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A STUDY OF THE 
 HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 iv By 
 Tt. P. STAFFORD, A. M., Th: 'D. 
 
 Professor of Christian Doctrines and Evidences 
 in the Kansas City Theological Seminary 
 
 Author of 
 ‘The Origin of Christian Science ’”’ 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 *THE JUDSON..PRESS 
 BOSTON CHICAGO LOS ANGELES 
 
 KANSAS CITY TORONTO 
 
Copyright, 1920, by 
 GILBERT N. BRINK, Secretary 
 
 Published November, 1920 
 
TO 
 THE MEMORY OF 
 
 Anna Cutt Stafford 
 
¥ 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 LUKE gives as a reason for writing his account 
 of Christ the fact that many others also had writ- 
 ten narratives concerning him. I make a like 
 apology for publishing this study of the Holy 
 Spirit. Many writers have given us books on 
 the Holy Spirit. They have written nobly, with 
 insight and inspiration. It is a thing greatly to be 
 desired to have a place in their company. 
 
 I may say that I have had opportunity to study 
 carefully and at length the subject herein pre- 
 sented. For several years I have given special at- 
 tention to it in preaching and in lecturing to my 
 students and to other audiences. I have been re- 
 quested frequently on these occasions to print the 
 discourses. 
 
 While I am indebted to others for much that 
 I have written, there are some thoughts expressed 
 that are a result of original research. I have at- 
 tempted also to apply the practical test to certain 
 theories and to subject them to critical investi- 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 gation to determine whether they are worthy or 
 wanting. This study will, therefore, I hope, be 
 to a small degree at least, a real contribution to 
 the literature on the subject. 
 
 T. P. STAFForD. 
 
 Kansas City, Mo., October 1, 1920. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER Pace 
 I. THE MEANING OF THE Day OF PEN- 
 TECOST So. 28 6 2. "@ 6 Co OG O' © (e. O 5% eoes25u#eete @ @ I 
 IJ. THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 23 
 III. THe Mission oF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 TOV SHES CH URCHY wuive ond ae hiane 43 
 IV. Tue Mission oF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 TO® THEY ORUD fu ttn, ore tens 65 
 V. Sins AGAINST THE HOLy SPIRIT.... 87 
 VI. THE PowER oF THE HOLY SPIRIT... 113 
 hy HR UELOL Wy LRINITYS uote cee E38 
 
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THE MEANING OF: THE DAY. OF 
 PENTECOST 
 
Come, thou almighty King, 
 
 Help us thy name to sing, 
 Help us to praise: 
 
 Father! all glorious, 
 
 O’er all victorious, 
 
 Come, and reign over us, 
 Ancient of days. 
 
 Come, thou incarnate Word, 
 Gird on thy mighty sword; 
 Our prayer attend; 
 Come, and thy people bless, 
 And give thy word success: 
 Spirit of holiness, 
 On us descend. 
 
 Come, Holy Comforter, 
 
 Thy sacred witness bear 
 In this glad hour: 
 
 Thou, who almighty art, 
 
 Now rule in every heart, 
 
 And ne’er from us depart, 
 Spirit of power! 
 
THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF 
 PEN VECOS DT 
 
 ET us first read carefully Acts 2 : I-21: 
 
 “And when the day of Pentecost was 
 now come, they were all together in one place. 
 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound 
 as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled 
 all the house where they were sitting. And there 
 appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like 
 as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them. And 
 they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and . 
 began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit 
 gave them utterance. 
 
 ‘“ Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, 
 devout men, from every nation under heaven. 
 And when this sound was heard, the multitude 
 came together, and were confounded, because 
 that every man heard them speaking in his own 
 language. And they were all amazed and mar- 
 velled, saying, Behold, are not all these that speak 
 Galilaans? And how hear we, every man in our 
 own language wherein we were born? Parthians 
 and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in 
 Mesopotamia, in Judza and Cappadocia, in Pon- 
 
 3 
 
4 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 tus and Asia, in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in 
 Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and 
 sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 
 Cretans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in 
 our tongues the mighty works of God. And 
 they were all amazed, and were perplexed, say- 
 ing one to another, What meaneth this? But 
 others mocking said, They are filled with new 
 wine. 
 
 “ But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted 
 up his voice, and spake forth unto them, saying, 
 Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jeru-— 
 salem, be this known unto you, and give ear unto 
 my word. For these are not drunken, as ye sup- 
 pose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day; 
 but this is that which hath been spoken through 
 the prophet Joel: 3 
 
 And it shall be in the last days, saith God, 
 
 I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: 
 
 And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 
 
 And your young men shall see visions, 
 
 And your old men shall dream dreams: 7 
 
 Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens 
 in those days | 
 
 Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall 
 prophesy. 
 
 And I will show wonders in the heaven above, 
 
THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 5 
 
 And signs on the earth beneath; 
 
 Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: 
 
 The sun shall be turned into darkness, 
 
 And the moon into blood, 
 
 Before the day of the Lord come, 
 
 That great and notable day: 
 
 And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the 
 name of the Lord shall be saved.”’ 
 
 There were five great days in the beginning of 
 Christianity: the birthday of Jesus, the day of 
 his death, the day of his resurrection, the day of 
 his ascension, and the day of Pentecost. Each of 
 these days was marked and made outstanding by 
 mighty miracles. Considering them in their his- 
 torical order and significance, we see how the 
 value of the one depends on the truth of the 
 other. The day of the ascension is glorious be- 
 cause of the virgin birth, the crucifixion and 
 resurrection of Christ; and the day of Pentecost 
 was possible and is meaningful only as a result 
 of the ascension of Christ to the place of honor 
 and power. 
 
 This day of Pentecost was a great day. It was 
 one of the greatest of all days. There has not 
 been a greater since and will not be until Jesus 
 comes again. Peter so explained it to the multi- 
 tude who came together to see what was hap- 
 
6 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 pening. “This is that which hath been spoken 
 through the prophet Joel,” he says. Peter tells 
 them that the prophecy of Joel is being fulfilled 
 right now on this day of Pentecost and right here 
 in this city of Jerusalem. 
 
 The “last days’ of Acts 2 : 17 means the last 
 period of time from Joel’s standpoint, not ours; 
 and Joel lived in 775 B.C. The notion that “ last 
 days’’ means the last days before Jesus comes 
 again is very erroneous and makes Peter talk 
 nonsense. Peter is talking to the point and not 
 “scattering.” Later in an address he referred 
 to the return of Christ, but not in this one. (Acts 
 3: 20,21.) Here he is showing that the gift of 
 the Spirit is proof that God has made Jesus 
 whom they crucified both Lord and Christ. (Acts 
 2: 36.) Let one turn to the prophecy of Joel 
 and see that he does not use the expression “ last. 
 days,” but ‘‘afterward”; that is, after certain 
 events and conditions that he had just described. 
 (Toel:2;*.28)) | 
 
 The gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out | 
 not at the close of the Christian age, but at the | 
 beginning of it. | 
 
 In like manner we should understand the ex- 
 pressions near the close of Peter’s quotation from 
 Joel, “the day of the Lord,” and “ that great and 
 notable day.” These are descriptions and desig- 
 
THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 7 
 
 nations of this day of Pentecost, not some day 
 future to Peter and to us. Peter is not making 
 prophecy in his address, but explaining prophecy 
 and applying it to what was then happening, as 
 he himself said he was doing. He is trying to 
 convince the people not that Christ is going to 
 come a second time, but that he has come the 
 first time, which they were up to that moment 
 unwilling to believe. 
 
 So this day of Pentecost is called by inspira- 
 tion the “ day of the Lord,” and the “ great and 
 notable day.” 
 
 By John the Baptist also this day was fore- 
 told. He said of Jesus, ‘“‘ He shall baptize you 
 in the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3: 11). 
 Jesus promised it several times as the Gospel of 
 John records. (John -7 > 393.14 :16,,. 203/15): 
 26:16: 7.) And Luke tells us that just before 
 the ascension Jesus repeated the promise finally 
 in language akin to John’s just referred to. (Acts 
 Teed 5,0: ) 
 
 It is easy to see the divine wisdom of selecting 
 the day of Pentecost for this momentous event. 
 Of the three great feasts of the Jews the Pass- 
 over was the first and greatest. Jesus was put 
 to death during this feast and rose again the third 
 day after. Worshipers were in Jerusalem from 
 all parts of the civilized world. Many, of course, 
 
8 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 were remaining for the next feast, Pentecost, 
 which, as the name indicates, came fifty days 
 afterward. Through forty days of this time 
 Jesus appeared at intervals to the disciples and 
 spoke of the things of the kingdom. The Jews 
 have had time to think over the crime of the 
 crucifixion and the report of the resurrection. 
 The disciples have had opportunity to reflect upon 
 the still more glorious fact of the ascension. 
 Luke says, ‘‘ Now there were dwelling at Jeru- 
 salem Jews, devout men from every nation under 
 heaven,’ and then he specifies the various coun- 
 tries from which they came, and his specification 
 sweeps the whole compass of the world with 
 Jerusalem as the center. The time has come for 
 a world propaganda of the gospel, and God “ sets 
 the stage” for it in the religious center of the 
 world, before representatives of all the nations 
 there assembled. 
 “ The number of the disciples that were meet- 
 ing together regularly in Jerusalem during the 
 ten days previous to Pentecost was, Luke says, 
 about one hundred and twenty. He names the 
 apostles and the mother of Jesus, and includes in 
 the number also certain other women and the 
 brothers of Jesus. ‘‘ These all with one accord,” 
 he says, “continued steadfastly in prayer.” (Cf. 
 Acts 1: 12-15.) They were there in obedience 
 
THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 8) 
 
 and loyalty to Christ; they were there in the con- 
 fidence that he would keep his word; they were 
 there in the resurrection triumph and the victory 
 
 peace of their leader. It was upon such men and 
 
 women that God poured forth his Spirit. Had 
 they been persons of a less ‘ heroic mold,” had 
 they been in a different state of mind, had they 
 been in some other place, the Holy Spirit would 
 not have come upon them. 
 
 But we may ask, Were these one hundred and 
 twenty the only true and loyal believers? No, 
 there were many more. Only a few days before 
 more than five hundred persons met Jesus in an 
 appointed place, a certain mountain in Galilee, 
 most of whom evidently were true believers. It 
 was not physically possible for all those who 
 loved the Lord to be together in Jerusalem. Now 
 as to all these absent disciples, did they not share 
 in this gift of God? Was it limited to the one 
 hundred and twenty only? Or were they in a 
 sense representative of all the disciples then and 
 since? I think this last is the correct view. Cer- 
 tainly not all could have been there who would 
 have been there. Dr. A. J. Gordon calls Pente- 
 cost the “age-baptism of the Spirit.” As only 
 three disciples saw the transfiguration glory of 
 Jesus in the “ holy mount,” but they all were and 
 we all are partakers of the benefit of that glory, 
 
IO A STUDY OF .THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 so all believers are partakers of the benefit of 
 Pentecost. By this I do not mean to say that 
 every believer, because of Pentecost, has the 
 power of the Spirit, but that every believer, be- % 
 cause of Pentecost, has the privilege of receiving 
 that power. 
 
 How did the H a oF nay manifest himself ? 
 How was it that the disciples and the people of 
 Jerusalem, up to this time unbelievers, became 
 aware of the Spirit? 
 
 The answer is simple. By means of the senses, 
 the ear and the eye. They heard from the sky 
 “a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, 
 and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 
 And there appeared unto them tongues of fire; 
 and it sat upon each one of them” (Acts 2 : 2, 
 3). The “sound as of the rushing of a mighty 
 wind ” was so loud that the people throughout 
 the city of Jerusalem heard it. It is so stated 
 in the Standard Version. (Acts 2: 6.) 
 
 Once before, at the baptism of Jesus, the Holy 
 Spirit manifested himself in a visible form. “ He 
 saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and 
 coming upon him” (Matt. 3: 15). 
 
 The Holy Spirit, himself, in his essential being, 
 is invisible as God the Father is invisible. But he 
 can manifest himself in visible forms; and we 
 may see how fitting the different forms are to 
 
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THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST II 
 
 the different purposes. Jesus was God’s message 
 of love and peace to the world. So the Holy 
 Spirit descended upon him as a dove. On the | 
 day of Pentecost the age of world-wide witness- 
 ing began. So the Holy Spirit descended upon 
 them as tongues of fire, giving them power to 
 speak in “ other tongues,” or foreign languages. 
 They were to be as firebrands in the world, not 
 incendiary fagots, but torches aflame with the » 
 truth. 
 
 The objective reality of the Holy Spirit ts 
 vividly realized. He is manifested, as has been 
 said, to the ear and to the eye. He is “ poured 
 forth.” He“ filled all the house where they were 
 sitting.’ And they were “ all filled with the Holy 
 Spirit.” They were in the Spirit as a fish is in the 
 water. So John the Baptist and Jesus, speaking 
 in advance of the event, said they would be “ bap- 
 tized in the Holy Spirit.”” They were immersed 
 in the Spirit as one is immersed in water. And 
 also they were “ filled’ with the Holy Spirit as 
 one’s lungs are filled with air. They did not think 
 of the Spirit as something subjective, as an idea 
 or a sensation. There is not a word said as to 
 how the disciples felt. But we are told how 
 they were affected and what they did as a result 
 of being “ filled” with the Spirit. If one thinks 
 that the purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit 
 
12 A’ STUDY OF LTHE: HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 into one’s life is ecstatic exhilaration or emotional 
 thrills or selfish enjoyment of any kind, he is 
 missing the truth. It matters little how we feel, 
 but it is all important what we are and what 
 we do. 
 
 The immediate and outstanding effect upon the 
 disciples of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon 
 them on the day of Pentecost was that they were 
 given power instantaneously to speak im lan- 
 guages that they had not before been acquainted 
 with. , 
 
 “ They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and 
 began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit 
 gave them utterance” (Acts 2: 4). “ Other 
 tongues” means simply languages other than 
 their own. When the Jews and proselytes from 
 the regions of Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Arabia, 
 Egypt, North Africa, Italy, and the islands of 
 the Mediterranean Sea, etc., being attracted to 
 the spot by the strange sound, drew near and 
 heard the disciples talking, some mocking said, 
 “ They are filled with new wine ”’; but others who 
 understood them said in astonishment, ‘‘ Behold, 
 are not all these that speak Galileans?”’ and yet 
 “we hear them speaking in our tongues the 
 mighty works of God.” 
 
 So the “gift of tongues”? was not ability to 
 speak a language that no one understood, as some 
 
THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 193 
 
 have foolishly supposed, but it was the power to 
 speak in a new language without having learned 
 it. The expression “unknown tongue” found 
 several times in the fourteenth chapter of First 
 Corinthians, in the old version, is a faulty trans- 
 lation and does not occur in the Greek. It is clear 
 that Paul is not thinking of a language of mean- 
 ingless sounds, for he says in verse 28, that if 
 one who would speak in the church cannot make 
 himself understood or cannot get his speech in- 
 terpreted, he should keep silence. It certainly is 
 no small sin against the Holy Spirit to claim that 
 the idiotic utterance of senseless sounds is his 
 inspired language. 
 
 The gift of the Holy Spirit had a practical 
 value there and then. God wanted these “ devout 
 men from every nation under heaven” to hear 
 the gospel. He willed also graciously to em- 
 phasize their testimony with a miracle, namely, 
 enabling his unlettered disciples instantaneously 
 to speak in languages hitherto unknown by them. 
 Paul speaking, it seems, of this power of speech 
 given directly by God, says, “ Tongues are for a 
 sign, not to them that believe, but to the unbe- 
 lieving”’ (1 Cor. 14: 22). It was this great 
 miracle on the day of Pentecost together with 
 many other influences that converted the three 
 thousand persons. 
 
14 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 In what sense did the Holy Spirit come on 
 the day of Pentecost? 
 
 Dr. A. J. Gordon says, “ Just as Jesus Christ 
 had a time-ministry which he came into the world 
 to fulfil, and having accomplished it returned to 
 the Father, so the Holy Spirit, for the fulfilment 
 of a definite mission, came into the world at an 
 appointed time” (‘‘ Ministry of the Spirit,” p. 
 22). He approves Augustine’s designation of 
 Pentecost as the dies natalis, the birthday, of the 
 Spirit. \(Ibid., p: 27.) 
 
 True, but was the Spirit never in the world be- 
 fore Pentecost? It would be a great blunder to 
 think that. Christ came into the world when 
 he was born in Bethlehem, but he had been in the 
 world also before. (Cf. Acts 7 : 38.) So the 
 Holy Spirit was in the world before the day of 
 Pentecost. He was active in creation. (Gen. I :¥ 
 2.) He was with David. (Ps. 51: 11.) He was 
 with the men who wrote the prophecies of the 
 Old Testament. (2 Peter 1: 21.) He was with 
 John the Baptist from his birth. (Luke 1 : 15.) 
 He was at the baptism of Jesus and with him 
 throughout his ministry. (Matt. 3: 16; 4: 1 
 Luke 4: 14; John 3: 34.) But he came with 
 special power and for a special purpose on the 
 day of Pentecost. He came then to dwell in his: 
 people and to be with them forever. (John 14: 
 
THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 15 
 
 16h 233) Matt 225 10)'20.:) ” Fie came/to fit the 
 disciples for being witnesses of Christ. Jesus 
 said, “Ye shall receive power, when the Holy 
 Spirit is come.upon you” (Acts 1: 8). 
 
 Dr. Ae: He Strong says: 
 
 Before Christ “the Holy Spirit was not” (John 7: 
 39), just as before Edison electricity was not. There 
 was just as much electricity in the world before Edison 
 as there is now. Edison has only taught us its exis- 
 tence and how to use it. Still we can say that before 
 Edison electricity as a means of lighting, warming, and 
 transporting people had no existence. So until Pente- 
 
 cost the Holy Spirit, as a revealer of Christ, “was not 
 
 de | 
 ry 
 
 yet 
 
 I think it is a mistake to infer, as Doctor Gor- 
 don does, that the disciples made a mistake in 
 selecting Matthias to take the place of Judas. 
 (“ Ministry of the Spirit,” p. 141.) Luke says 
 in Acts 1 : 26, ‘“‘ And he was numbered with the 
 eleven apostles.”” This is his statement about 
 thirty years after the selection took place. Cer- 
 tainly if it had been a mistake, it would have been 
 discovered before that date. Are we to suppose 
 that these disciples were left in darkness during 
 the ten days from the ascension to Pentecost? 
 They certainly knew enough to know that they 
 were, if they were; and they certainly had no 
 
 i «Systematic Theology,’ Vol. I, p. 317. 
 
16 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 mind to take things into their own hands. No, 
 we are not to conclude that as the Holy Spirit 
 came in a special way on the day of Pentecost, 
 he was with the disciples in no sense before that 
 day. Augustine spoke of the Holy Spirit as be- 
 ing in the world before Pentecost as a “ transient 
 visitor.” 
 
 The view is best, it seems, that Pentecost came 
 once for all. Pentecost was not repeated and is 
 not now to be expected, though Pentecostal power 
 is promised to all believers and is to be earnestly 
 sought for by them. It is true that there was 
 something like Pentecost in Samaria (Acts 8: 
 14ff.), in Czesarea (Acts 10: 44ff.), and in 
 Ephesus (Acts 19 : 2ff.), and perhaps in Corinth 
 (cf 1 Cor 1452 22); but it is better ot to con: 
 sider these to be repetitions of Pentecost, but as 
 reproductions of certain features of the Pente- 
 costal event. That is, they were instances of 
 the special enduement of the Spirit accompanied 
 with miraculous manifestations, such as took 
 place on Pentecost. They were rather confirma- 
 tions of the day of Pentecost. We should not 
 infer that the Holy Spirit came to all believers 
 even then as he came on Pentecost, much less 
 that he so comes to Christians now. That was 
 an age of miracles; ours is not. The expres- 
 sions, “ baptism of the Spirit” and “ spiritual 
 
THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 17 
 
 baptism,” should not, it seems, be applied to our 
 experiences now. They are not found in the 
 Bible. “ Baptized in the Holy Spirit ” is the ex- 
 pression used to describe the Pentecostal experi- 
 ences only. It is not a figurative expression. It 
 describes a literal fact. The disciples on that 
 day were immersed in the Holy Spirit as actually 
 as a fish is immersed in water, as we have said. 
 On other occasions it is said men were “ filled” 
 with the Spirit, but not immersed in the Spirit. 
 
 The day of Pentecost 1s proof, the best proof, 
 that Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead 
 and is the Son of God. 
 
 ““He was declared to be the Son of God with 
 power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the 
 resurrection from the dead’”’ (Rom. I : 4). 
 
 This was the theme of Peter’s address, and it 
 was the consideration that converted the three 
 thousand persons. The Jesus whom they cru- 
 cified has become both Lord and Christ. “ Let 
 all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, 
 that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, 
 this Jesus whom ye crucified’ (Acts 2 : 36). 
 
 The day of Pentecost proclaims the fact that 
 the spiritual age of the world has arrived. 
 
 It was not the day of the “first gospel ser- 
 mon” or of the beginning of the gospel, or of the 
 founding of the church as some have erroneously 
 
 " 
 
18 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 affirmed. (Cf. Mark 1: 1 and Luke 16: 16.) 
 It is the day of God’s announcement that Christ 
 has entered into “ that which is within the veil,” 
 that the invisible Christ is the real Christ. As 
 God, by angels, announced the incarnation of 
 Christ in the visible world, so by the coming of 
 the Holy Spirit he declares his enthronement in 
 the invisible world. 
 
 Luke remarks that while Jesus was on the cross 
 the “ veil of the temple was rent in the midst ” 
 (Luke 23: 45). This would seem to signify 
 that the earthly tabernacle, a mere pattern, is of 
 use no longer and that, and because that, the 
 heavenly, the real, of which it was only a type, 
 has become perfected. 
 
 The criterion for true Christianity is not any- 
 thing visible, physical, or external, but something 
 invisible, inward, and spiritual. The kingdom of 
 God is spiritual. It came “not with observa- 
 tion.” To identify the kingdom of God with a 
 visible organization is to miss the significance 
 of Pentecost. The day of Pentecost sounds the 
 death-knell of ecclesiasticism. We should place 
 no limitations upon the grace of God, as we can- 
 not place limitations upon his power. Pentecost 
 means that divine grace is commensurate with 
 divine power. We should not make little chan- 
 nels for the grace of God as men make irrigation 
 
THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST I9 
 
 ditches. for water; for the grace of God, like a 
 flood, will flow over them. It is “ poured forth” 
 _ as rain from bursting clouds. 
 
 The day to which the law and the prophets — 
 looked, the day when idolatry should be dead, has 
 come. | 
 The day of Pentecost proclaims the absolute 
 democracy of Christianity. 
 
 * And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on 
 the name of the Lord shall be saved’ (Acts 2: 
 21). Access to God is the right of every soul. 
 
 “T will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: 
 
 And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 
 
 And your young men shall see visions, 
 
 And your old men shall dream dreams: 
 
 Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens 
 in those days 
 
 Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall 
 Prophesy ONC Ac 7 TS 
 
 In the kingdom of God all persons have equal 
 privileges, the young and the old, the men and 
 the women, the free and the slave. 
 
 The day of Pentecost meant social revolution. 
 It meant death and destruction to all institutions 
 of autocracy then. It means it now. Kaisers and 
 kings and princes and popes and autocrats of all 
 
20%: AGSTUDY (OP “CEE HOLY SEinit 
 
 kinds, civil and religious, are by their very being 
 enemies of the kingdom of God. Pentecost is 
 God’s call for their abdication or for their de- 
 thronement. 
 
 Equality of rights in the kingdom of God 
 means equality of rights everywhere. Royalty 
 is a crime. It is a conspiracy against humanity. 
 To accept it is idolatry and prostitution. The 
 more we banish kings from the earth, the more 
 the people will come to their own. Every Chris- 
 fianas'a kings (Chia Peter'2 oy Revise 20553 
 10.) In crowning another fellow man he de- 
 thrones himself. Mr. James W. Gerard, ex-am- 
 bassador to Germany, speaking before the close 
 of the World War of despotic rule there and 
 elsewhere in the world, says: “ Royalty still lives 
 to torture and retard civilization. Its methods of 
 perpetuation are unchanged since the Middle 
 Ages.” 
 
 The day of Pentecost is the day of the people. 
 
 Dr. B. F. Meyer beautifully says: 
 
 In Switzerland I have gone out on the veranda of 
 the hotel at three or four o’clock in the morning and 
 looked at the range of mountains that rose before me. 
 At first all is gray and damp; but as I look, it seems 
 as if God’s angel has been stepping from one summit 
 to another, lighting fires all along his path. Beneath, 
 the mist still hangs over the valley, the clouds roll and 
 tumble in endless confusion. As I wait and watch the 
 
THE MEANING OF THE DAY OF PENTECOST 21 
 
 sun rises. The mists roll up and disappear. By noon 
 the sun’s rays have poured into every nook and crevice 
 in the valley. So I think the Holy Spirit before Pente- 
 cost struck with living flame only the great mountain 
 peaks among men. That summit was Moses; that, 
 Samson; that, David; that, Jeremiah. But at the day 
 of Pentecost, he who had been given only to the spir- 
 itual aristocrats of the race became the common prop- 
 erty of the democracy. 
 
iy 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
Our blest Redeemer, ere he breathed 
 His tender, last farewell, 
 
 A Guide, a Comforter, bequeathed 
 With us to dwell. 
 
 He came sweet influence to impart, 
 A gracious, willing guest, 
 
 While he can find one humble heart 
 Wherein to rest. 
 
 And his that gentle voice we hear, 
 Soft as the breath of even, 
 That checks each thought, that calms each 
 fear, 
 And speaks of heaven. 
 
 Spirit of purity and grace, 
 Our weakness, pitying, see; 
 
 O make our hearts, thy dwelling-place, 
 More worthy thee. 
 
TITHE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 N Christian theology we have three outstand- 
 ing doctrines, of which one is partly and two 
 are wholly new and original. 
 
 What the earnest men and the great thinkers 
 of the world saw dimly as to the nature of God, 
 is, in Christianity, revealed clearly. God is one, 
 God is good, God is the heavenly Father of his 
 people. This is the sweet light of revelation. 
 This doctrine of God is partially new and orig- 
 inal. 
 
 The doctrine of the Son of God is altogether 
 new and original. It does not appear that pagan 
 minds have had even the idea of it. That one 
 born of woman is the only-begotten and eternal 
 Son of God, through whom is the world’s re- 
 demption, is a truth that never entered into the 
 thoughts of uninspired men. (Cf. 1 Cor. 2: 9.) 
 
 But the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is, if pos- 
 sible, yet more original. Not only do the utter- 
 ances of pagans contain no thought of such a 
 divine being as the Holy Spirit, but men of the 
 world now with the light of the gospel about 
 them do not apprehend him. “The Spirit of 
 
 25 
 
26 -A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 truth; whom the world cannot receive; for it be- 
 holdeth him not, neither knoweth him ” (John 
 1A 07) 
 
 It will surprise one, if he has not done so be- 
 fore, to consider how often the Spirit is referred 
 to in the Scriptures. If we leave out of account 
 the Messianic predictions, he is mentioned oftener 
 and with more definiteness in the time of the 
 Old Testament than is Christ. Dr. James E. 
 Cumming finds eighty-seven references to the 
 Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. (Cf. “ Through 
 the Eternal Spirit,” p. 17-24.) This is a striking © 
 fact and is sufficient to correct once and for all 
 the error that the Holy Spirit was unknown to 
 the saints of the Old Testament. (Cf. Gen. I : 2; 
 6433 Pxoduat 23s 4Nam. w240 7/2) Sade Ove 
 Love Chrotchs lanes bie Bi Leas Osi. 
 Dake Ts 1535 3075 2204) 
 
 But when we come to the time of the New 
 Testament, we find that references to the being 
 and work of the Holy Spirit abound. John the 
 Baptist foretold his coming on the day of Pente- 
 cost. Jesus had much to say of him. The apos- 
 tles, Peter and John, spoke often of him. And 
 Paul, who was not with Jesus when he was on 
 earth, but who was taught by him, said more 
 about the Holy Spirit than all the other apostles: 
 put together. 
 
THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 27 
 
 Our task is to understand, in so far as we 
 can, the character of the Holy Spirit. We honor 
 the Holy Spirit in so doing. Knowledge is neces- . 
 sary to the highest form of worship, and to un- 
 derstand the Holy Spirit is itself true worship. 
 (Cf. John 4: 23.) It is, therefore, a mark of 
 piety to desire a knowledge of the Holy Spirit. 
 Only spiritual people wish to know more about 
 the Holy Spirit. Indifferent Christians are dull 
 as to the subject. Sinners mock at it or spurn it. 
 
 The natural process is first to study the names, 
 titles, and descriptions of the Holy Spirit. In be- 
 coming acquainted with a person we first learn 
 his name or names and official titles, if he has 
 such. 
 
 God the Father has revealed his glorious and 
 holy nature to us in this way. First his name is 
 simply God; then it is God Almighty; then it is 
 Jehovah, and finally it is our heavenly Father. 
 ere his Pais Es) kod.) Oe a bart: 
 GO 0') 
 
 To the second person of the Trinity also are 
 given many names and titles, all of which point 
 to the different elements of his character, and lay 
 stress upon his manifold relations to men. He 
 is the Messiah, the Christ, the chosen of God; 
 he is the Son of man; he is the Lamb of God; he 
 is the Lion of the tribe of Judah; he is the Prince 
 
28 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 of Peace. Our Saviour has all virtues and needs 
 all designations and descriptions to picture them 
 to us. But after language has done its noblest, 
 he remains still the “ unspeakable gift” of God. 
 
 In like manner, for the third person of the 
 Trinity many names and descriptions are found, 
 and each with rich significance, revealing offices, 
 relations, and qualities of character. 
 
 The favorite name for the third person of the 
 Trinity is Spirit. The term Ghost of the com- 
 mon version means the same, but has now unde- 
 sirable suggestions. 
 
 We may well stop and meditate long upon this 
 fact. As the name Jesus has in it infinite mean- 
 ing when applied to the second Person of the 
 Trinity, so the name Spirit has in it unlimited 
 meaning when used by inspired writers of the 
 third person of the Trinity. Spirit is not simply 
 a designation; it is also a description. It is a 
 term that interprets. It is, like Israel and Jesus 
 and Peter, a character-name. 
 
 [ heard a preacher ,of note say that he had once 
 wondered why, since Father and Son were the 
 names of the first and second persons of the 
 Trinity, the name mother, rather than Spirit, was 
 not given to the third person of the Trinity. 
 Then he said that the fact, that this is not the 
 case, has in it great value for us. 
 
THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 29 
 
 The Greek word for spirit means wind, air, 
 breath, life. 
 
 The name Spirit therefore corresponds to the 
 invisible character of the divine person and em- 
 phasizes it. The essence of godliness is not in 
 anything sensible. The criterion of true Chris- 
 tianity is not something visible or external. 
 “The kingdom of God cometh not with observa- 
 tion.” The kingdom of God is not territory, nor 
 organization, nor force, nor ceremony. It is 
 moral suasion and love. The spiritual nature of 
 the kingdom of God, of which the prophets were 
 conscious when they denounced idolatry, formal- 
 ity, and a false nationalism, is revealed fully in 
 the New Testament. Any church that claims to 
 be commensurate with or identical with the king- 
 dom of God is an apostate church. 
 
 Jesus at his ascension, like the high priest of 
 the Jewish temple on the great day of Atonement, 
 passed into that “ which is within the veil” and 
 became invisible. His great representative on 
 earth is also invisible. ‘“‘ Whom the world can- 
 not receive; for it beholdeth him not.” The Holy 
 Spirit may manifest himself in sensible forms, 
 that is, miraculously, but he himself is not dis- 
 cerned by the senses. That psychological theory 
 that holds that all knowledge comes by way of the 
 five senses will not do for Christians. 
 
30 A) STUDY OF THE: HOLY > SPIRIT 
 
 Each person of the Trinity shrinks from mate- 
 rial embodiment and manifestation. “No man 
 hath seen God at any time” (John 1: 18). 
 “Though we have known Christ after the flesh, 
 yet now we know him so no more”’ (2 Cor. 5 : 
 16). When they appear in visible form it is 
 miraculous and unusual. The Holy Spirit is like 
 the Father and the Son. It is strictly true to say 
 Ahat the Holy Spirit is felt, not seen. 
 
 The term Spirit suggests life and the source of 
 life. The Jewish mind identified life and breath. 
 CCHS OD en ei ah Baia REVEL ont Ea) ane Teaae 
 Holy Spirit has a vital relation to us. In him we 
 live. Every Christian is born of the Spirit. (John. 
 3: 3-8.) The Spirit is preeminently the giver 
 of life. ‘‘ The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth 
 lifes) 62: Goria oC is TiCon: 15) cae oni 
 642762:4Rom: 8 Soro, 7b). 
 
 It may ‘not be amiss to say that the Holy Spirit 
 is “ the mother-principle in the Godhead.” 
 
 Genesis 2: 7 says, “ The Lord God formed 
 man of the dust of the ground, and breathed 
 into his nostrils the breath of life; and man be- 
 came a living soul.” Compare with that John 
 20: 22: “And when he had said this, he 
 breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive 
 ye the Holy Spirit.’’ A live Christian and a Pin 
 ee man are one and the same. 
 
THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 31 
 
 Usually but not always the noun, Spirit, as the 
 name of the third person of the Trinity, is pre- 
 ceded by the adjective holy. He is not simply 
 a spirit. He is the Holy Spirit; as the second 
 person of the Trinity he is not simply a@ son, but 
 the Son of God. 
 
 There are many kinds of spirits: “ evil spirit ” 
 (2 Sam. 15: 14ff.), ‘‘lying spirit” (2 Kings 22: 
 22), “spirit of error” (1 John 4: 6), “ spirit 
 of anti-Christ”” (1 John 4: 3). But the Spirit 
 of God is holy. I believe that if we understand 
 this adjective in this connection properly, we will 
 think of the Holy Spirit as the very essence of 
 holiness; as having that degree of holiness, or, 
 rather, as being that quality of holiness, which 
 should prevent us from thinking of him as other 
 than holy. We cannot think of the sun’s ray as 
 other than light. It is so light or such light that 
 it is the essence of light. To think of it other- 
 wise is to violate the very law of our mind. If 
 we should think of the Holy Spirit as being other 
 than holy or speak of him so, we would commit 
 a great sin. This is, it seems, “ blasphemy 
 against the Holy Spirit,” the sin that Jesus said 
 would never be forgiven. It is moral, spiritual, 
 and eternal suicide. | 
 
 Jesus four times calls the Holy Spirit the Para- 
 clete. (John 14 : 16, 26; 15: 26;16: 7.) Our 
 
32 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT - 
 
 common version and many others translate this 
 word by Comforter. When our common ver- 
 sion was made, three hundred years ago, this 
 word meant one who strengthens, one who fully 
 strengthens; it then gave the thought of the 
 Greek better than it does now. Now it means 
 one who gives consolation, and this sense is too 
 limited and weak: The Holy Spirit did not come 
 to give weak men “surcease from sorrow % 
 merely, but to make weak men strong and strong | 
 men stronger. It seems to me that we ought 
 with good grace to reject once and for all this 
 word, comforter, no matter how much it jars” 
 morbid sentiment to do it. | 
 
 The Greek word means one called to one’s side, 
 an advocate, a helper. Neither of these words 
 is a perfect translation. There seems to be none 
 that is. But either of them is better now than 
 comforter. Jesus is thinking of the disciples as 
 orphans. (John 14: 18.) They needed some 
 one to protect them, to defend them, to guide 
 them, and to help them. All this I read into and 
 think into the word Paraclete. 
 
 And all this is to be read into it. For Jesus 
 says, “another Paraclete.” In this little modifier 
 another, we get the full truth. The Holy Spirit 
 was to do for them what Jesus had been doing. 
 He was to take the place in their lives that Jesus 
 
THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 33 
 
 had been filling. Jesus had been their Para- 
 clete, their Defender on earth. (Cf. John 18 ; 
 8.) But now the Holy Spirit is to have this 
 charge and Jesus is to become their Paraclete, 
 their Advocate, in heaven. (Cf. 1 John 2 : 1.) 
 
 Twice Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “the Spirit 
 of truth” (John 14 : 17; 16: 13). And in the' 
 last case he adds, “ He shall guide you into all the 
 truth.” Before he had said, “ He shall teach you 
 all things” (John 14 : 26). 
 
 We should not be disposed to limit or minimize 
 the Spirit’s relation to the truth, but rather to 
 magnify it, and accordingly to put into the above 
 words of Jesus all that reason and faith may see 
 that they naturally contain. 
 
 Summing up, then, the thoughts of this lan- 
 guage, which have to do with our ‘present sub- 
 ject, we note: 
 
 First, that truth, like holiness, is an essential 
 Lee of the Spirit. Truth belongs to the | 
 character of the Spirit as it belongs to the char- 
 acter of the Father and of the Son. When it is 
 said that God is a “ God of truth” (Ps. 31 : 5), 
 more is meant than that God speaks the truth. 
 It is meant that a lie is with God a moral im- 
 possibility. (Cf. Heb. 6 : 18.) When Jesus said, 
 “Tam the truth” (John 14: 6), he did not 
 mean to identify himself and the principle of 
 
 Cc 
 
34 A STUDY OF THE, HOLY ,SPIRIT 
 
 truth, but to assert that error is foreign to his 
 nature. We may say of the Holy Spirit as the 
 apostle said of the Father, “in him is no dark- 
 ness at all .(r John 1): 5). 
 
 We note, secondly, that the Holy Spirit, like 
 the Father and the Son, is the source of truth. 
 Truth must have an origin as light must have. 
 Error has a source. There is a “lying spirit ”’ 
 (1 ‘Kings 22 3 22)( Every lie that’has gone 
 forth to deceive and curse the world was con- 
 ceived and uttered by some being. When the 
 devil “speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; 
 for he is a liar, and the father thereof” (John 
 ne ee 
 
 God is the author and fountain of truth. 
 “ God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” 
 (1 John 1: 5). The Son also is the source of 
 truth, :; He’ said; “I am the light, of the: world” 
 (John 84: 12}.chJohn 1:9). Hesaid, ~ L.am 
 the truth” (John 14: 6). “Grace and truth 
 came through Jesus Christ” (John 1: 17). 
 Christ is the world’s prophet, the world’s true 
 teacher. So also is the Holy Spirit the true 
 teacher, because he is the Spirit of truth. 
 
 We note, thirdly, that one whom the Holy 
 Spirit teaches must be a partaker of the Spinit. 
 Only he who has the spirit of truth can know the 
 truth. Another way of saying the same thing is 
 
THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 35 
 
 that the Holy Spirit, in his teaching, imparts 
 himself to the one that is taught. ‘“‘ Causing one 
 to know ” is thought to be the best definition of 
 teaching. If so, the Holy Spirit is in one sense, 
 and the profoundest sense, the only teacher; for 
 only he can really cause one to know. The Holy 
 Spirit does not dictate the truth; he imparts it; 
 he implants it; he inbreathes it. His teaching is 
 a begetting. It is a self-giving and a like-creat- 
 ing. This seems to be John’s thought when he 
 affirms that the “Spirit is the truth” (1 John 
 opi roe 
 
 Very interesting is this statement from Presi- 
 dent Wilson: | 
 
 I have spent the greater part of my life doing what 
 is called teaching, but many of the pupils of most of 
 our universities systematically resist being taught. I 
 remember being somewhat comforted and reassured 
 some years ago, after I had taught ten or fifteen years, 
 by being told by a friend of mine at the Yale University, 
 who had taught for twenty years, that he had found 
 that the human mind possessed infinite resources for 
 resisting the introduction of knowledge. 
 
 One who receives ideas must have in him sym- 
 pathy for and appreciation of those ideas. He 
 who can create this condition of mind is the 
 greatest teacher. The Holy Spirit does this for 
 those who receive the true knowledge of God, 
 
36 A STUDY OF (THE, HOLY “SPIRIT 
 
 Discussing in a penetrating way a _ kindred 
 thought, Dr. Frank Crane says: “ Furnishing 
 proof is the smallest part of convincing a man. 
 The most difficult part consists in getting his 
 mind into a condition to receive the proof.” 
 
 Paul says in First Corinthians: “‘ But we re- 
 ceived, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit 
 which is from God; that we might know the 
 things that were freely given to us of God” (1 
 Cor. 2: 12). Again: “ The natural man receiv- 
 eth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they 
 are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know 
 them, because they are spiritually judged ” 
 (1 Cor. 2: 14). In Second Corinthians he says 
 that the Jews who know well the letter of the 
 law, do not really understand it because they 
 have not the Spirit; that they, when they read 
 it, have 4° ver upon) their “heart (2) Cor, 
 Lape 
 
 So it is with many Gentiles also. They are 
 “ever learning, but never come to the knowledge 
 of the truth.’ Because the spirit of error and 
 not of truth is in them. 
 
 Dr. A. J. Gordon thinks of a horse and its rider 
 before a sculptured figure, a work of art, in a 
 park. The man admires the beauty of it, the 
 heroism that is there pictured. His eyes are 
 aglow, and his soul is thrilled. But the eyes of 
 
THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ay. 
 
 the horse are dull. It has no soul, no understand-. 
 ing. So the natural man is dull and unmoved 
 before the beauties and glories of salvation. But, — 
 when the Holy Spirit teaches him, he knows and 
 exults and loves. 
 
 So much we learn as to the character of the 
 Holy Spirit from the names, titles, and descrip- 
 tions of him. We come now to learn of his 
 character from his acts and relations, from his 
 disposition, and from the position of honor and 
 power that he occupies. 
 
 We may state in advance that these considera- 
 tions compel us to think of the Holy Spirit as a 
 person and as God. We defer the great subject 
 of the deity of the Holy Spirit to another chap- 
 ter. We limit ourselves here to the subject of his 
 personality. 
 
 It is admitted that the Holy Spirit is nowhere 
 in the Scriptures called a person. Jesus Christ 
 likewise is not. But this argument has no weight. 
 Many things are true that are not affirmed. Be- 
 sides, clear implications are just as reliable, and 
 may be more convincing, than positive statements. 
 
 We mean by person a being with reason, will, 
 and moral sense. Things and animals do not 
 have these; men, angels, and God do. 
 
 If the Holy Spirit is not a distinct person, then 
 it must be one of the following things: 
 
38 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 I. Another name for God; the purpose, 
 thought, and mind of God; that is, God himselt ; 
 as when we say “the spirit of a man,” meaning 
 the man himself. This cannot be a correct view, 
 for it fails to meet the demands of many passages 
 of Scripture. At the baptism of Jesus the three 
 beings of the Trinity are separate and distinct. 
 (Matt. 3 : 16,17.) Jesus spoke of the Father’s 
 giving and sending the Holy Spirit to the disci- 
 ples, and of his own sending of him to them, and 
 of the Holy Spirit’s proceeding from the Father. 
 (lohn i 45610265) 157: 265102) 7.)5° Thislan= 
 guage would have been impossible if the Holy 
 Spirit were the same person as the Father. The 
 Holy Spirit makes intercession to the Father for 
 us. (Rom. 8: 26.) This certainly does not 
 mean that the Father prays to himself. Jesus in 
 the Great Commission and Paul in his oft-re- 
 peated benediction think of the three of the 
 Trinity as separate and distinct beings. (Matt. 
 Bolo Con Tavel ay) 
 
 It is true that there is an identity of the Father 
 and the Spirit, as there is also an identity of the 
 Son and the Spirit, but this identity is such as is 
 possible between persons.. (Cf. Acts 5: 3, 4; 
 BOR Oe Tay 1S she Or. 2100) 
 
 2. A condition, or state, of the human mind. 
 The Holy Spirit, according to this view, is not 
 
THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 39 
 
 an objective reality, but something subjective 
 only. 
 
 Spinoza taught that the Holy Spirit is a supe- 
 rior understanding or intuition of religious truth. - 
 This was what came to the disciples on the day 
 of Pentecost. The founder of Christian Science 
 repeats this pagan explanation. It is at least 
 semi-infidelity. 
 
 It is only a little better to hold that the Holy 
 Spirit is a good condition of mind; that to have 
 the Holy Spirit is to have the thought or mind 
 of God. But certainly when Jesus told the dis- 
 ciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they should be 
 endued with power from on high, he was not 
 promising them that they would at a certain time 
 become pious. 
 
 A subjective state of the human mind does not 
 work miracles nor convert sinners. The Holy 
 Spirit is not an enlightened conscience. 
 
 Once, when I was a young man, a shrewd old 
 gentleman was trying to convert me to his de- 
 nominational views. He had made out a very 
 good case from certain texts of the Bible. Be- 
 ing somewhat disturbed by his arguments, and 
 sparring for time, I asked him what his denom- 
 ination taught as to the Holy Spirit. He said: 
 “Suppose you are on a journey, and I fall in 
 with you and make a proposition to you, which 
 
40 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 you at first decline to accept. But as we ride 
 along, I argue the case and convert you to my 
 view, and you join with me in the undertaking. 
 You may be said now to have my mind. So its 
 one who has the Holy Spirit. He has God’s mind 
 or God’s view of things.’ Then I saw how 
 hollow his system was. 
 
 The distinction between the human spirit and 
 the Holy Spirit is clearly recognized by Paul. 
 (Rom-8*: '16;,206527,; Gal 393) 2,7 lthasdifiealt 
 to imagine how a reader of the Bible could have 
 any other notion about it. If then there be a 
 oneness of the spirit of the Christian with the 
 Holy Spirit, it is a oneness that is possible be- 
 tween persons. It is like the oneness of Christ 
 and the Christian. It is not identity, but unity. 
 (GET COLAO E75 
 
 The doctrine of the»Holy Spirit involves a 
 kind of mysticism, but not such as causes to 
 vanish the personality of the worshiper or of his 
 God. Christian mysticism has no kinship with 
 pantheistic mysticism. 
 
 3. A third theory is that the Holy Spirit is 
 simply an influence; a moral force that makes 
 for righteousness ; like the temperance movement, 
 for example. 
 
 To state this view is sufficient to refute it. 
 Paul says, “ Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God ” 
 
THE CHARACTER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 4I 
 
 (Eph. 4 : 30). An influence cannot be grieved. 
 Only a person can be grieved. The Holy Spirit 
 makes intercession to the Father. An influence 
 cannot make intercession. The Holy Spirit is 
 not an influence, but the Holy Spirit, like a great 
 and good man, has an influence. 
 
 If the Holy Spirit cannot be explained by any 
 of the above theories, which are really inspired 
 by unbelief rather than by faith and sound criti- 
 cism, then it must follow that he is a person; 
 for which view there are many more proofs than 
 are here given. Person is the best word at our 
 command. Should a better one be invented we 
 will use that. 
 
 It is noticeable that as one grows in grace, he 
 becomes more aware of the personal character 
 of the Holy Spirit. We may say, indeed, that 
 one’s progress as a Christian is measured by his 
 conception of the Holy Spirit as a person and 
 his feeling corresponding and responding thereto. 
 In this fact of Christian experience there is a 
 most conclusive demonstration of the personality 
 of the Spirit. There is no better proof that God 
 is a person than that found in experience. Those 
 who think of God and worship him as such, be- 
 come fervent and spiritual and strong. Those 
 who think of him otherwise, become dull and 
 materialistic and weak. In like manner Chris- 
 
42 A STUDY OF THE. HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 tians who are conscious of the Spirit as a person, 
 become prayerful, unworldly, and Christlike. 
 Christians who are lacking in this consciousness, 
 are lacking also in these virtues. He is a little 
 rude in speech who speaks to a mother of her 
 babe as if. Her child is infinitely more than this 
 impersonal pronoun indicates. So he who uses 
 “it” for the Holy Spirit, is in spiritual knowl- 
 edge somewhat crude. Jesus used “ he,’ not 
 “it,” in referring to the Holy Spirit. (John 16 : 
 ETA.) 
 
 “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord 
 thy God in vain.” This means that, whenever we 
 speak of God, we should do it with thoughtful- 
 ness and reverence. Speaking carelessly of the 
 Holy Spirit is also unbecoming. It is profanity. 
 
 We see, then, if our discussion of this subject 
 has proceeded upon right lines, how a knowledge 
 of the character of the Holy Spirit is vitally re- 
 lated to the character of Christians. 
 
Itt 
 
 TARE TMISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 TO THE CHURCH 
 
Lead, kindly Light! amid th’ encircling gloom, 
 Lead thou me on; 
 
 The night is dark, and I am far from home; 
 Lead thou me on; 
 
 Keep thou my feet: I do not ask to see 
 
 The distant scene; one step enough for me. 
 
 I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou 
 Shouldst lead me on; 
 
 I loved to choose and see my path; but now 
 Lead thou me on: 
 
 I loved the garish day, and spite of fears, 
 
 Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years. 
 
 So long thy power has blessed me, sure it still 
 Will lead me on 
 
 O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till 
 The night is gone; 
 
 And with the morn those angel faces smile 
 
 Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile! 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 TOs TIE CHURCH 
 
 Tis important that we know the purpose of 
 Christ’s coming into the world. He came “ to 
 seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19 : 
 10). He came to glorify the Father. (John 17 : 
 4.) We cannot really understand Christ until we 
 know the purpose for which he came. 
 
 Likewise it is important to know the purpose of 
 the Holy Spirit’s coming. We will appreciate 
 and honor him in proportion to our knowledge of 
 the work he came to do. 
 
 The Holy Spirit’s mission is threefold: in be- 
 half of Christ, of the church, and of the world. 
 
 The primary purpose of the Spirit’s coming 
 was to glorify Christ and to make effectual what 
 he had done; to realize in believers the fact and 
 value of his life, death, and resurrection. Jesus 
 says: “‘ He shall glorify me: for he shall take of 
 mine, and shall declare it unto you” (John 16: 
 14,15). Again, “ He shall bear witness of me” 
 (John 15: 26). And again, “He shall not 
 speak from himself; but what things soever he 
 shall hear, these shall he speak’ (John 16 : 13). 
 
 : 45 
 
40 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 As Jesus came to glorify the Father, so the 
 Holy Spirit came to glorify the Son. On the 
 day of Pentecost the divine character and mission 
 of Christ were made real to the disciples. Jesus 
 said, “In that day ye shall know that I am in 
 my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 
 14/1/20), ° Vhat' day.” means Pentecest... Dhen 
 was realized in the minds of the disciples the 
 glory of Christ. 
 
 Dr. A. J. Gordon expresses the truth concern- 
 ing this matter accurately and forcefully thus: * 
 
 In the order of the unfolding ages we see each of the 
 persons of the Godhead in turn exercising an earthly 
 ministry and dealing with man in the work of redemp- 
 tion. Under the law God the Father comes down to 
 earth and speaks to men from the cloud of Sinai and 
 from the glory above the mercy-seat; under grace, God 
 the Son is in the world, teaching, suffering, dying, and 
 rising again; under the dispensation of election and out- 
 gathering now going on, the Holy Spirit is here carry- 
 ing on the work of renewing and sanctifying the 
 church, which is the body of Christ. There is a neces- 
 sary succession in these divine ministries, both in time 
 and in character. In the days of Moses it might have 
 been said, “Christ is not yet,” because the economy 
 of God-Jehovah was not completed. The law must 
 first be given, with its sacrifices and types and cere- 
 monies and shadows; man must be put on trial under 
 
 +“ Ministry of the Spirit,” p. 33f. 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 47 
 
 the law, till the appointed time of his schooling should 
 be completed. Then must Christ come to fulfil all types 
 and terminate all sacrifices in himself; to do for us 
 “what the law could not do, in that it was weak 
 through the flesh,’ and to become “the end of the law 
 for righteousness to every one that believeth.” When 
 in turn Christ had completed his redemption-work by 
 dying on the cross for our sins, and rising again from 
 the dead for our justification, and had taken his place at 
 God’s right hand for perpetual intercession, then the 
 Holy Ghost came down to communicate and realize to 
 the church the finished work of Christ. In a word, 
 as God the Son fulfils to men the work of God the 
 Father, so God the Holy Ghost realizes to human 
 hearts the work of God the Son. 
 
 I think we can truly say that if the Holy Spirit 
 had not come, Christ would have failed. We 
 would be compelled, judging from analogies, to 
 say, that he would have faded from the memories 
 of men. It is said that a certain French enthu- 
 siast recounted to Rousseau his plan for the sal- 
 vation of the world, to whom Rousseau replied, 
 ‘ Your plan seems to be a good one, but you must 
 get yourself crucified for it in order that it may 
 succeed.”” But that is not the whole truth. Many 
 a cause has died with the martyrdom of its 
 founder. Socrates lived a beautiful life and 
 preached a beautiful gospel and died for it, but 
 all this did not make him a savior of Athens, nor 
 
48 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 of the world. Not even the resurrection of Christ 
 would have saved him from oblivion. But the 
 Holy Spirit did not let the world forget. He 
 shall “bring to your remembrance all that I 
 said unto you”’ (John 14: 26). 
 
 Some have thought that we should talk and 
 preach overmuch about the Holy Spirit. Now 
 it is true that this subject has been neglected by 
 many. It is true now of some, as it was of the 
 few disciples in Ephesus, they do not know so 
 much as whether there be a Holy Spirit. (Cf. 
 Acts 19: 2.) But we should remember that the 
 Holy Spirit did not come to glorify himself, but 
 Christ, and that when Christ is proclaimed and 
 honored the Holy Spirit is pleased. When Peter 
 preached to Cornelius and his friends, he told 
 them the story of Jesus and said nothing about 
 the Holy Spirit. That was exactly what the 
 Holy Spirit wanted him to do, and he came upon 
 that congregation in demonstration of the truth 
 of Peter’s sermon. So will he ever give his wit- 
 ness to the message that honors Jesus. Jesus said 
 he did not glorify himself, but the Father. (John 
 8:50.) So the Holy Spirit does not glorify 
 himself, but the Son. 
 
 There is a universal reverence for the name of 
 Jesus. Why? There is a “holy hush” as we 
 partake of the Lord’s Supper. Why? I believe 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 49 
 
 it is because the Holy Spirit convicts human 
 hearts of Christ’s holiness. There is a strange 
 power in the gospel of Christ to regenerate and 
 save. Why? It is because the gospel being the. 
 truth, the Spirit of truth makes it effectual. 
 There is a mighty and mysterious power in the 
 word of God. Why? Because the word of God, 
 being the sword of the Spirit, is the Spirit’s 
 mighty weapon for execution. But the Spirit 
 seeks no prominence for himself. 
 
 However, it is helpful to us and acceptable 
 to our Lord that we recognize and speak often 
 of the Holy Spirit, as he himself and the apostles 
 did. 
 
 The mission of the Holy Spirit in behalf of 
 Christians is set forth with considerable complete- 
 ness in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth 
 chapters of John. In those conversations with 
 the disciples Jesus returns again and again to this 
 subject. 
 
 In the previous discussion, it was necessary, in 
 studying the nature of the Holy Spirit, to say 
 much concerning his mission to the church. For 
 example, the qualities of his character, as de- 
 scribed in the expression “ another paraclete,” can 
 be understood only in the light of what he did in 
 and for the disciples. We need not repeat here 
 what was said there. 
 
 D 
 
50 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 The casual reader of the New Testament can 
 observe the great difference there was in the 
 disciples before and after the day of Pentecost. 
 Where we saw confusion, hesitation, fear, weak- 
 ness, we now behold insight, decision, courage, 
 strength. They are transformed; they are new 
 men. : 
 
 1. The Holy Spirit enlightened them. He 1- 
 lumined their minds. 
 
 Three things are necessary for seeing: an ob- 
 ject to be seen, an eye with which to see, and an 
 atmosphere in which we see. . The third iS as 
 necessary as the first and second. One is in a 
 gallery and can see nothing. There are beautiful 
 statues and paintings all about him, and he has 
 two good eyes in his head, but he cannot see any- 
 thing in the dark. To have sight we must have 
 light. 
 
 One of the things that we should wonder at is 
 our unspeakable dulness as to religious truth. 
 God has revealed it in abundance, and our minds 
 are reasonably bright in other things, but in this 
 way, which is the King’s Highway, we move like 
 snails. He, who is a genius in the wisdom of the 
 world, is often a dullard in the wisdom of God. 
 That he has no interest in this, “ the queen of the 
 sciences,” is proof of the proposition. He is a 
 goat in a gallery of fine arts. It would rather 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 51 
 
 deal with the garbage-can. Paul says that the 
 natural man does not know spiritual things and 
 cannot know them except by the Spirit. (Cf. 
 1 Cor. 2: 10-16.) The gospel is as a sealed 
 book, as a hidden spring, to the Jews who have 
 Hot the spirit. (Cf. 2 Cor '3:\ 12-18. ) 
 
 But Christians too are often slow of apprehen- 
 sion. (Cf. Luke 24: 25.) Jesus told his dis- 
 ciples many things that they did not at the time 
 understand. They needed special help. They 
 needed light within. (Cf. Luke 24: 27, 45.) 
 “In thy light shall we see light’ (Ps. 36: 9). 
 The Holy Spirit is this light, for he is the “ Spirit 
 Or tiths) (fohnii4? 2.07516, wi 3)» 
 
 2. The Holy Spirit gives to the believer assur- 
 ance. That is, the Holy Spirit enables him to 
 know that he is a Christian. | 
 
 To know that I am a child of God and shall 
 not come into condemnation, that I have forgive- 
 ness of all sins, past, present, and future, that I 
 am truly a Christian and am heir to immortality 
 and the eternal glories of heaven, that I shall be 
 like Christ, this is indeed sublime knowledge. It 
 is the source of a joy that is unspeakable. But 
 many do not have this joy and inspiration. They 
 live in the shadows of doubt, not in the sunshine 
 of Christian assurance. They sing in tones of 
 dolefulness : 
 
52 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 ‘Tis a point I long to know, 
 
 Oft it gives me anxious thought, 
 Do I love the Lord or no? 
 
 Am I his or am I not? 
 
 It certainly is a mistake to hold that one is not 
 a Christian unless he knows that he is a Chris- 
 tian. But why should we live in ignorance and 
 the “slough of despond”? There is a way to 
 know. In reading the First Epistle of John one 
 may see how the apostle affirms repeatedly that 
 believers may know that they are saved. It is not 
 a matter of belicving only; it is a fact that we 
 may also know. (Cf. 1 John 2 : 3, 13, 14, 20, 29; 
 BAA LOS TOR Ai 2ye 713) 10515 5) 2, On ts 
 19.) Of these sixteen references one says that 
 Christian knowledge in general comes by means 
 of the anointing-of the Holy One (1 John 2: 
 20), which language seems to refer to the Holy 
 Spirit; one says that the fact that we have the 
 Spirit is proof that we abide in God (1 John 
 4 : 13); and one says that the believer has the 
 “ witness within him” (1 John 5 : 10), namely, 
 that Jesus is the Son of God. The context shows 
 quite certainly that this “ within”? testimony 1s 
 that of the Holy Spirit. (Cf. 1 John 5 : 7, 8.) 
 
 Paul is as positive and explicit, if not so pene- 
 trating, as John. He says that the “ Spirit him- 
 self beareth witness with our spirit that we are 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 53 
 
 children of God” (Rom. 8: 16). Three times 
 Paul speaks of the “earnest of the Spirit” 
 2sCor © 2215-255 Ephe 1 res re ae igs 
 word “earnest ’’ means proof or evidence. We 
 have it in the expression “ earnest-money,” that 
 is, first money paid down on a bargain to secure 
 it and as evidence that the rest will be paid. In 
 the first passage Paul thinks of his having the 
 Holy Spirit as God’s proof that he is in Christ. 
 It is conclusive evidence to him and should be 
 to the Corinthians. In giving to him the Holy 
 Spirit God established the fact, and “set his 
 seal ’’ to it, underwrote it, subscribed his name to 
 it, that Paul is in Christ. In the second passage 
 Paul says that the Holy Spirit is proof of our 
 immortality. In the third passage Paul regards 
 the Holy Spirit as a proof of both present sal- 
 vation and our future inheritance and glory. 
 
 In using the word proof, or evidence, as desig- 
 nating the knowledge which the Holy Spirit 
 gives, there is danger that we think of a kind of 
 knowledge that is inferior to or that falls below 
 certainty. What one knows by proof is not the 
 most certain knowledge. With reference to some 
 of the passages cited, as those in which the Holy 
 Spirit gives us assurance of what is yet future, it 
 is clear that the words are properly used. But in 
 other passages, for example, as Romans 8: 16 
 
54 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 and 1 John 2: 20; 5:: Io, the thought is not of 
 a knowledge that comes by the Holy Spirit as a 
 medium, but of immediate knowledge of present 
 reality which one has by virtue of the Holy Spirit 
 being in him. They deal not with inferential 
 knowledge, but conscious knowledge. 
 
 There are three kinds of knowledge. — First, 
 knowledge that comes through the senses. For 
 example, I know that I am writing with a pencil. 
 I see and feel it. Secondly, knowledge that comes 
 from reason or the logical faculty. For example, 
 I know with a great degree of certainty, but not 
 with absolute certainty, that the thermometer will 
 reach the zero-point this winter in Kansas City. 
 This is inferential, inductive knowledge and 
 comes short of absolute certainty, But it may 
 reach very close to it. Upon this kind of knowl- 
 edge men are sometimes hanged. 
 
 Thirdly, the knowledge of consciousness. For 
 example, one’s knowledge of his own identity. I 
 know when I wake up in the morning that I am 
 the same person I was yesterday. How do I 
 know this? Not by looking in the mirror. Not 
 by the senses nor by reasoning. I know it by in- 
 tuition. JI am conscious of myself. 
 
 It is, I think, a knowledge of this superior kind 
 with which we know Christ and the present real- 
 ities of his kingdom. We are conscious of him 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 55 
 
 and of them. There is no knowledge more cer- 
 tain, We do not prove to ourselves the reality 
 of Christ, as we do not prove to ourselves the 
 reality of ourselves. We are given to ourselves” 
 in experience, and the self arises into conscious- 
 ness. Christ too is given to us in experience and 
 comes thus into our consciousness. The Holy 
 Spirit makes possible this certainty. 
 
 3. The Holy Spirit confirms us in our work 
 and faith. His very presence is proof of God's 
 approval; that our course of action is a proper one 
 and that our faith is the true faith. 
 
 The coming of the Holy Spirit on the disciples 
 on the day of Pentecost was not only a proof of 
 the exaltation of Jesus to the place of power, but 
 it was also a demonstration of God’s approval 
 of them. When the Holy Spirit came upon the 
 Gentiles assembled in the house of Cornelius, 
 Peter knew that God had accepted them, and ac- 
 cordingly he commanded that they be baptized. 
 (Acts 10 : 47, 48.) 
 
 Paul tells the Galatians that their receiving the 
 Spirit “by the hearing of faith” is proof that 
 salvation by faith, and not by the “ works of the 
 Jaw,” is God’s way. (Gal. 3 : 2-5.). The Holy 
 Spirit himself also is a gift and comes to us not 
 by virtue of any work that we have done. Peter 
 said to the inquirers on the day of Pentecost: 
 
50 A STUDY..OF THE .HOLY: SPIRIT 
 
 “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you 
 in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission 
 of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the 
 Holy Spirit ” (Acts 2: '38).-“bhe/7 g1it ofthe 
 Holy Spirit ” is the Holy Spirit himself, not some 
 talent or power which the Holy Spirit bestows. 
 Peter’s thought is: Ye shall receive the Holy 
 Spirit as a gift. The Holy Spirit does not ap- 
 prove false doctrine. Believing an untruth would 
 not create a good spirit in a man, but an evil one. 
 The Holy Spirit is in those men only who believe 
 the truth and act according to it. 
 
 4. The Holy Spirit guided the disciples. 
 
 “ Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is 
 come, he shall guide you into all the truth” 
 (ohn 1631135) cf) 14 id gi; Matt. (10 37220; 
 Mark:13 tay Luke 12: 11252143¢ 12-35). 
 
 Guidance is illumination and more. It is un- 
 derstanding or knowledge plus something. It is 
 practical wisdom. The Holy Spirit aids and in- 
 duces to useful activities. Nothing short of re- 
 sults and efficiency will satisfy the Spirit. In- 
 tellectual enjoyment, mystical meditation, ecstatic 
 exhilaration, transfiguration thrills, and other 
 such experiences, that easily degenerate into 
 selfishness and worthlessness, have small place in 
 the spiritual man. The Spirit is more concerned 
 with what we do than with how we feel. 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 57 
 
 Accordingly we read that the Spirit sent Philip. 
 to speak to the eunuch (Acts 8 : 29); that he 
 directed the church at Antioch to send forth | 
 Paul and Barnabas on a missionary enterprise 
 (Acts 13: 2); that he withheld Paul from preach- 
 ing in a certain region (Acts 16: 7); that he 
 directed Paul to go to Jerusalem where persecu- 
 tions awaited him (Acts 20 : 22); that he guided 
 the apostles, elders, and church at Jerusalem in 
 making a decision on an important matter (Acts 
 15 : 22,28) ;that Jesus was subject to the leader- 
 ship of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 4: 1). 
 
 The effect of the Holy Spirit upon the minds 
 of the apostles is specified. ‘“‘ He shall teach you 
 all things, and bring to your remembrance all that 
 I said unto you” (John 14: 26). “He shall 
 declare unto you the things that are to come”’ 
 (John 16: 13). In these statements of Jesus 
 it is clearly and positively affirmed that the Holy 
 Spirit would increase to the utmost the apostles’ 
 power of memory with regard to what he had 
 said to them and would give to them more than 
 natural insight into the future. And here we 
 have not only the basis for the doctrine of the 
 inspiration of the apostles, but also an explana- 
 tion of its character. The inspiration of the apos- 
 tles was not only a quickened consciousness of 
 present realities, but also an increased power to 
 
58 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 recall the past and to lay hold of the future. We 
 can trust them absolutely to give us a true picture 
 of Jesus and to give revelations, predictions, and 
 teachings with regard to the future. The sup- 
 position that the memory of the apostles was sub- 
 ject to limitations and errors, as a merely natu- 
 ral memory is, and that, therefore, their account 
 of what Jesus said and did is not wholly reliable, 
 is excluded. The supposition that they were re- 
 ligious geniuses and were, by virtue of superior 
 natural endowments, able to discern the profound 
 needs of human souls for ages to come, becoming 
 thereby revealers or interpreters of religious 
 truth, as Shakespeare was of human nature, is 
 likewise excluded. Jesus said that what they 
 were to receive, not what they already possessed, 
 would give them this ability. Though this power 
 may work within them, it is a power that comes 
 from without them and is neither part nor quality 
 of them. Paul and Peter have this conception of 
 the inspiration of the writers of the Old Testa- 
 ment. (Cf. 2 Tim. 3 : 16 and 2 Peter 1: 21.) 
 It would seem that with the prophets and apos- 
 tles the inspiration of oral utterances was of a 
 like kind with the inspiration of written utter- 
 ances, (Cf, 1 Cor..14 : 37; 2\Peter 3": 16.) 
 While we cannot now lay claim to such a de- 
 gree of inspiration or such a distinct guidance of 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 59 
 
 the Holy Spirit as the apostles and some other 
 early disciples were favored with, we, neverthe- 
 less, have to a less degree his gracious guidance. | 
 “ As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these 
 are the sons of God”’ (Rom. 8 : 14). 
 
 A traveler needs three things: eyes, a road, and 
 light. He must have them all if he finds his way. 
 If we find the path of duty, we must also have 
 three things: conscience, the word of God, and 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Charles Kingsley, at twenty-one years of age, 
 in unrest of soul, wrote to a Christian friend: 
 
 You believe that you have a sustaining Hand to 
 guide you along that path, an Invisible Protection, and 
 an unerring Guide. I, alas! have no stay for my weary 
 steps, but that same abused and stupefied reason which 
 has stumbled, and wandered, and betrayed me a thou- 
 sand times ere now, and is every moment ready to 
 faint and to give up the unequal struggle. | 
 
 He realized that to find the right way one must 
 have something more than human _ wisdom. 
 Harry Emerson Fosdick makes this comment: * 
 
 If Kingsley had framed his final philosophy then, what 
 a loss to the world, of an inspiring life transfigured by 
 Christian faith! He cried after discernment, lifted up 
 
 2% Meaning of Faith,” p. 30. 
 
60 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 his voice for understanding, and he found the knowl- 
 edge of God. 
 
 Few men of the last generation had as much 
 spiritual influence and did as much good as 
 George Mueller, of England. How he built up 
 a great orphanage and fed and clothed thousands 
 of helpless children was the marvel and admira- 
 tion of his day. He tells us how he found the 
 will of God. You will notice that he gives 
 prominence to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
 He says: 
 
 I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such 
 a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a 
 given matter. 
 
 Nine-tenths of the trouble with people is just here. 
 Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our 
 hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may 
 be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a 
 little way to the knowledge of what his will is. 
 
 Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling 
 or simple impression. If I do so, I make myself liable 
 to great delusions. 
 
 I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in 
 connection with, the Word of God. 
 
 The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I 
 look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself 
 open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides 
 us at all, he will do it according to the Scriptures and 
 never contrary to them. 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 6t 
 
 Next I take into account providential circumstances. 
 These often plainly indicate God’s will in connection 
 with his Word and Spirit. 
 
 I ask God in prayer to reveal his will to me aright. - 
 
 Thus through prayer to God, the study of the Word, 
 and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment accord- 
 ing to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my 
 mind is thus at peace and continues so after two or 
 three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial 
 matters, and in transactions involving most important 
 issues, I have found this method always effective. 
 
 From the very nature of the case no mechan- 
 ical rule can be given for conduct. To attempt to 
 announce a general rule that will be applicable 
 to all particular and specific cases and be the 
 solution of them, is to attempt the impossible. 
 It is in fact a contradiction in thought. It would 
 turn a moral agent into an automaton. Thomas 
 wanted to know the way and Jesus said, “I am 
 the way” (John 14: 6). He could not say 
 more. Christian character is developed and re- 
 vealed in our application of the principles of the 
 life of Christ to the numerous and complex prob- 
 lems of our life. Every healthy system digests 
 and assimilates food for itself. Discovering the 
 mind of Christ and working out the will of Christ 
 in the plan and details of my life is my job. 
 Mechanical rules cannot help me. But the ‘law 
 of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” can and 
 
62 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 does help me. (Rom. 8: 2.) Let me be careful 
 to discern the “mind of the Spirit” (Rom. 
 Sarit dy fy 
 
 To all that had been said on this subject of the 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit this limitation should 
 be added. The Holy Spirit does not lead us con- 
 trary to the Word, as was noted in the quotation 
 from Mr. Mueller. It is an evil spirit that ignores 
 and refuses to listen to the Word. He who re- 
 jects the Word of God on any subject, on which 
 it speaks, is, so far as he does it, led by his 
 own wilful, if not wicked, spirit, however great a 
 show of piety he may display. The “inner 
 light’ must harmonize with and reflect the 
 “outer light’ of God’s inspired Word; other- 
 wise it is not light, but darkness. The Quakers 
 stand forth as a fine object-lesson and a warning 
 to us. They rejected the plain commands of 
 Holy Writ, being guided, as they supposed, by 
 an inner light, and God has taken away their 
 candlestick. Not a few members of evangelical 
 churches professing the same humility and sanc- 
 tity are walking in the same way of spiritual 
 pride and impotency. (Cf. Isa. 8 : 20.) 
 
 5. The Holy Spirit gave power to the disciples. 
 
 Jesus, referring to the day of Pentecost, said 
 to his disciples as he was about to depart from 
 them, “ Ye shall receive power, when the Holy 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 63 
 
 piri 1s.) come “upon, you.) .) CActs®1ic.8) 
 “Greater works than these shall he do; because 
 I go unto the Father” (John 14: 12). “I will 
 not leave you orphans” (John 14: 18). 
 
 Paul said to Timothy: “God gave us not a 
 spirit of fearfulness; but of power” (2 Tim. 
 1 Aa fy ) 
 
 Christians are not to be weak and beggarly. 
 They are not to fawn and cringe and court favor. 
 They have a message that grips the mind and 
 heart, a message of love, of truth, and of judg- 
 ment. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is also 
 the»baptism of fire. (Cf. Matt. 3: 11.) 
 
 But we will speak of this subject especially and 
 at length later. 
 
 6. The Holy Spirit makes intercession for 
 Christians. 
 
 Paul says: “ And in like manner the Spirit also 
 helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to 
 pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh 
 intercession for us with groanings which cannot 
 be uttered ; and he that searcheth the hearts know- 
 eth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he 
 maketh intercession for the saints according to 
 the will of God”’ (Rom. 8 : 26, 27). 
 
 This is a remarkable passage. The Holy Spirit 
 does a work for us on earth and also before the 
 throne. He is, in this, like Jesus who was our 
 
64 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 advocate on earth, but is now our ‘ Advocate 
 with the Father’ (John 2: 1; cf. Heb. 7 : 25). 
 Their work for the saints is complete. It is both 
 here and there. It is in us and also for us. 
 
 This intercession of the Spirit for Christians 
 in the Holy of Holies should be consciously real- 
 ized by them as sufficient to meet every need. If 
 there is a conscious need in enlightened and spir- 
 itual Christians for a perfect intercession as well 
 as for a perfect salvation, and it is evident that 
 there is, they have it in the person of the Holy 
 Spirit and not in the person of the “ Virgin fi 
 Mary. 
 
 We have found that the Holy Spirit does these 
 six things for us: he enlightens the mind, he 
 gives us assurance of salvation, he confirms us in 
 the true faith and in a good course, he guides, 
 he endues us with power, he makes intercession 
 for us, interpreting our prayers and making them 
 effectual. 
 
IV 
 
 Pi EMISSION, OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 TO THE WORLD 
 
In evil long I took delight, 
 Unawed by shame or fear, 
 
 Till a new object struck my sight, 
 And stopped my mad career. 
 
 I saw One hanging on a tree, 
 In agonies and blood; 
 
 He fixed his languid eyes on me, 
 As near the cross I stood. 
 
 O never, till my latest breath, 
 Shall I forget that look! 
 
 It seemed to charge me with his death, 
 Though not a word he spoke. 
 
 A second look he gave, which said, 
 “TJ freely all forgive; 
 
 This blood is for thy ransom paid; 
 T died that thou mayst live.” 
 
 Thus, while his death my sin displays 
 Tn all its blackest hue, 
 
 Such is the mystery of grace, 
 It seals my pardon too. 
 
TEE IMISSION OF THE*HOLY SPIRIF 
 LOVTHE WORLD 
 
 HE world is not aware of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 It does not know him nor of him. ‘ Whom 
 the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him 
 not, neither knoweth him” (John 14: 17.) But 
 he has a mission to the world, nevertheless. 
 Though men that are unsaved do not know him 
 and do not want to know him, and may never be 
 saved, they are, notwithstanding, the objects of 
 his grace. 
 
 In this the Holy Spirit is like the Son. “ He 
 was in the world, and the world was made 
 through him, and the world knew him not” 
 (John 1: 10). “In him was life; and the life 
 was the light of men” (John 1 : 4), and yet they 
 were not aware of it. God’s grace is greater than 
 our knowledge or gratitude. 
 
 But we should not conclude that the Holy 
 Spirit is “ diffused,” so to speak, throughout the 
 world, and that he does a work in the heart of 
 every person such as we are to describe. It seems 
 proper to say with Dr. A. J. Gordon and others 
 that the Holy Spirit’s mission to the world is 
 (67 
 
68 A STUDY OF ‘THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 accomplished only in connection with the truth 
 of the gospel and never without it. The Holy 
 Spirit dwells in believers, but not in the world. 
 (Chr Cor:-377 16.) He, does~not dwell, in un- 
 believers. Accordingly what he does for them 
 is done from without; that is, by means of the 
 truth or the word of God. Let us recall that 
 with Jesus a favorite designation of the Holy 
 Spirit is the “ Spirit of truth” (John 14: 17; 
 16: 26; 16: 13), and that he identifiesGod's 
 word with truth. (John 17: 17.) The word of 
 God is the “ sword of the Spirit’ or the weapon 
 which the Spirit wields. (Cf. Eph. 6 : 17.) 
 
 The ministry of the Spirit to unbelievers is to 
 make the word of God effective in them to the 
 extent of causing them to know that it is the 
 word of God. This ministry is summed up in 
 one word, namely, conviction. 
 
 “And he, when he is come, will convict the 
 world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and 
 of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on 
 me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, 
 and ye behold me no more; of judgment, because 
 the prince of this world hath been judged” (John 
 16: 8-11). | 
 
 This is the one and only passage in the Bible 
 that definitely states and explains the effect of the 
 Holy Spirit upon unbelievers as such, 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 69 
 
 The conviction is threefold. Its elements are 
 sin, righteousness, and judgment. 
 
 The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin. 
 
 Two facts in regard to the question of sin 
 stand out prominently. The first is that it is 
 fundamental in the Christian conception of fallen 
 human nature. The second is that it gives value 
 to the doctrine of redemption. The worth of 
 salvation is determined by the consideration of 
 what one is saved from. If sin is a small matter, 
 salvation is a small matter. When we minimize 
 sin we minimize Christ. 
 
 Now, if one will compare carefully the Bible 
 view of sin and the world’s view of it, one will 
 be greatly impressed. Buddha, Socrates, and 
 Plotinus are three good representatives of the 
 world’s thought and teaching on the subject. 
 There is in men generally the feeling that there 
 is something wrong with them. But when this 
 feeling attempts to give an account of itself, it 
 falls far below the Christian conception of sin. 
 
 Buddha realizes that there is something wrong 
 with human nature. But the wrong is a part of 
 human nature. It is not something that has over- 
 taken man. It is something that belongs to him. 
 To be rid of it he must be rid of himself. Buddha 
 did not teach self-denial, but self-annihilation. 
 Buddha was a pantheist, and consequently he 
 
70 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 knew nothing of sin as the violation of the law 
 of a personal and holy God. Man, like an ant, 
 finds himself at the base of the mountain, and 
 there is nothing for him to do, if he would be at 
 the top, but to climb. Sin is not the word for 
 Buddha, but pain or sorrow, and desire is the 
 cause of sorrow. The dying down of desire 
 brings surcease from sorrow. By this process 
 one reaches Nirvana, the Buddhist’s heaven. 
 There is here no true teaching concerning sin and 
 salvation. It is the sad groping in the darkness 
 of a great and earnest soul. 
 
 Socrates’ view is light and superficial. Sin is 
 a mistake. It results from ignorance. Its cure 
 is knowledge. The notion that sin is lawlessness, 
 that it is rebellion, that it is the assertion of self 
 against the holy will of God, and that it has guilt, 
 which must be atoned for, is not found in 
 Socrates. If Socrates knew of Moses, he did not 
 learn anything from him. Neither Buddha nor 
 Socrates conceives of sin as so heinous to God 
 and so “ deepdyed ” in men that their only hope 
 with regard to it is his forgiveness and regenerat- 
 ing grace. 
 
 The theory of Plotinus, the founder of Neo- 
 Platonism, is antichristian. To God, or the first 
 being of all, there is no sin. Because there can 
 be nothing contrary to his being. He is himself 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Jt 
 
 all reality. Therefore, sin has no real existence. 
 It is merely the absence of reality. It is to reality 
 as darkness is to light. It is the lack of perfec- 
 tion. It is a defect or negation, but nothing posi- 
 tive. It is related to perfection as childhood is to 
 manhood. There is nothing that offends God or 
 goes contrary to his will or thought. If there 
 be that which appears to be offensive to God, it is 
 because of our imperfect way of viewing things. 
 God himself knows no such thing as sin. To him 
 all is harmonious, beautiful, and good. What we 
 call sin is only the lack of a quality in us which 
 we are yet to possess. Plotinus was, as will have 
 appeared, a pantheist. 
 
 This theory was developed to the summit of 
 perfection by Spinoza, the greatest of all pan- 
 theists and infidels, and has been adopted bodily 
 by the founder of Christian Science, also pan- 
 theist and infidel. It serves very well a certain 
 kind of evolution. But it is antibiblical, anti- 
 christian, and antimoral. It is altogether pagan. 
 It is impossible with men and women who think 
 of God as a heavenly Father, as a person with 
 ethical qualities, reason, purpose, a sense of right 
 and wrong, mercy and love. 
 
 Buddha thinks the trouble with human nature 
 is pain; Socrates thinks it is ignorance; and Plo- 
 tinus and his imitators think it is imperfection, 
 
72 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 They all, and especially Socrates and Plotinus, 
 prescribe knowledge as a panacea for the world’s 
 ills. But these great men on this subject are like 
 “ children crying in the night’’; their language 
 lacks articulation. They feel but do not under- 
 stand. It is not possible to know what sin is 
 without a revelation of what God is. 
 
 But the voice of the Bible is clear and certain. 
 It knows what sin is and how it originated. It 
 traces its history. It recites vivid tragedies of it. 
 Sin is wickedness; it is iniquity; it is missing the 
 mark; it is overreaching; it is transgression ; it 1s 
 in the heart as well as in the head; it is something 
 black, unclean, deformed, and ugly; God cannot 
 look upon it. It is a deadly thing; it is a poison 
 and a curse; death camps on the trail of sin. The 
 sinner is guilty; he carries the weight of his sin 
 upon him; his sin finds him out. Sin is what it 
 is because God is what he is, terrible in holiness, 
 from whom none can hide, whose righteous 
 wrath strikes like a thunderbolt in the day of 
 judgment and consumes like a furnace in the day 
 of vengeance. Sin is the cause of all our woe. 
 Sin must be punished. He who has its mark 
 upon him is exiled from the presence of God, 
 and if he be unforgiven is doomed to everlasting 
 shame and contempt. Sin creates hell. Sin has 
 caught every one in its evil net; not one can 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO 
 
 escape. Only the mercy of God can deliver the 
 soul. 
 
 The mission of the law was to educate a nation 
 and the world on the subject of sin, to cause them 
 to know what it is and how bad it is. Paul says, 
 “T had not known sin, except through the law ”’ 
 (Rom. 7: 7). Again he says that the law was 
 given “ that through the commandment sin might 
 become exceeding sinful’? (Rom. 7 : 13). And 
 once more: “ The law came in beside, that the 
 trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, 
 grace did abound more exceedingly’ (Rom. 5 : 
 20). Paul does not mean, as some suppose, that 
 in any place where sin is rampant grace is abun- 
 dant. He is thinking of it abounding subjec- 
 tively, not objectively. He means just this: that 
 to the Jews, who were more conscious of sin, 
 God showed more favor. 
 
 We have Paul for our authority that the con- 
 tribution of the Jewish nation to the civilization 
 of the world is a quickened moral consciousness. 
 The Romans gave to the world jurisprudence; the 
 Greeks, esthetics; the Jews, ethics. 
 
 But when we come to Christ we get a better 
 knowledge of sin. We cannot explain him apart 
 from the fact of sin. Sin brought him into the 
 world; sin nailed him to the cross. Sin caused 
 the cry of agony, ‘“ My God, my God, why hast 
 
74 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 thou forsaken me?” Calvary more than Sinai 
 teaches us the nature of sin. There is only one 
 thing that outruns and overreaches and is 
 stronger than sin, and that is the love of God. 
 
 Jesus says that the Holy Spirit “ will convict 
 the world in respect of sin.’ He means that from 
 Pentecost on men will have a more vivid realiza- 
 tion of sin; and on the day of Pentecost we have 
 a good illustration of what he meant. On that 
 day men, who had been for fifty days guilty of 
 the murder of the Son of God and unmoved and 
 unashamed, were brought suddenly under deep 
 conviction of their crime. The sermon of Peter 
 played its part, to be sure; but the Holy Spirit 
 drove the “ two-edged sword ” in, piercing to the 
 conscience. 
 
 Another good illustration is Paul’s conscious- 
 ness of sin. In no Bible character is it so real 
 and vivid. David in none of his penitential 
 psalms equals Paul. Newman Smyth thus draws 
 the contrast between them: * 3 
 
 Very interesting, and instructive also, as distinguish- 
 ing these eras in the growth of conscience, is the com- 
 parison which we may make without drawing at all 
 upon our imagination, between the same (seventh) 
 chapter of Romans and the Fifty-first Psalm. The 
 psalm is like a child’s cry of contrition in its mother’s 
 
 1“ Christian Ethics,” p. 1666, 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 75 
 
 Jap: “ Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy 
 lovingkindness; according to the multitude of thy ten- 
 der mercies blot out my transgressions.” But the chap- 
 ter of Romans is the cry of a man’s soul from out the 
 depths: “O wretched man that I am! who shall de- 
 liver me out of the body of this death?’ The former 
 is a youth’s quick contrition, and easily reviving hope: 
 “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones 
 which thou hast broken may rejoice.” The latter is a 
 man’s soberer recognition of his moral inability, and 
 his profounder moral despair: “ For I know that in me, 
 that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will 
 is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.” 
 The former is quick to own the human sinfulness from 
 which the transgression which is confessed had sprung: 
 “ Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my 
 mother conceive me.” In the latter the dark fact of 
 Original sin falls into the background, and the sense of 
 personal guilt pervades with its deep gloom the moral 
 consciousness: “ But I am carnal, sold under sin.” The 
 moral law as the will of God is acknowledged in the 
 psalm: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and 
 done that which is evil in thy sight; that thou mayest 
 be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou 
 judgest.” In the confession of sin in Romans the law, 
 is recognized as in itself something holy, and the com- 
 mandment good. The psalm is the weeping of a peni- 
 tent child who has done a wrong act, and is distressed 
 by the shame of it. The confession of sin in Romans is 
 the voice of a man who has learned how helpless and 
 worthless he is before the pure righteousness of God, 
 and who knows that he must perish as one bound to 
 death unless he can become upright and stand as a just 
 
76 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 soul among the just in the presence of the God of 
 righteousness. We turn to the penitential psalm when 
 we would mourn over particular sins; we read that 
 profounder chapter of St. Paul’s experience when we 
 would fathom our deepest personal consciousness of the 
 human sinfulness from which we would be delivered 
 as from a body of death. 
 
 Now this profounder knowledge of sin in Paul 
 corresponds to his profounder knowledge of the 
 Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works conviction 
 of sin, because the Holy Spirit is holy. In his 
 white light dark shadows, that were before un- 
 known, are seen and felt. 
 
 Jesus explains: “ Of sin, because they believe 
 not on me.” 
 
 Since Jesus saw a relation between sin and un- 
 belief in himself we ought to try earnestly to 
 see it. 
 
 Two considerations help us to understand his 
 statement. First, Jesus is the criterion of char- 
 acter. It is not the law, but one who is the ful- 
 filment and exemplification, in his own person, of 
 the law, and greater than the law, who has now 
 become the law of life for us. As Jesus is the 
 author of salvation and the door into the king- 
 dom, so is he also the standard by which charac- 
 ter and conduct, virtue and vice are to be deter- 
 mined. 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Fk 
 
 The second consideration is that one’s attitude 
 to Jesus reveals character. It is a matter of small 
 moment to one’s character whether he is for or 
 against George Washington or Frederick the 
 Great of Prussia. It concerns his political views 
 only, but saints and sinners are arrayed on both 
 sides. But Jesus is the dividing-line between 
 saints and sinners. He attracts the pure; he re- 
 pels the vicious. He is a savor of life unto life 
 to the one, a savor of death unto death to the 
 ethers (Cis 2) Cor. 2327163) 
 
 The word that Jesus uses for the attitude which 
 he condemns is “ believe not.” We are of course 
 not to give any refined technical meaning to this 
 word in this connection. It means simply being 
 for Jesus or against him, committing oneself to 
 him or holding aloof. The one is with God 
 righteousness, the other sin. Sometimes one 
 hears the subject of faith in Christ spoken of as 
 if it were a “ voluntary willing,’ an isolated men- 
 tal choice unrelated to moral worth; but this is 
 not true. To reject Christ is to confirm oneself 
 in badness. To say, “I expect to be a Christian 
 some time, but not now,” is like saying, “ I expect 
 to be honest some time, but not now.’’ When 
 therefore one does not believe in Christ he not 
 only makes God a liar, as John in his epistle says 
 (1 John 5; 10), but he also shows himself to 
 
78 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 be in a profound sense dishonorable. Unbelief 
 is a root-sin. It was the initial element in the 
 first sin, when the devil was trusted and God was 
 distrusted, and has been the initial element in 
 every succeeding sin. Since to believe on Christ/ 
 is the work of God (John 6: 29), so, on the! 
 other hand, not to believe on him is the work of | 
 the evil one. 
 
 In being an index of character faith is like 
 love. What one loves indicates what he is. Jesus 
 said: “And this is the judgment, that light is 
 come into the world, and men loved the darkness 
 rather than the light; for their works were evil ”’ 
 ~ (John 3: 19). Paul said, “If any man loveth 
 not the Lord, let him be anathema”’ (1 Cor. 16 : 
 22). If one loves not what is most lovely, he 
 himself is unlovely. But an entire absence of 
 faith in Jesus Christ is a still stronger proof of 
 degeneracy. Jesus says, “‘ He that believeth not 
 hath been judged already, because he hath not 
 believed on the name of the only begotten Son 
 of God” (John 3: 18). God’s judgments are 
 not arbitrary. He that does not believe is con- 
 demned, because he is condemnable. The ques- 
 tion of all questions is, What do you think of 
 Jesus Christ? Eternal destinies are fixed by it, 
 because character of infinite worth or unworth is 
 formed by it, 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 79 
 
 Now it is the Holy Spirit that teaches us all 
 this. Paul says: ‘I make known unto you, that 
 no man speaking in the Spirit of God saith, Jesus 
 is anathema; and no man can say, Jesus is Lord, — 
 bub inthe bloly Spirit’ (0 Cor. 12) 72). pias 
 a fact that saints bless and sinners curse by the 
 name of Jesus. They know that he is holy. Paul 
 credits to the Holy Spirit this result and it is 
 involved in the statements of Jesus. 
 
 The Holy Spirit convicts the world “ in respect 
 of righteousness.” Jesus adds in explanation, 
 “ Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, 
 and ye behold me no more.” 
 
 In the former statement, with which we have 
 been dealing, the sim spoken of is the sin of the 
 world. Here the righteousness spoken of is the 
 righteousness of Christ. The Holy Spirit con- 
 victs the world of its sin and of Christ’s right- 
 eousness. Their great sin arises from their not 
 believing in Christ the “Holy and Righteous 
 One,” and they are, because of this fact, brought 
 under conviction by the Holy Spirit. It was 
 necessary, in discussing the sin of the world, to 
 speak of the character of Christ—for they natu- 
 rally stand in contrast and are evidently so placed 
 by Jesus in the clause which we are studying— 
 and we need not here repeat what has been said 
 already. 
 
80 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 We come to the two explanatory clauses, “ Be- 
 cause I go to the Father, and ye behold me no 
 more.” 
 
 The second of these clauses is, it seems, only 
 a continuation and completer expression of the 
 thought of the first. It is the negative member 
 of a parallelism, a form of expression frequently 
 used by Jesus as reported by John. (Cf. John 
 2 802s Bl bese O18 517: tol On one es tO 28. ) 
 
 We limit our attention therefore to the first 
 clause, “ Because I go to the Father.” The 
 thought is really a simple one. It is this: The 
 resurrection and ascension of Jesus to the Father 
 proves that he is righteous, that he is what he 
 claimed to be, the Holy One of God, the Son of 
 God. The disciples became vividly conscious of 
 this truth on the day of Pentecost and from that 
 time on proclaimed it. Peter proclaimed it on 
 that day in his sermon and again and again. (Acts 
 25 41-8033) 2 15-21; 4%) 10.) his: was) the 
 great fact that converted Saul of Tarsus. The 
 voice said, “ I am Jesus whom thou persecutest ” 
 (Acts 9: 5; cf. 22: 8). Notice the language. 
 It is not “I am Christ,’ but “I am Jesus.” It 
 is the man, Jesus of Nazareth, that has been ex- 
 alted to the right hand of God. This was enough 
 for the arch-persecutor. Before this stupendous 
 fact he surrendered all. Then it became his great 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 81 
 
 theme. (Acts 13 : 30, 34; 17 : 31; 26: 8; Rom. 
 Hi: 421 Cor. 15:45) 7 As'to these passages.con- 
 sider that the thought of the resurrection car- 
 ries with it, in Paul’s mind, the thought of the 
 ascension. 
 
 The fact is that the world in part has been and 
 is being convinced of this truth. All the saved 
 are convinced of it and many more who do not 
 act upon their conviction. For this result we 
 are indebted to the potent agency of the Holy 
 Spirit. Paul calls it a mystery: “ Without con- 
 troversy great is the mystery of godliness ; 
 
 He who was manifest in the flesh, 
 Justified in the spirit, 
 
 Seen of angels, 
 
 Preached among the nations, 
 
 Believed on in the world, 
 
 Received up in glory” (1 Tim. 3: 16). 
 
 The Holy Spirit convicts the world “in re- 
 spect of judgment”; “ of judgment, because the 
 prince of this world hath been judged.” 
 
 In the light of what has been said, if we have 
 spoken correctly, this part of the sentence is not 
 difficult. | 
 
 The “prince of this world” is Satan. (Cf. 
 fobnse 12 23% and '14.2°30.). >: Hath © beer 
 
 F 
 
82 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 judged ” refers to the victory that Christ gained 
 over Satan. Christ conquered the devil both in 
 his life and in his death. He routed him in the 
 great temptation. (Matt. 4: 11.) He beat him 
 and disrupted his kingdom when his disciples cast 
 out demons. (Cf. Matt. 12 : 29; Luke 10 : 18.) 
 The passage in Luke does not refer to the origin 
 of Satan, as a fallen angel, as some suppose, but 
 to his overthrow in the world, as the context 
 shows. 
 
 But “hath been judged” refers especially, it 
 seems, to the victory of Christ over Satan gained 
 in his death on the cross. (Cf. John 12: BI) 
 The perfect tense is used because Jesus views the 
 event as an accomplished fact. The world was 
 passing judgment on Jesus, but it also was being 
 judged by the judgment it was meeting out. And 
 Satan was being defeated by the crucifixion. 
 Satan did not want Christ to go to the cross. 
 When Peter would have prevented it, the Saviour 
 called him Satan, for he was then speaking for 
 Satan, who desired rather that Jesus fall down 
 and worship him. (Matt. 16: 23; Chi) 4a Op) 
 And when he was on the cross those who were 
 Satanic would have been glad to have him come 
 down without finishing his sacrifice. (Matt. 27 : 
 42.) When Jesus said, “ It is finished,” and died 
 the victory over Satan’s power, the last enemy, 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 83 
 
 death, was accomplished. By dying he conquered 
 death. His resurrection was the demonstration 
 of it. | 
 
 The cross conquers the world, the flesh, and the 
 devil. 
 
 In the cross Satan is revealed. His works and 
 the world of which he is the prince are brought 
 to light. Paul says that by the cross of Christ 
 the world is crucified to him. (Gal. 6: 14.) 
 
 Now, if the prince of the world is condemned, 
 all that belong to his princedom are condemned 
 also; and the Holy Spirit works this truth into 
 their conscience. Sinful men will not escape the 
 judgment of God; and more, where the gospel is 
 preached, they will not escape the foreboding of 
 their doom. 
 
 In conclusion, we notice that in all the work of 
 the Holy Spirit Christ is honored. As the Son 
 did not come into the world to glorify himself 
 but the Father, so the Holy Spirit came not to 
 glorify himself but the Son. Christ hung upon 
 the cross; the Holy Spirit “hides behind the 
 cross.” 
 
 Julius Charles Hare well says: 
 
 The Comforter in every part of his threefold work 
 glorifies Christ. In convincing of sin he convinces us 
 of the sin of not believing on Christ. In convincing us 
 of righteousness, he convinces us of the righteousness 
 
84 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 of Christ, of that righteousness which was made mani- 
 fest in Christ going to the Father, and which he re- 
 ceived to bestow on all such as should believe on him. 
 And lastly, in convincing of judgment, he convinces us 
 that the prince of the world was judged in the life and 
 by the death of Christ. Thus, throughout, Christ is 
 glorified; and that which the Comforter shows to us 
 relates in all its parts to the life and work of the in- 
 carnate Son of God. 
 
 We may say the same of the work of the Holy 
 Spirit in the lives of Christians. When he en- 
 lightens, enlarges, strengthens, teaches, guides, in- 
 spires, and empowers them, it is that Christ may 
 be glorified. Dr. A. J. Gordon beautifully says: - 
 
 When the sun retires beyond the horizon at night, 
 the world, our hemisphere, sees him no more; yet the 
 moon sees him, and all night long catches his light and 
 throws it down upon us. So the world sees not Christ 
 in the gracious provisions of redemption which he holds 
 for us in heaven, but through the illumination of the 
 Comforter the church sees him, . . and communicates 
 what it sees to the world. 
 
 Since this is the mind of the Spirit it should 
 be our mind also. If we have it we have the 
 Spirit. It is the best proof that we have the 
 Spirit. 
 
 2“ Ministry of the Spirit,” p. 198. 
 
THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 85 
 
 Bismarck’s one ambition was to Prussianize 
 Germany. ‘“ You can hang me,” he said, “so 
 long as the rope you do it with binds Germany 
 to the Prussian throne.’’ A noble devotion that 
 was to an ignoble cause. To Christianize Ger- 
 many was Luther’s devotion to a noble cause. 
 And the name of Luther will be sung while the 
 name of Bismarck will rot. 
 
 The Holy Spirit wants us to do what he him- 
 self is doing, namely, so to preach, teach, and 
 exemplify Christ to unbelieving men that they 
 will come to know his righteousness, their sinful- 
 ness, and the righteous judgment of God that 
 now rests upon them and that will in time be 
 executed upon them vividly before the whole 
 universe. 
 
 In the cross of Christ I glory, 
 Tow’ring o’er the wrecks of time; 
 
 All the light of sacred story 
 Gathers round its head sublime. 
 
. 
 Eee 
 i VON 
 
V, 
 
 SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
Stay, thou insulted Spirit, stay, 
 
 Though I have done thee such despite; 
 Cast not a sinner quite away, 
 
 Nor take thine everlasting flight. 
 
 Though I have most unfaithful been 
 Of all who e’er thy grace received, 
 Ten thousand times thy goodness seen, 
 Ten thousand times thy goodness grieved ; 
 
 Yet, O, the chief of sinners spare, 
 In honor of my great High Priest; 
 
 Nor, in thy righteous anger, swear 
 I shall not see thy people’s rest. 
 
SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 USE the plural, sims, with design. I want to 
 call attention to the fact that there are many 
 sins against the Holy Spirit and not one only. 
 We speak first of what is often called “ the sin 
 against the Holy Spirit.” 
 This is not the Bible expression for it. It is 
 there called “ the blasphemy against the Spint.” 
 Let us have the account clearly in mind. It is 
 in Matthew, Mark, and Luke: 
 
 MattTHEw 12: 22-37 
 
 “Then was brought unto him one possessed with a 
 demon, blind and dumb; and he healed him, insomuch 
 that the dumb man spake and saw. And all the multi- 
 tudes were amazed, and said, Can this be the son of 
 David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, 
 This man doth not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub 
 the prince of the demons. And knowing their thoughts 
 he said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself 
 is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided 
 against itself shall not stand: and if Satan casteth out 
 Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his 
 kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out 
 demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? there- 
 fore shall they be your judges. But if I by the Spirit of 
 
 89 
 
go A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come 
 upon you. Or how can one enter into the house of the 
 strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the 
 strong man? and then he will spoil his house. He that 
 is not with me is against me; and he that gathered not 
 with me scattereth. Therefore I say unto you, Every 
 sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the 
 blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 
 And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of 
 man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall 
 speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven 
 him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come. 
 Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make 
 the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is 
 known by its fruit. Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, 
 being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance 
 of the heart the mouth speaketh. The good man out 
 of his good treasure bringeth forth good things; and 
 the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth 
 evil things. And I say unto you, that every idle word 
 that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in 
 the day of jugment. For by thy words thou shalt be 
 justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” 
 
 Mark 3: 22-30 
 
 “And the scribes that came down from Jerusalem 
 said, He hath Beelzebub, and, By the prince of the 
 demons casteth he out the demons. And he called 
 them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How 
 can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be 
 divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And 
 ‘fa house be divided against itself that house will not 
 be able to stand, And if Satan hath risen up against 
 
SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT oi 
 
 himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but hath an 
 end. But no one can enter into the house of the strong 
 man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong 
 man; and then he will spoil his house. Verily I say 
 unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven unto the sons 
 of men, and their blasphemies wherewith soever they 
 shall blaspheme: but whosoever shall blaspheme against 
 the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty 
 of an eternal sin: because they said, He hath an un- 
 clean spirit.” 
 
 LuKE 11 : 14-26 
 
 “ And he was casting out a demon that was dumb. 
 And it came to pass, when the demon was gone out, 
 the dumb man spake; and the multitudes marvelled. 
 But some of them said, By Beelzebub the prince of the 
 demons casteth he out demons. And others, trying him, 
 sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing 
 their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided 
 against itself is brought to desolation; and a house 
 divided against a house falleth. And if Satan also is 
 divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? 
 because ye say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. 
 And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do 
 your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your 
 judges. But if I by the finger of God cast out demons, 
 then is the kingdom of God come upon you. When the 
 strong man fully armed guardeth his own court, his 
 goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall 
 come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from 
 him his whole armor wherein he trusted, and divideth 
 his spoils. He that is not with me is against me; and 
 he that gathereth not with me scattereth. The unclean 
 
92 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 spirit when he is gone out of the man, passeth through 
 waterless places, seeking rest; and finding none, he 
 saith, I will turn back unto my house whence I came 
 out. And when he is come, he findeth it swept and 
 garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven 
 other spirits more evil than himself; and they enter in 
 and dwell there: and the last state of that man be- 
 cometh worse than the first.” 
 
 Now it is evident that Jesus attributes to the 
 scribes and Pharisees, who accused him of casting 
 out demons by “ Beelzebub the prince of the 
 demons,” the sin of blasphemy against the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 In answering their charge Jesus first explains 
 that their reasoning is unreasonable. Satan 
 would not cast out Satan; or, if he did, his king- 
 dom is divided and must come to an end. Then 
 he proceeds to denounce them. 
 
 Let us go into the subject carefully and dis- 
 cover, if we can, what the nature of this sin 1S. 
 
 1. It is a sin of bad men. 
 
 They are hypocrites. Jesus calls them the 
 “offspring of vipers.’ They are “ corrupt.” 
 They are “ guilty of an eternal sin,” that “ shall 
 not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in that 
 which is to come.” Their conscience is seared. 
 They are not concerned with what is right, but 
 only with what they can “ get away with.” They 
 
SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 93 
 
 will go to any length to compass the defeat of 
 Jesus. Jesus has done a good miracle. They 
 cannot deny the fact, but, nevertheless, they will 
 manage to discredit him and the power by which 
 he did it. 
 
 2. It is a sin against knowledge. There is the 
 quality of deliberation in it. These Pharisees 
 are wise in their wickedness. They know their 
 duty, but to escape it they will go to the extreme 
 of calling white black. To condemn Christ they 
 will stultify themselves mentally, morally, and 
 spiritually. There is no stopping them. (Cf. 
 Matt. 21 2025-27.) 
 
 There is a great difference between the judg- 
 ments that will fall upon sins of ignorance and 
 upon sins of knowledge. (Cf. Luke 12 : 47, 48.) 
 
 3. It is a sin of speech. 
 
 Blasphemy is evil-speaking. In this case it is 
 the most wicked kind of speaking. It is malign- 
 ing what is holy, what can be nothing other than 
 holy, what is known to be only holy. 
 
 Bad thoughts are bad, but they are worse when 
 let loose in words. There is a great difference be- 
 tween a bullet in the gun and a bullet fired out. 
 There is a great difference between a sword in 
 its scabbard and a sword that is being thrust 
 in up to the hilt. 
 
 This sin, the greatest of all sins, is a sin ex- 
 
94 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 pressed in words and getting a measure of its 
 character by means of words. Words are of two 
 kinds, meaningless and meaningful. If one must 
 give an account of the former, much more must 
 he of the latter. Notice that Jesus says in this 
 connection: “And I say unto you, that every 
 idle word that men shall speak, they shall give 
 account thereof in the day of judgment. For by 
 thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy 
 words thou shalt be condemned” (Matt. 12: 
 36, 37). 
 
 4. This sin is one sin. It is not many sins com- 
 bined, nor 1s it the repetition of a sin. It is not 
 any one of a class of sins. It is the only one of 
 its kind. 
 
 I do not think that a very common explanation 
 of this sin is correct. I givea sample. Dr. James 
 Lyall says: 
 
 I, was in the North of Ireland just before I left for 
 the colonies, conducting services in one of the Pres- 
 byterian churches. On the first Sunday night of the 
 mission a tall, fine-looking, elderly man came up to me 
 and said, “ Mr. Lyall, I would like to have a talk with 
 you.” I told him to come into the vestry. We went 
 in, and he began the interview by saying: “I want in 
 the first place to tell you who I am. I am an employer 
 of labor in this city, and have hundreds of men on my 
 pay-list. I am well known and have a measure of in- 
 fluence in my town. But it is not that I wanted to talk 
 
SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 95 
 
 about, but my spiritual condition.’”” He went on to say 
 something like this: “Three years ago I was deeply 
 convicted of my need of Jesus Christ. One night I was 
 in my room alone with God, an unsaved man. I was © 
 conscious of the divine presence as I am of your pres- 
 ence now. I knew God was in the room, and I knew 
 in my inner consciousness that if I yielded to him 
 that night I would be saved. I was just on the thresh- 
 old of the kingdom, but I began to count the cost, and 
 deliberately got up from my knees and walked out of 
 that room, as conscious that I had left the presence of 
 God as if I were to leave your presence now. About a 
 year later God came to me again; the pleading of the 
 Holy Spirit was overwhelming; the conviction of sin 
 was appalling, and I felt that God was giving me an- 
 other chance, but the devil came and whispered: ‘ Don’t 
 make a fool of yourself. You are already a good man, 
 and everybody regards you as such: don’t begin to let 
 on as if you were not; the people will laugh at you.’ 
 I yielded to this subtle temptation of the devil and once 
 more resisted the Holy Ghost.. In a moment, when I 
 had chosen, I was conscious, just as conscious as I am 
 of your presence now, that I had resisted for the last 
 time. I went out of God’s presence banished even as 
 Cain was banished from the divine presence.” 
 
 Then he added, with a strange look in his eye that 
 almost froze my blood: “Mr. Lyall, listen; standing 
 before you tonight in this vestry is a lost soul. I be- 
 lieve I am as much lost tonight as I will ever be in 
 hell, only I have not got there. I have walked the 
 streets night after night. I have not slept a whole 
 night for months. I would have plunged myself into 
 Belfast Loch before this were it not for what lies be- 
 
96 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 yond.” Then he continued: “I have not told you this 
 because I want you to help me. My dear sir, I am 
 beyond all human help and divine, too. I want you to 
 tell my story where you go, that men and women may 
 be warned against the awful sin of resisting the Holy 
 Ghost.” He went out from the building and I never 
 saw him again. 
 
 Rev. William A. Sunday, while preaching in 
 his great revival in Kansas City, explained the 
 “unpardonable sin”’ in about the same way. 
 
 Now, resisting the Holy Spirit is a great sin; 
 and putting off the day of salvation is a great sin; 
 and saying no to God, when one feels that it may 
 be one’s last chance, is a great sin. But none of 
 these is “‘ blasphemy against the Spirit,” and it is 
 this sin, and only this sin, that Jesus says will not 
 be forgiven. Neither resisting the Holy Spirit nor 
 hardening one’s heart in the day of God’s visita- 
 tion, though they be greater sins than we think, 
 is speaking wickedly of the Holy Spirit. And we 
 have Jesus’ word for it, in this very connection, 
 that all such sins and any other sin, except this 
 one sin of ‘“ blasphemy against the Spirit,’ may 
 be forgiven. Jesus says: ‘“‘ Every sin and blas- 
 phemy (wicked-speaking) shall be forgiven unto 
 men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall 
 not be forgiven. And whosoever shall speak a 
 word against the Son of man, it shall be for- 
 
SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT Q7 
 
 given him; but whosoever shall speak against the 
 Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him; neither 
 in this world, nor in that which is to come” 
 Gynt ts: 31,032), 
 
 There is hardly a point of similarity between 
 the case Doctor Lyall cites and the case Jesus is 
 talking about. There is, in fact, some evidence, 
 in what the poor fellow said to Doctor Lyall, that 
 he had not committed the unpardonable sin; for 
 he desired others to be warned. He was con- 
 cerned about their salvation. Henry Ward 
 Beecher said: ‘“‘ No man need fear that he has 
 committed the unpardonable sin who is deeply 
 alarmed and anxious about it; for the very nature 
 of that sin is moral insensibility.” 
 
 There are many sins which, if continued and 
 persisted in, cause one to belost. Rejecting Christ, 
 abiding in unbelief, procrastination until the last 
 opportunity slips away, any act or failure to act 
 that leaves one in his sins, until the black mes- 
 senger of death calls, causes one to be lost. But 
 it is evident that Jesus is talking about a sin 
 that has in itself a fatal quality. One who com- 
 mits it is “guilty of an eternal sin,” he says. 
 Some sins are fatal because they are repeated 
 until one uses up his “day of grace,” but not 
 because they have in themselves a fatal and final 
 quality. For example, one could put off from 
 G 
 
98 A STUDY, OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 day to day planting his crop until the season 
 is past and it is impossible for him to gather in 
 a harvest. But we can think of it being possible 
 for one to go out into his field and curse the soil 
 and to render it barren for all time. It needs to 
 be done but once. When it is first done it is 
 finally done. So is this blasphemy against the 
 Spirit. It is a terrible, damning sin. 
 
 What, more definitely, is this sin? What kind 
 of evil-speaking is it? How is it that one can 
 be forgiven if he speaks against the Son but not 
 if he speaks against the Holy Spirit? These are 
 questions on which we should think carefully. 
 
 We do not believe that any judgment of God 
 is arbitrary. If a sin is unpardonable, it is not 
 because God is limited in love and mercy. The 
 Holy Spirit is not more holy than the Son is. 
 There is, therefore, something in this sin that af- 
 fects the blasphemer and renders him hopelessly 
 wicked, as there is not in speaking against Christ. 
 This sin was directed against Christ, but this fact 
 did not give to it its blackest quality. Its black- 
 est quality was that it maligned, slandered, and 
 traduced the Holy Spirit. Jesus worked a miracle 
 by the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees said he did it 
 by Beelzebub, the chief of evil spirits, or Satan. 
 In Mark we have the explanatory statement, 
 “Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.” 
 
SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 99 
 
 Their sin was simply this: They identified a 
 good spirit with an evil spirit, the Holy Spirit 
 with the devil. They called white black. Some 
 persons are partially color-blind. They cannot 
 distinguish shades of green and blue. But if one 
 were so color-blind that he could not tell white 
 from black, he would be totally blind. And sup- 
 pose he could by speaking the word render him- 
 self thus unable to tell white from black. He 
 would be as blind as one without eyes. 
 
 Now these Pharisees did this thing to them- 
 selves morally and spiritually. They made them- 
 selves hopeless as to salvation. Before death they 
 determined for themselves their own doom. 
 They decided for themselves, before their day 
 of probation was ended, their eternal destiny. 
 They chose it. They willed it. By one act they 
 made themselves incapable of repentance and fit 
 only for perdition. Like Judas, now they must 
 go to “their own place.” They committed soul- 
 suicide. They took their soul in their own hand 
 and threw it into hell. Such is man’s moral 
 sovereignty over himself. Such is the nature of 
 this terrible sin of wicked thoughts expressed in 
 words. 
 
 Prince Karl Lichnowsky, German Ambassador 
 to England at the outbreak of the war in 1914, 
 says that he, in supporting Berlin’s policy, com- 
 
IOO A STUDY’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 mitted “a sin against the Holy Ghost.” ? It is 
 not clear what he means, but it is true that the 
 German rulers did politically what the Pharisees 
 in their day did religiously. To justify what they 
 did, they defended the breaking of national agree- 
 ments, proclaimed that might is right, that a na- 
 tion is not accountable to the moral law, and 
 praised anything and everything that ministered 
 to their vicious and degenerate purpose. This 
 was in a political sense, if I may so speak, the 
 sin against the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to 
 trust such men. President Wilson did a coura- 
 geous thing, but a thing which the conscience of 
 the world requires, when he proclaimed, long be- 
 fore that band of conspirators against the civil- 
 ization and peace of the world began to show 
 signs of weakening, that no terms of peace would 
 be discussed with them, that they were not even 
 to be treated with. He was simply taking them 
 at their own word. They have, in the eyes of the 
 world, committed an unpardonable _ political 
 crime. It will never be forgiven by men. 
 
 It may be asked, Can this sin be committed 
 now? I heard a teacher of note reason in this 
 way: When the Pharisees committed this sin 
 Jesus was present and had just worked a miracle 
 which they could not deny. These conditions not 
 
 2Cf. “My Mission to London,” p. 39.'  , 
 
SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT TOI 
 
 existing now this sin may not be possible now. 
 But in 1 John 5 : 16, 17 we read: “If any man 
 see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he 
 shall ask, and God will give him life for them 
 that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto 
 death : not concerning this do I say that he should 
 make request. All unrighteousness is sin: and 
 there is a sin not unto death.” It was, therefore, 
 possible to commit the unpardonable sin, when 
 the apostle John wrote this epistle, fifty years or 
 more after the ascension. If it was possible to 
 commit it half a century after Jesus was on earth, 
 I see no reason why it may not be possible to 
 commit it nineteen centuries after. 
 
 Is this sin committed often? What are exam- 
 ples of it? 
 
 I do not believe that it is what it is commonly 
 supposed to be, as has been said, but I believe 
 that it is committed oftener than it is commonly 
 supposed to be. John’s language suggests that 
 it is not an infrequent occurrence. 
 
 Robert Louis Stevenson describes, in his weird 
 story, “ The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. 
 Hyde,” the contest that rages within between the 
 higher and the lower self. Doctor Jekyll, a noble 
 and gifted physician, discovers and compounds 
 in his laboratory a drug that transforms him into 
 a base and despicable demon of a man, known as 
 
102 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 Mr. Hyde. The oftener he takes the drug, the 
 stronger Mr. Hyde grows and the weaker Doctor 
 Jekyll becomes. Finally Doctor Jekyll ceases to 
 exist, and there is Mr. Hyde only. Stevenson 
 was not picturing in this, his greatest work, a rare 
 character. He is interpreting life. They are not 
 few who transform themselves from Doctor 
 Jekyll into Mr. Hyde; “ who say to the worm, 
 Thou art my sister.” They say good-bye to the 
 good and welcome to the bad. They take the 
 fatal plunge and put to death the better self. 
 They kill their conscience. They want it so. 
 They make it so. It is so. It is eternally so. 
 
 The sin of tempting the Holy Spirit. 
 
 This was the sin of Ananias and Sapphira. 
 Peter said: “ How is it that ye have agreed to- 
 gether to try the Spirit of the Lord?” (Acts 
 Bie Oye re 
 
 Their sin was something more than miserliness. 
 If every miser was turned into a corpse, the un- 
 dertakers would have a thriving business. Their 
 sin was something more than lying. If lightning 
 should strike every liar, the population of the 
 world would be greatly reduced. These sins are 
 bad, but the sin of Ananias and Sapphira must 
 have been something desperately wicked. The 
 language of Peter revealed it. They “ agreed to- 
 gether’ to do the deed. Peter said to Ananias: 
 
SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 103 
 
 “Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the 
 Holy Spirit? .. Thou hast not lied unto men, but 
 unto God.” 
 
 I see behind the scenes a plot not only to dis- 
 credit the benevolence of the church in Jerusalem, 
 but also to ridicule the Holy Spirit by whose 
 power so many wonderful things, since the day 
 of Pentecost, were being done, and by whose 
 gracious agency they were stirred to so great be- 
 nevolence. 
 
 The sin of resisting the Holy Spirit. 
 
 It was a long while before I cdme to under- 
 stand the great speech of Stephen. But finally I 
 found the key to it in this statement near the end 
 of it: “ Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart 
 and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as 
 your fathers did, so do ye”’ (Acts 7: 51). 
 
 Looking through the address with this as a 
 leading thought I saw that Stephen cites exam- 
 ples of how the Israelites resisted God and his 
 Spirit. God began with Abraham to create a 
 people for himself and to call them to higher 
 things. He sent Moses to them to begin definitely 
 to realize for them the promises to the patriarchs. 
 Moses led them out of Egypt and at Sinai God 
 gave them a revelation of himself in the com- 
 mandments and in other ways. But they made 
 a golden calf and lapsed into idolatry, Into 
 
104 A STUDY OF THE ‘HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 idolatry again they fell after they had settled in 
 the Promised Land, and God for punishment sent 
 them into captivity to Babylon. Solomon built 
 the temple, but he and the prophets explained that 
 God is greater than the temple. (Cf. 1 Kings 8 : 
 27; Isa. 66: 1f.) The worship of images was 
 burned out of the Jews by the fires of the exile. 
 There they got their system rid of that crude 
 kind of idolatry. But idolatry of another kind 
 is in them yet, namely, an overreverence for the 
 temple. For the sake of that building they would 
 put Christ to death and will now take the life of 
 Stephen. Murderers they are and idolaters, wor- 
 shiping brick and stone and a spot of ground 
 rather than the true and living God. The spir- 
 itual God as revealed in Jesus Christ they re- 
 fused, and now the Holy Spirit, who calls them 
 out of their narrowness, littleness, and hardness, 
 they resist. The day of Pentecost means nothing 
 to such brutish religionists. They are idolaters. 
 They are joined to their idol. 
 
 It is no wonder that God hates idolatry. It is 
 a caricaturing of his character. It is more; it 
 is cartooning the Almighty. But he who resists 
 the Holy Spirit and rejects God’s spiritual king- 
 dom, is an idolater. He may be many degrees 
 above the fetish worshiper, but he is of the same 
 class. Resisting the Holy Spirit is a great sin, 
 
SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 105 
 
 The three sins which we have been discussing 
 are sins committed by unsaved people. We come 
 now to speak of two sins against the Holy Spirit 
 which are committed by Christians: 
 
 The sin of grieving the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Paul says, ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of 
 God in whom ye were sealed unto the day of re- 
 demption’ (Eph. 4 > 30;-cf- Isai 63 :10)..: The 
 meaning is this: Do not cause sorrow to the 
 Holy Spirit. The same Greek word with a 
 strengthening prefix is used of Jesus: “ And when 
 he had looked round about on them in anger, be- 
 ing grieved at the hardening of their heart, he 
 saith unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand” 
 (Mark 3). 5). ltus used of Peter? (Peter was 
 grieved because he said unto him the third time, 
 Lovest thou me?” (John 21 : 17.) Paul uses it 
 of the Corinthians and of himself: “ But if any 
 hath caused sorrow, he hath caused sorrow, not 
 to me, but in part (that I press not too heavily) 
 tor younaln (2 Cari ahs 5). 
 
 Paul’s conception of the Holy Spirit as capa- 
 ble of grief or sorrow is proof of his personality. 
 What is inanimate and impersonal cannot have 
 sorrow. The Holy Spirit can be disappointed, 
 wounded, because he has will, feeling, honor. 
 
 His relation to us is that of a friend. If we 
 disappoint him he is a wounded friend, but a 
 
106 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 faithful friend still, never an offended and 
 estranged friend. We should appreciate and be 
 sensitive to our side of this relation. As Chris- 
 tian character may be known by its responsive- 
 ness to the wish of Christ, so it is revealed also 
 by its responsiveness to the mind of the Spirit. 
 
 The sin of quenching the Holy S pirit. 
 
 Paul commands, “Quench not the Spirit ” 
 (1 Thess. 5: 19). The Greek word is well 
 translated by “quench.” It occurs several times 
 in the New Testament. (Cf. Matt. 12 : 20; 25°: 
 Oi) Marky on 485) Eph. 6° 164\Hebiipieeaay 
 The Greek adjective translated “ unquenchable ” 
 is made from the same stem with the negative 
 prefix. (Cf. Matt. 3 : 12; Mark9: 43; Luke3 : 
 17.) In all these eight examples the thought is 
 the ceasing, the causing to cease, the extinguish- 
 ing, of fire, as in the case of the snuffing out or 
 the dying out of the flame of a lamp. 
 
 Paul’s thought is that the Holy Spirit prompts 
 to action; he flames up within; he is a holy fire 
 initiating thought, life, and action. Do not sup- 
 press, do not stifle, do not choke out this divine 
 flame. Notice that in the next sentence Paul says, 
 ““Despise not prophesying”’ (or preaching), an 
 elemental quality of which is spontaneousness. 
 
 This power of the Holy Spirit to cause the be- 
 liever in whom he dwells to be moved by a holy 
 
SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 107 
 
 impulse, to originate in him a new purpose, to 
 cause him to “take the initiative,” is a_ vital 
 quality. 
 
 It is the secret of Christianity’s mastery over 
 environment. The gospel cannot be “caged and 
 tamed.” It will “break through.” It is an ex- 
 plosive that will be liberated. It is like life in 
 springtime that throws off the dead leaves of 
 winter, that sheds the dead skin of the dead past 
 and clothes itself with a new dress for a new day. 
 Buddhism and Mohammedanism and all pagan 
 religions lack this vital quality; and therefore 
 cannot adapt themselves to new conditions. They 
 become antiquated. ‘They are buried in the rub- 
 bish of time. Christianity is not bound by cus- 
 tom or conventionality or institutions. It is never 
 out of date. It has the power of adaptation and 
 adjustment. It creates for itself conditions and 
 ages. It has this power because it has the Spirit 
 of life. The breath of God is in it. Paul says, 
 ee here then Spirit of: the | Lord:1s, there. is 
 liberty ’’—liberty to understand to speak, to do. 
 (Aire Cony 389" 5755 
 
 And Christianity does all this because the Holy 
 Spirit stirs men to take the initiative. The Holy 
 Spirit said to the Church in Antioch, “ Separate 
 me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto 
 Pihavevealled thems (Acts-13': 2): Then’ fol- 
 
108 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 lowed missionary campaigns that revolutionized 
 the world and whose influence still operates with 
 accumulating force. 
 
 Every great movement, missionary, evangel- 
 istic, educational, or reformatory, that has blessed 
 the world and advanced the kingdom of God, has 
 originated in the same way. It was born in the 
 heart of some Spirit-filled and Spirit-led servant 
 of God. Carey, Judson, Moody, Wesley, Finney, 
 Spurgeon, Broadus, Luther, Knox rise before us 
 as we think on these things. Did institutions 
 make these men? No, but they made institutions. 
 Were they the product of their day and age? 
 No, they gave rise to new and better days. God 
 took them into cooperation with himself in creat- 
 ing the world anew. The Holy Spirit in them 
 made them creators together with God. They were 
 ‘divine artists, not representing history, but mak- 
 ing history ; not painting, but creating; not imitat- 
 ing, but originating. 
 
 The Holy Spirit begets a genius for achieve- 
 ment, progress, and leadership, which is, in the 
 kingdom, what the spirit of invention and origin- 
 ality is in the world of affairs. It is business wis- 
 dom to encourage the latter; it is kingdom wis- 
 dom to encourage the former. It is sin and 
 stagnation to suppress either. There must be 
 room in the church for the initiative of the Spirit. 
 
SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 109 
 
 Paul points out to the church of Corinth that God 
 is the God of order and not of confusion (1 Cor. 
 14 : 33), but in that very connection he directs 
 that in a meeting of the church, when one is 
 speaking, a brother to whom a revelation is made 
 must have the privilege to break in and make 
 known his message from the Spirit. Human ac- 
 rangements should be made subject to possible 
 disarrangement by the Spirit. The Spirit must 
 rule in the church. If not, progress ceases. 
 
 It is the Spirit that calls men into the ministry. 
 If they do not heed his call, “all the voyage of 
 their lives will be bound in shallows and in 
 miseries.” It is the Spirit that calls laymen into 
 fields of special usefulness. If they do not re- 
 spond, the springs of their lives will dry up, with- 
 ered as by the drought of summer. It is the 
 Spirit that gives us all visions of what we are to 
 be and to do. If we, like Paul, are obedient to 
 these heavenly visions, we shall, like him also, run 
 and finish our course with joy. 
 
 ’God works from personal centers out. <A 
 Christian filled with the Spirit is God’s dynamo 
 radiating divine power. The size of the circum- 
 ference of his influence is determined by the will 
 of God only. neta 
 
 Carlyle says that Puritanism came on the May- 
 flower to New England from England, and. that 
 
IIO ATSTUDYU OF “THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 England got it from Scotland, and that Scotland 
 got it from John Knox, and that it originated 
 in the heart of John Knox. At the age of forty 
 he was a member of the body of Reformers, a 
 priest attending to his duties, modest and un- 
 known except by a little circle of friends of the 
 same faith. One day at the close of his sermon 
 in the chapel, the preacher called upon Mr. Knox 
 to speak the thoughts that he and the congrega- 
 tion felt were in him. He tried to speak, but could 
 not. He“ burst into a flood of tears,’’ says Car- 
 lyle, “and ran out.” But the fire was smoldering 
 within him, and it was not long until it broke 
 forth in a mighty flame, and John Knox not only 
 spoke, but acted and led and created a new Scot- 
 land, a “resurrection as from death.’ He 
 started a movement that went to England and 
 came to. America and is now sweeping back to 
 Europe and around the world. In speaking of 
 America’s part in the World War and of the vic- 
 tory of the Allies, an Englishman in London said, 
 “After nearly three hundred years at last the 
 Mayflower has returned home.” Let us not for- 
 get that this world movement to liberty, democ- 
 racy, and peace began in the soul of one man 
 that let God have his way with him and whom 
 the Spirit of God stirred up, fired up. 
 
 That is a good expression, “‘ The Spirit moved 
 
SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT II! 
 
 9 
 
 him.” Some Christians are, if I may so speak, 
 like the old Ford automobile. They have to be 
 
 “cranked ” before they can get themselves going. 
 But some have a “ self-starter.”’ The Spirit of 
 the living God is in them. They are the leaders, 
 the teachers, the preachers, the missionaries, the 
 prophets, the evangelists, the thinkers, the suffer- 
 ers, the martyrs, the givers, the doers, the in- 
 spirers of their fellow Christians. 
 
 Nothing can quench the Spirit of God unless 
 the possessor of the Spirit permits it, wills it so. 
 Persecution cannot do it. Limitations cannot do 
 it. Bunyan’s Pilgrim saw a fire burning against 
 a wall and, despite the buckets of water thrown 
 on it, the flames leaped up higher and _ hotter. 
 Then it was explained to him that the fire was 
 fed by oil supplied by a man unseen behind the 
 wall; that the man that poured on the water was 
 . the devil and the man that supplied the oil was 
 Christ. Christ’s reservoir of oil is greater than 
 the devil’s reservoir of water. If only we will let 
 Christ supply the oil, the fire will continue to 
 burn, and no power can quench it. 
 
 It is, I say, a sin, a great sin, to quench this 
 holy fire of God within us. He who does it sup- 
 presses the flame of life. He puts a damper 
 upon, he retards, if he does not blast as with the 
 frost of winter, the very life of God that is in 
 
IIl2 A’ STUDY:.OF' THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 him. There was a voice that said: “ Sit down 
 young man! When God wants the heathen saved 
 he will do it without your help or mine.” It was 
 a voice from Hades, though spoken, it may be, 
 by Christian lips. But Carey did not heed it. 
 In his heart he must have said, as Jesus said to 
 Peter, “ Get thee behind me, Satan!’’ And Carey 
 became the greatest missionary since Paul. 
 
 “QUENCH NOT THE SPIRIT.” 
 
VI 
 
 THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way! 
 Thou art the Potter; I am the clay. 
 
 Mold me and make me after thy will, 
 
 While I am waiting, yielded and still. 
 
 Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way! 
 Search me and try me, Master, today 
 
 Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now, 
 
 As in thy presence humbly I bow. 
 
 Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way! 
 Wounded and weary, help me, I pray! 
 Power—all power—surely is thine! 
 
 Teach me and heal me, Saviour divine! 
 
 Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way! 
 Hold o’er my being absolute sway! 
 
 Fill with thy Spirit till all shall see 
 
 Christ only, always, living in me. 
 
THE POWER OF THE TOLY SPIREL 
 
 I’ we express in one word the ministry of the 
 Spirit to men of the world, that word is con- 
 viction. (Cf. John 16 : 8-11.) If we express in 
 one word the ministry of the Spirit to believers, 
 that word is power. | 
 “Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit 
 
 is come tipon you!) (Acts 112 Sy: 
 
 “God gave us not the Spirit of fearfulness; 
 butotipower 32 Tint <7): 
 
 “Not by might, nor by power, but by my 
 Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4 : 6). 
 
 “Greater works than these shall ye do; be- 
 cause I go unto the Father” (John 14: 12). 
 
 “Tt is expedient for you that I go away; for 
 if I go not away, the Comforter will not come 
 unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto you ” 
 (jonnTGus, 7): 
 
 “The kingdom of God is not in word, but in 
 power’. (1 Cor.\4.2)20). 
 
 There are many kinds of power. God can use 
 any of them and all of them when he wills and as 
 he wills. 
 
 There is physical power. God has at times 
 +15 
 
116 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 used it. He used the animal strength of Samson 
 and the athletic skill of David. The world ad- 
 mires this kind of power. But God’s people must 
 not trust much in it. Elijah used force on Mt. 
 Carmel and slew the prophets of Baal, but God 
 taught him in Horeb by the “still small voice ” 
 the lesson of gentleness. 
 
 There is financial power. It is the world’s god. 
 It is our God’s instrument. He uses it, but he 
 values it only lightly. He can do without it. 
 Peter said to the lame man: “ Silver and gold 
 have I none; but what I have, that give I thee ” 
 (Acts 3: 6). Then he gave him power to walk 
 and earn his own living—something infinitely 
 better than money. Since the world worships 
 money, God has very little use for it. 
 
 There is intellectual power. The world wor- 
 ships at this shrine also. “‘ Knowledge is power,” 
 it says. It builds its educational institutions, be- 
 stows its degrees, and sends forth its sons to con- 
 quer. 
 
 God uses knowledge. He hates it when it is 
 exalted overmuch. He despises the worldly 
 brand of knowledge. But true knowledge, the 
 really scientific kind, he uses and has always used 
 it. In fact, we may say that it is indispensable 
 to his method. Look and see if you can find 
 where God ever made use of fools and idiots. 
 
THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 117 
 
 No, he uses men of wisdom. And if they have it 
 not when he calls them, they acquire it in his 
 great school. 
 
 God thinks little of matter and money and 
 much of mind. But he does not give it the first 
 place, nor the second, nor the third. It has a sub- 
 ordinate rank, fourth place or yet lower. 
 
 It was not intellectual power or insight that 
 Jesus promised to the waiting disciples. 
 
 There is also moral power or influence. 
 
 Pure and simple goodness is beautiful to be- 
 hold, and it has its victories too. The world 
 praises it and throws its bouquets at the honest 
 and benevolent man, and sometimes elects him to 
 office. | 
 
 And this kind of men God also honors. He 
 values them so highly that he will have no other 
 kind to do his work. It is said that a thirsty man 
 will drink as readily out of a tin can as a golden 
 goblet. But decent people demand that the can 
 be clean. Dishonest men, stingy men, selfish men, 
 God will dump out on the rubbish-heap. 
 
 But something more is needed than simple 
 goodness. Jesus did not tell the disciples that 
 they would become good on the day of Pente- 
 cost. Mere goodness will not convert the world. 
 It is goodness plus something that converts the 
 world. 
 
118 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 There is another kind of power. It is not 
 any one of the four I have mentioned, nor is it 
 all of these combined. It is something other and 
 more heavenly, more divine, more mysterious 
 than these. It is spiritual power, or it is the 
 power of the Spirit of God. The other kinds of 
 power are human; their source is men. This fifth 
 kind is divine; its source is God. Its existence 
 proves the presence of God. It comes down 
 from above. Its nature is mysterious, but its 
 effect 1s as obvious as the sound of the wind. 
 
 The power of the Spirit is the ability so to live 
 and witness for Christ that men will believe on 
 him. “Ye shall receive power,” Jesus said. 
 Power for what? Power to bring in the king- 
 dom. Power to cause men to repent and believe. 
 
 There is a great difference between Christians in 
 the matter of their effectiveness as soul-winners. 
 Here are two persons who are equally well edu- 
 cated and are equally good and worthy in charac- 
 ter. But one wins many souls; the other, few or 
 none. It is said that Barnabas “ was a good man, 
 and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 
 11: 24). His goodness did not explain his use- 
 fulness. It was his goodness plus his faith and 
 his spiritual fulness that explained it. 
 
 Many questions of vital interest press for an 
 answer : 
 
THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT  IIQ 
 
 Is the power of the Spirit intended for all 
 Christians or for only a limited number? 
 
 If for all Christians, does the Holy Spirit come. 
 upon them when they become Christians or at a 
 later time? 
 
 Is there a distinct experience of equipment for 
 service for every believer comparable with the 
 experience of regeneration? 
 
 Is there a Pentecostal experience as well as 
 Pentecostal power for every Christian? 
 
 May one have the grace of the Holy Spirit that 
 saves and sanctifies him and not the power of the 
 Holy Spirit that qualifies him for service? 
 
 Is the receiving of the Holy Spirit in power for 
 service a momentary act or a gradual process? 
 
 Are we to expect now as proof of the coming 
 and presence of the Holy Spirit any miraculous 
 manifestations? 
 
 If it is the privilege of every Christian to have 
 the power of the Holy Spirit for service, or in- 
 creased power for increasing service, should we 
 not be earnestly seeking for it and righteously 
 living that we may possess it? 
 
 We shall try to answer these leading questions 
 as carefully and'as simply as possible. 
 
 As a preparatory step we should consider that 
 the laws of the Spirit are like the laws of life. 
 Some are easily discerned and some are subtle 
 
I20 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 and evade any analysis that we are capable of. 
 We do not apply mechanical rules to life, and we 
 should not attempt to limit the Spirit of God 
 by such rules. 
 
 1. My first simple proposition is that the power 
 of the Spirit is intended for all Christians. 
 
 “ I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh ” 
 (Acts2) 17), 
 
 ‘For to you is the promise, and to your chil- 
 dren, and to all that are afar off, even as many 
 as the Lord our God shall call unto him” (Acts 
 2: 39). 
 
 ‘“ He shall give you another Comforter, that he 
 may be with you forever” (John 14 : 16). The 
 power of the Holy Spirit was not for the apostles 
 and their generation alone, but for us as well. 
 
 2. My second simple proposition is that, while 
 the Holy Spirit comes to every believer to re- 
 generate him and is in his life to sanctify him, he 
 is not, by virtue of this fact, in every Christian 
 to give him power for effective witnessing. 
 
 This is the meaning of Pentecost. The dis- 
 ciples had the Holy Spirit in the former sense be- 
 fore that day. The Samaritans believed and were 
 baptized ; they were true disciples and were born 
 of the Spirit before they received the power of 
 the Spirit. (Acts 8: 14ff.) Paul tells the Gala- 
 tians that they began the Christian life in the 
 
THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT I2I 
 
 Spirit, but are failing to walk in the Spirit. (Gal. 
 3: 2, 3,14; 5: 25.) 
 
 The life of Jesus teaches us the same truth. 
 When he was baptized the Holy Spirit descended 
 upon him. (Luke 3 : 22.) But surely it is not to 
 be supposed that he was without the Spirit in 
 some sense before this; but that now the Spirit 
 has come to fill and fit him for his ministry. (Cf. 
 Matteaie 15 Lukeis 22374 2.1, 24, 18.) 
 
 3. My third simple proposition ts that the Holy 
 Spirit may come to one to save him and to fit 
 him for service at different times, or to do both 
 at the same time. 
 
 The cases already dealt with prove the first 
 part of the proposition and need not be reviewed 
 again. The experience of Paul, if he was saved 
 on the way to Damascus, which seems to be the 
 fact, and not later, when the scales fell from his 
 eyes and he received the Holy Spirit, points in 
 the same direction. (Acts 9 : 5, 17-19; cf. 1 Cor. 
 12: 3.) But the interval between the two events 
 was brief. His conversion and his being filled 
 with the Spirit were the beginning and the com- 
 pletion of one revolutionary experience. 
 
 The case of Cornelius, however, proves con- 
 clusively the second part of the proposition. Cor- 
 nelius and the other believers in his house were 
 saved and received the power of the Holy Spirit 
 
122 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 at the same time. (Acts 10: 44-48; cf. I1: 
 14.) 
 
 The fact that John the Baptist was “ filled with 
 the Holy Spirit’ from his birth is also a proof 
 Of it: ( buke 12725") 
 
 To hold that some time must elapse between 
 conversion and the receiving of the power of the 
 Spirit, as some able writers have done, seems ' 
 contrary to the Scriptures; though most of the 
 cases in them are of this kind.* 
 
 4. My fourth simple proposition 1s that we can- 
 not determine the way in which the power of 
 the Holy Spirit may come upon one by any ex- 
 ternal, physical, or conventional consideration or 
 limitation. 
 
 The Holy Spirit, like the Father and the Son, 
 is sovereign. He does as he wills to. As we 
 cannot prescribe mechanical rules for his process 
 in producing the new birth, so we cannot do this 
 for his manner of administering power. 
 
 He came on some by the laying on of the apos- 
 tte’s’ hands: * (Acts. 83.17; 19 :6.):.On ?Paul 
 he came by the laying on of the hands of Ananias. 
 (Acts 9 : 17.) On some he came without the lay- 
 ing on of the hands of any one. (Acts 2: I-4; 
 10: 44.) In most cases he came upon the dis- 
 ciples after baptism. (Acts 2: 4;8: 16,17; 19: 
 
 1Cf, “ Ministry of the Spirit,” p. 77. 
 
THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 123 
 
 5, 6.) But in one case, and probably a second, 
 they received the power of the Holy Spirit before 
 baptism: (Acts 103.4739 :.17, 18.) 
 
 By his very nature the Spirit is not subject to 
 limitations of this kind. “‘ Where the Spirit of 
 therl_ord’1s,, there is liberty «(2 Cores 3417): 
 
 When the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon 
 Christians, there may be miraculous manifesta- 
 tons, and there may not be. 
 
 There were miraculous manifestations when he 
 came upon Jesus at his baptism; when he came 
 upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost; and 
 when he came upon those that believed in 
 Cesarea. But that was the age of miracles. And 
 there were many cases of individuals and 
 churches having the power of the Spirit, concern- 
 ing whom there is no mention of miracles when 
 they received it. It is so in the experience of re- 
 generation. In Paul’s conversion there was 
 miracle. In the conversion of Zacchzus there was 
 not. This age is not an age of miracles, and we 
 should expect no miraculous manifestations either 
 in conversion or in the induement of power. 
 Seek not for miracles, but for power. “ An ae 
 and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign” 
 (Matt 12.°; 30) 
 
 Again I say there are no tered rules for 
 the Holy Spirit’s action. He breaks through 
 
{24 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 all external, physical, and conventional bound- 
 aries. He destroys all “forms of godliness,” 
 for he is the “ power thereof.” Power creates 
 its Own processes and channels of expression. 
 The Spirit who gives freedom to believers is him- 
 self free. 
 
 5. My fifth simple proposition is that the en- 
 duement of the Spirit for service may be an in- 
 stantaneous experience, or it may be a gradual 
 process. 
 
 In the experience of salvation the Holy Spirit 
 comes at once to dwell in the believer. In many 
 instances in the New Testament he came also 
 all at once to give power for service, as on the 
 day of Pentecost and at the house of Cornelius 
 and other occasions already discussed. 
 
 Does he come thus instantaneously now? Who 
 would deny it? 
 
 D. L. Moody spoke once at Northfield of his 
 own experience thus: 
 
 This blessing came upon me suddenly—iike a flash of 
 lightning. For months I had been hungering and 
 thirsting for power in service. I had come to that point 
 that I think I would have died if I had not got it. I 
 remember I was walking in the streets of New York. 
 I had no more heart in the business I was about than 
 if I had not belonged to this world at all. Right there 
 on the street the power of God seemed to come upon 
 me. I was filled with a sense of God’s goodness and 
 
THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 125 
 
 felt as though I could take the whole world to my 
 heart. 1 took the old sermon that I had preached 
 before without any power; it was the same old truth, 
 but there was a new power. Many were impressed and 
 converted. This happened years after I was converted 
 myself. It was in the fall of 1871. I had been very 
 anxious to have a large Sunday school and a large 
 congregation, but there were few conversions. I re- 
 member I used to take pride in having the largest con- 
 gregation in Chicago on a Sunday night. Two godly 
 women used to come and hear me. One of them came 
 to me one night after I had preached very satisfactorily 
 as I thought. I fancied she was going to congratulate 
 me on my success, but she said, “ We are praying for 
 you.” I wondered if I had made some blunder that 
 they talked that way. Next Sunday night they were 
 there again, evidently in prayer while I was preaching. 
 One of them said, “ We are still praying for you.” I 
 could not understand it, and said: ‘“ Praying for me! 
 Why don’t you pray for the people? I am all right.” 
 “Ah,” they said, “you are not all right. You have 
 not got power; there is something lacking, but God can 
 qualify you.” I did not like it at first, but I got to 
 thinking it over, and after a little time I began to feel 
 a desire to have what they were praying for. They 
 continued to pray for me, and the result was that at 
 the end of three months God sent this blessing on me. 
 I would not for the whole world go back to where I 
 was before 1871. Since then I have never lost the 
 assurance that I am walking in communion with God, 
 and I have a joy in his service that sustains me and 
 makes it easy work. I believe I was an older man 
 then than I am now; and I have been growing ever 
 
126 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 since. I used to be very tired when preaching three 
 times a week; now I can preach the gospel five times 
 a day and never get tired at all. I have done three 
 times the work I did before, and it gets better and 
 better every year. It is so easy to do a thing when 
 love prompts you. It would be better, it seems to me, 
 to go and break stones than to take to preaching in a 
 professional spirit. A man can accomplish more in 
 one year with this power than he can do in forty years 
 without it. Jonathan Edwards said he was able to do 
 more in Northampton in one week than he did in 
 seven years before the Spirit of God came upon him 
 for service. 
 
 I cite this experience of Mr. Moody because 
 it is clearly stated, and because we all count him 
 a sincere and practical Christian. He was not 
 “ flighty,” and he was not given to claiming too 
 much for himself. He had a large fund of com- 
 mon sense and splendid poise of mind. 
 
 Mr. Moody’s experience in its main features is 
 duplicated in the lives of many men of our day. 
 
 But many men of spiritual power and great 
 usefulness do not have such an experience to 
 relate. I have not heard nor read of such an ex- 
 perience in the lives of John A. Broadus, Ado- 
 niram Judson, C. H. Spurgeon, and W. A. Sun- 
 day. These men, it seems, did not have the 
 experience, but they had the power, which is the 
 essential thing. 
 
THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 127 
 
 6. My sixth simple proposition is that the 
 power of the Holy Spirit for service comes upon 
 Christians in proportion as they desire it, appro- 
 priate it by faith, and are worthy of tt. 
 
 It is the will of Christ that his people, all of 
 them, have power. “ Now on the last day, the 
 great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, 
 saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me 
 and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scrip- 
 ture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers 
 of living water. But this spake he of the Holy 
 Spirit, which they that believed on him were to 
 receive .(john7 ¢137-20). 
 
 I do not mean that we can merit the power 
 of God or any grace from him; but that we must 
 so live as to be trustworthy of his gift. Cer- 
 tainly the Spirit of power, who is also the Spirit 
 of holiness, will not come upon unholy, selfish, 
 and worldly-minded Christians. 
 
 This blessing comes to those who keep the 
 commandments of Christ. (Acts 5 : 32.) Rebels 
 have no part in the Holy Spirit, nor have they 
 who are impractical and spend their time “ gazing 
 into heaven” (Acts 1: 11). The disciples 
 were found doing what Jesus told them to do 
 when the power came upon them... Had they 
 stayed on the Mount of Olives they would have 
 missed it. 
 
128 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 Nor will the power of the Holy Spirit come to 
 those who do not desire it. This gift of God 
 must be prized and sought for as other blessings 
 of grace are. So the Holy Spirit comes by 
 prayer. He came on the Samaritans as a result 
 of the prayer of others for them. (Acts 8 : 15.) 
 But he will come to those who ask for the Holy 
 Spirit for themselves. (Luke 11 : 13.) 
 
 I hold that to every Christian the power of the 
 Holy Spirit is given by measure. To Jesus he 
 was given without measure or limitation. (Cf. 
 John 3: 34.) But all imperfect followers of 
 Jesus have this power with limitation. As Godet 
 well says, ‘Man is a vessel destined to receive 
 God, a vessel which must be enlarged in propor- 
 tion as it is filled, and filled in proportion as it is 
 enlarged.”’ 
 
 In harmony with this view is Paul’s exhorta- 
 tion to be “ filled with the Spirit ” (Eph. 5 : 18). 
 As our love may be meager or abundant, so our 
 supply of the Spirit may range from the mini- 
 mum to the maximum. 
 
 The degree of the power of the Spirit that the 
 Christian possesses depends upon himself. God’s 
 will is to fill him according to his desire, conse- 
 cration, and capacity. God’s reservoir of power 
 is stored up for his use. He can have it if he 
 wills to have it. 
 
THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 129 
 
 By this I do not mean that he by striving, or 
 by his own power, can bring down this gift of 
 God; for it is received by faith. By faith we re-_ 
 ceive his new birth and by faith we receive his 
 power. (Cf. Gal. 3: 2, 14.) We do not get 
 the Holy Spirit; we receive the Holy Spirit. 
 
 It is not by a mere willing or a mere saying, 
 “ Lord fill me,” that one can obtain this gift of 
 God. Some seem to think it is, “ Presto, I have 
 the power of the Spirit.” But spiritual power 
 does not come by a sleight-of-mind performance. 
 There is no “little secret”? to right living and 
 effectual witnessing. The laws of the Spirit are 
 the laws of life. Life has many secrets, but no 
 tricks. Simon the sorcerer could not buy the 
 power of the Spirit, nor can any one steal it or 
 get it by stealth. God gives it. But he gives it 
 to whom he will and to him who is worthy and 
 as he 1s worthy. 
 
 Spirit-filled workers is the great need in our 
 day as it has ever been. Mighty courage, mighty 
 utterances, and mighty deeds have characterized 
 such servants of God. When they are described 
 as “‘ filled with the Holy Spirit,’ we may look for 
 something wonderful to happen. (Cf. Acts 4: 
 Soir se SSR Oo Tod Ts ye} 
 
 Mr. John R. Mott thus expresses the challenge 
 of our day and hour: 
 
 I 
 
130 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 When I made my first journey around the world I 
 went home and wrote a book in which I laid great 
 stress upon the need of an increase in the number of 
 foreign missionaries. When I returned from my second 
 tour I laid stress upon the need of a great army of 
 native workers, sons and daughters of the soil. When 
 I came back from my third extended journey to the 
 East I was led to see that I had taken a very super- 
 ficial view. What we need is not so much an increase 
 in the number of missionaries, not so much a vast army 
 of native workers; what we need is the discovery of 
 the hiding of God’s power and the secret of the re- 
 leasing of that power. We need more workers through 
 whom God shall have his opportunity.” 
 
 Dr. A. J. Gordon thus illustrates the inheri- 
 tance of spiritual power that has become ours by 
 the ascension of Jesus: 
 
 My children, I have provided well for your needs; 
 but your condition is one of poverty compared with 
 what it may become. By the death of a kinsman in 
 my native country I have become heir to an immense 
 estate. If you will only submit cheerfully to my leav- 
 ing you and crossing the sea and entering into my 
 inheritance, I will send you back a thousand times 
 more than you could have by my remaining with you. 
 
 Dr. Cortland Myers thus illustrates the privi- 
 lege that is ours of utilizing God’s dynamo of 
 spiritual power: 
 
THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 131 
 
 Bent with age, weak, and almost helpless, she stands 
 at the corner of the street. The steel tracks and cop- 
 per wires stretch out in front of her. She watches for 
 the car. It comes in sight and rushes through the — 
 street, pushed on by an unseen force. She can have 
 no relation to that; it has apparently no relation to 
 her, only to frighten her or make her marvel at the 
 mystery. This is not true. She walks out toward the 
 fast-moving wonder of our modern age and lifts her 
 feeble old hand, and instantly the car stops. She ex- 
 pected it to stop. What! An old, crippled woman 
 stop an electric-car! Certainly. The whole mechan- 
 ism of that system of trolley-cars was built for her 
 and around her. She has been dealing with one of 
 the most stupendous forces in Gods great world and 
 made it a part of her life. Understand it? No. Use 
 it? Yes. She steps in the car, and in comfort and 
 almost an incredibly short space of time she has ar- 
 rived at her destination, then lifts her finger, and the 
 world of electricity is at her command. She has ac- 
 complished all this in the presence of a great mystery 
 and without a sneer from the scientific world. Trans- 
 fer this to the prayer world and give the old saint her 
 chance. 
 
 ‘ 
 
 Barnabas “was a good man, and full of the 
 Holy Spirit and of faith; and much people was 
 added unto the Lord” (Acts 11 : 24). “ Be not 
 drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled 
 with the Spirit’ (Eph. 5 : 18). 
 
Vil 
 
 eb Hy vel CU VTE IN EY 
 
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! 
 Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee; 
 Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty! 
 God in three persons, blessed Trinity ! 
 
 Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee, 
 
 Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy 
 sea ; 
 
 Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee, 
 
 Who wert, and art, and evermore shall be. 
 
 Holy, holy, holy! Tho’ the darkness hide thee, 
 Tho’ the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see, 
 Only thou art holy; there is none beside thee 
 Perfect in power, in love and purity. 
 
 Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! 
 
 All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth, and 
 sky, and sea; 
 
 Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty ! 
 
 God in three persons, blessed Trinity! 
 
LAE HOUYC TRINITY, 
 
 yA eons things should be said briefly concern- 
 ing the subject of the Trinity. It is often 
 thought of and treated as a philosophic doctrine; 
 but there is none also more vital and practical. It 
 is a touchstone of orthodoxy or heresy. 
 
 1. The doctrine of the Trinity should not be 
 considered a contradiction in terms. As the word 
 indicates, it is the doctrine of a three-oneness, 
 that God is both three and one. But it does not 
 mean that God is three and one in the same sense. 
 This would be unreasonable. We are never called 
 on to believe what contradicts reason, though we 
 must often in both science and religion believe 
 what transcends reason; and it is most reasonable 
 to do this. He who will not do this closes to him- 
 self the door of knowledge. 
 
 2. That there is only one true God is the voice 
 of revelation, the conclusion of reason, and the 
 logic of history and human progress. Belief in 
 many gods weakens nations politically and society 
 morally. More than three thousand years ago 
 Moses thundered forth this truth, as the first 
 principle in the constitution of the religious and 
 135 
 
136 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 political state he was founding: ‘“‘ Hear, O Israel, 
 the Lord our God is one Lord.” 
 
 3. But the unity of God does not exclude per- 
 sonal distinctions within the divine being and 
 nature. Denying a multiplicity of gods is not 
 denying the multiplexity or complexity of the 
 one true God. The absolute simplicity of the 
 divine being was a theory of Spinoza and is 
 fundamental in his absolute pantheism. It is a 
 dark and deadly doctrine. Plurality within the 
 unity of God is implied in the Old Testament 
 revelations. (Cf. Gen. 1 : 26; 3 tn 225 Isat6ns.8)) 
 
 4. Imperfect illustrations in nature of the di- 
 vine Trinity abound: as the three branches of a 
 tree that unite in one trunk—they are both three 
 and one; the one human being that has a physical 
 nature, an intellectual nature and a moral nature; 
 the one government of the United States with 
 its legislative, judicial, and executive depart- 
 ments; the one object in space with three dimen- 
 sions, length, breadth, and thickness; the one 
 human mind with three faculties, feeling, knowl- 
 edge, and will. And in the one faculty of knowl- 
 edge itself, there are three elements, the knowing 
 subject, the object known, and the act of know- 
 ing, or, as it has been expressed concisely in philo- 
 sophic terms, all knowledge involves, or combines, 
 or is, intellect, intelligible, and intelligence. But 
 
THE HOLY TRINITY 137 
 
 all illustrations of the Trinity come short of pre- 
 senting a satisfactory statement. 
 
 5. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit 
 are one in essence and nature. They think the 
 same, they will the same. They exist and act in 
 perfect harmony. Being perfect their mutual 
 love is perfect. Discord between them is impos- 
 sible. In them there is naught but unity in plan 
 and purpose. This oneness of thought and life is 
 grounded in oneness of nature and essence. The 
 Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is 
 God. | 
 
 A spiritual person cannot read his Bible with- 
 out feeling that the deity of the Holy Spirit is in 
 its very breath. It is in the baptismal formula of 
 Matthew. (Matt. 28: 19.) It is in the oft-re- 
 peated Pauline benediction. (2 Cor. 13: 14.) 
 Every conception of the Holy Spirit presented in 
 the Bible calls for adoration and worship. Dt- 
 vine power proceeds from him; divine attributes 
 are ascribed to him; divine offices and honors are 
 assigned to him. All this is there, implicit in 
 thought, if not explicit in words. 
 
 6. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three 
 in person. These names present personal dis- 
 tinctions. The Father is a person, the Son is a 
 person, the Holy Spirit is a person. 
 
 It matters not that the word “ person ” is not 
 
138 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 found in the Bible. It matters not what its origin 
 was, savory or unsavory. It is a good word now 
 and expresses the truth we find revealed there. 
 One's orthodoxy or heterodoxy may be detected 
 by his stand or failure to stand here. It is hotly 
 contested ground, but it is holy ground. The dis- 
 tinctions of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not 
 temporal, but eternal. They are not manifesta- 
 tions merely of one God; they are the internal, 
 eternal, and personal distinctions within the be- 
 ing of one God. The Father speaks to the Son; 
 the Son to the Father; they send the Holy Spirit; 
 the Holy Spirit guides and glorifies the Son, and 
 makes intercession to the Father. Let no one 
 say that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is sim- 
 ply God revealing himself in three ways. This is 
 not the truth. 
 
 It is readily admitted, however, that the word 
 person may not express all the truth. It is but 
 an illustration, an attempt to understand the di- 
 vine nature by analogy to human nature, and 
 though there is more truth in this than in any 
 other illustration or analogy, it also falls short. 
 Divine personality transcends human personality. 
 Our ladder reaches up into the nature of God, 
 but not to the summit of his nature. 
 
 7. It seems proper to say that the persons of 
 the Trinity, though equal in essence and charac- 
 
THE HOLY TRINITY 139 
 
 ter, are of unequal rank in position and office. 
 This is possible. It is, to be sure, the fact in an 
 ideal home. The father and son are one in flesh 
 and spirit and name. To make one inferior 1s to 
 dishonor the other. And yet the father com- 
 mands and the son obeys. 
 
 So the Son of God obeys his Father, though 
 equal with him. In the garden he said, “ Not 
 my will, but thine, be done’? (Luke 22: 42). 
 Paul says that at the end of the world the Son 
 will deliver up the kingdom to the Father. (1 Cor. 
 15: 24.) And yet all should “honor the Son, 
 even as they honor the Father” (John 5 : 23). 
 Father and son are correlative terms and suggest 
 both equality of nature and inequality of rank 
 and position. 
 
 By the same process of reasoning we conclude 
 that the Holy Spirit is both equal to and sub- 
 ordinate to the Father and the Son. He is sent to 
 minister to Christians by the Father and the 
 Son. (John 14: 26; 15: 26.) He glorifies the 
 Son. He prays to the Father. But he receives 
 equal honors with them. His name, that is, his 
 nature and character, is on a par with theirs. (Cf. 
 Watts 28210 52: Gora 13214143) 
 
 8. It does not seem possible to classify very 
 distinctly the works of grace as attributable ex- 
 clusively to the different divine persons. For ex- 
 
140 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 ample, it is often said that our redemption is the 
 work of Christ and our sanctification is the work 
 of the Holy Spirit. But Christ has a part also 
 in our sanctification, and certainly the Father has 
 a part in our redemption. (Cf. John 3: 16.) It 
 is said that ‘‘ Christ is our advocate in heaven, 
 the Holy Spirit is our advocate in the soul.” But 
 the Holy Spirit is our advocate in heaven also. 
 (Cf. Rom. 8 : 26, 27.) It is said that creating is 
 the work of the Father, saving the work of the 
 Son, and perfecting the work of the Holy Spirit. 
 But both the Son and the Holy Spirit were also 
 active in the creation of the world. (Cf. Gen. 1 : 
 2; John 1: 3.) The Father also is active in the 
 salvation of the soul. (Cf. 1 John 3:9; 4: 7; 
 5: 1.) The Son also is active in perfecting the 
 Christian. (Cf. Phil. 1: 6.) It is said that “ all 
 outgoing seems to be the work of Christ, all re- 
 turn to God the work of the Spirit.” If this 
 means anything, it means what is non-biblical and 
 pagan. 
 
 These and like attempts at a classification on 
 this basis of the works of grace result from a 
 practical and imperfect induction. They are me- 
 chanical efforts. It is trying to force an analysis 
 where it does not belong. The works of grace 
 cannot be divided into three classes and assigned 
 to the three divine persons as a number of objects 
 
THE HOLY TRINITY 14f 
 
 may be put into three classes and placed in three 
 rooms. Christian character and the Holy Trinity 
 will not yield themselves to so crude a treatment. — 
 A false and forced analysis does not create clear- 
 ness, but confusion. Again let us remember 
 that in studying the Holy Trinity we are dealing 
 with life and persons, not with mechanics and 
 logic. 
 
 g. That the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are 
 eternal and divine persons and yet are one in be- 
 ing and nature, essence, and energy, is not only 
 the simple truth as seen in many passages of 
 Scripture, but it is a fundamental truth in the 
 gospel. It is not an overstatement to say that 
 without it there is no gospel. Without it the 
 most assuring sentence of the Bible, “God so 
 loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
 Son,” has no meaning, the doctrine of the atone- 
 ment is a fiction, salvation from sin a delusion, 
 and the preaching of the Cross a crime. Without 
 the Trinity God is not the Christian’s God, “ Our 
 Father who art in heaven”’; he is the pantheist’s 
 God, the Unitarian’s god, the Christian Scientist’s 
 god, the Mohammedan’s god, the idolater’s god, 
 a god made by human hands or human minds, it 
 matters little which. . 
 
 Neander, realizing the truth of what we are 
 observing, said of the doctrine of the Trinity, 
 
142 A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 “ We recognize therein the essential contents of 
 Christianity summed up in brief.” 
 
 10. Christian experience is also a mighty con- 
 firmation of the doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 If Jesus be not God, to say that he is God is a 
 lie, a corrupting, damning lie. Every lie de- 
 grades. There is nothing that does degrade, but 
 a lie. But to worship Christ is elevating. He 
 who goes down on his knees before Christ imme- 
 diately feels himself lifted up. Slavery to Christ 
 is freedom. To serve him is to reign. To be his 
 subject is to be a king. If Christ be not God, 
 to consider him God is idolatry, and all idolatry 
 is debasing, bedulling, deadening. Where is su- 
 persitition? It is not in him who cries, “ Jesus of 
 Nazareth, I worship thee.” All true science is 
 born in such a mind; because it is truth. 
 
 Again if the Holy Spirit is not God, it is 
 idolatry to say so. But where is piety? Who is 
 the real saint? Who is it that is living the sacri- 
 ficial life? It is none other than the Christian 
 who believes in, honors, is led by, and is full 
 of the Holy Spirit. Let one deny the Holy Spirit, 
 or say that he is an impersonal influence, or speak 
 of him carelessly, or think of him unworthily, and 
 to such an one the door of usefulness is closed 
 and progress in Christian character is at a stand- 
 still. Charles Kingsley, conscious of this truth, 
 
THE HOLY TRINITY 143 
 
 said that “whether the doctrine of the Trinity 
 is in the Bible or no, it ought to be there, because 
 our spiritual nature cries out for it.” 
 
 To the great One in Three 
 The highest praises be, 
 Hence evermore; 
 His sovereign majesty 
 May we in glory see, 
 And to eternity 
 Love and adore. 
 
_ Date Due 
 
Ln LM ii) 
 
 019 2625