YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY SERMONS PREACHED IN RUGBY SCHOOL CHAPEL. SERMONS PREACHED IN RUGBY SCHOOL CHAPEL. BY HENRY H A Y M A N, D. D., EX-HEADMASTER OF RUGBY SCHOOL; LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHN*S COLLEGE, OXFORD ; RECTOR OF ST. CUTHBERT's, ALDINGHAM, N. W, LANCASHIRE. Henry S. King & Co., 65 CORNHILL, AND 12 PATERNOSTER Row, LONDON. I875- YALE Mw/2. Wn All rights reservca. TO %ht Chairman of ilu gjanmatt 'HtotiiMmial Committet, The Right Hon. Lord Chelmsford. 'Che "Sia-GIhainiutt, The Right Hon. and Right Rev. The Lord Bishop of London. The Right Rev. The Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The Right Rev. The Lord Bishop of Rochester. %\kz %xt,narxxttB, Lieut. -Col. Forbes Macbean ; S. R. Townshend Mayer, Esq. %)xt (Sictetam*, Rev. Canon Collis, D.D. ;'Rev. E. J. Rhoades, M.A. \nd to others, Members of either of the Committees of friends whose sense of justice led them to stand by him under severe trials, the present volume, with every expression of grateful remembrance, is inscribed by THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. SERMON I. PAGE THE CALL FOR CHARITY IN DAILY LIFE, s . ¦ . I SERMON II. DOGMATIC TRUTH OUR HERITAGE, . . 8 SERMON III. FAITH AS ACTING ON WORSHIP, ;. , . 16 SERMON IV. ADVENT WARNINGS AND ENCOURAGEMENTS, . . 22 Preached on the First Sunday in Advent. SERMON V. LOYALTY AN ELEMENT OF NATIONAL RELIGION, . 29 Preached during the illness of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in December 1871. SERMON VI. AN UNPOPULAR TRUTH, . . . . 36 SERMON VII. KNOWLEDGE SECONDARY TO CHARITY, . . 44 vi Contents. SERMON VIII. PAGE PENITENCE GOD'S GIFT, 50 Preached on Ash Wednesday. SERMON IX. THE SPIRIT INDWELLING, , . . . .56 Preached before a Confirmation. SERMON X. THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH BOTH INWARD REALITIES, 63 Preached on Whitsunday. SERMON XI. GOD CLAIMS OUR AFFECTIONS, . . . 71 SERMON XII. THE END OF OUR PROBATION, . . 77 SERMON XIII. THE STERNER ASPECT OF THE DIVINE CHARACTER, 84 SERMON XIV. CHILDREN A STUDY FOR THEIR ELDERS, SERMON XV. THE WORLD OF SCHOOL, 9i 99 SERMON XVI. THE WITNESS AND MINISTRY OF ANGELS, . . 106 Preached on the Festival of St Michael and all Angels. SERMON XVII. ON THE CONSECRATION OF THE SCHOOL CHAPEL, 112 Contents. vii SERMON XVIII. PAGE THE EXTERNALS OF DEVOTION, . . ng SERMON XIX. CIRCUMSTANCES TRY FAITH, . . 127 SERMON XX. EVIL SUPERFICIALLY ATTRACTIVE, . . .134 SERMON XXI. HOME FEELINGS IN SCHOOL LIFE, . . .139 Preached the first day of Term. SERMON XXII. CHRIST WITHOUT AND WITHIN US, . . 145 Preached on the Festival of St Paul. SERMON XXIII. OUR MEMBERSHIP ONE OF ANOTHER, . .?• 1 52 Preached on Septuagesima Sunday. SERMON XXIV. GOD AND SIN, . . . . . .152 Preached on Sexageshna Sunday. SERMON XXV. THE CONSCIENCE OF A CHRISTIAN, t. . . 165 Preached on Quinquagesima Sunday. SERMON XXVI. ON DEVOTIONAL STANDARDS TRANSCENDING OUR ACTUAL FEELINGS, . .1 . . . 17 1 Preached on Ash Wednesday. viii Contents. SERMON XXVII. PAGE USE AND ABUSE OF SCRIPTURE, ... 179 Preached on the First Sunday in Lent. SERMON XXVIII. TRUTH SUNDERING, „ . * . . 1 87 Preached on the Second Sunday in Lent. SERMON XXIX. OUR PERSONAL SIN, ..... 193 Preached on the Third Sunday in Lent. SERMON XXX. THE HARDENING INFLUENCE OF SIN, . . 1 99 Preached on the Fourth Sunday in Lent. SERMON XXXI* CHRIST'S DIVINE ROYALTY, . . . . . 206 Preached oti the Sunday next before' Easter. SERMON XXXII. THE LESSONS OF THE CROSS, .... 214 Preached on Good Friday. SERMON XXXIII* ENDURING CHARACTER OF EASTER JOY, . . 222 Preached on Easter Day. * These Sermons were actually delivered on the corresponding days of some previous year. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY INDWELLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. THERE will, perhaps, be little to notice in the doctrinal views advanced in these sermons, unless it be a certain prominence given to the assertion of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Christian. It is not often profitable for a preacher to develop proof of doctrine in the form of a string of citations, especially before a young congregation. -Citations must be given in the authorized version, the phrases of which are very often so remote from current idiomatic English as to be obscure. I will, however, make some attempt here to do that which in these Sermons has been forborne. If we are asked for the one greatest present privilege which differentiates Christian from non-Christian, we cannot hesitate, I think, to reply, the indwelling of the Spirit of God in the spirit of man. It is the highest result of Christianity in the individual soul and in the collective body of believers. The Bible b Introductory Essay. and the Church are its abiding expressions ; the one complete, the other self-perpetuating ; the one docu mentary, the other institutional ; the one the outcome of the gift in a few souls specially selected and highly qualified for the common benefit of all, the other the outcome of the Spirit of God in human history, a re sult for ever progressive and accumulating further results. Neither of these are exempt from somewhat of the frailty of humanity. The Church more espe cially, as " gathering of every kind," is largely tinged by it. "The earthen vessel" is inadequate to the custody, right use and due propagation of the treasure which it contains ; but it is none the less by divine appointment its recipient and custodian. And this is true of the ordinary private Christian, in his degree, as it is of those who have the widest sphere and weightiest charge of oversight and teaching com mitted to them. This gift, in the Christian experience of it, results from our personal union with Christ, as being "very members incorporate " of Him. The Bible, in its Old Testament portion, ran before this gift, and was the result of the Spirit in its aspect of Wisdom, specially issued to prepare the way for its general diffusion. In its New Testament portion, it was the result of the same Spirit, when that diffusion, to which earlier in spiration tended, had begun to accompany it, and when the gift of inspiration was only one among many present " diversities of " its " operations." Introductory Essay. xi That indwelling was foretold and expected by pro phecy as the characteristic of the New Dispensation. In this view indeed prophecy reaches its highest level. All its horoscope of future glory for Israel, restored and spiritualized as God's world-wide people, is flooded and saturated with this idea. A grace is in store for them which shall reach heart-deep ; not merely qualifying for rare missions or exceptional enterprises, like those of Elijah or Jeremiah ; but which shall penetrate and pervade the spirit-depths of ordinary human -nature — shall be, not like the "cake baken on the coals,'' the viaticum of super human effort, but like the manna falling all around for every day's supply of " angels' food " to man, and shall lift up all who will receive it into the estate of " kings and priests " to God. Such is the burden of the pro phetic utterances of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Each soul-unit is to be brought into direct, full and close personal relation with God Himself, and this relation is to go on deepening in each and extending into others, by an effusion which began on the day of Pentecost, and continues everflowirig and inex haustible. Now this, the most powerful factor in, Christianity, and in Apostolic times its most broadly marked feature, is by most of our fellow-Christians dropped silently out of their system. Many take a strong per sonal hold of their duties, of what God " would have them to do," while of "what great things God has xii Introductory Essay. done for them," of what He has made them to be, they have the most shadowy and vague notion. They simply cannot realise the fact to themselves. It may be true of the Church, or of eminent saints, they think, but they have no notion of its application to ordinary Christians. This dwarfs the whole standard of their growth in grace. A low ideal, taken perhaps from the Old Testament, certainly a reflex of Judaism, and inadequate to their, position in Christ, keeps down these otherwise commendable persons. Their spiritual life is poverty-stricken by that low ideal which they have taken up, and generous euthusiasm, on His behalf, who has " done " so " exceeding abundantly," is not in them. So it is, I fear, with thousands of prayerful persons, regular communicants, of blameless and wholesome example in general society as regards life's outward duties. They " walk in the fear of the Lord," but not " in the consolation of the Holy Ghost,"1 and the things which God "hath prepared" — not " will prepare," but " hath prepared " — " for him that waiteth for Him,"2 find scant receptiveness in ¦ them. This character of the last Dispensation, the diffusion and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is foretold with much graphic clearness and impressive unction by several successive prophets. Water or oil not un commonly symbolizes it. Thus, Isaiah in xliii. 19-21, proclaims " waters in the wilderness and rivers in the 1 Acts ix. 31. 3 Is. lxiv. 4 ; 1 Cor. ii. 9. Introductory Essay. xiii desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen." He declares it as " a new thing ;" and adds, " this people I have formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise." Again in xliv. 3, " I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground " — the parallel member conveying the thought stripped of its figure—" I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring ; and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willcws by the water courses." Here the Spirit appears with water as its symbol, and regenerative power as its result. Sometimes a covenant is formally announced, having for its features the Spirit and the words of Jehovah. "My Spirit that is upon thee, and -my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed." Here we have a continuous stream of oral teaching from a Divine source perpetuating itself in successive generations, a very close figure of the catechetical in struction given in the early Church, or possibly the perpetual confession of a form of words — the creed in effect — for this one implies the other — and the Spirit attending, or rather leading, throughout the course. Even more precise is Ezekiel, xxxvi. 25-7, " Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean : from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ; and I xiv Introductory Essay. will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and ' I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk," &c. Here we find water applied to the person externally, as in baptism, associated, as there, with " My Spirit " placed "within you." The other phrases which accompany are expressive of the " renewal " and " conversion " of which the Holy Ghost is the agent within the man. In another earlier similar passage, xi. 19, the prophet has a slight yet significant varia tion — " I will1 give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, and I will take away," &c. And similarly Jeremiah speaks in xxxii. 39, " I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and of their children after them." Here we recognise the ideal unity of the Christian Church, now for so many centuries lost in fact, but which St Paul proclaimed to the Ephesians iv. 4-6. " There is one Body and one Spirit," &c. Oil is so constant a symbol of spiritual energy, that we cannot fail in interpreting Zechariah's vision of the golden candlestick between the two olive trees, iv. 2, 3, and 11-14, as symbolizing that energy, especially as contrasted with world-power and warlike force in ver. 6, " Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."- The spiritual life of the Church of God under the new Dispensation, her ideal unity and her Catholic completeness in all her Introductory Essay. xv members seem imaged in the great light of the sanc tuary kindled and burning with living oil, in its top most central "bowl," and in its seven lamps dis tributed about it. The duality of the olive trees, whose life sap is the oil which feeds them,1 may per haps signify the co-ordination of the Old and New Testaments, as parallel sources of life and truth. . 'Or again, as " the law and the prophets " fed the olden Church with living oil, so do apostles and evangelists feed the new, and all alike are but embodiments of the spirit-life which in the Word of God flows to feed and illuminate the Church. The same prophet speaks of an outpouring of the " Spirit of grace and supplications," of " a fountain opened to the House of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness," xii.- 10, xiii. I, probably typifying "one baptism for the remission of sins " by the agency of the Holy Spirit. In Joel ii. 28 following, we have the remarkable prophecy which St. Peter, speaking on the Day of 1 On carefully comparing the Hebrew and LXX. of verse 12, I incline to think that there is some deep seated corruption of the text, which will always embarrass the detail of the interpretation here. But the duality of the trees seems to be the ground of the double arrangement of main ducts (two) and service-pipes (seven and seven), in verses 12 and 2. The connection of this vision with that of Rev. xi. 4, is a further curious question, as the duality there extends to the ' ' candlesticks. " This alone would prevent our identifying the symbolization in Rev. with that of Zech. , and compel us to regard some other relation than that of identity — some further development of Zechariah's vision, perhaps — as stated in the words, " these are the two olive trees and the two candle sticks," Rev. xi. 4. xvi Introductory Essay. Pentecost, claims as then fulfilled. His words, "In the last days," fix the more general phrase of the prophet, " It shall come to pass afterwards," to a definite epoch, that of then present time. To pass on to the New Testament, John the 'Baptist drew the characteristic distinction betweeri his baptism " with water " merely, and that of the Unknown, whom he proclaimed as then " standing among '' his hearers, in that the latter should " baptize with the Holy Ghost." The former baptism was significant only, and water its sole element ; the latter effectual also, as the vehicle of the Holy Spirit's operation. But the same Baptist elsewhere speaks of the same higher baptism as being "with the Holy Ghost and with fire," pointing plainly to the Pentecostal effusion and its accompanying sign. And although this effusion was not included in but subsequent to the Lord's personal ministry, that ministry in its post-resurrection scenes (Act i. 4, 5, 8) looks forward to it, and in the persona' afflatus given in. John xx. 22, 23, seems, for the pur pose of the ministry of absolution, to anticipate it in sign. We cannot tell whether the effect was sus pended until that general effusion was accomplished — not, it should be noticed, upon the Apostles only, but upon all the " hundred and twenty,"1 given as the approximate number of the expectant members of the infant church. 1 SoAugustin, Serm. cclxviii. indi. Pentecost, ii. (i.), Linguis omnium gentium locuti sunt omnes. Erant autem in uno loco centum viginti &c. Introductory Essay. xvii As we trace the course of the history of the, Apos tolic Church in the book of the Acts, the Holy Ghos.t is every where the prime agent, working unseen or by a visible ministry, and reserving His own times of intervention and immediate personal action. He it is that impels the Church on her course, as He first equipped her with power. He inaugurates her new missions. He chooses, com missions, and directs His agents. He interposes counsel and warning for their guidance, and their decree runs in His name, as though presiding invisibly in her council.1 They speak "as the Spirit gave them utterance." Compare the Lord's own words, " I will give you a mouth and wisdom." " It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." (Luke xxi. 1 5, Matt. x. 20.) Accordingly we read of them as being full of, or " filled with " the Holy Ghost. A sudden concentration of spiritual power in an apostle upon some emergency seems thus denoted in Acts iv. 8, extending itself afterward to the whole assembly present (verse 31) with an outward sign resembling an earthquake. Now we should mistake the import of such phenomena if we looked on them generally as detached effects of some access of power super vening from without. They are perhaps in some cases this ; for the Holy Spirit, even though 1 See Acts i. 8, ii. 4, 33, x. 19, 20, xi. 12, xiii. 2, xv. 28, xvi. 6, 7, xx. 23- xviii Introductory Essay. filling the Church, retains His independent personal agency. But they are mostly the outward escape of that with which the whole body is charged, the out break from that fulness with which the Lord has re plenished His chosen vessels, the overflow from a full cup when shaken in the hand. Or they are the well ing over of the bountiful supply from vessel to vessel so that each successively presented is filled, or in the course of filling,1 as by the precious oil of Elisha's gift.2 St Peter accordingly promises the gift of the Holy Ghost to all on the Day of Pentecost who would repent and be baptized, " For," he adds, " the promise," this promise, that " of the Father," heard of most lately from the Son, but earlier far in those preludes of spirit-blessing one of which he had just cited from Joel — " is unto you and to your children," and to all that are afar off, even " as many as the Lord our God shall call " (ii. 38-9). These words certainly cover the inclusion of the Gentiles, although unrecognised in their full width by the speaker at the time, and only sub sequently interpreted to him by the fact of the unlooked for and spontaneous effusion of the Spirit upon Cornelius and his company, which formed as it were the Pentecost of the Gentile Church. But the apostle at any rate is sure that repentance and 1 2 Kings iv. 1-6. 1 So Acts xiii. 52, of St. Paul's converts in the Pisidian Antioch, where the imperfect tense is used . Introductory Essay. xix baptism will entitle every believer of Israel to share the gift. He sees in it the verification of the promise of the outpouring of the " Spirit upon all flesh," although for the full width of the prophetic meaning he is still unprepared. He knows that it is a gift free to all his brethren, " unto them and their children," " their sons and their daughters." He had seen all who had believed receiving it, not only the eleven, on whom the first afflatus fell in earnest of their apostolate from the lips of the Lord, but Matthias also, their new comrade, and Barsabas his almost colleague, and the Blessed Mother, whose Son had now ascended to God's right hand, and the other faithful women, and the whole company of that upper chamber. And having seen this, he promised the same fulfilment upon all his brethren of the House of Israel on the same terms,1 the laying on of hands being probably from the first the ordinary sign and vehicle of it. But the instances of immediate and independent action by the Holy Spirit after the first are rare. It seems to have been reserved for the apostles to convey ordinarily that of which all partook. Thus, Samaria having received the Word of God, two apostles are detached to 1 Cf. " The Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey Him," i.e., that obey Jesus Christ, toTs Trei6apxovcrii> o.vt$ (verse 32). The force of the word TreiSapxovcriv is greater than that of ¦neiBop.lvms, and points back to the declaration of v. 31, tovtov 6 Qebs dpxyybv Kal rroiTjjpa {i\paae k.t.X. the irc&apxoCvTes are those who receive Him as the ipxyyis. xx Introductory Essay. convey full Christian privilege to them, " for as yet He (the Holy Ghost) was fallen upon none of them ; they had only the status of baptized persons.1 " But as such were, from St Peter's words in ii. 33, clearly entitled to the gift, and incomplete without it, it is conveyed by a special mission. Finding certain converts at Ephesus whom he supposed to have received Christian baptism (xix. 2), St Paul enquires if they had received the Holy Ghost, and being answered that they had " not so much as heard " of Him, finds on further enquiry that they had only received the pre paratory "baptism of John." They then received "baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus." The facts show that " the Holy Ghost " was part of the baptismal formula, retained from the words of Insti tution (Matt, xxviii. 19), and that the more com pendious form, "in the name of the Lord Jesus," includes the other holy names also. Having received Christian baptism, they further received imposition of hands by St Paul, conveying the gift of the Holy Ghost, of which they speedily showed such signs as then commonly followed. Now the proof here seems the more complete because incidental, that the communion of the Holy Ghost is part of the heritage of every Chris tian — that, whether given in or after baptism, or in and after, but in different degrees, or, 1 PtpairTtcr/ie'm biri)pxoi>, Acts viii. 16, a remarkable phrase. Introductory Essay. xxi as in one remarkable instance, before baptism, it forms the prominent characteristic of the new dispen sation, as it was foretold to be, and in the book of the Acts this prominence is absolute. There is there nothing else which can be set in the same rank with it. The forgiveness of sins following baptism, which comes nearest to it, partakes rather of the nature of an amnesty for the past ; the belief in the resurrec tion lifted man's present by the fulcrum of the future, but the gift of the Holy Spirit was a great and tangible privilege at the moment, which, so to speak, magnetized humanity. In the Pauline epistles the personal union of the member with the Head appears side by side with this, but does not displace it The two, indeed, entwine their relations in a manner which makes it hard to analyse them. Of that union, how ever, we have no positive development in the historical record of the Acts. I proceed to trace the indwelling of the Spirit as presented in those epistles. It is the thing given to individuals, not a mere general privilege of the Body to which they were admitted, which they might or might not take up. This is shown by I Cor. xii. 13, "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body . . . . . and have all imbibed (A. V. 'been made to drink into ') one Spirit." The apostle had just before been stating the fact of the unity of the" Body of Christ and our individual membership of it. He then states the ground of the fact as above. The whole xxii Introductory Essay. might be paraphrased—" Our relation to Christ is that of members to the body. How then do we arrive at it ? By being all by one Spirit baptized into that body, and having all imbibed a draught of that one Spirit." The agency of that Spirit in baptism is here that by which our incorporation is effected. To carry up his thought to its starting point, he is going to instruct them concerning spiritual relations1 generally. He takes their old state as his point of departure in verse 2 — " Ye know that ye were Gentiles ; " and the "dumb idols," after which they wandered at random, as the senses, passion, or superstition " led them," are contrasted with the Spirit "giving utter ance" and prompting confession of Christ's name. For (verse 3) " no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed." ,The words to us seem rather a harsh and repulsive truism. Perhaps Jewish in fluence, of which we have many traces in the Church at Corinth, might have led to the formal curse, recorded against " every one that hangeth on a tree," being actually there applied to our Lord.2 Gentile fastidiousness, unless so kindled, would merely deem trie preaching of the cross " foolishness." In the later 1 irepl Si tu>v irvtvp.aTi.Kuii k.t.X., "Now concerning spiritual gifts" A.V., where the word "gifts" seems rather unduly to narrow the scope of his argument. 2 See Acts xviii., especially v. 6, from which we learn that the Jews of the Corinthian synagogue "opposed themselves and blasphemed." So St. Paul himself says, "he compelled them to blaspheme" (Acts xxvi. 1 1) ; but this again is Jewish agency. Introductory Essay. xxiii 1 ! history of heathen persecution, Christians were, we know, called upon to blaspheme their Lord, but it would be premature here to refer to this. Again, "no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost." We must remember that the danger then lay not on the side of insincere confession, but on, that of suppressing convictions and stifling avowals of a truth which was pervading heart and mind. The Spirit, as it were, explodes these restraints and sweeps away the impediments, to confession, making the new convert exclaim with Balaam, " How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed ? . . . I have received commandment to i bless, and I cannot reverse it.1 He speaks by the Spirit of God and "calls Jesus Lord." Instead of a truism, taking these circumstances into account, we find here an axiom. Wishing to trace spiritual relations by the line of their own experience, St. Paul begins at their profession of faith. He sets that primary fact down as the Holy Spirit's work. So he reminds the Galatians they had " begun in the Spirit."2 But to return to his argument in i Cor. xii., having established this basis, he shows how put of the same agency all the manifestations of .the Spirit grew. That confession is one in all, " all " should " speak the same thing " (i Cor. i. 10) ; and therefore the prompt ing spirit is one, not manifold. He is the same in all 1 Numb, xxiii. 8 and 20. a Gal. iii. 3. xxiv Introductory Essay. forms of His working. — underlying them all; and that all ' must therefore be in harmony, not in rivalry, seems implied. His outward expression takes the form of a gift or power. It is invested in this or that person, but it serves the corporate uses of the body, as the faculty of vision guides not the eye only but all movements of every member.1 Unity of source, harmonized diversity of detail, organized mutual dependance and common interest are the points touched. But the axiom "there is in you the Holy Spirit, or you could not confess to Christ " is the fundamental truth which every convert's conscience witnessed and on which the whole argument depends. Elsewhere we learn (Rom. x. 10) that "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation," and we may infer that the deeper quickening agency of the Spirit relates to individual salvation, that the more superficial and demonstrative gifts were rather for the public edifica tion of the Church or the conviction of the unbeliever. But this distinction Is not here drawn. What is insisted on is, notwithstanding the multitude of members, notwithstanding the variety of gifts, the Spirit is one. St. Paul drew this part of his theology of the Holy Spirit from the living subject — the concrete Christian in whom He was found to dwell. The theses of his teaching were drawn from actual experience, as a man " made to drink into " that one Spirit,1 having its * I Cor. xii. II and 14-20. Introductory Essay. xxv gifts largely himself, and having been the means of their extension to others. He observed the facts of the spirit life which he recorded. Its feelings, now buried deep within us beyond reach of ready contact, seem in his time to have been vivid and salient, with their nerves of sensation, as it were, at the surface. Hence he assumes as a patent fact what modern minds, dulled and drugged by a sceptical and critical atmosphere, seem to demand to have proved. The presence of the Spirit everywhere in the Church was with him a primary fact unquestionable by any one of its members. He knew well that the " fruit of the Spirit " 1 as influencing the character might not be everywhere traceable ; but he no more doubted its vital energy, than we . doubt that every tree in an orchard has the principle of reproduction, although in some cases there may be no fruit ripened or even formed. Our tendency is to take the negative as true till we see the affirmative realized ; to withhold belief from the Spirit as indwelling until we see the proofs of His working. In short, we make the barren or stunted tree our typical specimen, and regard the Holy Spirit's presence as precarious, if not excep-, tional, in consequence. *¦- Some passages in the Acts already referred to speak as though baptism ordinarily rather entitled to the gift of the Holy Ghost than .actually conferred it. But the case of the Ethiopian eunuch was that of one ) I Cor. xii. 13. s Gal. v. 22. C xx vi Introductory Essay. who received baptism merely, after which " he went on his way rejoicing,"1 as though with a full share of every needful gift. In St Paul's own case, moreover, baptism seems to have been at once accompanied by the gift, which was without delay put forth in his preaching at Damascus (ix. 17-22). In the case of Cornelius and his company the gift preceded baptism (x. 44-48). A free personal agency on the part of the Divine Spirit, as well as an ordinary ministerial bestowal is inferred from this. But as " baptism with the Holy Ghost " was the distinctive feature of Christianity, so St Paul, in his epistles, treats baptism as ordinarily conveying, at any rate, a measure of that gift Thus, in Tit. iii. 5, 6, we read, " He saved us by the washing of re generation and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly." The notice occurs incidentally, as do so many of St Paul's deeper utterances. Titus was more over a pure Gentile, whose circumcision St Paul had therefore resisted. He now reminds him, as he did the Corinthians, of that earlier state from which God had rescued him, and goes on to say how the rescue was effected — "not by means of works tending to justify" — a glance, perhaps, at that com pliance with the Jewish law which, as represented in circumcision, he had opposed, but " of his own mercy, by means of that laver, and the renovating agency of that Spirit, so abundantly shed forth," confirming the 1 Acts viii. 39. ' Introductory Essay. xxvii promise of " a new heart and a new Spirit," given by the prophets of old, and all this God did " through Jesus Christ our Saviour." A fire kindled once is often stirred, and thus the gift once imparted, may often, in many important effects, be " renewed," or may " renew " the recipient. But I doubt we have any faculties by which to analyse the process. The Spirit may vouchsafe to do all things needful for our higher nature, but why should He submit His divine energies to our speculative faculty ? But St Paul adds that God " shed on us abun dantly that Holy Ghost." Copiousness is the characteristic of divine gifts. He who , turned the whole purifying lavatory of water into wine at Cana (John ii. i-ii), still "giveth to - all men liberally, and upbraideth not." A generous, or somewhat more than a liberal spirit, seems denoted. He does not reproach us, save by the silent contrast of His bounty, with our feeble use of,, and scanty return for, His gifts. He " does exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or. think." If man aims at being, and learns to be, merciful and bountiful, how much more shall He be so, who is the inexhaustible foun tain and perfect model of mercy and of bounty ! " If ye, who are evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to His suppliants I1 " St Paul recognises the a fortiori argument as proved ' Luke xi. 13. xxviii ( Introductory Es'say. in fact. " God shed forth His Holy Spirit abundantly." But if He puts up with our feeble use of, and scanty return for, that bounty, shall we dare further to tempt Him by denial of the fact that He has given ? Shall we say that He is " hard," " reaping where He has not sown, and gathering where He has not strawed ? 'n Although even the " wicked and slothful servant " who so termed Him, did not venture to deny the ori ginal deposit placed in his hands. Has His character "with whom is no variableness," changed since St Paul's day, or have the needs of the Church altered, that we should deem that Spirit less abundant in its supply now ? Substantially, if not formally, resembling the argu ment of Titus iii. S, 6, is that of I Cor. vi. ii. A similar reminder of the former heathen state is there followed up by, "but ye were washed," rather, "ye got it — your old state — washed away; but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified (here regarding, it seems, process and result as an undistinguished whole) in or by the "name of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God." The language is more impetuous, and less deliberate than that used to Titus. There he is re minding a well-approved officer of the Church, here he is reproving recent and unstable converts. Still we fellow in a stronger key of language the same ideas, and catch a reflex of words once quoted by the writer amidst his turbulent brethren in Jerusalem, as ' Matt. xxv. 24. Introductory Essay. xxix addressed to himself, " Arise, get thee baptised, and get thy sins washed away, calling upon His (Christ's) name."1 We cannot here sever the washing away of our sins from "the name of Jesus Christ" and " the Spirit of God " ; nor therefore doubt that baptism is advisedly referred to. Nor can we regard the sanctification and justification, here co-ordinated with the former, as any thing else than the proper effect of the same washing away continued in the spiritual life. Turning to Ephes. v. 26, we find similar language used of the whole Church. " Christ gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify it, through purifying it by the laver of water in or by the Word ; " where " the Word "• stands for the name of Christ, or for that of the Spirit Him self, or for the formula of holy baptism, which compre hends them both. So we again are said, in Heb. x. 22 as individuals,. " to have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water,'' the second being doubtless the external vehicle of which the former is the spiritual import. "Sprinkled from" meaning " sprinkled to be rid of," thus bringing us again to Ezekiel's words, Then will I "sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean. A new heart also will I give you," &c. I proceed to cite some other passages showing the ' Comp. I Cor. vi. II, d\\' aire\oti. xxxm shall also quicken your mortal bodies .through his Spirit that dwelleth in you . . . Ye have received the Spirit of adoption . . . The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit." Let us admit for argument's sake a possible question, How far is , the state described experimental — how far trans cendental ? Still in whatever degree it is realised, it can only be by the indwelling of the Spirit, by the Spirit of God becoming a factor of the life of man. Even more marked is ~ the inference drawn in verse 12, where in the rapidity of the argument the most emphatic phrase is left out, though plainly to be gathered from the context. It is, " There fore brethren we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh,",, but, it is clearly implied, to. the Spirit. A man is viewed as debtor to that from which he has received. How could they be " debtors to the Spirit to live after the Spirit," except they had first received it ?, Of course the repudiation of the debt is contemplated as possible with all its . tremendous consequences: "If ye live after the flesh ye shall die." Again, stronger even than this is the appeal to the .Spirit's witness as a fact within a man testifying to our sonship, the latter being proved, as it were, palpably to our experience by the former. The elevation to which a Christian is raised by this element of his life may well lead us to ponder and examine, but should never lead us to deny or weaken xxxiv Introductory Essay. the force of apostolic language so clear and cogent as we find it here. The passage which I have been examining is not one of the simplest in its structure of thought. Still the same note is so vividly struck again and again, that its bearing on the present discussion is paramount. I will confirm my view of it by a simpler passage to a similar purport in Gal. iv. 4-7 and v. 16, the interven ing part, from iv. 8 to v. 15 inclusive, being taken up with matter special to the Galatians' case, which I therefore omit. " God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that ye might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons of God, He sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son ; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. . . . This I say then, walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." He then goes on to describe the struggle of flesh and Spirit in a man, depicted to the Romans (vii. 23) as " the law in my members warring against the law of my mind," illustrating it by the opposite catalogues of the " works of the flesh," and the "fruit of the Spirit," (Gal. v. 17-23), and noticing by the way, with special relevance to the Galatians' shrinking back into bond age (iv. 9, v. 1), that being " led of the Spirit," involves emancipation — but this parenthetically. But I go back to the exhortation of v. 16, "Walk in the Spirit," Introductory Essay. xxxv exert yourselves under His guidance, and you will conquer in the struggle with fleshly lusts, and also, by the way, will be not under the law with its burdens and harsh discipline, and also, perhaps (cf. v. 23), its coercion and penalties. We should notice at the close of the passage enumerating the opposite results of "flesh" and " Spirit," the solemn dictum,. "They that are Christ's crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts" — crucified it, that is, when they became Christ's — not "have crucified,"1 as our version gives, which misleads into a notion of finality. They have to watch that it expires ,; the lingering death of the Cross being the aptest image he cpuld have used. But to return, this conclusive exhortation of ver. 16, "I say then, walk in the Spirit," is, after the illustrative digression of the two opposite "walks," the fleshly and the spiritual, re sumed in verse 25. "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit," are the words : Or again, where the privilege possessed is referred personally to Christ, Col. ii. 6, "As ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." The will in man is to assimilate itself to the Spirit's, or to Christ's leading, 1 It cannot, indeed, be said that the New Testament writers keep clear the distinction of aorist and perfect, thus we have elK-qfe a verv rare tense form in the New Testament twice in Rev. v. 7i an(l ™i' S> where f\a{le is certainly the meaning. But as S. Paul uses iaTabpwai ¦ — " the world is crucified (rightly rendered) unto me," in vi. 14, I cannot but think that he means the distinction, and that the perfect is inadmis sible in the rendering of v. 24. ¦xxxvi Introductory Essay. to the latter of the two contrasted and antagonistic elements, "flesh" and "Spirit." He exhorts to the effort with an encouragement of success, the domina tion of the Spirit being the proper issue, and the fact of the Spirit " dwelling in you," giving the determin ing condition of your moral state. He nowhere states that issue as being absolutely assured, indeed, a great deal of his language suggests the opposite conclusion, and as regards himself, he distinctly says that he found effort needful, and indulged no presumption.1 But yet, mark the sharpness of the alternations, and the cogency with which he presses them on the Corin thians in 2 Cor. xiii. 5, " Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith ; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates" 2 " Jesus Christ is in you," means, of Course, by His Spirit. The strife on which he dwells, both to the Galatians and to the Romans, arises from the " new man " being in " the old," the " new heart " in the old nature. The Spirit finds the flesh pre-ex isting in us, with the advantage of possession. Hence the struggle for ascendancy. He clearly states the result of pursuing the lower law of the flesh with its lusts. It is simply death. " The lust of the flesh is death," " If ye live after the flesh' ye shall die," " The 1 I Cor. ix. 27 ; Phil. iii. 12, 13. s The A. V. here feebly expresses the original which is marked by a tone of reluctance to state the supposition, elp.ii ti dSoKipol tare where the ti, shows the writer's hesitation. Introductory Essay. xxxvii end of those things is death,"1 — are his expressions ; and he clearly shows that compliance with the promp tings of that lower nature practically settles the man in the direction of death : " His servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness," (Rom. vi. i6);