled we shall be +saved by his life." But he here refers plainly to his glorified life. +And Jesus, looking forward to the time when he should have risen from +the dead, says: "Because I live, ye shall live also." Christ on the +throne is really the heart of the church, and every regeneration is a +pulse-beat of that heart in souls begotten from above {101} through the +Holy Spirit. The new birth therefore is not a change of nature as it +is sometimes defined; it is rather the communication of the Divine +nature, and the Holy Spirit is now the Mediator through whom this life +is transmitted. If we take our Lord's words to Nicodemus: "Except a +man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God," and press the +"again" _anôthen_ back to its deepest significance, it becomes very +instructive. "Born _from above_," say some. And very true to fact is +this saying. Regeneration is not our natural life carried up to its +highest point of attainment, but the Divine life brought down to its +lowest point of condescension, even to the heart of fallen man. John, +in speaking of Jesus as the life-giver, calls him "_he that cometh from +above_" (3: 31); and Jesus, in speaking to the degenerate sons of +Abraham, says: "Ye are _from beneath_, I am _from above_" (John 8: 23). +It has been the constant dream and delusion of men that they could rise +to heaven by the development and improvement of their natural life. +Jesus by one stroke of revelation destroys this hope, telling his +hearer that unless he has been begotten of God who is above as truly as +he has been begotten of his father on earth, he cannot see the kingdom +of God. + +Others make these words of our Lord signify "born _from the +beginning_." There must be a resumption of life _de novo_, a return to +the original {102} source and fountain of being. To find this it is +not enough that we go back to the creation-beginning revealed in +Genesis; we must return to the precreation-beginning revealed in John, +the book of re-genesis. In the opening of Genesis we find Adam, +created holy, now fallen through temptation, his face averted from God +and leading the whole human race after him into sin and death. In the +opening of the Gospel of John we find the Son of God in holy fellowship +with the Father. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was +toward God", _pros ton theon_--not merely proceeding from God, but +tending toward God by eternal communion. Conversion restores man to +this lost attitude: "Ye turned to God, _pros ton theon_, from idols to +serve the living and true God" (1 Thess. 1: 9). Regeneration restores +man to his forfeited life, the unfallen life of the Son of God, the +life which has never wavered from steadfast fellowship with the Father. +"I give unto them eternal life," says Jesus. Is eternal life without +end? Yes; and just as truly without beginning. It is uncreated being +in distinction from all-created being; it is the I-am life of God in +contrast to the I-become life of all human souls. By spiritual birth +we acquire a divine heredity as truly as by natural birth we acquire a +human heredity. + +In the condensed antithesis with which our Lord concludes his demand +for the new birth, we have both the philosophy and the justification of +his {103} doctrine: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that +which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto you, +Ye must be born anew" (John 3: 7, R. V.). By no process of evolution, +however prolonged, can the natural man be developed into the spiritual +man; by no process of degeneration can the spiritual man deteriorate +into the natural man. These two are from a totally different stock and +origin; the one is from beneath, the other is from above. There is but +one way through which the relation of sonship can be established, and +that is by begetting. That God has created all men does not constitute +them his sons in the evangelical sense of that word. The sonship on +which the New Testament dwells so constantly is based absolutely and +solely on the experience of the new birth, while the doctrine of +universal sonship rests either upon a daring denial or a daring +assumption--the denial of the universal fall of man through sin, or the +assumption of the universal regeneration of man through the Spirit. In +either case the teaching belongs to "another gospel," the recompense of +whose preaching is not a beatitude but an anathema.[1] + +The contrast between the two lives and the way {104} in which the +partnership--the _choinônia_--with the new is effected, is told in that +deep saying of Peter: "Whereby he hath granted us his precious and +exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become +partakers--_choinônia_--of the divine nature, having escaped from the +corruption which is in the world by lust" (2 Pet. 1: 4, R. V.). Here +are the two streams of life contrasted: + +1. The corruption in the world through lust. + +2. The Divine nature which is in the world through the incarnation. + +Here is the Adam-life into which we are brought by natural birth; and +over against it the Christ-life into which we are brought by spiritual +birth. From the one we escape, of the other we partake. The source +and issue of the one are briefly summarized: "Lust when it hath +conceived bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth +forth death." The Jordan is a fitting symbol of our natural life, +rising in a lofty elevation and from pure springs, but plunging +steadily down till it pours itself into that Dead Sea from which there +is no outlet: To be taken out of this stream and to be brought into the +life which flows from the heart of God is man's only hope of salvation. +And the method of effecting this transition is plainly stated, "through +these," or by means of the precious and exceeding great promises. As +in grafting, the old and degenerate stock must first be cut off and +then the new inserted, so {105} in regeneration we are separated from +the flesh and incorporated by the Spirit. And what the scion is in +grafting, the word or promise of God is in regeneration. It is the +medium through which the Holy Spirit is conveyed, the germ cell in +which the Divine life is enfolded. Hence the emphasis which is put in +Scripture upon the appropriation of divine truth. We are told that "of +his own will begat he us _with the word of truth_" (James 1: 18). +"Having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed but of +incorruptible, _through the word of God_, which liveth and abideth" (1 +Peter 1: 23, R. V.). + +Very deep and significant, therefore, is the saying of Jesus in respect +to the regenerating power of his words, in the sixth chapter of the +Gospel of John; He emphasizes the contrariety between the two natures, +the human and the divine, saying: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, +the flesh profiteth nothing." And then he adds: "The words which I +have spoken unto you are spirit and life." As God in creation breathed +into man the breath of life and he became a living soul, so the Lord +Jesus by the word of his mouth, which is the breath of life, recreates +man and makes him alive unto God. And not life only, but likeness as +well, is thus imparted. "So God created man in his own image; in the +image of God created he him," is the simple story of the origin of an +innocent race. Then follows the temptation and the fall, and then the +story of the {106} descent of a ruined humanity: "And Adam begot a son +in his own likeness, after his image." + +And yet how wide the gulf between these two origins. The notion is +persistent and incurable in the human heart, that whatever variation +there may have been from the original type, education and training can +reshape the likeness of Adam to the likeness of God. "As the twig is +bent the tree is inclined," says the popular proverb. True; but though +a crooked sapling may be developed into the upright oak, no bending or +manipulation can ever so change the species of the tree as to enable +men to gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. Here again the +dualism of Jesus Christ's teaching is distinctly recognized. "A good +tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring +forth good fruit." And what is the remedy for a corrupt tree? The +cutting off of the old and the bringing in of a new scion and stock. +The life of God can alone beget the likeness of God; the divine type is +wrapped up in the same germ which holds the Divine nature. Therefore +in regeneration we are said to have "put on the new man who is renewed +in knowledge _after the image of him that created him_" (Col. 3: 10), +and "which _after God_ hath been created in . . . true holiness" (Eph. +4: 24). + +In a word, the lost image of God is not restamped upon us, but renewed +within us. Christ our life was "begotten of the Holy Ghost," and he +became {107} the fount and origin of life henceforth for all his +church. This communication of the divine life from Christ to the soul +through the Holy Spirit is a hidden transaction, but so great in its +significance and issues that one has well called it "the greatest of +all miracles." As in the origin of our natural life we are made in +secret and curiously wrought, much more in our spiritual. But the +issue has to do with the farthest eternity. "As when the Lord was born +the world still went on its old way, little conscious that one had come +who should one day change and rule all things, so when the new man is +framed within, the old life for a while goes on much as before; the +daily calling, and the earthly cares, and too often old lusts and +habits also, still engross us; a worldly eye sees little new, while yet +the life which shall live forever has been quickened within and a new +man been formed who shall inherit all."[2] + +2. _The Spirit of Holiness: Our Sanctification_. "According to the +Spirit of holiness" Christ "was declared to be the Son of God in power +by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1: 4). How striking the +antithesis between our Lord's two natures, as revealed in this passage, +Son of David as to the flesh, Son of God as to the Spirit. And "as he +is so are we in this world." We who are regenerate have two natures, +the one derived from Adam, the other {108} derived from Christ, and our +sanctification consists in the double process of mortification and +vivification, the deadening and subduing of the old and the quickening +and developing of the new. In other words, what was wrought in Christ +who was "put to death in the flesh but quickened in the spirit" is +rewrought in us through the constant operation of the Holy Ghost, and +thus the cross and the resurrection extend their sway over the entire +life of the Christian. Consider these two experiences. + +Mortification is not asceticism. It is not a self-inflicted +compunction, but a Christ-inflicted crucifixion. Our Lord was done +with the cross when on Calvary he cried: "It is finished." But where +he ended each disciple must begin: "If any man will come after me let +him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever +will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for +my sake shall find it" (Matt. 16: 24, 25). These words, so constantly +repeated in one form or another by our Lord, make it clear that the +death-principle must be realized within us in order that the +life-principle may have final and triumphant sway. It is to this truth +which every disciple is solemnly committed in his baptism: "Know ye not +that so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his +death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, that +like as Christ was raised up from the dead by {109} the glory of the +Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6: 3, 4). +Baptism is the monogram of the Christian; by it every believer is +sealed and certified as a participant in the death and life of Christ; +and the Holy Spirit has been given to be the Executor of the contract +thus made at the symbolic grave of Christ. + +In considering the great fact of the believer's death in Christ to sin +and the law, we must not confound what the Scriptures clearly +distinguish. There are three deaths in which we have part: + +1. _Death in sin, our natural condition_. + +2. _Death for sin, our judicial condition_. + +3. _Death to sin, our sanctified condition_. + +1. _Death in sin_. "And you . . . who were dead in trespasses and +sins," "And you being dead in your sins" (Eph. 2: 1; Col. 2: 13). This +is the condition in which we are by nature, as participants in the fall +and ruin into which the transgression of our first parents has plunged +the race. It is a condition in which we are under moral insensibility +to the claims of God's holiness and love; and under the sentence of +eternal punishment from the law which we have broken. In this state of +death in sin Christ found the whole world when he came to be our +Saviour. + +2. _Death for sin_. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead +to the law by the body of Christ" (Rom. 7: 4). This is the condition +into {110} which Christ brought us by his sacrifice upon the cross. He +endured the sentence of a violated law on our behalf, and therefore we +are counted as having endured it in him. What he did for us is +reckoned as having been done by us: "Because we thus judge, that one +died for all, therefore all died" (2 Cor. 5: 14, R. V.). Being one +with Christ through faith, we are identified with him on the cross: "I +have been crucified with Christ" (Gal. 2: 20, R. V.). This condition +of death for sin having been effected for us by our Saviour, we are +held legally or judicially free from the penalty of a violated law, if +by our personal faith we will consent to the transaction. + +3. _Death to sin_. "Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto +sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6: 11, R. V.). This is +the condition of making true in ourselves what is already true for us +in Christ, of rendering practical what is now judicial; in other words, +of being dead to the power of sin in ourselves, as we are already dead +to the penalty of sin through Jesus Christ. As it is written in the +Epistle to the Colossians: "For ye died," judicially in Christ, +"mortify"--make dead practically--"therefore your members which are +upon the earth" (Col. 3: 2, 5, R. V.). It is this condition which the +Holy Spirit is constantly effecting in us if we will have it so. "If +ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body {111} ye shall +live" (Rom. 8: 13). This is not self-deadening, as the Revised Version +seems to suggest by its decapitalizing of the word "Spirit." Self is +not powerful enough to conquer self, the human spirit to get the +victory over the human flesh. That were like a drowning man with his +right hand laying hold on his left hand, only that both may sink +beneath the waves. "Old Adam is too strong for young Melancthon," said +the Reformer. It is the Spirit of God overcoming our fleshly nature by +his indwelling life, on whom is our sole dependence. Our principal +care therefore must be to "walk in the Spirit" and "be filled with the +Spirit," and all the rest will come spontaneously and inevitably. As +the ascending sap in the tree crowds off the dead leaves which in spite +of storm and frost cling to the branches all winter long, so does the +Holy Ghost within us, when allowed full sway, subdue and expel the +remnants of our sinful nature. + +One cannot fail to see that asceticism is an absolute inversion of the +Divine order, since it seeks life through death instead of finding +death through life. No degree of mortification can ever bring us to +sanctification. We are to "put off the old man with his deeds." But +how? By "putting on the new man who is renewed in knowledge after the +image of him that created him." "For the law of the Spirit of life in +Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8: +2), {112} writes Paul. It is a pointed statement of the case which one +makes in describing the transition from the old to the new in his own +experience, from the former life of perpetual defeat to the present +life of victory through Christ. "Once it was a constant breaking off, +now it is a daily bringing in," he says. That is, the former striving +was directed to being rid of the inveterate habits and evil tendencies +of the old nature--its selfishness, its pride, its lust, and its +vanity. Now the effort is to bring in the Spirit, to drink in his +divine presence, to breathe, as a holy atmosphere, his supernatural +life. The indwelling of the Spirit can alone effect the exclusion of +sin. This will appear if we consider what has been called "the +expulsive power of a new affection." "Love not the world, neither the +things that are in the world," says the Scripture. But all experience +proves that loving not is only possible through loving, the worldly +affection being overcome by the heavenly. + +And we find this method clearly exhibited in the word. "The love of +the Spirit" (Rom. 15: 30) is given us for overcoming the world. The +divine life is the source of the divine love. Therefore "the love of +God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto +us." Because we are by nature so wholly without heavenly affection, +God, through the indwelling Spirit, gives us his own love with which to +love himself. Herein {113} is the highest credential of discipleship: +"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love +one to another" (John 13: 35). As Christ manifested to the world the +love of the Father, so are we to manifest the love of Christ--a +manifestation, however, which is only possible because of our +possessorship of a common life. As one has truly said concerning our +Saviour's command to his disciples to love one another: "It is a +command which would be utterly idle and futile were it not that he, the +ever-loving One, is willing to put his own love within me. The command +is really no more than to be a branch of the true vine. I am to cease +from my own living and loving, and yield myself to the expression of +Christ's love." + +And what is true of the love of Christ is true of the likeness of +Christ. How is the likeness acquired? Through contemplation and +imitation? So some have taught. And it is true, if only the +indwelling Spirit is behind all, beneath all, and effectually operative +in all. As it is written: "But we all with unveiled face, reflecting +as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image +from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3: 18, +R. V.). It is only the Spirit of the Lord dwelling within us that can +fashion us to the image of the Lord set before us. Who is sufficient +by external imitation of Christ to become {114} conformed to the +likeness of Christ? Imagine one without genius and devoid of the +artist's training sitting down before Raphael's famous picture of the +Transfiguration and attempting to reproduce it. How crude and +mechanical and lifeless his work would be! But if such a thing were +possible that the spirit of Raphael should enter into the man and +obtain the mastery of his mind and eye and hand, it would be entirely +possible that he should paint this masterpiece; for it would simply be +Raphael reproducing Raphael. And this in a mystery is what is true of +the disciple filled with the Holy Ghost. Christ, who is "the image of +the invisible God," is set before him as his divine pattern, and Christ +by the Spirit dwells within him as a divine life, and Christ is able to +image forth Christ from the interior life to the outward example. + +Of course likeness to Christ is but another name for holiness, and +when, at the resurrection, we awake satisfied with his likeness (Ps. +17: 15), we shall be perfected in holiness. This is simply saying that +sanctification is progressive and not, like conversion, instantaneous. +And yet we must admit the force of what a devout and thoughtful writer +says as to the danger of regarding it as _only_ a gradual growth. If a +Christian looks upon himself as "a tree planted by the rivers of water +that bringeth forth his fruit in his season," he judges rightly. But +to conclude therefore that his growth will be as {115} irresistible as +that of the tree, coming as a matter of course simply because he has by +regeneration been planted in Christ, is a grave mistake. The disciple +is required to be consciously and intelligently active in his own +growth, as a tree is not, "to give all diligence to make his calling +and election sure." And when we say "active" we do not mean +self-active merely, for "which of you by being anxious can add one +cubit unto his stature?" asks Jesus (Matt. 6: 27, R. V.). But we must +surrender ourselves to the divine action by living in the Spirit and +praying in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit, all of which +conditions are as essential to our development in holiness, as the rain +and the sunshine are to the growth of the oak. It is possible that +through a neglect and grieving of the Spirit a Christian may be of +smaller stature in his age than he was in his spiritual infancy, his +progress being a retrogression rather than an advance. Therefore in +saying that sanctification is progressive let us beware of concluding +that it is inevitable. + +Moreover, as candid inquirers, we must ask what of truth and of error +there may be in the doctrine of "instantaneous sanctification," which +many devout persons teach and profess to have proved. If the +conception is that of a state of sinless perfection into which the +believer has been suddenly lifted and of deliverance from a sinful +nature which has been suddenly eradicated, we must {116} consider this +doctrine as dangerously untrue. But we do consider it possible that +one may experience a great crisis in his spiritual life, in which there +is such a total self-surrender to God and such an infilling of the Holy +Spirit, that he is freed from the bondage of sinful appetites and +habits, and enabled to have constant victory over self, instead of +suffering constant defeat. In saying this, what more do we affirm than +is taught in that scripture: "Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not +fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5: 16). + +Divine truth as revealed in Scripture seems often to lie between two +extremes. It is emphatically so in regard to this question. What a +paradox it is that side by side in the Epistle of John we should have +the strongest affirmation of the Christian's sinfulness: "If we say +that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us"; +and the strongest affirmation of his sinlessness: "Whosoever is born of +God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot +sin because he is born of God" (1 John 1: 8; 3: 9). Now heresy means a +dividing or choosing, and almost all of the gravest errors have arisen +from adopting some extreme statement of Scripture to the rejection of +the other extreme. If we regard the doctrine of sinless perfection as +a heresy, we regard contentment with sinful imperfection as a greater +heresy. And we gravely fear that many Christians make the {117} +apostle's words, "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves," the +unconscious justification for a low standard of Christian living. It +were almost better for one to overstate the possibilities of +sanctification in his eager grasp after holiness, than to understate +them in his complacent satisfaction with a traditional unholiness. +Certainly it is not an edifying spectacle to see a Christian worldling +throwing stones at a Christian perfectionist. + +What then would be a true statement of the doctrine which we are +considering, one which would embrace both extremes of statement as they +appear in the Epistle of John? _Sinful in self, sinless in Christ_--is +our answer: "In him is no sin; whosoever abideth in him sinneth not" (1 +John 3: 5, 6). If through the communication of the Holy Spirit the +life of Christ is constantly imparted to us, that life will prevail +within us. That life is absolutely sinless, as incapable of defilement +as the sunbeam which has its fount and origin in the sun. In +proportion to the closeness of our abiding in him will be the +completeness of our deliverance from sinning. And we doubt not that +there are Christians who have yielded themselves to God in such +absolute surrender, and who through the upholding power of the Spirit +have been so kept in that condition of surrender, that sin has not had +dominion over them. If in them the war between the flesh and the +spirit has not been forever ended, there has {118} been present victory +in which troublesome sins have ceased from their assaults, and "the +peace of God" has ruled in the heart. + +But sinning is one thing and a sinful nature is another; and we see no +evidence in Scripture that the latter is ever eradicated completely +while we are in the body. If we could see ourselves with God's eye, we +should doubtless discover sinfulness lying beneath our most joyful +moments of unsinning conduct, and the stain of our old and fallen +nature so discoloring our whitest actions as to convince us that we are +not yet faultless in his presence. Only let us gladly emphasize this +fact, that as we inherit from Adam a nature incapable of sinlessness, +we inherit from Christ a nature incapable of sinfulness. Therefore, it +is written: "Whosoever is born of God cannot sin, for his seed +remaineth in him." It is not the nature of the new nature to sin; it +is not the law of "the law of the Spirit of life" to transgress. For +the new-born man to do evil is to transgress the law of his nature as +before it was to obey it. In a word, before our regeneration we lived +in sin and loved it; since our regeneration we may lapse into sin but +we loathe it. + +3. _The Spirit of Glory: Our Transfiguration_. "The Spirit of glory +and of God resteth upon you," writes Peter (1 Peter 4: 14). Let us +recall this apostle's habit of dividing the stages of redemption into +these two, "the sufferings of Christ and the {119} glory that should +follow," in which he seems to conceive of our Lord's mystical body, the +church, as passing through and reproducing the twofold experience of +its Head, in humiliation and in subsequent exaltation. Even in the +time of her humiliation she has the Spirit of glory abiding on her, as +the cloud of glory rested down upon the tabernacle in the wilderness +during all the pilgrimage of the children of Israel. And is not +Peter's saying the same as Paul's, in his picture of the suffering +creation: "But ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the +Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the +adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Rom. 8: 23). Not yet +have we reached the consummation of our hope, at the "appearing of the +glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2: 13, R. V.); +but the Spirit, through whose inworking power this great change is to +be wrought, already dwells in us, giving us by his present quickening +the pledge and earnest of our final glory. And so we read in another +Scripture: "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead +dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken +your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Rom. 8: 11). +It is not our dead bodies which are here spoken of as the objects of +the Spirit's quickening, but our mortal bodies--bodies liable to death +and doomed to death if the Lord {120} tarry, but not yet having +experienced death. Hence the quickening referred to has to do rather +with the vivifying of the living saints than the resurrection of the +dead saints. + +Of course the consummation of this vivifying is at the Lord's coming, +when those who have died shall be raised, and those who are alive shall +be transfigured; but because of the Spirit of life dwelling in us, who +shall say that the process has not even now begun? To explain: "Behold +I shew you a mystery," says Paul; "we shall not all sleep, but we shall +all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last +trump" (1 Cor. 15: 51, 52). That is, as at Christ's coming the dead +saints will be raised, so the living saints will be translated without +seeing death. A change will come to them, so far as we can understand, +like that which came to Jesus at his resurrection--the body glorified, +all of mortal and earthly belonging to it by nature eliminated in an +instant, and the Holy Ghost so completely transforming and +immortalizing it that it shall become perfectly fashioned to the +likeness of Christ's glorified body. But having the Spirit dwelling in +us we have, even now, the first-fruits of this transformation in the +daily renewing of our inward man, in the helping and healing and +strengthening which sometimes comes to our bodies through the hidden +life of the Holy Ghost. Sanctification is progressive, waiting to be +{121} consummated in the future; so is glorification in some sense +progressive, since by the presence of the Spirit we already have the +earnest of the glory that is to be. As Edward Irving beautifully +states it, condensing his language: "As sickness is sin apparent in the +body, the presentiment of death, the forerunner of corruption, and as +disease of every kind is mortality begun, so the quickening of our +mortal bodies by the inward inspiration of the Spirit is the +resurrection forestalled, redemption anticipated, glory begun in our +humiliation." + +When is sanctification completed? At death, is the answer which we +find given in some creeds and manuals of theology. This may be true; +but we say it not, because the Scripture saith it not. So far as we +can infer from the word of God the date of our sanctification or +perfection in holiness is definitely fixed at the appearing of the Lord +"a second time without sin unto salvation." Our sanctification, now +going on, is glory begun in us; our glorification then ushered in will +be glory completed in us. The Spirit of glory now working in us brings +forward and already works within us the beginning of the perfect life. +Because we have been made "partakers of the Holy Ghost" we have thereby +"tasted the powers of the age to come" (Heb. 6: 4, 5, R. V.), that age +of complete deliverance from sin and sickness and death. But at most +we have only tasted as yet; we have not {122} drunk fully into the +fountain of immortal life. It is at Christ's advent that this blessed +consummation is fixed: "To the end he may establish your hearts +unblamable in holiness before our God and Father _at the coming of our +Lord Jesus with all his saints_" (1 Thess. 3: 13, R. V.). Not simply +blameless but faultless, seems to be the condition here foretold, since +it is unblamable in the sphere and element of holiness. + +And with this agrees another text in the same epistle: "And the God of +peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and +body be preserved entire without blame _at the coming of our Lord Jesus +Christ_" (1 Thess. 5: 23, R. V.). The time appointed for the +consummation of this blameless wholeness is at the Saviour's advent in +glory. And how suggestive the order maintained in naming the threefold +man: "Your spirit, soul, and body." Our sanctification moves from +within outward. It begins with the spirit, which is the holy of +holies; the Spirit of God acting first on the spirit of man in renewing +grace, then upon the soul, till at last it reaches the outer court of +the body, at the resurrection and translation. When the body is +glorified, then only will sanctification be consummated, for then only +will the whole man, spirit, soul, and body, have come under the +Spirit's perfecting power. + +We may see the difference between progressive {123} sanctification and +perfected sanctification, or glorification, by comparing familiar +texts. One already has been quoted in this chapter: "We all, beholding +as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image +from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3: 18). +Here are degrees of progress "from glory to glory," and it is a +progress in the glorified life--gradual conformity to the Lord of +glory, through successive stages of glory, effected by the Spirit of +glory. The word-painting of the passage inevitably associates it in +our thought with the great transfiguration experience of our Lord, when +by a kind of rapture he was for a little while taken out of "this +present evil age" (Gal. 1: 4), and translated into "the age to come," +and made to taste of its powers as "he appeared in glory" (Heb. 6: 5, +R. V.). So says the apostle: "Be not fashioned _according to this +age_, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds" (Rom. 12: 2, +R. V.). That is, by his inward transformation the Holy Spirit is to be +daily repeating in us the Lord's glorification, separating us from the +present age of sin and death and assimilating us to the age to come, +with its resurrection triumph and its perfected restoration to God, +when we shall be presented "faultless before the presence of his glory +with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). This is our step-by-step advancement +into a predestined inheritance; and it must for the present be {124} +step by step. "Of his fullness have all we received," but we can +appropriate that fullness only "grace by grace" (John 1: 16). Of his +righteousness we have all been made partakers, but we only advance in +its possession "from faith to faith" (Rom. 1: 17). Even in passing +through the valley of Baca we can make it a place of springs, going +"from strength to strength" as we appear "before God in Zion" (Ps. 84: +6). Thus our growth in grace is our glory begun; but the progress is +like the artist's slow and patient perfecting of his picture. Turn now +to another statement: "We know that if he shall be manifested we shall +be like him, for we shall see him even as he is" (1 John 3: 2, R. V.). +Whatever difficulty may arise from another translation of this passage, +one thought seems to be taught in the entire connection, viz., that the +unveiled manifestation of God will bring the full perfection of his +saints. Thus Alford sums up the meaning of the passage. As the +believer, having by a knowledge of God been regenerated, "becomes more +and more like God, having his seed in him, so the full and perfect +accomplishment of this knowledge in the actual fruition of God himself +must of necessity bring with it entire likeness to God." In a word, it +seems to us that the sanctification taking place at the manifestation +of our incarnate Lord will be as the instantaneous photograph compared +with the Spirit's slow and patient limning of the {125} image of Christ +in our present state. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," "we +shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15: 52). Then the glorified body and the +glorified spirit, long divorced by sin, will be remarried. So long as +this twain are separated by death, or are at war in our present earthy +life, our perfection in holiness were impossible. + +It is because the resurrection and translation of the saints are +instantaneous that we affirm sanctification to be instantaneous at the +coming of the Lord. The Scripture is always harmonious with itself, +however widely separated the writers of its books by time or distance. +David struck the same joyful note with John, though the learned may +insist that he did not know of the resurrection. "As for me, I shall +behold thy face in righteousness"--the seeing him as he is and being +made fit to see him. "I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy +likeness"--the conformity to the Divine image at the instant sound of +the resurrection trump. (Ps. 17: 15.) Perhaps we may conjecture +wherein will consist the perfection of the resurrection state. We may +find it in that one saying: "It is raised a spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15: +44). _Now_, how often the body dominates the spirit, making it do what +it would not; but _then_, the spirit will dominate the body, making it +do as it will. In a house divided against itself there can be neither +perfection nor peace. Such is the condition in our present state {126} +of humiliation. And not the body alone, but the immaterial within us +may be at war with the divine. What does the Apostle Jude mean in his +description of certain who separated themselves, saying that they are +"sensual, having not the Spirit" (Jude 19). The soul, the middle +factor in the man, if we may say so, instead of being in alliance with +our higher nature, the spirit, takes sides with the lower, the flesh, +so that instead of being spiritual we become "earthly, sensual, +devilish" (James 3: 15). The whole man must be presented blameless at +the coming of the Lord before we can enter upon a state of blessed +perfection. Our spirit must not only rule our soul and our body, but +both these must be subject to the Holy Spirit of God. Dimly and +imperfectly do we thus image to ourselves the perfection of our +"spiritual body." Now the body bears the spirit, a slow chariot, whose +wheels are often disabled, and whose swiftest motion is but labored and +tardy. Then the spirit will bear the body, carrying it as on wings of +thought whithersoever it will. The Holy Ghost, by his divine inworking +will, has completed in us the Divine likeness, and perfected over us +the Divine dominion. The human body will now be in sovereign +subjection to the human spirit, and the human spirit to the divine +Spirit, and God will be all and in all. + + + +[1] Milton probably gives the true genesis of this doctrine in these +words, which he puts into the mouth of Satan: + + "The son of God I also am or was; + And if I was, I am; relation stands; + All men are sons of God." + +[2] Andrew Jukes, "The New Man," p. 53. + + + + +{127} + +VII + +THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT + + + + +{128} + +"The Holy Ghost from the day of Pentecost has occupied an entirely new +position. The whole administration of the affairs of the Church of +Christ has since that day devolved upon him. . . That day was the +installation of the Holy Spirit as the Administrator of the Church in +all things, which office he is to exercise according to circumstances +at his discretion. It is as vested with such authority that he gives +his name to this dispensation. . . There is but one other great event +to which the Scripture directs us to look, and that is the second +coming of the Lord. Till then we live in the Pentecostal age and under +the rule of the Holy Ghost."--_James Elder Cumming, D. D._ + + + + +{129} + +VII + +THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT + +The Holy Spirit, as coming down to fill the place of the ascended +Redeemer, has rightly been called "The Vicar of Jesus Christ." To him +the entire administration of the church has been committed until the +Lord shall return in glory. His oversight extends to the slightest +detail in the ordering of God's house, holding all in subjection to the +will of the Head, and directing all in harmony with the divine plan. +How clearly this comes out in that passage in the twelfth chapter of +First Corinthians. As in striking a series of concentric circles there +is always one fixed center holding each circumference in defined +relation to itself, so here we see all the "diversities of +administrations" determined by the one Administrator, the Holy Ghost. +"Varieties of gifts, but _the same Spirit_"; "diversities of working, +but _the same God_"; different words "according to _the same Spirit_"; +"gifts of faith _in the same Spirit_"; "gifts of healing _in the one +Spirit_"; miracles, prophecies, tongues, interpretations, "but all +these worketh the _one and the same Spirit_, dividing to each one +severally as he will." Whether the authority of this one ruling {130} +sovereign Holy Ghost be recognized or ignored determines whether the +church shall be an anarchy or a unity, a synagogue of lawless ones or +the temple of the living God. + +Would one desire to find the clue to the great apostasy whose dark +eclipse now covers two-thirds of nominal Christendom, here it is--the +rule and authority of the Holy Spirit ignored in the church; the +servants of the house assuming mastery and encroaching more and more on +the prerogatives of the Head, till at last one man sets himself up as +the administrator of the church, and daringly usurps the name of "The +Vicar of Christ." When the Spirit of the Lord, speaking by Paul, would +picture the mystery of lawlessness and the culmination of apostasy, he +gives us a description which none should misunderstand: "So that he, as +God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (2 +Thess. 2: 4). What is the temple of God? The church without a +question: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the +Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Cor. 3: 16). Whose prerogative is +it to sit there? The Holy Ghost's, its ruler and administrator, and +his alone. + +When Christ, our Paraclete with the Father, entered upon his ministry +on high, we are told more than a score of times that he "sat down at +the right hand of God." Henceforth heaven is his official seat, until +he returns in power and great glory. {131} When he sent down another +Paraclete to abide with us for the age, he took his seat in the church, +the temple of God, there to rule and to administer till the Lord +returns. There is but one "Holy See" upon earth: that is, the seat of +the Holy One in the church, which only the Spirit of God can occupy +without the most daring blasphemy. It becomes all true believers to +look well to that picture of one "sitting in the temple of God," and to +read the lesson which it teaches. We may have no temptation toward the +papacy, which thrusts a man into the seat of the Holy Ghost,[1] or +toward clerisy which obtrudes an order of ecclesiastics--archbishops, +cardinals, and archdeacons into that sacred place; but let us remember +that a democracy may be guilty of the same sin as a hierarchy, in +settling solemn issues by a "show of hands," instead of prayerfully +waiting for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in substituting the voice +of a {132} majority for the voice of the Spirit. Of course, in +speaking thus we concede that the Holy Spirit makes known his will in +the voice of believers, as also in the voice of Scripture. Only there +must be such prayerful sanctifying of the one and such prayerful search +of the other, that in reaching decisions in the church there may be the +same declaration as in the first Christian council: "It seemed good to +the Holy Ghost and to us" (Acts 15: 28). + +In some very profound teaching in 2 Cor. 3 we seem to have a hint as to +how we hear the voice of the Lord in guiding the affairs of the church. +There, the administration (_diachonia_) of the Spirit is distinctly +spoken of in contrast with the administration of the law. Its +deliverances are written "not with ink, not in tables of stone, but in +the tables that are the hearts of flesh, with the Spirit of the living +God" (R. V.). There must be a sensitive heart wherein this handwriting +may be inscribed; an unhindering will through which he may act. "Where +the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," it is written in the same +passage; liberty for God to speak and act as he will through us, which +begets loyalty; not liberty for us to act as we will, which begets +lawlessness. + +To us there is something exceedingly suggestive in the teaching of the +Lord's post-ascension gospel, the Revelation, on this point. The +epistles to the {133} seven churches we hold, with many of the best +commentators, to be a prophetic setting forth of the successive stages +of the church's history--its declines and its recoveries, its failures +and its repentances, from ascension to advent. And because the bride +of Christ is perpetually betrayed into listening to false teachers and +surrendering to the guidance of evil counsellors, the Lord is +constantly admonishing her to heed the voice of her true Teacher and +Guide, the Holy Ghost. How forcibly this admonition is introduced into +the great Apocalyptic drama! As in the opening of the successive +seals, representing the judgments of God upon apostate Christendom, the +cry is repeated, "Come"! "Come"! "Come"! "Come"! (Rev. 6)--as +though the church under chastisement would repeatedly relearn the +advent prayer which her Lord put into her mouth in the beginning: "Even +so, come, Lord Jesus," so at each stage of the church's backsliding a +voice is heard from heaven saying: "He that hath an ear, let him hear +what the Spirit saith unto the churches." It is the admonition "of him +that hath the seven spirits of God," seven times addressed to his +church throughout her earthly history, calling her to return from her +false guides and misleading teachers, and to listen to the voice of her +true Counsellor. + +From this general statement of the administration of the Holy Spirit +let us now descend to the {134} particular acts and offices in which +this authority is exercised. + +1. _The Holy Spirit in the ministry and government of the church_. In +speaking to the elders of Ephesus Paul says: "Take heed unto +yourselves, and to all the flock in the which the Holy Ghost hath made +you bishops, to feed the church of God" (Acts 20: 28, R. V.). Clearly +in the beginning bishops or pastors were given by the Spirit of God, +not by the suffrages of the people. The office and its incumbent were +alike by direct divine appointment. We find this distinctly set forth +in the Epistle to the Ephesians: "When he ascended on high, he led +captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. . . And he gave some to be +apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors +and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of +ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4: 8-12, +R. V.). The ascent of the Lord and the descent of the Spirit are here +exhibited in their necessary relation. In the one event Christ took +his seat in heaven as "Head over all things to his church"; in the +other the Holy Ghost came down to begin the work of "building up the +body of Christ." Of course it is the Head who directs the construction +of the body, as being "fitly framed together it groweth into a holy +temple in the Lord"; and it is the Holy Ghost who superintends this +construction since "we are {135} builded together for an habitation of +God in the Spirit." Therefore all the offices through which this work +is to be carried on were appointed by Christ and instituted through the +Spirit whom he sent down. Suppose now that men invent offices which +are not named in the inspired list, and set up in the church an order +of popes and cardinals, archbishops and archdeacons? Is it not a +presumption, the worst fruit of which is not alone that it introduces +confusion into the body of Christ, but that it begets insubordination +to the rule of the Holy Ghost? But suppose, on the other hand, that we +sacredly maintain those offices of the ministry which have been +established for permanent continuance in the church, and yet take it +upon us to fill these according to our own preference and will; is this +any less an affront to the Spirit? + +Doubtless the mistakes of God's servants, as given in Scripture are as +truly designed for our instruction and admonition as their obedient +examples. We think we do not err in finding such a recorded warning in +the opening chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. A vacancy had +occurred in the apostolate. Standing up in the upper room, amidst the +hundred and twenty, Peter boldly affirmed that this vacancy must be +filled, and of the men who had companied with them during the Lord's +earthly ministry, "one must be ordained to be a witness with us of his +resurrection." But the {136} disciples had hitherto had no voice in +choosing apostles. The Lord had done this of his own sovereign will: +"Have I not chosen you twelve?" Now he had gone away into heaven, and +his Administrator had not yet arrived to enter upon his office-work. +Surely if the divine order was to be, that having "ascended on high" he +was "to give some apostles," it were better to await the coming of the +Paraclete with his gifts. Not only so, but we are persuaded that, with +Christ departed and the Holy Spirit not yet come, a valid election of +an apostle were impossible. But in spite of this, a nomination was +made; prayer was offered in which the Lord was asked to indicate which +of the candidates he had chosen; and then a vote having been taken, +Matthias was declared elected. Is there any indication that this +choice was ever ratified by the Lord? On the contrary, Matthias passes +into obscurity from this time, his name never again being mentioned. +Some two years subsequent, the Lord calls Saul of Tarsus; he is sealed +with his Spirit, and certified by such evident credentials of the +Divine appointment that he boldly signs himself "Paul, an apostle, _not +of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father_" (Gal. +1: 1). + +We believe that the apostolic office has passed away, the qualification +therefor, that of having been a witness of the Lord's resurrection, +being now impossible. But the office of pastor, elder, bishop, or +{137} teacher of the flock still remains. And the divine plan is that +this office should be filled, just as in the beginning, by the +appointment of the Holy Ghost. Nor can we doubt that if there is a +prayerful waiting upon him for guidance, and a sanctified submission to +his will when it is made known, he will now choose pastors and set them +over their appointed flocks just as manifestly as he did in the +beginning. Very beautiful is the picture in Revelation of the +glorified Lord, moving among the candlesticks. There are "seven golden +candlesticks" now, not one only as in the Jewish temple. The Church of +God is manifold, not a unit.[2] He who "walketh in the midst of the +seven golden candlesticks" "holdeth the seven stars in his right hand." +These stars are "the angels of the seven churches"--their ministers or +bishops as generally understood. The Lord holds them in his right +hand. Does he not require us to ask of him alone for their bestowal? +Yes. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send +forth laborers into his harvest" (Luke 10: 2). There is no intimation +in Scripture that we are to apply anywhere but to him for the ministry +of his church. Does he not give {138} such ministry, and he alone? +Yes. "When he ascended on high . . . he gave some . . . pastors and +teachers." And now, speaking to the church in Ephesus, the elders of +which, chosen by the Holy Ghost, Paul had so affectionately exhorted, +he is seen in the attitude of Chief-shepherd and Bishop--giving pastors +with his own hand; placing them with his own right hand, and warning +the church that though they have tried and rejected false apostles, +they have nevertheless left their "first love." Significant word! On +this love our Lord conditioned the indwelling of the Father and of the +Son through the Holy Spirit (John 14: 23). Losing this the peril +becomes imminent that the candlestick may be removed out of its place; +and so the warning is solemnly announced: "He that hath an ear, let him +hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." Without the Spirit the +candlestick can shed forth no light, and loses its place of testimony. + +Dead churches, whose witness has been silenced, whose place has been +vacated, even though the lifeless form remains, have we not seen such? +And what is the safeguard against them, if not that found in the +apostle's warning: "Quench not the Spirit?" The voice of the Lord must +be heard in his church, and to the Holy Ghost alone has been committed +the prerogative of communicating that voice. Is there any likelihood +that that voice will be heard when the king or prime minister of a +civil {139} government holds the sole function of appointing the +bishops, as in the case of State churches? Is there any certainty of +it when an archbishop or bishop puts pastors over flocks by the action +of his single will? We may congratulate ourselves that we are neither +in a State church nor under an episcopal bishop; but there are methods +of ignoring or repressing the voice of the Holy Ghost, which though +simpler and far less apparent than those just indicated, are no less +violent. The humble and godly membership of the little church may turn +to some pastor, after much prayer and waiting on God for the Spirit's +guidance, and the signs of the divine choice may be clearly manifest; +when some pulpit committee, or some conclave of "leading brethren," +vetoes their action on the ground, perchance, that the candidate is not +popular and will not draw. Alas! for the little flock so lorded over +that the voice of the Holy Ghost cannot be heard. + +And majorities are no more to be depended upon than minorities, if +there is in both cases a neglect of patient and prolonged waiting upon +the Lord to know his will. Of what value is a "show of hands" unless +his are stretched out "who holdeth the seven stars in his right hand?" +Of what use is a _viva voce_ choice, except the living voice of Christ +be heard speaking by his Spirit? One may object that we are holding up +an ideal which is impossible to be realized. It is a difficult ideal +we admit, as {140} the highest attainments are always difficult; but it +is not an impossible one. It is easier to recite our prayers from a +book than to read them from the tables of a prepared heart, where the +finger of the Spirit has silently written them; but the more difficult +way is the more acceptable way to him who seeks for worshipers who +"worship in Spirit and in truth." It is easier to get "the sense of +the meeting" in choosing a pastor than to learn "the mind of the +Spirit" by patient tarrying and humble surrender to God; but the more +laborious way will certainly prove the more profitable way. The +failure to take this way is, we are persuaded, the cause of more decay +and spiritual death in the churches than we have yet imagined. From +the watch-tower where we write we can look out on half a score of +churches on which "Ichabod" has been evidently written, and the glory +of which has long since departed. They were founded in prayer and +consecration, "to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his +Son from heaven." Why has their light been extinguished, though the +lampstand which once bore it still remains, adorned and beautified with +all that the highest art and architecture can suggest? Their history +is known to him who walks among the golden candlesticks. What violence +may have been done, by headstrong self-will, to him who is called "the +Spirit of counsel and might"? What rejection of the truth which he, +"the Spirit {141} of truth," has appointed for the faith of God's +church till at last the word has been spoken: "Ye do always resist the +Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye." Is it only Jewish +worshipers to whom these words apply? Is it only a Jewish temple of +which this sentence is true: "Behold your house is left unto you +desolate"? The Spirit will not be entirely withdrawn from the body of +Christ indeed, but there is the Church, and there are churches. A man +may yet live and breathe when cell after cell has been closed by +congestion till at last he only inhales and exhales with a little +portion of one lung. Let him that readeth understand. + +The Spirit is the breath of God in the body of his church. While that +divine body survives and must, multitudes of churches have so shut out +the Spirit from rule and authority and supremacy in the midst of them +that the ascended Lord can only say to them: "Thou hast a name to live +and art dead." In a word, so vital and indispensable is the ministry +of the Spirit, that without it nothing else will avail. Some trust in +creeds, and some in ordinances; some suppose that the church's security +lies in a sound theology, and others locate it in a primitive +simplicity of government and worship; but it lies in none of these, +desirable as they are. The body may be as to its organs perfect and +entire, wanting nothing; but simply because the Spirit has been {142} +withdrawn from it, it has passed from a church into a corpse. As one +has powerfully stated it: "When the Holy Spirit withdraws, . . . he +sometimes allows the forms which he has created to remain. The oil is +exhausted, but the lamp is still there; prayer is offered and the Bible +read; church-going is not given up, and to a certain degree the service +is enjoyed; in a word religious habits are preserved, and like the +corpses found at Pompeii, which were in a perfect state of preservation +and in the very position in which death had surprised them, but which +were reduced to ashes by contact with the air, so the blast of trial, +of temptation, or of final judgment will destroy these spiritual +corpses."[3] + +2. _The Holy Spirit in the Worship and Service of the Church_. Is +there anything, from highest to lowest, which we are called to do in +connection with the worship of God's house, of which the Holy Spirit is +not the appointed agent? Believers are the instruments indeed through +which he acts; but they have no function apart from his inspiration and +guidance, any more than the organ-pipe has without the wind, which +breathing through it causes it to resound. To make this clear, we may +consider the several parts of the service of the church as we are +accustomed to participate in it, and observe their relation to the +divine Administrator. + +{143} + +(1) Preaching is by general consent an important factor of the work of +the ministry, both for the pastor and for the evangelist. In what +consists its inspiration and authority? We "have preached the gospel +unto you _with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven_" (1 Peter 1: 12), +is Peter's simple story of the apostolic method. And the words direct +our thought to the Spirit not as instrumental but as inspiring. "_In +the Holy Ghost_," the words mean literally. The true preacher does not +simply use the Spirit; he is used by the Spirit. He speaks as one +moving in the element and atmosphere of the Holy Ghost, and mastered by +his divine power. + +In this fact the sermon differs immeasurably from the speech, and the +preacher from the orator. How distinctly Paul emphasizes this contrast +in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 2: 4). The sole substance of +his preaching he declares to be "Jesus Christ and him crucified," and +the sole inspiration of his preaching, the Holy Ghost: "And my speech +was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of +the Spirit and power." What did good Philip Henry mean by his resolve +"to preach Christ crucified in a crucified style"? More perhaps than +he thought or knew. "He shall testify of me," is Jesus' saying +concerning the promised Paraclete. The Comforter bears witness to the +Crucified. No other theme in the pulpit can be sure of commanding his +co-operation. {144} Philosophy, poetry, art, literature, sociology, +ethics, and history are attractive subjects to many minds, and they who +handle such themes in the pulpit may set them forth with alluring words +of human genius; but there is no certainty that the Holy Ghost will +accompany their presentation with his divine attestation. The +preaching of the Cross, in chastened simplicity of speech, has the +demonstration of the Spirit pledged to it, as no secular, or moral, or +even formal religious discourse has. And when Paul writes to the +Thessalonians: "Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also _in +power and in the Holy Ghost_, and in much assurance" (1 Thess. 1: 5), +we need only to be reminded that "our gospel" meant but one thing to +Paul, the setting forth of Jesus Christ crucified in the midst of the +people, and we have found the secret of evangelical power. Ought it +not therefore to be the supreme question with the preacher, what themes +can assuredly command the witness of the Holy Spirit, rather than what +topics will enlist the attention of the people? Let us set the popular +preacher and the apostolic preacher side by side, and consider whose +reward we would choose, universal admiration or "God also bearing +witness, both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles, and +_gifts of the Holy Ghost_, according to his will" (Heb. 2: 4)--the +sermon greeted with applause and the clapping of hands, or "_the word +received with joy of {145} the Holy Ghost_" (1 Thess. 1: +6)?--admiration of the preacher possessing all who listen to the +discourse, or "_the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word_" +(Acts 10: 44)? Language cannot express the vital moment of the +question which we are here discussing. Our generation is rapidly +losing its grip upon the supernatural; and as a consequence the pulpit +is rapidly dropping to the level of the platform. And this decline is +due, we believe, more than anything else, to an ignoring of the Holy +Spirit as the supreme inspirer of preaching. We wish to see a great +orator in the pulpit, forgetting that the least expounder of the word, +when filled with the Holy Ghost, is greater than he. We want the +gospel, forsooth; but in the strenuous demand that it be set forth +according to the "spirit of the age" we ignore the supremacy of the +"Spirit of God." And the method of discourse soon tells upon the +matter. We cannot very long have the truth in the pulpit after we have +lost "the Spirit of truth" therefrom. "When one possesses not the +whole of life," says Vinet, "he possesses not the whole of truth." + +In all that we have said we do not ignore the human element in +preaching, nor undervalue good learning and sanctified mental training, +as a furnishing for this high office. We only emphasize the extreme +peril of making that supreme which God has made subordinate. As it is +genius which raises the great {146} painter or poet far above the +common man, so it is the Holy Spirit which lifts the preacher far above +the man of genius. A gifted artist spoke wisely when one, thinking +only of the implements of his profession, asked, "With what do you mix +your paints?" "With brains, sir," he replied. The preacher who +brought three thousand to believe on a crucified Christ, under a single +sermon, anticipated the question of those who, with an eye upon the +mere human accessories of his sermon, might ask after the secret of his +power; and he unfolds that secret in a single terse sentence: "With the +Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." + +(2) Prayer is a most vital element in the worship of God's church. +"Lord, teach us how to pray, as John also taught his disciples." Jesus +complied literally with this request of his followers. As John, under +the law, could only give rules and rudiments, not yet having come to +the dispensation of grace and of the Spirit, so did Jesus give a form +of prayer, a lesson in the "technique of worship." But only when he +reaches the eve of his passion, when he announces the coming of the +Comforter, does he lead his disciples into the heart and mystery of the +great theme, teaching them to pray as John _could not_ have taught his +disciples. "Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name," said Jesus, in +his paschal discourse. But now that he was about to enter into his +mediatorial office at God's right {147} hand, and to send forth the +Comforter into the midst of his disciples, this joyful privilege was to +be accorded to him: "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father _in my name_ he +will give it you"[4] (1 John 16: 23). The words are equivalent to "_in +me_." The thought is not surely that of using the name of Jesus as a +password or as a talisman, but of entering into his person and +appropriating his will; so that when we pray, it shall be as though +Jesus himself stood in God's presence and made intercession. Nor is it +"as though"--it is the literal fact. We become identified with Christ +through the Spirit, now sent down, and his will is wrought within us by +the Holy Ghost, so that to ask what we desire of him is to ask what he +desires for us. We are inwilled by his will, because inspired by his +Spirit, who lives and breathes within us. Therefore we may know that +we are always heard, since we are in him who can boldly say to the +Father: "I know that thou always hearest me." It is Christ's +mediatorship with the Father, and the Holy Ghost's mediatorship with +us, that gives us this high privilege of praying in the name of Jesus, +as it is written: "For through him we both have access _in one Spirit_ +unto the Father." + +When therefore, under the fuller development of {148} doctrine as found +in the epistles, we read of "praying always with all prayer and +supplication _in the Spirit_" (Eph. 6: 18), and of "praying in the Holy +Ghost" (Jude 20), it is simply an admonition to use our privilege of +asking in the name of Jesus. For to be in the Spirit is to be in +Christ, united to his person, identified with his will, invested with +his righteousness, so that we are as he is before the Father. + +In that fullest exposition of the doctrine of the Spirit, given in the +eighth of Romans, we see clearly that the ministry of the Comforter +consists in his effectuating in us that which Christ is accomplishing +for us on the throne. Especially is this true of prayer. In the +Epistle to the Hebrews we read: "Wherefore also he is able to save to +the uttermost them that draw near to God through him, _seeing he ever +liveth to make intercession for them_" (Heb. 7: 25, R. V.). In the +Epistle to the Romans we read: "And in like manner the Spirit also +helpeth our infirmity; for we know not how to pray as we ought, but +_the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us_ with groanings which +cannot be uttered; and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the +mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints +according to the will of God" (Rom. 8: 26, 27, R. V.). These passages, +read together, clearly show the Spirit doing the same thing _in_ us +which Christ in heaven {149} is doing _for_ us. And, moreover, they +reveal to us the method of the glorified Christ in helping those who +know not what to pray for as they ought, teaching them, not by an +outward form, but by an inward guidance. Indeed, the prayer inspired +by the Holy Spirit is often so deep that it cannot be expressed in +formal words, but reaches the ear of the Father only in unspeakable +yearnings, in unuttered groanings. The keynote of all true +intercession is the will of God. In the disciples' prayer, as taught +them by the Master, this note is distinctly sounded: "Thy will be done +on earth as in heaven." In the Saviour's garden-prayer it is heard +again, as with strong crying and tears the Son of God exclaims: "Not my +will but thine be done"; and in the revelation of the doctrine of +prayer through an inspired apostle we read: "If we ask anything +according to his will he heareth us." It is the Spirit's deepest work +in the believer to attune his mind to this exalted key, as he "maketh +intercession for the saints _according to the will of God_." There is +a promise which all disciples love to quote for their assurance in +prayer: "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that +they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in +heaven" (Matt. 18: 19). The word translated "agree" is a very +suggestive one. It is, _sympsônêsôsin_, from which our word "symphony" +comes. If two shall _accord_ {150} or _symphonize_ in what they ask, +they have the promise of being heard. But, as in tuning an organ all +the notes must be keyed to the standard pitch, else harmony were +impossible, so in prayer. It is not enough that two disciples agree +with each other; they must both accord with a Third--the righteous and +holy Lord--before in the scriptural sense they can agree in +intercession. There may be agreement which is in most sinful conflict +with the divine will: "How is it that ye have agreed together +[_synepsônêthê_, the same word] to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?" asks +Peter (Acts 5: 9). Here is mutual accord, but guilty discord with the +Holy Ghost. On the contrary it is the Spirit's ministry to attune our +wills to the Divine; thus only can there be praying in the Holy Ghost. + +We cannot therefore emphasize too strongly the administration of the +Spirit in directing the worship of God's house. The use of liturgical +forms is a relapse into legalism, a consent to be taught to pray as +"John taught his disciples." True, there may be extemporaneous forms +as well as written forms, praying by rote as well as praying by the +book. Against both habits we simply interpose the higher teaching of +the Spirit, as belonging especially to this dispensation, in which the +Father seeketh worshipers who "worship in Spirit and in truth." To +pray rightly is the highest of all attainments. And it is so because +the secret lies {151} between these two opposites; a spirit supremely +active while supremely passive, a heart prevailing with God because +prevailed over by God. "O Lord," says a high saint, "my spirit was +like a harp this morning, making melody before thee, since thou didst +first tune the instrument by the Holy Spirit, and then didst choose the +psalm of praise to be played thereon." Most solemn and suggestive +words these have always seemed: "The Father seeketh such to worship +him." Amid all the repetition of forms and the chanting of liturgies, +how earnestly the Most High searches after the spiritual worshiper, +with a heart inwardly retired before God, with a spirit so sensitive to +the hidden motions of the Holy Ghost that when the lips speak they +shall utter the effectual inwrought prayer that availeth much! + +If any shall interpose the objection that what we are saying is too +high to be practical, it may be well to confirm our position by the +witness of experience. We are not speaking of pulpit prayers +especially, in what we have said. The universal priesthood of +believers, which the Scriptures so plainly teach, constitutes the +ground for common intercession, for "the praying one for another" which +is the distinctive feature of the Spirit's dispensation The prayer +meeting, therefore, in which the whole body of believers participate, +probably comes nearer the pattern of primitive Christian {152} worship +than any other service which we hold. To apply our principle here, +then, what method is found most satisfactory? Shall the service be +arranged beforehand, this one selected to pray, and that one to exhort; +and during the progress of the worship, shall such a one be called up +to lead the devotions, and such a one to follow? In a word, shall the +service be mapped out in advance and manipulated according to the +dictates of propriety and fitness as it goes on? One, after many years +of experience, can bear emphatic testimony to the value of another +way--that of magnifying the office of the Holy Spirit as the conductor +of the service, and of so withholding the pressure of human hands in +the assembly that the Spirit shall have the utmost freedom to move this +one to pray and that one to witness, this one to sing and that one "to +say amen at our giving of thanks," according to his own sovereign will. +Here we speak not theoretically but experimentally. The fervor and +spirituality and sweet naturalness of the latter method has been +demonstrated beyond a peradventure, and that too, after an extended +trial of both ways, the first in ignorance of a better way, with +constant labor and worry and fret, and the last with inexpressible ease +and comfort and spiritual refreshment. Honor the Holy Ghost as Master +of assemblies; study much the secret of surrender to him; cultivate a +quick ear for hearing his inward voice and a ready tongue {153} for +speaking his audible witness; be submissive to keep silence when he +forbids as well as to speak when he commands, and we shall learn how +much better is God's way of conducting the worship of his house than +man's way.[5] + +(3) The service of song in the house of the Lord is another element of +worship whose relation to the Spirit needs to be strongly emphasized. +Spiritual singing has a divinely appointed place in the church of +Christ. Church music, in the ordinary sense of that phrase, has no +such place, but is a human invention which custom has, with many, +unhappily elevated into an ordinance. We often quote the exhortation +of the apostle: "Be filled with the Spirit," without marking the +practical service with which this fullness stands immediately +connected: "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual +songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Eph. 5: +19). As immediately as prayer is connected with the Holy Ghost in this +same epistle: "Praying at all seasons _in the Spirit_"; and our +edification in the church: "Builded {154} together _in the Spirit_" +(Eph. 2: 22, R. V.); and our spiritual energizing: "Strengthened with +power _through his Spirit_" (Eph. 3: 16, R. V.); and our approach to +God, "Access _in one Spirit_ unto the Father" (2: 18, R. V.), so +intimately is the worship of praise here connected with the Holy Ghost +and made dependent on his power. Therefore it would seem too obvious +to need arguing, that an unregenerate person is disqualified from +ministering in the service of song in God's house. Scripturally this +seems incontestable; and as to the teaching of experience, we should +hardly know how to name any custom which has brought a sorer blight +upon the life of the church, or a heavier repression upon its spiritual +energy, than the habit, now so general, of introducing unsanctified, +unconverted, and even notoriously worldly persons into the choirs of +the churches. + +Now the teaching of the text just cited is decisive, not only against +such performers in choirs, but against the choirs themselves, if by the +latter term is meant certain ones employed to dispense music for the +delectation of the congregation. For observe how distinctly the mutual +and inter-congregational character of Christian singing is here pointed +out: "Speaking _to one another_ in psalms and hymns and spiritual +songs." The one feature of the worship of the church, which +distinguishes it radically and totally from that of the {155} temple, +is that it is mutual. Under the law there were priests and Levites to +minister and people to be ministered to; under the gospel there is a +universal spiritual priesthood, in which all minister and all are +ministered to. Every act of service belonging to the Christian church +is so described. There must be prayer, and the exhortation is, "Pray +_one for another_" (James 5: 16). There must be confession, and the +injunction is: "Confess your sins _one to another_" (James 5: 16, R. +V.). There must be exhortation, and the command is: "Exhort one +another" (Heb. 3: 13). There must be love, and we are enjoined to +"love _one another_" (1 Peter 1: 22). There must be burden-bearing, +and the exhortation is: "Bear ye _one another's_ burdens" (Gal. 6: 2). +There must be comforting, and the command is: "Wherefore comfort _one +another_" (1 Thess. 4: 18). So with the worship of song. Its +reciprocal character is emphasized, not only in the passage just +quoted, but also in the Epistle to the Colossians: "Teaching and +admonishing _one another_ in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" +(Col. 3: 16). This is according to the clearly defined method of the +Spirit in this dispensation. He establishes our fellowship with the +Head of the church, and through him with one another. All blessing in +the body is mutual, and the worship which is ordained to maintain and +increase that blessing is likewise mutual. + +{156} + +As now the Spirit is the inspirer and director of the worship of God's +church, he must have those who have been renewed and are indwelt by +himself as the instruments through whom he acts; and by a teaching of +Scripture too clear to be misunderstood all others are disqualified. +How distinctly is this shown even in the types and symbols of the old +dispensation. The holy anointing enjoined in Exodus for Aaron and his +sons, is confessedly a type of the unction of the Holy Ghost. And mark +the rigid and sacred limitations in its use: "And thou shalt anoint +Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them that they may minister unto me +in the priest's office. And thou shalt speak unto the children of +Israel, saying: This shall be a holy anointing oil unto me throughout +your generation. Upon man's flesh it shall not be poured; neither +shall ye make any other like it, after the composition of it; it is +holy, and shall be holy unto you; whosoever compoundeth any like it, or +whoso putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his +people" (Exod. 30: 30-33). + +Now, of these minute directions and prescribed transactions we may say +confidently that "they happened unto them for ensamples and they are +written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world [ages] are +come" (1 Cor. 10: 11). The three rigid prohibitions here named touch +just the errors which are most characteristic of the present {157} +generation. "_Upon man's flesh it shall not be poured_"; honoring the +natural man, and exalting human nature into that place which belongs +only to the regenerate. This is the error of those who believe in the +universal sonship of the race, and call the carnal man divine. +"_Whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger._" This is the sin of +those who thrust into the ministry and service of the church persons +who have never by the new birth through the Spirit been brought into +the family of God, into the household of faith. "_Whosoever +compoundeth any like it._" This is the artificial imitation of the +Spirit's offices and ministration. Let the Christian reader pause and +ponder well this last prohibition. In the story of the primitive +church sample sins are given for our warning, as well as specimen +graces for our emulation. One such sin, so subtle, so dangerous, and +so constantly recurring in Christian history, having taken the name of +its first author and being called "simony," has been handed down from +generation to generation. "Because thou hast thought that the gift of +God can be purchased with money" is the solemn indictment against one +who had purposed to buy the power of the Holy Ghost. Many desire the +gifts of the Spirit who little care for the Spirit himself. Divine +music is greatly coveted. Why not, with our thousands of gold, buy +this spiritual luxury? Bring the singing men and singing women from +the {158} opera and from the concert hall; bid them compound a potion +of sanctuary music, which shall entrance all ears and draw to the +church those who could not be drawn thither by the plain attractions of +the Cross. But what is the exhortation of Scripture? "By him +therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that +is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name" (Heb. 13: 15). +This kind of sacrifice costs--earnest prayer, deep communion, and the +fullness of the Spirit; but no sum of gold, however large, is adequate +for its purchase, nor can any musician's art, however ingenious, +imitate it. Is there no approach to the sin of simony in those +churches which spend thousands yearly in artistic music? And is not +this attempted purchase of the Holy Ghost closely linked with the other +sin of robbing God, considering how this lavish expenditure on +artificial worship is almost always accompanied with meagre giving for +the carrying out of the Great Commission? Our conclusion is, that the +service of song has been committed to the church, and to the church +alone, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Some of her number may +be appointed to lead this service, if they themselves are under the +leadership of the Spirit. But the church cannot commit this divine +ministry to unsanctified hireling minstrels, without affront to the +Spirit of God and serious peril to her own communion with God. + +{159} + +If again any object that we are setting up an exaggerated and +impossible ideal, let the voice of experience be heard in evidence. +Let pastors be called to testify of the added blessing and fervor which +have come to their sanctuaries when this ideal has been approximately +realized. Let history repeat its story of song driven in times of +apostasy into some narrow stall of the church, and into the hands of a +few trained monopolists of worship; and then, in eras of revival, of +the bursting of the barriers and the people of God seizing once more +their defrauded heritage and breaking forth, a great multitude, into +"hallelujahs of the heart." The annals of the Lollards, and of the +Lutherans, and of the Wesleyans, and of the Salvationists bear +harmonious witness on this point, and are deeply instructive. + +3. _The Holy Spirit in the Missions of the Church_. In the Gospels +which contain the story of Christ's earthly life we have the record of +the giving of the Great Commission: "Go ye into all the world and +preach the gospel to every creature." In the Acts, which contains the +story of the life of the Spirit, we have the promise of the coming of +the Executor of that Commission: "But ye shall receive power when the +Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be my witnesses, both in +Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the +earth" (Acts 1: 8, R. V.). Nowhere is the hand {160} of the Spirit +more distinctly seen than in the origination and superintendence of +missions. The field is the world, the sower is the disciple, and the +seed is the word. The world can only be made accessible through the +Spirit--"When he is come he will convict the world of sin"; the sower +is energized only through the Spirit--"Ye shall receive the power of +the Holy Ghost coming upon you"; and the seed is only made productive +through the quickening of the Spirit--"He that soweth unto the Spirit +shall of the Spirit reap eternal life" (Gal. 6: 8, R. V.). In the +simple story of the primitive mission, as recorded in the thirteenth of +Acts, we see how every step in the enterprise was originated and +directed by the presiding Spirit. We observe this: + +(1) In the selection of missionaries: "_The Holy Ghost_ said, Separate +me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them" (13: 2). + +(2) In their thrusting forth into the field: "So they, being sent forth +by the _Holy Ghost_, departed unto Seleucia" (13: 4). + +(3) In empowering them to speak: "Then Saul, who also is called Paul, +filled with the _Holy Ghost_, said" (13: 9). + +(4) In sustaining them in persecution: "And the disciples were filled +with joy and with the _Holy Ghost_" (13: 52). + +(5) In setting the Divine seal upon their {161} ministry among the +Gentiles: "And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving +_them the Holy Ghost_, even as he did unto us" (15: 8). + +(6) In counseling in difficult questions of missionary policy: "It +seemed good _to the Holy Ghost_ and to us" (15: 28). + +(7) In restraining the missionaries from entering into fields not yet +appointed by the Lord: They "were forbidden of the _Holy Ghost_ to +preach the gospel in Asia. . . They assayed to go into Bithynia but +_the Spirit suffered them not_" (16: 6, 7). + +Very striking is this record of the ever-present, unfailing, and minute +direction of the Holy Ghost in all the steps of this divine enterprise. +"But this was in apostolic days," it will be said. Yes; but the +promise of the Spirit is that "He shall abide with you for the age." +Unless the age has ended he is still here, and still in office, and +still entrusted with the responsibility of carrying out that work which +is dearest to the heart of our glorified Lord. Who can say that there +is not need in these days of a return to primitive methods and of a +resumption of the Church's primitive endowments? The Holy Spirit is +not straitened in himself, but only in us. If the Church had faith to +lean less on human wisdom, to trust less in prudential methods, to +administer less by mechanical {162} rules, and to recognize once more +the great fact that, having committed to her a supernatural work, she +has appointed for her a supernatural power, who can doubt that the +grinding and groaning of our cumbrous missionary machinery would be +vastly lessened, and the demonstration of the Spirit be far more +apparent? + + + +[1] Of course Catholic writers claim that the pope is the "Vicar of +Christ" only as being the mouth-piece of the Holy Ghost. But the +Spirit has been given to the church as a whole, that is to the body of +regenerated believers, and to every member of that body according to +his measure. The sin of sacerdotalism is, that it arrogates for a +usurping few that which belongs to every member of Christ's mystical +body. It is a suggestive fact that the name _klêros_, which Peter +gives to the church as the "flock of God," when warning the elders +against being _lords over God's heritage_, now appears in +ecclesiastical usage as the _clergy_, with its orders of pontiff and +prelates and lord bishops, whose appointed function it is to exercise +lordship over Christ's flock. + +[2] By the candlesticks being seven instead of one, as in the +tabernacle, we are taught that whereas in the Jewish dispensation, +God's visible church was one, in the Gentile dispensation there are +many visible churches; and that Christ himself recognizes them +alike.--_Canon Garratt, "Commentary on the Revelation," p. 32._ + +[3] "The Work of the Holy Spirit in Man," by Pastor G. F. Tophel, p. 66. + +[4] It was impossible up to the time of the glorification of Jesus to +pray to the Father in his name. It is a fullness of joy peculiar to +the dispensation of the Spirit to be able to do so.--_Alford_. + +[5] It were well for us to give more heed to the voice of Christian +history as related to such questions as these. The rise of "sporadic +sects" like the "Quietists," the "Mystics," the "Friends," and the +"Brethren," with their emphasis on "the still voice" and "the inward +leading," is very suggestive. If we may not go so far as some of these +go in the insistence on speaking only as sensibly moved by the Spirit +we may be admonished of the hard, artificial man-made worship which +made their protest necessary. + + + + +{163} + +VIII + +THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT + + + + +{164} + +"Have you visited the Cathedral of Freyburg, and listened to that +wonderful organist, who with such enchantment draws the tears from the +traveler's eyes while he touches, one after another, his wonderful +keys, and makes you hear by turns the march of armies upon the beach, +or the chanted prayer upon the lake during the tempest, or the voices +of praise after it is calm? Well, thus the Eternal God, embracing at a +glance the key-board of sixty centuries, touches by turns, with the +fingers of his Spirit, the keys which he had chosen for the unity of +his celestial hymn. He lays his left hand upon Enoch, the seventh from +Adam, and his right hand on John, the humble and sublime prisoner of +Patmos. From the one the strain is heard: 'Behold the Lord cometh with +ten thousand of his saints'; from the other: 'Behold he cometh with +clouds.' And between the notes of this hymn of three thousand years +there is eternal harmony, and the angels stoop to listen, the elect of +God are moved, and eternal life descends into men's souls."--_Gaussen's +Theopneustia_. + + + + +{165} + +VIII + +THE INSPIRATION OP THE SPIRIT + +Inspiration signifies inbreathing. Both the scribe and the Scripture, +both the man of God and the word of God were divinely inbreathed. In +that memorable meeting of the risen Lord and his disciples within the +closed doors, we read that "_He breathed on them_ and saith unto them, +Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are +forgiven unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained" +(John 20: 22, R. V.). Well may the question of the scribes concerning +Jesus now arise in our hearts concerning his disciples: "Who can +forgive sins but God only?" And the answer should be: "True; God alone +can forgive sins. And it is only because the Spirit of God, who is +God, is in the apostles, endowing them with his divine prerogatives, +that they are able to exercise this high authority." + +We are persuaded, however, that this commission was not given to all +Christians, though all have the Spirit. In a note in Olshausen's +Commentary the matter seems to be correctly stated: "To the apostles +was granted the power, absolute and unconditioned, of binding and +loosing, just as to them was {166} given the power of publishing truth +unmixed with error. For _both_ they possessed miraculous spiritual +endowments." Only we should say "sovereign" rather than "miraculous" +endowments. "_The Spirit breatheth where he wills_, and thou hearest +his voice," said Jesus.[1] While miraculous gifts were not confined to +the apostles, Christ may have committed to these, and to these alone, +the sovereign prerogative of forgiving sins; gifts of healing, on the +other hand, the working of miracles, prophecy, the discerning of +spirits, and tongues, being distributed throughout the church; "but all +these worketh one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally +even _as he will_" (1 Cor. 12: 11, R. V.). In a word, the action of +the Holy Ghost was supremely sovereign in the assignment of spiritual +offices, and when Jesus breathed on his apostles the Holy Ghost, and +gave them authority {167} to remit sins, he separated them unto a +prerogative of which others, indwelt by the same Spirit, might have +known nothing. It is very generally held that the order of apostles +ceased with the death of those who had seen the Lord and companied with +him until the day that he was received up. But the reason for this +cessation has been too little considered. May we not believe that the +apostles and their companions were commissioned to speak for the Lord +until the New Testament Scriptures, his authoritative voice, should be +completed? If so, in the apostolate we have a provisional inspiration; +in the gospel a stereotyped inspiration; the first being endowed with +authority _ad interim_ to remit sins, and the second having this +authority _in perpetuam_. The New Testament, as the very mouthpiece of +the Lord, pronounces forgiveness upon all in every generation who truly +repent and believe on the Son of God; and preachers in every age, with +the Bible in their hand, are authorized to do the same declaratively. +But when it is urged, as by Catholic writers, that this infallibility +for teaching and absolution, which was committed to the apostles, has +descended through a succession of ministers called the clergy, the +answer seems to be, that this authority has not been perpetuated in any +body of men apart from the Scriptures, but was transferred to the New +Testament and lodged there for all time. Historically, at least, it +seems to have been {168} the fact, that as the apostles and prophets of +the new dispensation disappeared, the Gospels and Epistles took their +place, and that henceforth the divine authoritative voice of the Spirit +could be distinctly recognized only in the written word. As coal has +been called "fossil sunlight," so the New Testament may be called +fossil inspiration, the supernatural illumination which fell upon the +apostles being herein stored up for the use of the church throughout +the ages.[2] + +"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God +[_theopneustos_--God-breathed], and is profitable for doctrine, for +reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (3 Tim. 3: +16). As the Lord breathed the Spirit into certain men, and thereby +committed to them his own prerogative of forgiving sin, so he breathed +his Spirit into certain books and endowed them with his infallibility +in teaching truth. God did not choose to inspire all good books, +though he has chosen to + +{169} inbreathe one book, thereby separating it and setting it apart +from all other books.[3] The phrase, "the Bible is simply literature," +which some are using to-day, as a suggestion against bibliolatry, is +not true. Literature is the letter; Scripture is the letter inspired +by the Spirit. What Jesus said in justification of his doctrine of the +new birth is equally applicable to the doctrine of inspiration: "That +which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the +Spirit is spirit." Educate, develop, and refine the natural man to the +highest possible point, and yet he is not a spiritual man till, through +the new birth, the Holy Ghost renews and indwells him. So of +literature; however elevated its tone, however lofty its thought, it is +not Scripture. Scripture is literature indwelt by the Spirit of God. +The absence of the Holy Ghost from any writing constitutes the +impassable gulf between it and Scripture. Our Lord, in speaking of his +own doctrine, uses the same language, to show its separateness from +common teaching which he employs above to mark the distinction of the +new man. He says: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh +profiteth nothing; _the words that I have spoken unto {170} you are +spirit and are life_" (John 6: 63, R. V.). Words they were, and in +that respect, literature; but words divinely inbreathed and therefore +Scripture. In fine, the one fact which makes the word of God a unique +book, standing apart in solitary separateness from all other writings, +is that which also parts off the man of God from common men--the +indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Therefore we may say truly of the Bible, +not merely that it _was_ inspired, but it _is_ inspired; that the Holy +Ghost breathes within it, making it not only authoritative in its +doctrine but life-giving in its substance, so that they who receive its +promises by faith "have been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, +but of incorruptible, through the word of God which liveth and abideth" +(1 Peter 1: 23, R. V.). + +Thus far in this volume we have been dwelling upon the various works +and offices of the Paraclete. Now we come to consider that the Holy +Spirit not only acts but speaks. Let us listen to the repeated +affirmations of this fact. Seven times our glorified Lord says, +speaking in the Apocalypse: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what +_the Spirit saith unto_ the churches" (Rev. 2: 7). The Paraclete on +earth answers to the Paraclete above, so that to the voice from Heaven +saying: "Write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from +henceforth," the response is heard: "_Yea, saith the Spirit_, that they +may rest from their labors," etc. (Rev. 14: 13). {171} This accords +with the general tenor of Scripture as to its own Author. In referring +to the Old Testament, Peter says: "This Scripture must needs have been +fulfilled, _which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before_ +concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus" (Acts 1: +16). And again: "David himself _said by the Holy Ghost_" (Mark 12: +36), our Lord thus plainly recognizing the voice of the Spirit in the +voice of the psalmist. So again: "_The Spirit of the Lord spake by +me_, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock +of Israel spake to me" (2 Sam. 23: 2, 3), and "Wherefore as _the Holy +Ghost saith_, To-day if ye will hear his voice" (Heb. 3: 7). + +And what is it to speak? Is it not to express thought in language? +The difference between thinking and saying is simply the difference of +words. Therefore, if the Holy Ghost "_saith_," we are to find in the +_words_ of Scripture the exact substance of what he saith. Hence +verbal inspiration seems absolutely essential for conveying to us the +exact thought of God. And while many affect to ridicule the idea as +mechanical and paltry, the conduct and method of scholars of every +shade of belief show how generally it is accepted. For, why the minute +study of the _words_ of Scripture carried on by all expositors, their +search after the precise shade of verbal significance, their attention +to the {172} minutest details of language, and to all the delicate +coloring of mood and tense and accent? The high scholars who speak +lightly of the theory of literal inspiration of the Scriptures by their +method of study and exegesis are they who put the strongest affirmation +on the doctrine which they deny. Then we cannot forget what we imply +when we say that language is the expression of thought. Words +determine the size and shape of ideas. As exactly as the coin answers +to the die in which it is struck, does the thought answer to the word +by which it is uttered. Vary the language by the slightest +modification, and you by so much vary the thought. + +As ultra spiritualism interprets Paul's words "_a spiritual body_," to +mean a ghost, when the accent is as strongly on the _sơma_ as on the +_pneumatichon_, his real thought evidently being that of a _body +spiritualized_; so some, remembering that "the letter killeth," would +etherealize Scripture by telling us that the divine idea is the chief +thing, and the language quite secondary. But wisely and well has +Martin Luther reminded us that "Christ did not say of his Spirit, but +of his _words_, they are spirit and life." + +To deny that it is the Holy Ghost who speaks in Scripture, is an +intelligible position; but admitting that _he speaks_, we can only +understand his thoughts by listening to his words. True, he may beget +within us emotions too deep for expression, as when {173} "The Spirit +himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be +uttered" (Rom. 8: 26). But the idea which is really intelligible is +the idea that is embodied in speech. For finite minds, at least, words +are the measure of comprehensible thoughts. Evidently Jesus claims for +his teaching not only inspiration, but verbal inspiration, when he says +that his _words_ are "spirit and life." And to this agrees the saying +of Paul, in speaking of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost: "But God +hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all +things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things +of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of +God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not +the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might +know the things which are freely given to us of God, which things also +we speak, _not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the +Holy Ghost teacheth_, comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 +Cor. 2: 10-13). + +And what if one objects that this theory makes inspiration purely +mechanical, and turns the writers of Scripture into stenographers, +whose office is simply to transcribe the words of the Spirit as they +are dictated? It must be confessed that there is much in Scripture to +support this view of the case. Should we see a student who, having +taken down {174} the lecture of a profound philosopher, was now +studying diligently to comprehend the sense of the discourse which he +had written, we should understand simply that he was a pupil and not a +master; that he had nothing to do with originating either the thoughts +or the words of the lecture, but was rather a disciple whose province +it was to understand what he had transcribed, and so be able to +communicate it to others. And who can deny that this is the exact +picture of what we have in the following passage from Scripture: "Of +which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who +prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, _searching what, or +what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, +when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory +that should follow_; unto whom it was revealed," etc. (1 Peter 1: 10, +11). Here were inspired writers, studying the meaning of what they +themselves had written. If they were prophets on the manward side, +they were evidently pupils on the Godward side. With all possible +allowance for the human peculiarities of the writers, they must have +been reporters of what they heard, rather than the formulators of that +which they had been made to understand. How nearly this also describes +the attitude of Christ,--a hearer that he might be a teacher: "All +things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you" (John +15: 15); {175} a reporter that he might be a revealer: "I have given +unto them _the words_ which thou gavest me" (John 17: 8). + +In these days scholars are very jealous for the human element in +inspiration; but the sovereign element is what most impresses the +diligent student of this subject. "The Spirit breatheth where he +wills." Concerning regeneration by the Holy Ghost, we are carefully +told that it is "not of the will of the flesh, nor _of the will of +man_, but of God"; and concerning inspiration by the Spirit, the +teaching is equally explicit: "For no prophecy ever came _by the will +of man_, but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 +Peter 1: 21, R. V.). + +The style of Scripture is, no doubt, according to the traits and +idiosyncracies of the several writers, as the light within the +cathedral takes on its various hues from passing through the stained +windows; but to say that the thoughts of the Bible are from the Spirit, +and the language from men, creates a dualism in revelation not easy to +justify; so that we must quote with entire approval the words of an +eminent writer upon this subject: "The opinion that the subject-matter +alone of the Bible proceeded from the Holy Spirit, while its language +was left to the unaided choice of the various writers, amounts to that +fantastic notion which is the grand fallacy of many theories of +inspiration; namely, that two spiritual agencies were in operation, one +of which {176} produced the phraseology in the outward form, while the +other created within the soul the conceptions and thoughts of which +such phraseology was the expression. The Holy Spirit, on the contrary, +as the productive _principle_, embraces the entire activity of those +whom he inspires, rendering their language the _word of God_."[4] + +If it be urged that the quotations which the New Testament makes from +the Old are rarely _ipsissima verba_, the language being in many +instances greatly changed, it should be noted in reply how significant +even these changes often are. If the Holy Spirit directed in the +writing of both books, he would have a sovereign right to alter the +phraseology, if need be, from the one to the other. In the opinion of +many scholars the change of "the Redeemer shall come _to_ Zion, and +unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob," in Isa. 59: 20, to +"There shall come _out_ of Zion the Deliverer," in Rom. 11: 26, is an +inspired and intentional change.[5] So of the citation from Amos 9: +11, "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle that is fallen," as +given in Acts 15:16, "After these things I will return, and I will +build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen"; the modification +of the language seems designed, in order to make clear its significance +in its present setting. Many other examples might be given of {177} a +reshaping of his own words by the divine Author of Scripture. On the +other hand, the constant recurrence of the same words and phrases in +books of the Bible most widely separated in the time and circumstances +of their composition, strongly suggests identity of authorship amid the +variety of penmanship. The individuality of the writers was no doubt +preserved, only that their individuality was subordinated to the +sovereign individuality of the Holy Spirit. It is with the written +word as with the incarnate Word. Because Christ is divine, he is more +truly human than any whom the world has ever seen; and because the +Bible is supernatural, it is natural as no other book which was ever +written; its divinity lifts it above those faults of style which are +the fruits of self-consciousness and ambition. Whether we read the Old +Testament story of Abraham's servant seeking a bride for Isaac, or the +New Testament narrative of the walk of the risen Christ with his +disciples to Emmaus, the inimitable simplicity of the diction would +make us think that we were listening to the dialect of the angels who +never sinned in thought, and therefore cannot sin in style, did we not +know rather that it is the phraseology of the Holy Spirit.[6] + +{178} + +An eminent German theologian has written a sentence so profoundly +significant that we here reproduce it in Italics: "_We can in fact +speak with good reason of a language of the Holy Ghost. For it lies in +the Bible plainly before our eyes, how the Divine Spirit, who is the +agent of revelation, has fashioned for himself a quite peculiar +religious dialect out of the speech of that people which forms its +theatre._"[7] So true do we hold this saying to be, that it seems to +us quite impossible that the exact meaning of many of the terms of the +New Testament Greek should be found in a Lexicon of classic Greek. +Though the verbal form is the same in both, the inbreathed spirit may +have imparted such new significance to old words, that to employ a +secular dictionary for translating the sacred oracles, were almost like +calling an unregenerate man to interpret the mysteries of the +regenerate life. Do we not know how modern progress and discovery have +even put new meanings into many English words, so that one must be in +"the spirit of the age" in order to comprehend them?[8] Thus {179} +likewise, even in the work of verbal criticism, it is essential that +one possess the spirit of Christ in order to translate the words of +Christ. + +As to the question of the "inerrancy of Scripture," as the modern +phrase is, we may well pass by many minor arguments, and emphasize the +one great reason for holding this view, viz.: If it is God the Holy +Ghost who speaks in Scripture, then the Bible is the word of God, and +like God, infallible. A recent brilliant writer has challenged us to +show where the Bible anywhere calls itself "The word of God."[9] The +most elementary student of the subject can, with the aid of a +concordance, easily point out the passages which so describe it. But +we dwell on the fact that is not only called _o logos tou theon_, "_the +Word of God_," but _ta logia tou theou_, "_the oracles of God_." This +collective name of the Scriptures is most significant. We need not +inquire of the heathen as to the meaning which they put upon the words +as the authoritative utterances of their gods; let the usage of +Scripture make its own impression: "What advantage then hath the Jew? +or what is the profit of circumcision? Much every way; first of all, +that they were intrusted with _the oracles of God_" (Rom. 3: 2, R. +V.).[10] + +This comprehensive expression is very helpful {180} to our faith. When +critics are assailing the books of the Old Testament in detail, the +Holy Spirit authenticates them for us in their entirety. As Abigail +prayed for a soul "bound in the bundle of life" with the Lord, so here +an apostle gives us the books of the Law and the Prophets and the +Psalms bound together in one bundle of inspired authority. Stephen, in +like manner, speaks of his nation as "those who received the _lively +oracles_ (of God) to give unto us" (Acts 7: 38); and Peter says, "If +any man speak let him speak as _the oracles of God_" (1 Peter 4: 11). +And not only this; the same apostles who submitted to the authority of +the Old Testament as the oracles of God, themselves claimed to write as +the oracles of God in the New Testament. "If any man," says Paul, +"think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that +the things that I write unto you are the _commandments of the Lord_" (1 +Cor. 14: 37). "We are of God," writes John. "He that knoweth God +heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us" (1 John 4: 16). +These claims are too great to be put forth concerning fallible +writings. Admitting their premises, the Jews were right in charging +Jesus with blasphemy, in that being a man {181} he made himself God. +If Christ is not God, he is not even a good man. And if the Scriptures +are not inerrant, they are worse than errant; since, being literature, +they make themselves the word of God. + +And what if it be said that there are irreconcilable contradictions in +this book which calls itself the oracles of God? Two things may be +said: First, it should be expected that under "the scientific method" +such contradictions should appear and constantly multiply. The Bible +is a sensitive plant, which shuts itself up at the touch of mere +critical investigation. In the same paragraph in which it claims that +its very words are the words of the Holy Spirit, it repudiates the +scientific method as futile for the understanding of those words: "Eye +hath not seen, nor ear heard,"--and insists on the spiritual method as +alone adequate,--"but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit" (1 +Cor. 2: 9, 10). Not only does the Bible not yield roses to the critic, +it yields the thorns and briars of hopeless contradiction. "_Intellige +ut credos verbum meum_," said Augustine to the rationalists of his day, +"_sed crede ut intelligas verbum Dei_." "Understand my word, that you +may believe it; believe God's word, that you may understand it." Faith +holds not only the keys of all the creeds, but of all the +contradictions. He who starts out and proceeds under the conviction +that the Bible is the {182} infallible word of God, will find +discrepancies constantly turning into unisons under his study. And +this remark leads to the second observation: that the contradictions of +man may really be the harmonies of God. An uncultivated listener, +hearing an oratorio of one of the great masters, would detect discords +again and again in the strains; and as a matter of fact, what are +called "accidentals" in music are discords, but discords inserted to +heighten the harmony. Thus, as one after another of the alleged +discrepancies of Scripture having been noted and made to jar upon the +ear have then been reconciled, with what an emphatic and heightened +harmony have the words of the psalmist, speaking by the Holy Ghost, +fallen on our ear: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the +soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple"! +There seems to the critic to be historic error in the statement of +Stephen that Jacob was buried at Sychem (Acts 7: 16) instead of in the +field of Machpelah before Mamre, as recorded in Gen. 50: 13, just as it +was once thought that Luke had made a mistake, not to be explained +away, in his reference to Cyrenius in chapter 2: 1, 2. But as the +latter contradiction has disappeared, only confirming the veracity of +Scripture by the investigation which it has called forth, so may the +former. And so also with such alleged discrepancies as that between +the record in {183} one place that King Solomon had four thousand +stalls for horses, and in another forty thousand; or that of the +statement in one passage that King Josias began to reign at eight years +of age, and in another, at eighteen. What if we freely admit that we +cannot reconcile these statements? That does not prove that they are +not reconcilable. The history of solved contradictions has certainly +shown this, that as "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the +weakness of God stronger than men," so the discords of God are more +harmonious than men. + +We may say, in closing this chapter, that almost the highest proof of +the infallibility of Scripture is the practical one, that we have +proved it so; that as the coin of the State has always been found able +to buy the amount represented on its face, so the prophecies and the +promises of Holy Scripture have yielded their face value to those who +have taken pains to prove them. If they have not always done so, it is +probable that they have not yet matured. Certainly there are +multitudes of Christians who have so far proved the veracity of +Scripture that they are ready to trust it without reserve in all that +it pledges for the world yet unseen and the life yet unrealized. +"Believe that thou mayest know," then, is the admonition which +Scripture and history combine to enforce. In the farewell of that rare +saint, Adolph Monod, these golden words occur: {184} "When I shall +enter the invisible world, I do not expect to find things different +from what the word of God represented them to me here. The voice I +shall then hear will be the same I now hear upon the earth, and I shall +say, 'This is indeed what God said to me; _and how thankful I am that I +did not wait till I had seen in order to believe_.'" + + + +[1] John 3: 8. "The wind bloweth where it listeth." Without +pronouncing dogmatically, it must be said that the translation of +Bengel and some others--"_The Spirit breatheth where he wills, and thou +hearest his voice_"--has reasons in its favor which are well-nigh +irresistible; _e.g._, If _to pneuma_ here is the _wind_, it has one +meaning in the first part of the sentence and another meaning in the +second; and that meaning too, one which it bears in no other instance +of the more than two hundred and seventy uses of the word in the New +Testament. It is not the word used in Acts 2: 2, as might be expected +if it signified wind. Then it seems unnatural to ascribe volition to +the wind, _thelei_. On the contrary, if the words apply to the Spirit, +the saying is in entire harmony with other Scriptures, which affirm the +sovereignty of the Holy Ghost in regeneration (John 1: 13) and in the +control and direction of those who are the subjects of the new birth (2 +Cor. 12: 4-11). + +[2] The proof that the inspiration of the apostles and scribes of the +New Testament was not transmitted to successors is thus stated by +Neander: "A phenomenon singular in its kind is the striking difference +between the writings of the apostles and those of the apostolic +fathers, so nearly their contemporaries. In other instances +transitions are wont to be gradual, but in this instance we observe a +sudden change. There is no gentle gradation here, but all at once an +abrupt transition from one style of language to another--a phenomenon +which should lead us to acknowledge the fact of a special agency of the +Divine Spirit in the souls of the apostles and of a new creative +element in the first period."--_Church History_, II., 405. + +[3] There are the strongest reasons for rejecting the rendering of this +passage as given in the Revised Version: "_Every Scripture inspired of +God is also profitable_", etc. The reader will find the objections to +this rendering powerfully and conclusively set forth in Tregelles on +Daniel. Note, p. 267. + +[4] Lee on the "Inspiration of the Holy Scripture," pp. 32, 33. + +[5] See Lange's "Commentary" _in loco_. + +[6] I am satisfied only with the style of Scripture. My own style and +the style of all other men cannot satisfy me. If I read only three or +four verses I am sure of their divinity on account of their +inimitableness. _It is the style of the heavenly court.--Oetinger_. + +[7] Rothe, "Dogmatics," p. 238. + +[8] For example, Shakespeare, and Milton, and Dryden, employ the words +"car" and "engine" and "train" in their writings; but living before the +age of steam and railways they knew nothing of the meaning which these +terms convey to us. And it is possible that Homer and Plato knew as +little of the meaning of such words as _aiôn_ and _paraklêtos_, as +found in the revelation of Jesus Christ, by whom "the ages were framed" +and the Comforter sent down. + +[9] Dr. R. F. Horton, in "_Verbum Dei_." + +[10] The apostle in calling the Old Testament Scriptures the "oracles +of God," clearly recognizes them as divinely inspired books. The +Jewish church was the trustee and guardian of these oracles till the +coming of Christ. Now the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are +committed to the guardianship of the Christian Church.--_Dr. Philip +Schaff_. + + + + +{185} + +IX + +THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT + + + + +{186} + +"The Comforter in every part of his threefold work glorifies Christ. In +convincing of sin he convinces us of the sin of not believing on Christ. +In convincing us of righteousness, he convinces us of the righteousness +of Christ, of that righteousness which was made manifest in Christ going +to the Father, and which he received to bestow on all such as should +believe in him. And lastly, in convincing of judgment, he convinces us +that the prince of the World was judged in the life and by the death of +Christ. Thus throughout, Christ is glorified; and that which the +Comforter shows to us relates in all its parts to the life and work of +the incarnate Son of God."--_Julius Charles Hare_. + + + + +{187} + +IX + +THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT + +"And when he is come _he will convict the world in respect of sin, and of +righteousness, and of judgment_" (John 16: 8, R. V.). It is too large a +conclusion which many seem to draw from these words, that since the day +of Pentecost the Spirit has been universally diffused in the world, +touching hearts everywhere, among Christians and heathen, among the +evangelized and the unevangelized alike, and awakening in them a sense of +sin. Does not our Lord say in this same discourse concerning the +Comforter: "_Whom the world cannot receive_, because it seeth him not +neither knoweth him"? (John 14: 17) With these words should be +associated the limitation which Jesus makes in the gift of the Paraclete: +"If I depart I will send him _unto you_." Christ's disciples were to be +the recipients and distributors of the Holy Ghost, and his church the +mediator between the Spirit and the world. "And when he is come (to you) +he will reprove the world." And to complete the exposition, we may +connect this promise with the Great Commission, "Go ye into _all the +world_ and preach the gospel to every creature," and conclude that when +the {188} Lord sends his messengers into the world, the Spirit of truth +goes with them, witnessing to the message which they bear, convincing of +the sin which they reprove, and revealing the righteousness which they +proclaim. We are not clear to affirm that the conviction of the Spirit +here promised goes beyond the church's evangelizing, though there is +every reason to believe that it invariably accompanies the faithful +preaching of the word. + +It will help us then to a clear conception of the subject, if we consider +the Spirit of truth as sent _unto the Church_, testifying _of Christ_, +and bringing conviction _to the world_. + +As there is a threefold work of Christ, as prophet, priest, and king, so +there is a threefold conviction of the Spirit answering thereto: "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 me no more; of +judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged" (John 16: +8-12, R. V.). It is concerning the testimony of Christ as he spake to +men in the days of his flesh; and concerning the work of Christ now +carried on in his intercession at God's right hand; and concerning the +sentence of Christ when he shall come again to be our judge, that this +witness of the Spirit has to do. + +"_He shall convince the world of sin._" Why is he {189} needed for this +conviction since conscience is present in every human breast, and is +doing his work so faithfully? We reply: Conscience is the witness to the +law; the Spirit is the witness to grace. Conscience brings legal +conviction; the Spirit brings evangelical conviction; the one begets a +conviction unto despair, the other a conviction unto hope. + +"_Of sin, because they believe not on me,_" describes the ground of the +Holy Spirit's conviction. The entrance of Christ into the world rendered +possible a sin hitherto unknown: "If I had not come and spoken unto them, +they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin" (John 15: +22). Evil seems to have required the presence of incarnate goodness, in +order to its fullest manifestation. Hence the deep significance of the +prophecy spoken over the cradle of Jesus: "Behold this child is set for +the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall +be spoken against, _that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed_" +(Luke 2: 34, 35). All the most hideous sins of human nature came out +during the betrayal and trial and passion of our Lord. In that "hour and +power of darkness" these sins seem indeed to have been but imperfectly +recognized. But when the day of Pentecost had come, with its awful +revealing light of the Spirit of truth, then there was great contrition +in Jerusalem--a contrition the sting of {190} which we find in the charge +of Peter: "Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye have taken and by wicked hands have +crucified and slain." Was not that deep conviction, following the gift +of the Spirit, in which three thousand were brought to repentance in a +single day, a conviction of sin because they had not believed on Christ? + +For our reproof the Holy Ghost presents another side of the same fact, +calling us to repentance, not for having taken part in crucifying Christ, +but for having refused to take part in Christ crucified; not for having +been guilty of delivering him up to death, but for having refused to +believe in him who was "delivered for our offenses and raised again for +our justification." Wherever, by the preaching of the gospel, the fact +of Christ having died for the sins of the world is made known, this guilt +becomes possible. The sin of disbelieving on Christ is, therefore, the +great sin now, because it summarizes all other sins. He bore for us the +penalties of the law; and thus our obligation, which was originally to +the law, is transferred to him. To refuse faith in him, therefore, is to +repudiate the claims of the law which he fulfilled and to repudiate the +debt of infinite love which, by his sacrifice, we have incurred. +Nevertheless, the Spirit of truth brings home this sin against the Lord, +not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. +In a word, as has been well said, "it is not {191} the sin-question but +the Son-question" which we really raise now in preaching the gospel. +"Christ having perfectly satisfied God about sin, the question now +between God and your heart is: Are you perfectly satisfied with Christ as +the alone portion of your soul? Christ has settled every other to the +glory of God." In dealing with the guilty Jews, it was the historical +fact which the Holy Ghost urged for their conviction: "Ye denied the Holy +One and the Just, and killed the Prince of Life" (Acts 3: 14, 15). In +dealing with us Gentiles, it is rather the theological or evangelical +fact: "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, +that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3: 18), and you are condemned +that you have not believed on him and confessed him as Saviour and Lord. +It is the same sin in the last instance, but viewed upon its reverse +side, if we may say it. In the one case it is the guilt of despising and +rejecting the Son of God; in the other, it is the guilt of not believing +in him who was despised and rejected of men. Yet if submissively yielded +to, the Spirit will lead us from this first stage of revelation to the +second, since what Andrew Fuller said of the doctrines of theology is +equally true of the convictions of the Spirit, that "they are united +together like chain-shot, so that whichever one enters the heart the +other must certainly follow." + +"_Of righteousness, because I go to the Father and {192} ye see me no +more._" Not until he had been seated in the heavenly places had Christ +perfected righteousness for us. As he was "delivered for our offenses +and raised again for our justification," so must he be enthroned for our +assurance. It is necessary to see Jesus standing at the right hand of +God, in order to know ourselves "accepted in the Beloved." How beautiful +the culmination of Isaiah's passion-prophecy wherein, accompanying the +promise that "he shall bear the sin of many," is the prediction that "by +his knowledge _shall my righteous servant justify many_"! But he must be +shown to be righteous, in order that he may justify; and this is what his +exaltation does. "It was the proof that him whom the world condemned, +God justified--that the stone which the builders rejected, God made the +Headstone of the corner--that him whom the world denied and lifted up on +a cross of shame in the midst of two thieves, God accepted and lifted up +in the midst of the throne."[1] + +The words "and because ye see me no more," which have perplexed the +commentators, seem to us {193} to give the real clue to the meaning of +the whole passage. So long as the High Priest was within the veil, and +unseen, the congregation of Israel could not be sure of their acceptance. +Hence the eager anxiety with which they waited his coming out, with the +assurance that God had received the propitiation offered on their behalf. +Christ, our great High Priest, has entered into the Holy of Holies by his +own blood. Until he comes forth again at his second advent, how can we +be assured that his sacrifice for us is accepted? We could not be, +unless he had sent out one from his presence to make known this fact to +us. And this is precisely what he has done in the gift of the Holy +Ghost. "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of +his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he +had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the +Majesty on high" (Heb. 1: 3). There he will remain throughout the whole +duration of the great day of atonement, which extends from ascension to +advent. But in order that his church may have immediate assurance of +acceptance with the Father, through his righteous servant, he sends forth +the Paraclete to certify the fact; and the presence of the Spirit in the +midst of the church is proof positive of the presence of Jesus in the +midst of the throne; as is said by Peter on the day of {194} Pentecost; +"Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of +the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which +ye now see and hear" (Acts 2: 33). + +Now the Lord's words seem plain to us. Because he ascends to the Father, +to be seen no more until his second coming, the Spirit meantime comes +down to attest his presence and approval with the Father as the perfectly +righteous One. How clearly this comes out in Peter's defense before the +Council: "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged +on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a +Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins; and we +are witnesses of these things, _and so also is the Holy Ghost_, whom God +hath given to them that obey him" (Acts 5: 30-32). Why this two-fold +witness? The reason is obvious. The disciples could bear testimony to +the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, but not to his enthronement; +that event was beyond the ken of human vision; and so the Holy Ghost, who +had been cognizant of that fact in heaven, must be sent down as a +joint-witness with the apostles, that thus the whole circle of +redemption-truth might be attested. Therein was the promise of Jesus in +his last discourse literally fulfilled: "But when the Comforter is come, +whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which +{195} proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me; and ye also +shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning" +(John 15: 26, 27). + +As we have said, it is not only the enthronement of Christ in righteous +approval with the Father that must be certified, but the acceptance of +his sacrificial work as a full and satisfying ground of our +reconciliation with the Father. And the Spirit proceeding from God is +alone competent to bear to us this assurance. Therefore in the Epistle +to the Hebrews, after the reiterated statement of our Lord's exaltation +at the right hand of God, it is added: "For by one offering he hath +perfected forever them that are sanctified, _whereof the Holy Ghost is +also a witness to us_" (Heb. 10: 14, 15). In a word, he whom we have +known on the cross as "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the +world," must now be known to us on the throne as "_the Lord our +righteousness_." But though the angels and the glorified in heaven see +Jesus, once crucified, now "made both Lord and Christ," we see him not. +Therefore it is written that "no man can say Jesus is Lord, _but in the +Holy Spirit_" (1 Cor. 12: 3, R. V.). So also we are told that "if any +man sin we have a _Paraclete_ with the Father, Jesus Christ the +righteous" (1 John 2: 1); but we can only know Christ as such through +that "other Paraclete" sent forth from the Father. It was promised that +"when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall {196} not speak from +himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak" +(John 16: 13, R. V.). Hearing the ascriptions of worthiness lifted up to +Christ in heaven, and beholding him who was made a little lower than the +angels for the suffering of death, now "crowned with glory and honor," he +communicates what he sees and hears to the church on earth. Thus, as he +in his earthly life, through his own outshining and self-evidencing +perfection, "was justified in the spirit"; so we, recognizing him +standing for us in glory, and now "of God made unto us righteousness," +are also "justified in the name of the Lord Jesus _and by the Spirit of +our God_" (1 Cor. 6: 11). + +Thus, though unseen by the church during all the time of his +high-priestly ministry, our Lord has sent to his church one whose office +it is to bear witness to all he is and all he is doing while in heaven, +that so we may have "boldness and access with confidence by the faith of +him," and that so we may come boldly to the throne of grace, "the Holy +Ghost this signifying"--what he could not under the old covenant--"that +the way into the holiest of all" (Heb. 9: 8) has been made manifest. + +And yet--strange paradox--in this identical discourse in which Jesus +speaks to his disciples of seeing him no more, he says: "Yet a little +while and the world seeth me no more, _but ye see me_; because I live ye +shall live also" (John 14: 19); words {197} which by common consent refer +to the same time of Christ's continuance within the veil. But it is now +by the inward vision, which the world has not, that they are to behold +him. And they are to behold him _for the world_, since Christ said of +him: "Whom the _world cannot receive, because_ it seeth him not, neither +knoweth him." And yet it is "to _convince the world_" "of sin and of +righteousness and of judgment" that the Spirit was to be sent. How shall +we make it plain? When the sun retires beyond the horizon at night, the +world, our hemisphere, sees him no more; yet the moon sees him, and all +night long catches his light and throws it down upon us. So the world +sees not Christ in the gracious provisions of redemption which he holds +for us in heaven, but through the illumination of the Comforter the +church sees him; as it is written: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, +neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath +prepared for them that love him; _but God hath revealed them unto us by +his Spirit_" (1 Cor. 2: 9, 10). And the Church seeing these things, +communicates what she sees to the world. Christ is all and in all; and +the Spirit receives and reflects him to the world through his people. + + The moon above, the church below, + A wondrous race they run; + But all their radiance, all their glow, + Each borrows of its sun. + + +{198} + +"_Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged._" Here, we +believe, is a still farther advance in the revelation of the gospel, and +not a retreat to the doctrine of a future judgment, as some would teach. +For we repeat our conviction, that in this entire discourse the Holy +Spirit is revealed to us as an evangel of Grace, and not as a sheriff of +the Law. Hear the Apostle Peter once more, as, pointing to him who had +been raised from the dead and seated in the heavenlies, he says: "By him +every one that believeth is justified from all things from which ye could +not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13: 39, R. V.). +Justification, in the evangelical sense, is but another name for judgment +prejudged and condemnation ended. In the enthroned Christ every question +about sin is answered, and every claim of a violated law is absolutely +met; and though there is no abatement in the demands of the decalogue, +yet because "Christ has become the end of the law for righteousness to +every one that believeth," now "_grace reigns through righteousness_ unto +eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Strange paradox set forth in +Isaiah's passion psalm: "_By his stripes we are healed,_" as though it +were told us that sin's smiting had procured sin's remission. And so it +is. If the Holy Spirit shows us the wounds of the dying Christ for +condemning us, he immediately shows us the wounds of the exalted Christ +for comforting us. {199} His glorified body is death's certificate of +discharge, the law's receipt in full, assuring us that all the penalties +of transgression have been endured, and the Sin-bearer acquitted. + +The meaning of this last conviction seems plain therefore: "_Of judgment, +because the prince of this world is judged._" Recall the words of Jesus +as he stood face to face with the cross: "Now is the judgment of this +world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (John 12: 31). +"The accuser of the brethren" is at last non-suited and ejected from +court. The death of Christ is the death of death, and of the author of +death also. "That through death he might destroy him that hath the power +of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who, through fear of +death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2: 14, 15). If +the relation of Satan to our judgment and condemnation is mysterious, +this much is clear, from this and several passages, that Christ by his +cross has delivered us from his dominion. We must believe that Jesus +spoke the literal truth when he said: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he +that heareth my word and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, +_and cometh not into judgment_, but hath passed out of death into life" +(John 5: 24, R. V.). On the cross Christ judged sin and acquitted those +who believe on him; and in heaven he defends them against every re-arrest +by a violated law. {200} "There is therefore now no condemnation to them +that are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8: 1). Thus the threefold conviction +brings the sinner the three stages of Christ's redemptive work, past +judgment and past condemnation into eternal acceptance with the Father. + +In striking antithesis with all this, we have an instance in the Acts of +the threefold conviction of conscience, when Paul before Felix "reasoned +of _righteousness, and temperance, and the judgment to come_" (Acts 24: +25). Here the sin of a profligate life was laid bare as the apostle +discoursed of chastity; the claims of righteousness were vindicated, and +the certainty of coming judgment exhibited; and with the only effect that +"Felix trembled." So it must ever be under the convictions of +conscience,--compunction but not peace. We have also an instructive +contrast exhibited in Scripture, between the co-witness of the Spirit and +the co-witness of conscience. "_The Spirit himself beareth witness_ +(_summarturei_) that we are the children of God" (Rom. 8: 16). Here is +the assurance of sonship, with all the divine inward persuasion of +freedom from condemnation which it carries. On the other hand is the +conviction of the heathen, who have only the law written in their hearts: +"_Their conscience bearing witness_ (_summarturousês_), their thoughts +one with another accusing, or else excusing them, in the day when God +shall judge the secrets of men" {201} (Rom. 2: 15, 16). Conscience can +"accuse," and how universally it does so, abundant testimony of Christian +missionaries shows; and conscience can "excuse," which is the method that +guilty thoughts invariably suggest; but _conscience cannot justify_. +Only the Spirit of truth, whom the Father hath sent forth into the world, +can do this. The work of the two witnesses may be thus set in contrast: + + _Conscience Convinces_-- _The Comforter Convinces_-- + Of sin committed; Of sin committed; + Of righteousness impossible; Of righteousness imputed; + Of judgment accomplished. Of judgment impending. + + +Happily these two witnesses may be harmonized, as they are by that +atonement which reconciles man to himself, as well as reconciles man to +God. Very significantly does the Epistle to the Hebrews, in inviting our +approach to God make, as the condition of that approach, the "having our +hearts _sprinkled from an evil conscience_." As the High Priest carried +the blood into the Holy of Holies in connection with the old +dispensation, so does the Spirit take the blood of Christ into the inner +sanctuary of our spirit in the more wondrous economy of the new +dispensation, in order that he may "cleanse your conscience from dead +works to serve the living God" (Heb. 9: 14). Blessed is the man who is +thus made at one with himself while made at one with God, so that he can +say: "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, _my conscience also {202} +bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost_" (Rom. 9: 11). The believer's +conscience dwelling in the Spirit, even as his life is "hid with Christ +in God," both having the same mind and bearing the same testimony--this +is the end of redemption and this is the victory of the atoning blood. + + + +[1] For as the ministry of Enoch was sealed by his reception into heaven, +and as the ministry of Elijah was also abundantly proved by his +translation, so also the righteousness and innocence of Christ. But it +was necessary that the ascension of Christ should be more fully attested, +because upon his righteousness, so fully proved by his ascension, we must +depend for all our righteousness. For if God had not approved him after +his resurrection, and he had not taken his seat at his right hand, we +could by no means be accepted of God.--_Cartwright_. + + + + +{203} + +X + +THE ASCENT OF THE SPIRIT + + + + +{204} + +"The Apostle Paul evidently saw the redemption of the bodies of the +saints and their manifestation as the sons of God and with them the +redemption of the whole creation from its present bondage to be the +complete harvest of the Spirit, whereof the church doth now possess +only the first-fruits, that is, the first ripe grains which could be +formed into a sheaf and presented in the temple as a wave-offering unto +the Lord. 'That Holy Spirit of Promise which is the earnest of our +inheritance,' saith the same apostle--the earnest, like the +first-fruit, being only a part of that which is to be earned . . . yet +a sufficient surety that the whole shall in the fullness of the times, +be likewise ours."--_Edward Irving_. + + + + +{205} + +X + +THE ASCENT OF THE SPIRIT + +"He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all +heavens." So writes the apostle concerning the Paraclete who is now +with the Father, "Jesus Christ the righteous" (Eph. 4: 9). And what is +true of the one is true of that "other Paraclete," the Holy Ghost, who +was sent down to abide with us during this age. When he has +accomplished his temporal mission in the world he will return to heaven +in the body which he has fashioned for himself--that "one new man," the +regenerate church, gathered out from both Jews and Gentiles during this +dispensation. For what is the rapture of the saints predicted by the +apostle when, at the sound of the trumpet and the resurrection of the +righteous dead, "we which are alive and remain shall be caught up +together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air?" (1 +Thess. 4: 17). It is the earthly Christ rising to meet the heavenly +Christ; the elect church, gathered in the Spirit and named _o +christos_, (1 Cor. 12: 12,) taken up to be united in glory with +"Christ, the Head of the church, himself the Saviour of the body" {206} +(Eph. 5: 23, R. V.). In the council at Jerusalem this is announced as +the distinctive work of the Spirit in this dispensation "to gather out +_a people for his name_." It was not by accident and as a term of +derision that the first believers received their name; but "the +disciples were divinely called _Christians_ first in Antioch" (Acts 11: +26). This was the name pre-ordained for them, that "honorable name" by +which they are called (James 2: 7). When, therefore, this +out-gathering shall have been accomplished, and _the people for his +name_ shall be completed, they will be translated to be one with him in +glory, as they were one with him in name, the Head taking the body to +himself, "as Christ also, the church" (Eph. 5: 29). And this +translation of the church is to be effected by the Holy Spirit who +dwells in her. "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the +dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also +quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Rom. 8: +11). It is not by acting upon the body of Christ from without, but by +energizing it from within, that the Holy Ghost will effect its +glorification. In a word, the Comforter, who on the day of Pentecost, +came down to form a body out of flesh, will at the _Parousia_ return to +heaven in that body, having fashioned it like unto the body of Christ, +that it may be presented to him "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any +such thing, . . . holy {207} and without blemish" (Eph. 5: 27). Is it +meant to be implied in what is here said that the Comforter is to leave +the world at the time of the advent, to return no more? By no means. +And yet what is meant needs to be very explicitly set forth. + +A very able writer on the doctrine of the Spirit makes this remark, so +striking and yet so true that we have put it in italics: "_As Christ +shall ultimately give up his kingdom to the Father_ (1 Cor. 15: 24-28), +_so the Holy Ghost shall give up his administration to the Son, when he +comes in glory and all his holy angels with him_."[1] The church and +the kingdom are not identical terms, if we mean by the kingdom the +visible reign and government of Jesus Christ on earth. In another +sense they are identical. As the King, so the kingdom. The King is +present now in the world, only invisibly and by the Holy Spirit; so the +kingdom is now present invisibly and spiritually in the hearts of +believers. The King is to come again visibly and gloriously; so shall +the kingdom appear visibly and gloriously. In other words, the kingdom +is already here in mystery; it is to be here in manifestation. Now the +spiritual kingdom is administered by the Holy Ghost, and it extends +from Pentecost to _Parousia_. At the _Parousia_--the appearing of the +Son of Man in glory--when he shall take unto himself his great power +and reign (Rev. 11: 17), when he who has {208} now gone into a far +country, to be invested with a kingdom, shall return and enter upon his +government (Luke 19: 15), then the invisible shall give way to the +visible; the kingdom in mystery shall emerge into the kingdom in +manifestation, and the Holy Spirit's administration shall yield to that +of Christ. + +Here our discussion properly ends, since the age-ministry of the Holy +Spirit terminates with the return of Jesus Christ in glory. But there +is an "age to come" (Heb. 6: 5), succeeding "the present evil age" +(Gal. 1: 4), and we may, in closing, take a glimpse at that for the +light which it may throw upon the present dispensation. + +What significance has the phrase, "_the first-fruits of the Spirit_," +which several times occurs in the New Testament? The first-fruits is +but a handful compared with the whole harvest; and this is what we have +in the gift of "the Holy Spirit of promise, _which is the earnest of +our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession_" +(Eph. 1: 13, 14). The harvest, to which all the first-fruits look +forward, is at the appearing of the Lord. Christ, by his rising from +the dead, became "_the first-fruits of them that slept_" (1 Cor. 15: +20). The full harvest, of course, is at the advent, when "they that +are Christ's at his coming" shall be raised up (1 Cor. 15: 23). So of +the Holy Ghost. We have all the Spirit, but _not all of the Spirit_. +As a person of {209} the God-head, he is here in his entirety; but as +to his ministry, we have as yet but a part or earnest of his full +blessing. To make this statement plain, let us observe that the work +of the Holy Spirit, during this entire dispensation, is elective. He +gathers from Jew and Gentile the body of Christ, the _ecclesia_, the +called-out. This is his peculiar work in this gospel age. In a word, +the present is the age of election, and not of universal ingathering. + +But is this all we have to hope for? Let the word of God answer. +Paul, in considering the hope of Israel, says that there is at this +present time "_a remnant according to the election of grace_"; and a +little farther on he declares that in connection with the coming of the +Deliverer "_all Israel shall be saved_" (Rom. 11: 5, 26). Here is an +elective out-gathering, and then a universal in-gathering; or, as the +apostle sums it up in this same chapter: "_If the first-fruits be holy, +so also the lump_." On the other hand, James, speaking by the Holy +Ghost concerning the Gentiles, says first that "God did visit the +Gentiles _to take out of them a people for his name_," and "after this +will I return," etc., "that the residue of men might seek after the +Lord, and _all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the +Lord_" (Acts 15: 14, 17). Here, again, is first an elective +out-gathering and then a total in-gathering. + +{210} + +Now, by looking at other scriptures, it seems clear that the Holy +Spirit is the divine agent in both these redemptions, the partial and +the total. If we refer to Joel's great prophecy: "_I will pour out my +Spirit upon all flesh_," and then to Peter's reference to the same, as +recorded in the Acts, we are led to ask, Was this prediction completely +fulfilled on the day of Pentecost? Clearly not. Peter, with inspired +accuracy, says: "_This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel_," +without affirming that herein the prophecy of Joel was entirely +fulfilled. Turning back to the prediction itself, we find that it +includes within its sweep "the great and the terrible day of the Lord," +and the "bringing again of the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem" (Joel +2: 31; 3: 1), events which are clearly yet future. If again we examine +the vivid prophecy of Israel's conversion, we observe that their +looking upon him whom they pierced, and mourning for him, follows the +prediction: "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the +inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication" (Zech. +12: 10). So in the picture of the desolations of Jerusalem, as they +have actually existed during the present age, the prophet represents +this judgment of thorns and briars and forsaken palaces and desertion +of population, as continuing "_until the Spirit be poured upon us from +on high_" (Isaiah 32: 15). + +Indeed the Scriptures seem to be harmonious in {211} their teaching +that, after the present elective work of the Spirit has been completed, +there will come a time of universal blessing, when the Spirit shall +literally be "poured out upon all flesh"; when "that which is perfect +shall come" and "that which is in part shall be done away." + +Thus in the doctrine of the Spirit there is a constant reference to the +final consummation. "The Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed +_unto the day of redemption_," says Paul (Eph. 4: 30). Again: +"Ourselves also which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we +ourselves, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, +_the redemption of our body_" (Rom. 8: 23). + +All which the Comforter has yet brought us, or can now bring us, is +only the first sheaf of the great harvest of redemption which awaits us +on our Lord's return. "Ye have received _the Spirit of adoption_, +whereby we cry Abba, Father" (Rom. 8: 15); but for the adoption itself +we wait; sons of God already by birth from above, we with the whole +creation yet wait for "_the manifestation of the sons of God_" (Rom. 8: +19). + +To his tender exhortation to be patient until the coming of the Lord, +which James writes in the first chapter of his epistle, there is added +the suggestive illustration: "Behold the husbandman waiteth for the +precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it until it receive the +early and latter rain." {212} As in husbandry the one rain belonged to +the time of sowing, and the other to the time of harvest, so in +redemption the early rain of the Spirit was at Pentecost, the latter +rain will be at the Parousia; the one fell upon the world as the first +sowers went forth into the world to sow, the other will accompany "the +harvest which is the end of the age," and will fructify the earth for +the final blessing of the age to come, bringing repentance to Israel +and the remission of sins, "that the times of refreshing may come from +the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, before +appointed for you, whom the heavens must receive until the times of the +restitution of all things" (Acts 3: 19-21). + + + +[1] "Through the Eternal Spirit," by Elder Cumming, D. D., p. 185. + + + + +{213} + + SCRIPTURE INDEX + + + PAGE + + Genesis 50: 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 + + Exodus 30: 30-33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 + + Leviticus 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 + Leviticus 23: 11-16 . . . . . . . . . . . 29 + Leviticus 8: 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 + Leviticus 14: 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + + 1 Samuel 16: 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 + + 2 Samuel 23: 2, 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 + + 1 Kings 19: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 + + Psalms 133: 1, 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 + Psalms 17: 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 + Psalms 84: 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 + Psalms 17: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 + + Isaiah 11: 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 + Isaiah 59: 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 + Isaiah 32: 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 + + Joel 2: 31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 + Joel 3: 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 + + Amos 9: 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 + + Zechariah 12: 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 + + Matthew 3: 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 + Matthew 12: 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + Matthew 3: 11, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . 76 + Matthew 16: 24, 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 + Matthew 6: 27, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . 115 + Matthew 18: 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 + + Mark 13: 32 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 + Mark 12: 36 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 + + Luke 3: 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 + Luke 4: 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 + Luke 4: 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 + Luke 10: 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 + Luke 2: 1, 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 + Luke 2: 34, 35 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 + Luke 19: 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 + + John 14: 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 + John 1: 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 + John 20: 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 + John 15: 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 + John 14: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 + John 14: 18; 14: 26; 16: 13 . . . . . . . 39 + John 16: 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 + John 14: 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 + John 16: 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 + John 14: 12; 15: 26 . . . . . . . . . . . 44 + John 16: 8-10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 + John 16: 12, 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 + John 16: 13, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 + John 16: 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 + John 14: 18; 14: 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 + John 1: 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 + John 3: 16; 1: 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 + John 1: 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 + John 6: 27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 + John 3: 33 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 + John 2: 23, 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 + + John 16: 13; 14: 17; 15: 26; 16: 13 . . . 92 + John 3: 31; 8: 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 + John 3: 7, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 + John 13: 35. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 + John 1: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 + John 14: 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 + John 16: 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 + John 20: 22, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 + John 6: 63, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 + John 15: 15; 17: 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 + John 16: 8, R. V.; 14: 17 . . . . . . . . 187 + John 16: 8, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 + John 15: 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 + John 15: 26, 27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 + John 16: 13, R. V.; 14: 19 . . . . . . . . 196 + John 12: 31; 5: 24, R. V. . . . . . . . . 199 + + Acts 9: 31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 + Acts 2: 41; 5: 14; 11: 24 . . . . . . . . 55 + Acts 10: 38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 + Acts 11: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 + Acts 2: 38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 + Acts 8: 14-17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 + Acts 1: 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + Acts 2: 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 + Acts 9: 17; 4: 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 + Acts 4: 31; 6: 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 + Acts 4: 27, R. V.; 10: 38 . . . . . . . . 88 + Acts 15: 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 + Acts 20: 28, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 + Acts 10: 44 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 + Acts 5: 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 + Acts 1: 8, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 + Acts 13: 2; 13: 4; 13: 9; 13: 52 . . . . . 160 + Acts 15: 8; 15: 28; 16: 6, 7 . . . . . . . 161 + Acts 1: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 + Acts 15: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 + Acts 7: 38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + Acts 7: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 + Acts 3: 14, 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 + Acts 2: 33; 5: 30-32 . . . . . . . . . . . 194 + Acts 13: 39, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 + Acts 24: 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 + Acts 11: 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 + Acts 15: 14, 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 + Acts 3: 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 + + Romans 1: 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 + Romans 8: 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + Romans 6: 3, 4; 8: 2 . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + Romans 6: 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 + Romans 11: 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 + Romans 1: 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 + Romans 6: 3, 4; 7: 4 . . . . . . . . . . . 109 + Romans 6: 11, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . 110 + Romans 8: 13; 8: 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 + Romans 15: 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 + Romans 8: 23; 8: 11 . . . . . . . . . . . 119 + Romans 12: 2, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . 123 + Romans 1: 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 + Romans 8: 26, 27, R. V. . . . . . . . . . 148 + Romans 8: 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 + Romans 11: 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 + Romans 3: 2, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 + Romans 8: 1; 8: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 + Romans 2: 15, 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 + Romans 9: 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 + Romans 8: 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 + Romans 11: 6, 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 + Romans 8: 23; 8: 15; 8: 19 . . . . . . . . 211 + + 1 Corinthians 12: 12 . . . . . . . . . . . 54 + 1 Corinthians 12: 13 . . . . . . . . . . . 55 + 1 Corinthians 10: 1 . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + 1 Corinthians 2: 11, R. V. . . . . . . . . 90 + 1 Corinthians 12: 3 . . . . . . . . . . . 91 + 1 Corinthians 15: 51, 52 . . . . . . . . . 120 + 1 Corinthians 15: 52; 15: 44 . . . . . . . 125 + 1 Corinthians 3: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . 130 + 1 Corinthians 2: 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 + 1 Corinthians 10: 11 . . . . . . . . . . . 156 + 1 Corinthians 12: 11, R. V. . . . . . . . 166 + 1 Corinthians 2: 10-13 . . . . . . . . . . 173 + 1 Corinthians 14: 37 . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + 1 Corinthians 2: 9, 10 . . . . . . . . . . 181 + 1 Corinthians 12: 3, R. V. . . . . . . . . 195 + 1 Corinthians 6: 11 . . . . . . . . . . . 196 + 1 Corinthians 2: 9, 10 . . . . . . . . . . 197 + 1 Corinthians 12: 12 . . . . . . . . . . . 205 + 1 Corinthians 15: 24-28 . . . . . . . . . 207 + 1 Corinthians 15: 20; 15: 23 . . . . . . . 208 + + 2 Corinthians 1: 21, 22 . . . . . . . . . 78 + 2 Corinthians 1: 21, R. V. . . . . . . . . 88 + 2 Corinthians 5: 14, R. V. . . . . . . . . 110 + 2 Corinthians 3: 18, R. V. . . . . . . . . 113 + 2 Corinthians 3: 18 . . . . . . . . . . . 123 + 2 Corinthians 3: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 + + Galatians 5: 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + Galatians 4: 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 + Galatians 3: 2; 3: 14 . . . . . . . . . . 71 + Galatians 4: 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 + Galatians 2: 20, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . 110 + Galatians 5: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 + Galatians 1: 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 + Galatians 1: 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 + Galatians 6: 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 + Galatians 6: 8, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . 160 + Galatians 1: 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 + + Ephesians 1: 7; 3: 16 . . . . . . . . . . 42 + Ephesians 1: 20, 21 . . . . . . . . . . . 45 + Ephesians 4: 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 + Ephesians 6: 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + Ephesians 4: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 + Ephesians 1: 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 + Ephesians 4: 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 + Ephesians 5: 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 + Ephesians 4: 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 + Ephesians 2: 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 + Ephesians 4: 8-12, R. V. . . . . . . . . . 134 + Ephesians 6: 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 + Ephesians 5: 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 + Ephesians 2: 22, R. V.; 3: 16, R. V.; + 2: 18, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . 154 + Ephesians 4: 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 + Ephesians 5: 23; 5: 29 . . . . . . . . . . 206 + Ephesians 5: 27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 + Ephesians 1: 13, 14 . . . . . . . . . . . 208 + Ephesians 4: 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 + + Philippians 2: 6, 7, R. V. . . . . . . . 42, 43 + + Colossians 1: 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 + Colossians 3: 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 + Colossians 2: 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 + Colossians 3: 2, 5, R. V. . . . . . . . . 110 + Colossians 3: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 + + 1 Thessalonians 2: 19 . . . . . . . . . . 50 + 1 Thessalonians 3: 13 . . . . . . . . . . 60 + 1 Thessalonians 1: 9 . . . . . . . . . . . 102 + 1 Thessalonians 5: 23, R. V. . . . . . . . 122 + 1 Thessalonians 1: 5 . . . . . . . . . . . 144 + 1 Thessalonians 1: 6 . . . . . . . . . . . 145 + 1 Thessalonians 4: 18 . . . . . . . . . . 155 + 1 Thessalonians 4: 17 . . . . . . . . . . 205 + + 2 Thessalonians 2: 4 . . . . . . . . . . . 130 + + 2 Timothy 2: 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 + 2 Timothy 3: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 + + Titus 2: 13, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 + + Hebrews 1: 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 + Hebrews 9: 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + Hebrews 1: 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 + Hebrews 6: 4, 5, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . 121 + Hebrews 6: 5, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . 123 + Hebrews 2: 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 + Hebrews 7: 25, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . 148 + Hebrews 3: 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 + Hebrews 3: 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 + Hebrews 3: 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 + Hebrews 1: 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 + Hebrews 10: 14, 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 + Hebrews 9: 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 + Hebrews 2: 14, 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 + Hebrews 9: 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 + Hebrews 6: 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 + + James 1: 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 + James 3: 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 + James 6: 16; 5: 16, R. V . . . . . . . . . 155 + James 2: 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 + + 1 Peter 4: 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + 1 Peter 2: 9, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + 1 Peter 1: 23, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . 105 + 1 Peter 4: 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 + 1 Peter 1: 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 + 1 Peter 1: 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 + 1 Peter 1: 23, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . 170 + 1 Peter 1: 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 + 1 Peter 4: 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + 1 Peter 3: 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 + + 2 Peter 1: 4, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . 104 + 2 Peter 1: 21, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . 175 + + 1 John 2: 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 + 1 John 2: 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + 1 John 2: 27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 + 1 John 1: 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 + 1 John 1: 8, 3: 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 + 1 John 3: 5, 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 + 1 John 3: 2, R. V. . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 + 1 John 4: 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + 1 John 2: 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 + + Jude 1: 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 + Jude 1: 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 + Jude 1: 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 + + Revelation 22: 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 + Revelation 1: 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 + Revelation 3: 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 + Revelation 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 + Revelation 2: 7; 14: 13 . . . . . . . . . 170 + Revelation 11: 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 + + + + +{217} + + GENERAL INDEX + + + PAGE + + Adam: fall of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 + child of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 + nature derived from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 + inheritance from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 + Adam life: birth into . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 + Adolph Monod: farewell of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 + Age of the Spirit: defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 + Age-work: continuance of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 + Ambrose: observation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 + Ananias and Sapphira: sin of . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, 23 + Andrews, Bishop: beautiful words of . . . . . . . . . 54 + Anointing: Importance of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88, 89 + examples of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + Ante-Pentecostal days: spiritual nonage of . . . . . . 48 + Apostles: Matthias chosen by . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 + prerogatives of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 + order of, ceased . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 + Asceticism: inversion of divine order . . . . . . . . 111 + Augustine: quotation from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 + calls Pentecost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 + saying of true . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 + replies to rationalists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 + + Baptism: a monogram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 + Baptized: into Moses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + Bengel: statement of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 + Bible: Holy Ghost breathes within it . . . . . . . . . 170 + divine author of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 + infallibility of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 + a sensitive plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 + Bickersteth, E. H.: quotation from . . . . . . . . . . 81 + Boys, E.: extract from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 + Butler, Archer: quotation from . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 + + Calvary: typology of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 + once for all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 + Calvin, John; quotation from . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 + Canon Garratt: excerpt from . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 + Cartwright: extract from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 + Choirs: composed of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 + Christ: life of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 + on earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + inspired characterizations of . . . . . . . . . . . 23 + image of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 + fulfills all types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 + our Passover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 + earthly work of, completed . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 + ready to be communicated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 + expiatory work of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 + accepted by God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 + foretells Comforter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 + the testator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 + indwelling of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 + generosity of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 + earthly--equal to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 + power to impart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 + coronation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 + prayers of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 + mystical body of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 + present by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 + visible union of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 + manifestation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 + indwelt by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 + description of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 + vivifying power of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + disfigured . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 + twofold manifestation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 + faith of, ignored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 + our justification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 + effective service for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 + example in all things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + our pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + endued by the Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 + possessed by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 + holiness essential to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 + draws to himself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 + justification in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + the Holy One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + deity of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 + image of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 + conformity to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 + made atonement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 + treasure hidden in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 + the heart of the church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 + begotten by Holy Ghost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 + origin of life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 + nature derived from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 + came as Saviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 + efficacy of his sacrifice . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 + victory through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 + manifested love of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 + pattern of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 + imparting life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 + inheritance from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 + official seat of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 + bride of, betrayed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 + living voice of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 + identification with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 + helping us to pray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 + attitude of, described . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 + divinity of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 + spirit of, necessary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 + threefold work of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 + died for the sins of the world . . . . . . . . . . . 190 + satisfied God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 + perfected righteousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 + our High Priest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 + resurrection of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 + enthronement of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 + lifted to heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 + continuance of within the veil . . . . . . . . . . . 197 + not seen by the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 + reflected by the Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 + answers all questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 + death of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 + judged sin on the cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 + redemptive work of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 + administration of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 + the first-fruits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 + Christ-life: spiritual birth into . . . . . . . . . . 104 + Christian Church: home of the Spirit . . . . . . . . . 20 + Christian doctrine: undeveloped . . . . . . . . . . . 46 + Christian life: crisis in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 + a gradual growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 + possibilities of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 + Christians: good text for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 + ignorance of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 + privilege of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 + belief of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 + possessors of the Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 + prove veracity of Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 + divine naming of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 + Church: first capital sin of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 + temple of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 + image of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 + greater riches for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 + history of begun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 + definition of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 + formation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 + introduction into . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 + unsanctified, sometimes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 + to be like Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 + appellation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + complement of her Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 + disfigures Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 + Paraclete abides in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 + effective service in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 + monograph of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 + Christ the heart of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 + the temple of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 + guidance of the Lord for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 + is manifold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 + dead yet living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 + appointments in State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 + Spirit withdrawn from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 + feature of worship in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 + service of, described . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 + fellowship with Head of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 + requirements of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161,162 + Spirit sent unto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 + communications of to the world . . . . . . . . . . . 197 + translation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 + Comforter: another given . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 + indwelling of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + coming of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 + presence of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 + foretold by Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 + reverent subjection of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 + ignorant of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 + Jesus' promise of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 + witness of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 + sending of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 + ministry of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 + return of to heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 + consolation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 + Communion: significance of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 + through Holy Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 + Conscience: definition and work of . . . . . . . . . . 189 + accusing power of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 + Conversion: definition of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 + Course of redemption: Moberly's divisions . . . . . . 16 + Cross: plain attractions of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 + Cumming, J. Elder: quotation from . . . . . . . . . 72, 73 + excerpt from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85, 86 + quotation from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128, 207 + + Day of Pentecost: Holy Spirit embodied + in the church at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + Death: division of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 + Disciple: requirements of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 + Dispensation: mystery and glory of . . . . . . . . . . 25 + Divine love: source of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 + Divine ministries: succession of . . . . . . . . . . . 26 + + Ephesians: description in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 + Exodus; typical illustration of . . . . . . . . . . . 58 + + Father: Jesus' return to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 + Felix: reference to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 + Fuller, Andrew: statement of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 + + Gaussen's Theopneustia: quotation from . . . . . . . . 164 + Gentiles: door opened to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 + God: omnipresence of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + union of, to humanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 + indwelling with men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 + becomes known . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 + emanation from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 + witness of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 + withholding from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 + claims of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 + Christ, pattern of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 + total surrender to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 + action of Spirit of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 + manifestation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 + all in all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 + created all men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 + communion with, imperiled . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 + Godet: beautiful words of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 + Godhead: mysterious unity of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 + persons of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 + co-equal partner in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + earthly ministry of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 + distinctly foreshadowed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 + Paraclete a member of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 + mutual converse of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 + our relations to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 + executive of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + God-Jehovah: economy of, incomplete . . . . . . . . . 26 + God's communion: broken and restored . . . . . . . . . 30 + Great Commission: meagre giving for the . . . . . . . 158 + record of giving of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 + Gregory Nazianzen: quoted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 + + Hare, Julius Charles: extract from . . . . . . . . . . 186 + Harnack, Prof.: statement of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 + Heresy: meaning of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 + Holiness: explanation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 + synonymous name for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 + Holy Ghost: "dies natalis" of . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 + personality of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 + office of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 + work of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 + communicates power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 + great work of begun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 + statement of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 + all filled with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 + baptized in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + unction of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 + incorporation into body of Christ through . . . . . 59 + baptism of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + unceasing work of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + view of, urged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 + possession of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 + faith toward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 + traits of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 + blessings of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 + ignorance regarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 + Christ begotten by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + fullness of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 + incidents regarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83, 84 + inheritance in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 + the gift of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 + crisis brought by a full reception of . . . . . . . 94 + has been given . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 + present office-work of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 + operation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 + hidden life of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 + completed in us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 + the one Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 + prerogative of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 + insubordination to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 + appoints leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136,137 + elders chosen by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 + ignoring voice of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 + preaching in the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 + inspiration of, ignored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 + God's interpreter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 + prayer in the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 + office of, magnified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 + unction of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 + attempted purchase of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 + minute directions of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 + action of, supreme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 + renewing power of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 + breathes within the Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 + position regarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 + testimony of Paul to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 + regeneration by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 + David's words concerning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 + disciples, recipients of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 + presentation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 + the gift of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 + sent by the Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 + temporal mission of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 + administration of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 + age-ministry of, terminates . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 + Holy Spirit: lack of attention to . . . . . . . . . . 13 + consideration of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 + best treatise on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 + age-ministry of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 + vagueness of doctrine of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 + Jesus' presence by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 + temporal mission of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 + dispensation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 + made partakers of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 + came into the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 + resides on earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 + abides perpetually in church . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + deference paid to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 + indwelling of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 + Son revealed by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 + relation of stated by Tophel . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 + descent of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 + commended by Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 + office of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 + sent down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 + filled with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 + a witness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 + "dies natalis" of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 + named by our Lord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 + subordination to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 + distributes the estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 + the divine Conveyancer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 + communicates power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 + advent of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 + prays with church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 + history of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 + union through . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + duty to receive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 + personality of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 + ignorance regarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 + reception of gift of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 + our signet ring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 + will be the seal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 + interprets himself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 + is the anointing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + recognition of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 + agent for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 + power of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 + conveyance of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 + the Executor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 + subdues sinful nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 + subjection to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 + designation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 + guidance of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 + administration of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 + in church service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 + witness of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 + supremacy of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 + prayer inspired by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 + in missions of the church . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 + acts and speaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 + directing power of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 + sovereign individuality of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 + inimitableness of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 + authenticates books for us . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + ground of conviction of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 + an evangel of grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 + imparts to us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 + church translated by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 + Person of the Godhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 + work of, elective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 + a divine agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 + Human system: life and death . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 + + Inspiration: significance of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 + gospel a stereotyped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 + Scripture given by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 + verbal, essential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 + Jesus claims verbal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 + of the Holy Ghost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 + of Scripture writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173,174 + Irving, Edward: beautiful statement of . . . . . . . . 121 + quotation from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 + Isaiah: passion-prophecy of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 + reference to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 + + James: words of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 + exhortation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 + Jesus: surprising saying of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 + pre-existence of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 + agent in creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 + birth of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 + sublime word of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 + mysterious saying of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + not yet glorified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 + paschal talk of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 + atoning blood of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + farewell sermon of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43,44 + teaching of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 + parousia of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 + All in all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 + replies of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + full of the Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 + spirit of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 + significant saying of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 + question of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 + scribes' question concerning . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 + words of concerning Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 + doctrine of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 + claims of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 + charged with blasphemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + limitation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 + prophecy at birth of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 + literal fulfillment of promise of . . . . . . . . . 194 + strange paradox of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 + words of at the cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 + spake literal truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 + government of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 + Jesus Christ: ministry of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 + time-ministry of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 + gives Great Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 + dualism of teaching of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 + Jews: charge of against Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + denial of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 + church gathered from the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 + John: mentioned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + Jordan: symbolism of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 + Jukes, Andrew: extract from . . . . . . . . . . . . 68, 69 + excerpt from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 + + Kelly, William: observation of . . . . . . . . . . . 69, 70 + + Lee, Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures: + quotation from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175,176 + Leper: cleansing of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 + Lord: farewell discourse of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 + question concerning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 + deference paid to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 + glory shines forth from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 + presentation of sheaf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 + words of risen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 + named the Holy Ghost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 + words of concerning "Paracletos" . . . . . . . . . . 36 + Paraclete distinct from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 + speaks concerning Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 + valedictory discourse of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 + return of to glory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 + dying of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + complement of the church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 + resurrection of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 + advent of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 + appropriating to himself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 + assumed prerogative of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 + words of to Nicodemus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 + antithesis of two natures in . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 + constant words of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 + + fashioned to image of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 + mystical body of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 + coming of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 + experience of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 + guiding the church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 + post-ascension gospel of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 + ascent of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 + calls Saul of Tarsus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 + power of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 + conditions imposed by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 + voice of heard in church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 + commission to speak for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 + Spirit breathed by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 + testimony of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 + Apocalyptic words of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 + Abigail's prayer to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + words of, concerning Comforter . . . . . . . . . . . 187 + messengers sent by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 + a sin against the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 + exaltation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 + sent the Holy Ghost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 + harvest at return of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 + Luther: pointed statement of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 + wise words of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 + + Manning, Henry E.: quotation from . . . . . . . . . . 12 + best treatise from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 + Master: instructions of to disciples . . . . . . . . 36, 37 + Method: that employed in writing . . . . . . . . . . . 14 + Milton: quotation from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 + Ministry: of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 + Moberly: divisions of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 + quotation from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 + Morrison: comment of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 + Moule, H. C. G.: excerpt from . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 + Murray, Andrew: quotation from . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 + + Neander, Church History: excerpt from . . . . . . . . 168 + New birth: definition of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 + acquirement of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 + New Testament Scriptures: + authoritative voice of the Lord . . . . . . . . 167 + + Old Testament: words of Peter concerning . . . . . . . 170 + as oracles of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + Olshausen's Commentary: note from . . . . . . . . 165, 166 + Owen, John: summing up of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 + + Paraclete: sent by Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 + meaning of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 + attributes of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 + conclusion regarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 + duties of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 + teaching of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 + difference of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 + realization of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 + question and answer of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 + related to limitation of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . 187 + certifies to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 + with the Father . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 + statement concerning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 + Parousia: Lord's second coming . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 + introduces the church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 + Paschal lamb: typology of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 + Paul: epistles of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41, 42 + words of . . . . . . . . . . 71, 111, 112, 120, 180, 211 + exponent of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 + subject of preaching of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 + work of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 + words of, interpreted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 + testimony of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 + words of, before Felix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 + observation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 + Pentecost: work inaugurated at . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 + styled "dies natalis" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 + promise fulfilled at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 + impossible precedence of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 + typology of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 + predetermined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 + has come . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 + church began its history at . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 + story of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 + body of Christ baptized at . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + Holy Ghost descended at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 + foretaste of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 + once for all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 + Persons of the Trinity: deference of . . . . . . . . . 27 + Peter: question of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 + bold testimony of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 + deep saying of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 + statement of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 + reference of to Old Testament . . . . . . . . . . . 171 + talk of, on Pentecost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 + defense of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 + words of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 + inspired saying of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 + Prayer: a vital element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 + in the name of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 + high ground regarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 + connected with Holy Ghost . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 + Preaching: importance of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 + of the cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 + the inspiration of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 + + Redemption by Incarnation: doctrine of in vogue . . . 67 + Regeneration: what is it? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 + power of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 + examples of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 + Resurrection: time fixed for . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 + Romans eighth: deep teachings of . . . . . . . . . . . 22 + Roos: quotation from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 + Rothe, Dogmatics: excerpt from . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 + + Salvation: two sides to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 + Sanctification: continuous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 + instantaneousness of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 + Saul of Tarsus: sealed with the Spirit . . . . . . . . 136 + Saviour: lived before incarnation . . . . . . . . . . 13 + redemptive work of, completed . . . . . . . . . . . 30 + promise of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 + follow teachings of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 + and a comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 + departure of, conditioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 + Scriptures: teaching of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 + confounding of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 + examined, regarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 + given by inspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 + definition of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 + minute study of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 + literal inspiration of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 + the style of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 + divine Author of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 + alleged discrepancies of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 + veracity of, confirmed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 + infallibility of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 + contrast exhibited in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 + harmony of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 + Shechinah: resting-place of . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 + Son of God: naming of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 + self-emptying of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 + Sonship: doctrine of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 + Spirit; descending on Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 + study of doctrine of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 + indwelling of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 + sending down of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 + teaching of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 + typology of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 + work of, begun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 + history of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 + best dictionary of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 + promise of advent of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 + the measure of the Son . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 + signified time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 + nature and offices of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 + influence of, manifested . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 + baptistery of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 + baptism of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 + walk in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + praying in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 + fell on house of Cornelius . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 + supreme work of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 + the indwelling of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 + enduement of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68, 76 + gift subsequent to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 + appropriation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 + God's gift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 + reception of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 + traits of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 + baptism in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 + Christ waited for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + anointing of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 + sealing of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77, 81 + possession of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79, 80 + great office of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 + fullness of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 + reception of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 + infilling of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 + supreme place of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 + anointing of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 + sanctification in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 + manifestation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 + appellations of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 + Christian's privilege in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 + illustrations of enduement of . . . . . . . . . . . 93 + yearning of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 + energy of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 + communicates to us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 + life by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 + incorporation by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 + of holiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 + supremacy of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 + effects exclusion of sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 + behind all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 + surrender to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 + of glory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 + change wrought by . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 + working in us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 + perfecting power of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 + descent of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 + power of, ignored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 + is the breath of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 + dispensation of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 + doctrine of the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 + deepest work of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 + ministry of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 + strengthening power of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 + access by, unto the Father . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 + method of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 + inspirer of worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 + imitation of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 + story of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 + directing enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160, 161 + Christians possessors of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 + Jesus' words concerning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 + authoritative voice of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 + intercedes for us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 + thoughts regarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 + of Christ necessary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 + universal diffusion of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 + conviction of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 + sent unto the church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 + the witness to grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 + proceeds from God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 + sent to convince the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 + reflects Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 + co-witness of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 + distinctive work of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 + elective work of, completed . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 + Stephen: words of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + error in statement of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 + Streams of life: two contrasted . . . . . . . . . . . 104 + + Testimonies: of new life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 + Tophel, Pastor: quotation from . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 + excerpt from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 + criticism of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 + Types: accuracy of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 + foretell accurately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 + + Webb, Bishop: extract from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 + Word of God: a unique book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 + infallible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT*** + + +******* This file should be named 25395-8.txt or 25395-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: 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