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Seeecaes Sessee eee Hrom the Library of Professor Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield Beyueathed by him to the Library of Princetan Cheological Seminary Ba eA MPL eo 7 McClure, Alexander Doak, 1850-1920. "Another comforter" se poe Ent Ais “s [ Ye: tt m—!, ae aie 148 CK. 2.6. (is er, ~~ nm “ANOTHER COMFORTER” ON THE HOLY SPIRIT. Through the Eternal Spirit. A Bible Study on the Holy Ghost. By Rev. J. Elder Cumming, D.D. Introduction by Rev. F. B Meyer, B.A. New cheap edition, x12mo, cloth, $1.50. The Ministry of the Spirit. By Rev. A. J. Gordon, D.D. In- troduction by Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A. 12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.00. The Holy Spirit in Missions. By Rev. A. J. Gordon, D.D. r2mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.25. The Baptism with the Holy Spirit. By Rev. R.A. Torrey, D.D., author of ‘‘ How to Bring Men to Christ,’’ etc. 12mo, cloth, soc. The Spirit-Filled Life. By Rev. John MacNeil, B.A., of New South Wales. Introduction by Rev. A. Murray. New cheap edition. 12mo, cloth, soc. The Spirit of Christ. 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Secret Power; or, The Secret of Success in Christian Life and Christian Work. By D.L. Moody. 12mo, paper, 25c.; cloth, soc. The Holy Ghost Dispensation. By Rev. Dugan Clark, D.D. 18mo, cloth, 50c.; paper, 25¢. Twelve Sermons on the Holy Spirit. By C. H. Spurgeon. 8vo, cloth, soc. Power From on High. By Rev. B. Fay Mills. 16mo, Popular Vellum Series, 20c.; cheaper style, net, roc.; per dozen, net, $1.00, The Divine Indwelling. By Rev. E. Woodward Brown. 12mo, cloth, $1.25. The Abiding Comforter. By E. A. Stone, D.D. x12mo, cloth, 75c. Fleming H. Revell Company New York: 112 Fifth Ave. CuicaGo: 63 Washington St. TORONTO: 140 & 142 Yonge St. “ANOTHER COMFORTER: z A STUDY OF THE MISSION OF THE HOLY GHOST BY THE REV. A. D“ McCLURE PASTOR OF ST. ANDREW’S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH WILMINGTON, N. C. New York CnHIcAGO ‘TorRONTO Fleming H. Revell Company Publishers of Evangelical Literature Copyright, 1897, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY THE NEW YORK TYPE-SETTING COMPANY THE CAXTON PRESS * thow unto him that is able to 00 exrcecd= ing abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power tbat work= etb inus, unto him be glory inthe cburcb by Christ Jesus througbout all ages, world witbout end, Amen.” &® & & es Teens ; ice at Lie a Fe ’ ee ae Reyes CHAPTER CONTENTS ‘ PAGE INTRODUCTORY : - : 3 ° » tO His NAME ° : : ‘ S : 13 . THE SPIRIT IS A PERSON ‘ : ‘ e208 ork IS ELOLY: ; F : : : : 27 . THE SPIRIT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT . oa $ | His COMING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT . 38 . His MINISTRY TO THE DISCIPLES . ea His MIssIoN TO THE WORLD . : : 45 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH . ; : - . 54 THE SPIRIT REVEALING CHRIST : : 4 itl SEEING THE UNSEEN SAVIOUR : : EOF . THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST . : 67 . POWER TO WORK, TO SERVE > : AE Roies . PENTECOSTAL POWER . ‘ : : 75 . SOURCE OF STRENGTH . A ; ; in Se . SEEMING STRENGTH . - : : : 85 . STRENGTH : : ° ° . . pe Od THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT - : : 96 . THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT . : - . 103 . SEVERAL BENEFITS . ° ° ‘ ° 107 . Tue LOVE OF THE SPIRIT . . ‘ aks . GRIEVING THE SPIRIT : ’ > : 118 CONCLUSION . . ; 3 ; ° cies 7 INTRODUCTORY IN my study, on my knees, after long, loving, and delightful meditation on His Word, com- fort of His presence, study of His power and manifold ministry, and assurance of His gut- dance, I begin this writing, in humble reliance on His personal and official work in me and by me, in the love of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, as a grateful recognition of His mighty power, and a fulfilled desire to com- mend to others the person, office, and ministry of Him whom Jesus called “‘ another Comforter.” My desire is to honor the Holy Ghost, and my prayer is that the power of the Holy Ghost, coming upon Christians, may make them wit- nesses unto Christ, to the glory of God the Father. When I was in Princeton Theological Semi- nary in 1875, Dr. William M. Taylor, of New 9 10 INTRODUCTORY York, preached to us students from Matthew ili, 11. That sermon was made of God a bless- ing to me, in a great spiritual struggle at the time, resulting in a rich personal experience, which has prevailed in all my subsequent life and ministry. I offer no exposition of that text here. Instead I would like to suggest a careful, prayerful reading of a once well-known book, lately reprinted, and always rich and stirring. That book is “The Tongue of Fire,” by the Rev. William Arthur, of England. After preaching in a church of my own faith and order in one of our cities a few years ago on the power of the Holy Ghost, an earnest member of the church thanked me and said that their pastor, who had then been with them seven years, had never preached on that subject to that people. This set me to noticing what in- definite ideas many ministers have of the per- son and office of the Spirit, and led me to review my own ministry with reference to the office work of the Holy Ghost. As a help to any who may wish to do the same, I would suggest a later and very helpful book by S. W. Pratt, entitled “The Gospel of the Holy Spirit.” About the time I was reading this book an aged Christian friend, since deceased, said to me that she had noticed that during the war INTRODUCTORY ake between the States there was less preaching on the work of the Holy Spirit than before the war, and that this had continued largely to the present. I have wondered whether this was due to the thought of leadership which made Christ more prominent as “a leader and com- mander to the people.” Possibly. But now that we have passed into times of peace, with no less honor to Christ as the Captain of our salvation, should we not return to and enlarge our views of Christ in all the fullness of His redemption and our completeness in Him, in the manifold ministry of the Holy Ghost? We may be dangerously near the sin against the Holy Ghost in failing to honor Him as in Christ and the revealer of Christ, and will in so far as we honor Him in His ministry avoid that sin. I would like in this connection to commend two of the last works of the late lamented Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, Mass., on ‘‘ The Holy Spirit in Missions”’ and ‘The Ministry of the Holy Spirit.” I do hope these will be widely read, and that the older writings of Dr. John Owen and others on this subject will find an increasing number of students. With no claim to be exhaustive or complete in study or statement, I offer this effort to aid and encourage any who desire to honor the 12 INTRODUCTORY Holy Ghost. While writing editorials for the “ North Carolina Presbyterian ” in 1892, ’93, and ’94, I wrote several on the ministry of the Holy Ghost. These called forth such commendation from judicious friends as to move me to a care- ful restudy of the subject of this book and to write the following chapters, embodying much of what I wrote as editorials. This I now sub- mit to such interest and review as it may be entitled to receive or awaken. WILMINGTON, N. C. CHAPTER I HIS NAME OuR Lord Jesus Christ was about to leave His disciples. They were devoted to Him and dependent upon Him. Because of this, in tell- ing them that He must leave them, He speaks many comforting words, found in the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters of John, and adds the prayer found in the seven- teenth chapter. He assures them that He will send in His name, and to be to them in His place, “‘ another Comforter.” This was because, “having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” They would otherwise think themselves alone in the world. But they were not to be left alone, orphans, comfortless. Jesus says, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter.” The word of the original is “ Para- clete.” It is used by the apostle where our 13 14 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” version of 1 John ii. 1 is: “We have an Advo- cate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” “Paraclete”’ is simply a transliteration of the Greek word. The translation ‘ Advocate,” like the translation “Comforter,” is only an effort to give in its connection a meaning of the word which cannot be fully expressed in any single English word. Our Lord used it to designate the Holy Ghost, as the promise of the Father, to come in the place of Christ as friend and counselor of His disciples, and as successor of Christ to carry on the work of redemption in the present age. The translation “Comforter” is most fitting here as spoken to the disciples in view of their grief and helplessness after His depar- ture. The words, ‘I will not leave you com- fortless: I will come to you,” show the disciples as orphans by His departure, and His care for them in coming to them in the person of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord thus makes Himself one with the Holy Spirit and distinguishes Himself from Him in that mystery which we have in the Trinity. The fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chap- ters of John’s gospel are mainly the record of the promises of this Comforter and of His office work in applying the work of Christ. By Him HIS NAME 15 the disciples would do greater works than Jesus did while here to suffer and to die in His hu- miliation. The same Greek word is applied to Christ and to the Holy Spirit by the same inspired writer John in his gospel and his first epistle. The Spirit is promised as “ another Comforter,” to be what Christ was, and more, in the benefit of Christ’s work. This makes plainer the later words: “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come.” The translation “ Advocate” may be better understood, and its use partly justified in the present relation of Christ’s work to that of the Holy Spirit, by a familiar arrangement in human law practice. Two lawyers form a co- partnership for the practice of their profession because they have different tastes and qualifi- cations. One is the office lawyer; the other pleads the cases before judge or jury. They work in harmony. One prepares the case and the pleadings; the other presents them. This dimly shadows the holier office of the Advocate who is within us and prepares the case of our infirmities, “‘making intercession for us,’’ and of the Advocate with the Father, who “ever liveth to make intercession for us.’ So also we read, “For through Him we both have access 16 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” by one Spirit unto the Father.” There is no rivalry, no depreciation one of the other, but a holy, heavenly harmony of purpose and pleading for the saints. Jesus taught His disciples to pray. The Holy Spirit ‘“ maketh intercession for us.” He is the “Spirit of grace and sup- plication.”” Jude exhorts Christians to live, “ praying in the Holy Ghost.” It is clear that a just recognition of the person of the Holy Ghost and honoring Him will always exalt and honor Christ. The Holy Ghost is not a Comforter distinct from Christ, but after Christ, and His fellow—‘“ another Comforter.” This Advocate is the Holy Ghost. He is “the Spirit of truth.” He is not a new person coming into the plan of God from without, un- heralded or unexpected. He had place and part in the work of creation. He wrought in all the way of providence preparing for the coming of Christ. He prepared Christ’s body and was with Christ without measure for the work of redemption. About to report that finished work to the Father, Christ promised the coming of the Holy Ghost in His personal and permanent mission and ministry, to make the ministration of the Spirit rather glorious in the greater works of the disciples, in applying the perfect work of Christ in the world, He HIS NAME 17 would work regeneration. On the merit of Christ’s work He would make holy. He would bestow gifts. He would distribute offices and separate to service. He would enrich with graces and produce fruit. He would minister power for service, so that the witnesses unto Christ would bear convincing testimony. He would so reveal and exalt Christ and minister His love that these witnesses would count it all joy to be found worthy to suffer for His sake, as seeing Him who is invisible. He would give purity and power, rest and victory. Herein is seen the meaning of the words of Christ, “It is expedient for you that I go away.” They teach that Jesus must go away, and include the teaching that He must go to the Father with a finished work, to present a perfect redemption. This would lay the foun- dation on which the Holy Ghost could build the superstructure of salvation. There was, there- fore, an expediency in the going of Christ, that the Holy Ghost might come in His place, ‘another Comforter” to His disciples, and His vicegerent in the world. It further implied that Jesus must go away, that He might be spirit- ually revealed and truly known. If He had remained here in person, pilgrimages would have been needed by those far away seeking to see 18 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” Jesus, and desiring some merely temporal good, or to pay outward homage. The heart is nat- urally too prone to this. If in a purpose to worship, such pilgrimages would take time and talents that would be better bent on daily duties, and lowly deeds to the poor in His name, or on taking the truth to the ends of the earth. For this the Holy Ghost, in the name of the absent Christ, would qualify the disciples, instead of the doubtful advantage of looking to Jesus for human counsel and guidance, and depending on His personal presence and provision for them. These words in the seventh chapter of John, “The Holy Ghost was not yet given; becausethat Jesus was not yet glorified,” cannot mean that until Pentecost the Holy Ghost was not work- ing in the world, any more than that Jesus was not in the world until He was born in Bethle- hem. The Holy Spirit had wrought in creation and wrought mightily in Old Testament times. He descended on Jesus at Jordan in His baptism. He was with Christ without measure. He led Him into the wilderness to be tempted. He quickened Him from His death in the flesh. Jesus had a definite mission in His first coming, beginning at Bethlehem and ending on the Mount of Olives.- So the Holy Ghost came on a definite mission in the fulfilled promise of the HIS NAME 19 Father and prayer of the Son, beginning at Pentecost and continuing in a manifold ministry, “the ministration of the Spirit,” until He com- pletes the work of this dispensation, and every redeemed one is regenerated and renewed into the likeness of the Redeemer. It is not dis- honoring the Holy Ghost nor limiting His power to declare this, any more than dishonoring to Jesus to say that He did what He came to do and no more. It is dishonoring the Holy Ghost to say He came to do what manifestly He is not doing and has not promised to do. From His Father’s throne Jesus sent the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost upon the merit and ground of His finished work of atonement, and to apply it. He began to add believers by regeneration, and to take His abode in each one to work the work of sanctification, to enrich with spiritual graces, to produce “ the fruit of the Spirit,” and to bestow gifts. He bestows and ministers power for service. Those born from above, gathered out, added to Christ, con- stitute the church. Their life is expressed in faith, laying hold on Christ, uniting each to Him. These compose the mystical body of Christ and are called by His name. The Holy Ghost em- bodies Himself in this church. He quickens this body, part gathered to Christ, part here in 20 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” the world. Christ, the Head over all things to the church, is at the right hand of God. From Him the church is supplied with offices and officers, and is thereby fitted and furnished for service “ 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 the fullness of Christ.” This church as the body of Christ, embodying the Holy Ghost, has a sacred and solemn mis- sion. The church represents Christ on earth, as He represents the church in heaven. What- ever glory Christ shall have in the world must be by the church. Hence the words: ‘ Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abun- dantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” This power is the power of the Holy Ghost, upon whose welcome presence and gracious ministry the church is dependent, to “ live in the Spirit,” “pray in the Spirit,’ be “led by the Spirit,” and “ walk in tile Spirit.” CHAPTER II THE SPIRIT IS A PERSON THIS is evident from what we have just seen. Jesus declares the mission of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, to come as “another Com- forter.”’ Jesus is speaking of His fellow coming after Him and like Him to qualify and enable His disciples to do greater works than He. He, absent, was to be revealed and made more truly Saviour, Redeemer, and Lord than if present. All this must be the doing of a person. It is declared to be the work of the Spirit. This could not be the result of an influence. It does not meet the case to attribute such results to an impersonal emanation. It cannot be the impression or effect of the Word merely as spiritual, though declared to be the living Word, quick and powerful. That Word is not in- herently mighty. It is the sword of the Spirit. This Spirit is another person, distinct as Christ 21 22 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” and distinguished by Christ. He was to come in the name of Christ. He is doing in the plan of redemption what Christ did not come to do. Christ came to make atonement for sin in offer- ing Himself a sacrifice for sin. The Holy Ghost came to make this work of Christ effectual in the regeneration, comfort, sanctification, and ser- vice of those for whom Christ came to die. This is further evident in the fact that the Spirit “speaks expressly,” is spoken of and spoken to, as a person. This is not first done by Christians of a later age, or in apostolic times, or even by the apostles, but by Christ Himself. In His parting instruction and words of comfort Christ speaks, not of z¢, but of Am. A further proof is that the gifts of the Spirit, spoken of in the twelfth chapter of First Corin- thians, are bestowed by a person and are not the effects of an influence. In the eleventh verse it is seen that this Spirit both works and distinguishes as a person. In the seventh verse it appears that these gifts are bestowed with a purpose and therefore impose a grave responsibility. Other proofs, familiar to the students of the writings of John Owen and the many subsequent writers on this subject, need not be repeated here. One suggestion, repeated often, should not be over- looked here. It is this: We hesitate to receive THE SPIRIT IS A PERSON 23 this truth, and indeed are not apt or able to appreciate it, because the Spirit hides Himself to exalt Christ. His personality is lost sight of in the revelation of Christ. In making this revelation, the Spirit is the guest of the heart so quietly and the teacher of the understanding so tenderly and graciously as to make the be- liever unmindful of Him in the joy of the Lord. In fulfilling His mission personal acts are ascribed to the Spirit and done by Him. He “teaches,” “ comforts,” “ reproves,”’ “ guides,” and “sanctifies.” He “ guides into all truth.” He reproduces to the mind, quickens the mem- ory to recollect, all that Jesus said and did; He brings to remembrance, for living or recording, all that Jesus said or did, precisely as needed. He also testifies of Christ, by way of inspira- tion, revelation, or explication, what would be otherwise unthought, unwritten, or unsaid. We are therefore safe from the delusive resort to an abstract principle or power by the de- lightful, restful refuge in a concrete personal Comforter. Every believer who has tried the experiment of fleeing to “the communion of the Holy Ghost” can testify that this statement is true. This is not a mere sensation in the physical frame, however pleasing or pathetic; nor a sentiment of the emotional faculty; but 24 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” an anointing with the eye-salve of spiritual seeing, by which the power of vision is cleansed and the view is clear of the distinct revelation of Jesus as Lord. Christ appears, “ the bright- ness of the Father’s glory,” so exalted as to make believers humble, docile, and obedient. Such are not to wait for an influence, nor to be led by some impression, but to be taught by the person, the Holy Ghost, and to expect His power coming upon them to control, guide, and use them. _The personality of the Spirit appears in the fourth chapter of First Timothy. There Heissaid to speak. The power of speech and the act of speaking are proper of a person. In both these the Spirit is foretelling the future. Thus He speaks in the present, knowing the future. He is not here instructed by the Father or prompted by the Son. He is not seeking to make an impression or to exert an influence, but thinking and speaking, and that in separate and distinct personality. This means more. It shows the purpose of His coming to testify of Christ, and is also an evidence of His divinity. The personal pronouns are used by Christ in promising the coming of the Spirit and in fore- telling His work. He avoids the use of the neuter pronouns, warning against the too com- PibewhtRlled SAP LiOOW 25 mon, careless irreverence of some in speaking of the Spirit as z7. All are taught by Christ’s ex- ample to honor zm. This ought to silence all the claims that God the Father or God the Son is promised to come when Christ teaches that “another Comforter ”’ and the Father are, and whose very coming is an act of separate, distinct personality. At the baptism of Jesus the three persons of the Trinity appear and are distinguished. In the formula of Christian baptism we are taught to call each by name. In the great commission they are distinctively referred to. In the apos- tolic benediction their several and separate persons, offices, and ministry are signally re- vealed. This doctrine of the Trinity is a great mystery. It is, however, clearly taught, and the relation of each person to the plan of sal- vation, that it might be devised, wrought, and applied, is clearly revealed. It is a doctrine of the Bible. It stands or falls with the Bible. It is an essential part of the revelation of the being and nature of God. It is the only sufficient revelation of God. It gives the highest con- ception of His being. We dare not reject its claims because it contains mysteries. This ought rather to commend these claims. In the Godhead there are “‘ three persons, the same in would come, one as He 26 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” substance, equal in power and glory.’ There must be unfathomable depths, unattainable heights, inmeasurable lengths, and unsearchable breadths here. In these the Holy Ghost, a person, coequal, coeternal, is one, as the Father and the Son. CHAPTER IIT HE IS HOLY HE is the Holy Spirit. ‘Holiness is His nature —the eternal perfection of His being. He can- not be anything but holy. He cannot be in harmony with anything in the universe that is not holy. Holiness is His life. Every expres- sion of that life must be in order to holiness. In the works of creation and providence, of reve- lation and redemption, of regeneration, sancti- fication, and support, of control, guidance, and instruction, whether in the law or in the gospel, He is holy. His office, whether in creation, or the entire contents, conduct, and application of revelation, culminating and crowned in the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, is to manifest and preserve the divine holiness. So is ‘‘ the ministration of the Spirit” in the divine government. In all things He reveals to magnify and glorify the 27 28 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” Godhead as supremely holy. The heavenly Father is holy. The eternal Son is holy. He is the Holy Spirit. The love and the law, the name and the Word of God, are holy. Where | God met and manifested Himself to Moses was holy ground. The holy placein the tabernacle and the temple was for the priests. The high priest went into the most holy place. They in heaven, God's dwelling-place, “rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” The apostle writes in Romans that the Son of God must be justified in His holy obedience and sacrifice to perfect the holiness of all who are redeemed by Him. To this end, as well as in the fellowship of the Father and the Son, the holy Son had the Holy Spirit without measure. The Holy Spirit has no subordinate rank in the Godhead, and is doing no work inferior to that of the Father and the Son. Man cannot know how holy God is, or, indeed, what holiness is; he has no desire after holiness, and cannot become holy in character and life, except of the office work of the Holy Spirit. He works as the revealer, teacher, and promoter of holi- ness, and to remove unholiness from the pres- ence of God. To this end He separated a family and a nation by isolation and nurture. He re- HEALS SG {OF ES 29 quired the places, plans, persons, order, and ordinances of worship to be holy unto the Lord. These were to prepare for and present to the world the most holy Son, by whose holy propi- tiation salvation is provided unto holiness. To bring to Him, the holy law was given, and con- tinues to be the Spirit’s standard and rule of holy living. Man’s failure as a sinner to reach the holiness of this standard is but a proof of his need of the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit applying the perfect holiness of Christ. The holiness of the Spirit is manifest in His personal, spotless purity and unalloyed, essen- tial perfection. It appears in the demands of the holy law and the threatening of its fearful penalty. It is shown in the holy mercy and grace of God in Christ, and the justification “only for His righteousness imputed.” It is ministered in holy birth of regeneration, in holy patience and power unto sanctification, in holy grace for strength and service, in holy gifts of usefulness and devotion. Yet all these com- bined, to our poor comprehension and in our poorer expression, cannot give adequate idea of the Spirit’s holiness. ‘The Spirit of God is holy in His being, nature, and character; in all His attributes and perfections, word and works; holy in thought, feeling, will, love, and judg- 30 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” ment; holy in person, manifestation, and com- panionship.”’ It is indeed surprising that preachers and people, so many, do not seem to know that the Spirit is a person, and do not adore the holy nature and seek the office work of the Spirit as holy. Some ask for z¢s zxfluence without seem- ing to seek Hs power unto holiness of life, strength, and service. This truth is of practical importance. “ With- out holiness no man shall see the Lord.” This is wrought by the Holy Spirit. Holiness, on our part, as required and attainable here in this life, is the relative holiness of complete consecration, separation to the Lord. It consists with growth of sanctification daily wrought in us by the Holy Spirit. This comes from God in transforming into the likeness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This shall issue in the full fruition of likeness to Christ, when we shall see Him as He is. This relative, progressive, and perfected holi- ness is the work of the Holy Spirit. CHALLE RLV, we THE SPIRIT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT THE Holy Ghost, the third person in the Trinity, the vicegerent of Jesus Christ and ex- ecutive of the Godhead in this dispensation, does not at Pentecost come anew or first into human history. He came on a mission to apply the perfect work of atonement wrought by Jesus Christ. But He was in the Old Testament in the beginning until Christ came. The prophecy of Joel that He would be poured out upon all flesh is to be understood with this explanation. This prophecy serves a double purpose in con- sidering the presence of the Spirit in the Old Testament. It identifies the Spirit as the Holy Ghost. This declares that He is a person. He is variously designated in the Old Testament as “the Spirit,” “the Spirit of God,” and “ the Spirit of the Lord.” This might be pleaded to prove that He is only “it,” as an influence or 31 32 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” an emanation from God. But Peter at Pente- cost declares that the fulfilment of the prophecy beginning then was also the promise of the Father, which Jesus had said was the sending of a person. ‘‘ The breath of the Lord”? is an- other name of the Holy Ghost. The personality of the Spirit is rather taken for granted than asserted in the Old Testament. This appears in the revelation of the Trinity in the first verses of Genesis. The first verses of John’s gospel run a parallel. ‘‘ God said”’ of Genesis is “the Word ”’ of John. ‘* His fiat laid the corner-stone And hewed the pillars one by one.” God is the Father Almighty and is the God and Father of our Lord. The work of the Spirit is more distinctly and definitely stated. It is, in epitome, the same as unfolded in subsequent Scriptures and centuries. ‘The Spirit of God moved [kept brooding] upon the face of the waters.” This means, He quickened, He nour- ished, He cultivated, He brought forth in being. He brought order out of confusion. He hovered over like a brood-mother, as the figure is. He directed and controlled. What was decreed and done in creation was by Him carried for- ward in life, might, and order. As we rape THE SPIRIT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 33 the oak from its germ in the acorn, we may trace from this germinal beginning the unfolding of the work of the Holy Ghost in subsequent Scriptures. In kind or in part this verse reappears in the manifold ministry of the Holy Ghost. When Pharaoh would appoint Joseph over all the affairs of Egypt, he asked, ‘“‘ Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?”’ There was a similar claim for Dan- iel by the queen-mother to Nebuchadnezzar. These men were sought for their wisdom and fitness to rule and direct in civil government. Those who chose them were not God’s children, but their words show, and the Scriptures accept them as showing, that both these men were qualified for the high trusts committed to them. They were this by the Spirit of God. Their words were wise and weighty in counsels. Their discernment was clear in the management of sreat matters of state, and their decisions were prompt and prudent for the execution of civil enactments. The principles proposed and the laws enacted by Joseph are in evidence to this day and lie at the foundation of Egypt’s code. The power of Daniel, holding through three dynasties, entitles him to that Scripture rank as one of the three great men, “‘ Noah, Daniel, and Job.” 34 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” For the construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness the master workmen were fitted for their responsibilities of oversight, direction, and skilled labor, and the inference is just that men and women were made skilful and successful in their parts of the workmanship. This sagacity and strength and skill in selection of material and fitting into proper place with handicraft of hammer and chisel, with loom and needle, with flaying-knife and tanning-vat, from finest fabric to roughest material, were all ministered by the Spirit of God. The times of the judges furnish many and striking examples of those who were mighty by the Spirit of the Lord coming upon them. Gideon, found timid and shrinking, later is found with only pitchers and lamps and the cry, “ The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!’’ He was a great deliverer, because the Spirit came upon him. By the same Spirit Jephthah was com- mander and conqueror. This gives no sanction or support to the charge, brought to the writer by an able lawyer, once Attorney-General of the United States, that the Bible sanctions im- morality. He meant inhumanity in the execu- tion of the rash vow of Jephthah. This lawyer, like others, failed to see that the Spirit of God came in Old Testament times upon men to fit SHE DIIRIEIN LHe OLD LTESLAM EN I-30 them for specific service as the agents of God for His people’s protection or deliverance, al- together apart from the work of regeneration and guidance in other things. The Spirit of God made Jephthah mighty in battle, but left him to himself in making and executing a rash vow. Saul is another example in this kind. As Samuel told him, so it came to pass. He was found among the prophets. The Holy Spirit came upon him and gave him “ another spirit.” This was not a new nature. ‘The reference is not to a moral quality or a spiritual essence. It was the effects of the Spirit’s working upon the natural mind of Saul. He had been living in seclusion. He had just now been anointed to be king, and this coming of the Spirit stirred his ambition, aroused the latent energy of a hitherto quiet life. This grew to vaulting am- bition, to cruel jealousy and hate, and ended in moral madness. Saul prophesied, not as a child of God born from above, but, as the Holy Spirit used him, unregenerate. The case of Samson is more familiar, but not less discriminatingly stated than that of Saul. Every child of Christian training will tell us, in answer to one of thosesimple and important ques- tions asked and answered at the mother’s knee, 36 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” that Samson was the strongest man. If asked wherein that great physical strength lay, the an- swer would be, “In his hair.” This is correct so far as the meaning of the unshorn hair was the sign of the vow of the Nazarite taken for him be- fore his birth. But that was only an outward sign that the vow was kept by him in the letter. The source of his strength was the Spirit of the Lord, who came upon him while he kept the vow. When he suffered the hair to be shorn the Spirit of God did not come upon him, and he found he was weak as other men. He was then and at other times morally degraded and spiritually weak. These several cases give us examples of the power of the Holy Ghost. He came upon some to give physical strength. To others He gave skill in manual labor and wisdom in planning and executing. Others were made wise leaders and legislators in the affairs of civil government, and yet others were made great generals in war. All this for the service of God was often apart from the work of regeneration and the presence of personal piety, and is so dis- tinctly stated as to leave no room for the charge that the Holy Bible sanctions any unholy prin- ciples or practices. Expressions in the psalms, and phrases of the THE SPIRIT IN THE: OLD TESTAMENT > 37 prophets, and examples in the historical books, read in the light of the New Testament, show the work of the Spirit recorded in the Old Tes- tament, of quickening, sustaining, and nourish- ing spiritual life. The familiar prayer, “ Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” will occur to many. By put- ting these beside the other instances it will be seen clearly that all power, and all kinds and all degrees of power, are manifested and minis- tered by the Spirit of God in the Old Testament. This ministry may be compared to the appear- ance of the angel of the covenant only occasion ally and incidentally in the unfolding purpose and unfailing promises of God. The orm was in physical agencies and visible results and outward consistency. The inward spiritual harmony was not so distinctly revealed, though present and underlying all outward moralities. Whether understood or not, all these were the means, methods, or might of the Spirit of God. CHAP TE Re ny: HIS COMING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT HE was in the world, having part in the work of creation and in the history of redemption before the coming of Christ to make atonement for sin. All His work was for the glory of God and for the good of His people. He was in Christ and with Christ: ‘‘ Jesus was led by the Spirit.” “ Being put to death in the flesh,” He “was quickened by the Spirit.” As Jesus said, “Ye must be born again,” explaining His words as meaning “‘ born of water and of the Spirit,” it is plain that every child of God under the old dispensation was regenerated by the Holy Spirit. As He was thus in the old dispensation, in what sense was He to come according to the promises of the Father and the Son? John xvi. 7 shows that He was to come in the place of Christ as “another Advocate.” God the Father was personally prominent in promis- 38 HIS COMING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 39 ing and providing the Christ and in preparing the way for His coming. Christ the Son is personally prominent in offering Himself the one sacrifice for sin, making a completed work of redemption and revealing the love of God. The Holy Ghost is come, and is personally prominent in applying the atonement, in making the work of redemption effectual, and in shed- ding abroad the love of God in the hearts of the children of God. “He dwelleth with you” (John xiv. 17). Whatever reference this may have to the pres- ence of the Spirit in occasional power and as the sanctifier of saints, it must mean that He was dwelling with them in Christ and working not in His separate personal office. The next clause, ‘‘and shall be in you,” suggests that distinct office of dwelling in believers for Christ, and, as in Christ and in the fullness of the bless- ing of redemption, enabling the disciples to do greater things. As God the Father in love had provided and God the Son had wrought re- demption, God the Holy Ghost came to apply this redemption. It was not the first coming, not coming in a subordinate relation, but the coming in that distinct and peculiar power of a manifold ministry distinguished from that of the Father and the Son. All three persons of the 40 “ANOTHER COMFORTER* Trinity have been always working. In the be- ginning they took counsel to create the heaven and the earth, and man in the image of God. In the performance of their eternal purpose to redeem and save man each person has a part, and they work together. The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, is come in His personal work. While God the Father has received the incarnate Son to His throne as God-man, Mediator, and they in plan and power are directing, control- ling, and governing all things for the church, the Holy Ghost is working here as “another Advocate.” The Trinity is one God. The work of one is the work of each and of all. In an effort to make an intellectual distinction and to form a mental concept of each and of their sev- eral work, we are tempted to worship three Gods and to think of their separate work as independent of one another. Essentially what each does the one does. In prayer to each we address all as one, distinguishing only the limi- tation, which they mutually arrange, and the work which the one does by each person and in the sphere of each. In the prayer which our Lord taught His dis- ciples, “ Father”’ is, as “ Lord,” a name and title of God, the one God over all, blessed forever. That is the correct mental concept, but it is far better HIS COMING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 41 to get our distinctions on our knees, devoutly waiting to be taught, than to make definitions in our studies. One God, the Father Almighty, in Jesus Christ His Son, redeemed, and, as the Holy Ghost, applies the redemption. CHAPTER VI HIS MINISTRY TO THE DISCIPLES THE Holy Ghost is come to abide with the disciples forever. By this they would have, whom the world could not receive, the Spirit of truth in them, and of Him Christ was to come to them. They would know the unity of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, and their vital union with Christ by the Spirit. He would enable the disciples to keep the commandments of Christ as proof and power of the love of God shed abroad in their hearts. As thus vitally united to Christ in the Father, the Holy Ghost would be their Teacher, not now as an influence, but as a person teaching all things. There were things true which they could not receive until Christ had gone to the Father. The Spirit would teach all they ought to learn. All Christ had taught would be brought to remembrance. Thus the Holy Ghost would comfort the dis- 42 HIS MINISTRY TO THE DISCIPLES 43 ciples by bringing Christ to them, by making them know their union with Him, by enabling them to keep His commandments, by bringing to remembrance what Christ had taught and carrying forward the teaching Christ had given. With this instruction and the appointment of the disciples as witnesses the fifteenth chapter of John closes. This, in connection with the study of Acts i. 8, we will refer to again. An- other study of the graces and fruits of the Spirit will refer to the teaching of the parable of the vine and the branches. The Holy Ghost is carrying on the work of regeneration, sanctification, and strength for service. He is the Spirit of adoption, helping infirmities and enabling God’s children to say “ Abba, Father.” He is the earnest of the inheritance until receiving the purchased pos- session. Believers are sealed by Him until the day of redemption. He is working graces and bestowing gifts. The fruit of love in its varieties of joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- ness, faith, meekness, temperance, and in all its loveliness of Christian graces, is produced in His work of sanctification. The gifts are be- stowments for service. In the work of regen- eration He must impart life. In the work of sanctification He must dwell in the heart, mak- 44 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” ing the body His temple. In His ministry of power for service He may endue with perma- nent gifts, or come, as occasion may require, with specific and temporary qualifications of His in- finite power. On the day of Pentecost He came to be with the disciples, “another Comforter,” to make effectual the perfect work of Christ. After Pente- cost He came in answer to prayer, as at Pente- cost. Inthe Old Testament there are instances of His power upon some not the children of God. In the New Testament we have a limita- tion of power to the regenerate in bearing wit- ness to Christ. CHAPRTEREV IL HIS MISSION TO THE WORLD REGENERATION, being born from above, by which those who are by nature “ dead in tres- passes and sins’ are quickened into newness of life, is the work of the Holy Ghost. It is claimed by some that the word Jesus spoke to Nicodemus does not mean born, but begotten. This they use to teach conditional immortality. This is disproved in Matthew ii. 1, as any candid student of the original must see. The work of the Spirit is not embryonic, but brings forth. By this ministry of the Spirit a sinner is born out of his estate of sin and misery into an estate of salvation, out of nature’s death into eternal life. The common expianation that the teaching in John xvi. 8-11 describes the ordinary opera- tions of the Spirit in saving God’s people is so far true, but it does not exhaust the meaning. 45. 46 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” The Spirit does convince sinners of sin, and that they must be saved by the righteousness of Christ, and thus from a judgment. But the contrast is between the world and the church. Besides, the meaning of the word is not to con- vince in the sense of persuading to be true and constraining to confess, but rather that of con- victing or reproving the world as guilty and condemned in these items of the indictment. The Holy Ghost came as Advocate after Christ. His special work to the world is to silence the worldly as enemies of Christ. They might refuse to accept Christ as their Saviour and to bow to Him as Lord. They would still be convicted (reproved) of sin in three specifications and for three reasons assigned. They would be compelled to think of Christ and His cause as they were not thinking while He was speak- ing and when He was dying, dead, and buried. The Holy Ghost would prove that Christ was what He claimed to be, and that they were guilty in not accepting Him in His claim, and would reprove them for refusing the righteous- ness of Christ which He had gone to present to the Father for His people, in whose imputed righteousness the world would be reproved. For this also the world would be convicted of judgment, and the sentence passed upon the HIS MISSION TO THE WORLD 47 prince of this world in the death and resurrec- tion of Christ, and in the mighty signs and wonders wrought by the disciples in the power of the Holy Ghost, would be the evidence. Within a few centuries after Pentecost there was a great change in the state of the world with reference to sin, righteousness, and the judgment. We might almost say its opinion on these was completely transformed within a few decades; and so great was the change that in a few centuries it was considered conversion, very much as the intellectual belief that Jesus is the Son of God is by some now held to be sufficient evidence of the new birth. This change is apparent in the Acts. In the earlier part of the book appears a peculiar restraining and irresistible power of the Holy Ghost accom- panying the testimony of the apostles and early witnesses for the resurrection, such that the un- believing Jews, in spite of their great number and bitter prejudice, were unable to withstand it. Among the Gentiles this was mistaken for some magician’s power and was eagerly sought. Both Jews and Gentiles were forced to respect the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. The heathen acknowledged Christianity as a great fact even when refusing to believe to the saving of their souls, The careful commentator Scott writes: 48 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” “Tt is worthy of notice that an immense pro- portion of the human race, since the pouring out of the Holy Spirit after our Lord’s ascension, have been led to form such sentiments about sin, righteousness, and future judgment as the world up to that time had not the most remote conception of.’’ A separate study of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh verses will show this. The ninth suggests that the Holy Ghost will oblige the enemies of Christ to see that in not believ- ing Him they made a great mistake, and that they committed a serious sin in rejecting Him in whom they ought to have believed. The tenth teaches that after Christ had gone to the Father the Holy Ghost would convict His enemies of rejecting and killing the Holy One and the Just; this because He had gone to the Father. The eleventh verse shows that the Holy Ghost will convict and reprove the world respecting the judgment by casting out Satan, in emptying heathen temples of worshipers, de- stroying the power of idolatry, and delivering vast portions of the world from superstition and the bondage ot'a sacrificial and ceremonial sys- tem by the spiritual worship of God through the one sacrifice of Christ. The Father and the Son send the Spirit to the church in order to bring conviction to the HIS MISSION TO THE WORLD — 49 world. He convinces, first, concerning Christ who was crucified; secondly, concerning Christ who has been accepted as a substitute for the redeemed; and thirdly, concerning Christ who is to come again and to judge the world. 1. “He will convince the world of stn.’ There was conviction of sin before Christ came. The heathen have the voice of conscience bearing witness to the law, “ their thoughts the mean- while accusing or else excusing one another.”’ Conscience accuses and convinces of lying and stealing and murder as hurtful and hateful; but the Holy Ghost bears witness and convinces of the sin of not believing in Jesus Christ as a substitute for the sinner and a sacrifice for his sin. From the first sin of Adam, there was sin, original sin, actual transgression, and the want of conformity to the law of God in life and char- acter, with omission of daily duty, obedience, and love. There were types and ceremonies foreshadowing and promising a Redeemer and pointing to Him; but now henceforth the Holy Ghost reveals Him, exalts Him, and bears wit- ness to Him as being already come, in fulfilment of all promises, prophecies, ceremonies, and types, through obedience, sufferings, and death the Saviour; and this Spirit convinces the world of the sin of rejecting Christ as the only 50 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” Mediator and Saviour. Peter preached at Pentecost this Jesus Christ who had fulfilled all righteousness, obeyed the requirements and suffered the penalty of the broken law; and as he preached the Holy Ghost wrought, and mul- titudes cried, ‘‘ What shall we do?” Paul preached “the faith of Christ,” ‘ determined not to know anything, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,” and sinners were saved through conviction of sin. The hearers at Pentecost were convinced that they had crucified both by guilt and by act. We are convicted that we do not believe in Him crucified and are guilty. The sin is the same—the sin of unbelief in Christ. 2. “Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more.” When the high priest entered within the holy of holies the people were anxious to know whether he was accepted. This could be known only by his return and blessing the people. Our great High Priest ascended to the right hand of God, into the most holy place, and the world could be convinced that His righteousness was ac- cepted by His return to bless in the person of the Holy Ghost, whom He had promised. This is God’s way of showing that the righteousness of Christ is accepted. This is the ground of the acceptance of the saints. God the Holy HIS MISSION TO THE WORLD 51 Ghost quickened Christ from the death of the cross. There He had been despised and re- jected, making atonement. Now He is accepted of the Father in that atonement. Peter at Pentecost said: “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” Jesus had said He would do this, and the doing confirmed His words. He is by this declared righteous as seated on His Father’s throne. The Holy Ghost is come to show that and to convince of that righteousness. 3. “ Of judgment, because the prince of this world ts judged.’ Judgment here is not only sentence of condemnation, but the decree and assurance that Satan is cast out. ‘Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” Satan tempted our first parents to ruin us and all our race. Thenceforth he is the prince of this world. The death of Christ made atonement and wrought redemption. This redemption is complete in casting out Satan. This began in the descent of the Holy Ghost, upon the acceptance of the atonement of Christ. He is here in evidence and bearing witness that this condemnation of Satan is complete and the decree entered to cast him out. Christ 52 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” came that “through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” The conviction here meant is not that else- where taught, of the judgment to come, and its terrors for unbelievers, and the security in Christ for those who shall not come into judgment, but the judgment of Satan to cast him out of this world. The three links here are the atonement for sin wrought by the Redeemer, the acceptance of the pérson and work of the Redeemer, and the decree that by these Satan is judged and through these is being cast out. The Holy Ghost witnesseth and convinceth the world that Jesus has made atonement for sin and that un- belief in Him is the damning sin; that the righteousness of Christ is accepted and His blessing as our High Priest is the gift of the Holy Ghost ; and that the perfect work of Christ will cast out the prince of this world, who is judged. This general operation of the Spirit carries the specific work of awakening sinners to a sense of their sin; of convincing them of guilt and exposure to the wrath of God; of produc- ing repentance, faith, and new obedience in the regeneration which He effects. As truly as HIS MISSION TO THE WORLD 53 the natural birth is the entrance upon the natu- ral life, so necessarily must the soul be born from above, and this is the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing every saved soul from death to life. CHAPTER VIII THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH THIS is a descriptive name Jesus gives of the Holy Ghost when telling His disciples there were many things they could not then receive while He was with them; but the Holy Ghost would teach them. He would guide them into all truth. All truth, all kinds of truth on all subjects, He would teach. He is the Teacher of truth in all departments of human learning, in all classes of pure knowledge, in all particu- lars and degrees of true wisdom. My Christian friend as a member of Congress was right in seeking instruction and guidance of this Teacher for every utterance and vote in the halls of legislation and in, every business matter, as well as and as conscientiously as in attending the service of the sanctuary and engaging in worship or teaching a class in the study of the Scrip- tures. The logical faculty must be made and 54. THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 55 kept right. The reasoning must be made dis- criminating and faultless. The facts must be secured, separated, and established. The in- tellect must be guided in all these to secure correct conclusions, even in secular concerns. Many fail to see this and to seek this guidance. Nevertheless it is the privilege of every Chris- tian and should be the possession of all. We may modify this general statement as to its source and its subject. The source is the counsels of the Trinity. Not what the Spirit might think of Himself, but what He hears in the heavenlies, He has as a message and came to speak. This includes prophecy. Jesus said, “He will show you things to come.” He had inspired and guided the prophets of the Old Testament; He would so use prophets of the New Testament. Herein is a call to study prophecy and a rebuke to any who refuse to receive its messages. It is a call to consider things to come. These, as parts of all truth, are concerning Christ. The Holy Spirit testi- fies of Jesus. All truth isin Him. “The tes- timony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” “ It pleased the Father that in Him should all full- ness dwell.” The Spirit makes His glories known. He came to take of the things of Jesus and show them to His disciples, thus to 56 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” reveal, exalt, and glorify Christ. All revelation is given by Him in its original parts and places and in its relations of truth and righteousness. He gives the reception and understanding of truth and is the minister of the liberty wherein the truth makes free. There is, therefore, per- fect harmony and proportion of all parts of His teaching, and He will show this to all who will receive it in the obedience of Jesus Christ. This harmony is in Christ. CHAPTER IX THE SPIRIT REVEALING CHRIST STUDY John xvi. 16. The verse preceding gives a summary of the context: “ All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you.” What is the connection between that and this: “ A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father’? This is supposed to refer to Christ’s death and resur- rection, making it mean that in a few hours the disciples would not see Him, because He would be dead and buried, and in a few hours more they would see Him again, because He would come forth from the dead. What, then, be- comes of the added words, “‘ because I go to the Father”? Help to understand this arises from further notice that two words are used in the original for seeing. In the first part, “A 57 58 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” little while, and ye shall not see Me,” the word is the one used in Luke xxiii. 48, describing the multitude at the crucifixion beholding with their bodily eyes. The word in the second part is the same as in Matthew v. 8, “ Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” This is spiritual seeing, and makes the meaning vastly more and richer than the disappearance and return of Christ in death and resurrection. Be- cause He ascended to the Father and we see Him no more here with the bodily eyes in this dispensation, the Comforter is come to reveal Him to the spiritual eyes as they see God. There is a twofold work of the Holy Spirit here—in revealing Christ, and in making Chris- tians pure in heart that they may see Christ. This distinction is important and far-reaching in its application. It was expedient that Christ should go away, that this work of the Spirit in revealing Christ might be done. This will ap- pear in comparing the state of mind and heart of Peter and the other apostles at any time beforehand, and especially at the trial and cruci- fixion of Christ} with the clearness of under- standing, firmness of conviction, fullness of persuasion, and devotion of heart on the day of Pentecost, and the endurance, courage, and success of their ministry afterward. The record THE SPIRIT REVEALING CHRIST 59 of the four gospels is of this revealing ministry. It is not all revelation in the sense of giving information first in each case. It is inspired revelation, giving exact truth, just so much, and no more, as would be and is the sufficient gospel record for all times and all peoples. Some devout souls call the Acts of the Apostles the “ Acts of the Holy Spirit.”” The intimation is justified in this, that much is added to our knowledge of Jesus Christ by the works of the Spirit herein recorded and His work in giving the record. The epistles further reveal Christ and all things by Him, in Him, and for Him. Any of them may be studied with great advantage from this point of view. Take the Epistle to the Hebrews, and we may well remark how poor the church would be without it. The title of the last book of the sacred canon is its own testimony—“ The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” Reading all this in the meaning of the words of our Lord, we have His provision for these writings and His sanction of them beforehand. This is answer to all who seek to be rid of the doctrines and counsels and prophecies of the Acts, the epistles, and the Revelation on the false plea that the gospels alone are our standards. The gospels are true, but they give us the reve- 60 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” lation of Christ only as preparing redemption and going to the Father with His perfect work. The associate and consequent Scriptures reveal by the Spirit both this redemption and the Redeemer. The many theological treatises and the ac- cumulation of devout Christian learning and literature along all lines of investigation, the vast range and comprehension of personal medi- tation and worship, the inwrought Christ of Christian lives and the outward manifestation of it in “living epistles, known and read of all men ’’—these all and more, in their uncounted, incidental lessons, show how great is the work, how wide the field of operation, outlined by Christ here. High as heaven, vast as eternity, blessed as the precious Christ, beyond all com- prehension yet given to the pure in heart in their vision of Christ, complete and minute, detailed and in outline, a part for every devout soul, as much as that soul can receive, enough for all eternity, we shall be ever seeing more fully Christ revealed by the Holy Spirit. CHAPTER X SEEING THE UNSEEN SAVIOUR ONLy the Holy Ghost can enable us to do this. It is not the same as the act of faith by which Moses “endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” It is not the vision of the mystic. It is, in proportion to its holiness of consecration and sanctification, the vision, spiritual and real, of a soul of a child of God. To be received in part by reading the Scrip- tures, it is not because of a more perfect know- ledge of the original languages merely, nor by reason of exact learning, though these may be helps. It comes rather by learning more about Christ in this study of the Scriptures. It is a personal, intimate, and transforming acquain- tance with the Saviour. It grows by obedience to Him and leads to more unquestioning loyalty. It is the soul and the secret of growth in grace, and “ presses toward the mark for the prize of 61 62 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,” and is to be fully attained in heaven. The books of the Old Testament, the gospels, the Acts, the epistles, and the Revelation are records concerning Jesus. These are complete and sufficient to reveal Him, but many readers fail to see Him. He is spiritually seen. A devout reader should distrust a mere intellectual perception, however clear and pleasing, apart from the guidance of the Holy Ghost, sought and waited for, and a personal unrest unless that guidance is given. Devout scholars and writers of the Christian centuries have been much used of the Spirit in the interpretation of the Scriptures, in the preparation of treatises on the teachings of the Scriptures, and in the elucidation of difficult questions arising out of this study, besides all the minor contributions to the unfolding of truths and elaboration of prin- ciples, and the application of doctrines and commandments to life and duty. Hence the ever-increasing commentaries on the whole or parts of the Bible. In these the Holy Spirit has given helps to see the Saviour. Among the many aids in the departments of study and classes of composition, as intellectual, moral or spiritual, general or personal, we find great value in the precious store of devotional SEEING THE UNSEEN SAVIOUR 63 works. The older works, such as ‘‘ The Saint’s Everlasting Rest,” “The Imitation of Christ,’ and “ Looking unto Jesus,” are very rich, but too little read. Later works, such as “ All about Jesus” and the works of Miss Havergal, especially ‘‘Kept for the Master’s Use,” can never supplant the older, though in richness, sweetness, and suggestiveness they should make part of the daily helps to see Jesus. Their name is legion, and their variety sufficient for all tastes. Take the words, “ declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God,” as a suggestion of another way of seeing the Saviour in the hearts and lives of His people. Here He is revealed by the Spirit. True, there are blemishes and foibles painfully prominent, but behind all these and shining through is the in- wrought Christ, and in the grace He gives His image appears. Sometimes we do not see this with our sin-blinded eyes, but we recall it in the memory of the departed. Nevertheless there are about us humble, rejoicing, or self-sacrificing saints, showing us by the Spirit the unseen Saviour. If we do not know any such, it might be to our advantage to have our eyes treated by the heavenly Physician. He appears resplen- 64 “ANOTHER COMFORTER.” dent in our multitude of missionary heroes. They are now in every land. In every clime they have ‘‘counted not their lives dear unto themselves, that they might win Christ.” If we who say “‘ We would see Jesus’ would only acquaint ourselves with these in person or in biographical records, we might have the vision nearer than we think. Let us not say we cannot see Jesus. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, further, to make us able to see Him. We have not only the revelation of Him in the written Word and its manifold exposition, illustration, and application, and in the learning and lives of His saints, but also a gracious work of making us able to see and disposed to enjoy Jesus so revealed. Such seeing is knowing. It is knowing about Jesus in His nature, offices, Word, and works. It is knowing Him in personal acquaintance, fellow- ship, control, and guidance. It has its mounts of transfiguration. There are occasional well- nigh overmastering shinings of His glory. These are rarer than they might be, because we spend so little time in’ the secret presence and audience of the King and in communion with Him as Lord and Saviour. The Comforter, Advocate within us for Jesus, pleads with us to turn aside oftener into the places called desert, to be alone SEEING THE UNSEEN SAVIOUR 65 with Him. We plead demands of business or we yield to worries which ought to bring us to Him, and we do not turn aside. Or we are in too great haste to return to these and earthly trifling cares. The Saviour is waiting, and the Spirit yearns to reveal Him. We will not take the time for such waiting in places of private prayer and meditation and worship as He ap- points until the Spirit shall give us such a reve- lation of Jesus that we cannot but rejoice. When we are wakeful and tossing at night upon our beds, not able to sleep, we may have an opportunity to call upon the Holy Spirit to make precious and clear all we can remember from the Scriptures concerning Christ, and we may have the opportunities of our lives to see Jesus. He may be inviting us to commune with Him and to tell Him all that is in our hearts. It will then be restful and helpful to think of all He has done. There may be, and we should seek to have, while sleep separates from us the companionship of others, such a revelation of the gracious and glorious fullness of Christ and of His personal presence as no words have ever described, and in vision such as we can never make plain to others. For the realization of this great possibility we must seek to be pure in heart and to ascribe all glory, 66 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” honor, and majesty to Him, even as we expect to do unceasingly when the Holy Spirit shall have perfected His work, when we shall be free from time and sense limitations, when “ we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” Like the pious monk of the middle ages, we may seek in meditation and prayer, with self- emptying and consecration, to have a vision of Christ as a personal religious experience. To some it may be given. But the call is to have more precious and powerful the vision when we have done some self-sacrificing service in His name to the poor and needy, the widow and orphan. In doing His will we may see His face. CHAPTER XI THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST In the “ Sunday-school Times” of June 18, 1892, there is an article on the “ Acts of the Apostles”’ by John R. Whitney, whom we sup- pose to be a member of the Society of Friends, as he writes at their college at Bryn Mawr, Pa. He gives an excellent analysis of the book. While it does not necessarily exclude other views as to the objects of the book, it presents clearly a new, simple, and forcible view that it is in- tended “to record all that the Holy Ghost began to doand teach.”’ In this view the book has three parts. The first part presents the power which is of a person, the Spirit of God. The second part gives the instrument, the Word of God. The third part presents the chief agent, a man, the apostle to the Gentiles. The writer thus summarizes the first part: ‘It is the power of the Holy Ghost. In the first eleven chapters 67 68 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” this is strikingly and strongly emphasized; so much so that the book itself has not inaptly been styled the Gospel of the Holy Ghost, so wonderfully does it record the fulfilment of the great promise of our Lord in John xvi. 7.” The early history in the planting and training of the church is full of this power. It was the promise of the Father and of Christ. In Acts i. 8 it is called the power of the Holy Ghost. This was not His power which works regeneration. The disciples already had been born “ from above.” It was not His power which works the sanc- tification of those who are being saved. It was not His power which the Holy Ghost uses as our Comforter or Advocate, or as producing His fruits in our hearts and lives, except as these are incidental to the main purpose to make disciples witnesses for Christ. This is the dis- tinction and the limitation of the power, that it should make effectual witnesses. All power, all kinds and degrees of power, are shown in the Bible to be of the Holy Ghost. In the creation He wrought in power on both living and dead matter. To Samson He gave physical strength. He gave to the men and women, for the work of preparing material and building the tabernacle, skill in varied handicrafts, needlework, and other Iinds of work required. Taking the thought THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST _ 69 from these few of the many cases in the Old Testament, we see that whatever kind or degree of power may be necessary to make servants of our Lord Jesus Christ efficient witnesses for Him is here meant. This department or division of the work of the Holy Ghost was introduced to this dispensation on the day of Pentecost. We are not to fall into the error of supposing that, as the Holy Spirit came in this power at Pentecost, we are not to pray for this power. The Holy Ghost did not come in person for the first time at Pentecost. He did not come once for all upon disciples for strength and success in service. He came upon the disciples waiting with one accord,” ‘in supplica- tion.”” That this was not once for all is seen 9 66 Site pLayer, from Acts iv. 31, showing disciples again pray- ing, and pentecostal power given, accompanied by pentecostal signs, teaching that in every emergency and responsibility it is right to pray and wait for “the power of the Holy Ghost”’ to qualify for duty and to use in service. The Holy Ghost not merely gives or is the source of power. It is His to exert His power, and His power alone is sufficient to qualify and use convincing witnesses. As the vicegerent of Christ He makes witnesses and uses them for Christ, and it is right and necessary to seek 70 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” from God the Father, for Jesus’ sake, this power for service. We may not have a feeling, physi- cal or emotional, that we are in this power. We should rather not expect a bodily or sense perception of its working. Our feeling may rather be of weakness, helplessness, or insuf- ficiency of ourselves, with a prayer to be pos- sessed and used, and a faith to trust God, for Christ’s sake, so to use us as to keep us humble and to magnify His Word and exalt His Son. We rest on the promise, and, using all means in our power, know and plead that all must be in vain without His power, knowing, and trembling to know, that the power is the power of the Holy Ghost. Taking warning from examples in the Old Testament, we need to seek first to be the chil- dren of God in regeneration, that we may be used as children and not as unregenerate. CHAPTER XII POWER TO WORK, TO SERVE WE ought to say ¢e power for work and service, because there is but one power of the Holy Ghost working in endless and exhaustless variety. This is outlined in Genesisi. 2. It is illustrated in manifold manifestation of char- acter, life, and works throughout the Old Tes- tament. It is promised for New Testament times in the first chapter of the Acts. We often hear prayer for God’s help offered in such a way as to imply the belief that, if God would only help us more or less, we could do something, possibly some great work. If this prayer meant “ Help Thou my unbelief,” asking God to give us faith or quicken or enlarge what we already have, it would be right. But when implying that we do any work or service for God of ovrselves, it is wrong. The prayer should rather be to God to take us and make 71 72 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” us what we ought to be, and to use us in work of service. Instead of asking God to help us work for Him, let us ask Him to possess us and control us and use us and all we have in His service. Moreover, instead of asking God to give us this power in the sense of putting it within our control, we should rather seek to have the Holy Ghost take us into the control of His power. There is vast difference between having this power given us and being taken into the service of God in this power. This latter is essential self-surrender, on our part, in conse- cration. It must be effectual in God’s conse- cration upon us. One of the most pleasing discoveries in Old Testament study has been the extent of the work of the Holy Ghost in using God’s servants. One of the earliest examples is Joseph. From a shepherd’s lad in Canaan, without court ex- perience or any such education or training as we would think adequate, he became prime minister to the sovereign of Egypt. Pharaoh was desirous to commend this young man to his officers and people. The words he used are very like what the queen-mother used concern- ing Daniel in recommending him for a similar place, centuries later. It is the word of a heathen king, but puts Joseph where others are POWER TO WORK, TO SERVE 13 definitely placed by inspiration, These are the words: ‘Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?”” By Him Joseph was qualified for his high position and used in great matters of state. Others we no- tice elsewhere. Notice the expression, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” and consider how he was there. Look at Gideon in his great victory with lamps and pitchers and the cry, “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon,” but only as the Spirit of the Lord possessed him. So Samson had great physical power, and Jeph- thah fought and conquered. For the work of preparing materials and building the tabernacle the Spirit of God qualified and used the master workmen and the workers in every part, of wood, stone, metals, precious stones, and curtains of skins and of needlework. Thus the preparation and the power to serve in every kind and degree of service to the Lord in the Old Testament are by the power of the Holy Ghost. In Genesis i. 2, “ And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,” is the truth for creation, made evident in later revelation as true in His works of providence and redemption. The Holy Spirit imparts, fosters, and develops life. He brings order out of confusion. He holds in order the forces. Through Him is the 74 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” impartation of life. By Him is the training, applying, and using of all life’s forces. In re- lation to life in Himself and of that to others, He alone works in all power of God. There is a glimpse of this in the scientific claim of the correlation of forces. Natural phenomena are thus traceable, not to a physical law merely, but rather to the third person in the Trinity, who established and maintains these laws. In life, all use of life and its application, the refer- ence must be ever to the Spirit of God. We wish this power to work, to serve. We are concerned about our responsibilities. The mother is burdened in a desire to do her duty to her children. There are household duties. The teacher, with his class in secular or sacred things, has a desire to succeed. So on and on, in personal and professional, in private and public, in individual and in joint responsibilities we are saying, “‘ Who is sufficient for these things?’” What power may we have? In consecrated lives we may have power for the asking. It will not possess us for our glory or for our selfish advantage or pleasure. We should seek this only to the extent of our respon- sibilities and duties. This is the power of the Holy Ghost, not for us to command or use, but to use us as well pleasing to God in His service. CHAPTER XIII PENTECOSTAL POWER AFTER the ascension of Christ the disciples continued to meet daily in Jerusalem. They were united in prayer and supplication. “ When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.’”’ In prayer, waiting and looking for the promised power, they heard, not a rushing, mighty wind, but a sound like as of that; and the sound filled the house. They saw, not fire, for it did not burn, but something like fire, which divided into shapes of tongues and rested on the heads of the disciples. These disciples ‘‘ were filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” This was pentecostal power. At the feast of the Passover, where Christ our Passover was the true Lamb of sacrifice, the first sheaf of the ripening harvest was offered before the Lord. 75 m76 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” Fifty days thereafter two loaves of bread were offered as token of the gathered grain. So Christ, the first-fruits of them that slept, arose on the day of the offering of the first-fruits, and at Pentecost the Holy Ghost was given as the token of the fullness of harvest; for by Him is the fullness of Christ, and by Him the bride, the church, which is the fullness of Him that filleth all in all, shall be gathered in to Christ. Joseph Cook has said suitably to this thought, “The influences of the Holy Spirit are Christ’s continued life.” This is the dispensation of the Spirit. He had wrought occasionally in Old Testament times. He had exerted His power before the day of Pentecost. On that day He came in the full- ness of His power, in the completeness of His manifold ministry, in the permanence of His presence, and in His part of the work of re- demption in the world, in the church, and in the person of each believer whose body is a temple of the Holy Ghost. Every soul con- vinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment is a proof of the power of the Spirit. He is here to comfort believers, to sanctify saints, to guide disciples into all truth. He is hiding Himself, exalting Christ. He is taking of the things of Jesus and showing them to His humble followers, PENTECOSTAL POWER T7 Every right thought, every noble purpose, every true aspiration, every holy desire, every high resolve, is His gracious bestowal. He “ helpeth our infirmities.” He “maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” As Jesus is Advocate at the throne of grace, the Holy Spirit is Advocate at the altar of our hearts, making our pleadings, our consecration, and our worship perfect, right, and true. He makes the heart of every child of God His abode, and the body of each His temple. Hence the exhortations, ‘ Grieve not the Holy Spirit” and ‘‘Quench not the Spirit.” All this, and more, is the manifold ministry of the Holy Spirit. And this fails to exhaust and does not define comprehensively the pentecostal power of the Holy Ghost. The promise of our ascending Lord was that the disciples should be witnesses unto Him in the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon them. This began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, when the disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke with other tongues. It was continued in every need and responsi- bility like that of the fourth chapter of the Acts. Then the disciples spoke with boldness. In other conditions they manifested joyful resigna- tion and triumph in trial and persecution, when 78 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” they humbly yet gladly “ counted it all joy that they were found worthy to suffer for the name of the Lord Jesus.” Thus they stood before councils and kings and bore testimony which their hearers could not resist, and then the Word of God on their lips and in their lives grew mightily and prevailed. Pentecostal power is the manifold ministry which abides in this dispensation to take and apply the redemption of Christ, and to be “ an- other Comforter’ after and to reveal and glorify Christ. Every Christian may now have and should seek the measure of this manifold min- istry and that special direction and control and guidance of it which his responsibility to testify, his gifts to administer, or his duty to serve may require. The duties and gifts are the measure of responsibility in such opportunities as God gives in the authority of Christ, our living Head and interceding Lord; and the ability to do our duty in the use of these gifts is of the Holy Ghost. ‘All these worketh that selfsame Spirit,” giving to every man “ to profit withal.” Let us rejoice that the almighty Spirit is come and abides to make every Christian a witness for Christ where and as he is. The Comforter came on the day of Pentecost with just that miracle and ministry needed at PENTECOSTAL POWER 79 the time and for the responsibility and oppor- tunity of the hour. He came while the disciples were of one accord in prayer and supplication. Jesus foretold this and placed a condition for after generations in the words “ to them that ask Him.”” This calls for united prayer. There has been a blessing every year on the church at home and abroad in observing the week of prayer. Whenever the people of God do come together in prayer to seek the power of the Holy Ghost, He has come. The disposition to come together should be ascribed to Him. The church should always be seeking and looking for any evidence of His power or readiness to bestow a blessing. This power is not emotional merely. It is not the promoter of mere intellectual pleasure or insight in reading God’s Word. That is a de- lusion and a snare. It is the fallacy of the so-called higher criticism. With or without conscious intellectual clearness, pleasure, or profit in studying or teaching the truth, we must seek and wait for the power of the Holy Ghost. CHAPTER XIV SOURCE OF STRENGTH IN seeking success in personal and united, organized service in the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are tempted and prone to make our plans and to expect results from a secular or | worldly point of view. Because of the dangers in this, it is well for us to betake ourselves to private prayer and to respond to calls for special seasons of prayer. The week of prayer makes such a call. In a recent recurrence of this sea- son the closing service had for its subject “ The Promised Outpouring.” The basis text is in the second chapter of Joel. Whether that pro- phecy has yet, been fulfilled in all its meaning and preciousness,—and I think it has not,—it does not concern me now to seek. It had ful- filment on the day of Pentecost. That was the coming of the Holy Ghost, spoken of as an out- pouring in many places. He is come to apply 80 SOURCE OF STRENGTH 81 the redemption wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ for His people. He is our source of strength. This appears from another prophecy. Zechariah the prophet, with Haggai, was en- couraging the people of Judah concerning the rebuilding of the temple. The work of rebuild- ing had ceased for a time. The prophet would arouse the people. He gives that guiding word, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” He would set forward the rebuilding of the material temple. The Holy Spirit is the source of strength for the labors and burdens necessary. How much more for the spiritual temple! We need the power of the Holy Ghost to do rightly and successfully what we call secular work. He qualifies to do wisely and well what- ever it is our duty to doin business, profession, trade, or labor. He brings these in subordina- tion to the claims and authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will use us in all for the ad- vancement of the cause of Christ. In doing, He blesses us temporally and spiritually, in and by means of our temporal engagements and occupations. We should humbly and gladly declare our full persuasion of this and should re- joice to see a growing recognition of this truth. We hear the call to work for Christ. The 82 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” work is often perplexing and difficult, and there are serious hindrances. There are temptations to use means and methods that are worldly. We sometimes appeal to the world to help on its own terms. Occasionally we become worldly in appealing to the world. Instead of this we should honor the Holy Ghost as our source of strength, not the might or power of the world, which is essentially the power of Satan. This world belongs to our Lord by right of creation and redemption, and ought to be under His control. But Satan claims and seeks to hold this world. Its maxims and means of Satan’s devising, in the carnal wisdom and fleshly in- terests and selfish contentions of our fallen and unregenerate natures, are not the proper prin- ciples, nor are they the suitable and sufficient forces with which to do spiritual work. In its responsibilities and for its duties the church of Christ is not dependent on human patronage or authority. When the world un- dertakes any great work it seeks the sympathy of wealth and the codperation of men in high places. The indorsement of men in authority is eagerly sought. It should not be so with the church, though it often is. The saying is that if people of wealth can be secured, if persons of influence and social standing can be gained, SOURCE OF STRENGTH 83 there will be success. Let us beware. If such come to Christ, and, renouncing all self-impor- tance and self-sufficiency, will enter the school of Christ, waiting to learn of Him, we may welcome them to service for Him. But they are not to be sought as valuable because of worldly importance. On the contrary, the church has never been so true to her Lord, has never prospered so really, has never done so effectually her true work of bearing witness for Christ, as when suffering the opposition of princes and rulers. The smiles of Satan, the patronage of princes, the good graces of the great, have rather robbed the church of spir- ituality and strength. The secularizing spirit under Constantine did more for Satan than all the storms of persecution the church has ever known. There is great need now to return to the ways pointed out by the prophets Zechariah and Haggai. There is great need to exalt and honor Christ and to wait and plead for His Spirit as source of strength. The church is not dependent on armaments of human force; she is not dependent on armies or navies. However much our nation thinks it necessary to increase naval strength, or however European nations may think standing armies essential to peace or power, these are not re- 84 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” quired by the church. ‘The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God.” Armies and navies may terrify into silent submission, but can never secure personal loyalty and devotion to our King. They may make hypocrites, but can never give the genuine spirit of Christianity. CHAPTER XV SEEMING STRENGTH For the work of the church and of each in- dividual Christian there must be such strength as to make success sure. We were, in a pre- ceding study, showing that the source of strength is not in the many means which the world holds sufficient and suitable to do its work. Such are sources, not of real, but only of seeming strength. Even for worldly ends they are not real or adequate sources of strength. They are not original sources, but only agents of advantage, it may be, or posses- sions helpful, or powers limited, in the hands of the superior and real Source behind and above them all. Dependence on these and resort to them can only partially, at best, secure desired results, even in temporal things. Be it ours to seek real, permanent, and beneficial results. We would build for eternity, not for a mere 85 86 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” present show or advantage, or an apparent vic- tory, or a transient good. Any present good we may hope to secure should be a part of some larger good, and an earnest of that larger good we are to seek. We often lose sight of this and resort to expedients very specious, but delusive, because they modify or diminish our devotion to eternal principles and tempt us to explain away, if we do not deny, plain teachings of God’s Word. We accept, if we do not propose, reason and the voice of a majority as standards of faith, rather than faith in God and the au- thority of His Word. This is only seeming, not real, strength. Men do seem to succeed by means of certain forces or factors in their organizations and labors. If any dare doubt the propriety of the use of such means, if any urge objection against the methods, if any question the soundness of the measures, the prompt reply is, ‘ There is noth- ing succeeds like success.” That sounds well; it seems fine. But the offset is here: the suc- cess may be at the sacrifice of honor and truth; it may be in utter disregard of wisdom and justice; it may be for to-day, but not for to- morrow. The church sees the world resorting to policy in councils of state, in boards of trade, in methods of business, in lines of labor. It SEEMING STRENGTH 87 hears loudly proclaimed such half-truths as the famous adage, ‘“‘ Honesty is the best policy.” It is freely said that this carnal policy of the so-called wisdom of unregenerate men brings success. It is resorted to in the courts of princes and in the cabinets of nations, and the church is tempted to resort to it. It sometimes yields a temporary advantage, but there is no high attainment of spirituality and piety and the permanent power of likeness to Christ and conformity to the laws of His kingdom, which alone can hold sway over the world. The throne of Antichrist rests on this foundation of man’s wisdom and the success of human counsels. Seeing the value of wealth, the importance of learning, and the power of eloquence in the world, Christians are often tempted to think that eloquence, learning, and riches are neces- sary to success in the service of Christ. We do not depreciate these. We long to see the day when they will be parts of full consecration to serve our Master with all we are and have. But we know they are not essential to true triumph. Even when consecrated they are not to be trusted in themselves. They have their place and use as subordinate means. The Scriptures warn us against the use of money and trusting in uncertain riches. God hath chosen foolish 88 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” things to confound the wise, and weak things to confound the mighty. Our Lord chose plain men for disciples and earliest apostles. Even when He would use the learning of Paul, He first took away self-trust and made the apostle to the Gentiles see himself the weakest and least worthy of all, and all his apparent advantages only good with the blessing of God, and teach the weakness and insufficiency of the best human means for spiritual service and success. Apollos the eloquent was chief speaker when worship was offered Paul and him. Yet two plain folk, Aquila and Priscilla, promoters of household religion and noted for personal piety in private life, are made teachers to set right the errors into which too ready utterance will so often plunge the eloquent. The danger of speaking hastily and without full preparation and com- plete information is remedied by thoughtful tent-makers. Moses was not eloquent, Aaron was; yet Moses was leader and lawgiver, and Aaron was fit only to follow and obey and apply. Natural gifts and worldly possessions should not be despised, but they are dangerous, and the church is not dependent on them for suc- cess. The best work for Christ is not done by them, but very often against them or in spite of them. ae SEEMING STRENGTH 89 The church often craves or trusts in the ad- vantages of material progress. The advances in knowledge of physical forces, the triumphs of applied science, the surprises and blessings of invention and discovery, are claimed as means to and promises of early and easy victory over all opposition. These are the products, not the producers, of great things from God and great things for Him. These material blessings are the fruit of the tree that is planted by the river of waters, and not the seed of a coming growth. They increase the comfort and multiply the means of further material progress, but they are not the sure means of success nor the necessary conditions of the highest efficiency in the ser- vice of Christ; and they may be making weak and cowardly those who would be strong by hardships. The church of Christ in the cause of right, in the mercy and might of redemption, in its proper work and office of bearing witness for Christ, and in its labor to win this world to Christ, has one means of certain success. The truth alone must conquer, whether of the revealed Word as the sword of the Spirit, or the living Word as the great gift and revelation of the Spirit, or both of these as essentially and vitally wrought by the Spirit in the character, life, and labors 90 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” of the Christian. Instead of human plans and worldly expediency, the church must seek from the Spirit a simple, sincere, and sure instruction in the recorded truth of Scripture. It must wield that truth as the sword of the Spirit, keeping it bright by constant use, and being skilled by much practice. It must stop and stay there, and only there, where the truth teaches, and go only according to that truth, no matter what man’s wisdom teaches. CHAPTER XVI STRENGTH SPIRITUAL strength. ‘Strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” “ Strength- ened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.” ‘According to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joy- fulness.” ‘‘That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.’ That we may “ fight the good fight of faith.”” All this “in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” This is preparation and qualification for service in the gospel and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. — The world does not think so, and the church, so far as it 1s worldly, does not accept this. The worldly church says, ‘‘We must have money, patronage, and well-laid plans.” It is all a sad, spiritless, shorn strength that saysso. Strength, whether of the soul seeking sanctification and service, or of the servant seeking substantial 91 92 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” and permanent advancement of the Master’s cause, comes of abiding in Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon the servant as a Christian, or of the free and independent and sovereign working of the Holy Spirit as He wills, on any whom the Lord will use. In addition to the sources of strength we have mentioned in which the church is tempted to trust is one toa degree good and helpful. This is of equipments of buildings and furniture, and organization of societies and agencies to unify and direct labor. To protect the persons and preserve the health of worshipers, or to aid in promoting worship, and to secure and administer wisely the gifts and benefactions, these are so far good. But they may mislead or even hinder. Instead of using them for good results, we may seek them as ends good in themselves. They do engender pride and promote the extravagant rivalry that does harm sometimes. But that is not the present thought, to warn against the temptation to believe that the church must and will succeed because of its fine plans and fur- nished places of worship and of work, or be- cause of its thorough and drilled organization. It would be unfair to say that the church has too much organization; but between less beau- tiful and comfortable buildings and less organi- wale une” i % : ‘ i Vs 3 ; STRENGTH 93 zation and a possible opposite in the power of the Holy Ghost, there can be no hesitation to” choose the places and the agencies which the Spirit will use. The Spirit of God selects the instruments He will use ordinarily in the authority and call of the spiritual church organized according to the Seriptures. But if the church be unspiritual and worldly, the choice often is, to the rebuke of the church, independent of its organization. If the church trusts in anything other than the Spirit of God, the ministering power of the Lord, the Spirit will forsake her in spite of wealth and patronage, policy and learning, material advantages or perfect equipment and organization. The Spirit chose apostles and prophets, pastors and teachers, evangelists and workers. He bestows gifts for service, “‘ divid- ing to every man severally as He will.” ‘“‘ Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. . . . But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.”” Thus the Spirit selects His instruments. Dr. H. Clay Trumbull wrote in comment on the words of Zechariah, ‘‘ Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts,” the following ringing sentences: “It is hard for Christians to accept this as a practical truth in 94 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” ordinary religious activities. They will think that a church is stronger for having wealthy members; that fifty rich men and women—with the average spirituality of the rich—are worth more just there for ‘the support of the gospel’ and the extension of Christ’s kingdom than one plain man and one poor woman, full of the Holy Ghost, praying and working in that field. They cannot but feel that costly buildings, eloquent preaching, fine music, and a large congregation have a good deal to do with church efficiency. Good rooms and improved machinery are sup- posed by some excellent people to be really essential to a first-class Sunday-school. And, at all events, the normal class and the teachers’ meeting and the best lesson helps are counted no unimportant sources of power. But while the Holy Spirit can and does make good use of all such things in their place, they are in themselves of no might, of no power, for the Spirit’s work. Unless they are used by the Spirit, they amount to nothing for Christ’s cause. No Bible study, no Sunday-school teaching, no preaching, or praying, or praising, or giving, are of any account, except as they are made effective of the Holy Spirit.” We measure means too much by their size, things too often by their bigness. In church igen alte t STRENGTH 95 work we count success in numbers and reckon results in dollars and cents. We weigh in the scales of business, and not in the balances of the sanctuary. The true standard is in char- acter, in spirituality, in humility. In these balances we have real success many times where, judged by false standards, we have seemed to fail. Strength to trust, to labor, and to wait will never fail. CHAPTER XVII THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT “ Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit”? (1 Cor. xii. 4). So Paul, and in other places, and Peter also. ‘‘ Having then cifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.” ‘‘ But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.”” ‘As every man hath received the gift, evew so minister the same.”’ This is different from the enduement of power which was promised and waited for as part of the blessing of the Holy Ghost at Pen- tecost, not made a permanent possession, but to remain with consecration and holiness of life, or to be repeated for each responsibility or opportunity to bear witness for Christ, or ob- ligation or occasion to serve Him. This is not the work of the Spirit in regeneration and its operations, sanctification and its graces, conse- 96 Le ee a (HE GII SS OL LHE SPIRIT; 97 cration and its fruits, or enduement of power and its effects. These gifts of the Spirit cannot be confined to the times of the apostles, which, some think, also bound the days of miracles. If the refer- ences to these were only in the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians there might be some ground to assert this limit. But the teaching is found in the books of Romans, Ephesians, Colossians, and First Peter, not counting here the allusions to these gifts in other books, and has such weight as to compel the conclusion that these gifts, min- istered in the age of the apostles, are not limited to that age. These gifts are particular and individual. They are to every Christian, and with grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. In this appears the relation of the Spirit to Christ, that the gifts are from Christ, ministered by the Holy Ghost. They are the manifesta- tion of the Spirit, an evidencing and clear dis- play of His power. They constitute, that is, they establish, form, and compose, the inherent faculty or specific talent for the use of which, as a child of God, the Lord Jesus holds each one accountable, and which He appeals to each to use in His service. They warrant the asser- tion that every Christian has some qualification 98 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” to serve, some talent to be invested, given by the Spirit “to profit withal.” These both de- mand of every Christian a diligent use of the gift bestowed, and encourage each to a full measure of faithfulness in knowing that abun- dant and varied gifts are bestowed for every duty and every responsibility. It is only for each one to ask for guidance and grace to use the gift. How far these gifts are innate and anticipatory, as called natural, we may not know. But this is sure, that every child of God has a gift, and some may have several gifts, and their bestowal and efficiency are alike of the Spirit. In these are to be found the only safe scrip- tural recognition and classification of specialists in experience and example, children of God eminent and prominent and successful along single lines, and illustrious and mighty in par- ticular phases of work, or distinguished in spirit- ual leadership, in the history of the church. Herein we have refuge from fanatical reli- gionists claiming that every Christian may and should have in equal possession and in personal experience and power, as a grace or an attain- ment of the spiritual life, what some have pre- eminently as gifts. Hereby we shall escape the difficulty, with some a great fear, of allowing LITE GALT SOLS PH ESL IRS LT 99 and acknowledging manifest workings of these special gifts, lest they warrant presumption in others. Herein we have room and right for the © exercise and use of every gift, “decently and in order,” for ‘‘ the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets,”’ and exhortations to all to stir up the gift that is in them, not merely as in the case of the ordained evangelist, nor of necessity limited to the laying on of hands, but certainly a gift of the Spirit. Special gifts, making their possessors eminent, have their explanation here. We may boldly say that such men as George Miiller have the gift of faith and prayer for the needy and desolate; men like J. Hudson Taylor have the gift of faith for support and supply of all tem- poral wants, in venturing upon God’s work without any visible means of securing what they need to go out into “the regions beyond.” Their gift is to trust and go. To some the gift of faith and prayer for bodily healing is be- stowed. In this way we shall find men and women with gifts, differing according to the grace that is given them, for some special ser- vice or testimony. Some of these may work as rebukes of those who fail in regular methods, for they do deeds of daring, and bear heavy burdens, and suffer much, still bringing the 100 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” helpless to Christ, and crying after Christ, and taking Christ to the needy, in irregular or un- conventional methods, and by means not ap- pointed by the doctors of the law. The gifts are not to be decried, and the works are not to be despised, because “they follow not us.” “ Notwithstanding every way the gospel is preached.” Irregulars may be more regular than regulars, if the latter follow only the letter, and the former be led by the Spirit. These irregulars are not necessarily right. They are not thereby justified in self-assertiveness. They will prove the possession of gifts by humility and patience. They will not assert that all who work in a regular way are wrong. The regular way is normally the right way, and most are called to exercise their gifts in an orderly manner and under wholesome restraints. The exceptions are called to prove the rule, not to destroy it. The gifts of the Spirit are to make servants of all to the Lord Christ, so that the many may serve in the regular way, and the few may have place even in irregular ways. Whether with the gifts of faith or healing or giving or ruling, or any other, “all these work- eth that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.” Closing the catalogue of gifts in First Corin- THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT 101 thians, the apostle urges all to desire earnestly the best gifts. Without discrediting that desire, he shows the more excellent way of charity, or love, without which gifts may be of value for service, but will not avail for holiness and happiness. By these gifts are fitness for service and call to office, with reason for deep humility in any ability to serve the Lord Christ. Every Christian needs to inquire diligently, not what would be pleasant or desirable from a worldly point of view, but what gift of God may make useful and successful in service. The exhortation of the apostle, “‘ Quench not the Spirit,’ as it is associated with the other, “ Despise not prophesyings,”’ has an application here, and teaches, not, as frequently said, that the sinner can do this in resisting the Spirit, but that Christians may in not using the gifts of the Spirit. It does not refer to the loss of eternal life, but the neglect or abuse of gifts and the depreciation of the Spirit’s work. Here is an explanation of so much coldness or dead- ness in the church and so great barrenness of Christian living. Ambitious to be or to do what the gift bestowed does not warrant, and unwilling to do what the gift warrants and qualifies to do, or indolent or indifferent in opportunities to use the gift to serve, many a 102 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” Christian has neglected the gift or abused it, and has done despite to the Spirit of grace, until the gift has become a judge and proved the guilt of disobedience to the command, “Quench not the Spirit.” If any find a difficulty in 1 Corinthians xiii. 13, supposing that to limit gifts to apostolic times, the solution may be found in xii. 31, where we are told to covet earnestly the best gifts. Then the twelfth runs over to the thir- teenth chapter as a more excellent way, not to supersede, but to supplement and crown. Faith, hope, and love abide, not as successors to or substitutes for the gifts, but as graces that adorn and enrich. If any ask the difference between graces and gifts, it is here. Gifts are qualifications or talents for use in service. Graces are the ele- ments of spiritual texture, and the attractive manifestations of personal religious experience, which commend to others the excellences of holy living. By graces and fruits the influence of the Holy Spirit may affect others. It requires the power of the Holy Ghost to make gifts effective. CHAPTER XVIII THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT THE work of the Holy Spirit in this dispensa- tion is as varied and comprehensive as the needs in applying the work of Jesus. This somewhat distinguishes the present from that of the old dispensation of prophecy and promise. This is not limited to nor exhausted by the beginning at Pentecost. Its application in the life of the Christian produces the graces and fruits of the Spirit. In Galatians v. 22 the apostle contrasts the fruit of the Spirit with the works of the flesh. The word “ fruit’ is in the singular number. The question whether ‘love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,’’ are the fruit, or the fruit is love and the others are love ex- pressing itself in varieties, is not easily answered. Dr. Donald Fraser, in his“‘ Synoptical Lectures,” says: “Men often speak of the fruits of the 103 104 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” Spirit, but the apostle is careful to say fruit— one holy fruit, or result, comprising many vir- tues. Love is the juice of the fruit, sweet to God and man; joy, its beautiful bloom; peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, form its mellow softness; faith is its consistence and also forms its characteristic and incompara- ble flavor; temperance the rind of the fruit, binding it together, keeping it fresh, and pre- serving its good qualities from waste.” This beautiful presentation of the apostle’s truth under the figure of ripe fruit enables us to perceive more clearly that love is the product of the Spirit in the heart of the Christian, out of which and with which the virtues are pro- duced by the same Spirit in the work of sanc- tification and comfort wrought in the believer. These virtues are named in order as excel- lences of the fruit of the Spirit. He dwells in every believer. He is working the sanctifica- tion of each. He produces and manifests the fruit. The believer codperates with the Spirit and is used by Him, with all necessary means, in the ripening, enriching, and improvement of this fruit. The believer needs to take care that the fruit is not dwarfed or blighted in its growth. This is working out his salvation with fear and trembling. This does not deny or destroy the THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT 105 usual understanding of this passage in Philip- pians that the believer should do good, that the life of the believer should be full of good works. It is only stating an inner meaning. “The apostle has here in view mainly the attainment of the mind that was in Christ Jesus, the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new. It is the pursuit, in fact, of practical godliness, such a spirit and demeanor as adorn the gospel.” “The fruit of the Spirit is love.” We may have arich portion of the King’s bounty if only we will realize that this is the fruit of the Spirit alone, and that to have this is to have in pos- session, if not in expression, all the rest. The modern Christian seeking to abound in good works, by the power of the Holy Spirit, should seek first to cultivate “‘ the fruit of the Spirit.” We would do well to stir up our own hearts and the hearts of others to ask whether we know anything of the fruit of the Spirit as a precious personal possession and manifest in our lives. In this is a call to submit our wills to the authority of Christ, and ourselves to be led by the Spirit, yielding ourselves to His gracious influence, following His wise guidance, seeking instruction in the Word He has inspired, and cultivating communion wiih Him, that He may 106 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” produce in us and by us the graces and fruits of the Spirit. Hope is not named in the series of virtues in Galatians. In the fifth and fifteenth chapters of Romans it is associated with peace and long- suffering. All these are the graces of the fruit of the Spirit in sanctification, and in some such order are to be expected in the character and conduct of the consecrated Christian. These are to be distinguished from the gifts of the Spirit. The gifts are in order to service and “given to every man to profit withal.” The responsibility of the Christian is to use the gift. He will be held responsible for neglecting or refusing to do so. The fruit comes of sanc- tification. It is to be distinguished from the signs and wonders in the early church approving apostolic authority and ministry. The gifts now, while not to show the authority, are often such as to remind the faithless of God’s faith- fulness and to assure all of the sufficiency of His power and grace. All means of grace unto sanctification are also means to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit, flowering in good hope and perfect in love. CHAPTER ‘XIX SEVERAL BENEFITS “ The Spirit of God dwellethin you.” This is an application of the truth that the bodies of believers are permanent abodes of the Holy Ghost. It should stir Christians to treat their bodies as holy, in dedication and consecration, like the tabernacle and the temple. It is not enough to say that the Holy Spirit makes be- lievers jointly or severally His temple, as the place where He manifests His power or exerts His influence merely. The truth is larger, and at the same time more specific; that this is no passing visit, no sudden and transient illumina- tion, no power fitfully given or often withdrawn, but this: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” This is the great gift of the New Covenant. Saints should seek to care for their bodies as His temples, that they may 107 108 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” glorify Him in them as they are strengthened by Him and commune with Him. “Led by the Spirit.’ Here the thought is not of being led as by the hand in a dark night or difficult way, though these are experiences © of the Christian ; nor of having the way pointed out to us by One having thorough knowledge of the way, and showing where and what it is, though the Holy Spirit as our guide does this. The meaning is rather that the Holy Spirit, dwelling in saints as sons of God, leads them. He leads to the knowledge of God as in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and as giv- ing all the fullness of the Godhead bodily in Christ Jesus. He leads to a knowledge and sense of emptiness and helplessness of the soul, and sinfulness of the whole nature, without Christ, and to refuge and completeness in Him. He leads to a knowledge of the heart, how de- ceitful and sinful it is. He leads toa knowledge of sin, as against God only, and dangerous, and corrupting always. He leads to repentance, faith in Jesus Christ, and love to God and man. He leads to communion with God and fellow- ship with saints. He leads into the delights of worship and transports of spiritual experiences, through the confidences of God, the discoveries of new and deeper and more precious meanings SEVERAL BENEFITS 109 of His Word, and the riches of His grace. He leads into ready obedience to God’s command- ments, not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but with newness of heart, with good will doing service, as unto God. This leading is not by a mere influence, but in the use of ordinances and means of grace, in the study of the Scrip- tures, in earnest consecration of life, and in con- stant prayer. He leads not by mere impulses, and yet He uses these to the heart and will made responsive to His touch. In the provi- dence of God He leads to their right meaning and use. In the seeming conflict of duties and clashing of undue haste, He calls to wait upon Him, that He may lead to know which is right and to hold fast to it calmly and perseveringly. He leads ever away from ungodliness and ini- quity, from vanity and vice, from pride and strife. He leads into paths of righteousness. As we are led by Him we are the children of God. The more we consent to be led, and yield to His leading, and rejoice in it, the more worthy children we become. “Sanctification and good hope.’’ ‘This expres- sion is not found in the Scriptures, but is often used in prayer and preaching. It arises out of Romans xv. 13, 16, 19. By sanctification is not meant growth in holiness, with increase of grace 110 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” and perseverance therein to the end, though these are the work of the Spirit. The meaning is of consecration, in which the offering of the Gentiles is acceptable to God. This consecra- tion is not the priestly act of the ritual ceremony, but the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the con- secration of God. In this we are accepted and by this we are sanctified. Good hope grows of this. It comes of faith in Jesus, the joy of the Lord, and the peace of God. Hope is the gift of the God of hope and the work of the Spirit. It is not enough to have hope or to be hopeful in the secular sense. The Holy Spirit makes the consecrated Christian to abound in hope— the hope of the glory of God. The apostles had the seal of the Spirit in labors abundant and successful, so that the Gentiles were made obedient through mighty signs and wonders, and, codrdinately, by the power of the Spirit of God. Thus may sanctification and good hope, as the consecration of God and the experience of the inward working of the Holy Ghost, through faith, and in joy and peace unto as- surance of hope, make saints mighty in Christ Jesus. “Soy in the Holy Ghost.” ‘The kingdom of God is within you.” It is “ not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy SEVERAL BENEFITS ger ta Ghost.”’ This reign of Christ within the heart, not as His outward visible kingdom, yields joy. Elsewhere we have “joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ” as experience, and “ Rejoice in the Lord” as a command. Here we have joy in the Holy Ghost as a prime factor in the kingdom of heaven. We joy in God as the almighty Lord and our God and Father, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in the Lord Jesus as Lord and our Lord, and in our submission and obedience to Him, and His blessed dominion over us and “propriety in us.” Joy in the Holy Ghost is satisfaction in His person and power, our ex- perience of His presence, our delight in the dispositions and desires and affections inwrought by Him, our confident and assured hope of eternal life sealed to us by His indwelling, our foretaste of the bliss of heaven in present ex- periences, our comfort in sorrow, our increasing revelations and knowledge of our Saviour, and occasional transports of bliss when we can say humbly and yet boldly, and thankfully, “I am my Lord’s, and He is mine.” CHAPTER XX THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT IF we are asked whether we love the Holy Spirit, or He loves us, we may find it more dif- ficult to make reply than if asked whether we love Jesus, or He loves us. We have gone too little beyond a very literal acceptance and very meager meaning of the phrase in the Apostles’ Creed, ‘‘I believe in the Holy Ghost.” We do believe there is a Holy Ghost. We call Him the Comforter. We refer the work of regenera- tion and sanctification to Him. We may have occasionally sought His power for service. We desire His indwelling presence, though we may hesitate to welcome His searching work. But who has thought of Him as loving the sinner as God the Father and God the Son love with love divine, unspeakable? This love gives new preciousness to the words of our Lord, “It is expedient for you that I go away.” God the tee B THE LOVES ORSLAE SPIRIT, 113 Father loved us with an amazing love to send His Son to die for us. God the Son loved us with a gracious, condescending love to take our nature and to “bear our sins in His own body on the tree.” God the Holy Ghost loved us with a compassionate, absorbing love to come among us, to be with us, to live in us, to take control of us, to comfort and to guide us, in our lost, helpless, and shameful condition. Yet we do not welcome and honor Him and give Him the place He should have in our hearts. Weare enabled by Him to pray for His power in the name of our gracious Lord, but we do not realize His love, and hold communion with Him, and love Him for His presence and power. In praying, we rush on in a torrent of peti- tions because of our many supposed wants, and do not stop in sacred silence to know the mind of the Spirit and the real needs His love would disclose. In this hurrying, busy world we wait too little for the “still, small voice.” And we have failed to exult in the Spirit in our thoughts and to love Him in our hearts. Possibly this is the reason why we have received so little of the fullness of His blessed fellowship. In private, family, social, and public prayer we are too much in a hurry. There may not be too much petition, but is there enough thanks- 114 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” giving, meditation, and communion? This last is so important that in the apostolic benediction it is the Spirit’s distinctive blessing sought. If we want power for outward duty and active life, we must be strengthened as with might by His Spirit in the inner man. We do not undertake to define or describe the love of the Spirit as to its nature and dis- position toward the other persons of the God- head, or toward man. That would propose problems perplexing and lead us into theory, whereas our present purpose is practical. God the Father is love. God the Son is love. God the Spirit is love. The triune God is love. We may know the love of the Spirit as we know and love God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. There is a distinction in the personal love of each to us, according to, and manifested and ministered in, their offices in redemption. We dwell upon the love of God the Father and that of God the Son. Do we dwell enough on the thought of the love of God the Holy Ghost? Yet He loves us equally with the Father and the Son, and is doing His work of love, as real as theirs and as divine. The apostolic benediction distinguishes the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the com- munion of the Holy Ghost. That may make LH LOVE OP THE SPIRIT. 115 us measurably unmindful of the truth we are studying. This is the dispensation of the Spirit. Love is the motive power of His work. Wher- ever His work is mentioned or seen this love is implied. The work of our Teacher, Sanctifier, and Comforter springs from His love, as neces- sary to the complete redemption of the sinner as that of the Father and the Son. The love of the Father sought and the love of the Son wrought the plan and conditions of redemption. Christ’s work of atonement was finished. His sacrifice was all-sufficient. Noth- ing could be added to its merits. Still sinners did not acknowledge its merits and meaning and would not accept the benefits. The Spirit must explain and apply them. The love of the Spirit brought Him to make known and make effectual the love of Christ. The saving benefit of Christ’s love depends upon the applying work of the Spirit’s love, as the love of God the Father did upon the atoning love of Christ. This love was the motive. Concerning this Dr. Owen wrote: “The principle or foundation of all the Spirit’s actings for our consolation is His infinite love and condescension. For this He comes to dwell not only in this wicked world, but in the heart of each redeemed sinner, cleans- ing the heart and sanctifying the whole nature.” 116 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” He is the Spirit of holiness, delighting in holiness and abhorring sin. If we can conceive of the saintliest servant of Christ going into places of infamy, intemperance, and physical defilement, living among sinners to save them, we may have some idea of the love of the Spirit in making His abode in the sinner’s heart. Fle knows how depraved and corrupt the heart is. He knows how He will be grieved and how His dwelling-place will be neglected. It is wonderful that He does come and deal with the sinner at all. And He abides and waits so patiently and works so graciously. He comes to the chief of sinners. This is made possible by the love of God and the righteousness of Christ, and is of the Spirit’s love for the Father and the Son. He is not grieved away, though often grieved. He is not quenched in this loving work, though quenched in His power for service. He waits and works until love has inwrought Christ and conquered sin, and the sinner is made a saint, and the saint is glori- fied in Christ. The love of the Spirit is seen in His wounds, inflicted as a faithful Friend. It is seen in making sin appear to us exceeding sinful in all its blackness within us, and in re- buking us for allowing it or indulging in it. He will not stop short of teaching us to hate it and a DHE LOVIE OF DHE SLIRT TL: ii G7 of ridding us of it. It is an evidence of His loving work that we become more sensitive to the presence of sin, and more burdened by its power over us, and more anxious to be freed from it. Then He testifies of the righteousness of Christ and our sufficiency in it, and of judg- ment and our safety there through Christ Jesus. In the work of sanctification the first-fruit of the Spirit is love. Take these words of another: ‘“ Surely the Spirit of God is the Comforter divinely sent, and is Himself divine love and an ever-present Christ. But for the love of God the Father in sending Christ, the world had perished without help or hope. But for the love of Christ in giving His life to provide a righteousness for us, we had remained under condemnation and dead in trespasses and in sins. And but for the same infinite love of the Spirit, we would have perished in our sin and hardness and unbelief.”’ CHAPTER XXI GRIEVING THE SPIRIT THE Holy Ghost is a seal. As letters were sealed to their destination for privacy, and docu- ments to make them authentic and authoritative to convey property and to make a safe title, so the Holy Spirit seals the believer. He is also the earnest and foretaste of future felicity. God the Father sealed Christ and seals the believer as Hisandin Him. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the seal (compare Eph. iv. 30 with John vi. 23). The Holy Spirit is the seal unto the day of redemption. His presence is immediate. He dwells in each believer, and the body is His temple. The companionship thereby established is very in- timate; not like ours with our friends and in our infirmities, but as God’s. In this nearness we may grieve the Holy Spirit of God. We may wound or offend Him or give Him pain. 118 GRIEVING THE SPIRIT 119 For Jesus’ sake He is our nearest Friend, and we may grieve His heart of love. He seeks our sanctification. He is accom- plishing it. He will increase it. But, oh, how slowly, with many of us, in our indifference or hindrances, with our many falls and much de- pression and gloom! Seeking our sanctification, the Spirit is grieved by any such dispositions in us or habits of our lives as heathen have. By speaking or living a lie; by telling untruth, misleading, or deceiving; by sinning in anger; by stealing—taking what is not our own, with- out equivalent in affection or friendship or honest labor, whether without the knowledge of the rightful owner or by violence or fraud with his knowledge; by conversation corrupt, or not good to the use of edifying, or unneces- sary ; by giving way to the temptations of Satan ; by bitterness and wrath, clamor and evil-speaking and malice, we may grieve the Holy Spirit. In our bodies, or in our abuse of them as His temple, we may grieve Him. By not controlling and subduing lustful passions, which degrade and destroy; by so indulging appetites and gratifying desires as to render our bodies unfit for their best use and service and so depreciat- ing or deteriorating their high possibilities and powers, as by the use of narcotics, alcoholic 120 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” stimulants, or other nerve excitants, or luxurious living; by worthless reading or harmful studies or evil thoughts; by indulging in evil or licen- tious imaginings, plans, or acts, in any way yielding our powers or possessions to Satan, self, or sin, we grieve the Holy Spirit. By neglecting means of grace; by failure to us€ means and opportunities to know the mind of the Spirit, or to receive His instruction and guidance; by neglecting to study the Scriptures or any disregard of their high claims and solemn demands upon our daily and patient reading and earnest practice of them; by omitting to attend the service of the sanctuary, and the family worship, and social prayer and praise services, and the place and time of regular, frequent, at least daily, private prayer and personal religious meditation and communion ; by refusing, or lazily indifferent, or failing through neglect, to serve the Lord Christ, whose authority the Spirit has come to assert and maintain, and in whose name He speaks: by being unmindful of the claims of the gospel to time, talents, and means, and putting the preaching and propaga- tion of the gospel in any inferior place ; by losing any opportunity to be kind, tender-hearted, and forgiving, the Christian may “grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” oe GRIEVING THE SPIRIT 121 No wonder the church is cold and Christians are so often comfortless. We would not treat our earthly friends so. Alas, alas, that we should ever grzeve our heavenly Friend! A PRAYER Lord God, the Holy Ghost, The Father and the Son Have sent Thee forth, and are, with Thee, The eternal Three in One. Come, take the things of Christ, And show them to His own; Their Saviour make them own as Lord And know as they are known. Dwell in each humble heart; Thy gracious gifts bestow; Enable each to use the gift, And by its using grow. Comfort the mourning ones, The wandering footsteps guide, And bid the doubting, troubled soul In Thy great love abide. Stir dull and hardened hearts With visions of Thy love, Presenting love to God in Christ In light from heaven above. To those who cannot pray Give groanings unexpressed ; Thy intercessions for them place, In Christ’s great name addressed. 122 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” Give forth within the church The servants Thou dost choose, To preach and teach and do Thy work, That Christ may nothing lose. Convince the world of sin; Of righteousness reprove; From judgment turn to faith in Christ, With longings and with love. Exalt the risen Christ; Show forth His gracious name; Make all His own complete in Him, With love to Him aflame. More holy every day, Strengthened with might to serve, Take and make all who love the Lord His own without reserve. Shedding the love of God, Revealing Christ in saints, Accept their humble love to Thee; Repress all base complaints. Forbid that we should grieve Thy love so great and true; Make us what Thou wouldst have us be In all we are and do. To Thee we yield our hearts, To worship and adore, With God the Father and the Son, One God forevermore. Amen. eee Oh CONCLUSION JESUS said (Matt. xxviii. 18, 19), “ All power is given unto me. . . . Go ye therefore.” A few days later He said to the same disciples (Acts i. 8), “ Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you.” This declara- tionand promise supplement eachtheother. The power given to Jesus is authority. The power of the Holy Ghost is energy, power to operate, strength of expression. Because He laid down His life for His sheep, the Father loved Jesus. Because He loved Him, He gave Him all au- thority. He is Head over all to the church. He is now exalted to the right hand of God, seated on His Father’s throne. All principalities and powers are subject to Him. Whatsoever is done in His name is by His authority. Now the Holy Spirit is given in the name of Jesus. The ministration of the Spirit is in His own power. The New Testament carefully preserves 123 124 “ANOTHER COMFORTER”? this distinction in ascribing authority to Christ Jesus and power to the Holy Ghost. The power of the Spirit is ministered in the authority of Jesus. The manifold ministry of this power is comprehensively expressed in the phrases “‘com- munion of the Holy Ghost” and “ ministration of the Spirit.” There is a limited ministration of the Holy Spirit called enduement or bestowment or bap- tism of the Spirit. By whatever name, we must recognize this promise of God in Christ to make mighty and effectual in the service of Christ. We must be painfully impressed with the want or need of this in many professing Christians. The conditions to the bestowment of this power can be learned at the feet of Jesus, in humble acknowledgment of utter unworthiness to receive it and inability to exercise it. These conditions include the devout recognition of | Jesus as Lord, and confession of Him as our Lord, and entire surrender to His supreme authority. This will mean the consecration of ourselves entirely and unreservedly to His ser- vice. It will be always saying, or praying for grace to say, “Not my will, but Thine, be done.” Deeper spiritual experience must cor- respond with the teaching of Galatians ii. 20. CONCLUSION 125 rs There must be the appropriation of Christ in crucifixion with Him and in participation in His death, burial, and resurrection, as presented in Romans vi. This is not by any mode of an outward ordinance, but, being that unto which we are baptized, it is the apprehension of that for which we are apprehended in Christ Jesus. “ Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,” This will come with the surrender to the Holy Spirit to work in the name of Jesus. He is the vicegerent of Christ. This is His hour and power to which we have come and by which all the authority of Christ is to be administered. Personal life must be lived in the communion of the Holy Ghost. All business must be conducted by Him. All church concerns and interests must be in His ministration. Fully surrendered to Jesus Christ as Lord, entirely consecrated to His service, denying self and waiting in silence of soul, the power of the Holy Ghost will come. Then there will be discoveries of sin, disclosures of weakness, dis- plays of past failures in self-trust, with new surprises of God’s greatness and love, of the riches of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the all-sufficiency of the communion of the Holy Ghost. The love of God will be shed 126 “ANOTHER COMFORTER” abroad. Jesus will be revealed and exalted. The Holy Ghost will work triumphantly. The cause of Christ will prosper. Souls will be saved. Peter and John of the disciples had this tes- timony: “ They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” (Acts iv. 13). The others had been with Jesus as teacher, com- panion, and guide. They all had His example. But these two were with Him, as the others were not, in the trial, death, and resurrection. Until then their lives had been carnal, selfish. They lost that self-life in being crucified with Christ and rising with Him. He died for their sins. They died unto their sins. They appro- priated what was wrought for them. Then came Pentecost and the power of the Holy Ghost. All our lives and all our labors are failures. There is a point from which they may be made mighty. That point is the surrender of self and trust. According to its necessities this is “ the faith of God,” “the faith of the Son of God,”’ the faith of “ the fruit of the Spirit.” Our Lord Jesus Christ is enthroned and in- terceding, and ‘‘by Him all things consist.” The Holy Ghost is in the world in the name of Christ. As we surrender-to_Christ we welcome CONCLUSION 127 the Holy Ghost, and in His communion we are possessed of His power for the service of Christ. In every need and responsibility we must wait for that Power whose manifold ministry makes Him in this dispensation “ another Comforter.” By Rev. Andrew Murray. 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