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THE PERSON AND OFFICES OF THE IBKOUL AY SVEIURI TC, Six Donnellan Lectures ' PREACHED IN THE CHAPEL OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. BY THE LATE VERY REVEREND /MCMSHTOL GIS. AOAC Typ), DEAN oF CoRK. EDITED, WITH A PREFACE, ByemititeeD tS OOK GASH EL. Loudon: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXIX. eon re Pee rs APA een ad 7 cc, a Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Ayle i ; . ar ‘ aa ) ar. hes ‘ ; P a = ae ap ie : A y 7 Ad 4 4 4 \ te / ‘ “Y “, wy y yi ‘ 4Q yy ) AY f Y » O Bt &», 4 “THE following sermons were left by the deeply-lamented author well-nigh pre- pared for publication, so that little remained to be done by another, than, after reading them over, to commit them to the press. The exceptions to this completeness are such as could not be supplied,—one or two in- stances of apparently abrupt endings, which, no doubt, were designed to be finished at greater length; and a gap of considerable importance near the close of the last sermon, which is noticed in the place where it occurs. The subject of these sermons, and the enlightened and devout spirit in which that vi PREFACE. subject is handled, will commend them as deeply profitable to all who are willing to peruse them. But it is to those who had the opportunity of ever listening to the preacher, that they will come with peculiar force and impressiveness. The earnest look, longing after the eternal good of those to whom he spoke, pleading with them as a dying man to dying men on behalf of the great redemp- tion which he loved to speak ae the deep- toned voice which gave the emphasis of reality to the commonest word which he uttered,— these are accompaniments to the sermons which those only who heard them can recall. But by such they will be called up readily at every sentence ; and while the instructions and exhortations here contained come home, with such associations, to the heart of those who valued his ministry while he was amongst PREFACE. vii us, it is earnestly desired that the power of that Eternal Spirit of whom they treat, will work by these sermons to their saving benefit, so that they will have reason to bless God that these words have been left behind him after he was gone, and that “he being dead yet speaketh.” But it was not only as a preacher that the author of these sermons was to be valued. Those who had the privilege of meeting him in private will bear witness, that the great power of Achilles Daunt was the influence for good which he continually and universally exercised over those with whom he _ was brought into contact. It was the case with persons of all classes and of all opinions. His own views of Divine truth were very decidedly formed and very clearly expressed ; but those who differed from him widely on many points, Viil PREFACE. were always impressed by the sincerity and Christian love which were so prominently manifested in his character, and were in consequence sometimes impelled forward to join him in enterprises and modes of action, which they would have shrunk from if proposed to them by any other. His was a ruling spirit among his fellow men; while in all matters of personal convenience he was only too ready to give way, sacrificing his health, and in the end his life, in considering the circumstances of others rather than his own urgent requirements; yet in the things that concerned his Blessed Master’s service, his zeal carried all others along with him, and made it sometimes a wonder to themselves how they had been influenced and swayed. Far deeper and more valuable still, was the influence which the late Dean of Cork PREFACE. 1X exercised for good over those who knew him as a personal and intimate friend. His pre- sence was a beam of light in the house where he sojourned even for a day; the light of spiritual life reflecting that of the gracious Saviour, in the sense of whose Divine presence he seemed continually to dwell. His words were full of encouragement, and his manner of life was still more so. The simplicity and playfulness of a child were joined to the solemnity of a deeply-thoughtful spirit. Any one in company with him must say that his religion was a truly happy one; and yet all would see, at the same time, that the concerns of eternity were ever present to his mind. He is gone to be with the Lord, whom he dearly loved and faithfully served in his life and ministry. But he ne left a blank Xx PREFACE. behind him in the circle of Christian friendship, and in the ranks of his dearly-loved Church of Ireland, which is not likely soon to be filled up. Ms FaG WATERFORD, 22nd February, 1879. GOiN leiiNele sr I, THE PROMISE Il. THE PERSON Ill. HIS COMING . . IV. HIS WORK AT THE BEGINNING. V. HIS WORK AT PRESENT VI. HIS WORK AT PRESENT PAGE elon I. The Promise. ** And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of Truth.”—JOHN xiv. 16, 17. i hee aA NY vy ell ADE VERE: HESE, brethren, are familiar and often quoted words, but they contain a truth which is—like Himself whose words they are —changeless in beauty, freshness, and power ; “the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” No truth, indeed, it may be safely asserted, of deeper import ever came from the lips of the Messiah; no promise more “exceeding great and precious” than this was bequeathed by the Saviour for the consolation of His people to the end of time, and to the joy of His Church militant here on earth. May He, of whom these words testify, raise up His power and come among us. May He guide us into all the truth. May He give us a right judgment in all things, enabling us evermore 4 THE HOLY Sigiiae to rejoice in His holy comfort through the merits of Christ Jesus our Lord. In addressing myself to the performance of the duty which devolves upon me in the de- livery of the following course of Lectures, I do so under circumstances which seem to make my task one of no ordinary interest, and one of peculiar responsibility. The circumstances to which I refer are suggestive of some im- portant considerations, which, by way of pre- face, I shall offer in succession, viz., those arising respectively from (1) the present position of our Church; (2) the state of religion generally in the world around us; (3) the peculiar nature of my subject; and (4) the special. class and character of my hearers. I. Only a brief period, comparatively speak- ing, has elapsed since the clouds which had been so long gathering have covered the heavens; the storm which had been so long threatening has burst upon us in its full strength; and our Church, like the ship in which the disciples of long ago wrestled RA Le PROMISE, 5 through that dark night with storm and billows, is even yet “in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves,” because the winds are contrary. But she, too, like that barque of old, is not the less watched over by the sleepless eye of Almighty Wisdom; not the less cared for in the counsels of Omnipotent Love. We, too, may hear as they did, above the noise of the water-floods, that voice of gracious assurance, “Be of good cheer; it is Pepe not vaitaid.’ >For us, too, no less!surely than for them, the issue is not doubtful; the haven where we would be is not far off: “One who has known in storms to sail We have on board ; Above the raging of the gale I have my Lord! “ Safe to the land, safe to the land, The end is this,— And then with Him go hand in hand Far into bliss!” But, although we may be thus confident of the future; though faith, looking beyond a 6 LAL TOLLOLSY «Sil ed 2 dark to-day, can live by anticipation in the sunshine of to-morrow, we must remember that in the path which leads to that future we have to deal with the stern realities of the present. We may not forget that the watchful care of Him who “keepeth His beloved in safety by Him” does not render vigilance on our part the less needful; in fine, that, as a Father of the Church has well expressed it, “To our own security our own sedulity is required,” My brethren, be assured of it, if we would prove victorious in this great conflict, if we would pass through this crisis in safety, if we would come forth from this ordeal like gold, purer and brighter than before, we must watch and stand fast in the faith; we must go forth in the panoply of God; we must look well, not only to the outward fabric, but, above all, | to the zuner life. We must understand that wherein our true strength lieth, of in silver and gold, in pomp and outward show, but in the presence of Christ Himself dwelling in our THE PROMISE. 7 midst, and ruling there in power and truth by His Holy Spirit. Oh, how blessed it is to know that there is a power on our side (if we only believe it) against which man and devil alike are im- potent! How happy to be assured that though earthly props fail us, there is a stronger than human arm on which we may lean! How blessed, once more, to know, and that of a surety, that there is a Friend, mysterious it is true, but not the less real; unseen indeed, but not the less to be believed in; Divine in His person, and almighty in His agency, whose presence, if we cherish it, will go with us to the end; a Guide to direct ; a Comforter to sustain ; a Teacher to enlighten; a Life to quicken; even He, whom the Saviour, “ere He breathed His last farewell,” bequeathed to His Church, when He said, “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever.’ “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but 8 LEG OLIY OT an if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” Re- garded in this point of view, brethren, with special reference to the ordeal through which, as a Church, we are called to pass, the im- portance of our subject becomes at once ap- parent. It directs attention, you perceive, to within; to that inner life; those hidden springs of thought and feeling—of motive and principle —which are the very soul of a Church, and on the vigour and vitality of which must de- pend her ability to hold for her King the citadel of His truth, and to win fresh jewels for His crown, and new conquests to His praise! If we look only at the more material circum- stances of our position, we see much (I gladly concede) to cheer our hearts; to make us “thank God and take courage.” We have discipline, which, if it be imperfectly enforced, is nevertheless excellent of its kind. We have order, which, if we cherish, is of Divine institu- tion; national traditions, older and grander than most churches can boast of; we have RHIR PROMISE. 9 creeds of ancient sanction, which we do not mean to abandon; liturgies of matchless beauty, which we do not mean to relinquish. Above all, we have consigned to us the pure truth of the gospel, the precious deposit of Divine knowledge ; and standing on this happy vantage ground, we may survey the dangers and difficulties which confront us in the spirit of the age. II. The most prominent and glaring feature is plainly this—the symptoms which we see around us on every side of decaying faith. Kindred to this is another startling feature in the religious aspect of our time, and that is credulity,—the strange fact that the age, although one of decaying faith, is also one of marvellous credulity. What I mean is this,— that when bold assumptions are adduced in- stead of argument ; when worn-out sophistries are cried up as so much weighty reasoning ; when the discarded errors of ancient days cast into some new shape, and dignified by some new name, are asserted to be truth,—truth seen IO LHEVHORY SPitads ee in a new light, and evolved from the depths of a profounder philosophy; thousands are found ready to acquiesce in these assumptions ; thousands are found willing to believe in the -imposture. Of the truth of what I here assert, no illus- tration can be adduced more forcible than the case of one whose experience has been recently made public. “I refer to the author of the well-known pamphlet entitled, “The Church’s Creed, and the Crown’s Creed.” In a publica- tion still more recent, he describes the effect produced on his earnest soul some years ago by the cry raised then in England, and echoed ever since, “ Infallibility or Atheism—Rome or Infidelity.” By that cry he was carried away like many others, and threw himself into the arms of Romanism. But now with him (and I believe his case to be only a sample of what is taking place on a large scale) the spell is broken, “even as when a hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth, but he awaketh, and his soul is empty.” “No one,” he says, “was THE PROMISE. II more stirred by this cry than I was when it was first raised. But nobody that has ever confronted his neighbour with this dilemma, can be dispensed from asking his own consci- ence the further question, ‘Are Rome and Christianity convertible terms?’ And this, in spite of all my best wishes that they were, or might be, I am unable, in honesty, to profess they are.” Now, of this be assured, my brethren, that to such an unhappy result there is no more conducing cause than imperfect knowledge, more especially of God’s Holy Word. Crude and hastily adopted views of Divine truth; partial, and too often prejudiced notions of Scripture doctrines, have ever been, from the first, a very flood-gate of error and delusion. Where there is not child-like humility and honesty of purpose at the starting-post, there is small chance of finding truth at the goal. And I am disposed to think that the spiritual pride and metaphysical pedantry, which are 12 LAENITOLY GSP ide the native soil of unbelief, spring chiefly from study, not carried sufficiently far; from inquiry too soon contented. He who skims the surface may think he knows all; but he who strives to sound the depths may obtain, truly, a rich reward for his time and toil, but he will desist at last with a feeling very different from pride —a fecling akin to that which prompted one of old to cry, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” Let us remember, then, that in our search after truth, Holy Scripture is the safe arbiter ; and, further, that to understand any given passage, the only certain rule is to acquire by honest and prayerful study an accurate and comprehensive acquaintance with Zhe whole sacred volume. And what I mean by honest study of the Bible is: that we should sit down to read it—not with a view to corroborate some favourite doctrine, or to find sanction for some preconceived theory, but to discover truth, be- THE PROMISE. 13 lieving that truth may be found, and resolved, with God’s blessing, to find it. The geologist goes to work, hammer in hand, to examine the earth’s crust, and to judge for himself of the strata; the chemist plies his task, resolved to test the object of his analysis ; the astronomer takes his telescope and scans the heavens, prepared to discover fresh won- ders in the firmament, new glories in the stars. Now let us apply ourselves in the same way in the study of Holy Scripture. If we seek truth, spiritual truth, after the same manner, with devout earnestness, patient research, and, above all, with dependence—prayerfully exer- cised—on the help and teaching of Him who was promised to be our Unction from the Holy One to guide us into all the truth; be assured of it, brethren, we cannot ultimately failmeoumsuccess:, invsuch “But this spake He of the Spirit, which they tha on Him should receive; for the Holy Ghost Bis < n0 t x = in given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified,”— vil. 39. pos Fg se r Sa = os = le te Gi sxe ‘7 ar 4 ity a. ret ee ie III. FAILS COMING. HE relation between the work of the Saviour and the work of the Spirit; be- tween the “going away” of Christ—having accomplished His own mission—and the com- ing of the Holy Ghost to undertake and ac- complish f/zs: this, as I have already intimated, will claim our attention next in order, It is a subject of great interest and importance, and we have it brought before us with great force and clearness in that beautiful passage from the Gospel of St. John, a portion of which I have just quoted, “Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He 52 WEAR A LOWEN A AVENE NET of the Spirit... for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Fesus was not yet glorified.” Here we are plainly taught that the missions of the Son and of the Holy Ghost were in- separably related, and in a wonderful way, dependent the one upon the other. It was necessary that the King of glory should be enthroned in heaven ere His kingdom could be set up on earth. “It was only when the Redeemer Himself was entirely freed from all the limitation of earth, that He could be- come, spiritually, the indwelling principle of life in His disciples, and thus set up His throne in the hearts of men; while, on the other hand, the new life of the disciples could not expand, spiritually and independently, until zhe visible presence of the Saviour was taken away from them” (Zholuck: “Commentary ”). Christ’s own work on earth was a work of suffering ; to this He was straitened and limited, as He says Himself: “TI have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened (cuveyouat) until TSA GOMING: 53 it be accomplished.” The more glorious work He left to be done, as the fruit of His own accomplished mission, by the Holy Spirit whom He promised to send; therefore said Meme ite is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter will not come to you;” the Holy Ghost in this special and more glorious aspect of His mission being “not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” Before we consider this point more in detail let us turn aside to see some of the other “wondrous things” to be discerned in this remarkable Scripture. The figure under which Christ here speaks of the promised gift is that of “living water” ; and the words of the Saviour, as recorded by St. John, were spoken, we are told, on “the last day, that great day of the feast,” that is, the Feast of Tabernacles, when it was customary for one of the priests to bring water from the Pool of Siloam in a golden ewer, to the Temple, where it was poured out with songs of praise 54 THE PTIOL Ast as, and rejoicing—a ceremony which was designed, no doubt, to recall to mind the wonderful supply provided of old for His people in the wilder- ness by Him who “opened for them the rock and the waters gushed out, and ran in the dry places like a river.” That it was under- stood by some, at least among the Jews, that a deeper and more spiritual meaning was to be assigned to this particular ceremony, is clear, I think, from the terms in which it is referred to by Maimonides, who applies to it the very passage which seems to be referred to by our Lord, viz. that in Isaiah xii. 3, “ Deéretere with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” This application of the passage, taken in connection with that promise of our Lord which we have recorded in the fourth chapter of this Gospel—* The water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water spring- ing up into everlasting life,’—may give the key to the difficulty which is found here by some in identifying our Lord’s reference to the Old Testament Scripture, and place in a clear and AHlS COMING. 55 intelligible light the fact that it is the in- dwelling of the Holy Spirit in the heart which \ constitutes the great special feature of the i Christian dispensation; the Spirit of God | dwelling in the true believer as in His temple, springing up there a well of living water, and flowing out thence in the gracious issues of a sanctified nature and a holy life, those fruits of the Spirit, those influences of truth and love, which are like healing waters in a dry place, imparting to all around beauty, life, and gladness. Interpreted in this way, we have, in the passage before us, the promise and prediction of that Pentecostal blessing—that “coming of the Holy Ghost”—that pouring out of the Spirit on the Church, and in the heart of the believer, which ensued so immediately after our Lord’s ascension; that is, after that Jesus was glorified, Thus we learn the secret of that mighty power in which the Church of Christ went forth “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners ;.” 56 UM efit, Veh ON EN eed Aca gs we have revealed to us the Shechinah which was to be the glory of the new and spiritual temple ; we are taught the cause to which we must ascribe those great effects which were then produced—those wonderful and otherwise unaccountable results which remain to this very day. For, when we read, as we do in those early annals of the Church, of three thousand per- sons being gathered into the fold in one day: when we read of progress so rapid that in Jerusalem alone, soon afterwards, the number of disciples was about five thousand ; when we find those men who, a short time previously, had been cowards and traitors to their Master, had failed Him in the hour of trial, had forsaken Him and fled in the hour of danger—when we find these very men, I say, now speaking boldly in His name; lion-hearted even unto prison and to death in defence of His Cause ; when we find, moreover, that in an incredibly short space of time, without kingly favour to recommend it, without State patronage to up- HIS COMING. 57 hold it; without weapons of carnal warfare to propagate it; a religion which was intolerant of every other, as claiming itself to be the Truth, a religion, too, whose principles and precepts were repugnant to the natural bias and propensities of the human heart, which ran counter, in short, to man’s whole nature, had gained so many adherents, had made its power felt so widely that in a short time we are assured that “all who dwelt in Asia had heard the word of the Lord Jesus;” and that the preachers of these doctrines were described as the “men who had turned the world upside down;” when we learn that “the little one had become a thousand,” and that presently, before the Ark of God, the Dagon of Pagan- ism (in Europe at least) fell prostrate in the dust,—we cannot help concluding that effects so vast and astonishing were produced from some mighty cause; and, further, may we not enquire whether that cause may be operative still? whether that same agency may not be looked for now, to clothe the Church of Christ 58 THE HOLY SPIRIT. among ourselves with the same power, and to bestow upon us those selfsame blessings? Why not? And why may we not expect it? Was the Christian verity of the first century something different from that of the nineteenth? Was ? “the pearl of great price” in those days of another nature than that precious treasure for whose safety we are sedulous now? Was the “faith once delivered to the saints ” something else than that for which we are contending in our own day? Were its friends more powerful then than they are now; its foes less hostile ; its champions better disciplined? The reply to all this is very manifest, when we turn to the inspired records to look for it. There we learn that it was nothing in the messengers as compared with ourselves; nothing in the message as distinct from that which we have to deliver, but that it was the power which rested on the messengers, and accompanied the message,—even the power and presence of God the Holy Spirit, ever-blessed, bestowed in HIS COMING. 59 fulfilment of that promise of the Saviour which is to last to the end of days. “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Com- forter, that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth;” poured out on the world for the accomplishment of prophecy which comprehends all times, for “it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh... the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come ;” given on conditions which it is within our own reach to comply with, for “this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” These are very striking words, and suggest much that will form a fitting prelude to the consideration of the aspect of my subject which will naturally engage our attention next Sunday —even that which we urged together to-day asa mighty plea at the throne of grace, when 60 IM oh Ode hON ERG INY CIB ES OM we said, “By Thine agony and bloody sweat . . and by the coming of the Holy Ghost.” Here we have intimated in these remarkable words— I. That the gift of the Holy Ghost is the great peculiar feature, the great distinguishing characteristic, of the new or Christian dispen- sation as compared with the old. We are taught further— IJ. That there was an intimate connection between the bestowal of the gift and the completion of the Blessed Saviour’s own work; and that the mission of the Comforter, as pro- mised and foretold, was dependent on the accom- blishiment in all its parts of the mission of the Redeemer Himself ; “the Holy Ghost was not yet given,” says the text, “because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” And we gather also— III. That the gift of the Holy Ghost here referred to must be something altogether different from the gift of tongues ; of far wider scope, and more comprehensive range, than the HIS COMING. 61 miraculous effusion of the Spirit at Pentecost ; a gift, the benefit of which must surely belong to, and may be claimed by, the Church of Christ, in all ages, and by every faithful mem- ber of the same to the end of time; a truth which we must be careful to preserve, on the one hand, in its integrity, as the great antidote for that poison which rationalism is dispensing in so many subtle and deadly potions; and to guard jealously, on the other, from those extravagant notions and undue assumptions as to the measure and method of the Spirit’s work, which have only served to bring dis- credit on religion, and given occasion—not seldom — to the enemies of God to blas- pheme. | I. From the words of the Apostle here— “the Holy Ghost was not yet”—“ourw yap nv Tvevpa aylov»—Macedonius, and others since his day (for it is notable how the history of heresy, like all other history, has a tendency to repeat itself; and how fallacies, long since ex- ploded, are reproduced as though they were 62 LAE GBROLM SEL something new), have professed to derive an argument against the pre-existence and Divine Personality of the Holy Ghost. To this, how- ever, I scarcely think it needful to allude in detail. For, even supposing that the reading “ourw yap nv mvevpa aytoy dedouevov” which some (¢g. Lachmann) have adopted with a fair share of probability in its favour, be not the true one, still it is evident to the candid reader that something equivalent must be understood from the context; otherwise the passage would be in direct contradiction to the whole tenor of Scripture ; and those who rely on this place to establish their views, do so, it is manifest, at the cost of the consistency and truth of the whole Bible. We have, indeed, ample evidence of the existence and operation of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament dispensation, for without adopting the theory so ingeniously maintained by a learned prelate, near our own times, that Gabriel (whose name signifies the “power of God”) was none other than the Third Person HIS COMING. 63 of the Trinity, just as Michael the Archangel —a name which implies the “image of God” —was, it is supposed in all probability, the Se- cond Person in the triune Godhead,—a theory, to my mind, at once both fanciful and unte- nable; was it not the Holy Spirit that brooded over the waters at the creation? Do we not read that He strove with the antediluvian world of ungodly ? Was it not He concerning whom David spake when he said, “Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me”? Was it not He who inspired the prophets, as it is written, “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost”? Was it not He of whom Isaiah wrote, when speaking of rebellious Israel, that “they vexed the Holy Spirit, therefore He was turned to be their enemy and fought against them”? Again, at the coming of Christ in the flesh, were there not many first-fruits and prelibations of the Spirit antecedent to His mission? Do we not read of Zachariah and Elizabeth that they were 64 LA RSSOLDY SEALs filled with the Holy Ghost? That Simeon and the Baptist were also taught and dwelt in by the same Spirit? Above all, that to the Saviour Himself the Spirit was given without measure? Had we seen with our eyes, as the Apostles saw it, that temple ofthe Lord’s body, and considered that it was, in a peculiar and especial way, the work of the Holy Ghost ; and furthermore, considered the glorious descent upon Him of the Spirit in bodily shape at His baptism ; the presence of that Spirit in His temptation, in His preach- ing, and in His miracles; how that, in short, He was anointed all His life through with that “oil of gladness above His fellows,’— what could we have looked for more than this ? what other greater mission of the Spirit could we have expected? And yet these things (however wonderful and glorious) were all an- tecedent to that great mission of the Spirit which was the subject, long afterwards, of our blessed Lord’s promise. Moreover, He declared expressly that it was after His departure He ee HIS COMING. 65 would send Him unto them; and, further- more, it was after all these events had taken place, that St. John—referring to the Saviour’s promise of the “living water”—says in ex- planation of the terms used by Him, “This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe Simei should receiver) 4). for athe Holy, Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” The language em- ployed here cannot therefore be understood as implying that the Holy Ghost was then, for the first time, to receive existence—to begin tow pe. but: as designed to teach that the advent of the Spirit, which was predicted and promised by the Saviour, was to be some- thing so different, both in kind and measure, from anything that had been ever heard of before; the manifestation of His presence and power so much more wonderful and glorious than anything which had been known pre- viously ; that this gift of the Holy Ghost was to be emphatically the great distinctive cha- racteristic of the Christian dispensation, namely 5 66 LAE VETOLY SE IRTT: ALA aAs 3 keh » MSIL amet The Rhett ee of that period which was to date from our Lord’s ascension, so as fully to justify and explain the language of my text, “The Holy Ghost was not yet (given) because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” The dawn, we know, in the order of nature, precedes the sunrise; the light of the sun is seen before the sun himself appears, and yet the rising of the sun may truly be called a new thing—a distinctive epoch. The Son of God, we know, was working in the world long before His incarnation; and so did the Holy Spirit also act upon men long be- fore His effusion. But as it was at the incarna- tion of the Son that the fulness of His life first manifested itself, so it was not until the effusion at Pentecost that the life and power of the Divine Spirit were fully exhibited. Hence, the effusion of the Holy Ghost marks the same epoch in the manifestation of the Third Person of the Trinity that the Incarnation does of the Second. The Nativity and the Pentecost have each a special parallel importance; Whit Sun- HIS COMING. 67 day and Christmas have alike an analogous and historical significance. II. But further, we have here intimated to us the close and intimate relation between the mission of Christ and that of the Spirit; that the full accomplishment of the former was necessary to the inauguration of the latter; that the Holy Ghost was not to be given until Jesus was glorified. And this glorification of Jesus (which refers, of course, to His humanity, and was perfected at His ascension) must be regarded, not only as the period or epoch at which the promised mission of the Comforter should commence, but also (and it is important that you should observe this), as an instru- mental and procuring cause of the bestowal of the Spirit. For, consider the light in which God’s way of saving man has been revealed to us in the Bible. Salvation is there represented as a covenant work, not between God and man, but between God the Father and God the Son, on man’s behalf—a covenant which was thus ex- pressed: “When Thou shalt make His soul an 68 LAE GHOLY gal offering for sin, He shall see His seed.” On these terms, if I may so express myself, Christ came into the world. He came to fulfil that covenant, and until that covenant work was accomplished, He had no claim on the Father for the gift of the Spirit. He must ascend up on high; He must stand before the Father in heaven ; He must plead there His own merits, perfect and accepted. The eternal gates must first lift up their heads, and the everlasting doors be opened wide, that the King of glory may come in, ere the power of the Spirit may be given, the promise of the Father be vouch- safed. And so we read in David, “ Thou hast ascended up on high, Thou hast led captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts for men;” and we have our Lord Himself declaring, “It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I exe not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” But, again, there is another reason that may be assigned for the dispensation of the Spirit HIS COMING. 69 having commenced when it did, and that is one which has reference, not to the covenant between the Father and the Son, but to the great work which the Holy Ghost Himself was given to accomplish. For, consider what the nature of that work was to be; it was to be carried on within—in the heart, in the depths and recesses of the conscience and of the Spirit—and that by revealing to the soul the things of Christ, enabling men to receive, and appropriate, and rejoice in those blessed truths. “He shall glorify Me,” said Jesus, “for He shall take of mine and show it unto you.” But until the Lord was glorified this could not be done; until His work was complete in all its parts the materials for that other great work of the Spirit were not as yet provided, and therefore, not until then did the parts of the Divine administration afford an objective basis suffi- ciently broad and palpable, to admit of bringing out in its true proportions the personal agency of the Divine Spirit, and assigning to it a place 70 I eB Kole ON ON ce) £8 Pra 2 in the Church’s faith respecting God. Hence we conclude that, when the Apostle speaks here of the Holy Ghost as not being yet given, He speaks of Him as emphatically the Spirit of Christ, that is, in other words, the Holy Spirit, so far as He, dwelling in the heart as a subjective principle, applies the objective essential truths of Revelation, and gives them the power of truth in each indi- vidual mind. And this was the ccnsequence, observe, of the Saviour’s glorification, for it was only when He was entirely freed from the limitation of earth—only when His humanity had been spiritualized and celestialized (if I may so speak)—a process which was perfected, as I have said, at His ascension—that He could become in spirit the indwelling principle of life in His faithful people; that He could fulfil to His whole Church collectively, and to each member of it individually, that precious promise which He gave ere He breathed “ His tender last farewell,” “ Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” HIS COMING. 7 To that other important question suggested by this passage, viz. the nature of the promised gift, whether designed for the Apostles alone, or intended also for the Church at large from age to age, I shall have occasion to refer here- after, only— IlI. I would observe that at a time when multitudes openly disavow all belief in the Divine Person and supernatural agency of the Holy Ghost ; when others, professing to accept the doctrine, would explain it to mean nothing more than the culture and exercise of a man’s natural powers and rational faculties; when we find Romanism practically limiting the presence and power of the Spirit to the Sacraments and Councils of the Church; and further, preparing, it would seem, at this very time, to decree the personal zufallidility of the Pontiff, and to invest thereby a human being with the most awful and tremendous of those prerogatives and functions which belong to God alone! When we find others again ready to conclude with Bishop Warburton 72 THE HOLY SPIRIT. that in the Scriptures of the New Testa- ment the prophetic promise of our blessed Master, that the Comforter should abide with us for ever, was eminently fulfilled,—it is important that our hearts should be firmly established in the belief of this truth: that there has been revealed distinctly in the Word of God the existence of a Divine Spirit —Himself a Person in the Godhead, very and eternal God, whose presence in the world, though from the beginning discernible, was to be manifested (prophets foretold, and the Saviour promised) in far larger measure of blessing in the fulness of time yet to come; that the promised gift has been bestowed,— a fountain of grace set flowing from which men may take the water of life freely; that we are living now under the dispensation of the Spirit, our privileges the most exalted, our responsibilities proportionately tremendous. My brethren, let us live in the Spirit, and let us walk in the Spirit. Let us aim at being, each of us, what we may be, a temple re HIS COMING. 73 of the Holy Ghost, dwelt in of Christ by His Spirit. Then we shall be pillars in the temple of our God above; we shall behold the glory of Him to whom we owe so much, and where in His presence— “ After the troubles of a stormy sea, Sweet will be at length The haven of repose.” a a, IV. His Work at the Peginning, co a f tS = aes “a ho St “Which Aine the Bees desire to His: into. J EETER 1, 12. Ke diy i ss in i é + ] ! 7 a ! ‘ Ml ’ ¥ , 7 4 x ne } t aad ‘a 9 | Rs { : be f vy) ?, 4 y i 7 ’ } i ' \y x | > b A os i tf ' ; A ‘ : ( \ [ - oi P ‘ IV. HIS WORK AT THE BEGINNING. UPPOSE we were told, brethren, that there was a race of beings whose faculties and intelligence were vastly superior to our own; able to command a range of obser- vation far wider than that over which we may travel; gifted with powers so marvellous that nothing of which we may take cogni- zance would be at all comparable; possessing knowledge, varied and stupendous, beyond that which we can attain unto; and suppose, further, we were given to understand that there was a subject concerning which this wondrous order of beings was but as yet imperfectly informed; that there were things of which evex they as yet did not know the whole,—things which even for them, with all 78 MAL OIY “SPIRES their knowledge, were so profoundly interest- ing that they sought to make them their study,—to look into, to comprehend them to the full. In such a case, brethren, might it not fairly excite our curiosity to know what that great theme could possibly be; to en- quire what it was that a race of beings so exalted and transcendant could regard with an interest so intense and absorbing? And would not our argument be _ proportionally great if we were to be told further, that the subject of an anxiety so strange, the object of an interest so remarkable and engross- ing, was none other than ourselves; the things which concern us men and our salva- tion (as they concern none else in the uni- verse besides); and yet, wonderful to behold, well-nigh incredible to relate, the very things also which man too often passes by unheeded and uncared for; the very concerns which mankind (even those of us whose hearts and hopes centre, after all, in heaven), are only too apt to postpone to the petty cares of f11IS WORK AT THE BEGINNING, 79 ee ee a time; to the fading tinsel of earth; to the perishing interests of the world that passeth away? For angels Christ did not atone; for them Redemption was not accomplished ; “Of angels, verily,’ we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, “He taketh not hold, but He taketh hold of the seed of Abraham.” And yet that great salvation, whose offers of mercy man will even presume to reject because he cannot fathom all its mysteries, angels, we are assured, in wonder make their study; and, stooping from their high estate (which is what the verb Tapaxvyat here implies), ardently desire to look into. My brethren, is it possible that to such a race of beings, gazing in awe and wonder at the love and power that shine out in redemption, seeking to learn (as we are told they do) from that Church as from a lesson-book, the manifold wisdom of God; who watched, as we know they did, from the first the unfolding of God’s great design for restoring fallen man; _herald- ing the Saviour’s incarnation ; joying over 80 Di ILO LAY) gab ee Him at His birth in songs of praise; minis- tering to Him in the desert; strengthening Him in His agony; guarding His body until the hour came to open the prison doors and set the captive free; standing by Him as He went up to Heaven; looking on as the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven to complete the great work and give it power in the hearts .of) men; is it possible,» Wsayjueee imagine a sight so astonishing, an object in the whole universe so inexplicable, as the sight of man, on whom all this love was lavished, for whom all this was accomplished, thankless for a_ gift so costly, ungrateful for love so amazing, and choosing too often to put salvation from him and judge himself unworthy of eternal life ? Oh, my brethren, let it be our heartfelt prayer that the Great Being whose advent in power we commemorate to-day,—whose office it is to give sight to the inly blind, and knowledge to them that are out of the way,—may be ever present among us to cleanse the thoughts AllS WORK AT THE BEGINNING. 81 of our hearts by His holy inspiration, so that we may perfectly love and worthily magnify our Father which is in Heaven! To that event in the history of Redemption which we this day commemorate, and which, as I said before, marks the same epoch (quasi) in the manifestation of the Z/zvd Person of the Trinity that the Incarnation does in that of the Second, reference is made in very strik- ing terms in that passage which I have placed at the head of this discourse. For when we turn to the context to enquire yet more fully what zt zs that even angels thus desire to look into; what those things are (concerning ourselves) which can thus rivet the gaze of those who are permitted to see the King in His beauty, and to behold the glories of the Celestial Estate; what it is that can thus excite the wonder and enlist the sympathies of beings who can see what is to us invisible; who can listen to sym- phonies which to us are inaudible; who can traverse fields of knowledge which are to us 6 82 LHE- HOLY SPlril,« inaccessible: we learn that it is of Redemp- tion that the Apostle is speaking here; of salvation as the fruit of redeeming love, de- signed by the Father, accomplished by the Son, and applied to the heart by the Holy Ghost; of which salvation the procuring cause, as we learn (v. I1), was “the sufferings of Christ;” but the instrumental cause (in making it available for man) is “the gospel preached with the Holy Ghost, sent down from Heaven.” And these words, brethren (“the gospel preached with the Holy Ghost”), words, I would observe, of all the fuller significance as coming from that particular Apostle to whom was given the privilege of being the first (at Pentecost) to preach the gospel in demonstra- tion of the Spirit; of being the first to use the gospel key and to open the kingdom of heaven to some three thousand souls at once; these words, I say, lead us directly to con- sider that wonderful event which naturally marks the next stage in the course of this in- flIS WORK AT THE BEGINNING. 83 eae are a a vestigation, and which could not possibly be presented to your notice more seasonably than it is to-day; for, having discussed to some extent, as you will remember in my two first lectures, this doctrine as laid down in Holy Scripture, and received by the Church from the beginning as to the Divine Essence and Personality of the Holy Ghost; and having endeavoured to show you on last Sunday that the Holy Spirit, though existing before as a Person in the Godhead, could not appear in the fulness of His life-giving power, in the full display of His Divine agency, until the Ascension of Christ; in other words, that the mission of the Spirit, which prophets had predicted, and which Messiah Himself had expressly promised, was dependent on the completion of the Saviour’s own work, and the glorification of His humanity, as upon that which was not only to mark the period at which it should take place, but also to operate as the instrumental or procuring cause thereof; it seems fitting and indis- 84 lf de Bd OLY nL Deg pensable to the proper order of our enquiry, that we review briefly the leading features of that miraculous expression of the Spirit at Pentecost which our Church commemorates in her services of to-day,—that out-pouring of the Holy Spirit which we are taught to believe was the fulfilment of all those pro- mises and predictions that went before. And this, brethren, will form a very suitable tran- sition to that portion of my subject, which I cannot help regarding as by far the most interesting and important, viz., the kind and degree of the Holy Spirit’s present influence ; the method and measure of His mighty presence and power in chose ordinary opera- tions of His which we are distinctly told in Holy Scripture He was sent to carry on, and, we believe, szz/7 does carry on in the heatts of. men and in the Church of Chrise For, as we have this event presented to us in the New Testament, we are taught to regard it as the greatest era in the history of Re- demption, next to the appearance of the Son FiIS WORK AT THE BEGINNING. 85 of God Himself, as being the commencement of that new Divine life which was derived from Him for the human race; the gushing foreuemaseitom its fountain, head’ inv Him, of that river of living water which has been flowing on ever since from age to age, and will continue flowing until the great final object is attained; until God in all things shall be glorified, and until the ransomed of Him, who is to be first-born among many brethren, shall be changed into the same likeness, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord; shall have been trans- formed, in the beauty of holinesss, into the image of the great Living Head Himself! Of the history which records this great event we have an epitome strikingly accurate and comprehensive in that “proper preface” which our Church directs to be used in her Communion Office on Whit-Sunday, and which will be read in our hearing presently, in which we have it said, “According to whose most true promise” (that is of Jesus Christ our Lord) 86 THTE OLY SPIRITZ. “the Holy Ghost came down, as at this time, from heaven, with a sudden great sound, as it had been a mighty wind, in the likeness of fiery tongues, lighting upon the Apostles, to teach them, and to lead them to all truth ; giving them both the gifts of divers languages, and also boldness, with fervent zeal, constantly to preach the gospel unto all nations.” Such is the simple but authoritative statement of our Church’s creed respecting this matter,—a statement to which I may have occasion to revert presently, as likely to help us in eluci- dating a difficulty which commentators have always felt in explaining this narrative; a difficulty which has arisen, not as to the ques- tion whether or no, as a mere matter of Sact, the disciples received this wonderful gift of tongues (for the history is so explicit on this head, that to impugn the fact itself would be simply to reject the whole narrative as fabu- lous), but as to the question, how this gift was imparted, and in what way it was ministered. But before entering on this point more in HIS WORK AT THE BEGINNING. 37 detail, I would observe that the time chosen for the fulfilment of the Lord’s “ most true promise” was itself very significant. Pentecost, I need hardly remind you, was the feast of first fruits, the beginning and consecration of harvest,—a fitting season, therefore, for the formal introduction of that great work of the Spirit, by which the spiritual harvest of Christ’s finished work was to be gathered in and secured. Moreover, the season of Pentecost had come to be regarded (at least in later ages) as com- memorative of the giving of the law from Mount Sinai; the inauguration with awful grandeur and solemnity of the Mosaic economy ; when amidst thunderings, and lightnings, and earthquakes, God spake from heaven, and the mountain burned with fire. So again, in like manner, when an era yet more momentous was to be introduced ; when an economy yet more stupendous (even that of the gospel) was to be inaugurated, God revealed Himself once more by analogous manifestations. Again was heard the rushing sound of the mighty tempest ; 88 LEER OTA SLR ae again was God’s voice heard, as of old in the wilderness, a voice powerful and full of majesty ; again was the fiery attribute of Sinai visible ; not, this time, like that devouring element which wrapped the mountain in its folds of flame, but in the similitude of cloven tongues, like as of fire, which seemed to rest on the disciples from above, figuring thereby, as it would seem, at once both the nature of the gift and the manner in which God intended that it should be used in His service. Of this strange manifestation, the immediate result, we are told, was that they on whom these fiery symbols rested (the whole multitude of the disciples, it would seem, and not the apostles only) began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance; and that the multitude whom the report of this wonderful occurrence,—or perhaps, more probably, the sound of the rushing wind and its attendant commotion (for thus we ought probably to interpret the expression yevouevns S€ Ts povns TavTns in the original), had drawn together to BWISt WORK ATITAE BEGINNING. 89 the place—a multitude, in which we are given to understand that a great variety of nation- alities was represented,—heard with astonish- ment men whom they believed to be Galileans speaking to them, every one in his own native tongue, the wonderful works of God. Such are the terms of the narrative,—a narrative so conclusive and emphatic as to admit of no question, but that the disciples of Jesus received in that effusion of the Spirit a miraculous gift, which remained to the Church in greater or lesser degree during the Apostles’ days, and we may suppose, during the days of their immediate successors. But when we come to inquire in what it was precisely that this wonderful gift consisted, in what way it was exercised, in what manner it was operative, we encounter difficulties which, I am ready to admit, appear to me to be incapable of any thoroughly satisfactory solution. Whether, for example, this gift of tongues was bestowed on the disciples to be merely a szgz to those around them, or to qualify them to become go THE HOLY SPIRIT: missionaries in foreign lands, and among people of strange language. Whether, again, when we read that these strangers at Jerusalem from so many divers nations heard the disciples speak- ing to them, in their own tongues, the glorious truths of the Gospel, we are to understand that the disciples themselves were enabled miraculously to speak those different languages, or that while they spoke in their native Hebrew tongue only, they were miraculously under- stood by those around them as though they were using the dialects of those various coun- tries (in which case, as it has been well said, we might expect the symbol to have been ears, not tongues, and which would involve, as Gregory Nazianzen has pointed out, a prodi- gality of miracle, by so much as that hearers were more numerous than the speakers). Once more, whether these miraculous gifts, of what- ever kind, and in whatever degree, have re- mained in the Church, are to be looked for in our time—a question which has been raised in one form or another within the last half HIS WORK AT THE BEGINNING. QI century, but which in‘my judgment only admits of one reply, and that in the negative ;—these and other similar problems, suggested by this great subject, have given rise from age to age to controversies which, however interesting, were for the most part fruitless and unprofitable. Are we then to regard the mission of the Comforter as, after all, an event of only ephe- meral interest? Must we look on this out- pouring of the Spirit at Pentecost as designed merely to serve a special purpose just to inau- gurate in power the Christian economy? to impart benefits and gifts which had no per- manent value, and to which we have no claim, in which we have no interest? Most assuredly not, brethren. To adopt any such shortsighted theory would be to gainsay the glorious pre- dictions of the Old Testament; to ignore the gracious promises of the New; and to contra- dict—blessed be God—the experience of the true Church of Christ in every land and every age. There is a beautiful passage, which many of you I daresay remember, in one of our 92 LE BODY asi lineas greatest poets. He is speaking, it is true, on another theme, but I may use his metaphor to illustrate what I desire to convey. The words to which I refer are these :— “ And when the stream That overflowed the soul had passed away, The consciousness remained that it had left Deposited upon the silent shore Of memory, precious thoughts that cannot die, And may not be destroyed.” Now, just so: when the overflowing stream of Pentecostal glories had subsided and passed away, it left behind it that lasting endowment of spiritual blessings—that precious deposit, so to speak, of the gifts and graces of the Spirit ;—that assurance of His holy indwelling, that abiding manifestation of His presence and power which are the enduring heritage of the people of God to the end of time; and in which the humblest believer in Jesus may claim a portion for his own, until faith gives place to sight, and the earnest of grace has ripened into the full fruition of glory! HIS WORK AT THE BEGINNING. 93 Never, indeed, since that day of wonder, has the rushing mighty wind been heard career- ing, as it did then, in awful majesty; and yet not the less in our own time is it true, that as “the wind bloweth where it listeth,’ and while “we hear the sound thereof” we “ cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth, even Sonisecvery one that is born of the Spirit. ‘¢ 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.” INevei.wit is true; since that day have the flaming symbols, the tongues of fire, been seen again; and yet still, as of old, the fire of holy love may burn strong and quenchless within ; kindled and kept alive there by the Holy Ghost. Still may the lips be touched with the live coal from off the altar of God; still may the tongue set on fire of heaven speak burning words of truth and power to reach the heart and move the soul of man! 94. A TTIRATIOLL Y PLL If no longer we may claim as our own those gifts of healing, those powers to arrest disease, and to recover the death-stricken bodies of men, which God saw fit to confer on His Church in her early days; what of that? Brethren, is not the power that can heal the deadly plague of sin at work amongst us still? Is not the power of the Almighty Spirit who is “the Lord, and Giver of life;” who can quicken those that are spiritually dead, to be seen and felt amongst us, as it was of old? If, once more (to take another illustration,— and this seems to be the view of the matter adopted by our Church in that Special Pre- face for Whit-Sunday to which I have already alluded), together with the gift of tongues, that other gift of prophesying which the Church of Christ possessed in its infancy has also passed away ; there remains to us still, brethren, that gift which transcends all other gifts; that trust, the noblest that mortal man could have committed to him; that honour of which, above HIS WORK AT THE BEGINNING. 9 EE an ee ae EN Ae all else beside, the great Apostle himself was wont to glory—even the Ministry of the Word ; the Ambassadorship for Christ; the preaching of the gospel, “with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven.” That preaching in the Church of our own day is the ordinance which corresponds to the prophesying of apostolic times, I entertain no doubt. Its subject is the same, even Jesus, the Son of God; the crucified Saviour of the world. Its object is the same, even to set Him before men’s hearts and consciences, and by so doing to convince them “of sin, of righteousness, and of judg- ment ;” and, if it be faithful, it will have the Same power, even the power of the Spirit, so that it will be felt to be of a truth “the gospel preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” And the importance of being established in this great truth, my brethren, is doubly great at a time when so many are deluded by the doctrine so successfully taught by men who are doing the work of Rome among ourselves, 96 LB PT MOV ENE MSO Rea Ae —that “the sacraments and not preaching” are the source of Divine grace and life to the soul. At a time when many seem disposed to think, like the Corinthians of old, that speaking with tongues would be a surer proof of God’s presence than all the preaching of faith and love; at at a time when many are disposed to attach more importance to gestures and postures, to crossings and genuflexions, to copes and vest- ments, to sights and sounds, than to the doc- trine of truth and the practice of love; when thousands are ready to believe that the power of the Spirit lies rather in outward acts and outward symbols than in the inner life; for- getting that it was assuredly in men’s hearts and minds God sent down His Holy Spirit to dwell, and that it is in the gifts and graces of the heart that the influences of the Spirit are especially manifested ;—at such a _ time it behoves us to be, in a_ special degree, mindful of that in which alone our true power consists ; to remember that the doctrine of Christ crucified (however men may cavil HilS WORK AT THE BEGINNING. 97 at us for teaching it, as “disciples of the old school”; as advocates of what is old- fashioned and obsolete) was the power of God to men in the apostles’ days, and is the same still. That as it is by taking the things of Christ (our Blessed Master tells us) and revealing them in the soul, that the Holy Spirit operates on the minds and hearts of men, so it is our wisdom to take those self- same things of Christ and to make them the great theme of our teaching; the great weapon of our warfare; assured that if we would win souls to Christ, gain trophies for eternity, cause joy in heaven, and give glory to God, it can be accomplished only in His own appointed way; even that which He has ordained from the beginning—“the gospel preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” And this I would seek to impress with especial earnestness on those amongst you this morning—I believe they are not a few— who within a very short period, possibly in a Z 98 TACT OR YAS? [ft hi few days, will have left this University to enter upon the active duties of the ministry, and to take your place as standard-bearers of our Church in this her time of need and sore perplexity, and to help to build up the walls in troublous times. Advantages such as may rarely be had elsewhere you have here enjoyed, I know, and you have, I trust improved them with diligence. Counsels, eminent for practical wisdom, you have, I know, been privileged to listen to, and you are resolved now, I hope and believe, with God’s help, to act upon them, in going forth to that blessed work to which you have devoted yourselves. Nevertheless, it will not, brethren, be thought superfluous—it will not be deemed out of place on my part, if I say a few parting words to you to-day before I leave this pulpit. We leave this house of God, never again, it may be, to meet together within its precincts any more! Bear with me then, my younger brethren, if I speak to you as one not yet too far your senior in years to be able to _——oo - HIS WORK AT THE. BEGINNING. 99 sympathise with your feelings, and yet suff- ciently long engaged as a workman in the Lord’s vineyard to enable me to speak from experience ; to warrant me in saying, “I speak that I do know, and testify that I have seen.” If ever there was a time in the history of our Church when the exercise of His ministry seemed at once to entail trial and yet to confer honour, that time is the present; that crisis is the one through which we are now passing. I believe it is just because God cares for us and means to bless us that He has suffered us to be put into this furnace, that the gold of our faith, purified thereby, might shine brighter than ever. I am persuaded that it is just because He has destined for us a land of rest by-and-bye that he has taken us into the wilderness, there to learn to love Him with a purer love; to trust in Him with a more implicit confidence. The issue cannot be long doubtful, if only we stand—-not in armour of man’s devising, but in the panoply of God; if only we are mindful to contend, 100 Litt ty LOLA GSP irre not for self, not for Church systems, but for Christ and His truth; if we are careful to lean, not on an arm of flesh, but on the might of the living God. yy (Soe cae o = _ Vv a = ; 4 Ut a aes | Set a bo Hs z + ee 50) 1 Ne ia © Now if any man have not the Spirit of Chri: iy - His.” —ROMANS viii. 9. tue. i Ne ALS WORK AL PRESENT. N resuming my office, I shall proceed in the two concluding lectures of this series, to deal with that part of my subject which I cannot help regarding as, in many respects, the most interesting and important. The doc- trine of the Holy Spirit as it is set forth in the Scriptures and received by the Church of God from the earliest times, I have endea- voured, however imperfectly, to present to you in outline in the preceding Lectures,—rather, be it remembered, in the way of reproducing and re-stating “things old,” than as affecting to discover and bring forth “ things new” out of the great treasure-house of Divine truth. In pursuing this inquiry we were conducted, you may remember, to the following conclu- 104 IM BON GAOT ES EAST ED Gat Hp sions, viz, That the Holy Ghost is to be recognised as a separate Personal Existence (as distinct from a mere influence or afflatus of the Deity); that He is to be regarded, moreover, as a Person in the Godhead—Azm- self very God (as distinguished from all created beings) ; that between the great mission which the Son of God came to accomplish and that gracious office which the Spirit of God was given to fulfil, there subsists, in the order and counsels of God, a relation necessary and re- ciprocal; that the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost marks the same epoch in the manifestation of the Third Person of the Trinity that the Incarnation does in that of the Second; and finally, that just as the coming of God in the flesh, ushered in as it was by a galaxy of miracles (itself the brightest of all the train), was designed, after the first glory had passed away, to shed upon man that steady light of Gospel grace which we now enjoy; even so that the coming of God in the Spirit, after that first great tide of Pente- pwmrOn ik VAL PRESTINT. TO§ costal wonders had subsided, was designed to set flowing, and has caused to flow, that river of living water which shall make glad the city of God for all time; yea, which the Lord Himself hath promised shall be, in every true ‘believer, “a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.” Assuming, therefore, that the promise of the Father was not fulfilled zz zts integrity by the effusion of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost ; assuming also that by the promised presence and agency of the Comforter are to be under- stood operations more abiding and blessings more diffusive than the miraculous endowments of Apostolic times, we proceed to consider the precise nature of those benefits which the Church of Christ may justly anticipate from the Divine Spirit’s advent, by what means those blessings are administered, and by what dispensation of mercy and power the Spirit of God has evinced, and still continues to evince, His presence and agency amongst men. In proceeding to deal with this part of the 106 UTES CH oh TI Ls, subject, we at once encounter difficulties, which wise and good men in every age have felt and overcome. We are confronted with questions by which the minds of men have been agitated from the very first. We are brought face to face with controversies by which the professing Church of Christ has been convulsed, even in our own time. For example: the inspiration of Holy Scrip- ture,—its extent, kind, and evidence; regener- ation,—its nature and relation to baptism; Christian ordinances,—their value and efficacy ; the Church,—its essential being and rightful function; these and other like questions— questions of the deepest interest and of vital importance—stand related to that great subject which is the proper field of our inquiry, as the branches do to the parent stem, or as the tributaries do to the main stream into which they flow, themselves, possibly, in some in- stances (like the mighty confluents of some giant river of the New World), as vast as that to which they are tributary, and demanding, it HISTWORK AT PRESENT. 107 may be, as much time and toil adequately to investigate and explore. But into these fascinating regions of specula- tion and controversy (however tempting the by-path may be) it is not my intention just now to diverge. I shall have occasion, pro- bably, as I proceed, to give to more than one of these subjects at least a passing notice. But the question with which we are now more immediately concerned is, obviously, quite distinguishable from those other kindred questions to which I have referred. For, assuming,—as I have already shown we may fairly do,—that the promise of the Holy Spirit included the bestowal of Jdlessings, which (like the precious ointment on Aaron’s head, that ran down to the very skirts of his clothing) should descend to His Church even to the end of time; benefits to which we also, on whom the ends of the world have come, may joyfully assert our claim: assuming this to be so, it remains. for us to inquire, For what special purposes, with what known results, 108 LPO OLEV SPILL, does the Holy Spirit dispense these, His ordinary gifts, and deal with the souls of men from age to age? In the judgment of some the answer to this question is easy. They assure us that in the sacraments of the Gospel, and in a ministry which derives its authority from the Apostles themselves in an unbroken line of succession, (that pleasing figment of sacerdotal vissionaries!) we have the alabaster box, as it were, in which the precious oil of Divine grace has been chiefly, if not altogether, deposited, and in which it is preserved to the Church by her absent Lord’s decree. Others maintain that it is anj@hgs secret influences; in those holy desires and heavenly promptings within the soul, which we are taught to ascribe to the Holy Spirit, we are to discover the presence and recognise the power of the Holy Ghost; while others again assert that in the bestowal and preser- vation of the canon of Scripture we possess chiefly, if not exclusively, the promised gift; for, says a celebrated divine of the last cen- iim Chie AL ePKRISENT: 109 tury, “ His” (that is the Holy Spirit’s) “constant abode and supreme illumination is in the sacred Scriptures of the New Testament, which were given by inspiration of God; and thus,” he says, “the prophetic promise of our Blessed Master, that the Comforter should abide with us for ever, was eminently fulfilled.” To the same effect is the statement of another well- known writer, who propounds the theory that “The fountain (indeed) was opened in the Apostles, but the streams of those rivers of living water have run down to our age pre- served pure and unmixed in that sacred doc- 3 trine contained in Holy Scripture;” and yet may we not reply, “those rivers of living water,” according to the Lord’s promise, were not to flow down to believers, but to spring out of them, that is, out of the heart; corre- sponding far better, surely, to the fruits of the spirit (flowing out of the heart and manifested in the life) than the gift of tongues and the miraculous powers of the Apostolic age? Such are some of the theories by which it 110 Tile OLY. WS fiir i. has been sought to explain and define the manner of the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in the Church; and in each case, I am free to admit, not without some show of reason, and some measure of truth. But while I am _ ready to allow that the Divinely instituted ordinances of the gospel are, when duly and rightly availed of, not only outward signs and symbols of heavenly grace, but also channels through which, to the believer’s soul, that grace doth flow, and from which it is derived; while I am willing to concede that (as our Church teaches when she instructs us to pray that He “to whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid,’ would “cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit’), we may and must believe that the Holy Ghost operates when He pleases directly and secretly upon the thoughts and feelings of men; while, above all, I am _pre- pared to acknowledge that the Holy Scripture —the Word of Godc—is the instrument by two nk AbePRESENT: III which the Divine Spirit in great measure, if not for the most part, influences the mind, and accomplishes His purposes in the soul, in re- generation, because it is written, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorrupti- ble, by the word of God,” in sanctification, for it was the prayer of the Son of God, “ Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy word is truth; ” as the Comforter, for “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Bb) Scriptures, might have hope;” yet beyond question, were we to restrict to any one of these the Holy Spirit’s agency and influences, we would fail miserably to grasp the fulness of the promised blessing, and to realize the great object of the Spirit’s (Paraclete’s) advent and presence among men. For, am I to be told that any reception of sacraments or any use of ordinances, no matter how duly received, no matter how frequently resorted to, can interpret the promise of the Saviour concerning the Comforter, “He dwelleth with you and 112 itd OPEL OLR RSL Tie lae shall be in you”? Am le Hhotiesie) AMAL Aba ee Fe sehtearh abe itd iy ib qa tis eHeM ede RAR Gi sieht He P ENS eR Hy egy } Be Ht a LF Vots n(lyibey Wetietent a ihes Kelirmedlchsmeh baci Hibajitte tishhy # tet dy WoW aries obebe hey MMH Hite dine hit HEHE EVR Siete ne linient hr MME Pei) bidtede ty th die Aire oe OM bg y ‘ t SH ebedbe § Aeiisdich- tele. Ui aslistionee) PHENERM ee He He | rp Pee hriedebihistialisibvie ned. LBA Mad HEA caedie et poate deehe fiedst(! f FeO N EA Ne WWM Wetie be SOB UME ELAR eee Mtg siLedts fiw ma atblis phy «