11 — In the Mission of the Holy Spirit

Chapter 11 THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN THE MISSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. So far as it respects its influence upon men, the great object of Christ’s coming into the world was to elevate them to moral rectitude. There is a higher good than mere enjoyment; something more valuable than the pardon of sin, and deliverance from the wrath and curse; else would there have been no such revealed conditions of salvation, and no such sacrifice as the humiliation of the Son of God. Infinite goodness would make men happy, but not at the expense of holiness; it is a holy happiness which it seeks to bestow. In the final issues of his government, God cannot tolerate an unholy happiness. When we speak of holiness, we speak of that which God most loves. His own character is "glorious in holiness." Seraphim and cherubim cover their faces with their wings when they prostrate themselves at his throne, and say, one to another, " Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!" Such a being, from his nature, must be the support and guardian of holiness on the earth. This world can give riches, pleasures, honors, dignities, crowns; but it cannot give holiness. The sons and daughters of men are pilgrims to the Holy Land; but they cannot enter it unless they themselves are holy. There is no such thing as a happy hereafter, unless it be a holy hereafter; nor is there any crown of immortality unless it be " the crown of righteousness." They themselves must be consecrated temples, sanctified by precious graces, and adorned with the beauties of holiness. Though formed for blessedness, they must forever be banished from God’s presence if they remain defiled with the pollution of sin. Their title to eternal life was not only extinguished with their innocence, but the gates of heaven remain forever barred against them unless there be super-added to the expiation of the Son of God, that divine arrangement by which they are born anew to a spiritual life, not of corruptible, but of incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth forever. Every principle of the gospel illustrates its supreme and immutable regard to holiness. The wondrous and eternal purpose which originated it; the doctrines it reveals, its promises and its threatenings, its institutions and means of grace, are all designed to purify and elevate the moral character of men. It would render them not merely the objects of the divine compassion, but of the divine complacency. It would fit them for that holy world where they shall be purified from all that is debasing, and the glorious Redeemer shall present his church unreprovable, without blemish and without spot.

Hence the Scriptures speak of the Dispensation of the Spirit, of the Ministration of the Spirit, and of the Spirit of Christ as dwelling with men; and of the work of the Spirit as glorifying Christ.

We propose in the present chapter, in the first place, to speak of the work itself which the Spirit of God performs. The work of the Spirit itself in carrying into effect the gracious purposes of the Redeemer is not limited to any one effect, or series of effects in the human mind. Besides giving to the world the divine Oracles, and recalling to the remembrance of the inspired penmen the facts and truths which these Oracles contain, it is his province, in the first place, to awaken the attention of this thoughtless and slumbering world to the truth of God. There is no fact more discouraging in the history of a preached gospel, than the utter listlessness with which it is heard. Men’s thoughts are absorbed in other things; "their heart goeth after their covetousness; the sower soweth the word;" but the seed falls on the barren rock, and is choked by the cares and pleasures of the world. Men will listen to a popular preacher, and be in admiration of his eloquence; while the truth he utters has no charms for their unthinking minds. We are told that, " The Lord opened the heart of Lydia, that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul.’. No sooner is this listlessness dismissed, and men begin in earnest to attend to God’s truth, than there is reason to hope that some salutary impression is made upon their minds. This is the work of God’s Spirit. It is he who unstops the deaf ear, and makes a passage for the first ray of heavenly truth to penetrate the dungeon mind.

It is his work, in the next place, to convince of sin. There is nothing of which men know less than their own wickedness. The Saviour says of the Holy Spirit, " He shall convince the world of sin." The power of the Holy Spirit is always super-added to the truth, when the truth shows the sinner his true character and condition. When the mind is merely awakened to attend to the truths of God’s word, the effect of this awakening is ordinarily no more than to excite alarm, and give rise to some few self-righteous efforts to escape the coming wrath. Under this excitement, men become reformed in their outward conduct; return to the neglected duties of religion, and indulge the expectation of pleasing God by going about to establish their own righteousness. They have very superficial views of their own sinfulness, and therefore do not feel their need of an interest in the atonement of the Son of God. But when the Spirit of God sets home the truth, shows them "the plague of their own hearts;" makes them see that they are dead in sin, and that their own righteousnesses are as filthy rags; their apprehensions of the wrath to come are painful realities, and often too heavy to be borne. Their state of mind is not unlike that of Paul, of which he says, " I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. The law condemns them; and they feel that they are without hope. " The arrows of the Almighty stick fast within them, the poison whereof drinketh up their spirits." They are self-condemned, and all their false refuges are swept away. Most of all do they feel condemned for not repenting and believing the gospel. " When he the Spirit of truth is come, he shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not in me."

It is the work of the Spirit, in the next place, to regenerate the soul. That great and governing principle of human conduct, the love of God, which was lost at the fall, is restored to its rightful throne in the heart only by the Spirit of God. Give the sinner this, and it changes his whole character. Old things are done away, and all things become new. He is brought out of darkness into God’s marvellous light. His understanding is illuminated, and he sees the things of the Spirit of God in their reality, their nearness and beauty. This is emphatically true of the method of salvation by Jesus Christ. The time was the Saviour of men was to them as " a root out of a dry ground, having no form, or comeliness that they should desire him." But it is not so now. He who " commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into their hearts, to give them the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ." In their view, he is now " the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely." They fall in with the method of redemption by his cross; are clothed upon with the " righteousness which is of God by faith;" give him all the glory, and only desire to know more of him, and to be more like him. They are " born of the Spirit;" they are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works."

Sanctification is also another work of the Spirit. It is he alone who progressively purifies the soul and fits it for heaven. This is one of the most important and beautiful offices which the Spirit of grace performs, and in which he himself so much delights. We read of " the love of the Spirit;" and it is in this hallowed work that his love is so delightfully made manifest. He not only takes the soul from its deeply embedded pollution, and transforms it from the rude rock which it was by nature; but burnishes it, and gives it its diamond lustre, and makes it sparkle on the brow of its heavenly Prince. All Christians are " sanctified by the Holy Ghost." Whatever means are necessary to this end, the providence of God prepares, and his Spirit consecrates. That sweet attraction of the heart to heavenly things, by which the eyes are turned away from beholding vanity; those delightful aspirations so often breathed in the closet, " O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee; my flesh longeth for thee;" those sacred festivals of the mind in which it feeds on the bread which came down from heaven, and where every pious thought is invigorated, every devout affection enlivened, and every hope cheered, are all the fruit of the Spirit. In the last place, it is the high and peculiar work of the Spirit to perform the office of the Comforter. "If I go not away," says the Saviour, "the Comforter will not come; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." Delightful work is this, and delightfully befitting the lovely nature of him who thus proceedeth forth from the Father and the Son! Delightful thought it is, that that vivifying Spirit, spoken of by the prophet, who directs and animates the ministering cherubim in their attendance upon the throne of the Most High, should, take up his abode in the hearts of his often dejected and sorrowing people on the earth! Here he dwells, like the Shekinah in the Temple, filling their hearts with his light and love; creating a fire and a smoke in every dwelling-place on Mount Zion; making her Sanctuaries glorious with his presence, and like the cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, guiding and comforting his church through the wilderness. It is because taught and encouraged by him, that the individual Christian, perplexed and desponding, harassed by enemies, agitated by fears, and chastened by afflictions, is so often heard to say, " Why art thou cast down, O my soul! and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance, and my God!" It is because he is her refuge and solace, that the church of God, in her associated character, when oppressed and disheartened, and passing under the cloud, and through long nights of darkness, and trial, has been buoyed up by bright expectations, and has found light arising in the midst of the darkness. The four emblems by which the Spirit is set forth in the Scriptures, are water the dove the wind and fire. Soft and gentle as the refreshing showers, meek and retiring and easily grieved as the fluttering dove, balmy as the breeze, and glowing with heavenly fervor as the flame on celestial altars; this Commissioned Comforter dispenses his heavenly grace, gives the people of God an earnest of their inheritance, and seals them to the day of redemption. The Son of God no longer dwells with men. He has gone to return no more, until he shall come in the clouds of heaven to judge the world. He must have returned had not the Holy Spirit come in his place, to act as the great representative of Christ upon the earth, that his church might not be with the present Deity, nor the world without this Witness to the truth.

Such is the work of the Holy Spirit. All the religion that ever was in the world, and that is now and ever will be in it, is the effect of his power. No awakening, no conviction, no conversion, no sanctification and comfort are genuine unless they are the work of the Spirit. There is as wide a difference between those awakenings and misnamed revivals of religion which are the result of human machinery, and are got up by the measures and management of men, and that well-instructed, noiseless, humble, and deep-toned piety which is the fruit of God’s Spirit; as between the rushing tempest which rent the mountains, and the still small voice which made the prophet wrap his face in his mantle. The Spirit of God never counterfeits. There are abortions and monstrous births in " that which is born of the flesh;" that " which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Our next object is to show that this great and divine agent is the Messenger of Jesus Christ.

Although the power of the Spirit was enjoyed by the church of God under the old dispensation, and cheered and refreshed her pilgrimage, and was often revealed in the holy land; yet was it the great promise to the new dispensation. There were early predictions, not a few, that looked forward to this dispensation of the Spirit with a cheered and cheering vision. Isaiah spake of it in the glowing imagery of " pouring water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground;" and often spake of it with his own characteristic and sublime rapture when he predicted these latter days. The prophet Joel spake of it in more simple, and not less instructive language. " And it shall come to pass afterward, saith the Lord, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." All classes and orders and ages were to be partakers of the blessing; sons and daughters, old men and young men; and " upon the servants and handmaidens in those days will I pour out my Spirit." The New Testament, as we have already seen, repeats and confirms these promises. Not more certainly was the promise of the incarnate Son the great promise of the Old Testament, than the promise of the Spirit is the great promise of the New. Before his death the Saviour made frequent mention of the Spirit’s advent. After his resurrection, and as the time was drawing near when he was about to ascend to his Father, he renewed the promise, and told them that the time of its accomplishment was near. In one of his last interviews with them, " he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."

Most gloriously was the promise fulfilled. Ten days after our Lords ascension, and fifty days after that memorable day of the Passover when he expired on Calvary, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come; that wondrous event took place which is recorded in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The Holy Ghost descended both in his miraculous gifts and his converting power upon the souls of men. We would that time were allowed us to dwell upon the details of this narrative, for it is one of the most interesting in the sacred record. It was at the hour of prayer in the temple, on the morning of that memorable day which commemorated the giving of the law on Sinai, now made more memorable, not by proclaiming it in thunder, but by inscribing it in the hearts of men. It was the day consecrated in Jewish history to the annual offering of the first fruits; now more emphatically consecrated by the first ingathering of the gospel harvest. It was one of those three days in the year on which all the Jews were obliged by their law to come to worship at Jerusalem and in the temple: and well was it selected, if for no other reason than to give publicity to this first triumph of Christian truth, this successful commencement of the " ministration of the Spirit." Here again, as at the passover, and on the clay of the crucifixion, Jews from Asia, Africa, Europe, the islands, and all parts of the world where they were dispersed, were assembled to become the witnesses of this great fact, subjects of this divine influence, and to bear the tidings of the new doctrine, the new dispensation, and the descending Spirit. The risen Saviour did not intend that this vast multitude, who had so lately demanded and triumphed in his crucifixion, should depart from the city so lately desecrated by his blood, till they had seen these new wonders of his power, and not a few of them had washed in that fountain which their murderous hands had opened, and had become thus qualified to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Wonderful was the spectacle. We can form no just conception of it without representing to our minds his expectant disciples assembled " with one accord, in one place," bowing with one heart before the mercy-seat, lifting up their souls to God, and imploring him to put honor upon his Son Jesus, by fulfilling the promise, and causing the Holy Ghost to descend. These holy men had been bound together by the strongest ties of love to their Master, love to his cause, and love to one another. They were now bound by welcome, yet most solemn responsibilities; for they had already received the command to " go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." They were about to separate, with the view of fulfilling this high commission, but were detained by this one command: " Tarry ye in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father." Burning as their hearts did burn to enter fields already white to the harvest, they could not go without the Holy Spirit. They needed both his miraculous and his sanctifying and comforting power in order to qualify them for their work, and sustain them in their fiery trials. And there they were in prayer, expressing their earnest desires, pleading with God, with no dubious and vacillating faith, but with humble and strong and confident expectation, that the promise of their ascended Master would be fulfilled, and that "God would glorify his Son Jesus" by such wonders of his power as this earth has never before beheld.

" And it came to pass, while they were praying, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." The promise was fulfilled. The multitude were held in profound admiration. And while some of these millions scoffed, and others were held in doubt, these men of God, no longer oppressed by their own faintheartedness, and no longer shutting themselves up in secret chambers for fear of the Jews, went forth undaunted, and carried the message of the great salvation to their assembled countrymen. Even in the presence of the Sanhedrin, who had but seven weeks before put Jesus to death, and in the presence of the scoffing millions, who circulated the rumor that his disciples came and stole his body while the guard slept, they testified that Jesus was the promised Messiah; that with wicked hands they had crucified and slain him; that God had raised him from the dead, and that now repentance and remission of sins was preached in his name to all nations. The consequence was, that the Holy Spirit which was with the apostles, fell also on the multitude, so that under the preaching of a single discourse by Peter, three thousand were converted in a day. It was a rich day to the apostles, to the infant church, to the world; and a rich and glorious day to Jesus Christ. It was a new day in the history of God’s grace to the sons and daughters of men. Thus it was that Christianity began its course. And thus it continued during the apostolic age. Immediately after this, five thousand more were made the subjects of converting grace. And then here and there, hundreds, until the gospel had free course, and was glorified throughout the Roman empire. It was " the ministration of the Spirit;" nor will it cease until men shall be blessed in the God of Israel, and all nations shall call him blessed. Our last and principal object is to illustrate the glory of Christ in this mission and work of the Spirit of truth and grace. This illustration we can best present by the following distinct thoughts. In the first place, the work of the Spirit furnishes additional proof of the great facts which form the sum and substance of Christianity, We have made this deduction from premises before stated; and the evidence here culminates to its highest point. We need not go beyond this, in order to prove that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of men. This was the last prediction which he made while on the earth; next to his death and resurrection, it was the great prediction. Christ himself did not go beyond this, in order to satisfy the faith of his apostles, and substantiate his claims to the confidence and obedience of the world. He told his disciples to wait for the fulfillment of this prediction; they did wait; and when the Spirit came, they girded on the whole armor of God, and went forth. This was the only piece of their bright panoply which remained to be buckled on; with this sword of the Spirit, so burnished, they addressed themselves to the conquest of the world. The Christ had come whom their Scriptures foretold; fit the predicted time, from the predicted seed and origin, and in the predicted place. According to the same series of prophecies, he was God and man, and the Great Prophet who came in the power of Elias, and confirmed his mission by signs and miracles, which demonstrated that God was with him. They had seen him, as the same spirit of prophecy foretold, poor and despised; betrayed by one of his disciples, mocked and derided, and crucified for the sins of the world. They had seen his garments divided and the soldiers cast lots for his vesture; honorably buried, risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven. The Holy Ghost had not yet been given, " because Christ was not yet glorified." But now they saw that he was faithful to his promise, and sent the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. This was the argument on which they relied for proof of the divine origin of Christianity. This was the argument of Peter on the day of Pentecost, and the argument of Stephen before the Jewish Sanhedrin. These were the facts, the most of which the Jews denied; and which, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, the apostles proclaimed in their hearing, and in the place and under circumstances, the very last to be selected by impostors. It is worthy of remark, that they did not go first to Antioch, nor to Ephesus, nor to Rome; where, from the superstitious habits of the people, it would have been an easy matter to have introduced a false religion, and where the ignorance of the people of events in Judea and Jerusalem, would have rendered any detection of their fraud impossible. But, in obedience to the direction of their Master, they " began at Jerusalem;" in the very courts of the Temple, and in a presence the most appalling in the world, if they had been impostors; because these were the men who had been the crucifiers, and who, if there had been anything in the form of connivance or fraud, not only had the best and only means of detecting the deception, but who had a deep interest in confounding the deceivers before the world. Yet three thousand of these very men, on the first presentation of these great facts, bowed before the majesty of truth, and professed their faith in that Saviour, whom but fifty days before, they had nailed to the accursed tree.

These were the proofs, also, with which they afterward went to the Gentile world, to combat its philosophy, its idolatry, its wickedness; overturn its altars, and subdue it to the obedience of the Christian faith. And this completed series of facts, constitutes the argument in favor of Christianity at the present time. It is in few words, the great moral argument arising from the effects of Christianity on the minds of men. We have nothing more to utter in its behalf, than to demonstrate these facts; on these, with the concurrent and immense interests and responsibilities they involve, rests our appeal for the Saviour’s honor, and the salvation of men. We say to the boasting infidel, see for yourself these great facts in the history of Jesus of Nazareth, and then mark their influence upon the character of men. What has human philosophy or human legislation accomplished in this agitated and convulsed world, compared with the elevating and reforming influence of these great facts? We make our appeal to the living masters of the Jewish law, and ask them to tell us what Judaism is worth, and what it is more than a worn-out system, breeding nothing but obduracy and disappointment; a rigorous, exclusive, and unmeaning system, if it terminate not in him who " was to come." Go to India, to China, to Persia; inspect the combined influences of other religions, and all the influences which this earth ever has known, or now knows; and what have they done in restoring the race from the moral malady to which sin has subjected them, and in regenerating the world, compared with those living and actuating realities, the truth and the Spirit of Jesus Christ. In the second place, the work of the Spirit gives efficacy to the work already accomplished by Christs death and resurrection. Had the world been left without any other divine agency than the death and resurrection of Christ, it had been left dead in trespasses and sins. Something more was necessary, than that the Son of God assume man’s nature, die on the cross, rise from the dead, and ascend to the right hand of God. Experience, observation, and the Scriptures instruct us, that with these great facts before them, men will not come to him that they might have life. They are not influenced by these facts, as they ought to be influenced; nay, without super-added influences, they are not governed by them at all, save in so far forth as they restrain the wickedness of the unrenewed heart, and exert a moralizing and elevating power on the social intercourse of Christian lands. Men everywhere, even where these facts are known, are still under the dominion of a blinded understanding, an erring conscience, and a heart that is desperately wicked. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and they have loved darkness rather than light." " In them, that is in their flesh, there dwelleth no good thing." They are thoughtless and indifferent to the claims of the gospel; unconcerned alike about their sins and their salvation; blinded by the God of this world, bowing in his temple, and sacrificing at his altars, rather than turning from these dumb idols to serve the Living God. It requires more than the mere gospel offer, and the proclamation of mercy in the Saviour’s name, to lead them to repentance, however urgent that call, and aided even by extraordinary dispensations of divine providence. It is not the force of truth alone, nor the most persuasive and cogent inducements, that awaken, convince, regenerate, sanctify, and comfort the soul, and fit it for heaven. They were not those influences, on which Christ himself placed his dependence, for the introduction, and extension, and prevalence, of his religion on the earth. "Paul may plant and Apollos may water, but God giveth the increase." Presumptuous hope! to look for the conversion of men except to a power that is higher than human, and more effective than any of those truths which the great Author of Christianity has committed to men, in the mere outward ministrations of his gospel.

Indispensable, therefore, was it to the success of the gospel, and the saving effects of Christ’s death, that, in addition to the facts which terminate with his ascension, there should be this great consummation, the descent of the Holy Spirit. "He died for our sins, and rose again for our justification." Here the immediate influence of his great Propitiation terminated. His priestly office is a department by itself; it affects the law and government of God, and has no proximate efficacy in renewing the sinner’s heart. This belongs to another department of the method of redemption. and is reserved for the Spirit of grace and truth, into whose hands the Father and the Son have committed it, that he, with them, might share the equal honors of man’s salvation. The Saviour himself left the world, that he might send down his Holy Spirit to dwell with men, and rear that beautiful superstructure of holiness, the foundation of which was laid in his Atoning Sacrifice. He would not have ascended to the Father but for this; but would have remained on the earth, and here established his kingdom in the hearts of men by his own mighty power, and thus established his claim to the office both of Mediator and Sanctifier. He did return to his Father’s throne, but it was to send the Holy Spirit; not, indeed, " to make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness," but to bear testimony that the Son of God has accomplished this great work; not to add to the perfected atonement which Christ has made, but to bear testimony that Christ is approved and accepted in what he has done; not to detract from the work of Christ, but to be heaven’s messenger, crowning it with honor, testifying to the understanding, the conscience, and the heart of men, that there is salvation but in him, and drawing them to him, by the cords of love. God is still upon the earth, not in the person of the Father, nor in the person of the Son, but in the person of the Holy Spirit. He is the appointed and honored Representative of Christ in the world and in the church; taking of the things of Christ and showing them unto his people; subduing their hearts unto himself, and extending his kingdom. He gives efficacy to the peculiar work of Christ, by making it efficacious on the hearts of men; by driving them from their refuges of lies, and sweeping away one hiding place after another, till they are glad to take refuge from the raging storm of divine wrath, at his cross. He gives efficacy to it by striving with them and overcoming them, till they consent to be saved by Christ alone; by banishing their fears, and giving them the assurance that the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin. And need I say, that it is thus that the Saviour triumphs, and that in the eye of God, and angels, and men, he is glorious in the ministration of the Spirit. Has he any greater glory, than in thus verifying the declaration, " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me!"

Once more: the work of the Spirit alone enables us to form some just estimate of the blessings which Christ bestows.’ Not until he ascended up on high, did he sit down upon his mediatorial throne, and give gifts to men. It was his coronation day; and his accession to the kingdom was marked by the bounty of a Prince, such as this world never saw. His disciples did not at first comprehend the full import of the promise, that he would send the Comforter; their views were obscure and indefinite. This one thing only did they comprehend, that it was some great blessing because he had told them it was more desirable even than his own blessed presence. It was to introduce a new and spiritual dispensation; was to effect great changes in them, and in the men who were their associates; to transform the world, and to change the whole course of the divine government toward fallen men. They were gifts purchased by his own precious blood, and worthy of the price; gifts that would prove his right to the dominion to which he was exalted; that would abundantly gratify his benevolent heart to bestow; and in bestowing which he would take possession of "the joy that was set before him, when he endured the cross, despising the shame."

What were these gifts? They were to arrest the progress of millions, who, under the full sunlight of a revealed Christianity, were treading their way where peace and hope never come, and where sin and the curse hold their uncontrollable dominion. They were to break those chains of sin and death, and give the liberated captives the liberty of the sons of God. They were to make them a peculiar and holy people; peradventure the wonder and the laughing-stock of the world; peradventure the victims of torture and death; but a holy people, destined to be more, and still more like their divine Master, and at last received to those holy mansions where sin never enters, and where are imperishable honors, and crowns of rejoicing for every sinner that repenteth.

Yes, they were gifts for men. They were to make his people willing in the day of his power. Wondrous thought, and still more wondrous grace — willing! Willing to be what? to do what? to escape what? to enjoy what? Willing to be the friends of him who as far excels all other friends, as heaven exceeds earth, and eternity time, and God creatures; to be pardoned and justified subjects; to be clothed with the pure robe of his righteousness, comely through the comeliness which he puts upon them, and luminous through the light with which he decks them as with a garment. Willing to do his will, who governs by no usurped authority, and whose right to command none can deny; whose commands secure the approbation of every conscience, and who has made abundant provisions of grace to help in the time of need, and strength according to their day. Willing to escape the burden of their own guilt, and their Maker’s curse, the everlasting shame of wickedness, and the unutterable groans of everlasting anguish and despair. Willing to enjoy God’s presence and favor, to love and praise him, to behold his glory, to reflect his image, and drink of those rivers of pleasure which flow at his right hand.

Yes, they were to make this people willing in the day of his power. Again I say, wondrous thought and grace! It is not the character of men to be so blind to their own well-being, as to require to be made willing to enjoy earthly good. It is in relation to higher and spiritual blessings only, that they are the slaves of this guilty and miserable infatuation. It is even so. Their reluctance to be made truly and forever happy is absolutely invincible by any power short of the omnipotent energy of the Holy Spirit. And in this consists the greatness of the blessings he imparts. It is immense graciousness, and gracious immensity of blessing.

It adds not a little to this bounty that this work of the Spirit is perpetual. The day of Pentecost commenced a series of wonders, and was the pledge of those divine influences, which, however various in measure, shall never be intermitted until time shall be no more. The Saviour has departed; but the Comforter will never depart. He will continue to instruct, convince, convert, and sanctify the sons and daughters of men until the last heir of glory is gathered in. There is no substitute for this influence. It will be as continuous as the work of redemption. And though it will not always descend in unwonted richness, it will ever be descending. No more than God the Creator abandons the world he has made; no more than God the Redeemer retires from the great work of making all things subservient to the church of which he is the Head; will God the Sanctifier resign the interests of his sacred office, and leave it unoccupied, or in other hands. It would be a darker day than this world has ever seen, if the divine Spirit should ever take his leave of men. Individuals may be thus abandoned of God; but his church — nay, this guilty world will never be thus abandoned. "As for me this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; 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, from henceforth and forever." Just before his crucifixion, the Saviour said to his disciples, " I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you FOREVER." The dispensation of the Spirit is a perpetuated dispensation to the end of the world. Wherever Christ’s ministers go in his name, the Spirit is with them. Where two or three are met together in his name, the Spirit is with them. Wherever the great congregation assembles to worship him, the Spirit is with them. If there be a community or a man on the face of the earth, whose condition is more to be deplored than that of any other, it is the community and the man who is utterly abandoned of God’s Spirit. We hope never to see such a community or such a man. We believe there are few such men. Living under the dispensation of that condescending and gracious Comforter, whose benignant influences penetrate all orders of men, and hover over the path and the pillow even of the most thoughtless and giddy, we dare not relinquish the hope that the most deaf may yet hear the voice of God, and the most benighted open his eyes upon this great glory of his risen and princely Son.

Beautiful is that glory which belongs to the Son of God in his wondrous ministration of the Spirit. His name is written on myriads of minds that are thus transformed by his life-giving power. His voice breaks from the cloud, when it descends in copious showers, and gives verdure to the mountains of Zion. It whispers in the breeze, speaking not only to man, but in man, and insinuating his sacred influence into the very centre of his soul. There is not one of these renovated and illumined minds in which his light does not shine brighter than the sun, making them all reflect his glory. And when, in after and latter days, this light shall be steady and strong, and the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun as the light of seven days; how will his glory which was concealed in the veil of man’s nature, and eclipsed in Calvary, break forth and overlay every dwelling-place, and make it a tabernacle of the Most High; every temple and make it the " Holy of Holies;" every mountain and valley, and deck them with heavenly beauty; every wilderness, and every dark and subterraneous cavern where the wickedness of man has been secreted, and make them glitter for that day in which he shall make up his jewels.

How obvious is it, on a summary review of these observations, that the Holy Spirit is the hope of the world! The promise of the Spirit was Christ’s promise; and it was like him, worthy of him, and the fruits of it are the matured fruits of this Tree of Life. Ages, and places, and men on whom this blessing most effectually descends, are the marked ages in the history of the church, distinguished spots on the face of our favored globe, the favored individuals of our fallen race. The Apostles were scoffed at, until the descent of the Holy Ghost. The ministers of Christ, in every age, have spoken, and now speak to no better purpose, until the Spirit be poured from on high. Look over the world, and the land in which we live, and even on these favored churches where God’s power and glory have been seen in the Sanctuary. What have they been when the Spirit of God was in the midst of us? What have they been, what are they now that the Spirit descends so sparingly? This is the influence we want. We have Bibles, we have Sabbaths, and sanctuaries, and ministers; our great want is more and greater outpouring of the Spirit from on high. The Holy Spirit is the hope of the church, and the hope of the world. The external machinery of God’s church is complete; we want now the sacred fire to set it in motion. Nothing but God’s omnipotent Spirit can safely direct its course, and give it the impulse that shall carry it through the earth. Never will another beam of light dawn, unless he bids it shine. Never more will there be an awakened thought, nor a pang of conviction, nor a penitential tear, nor a peaceful hope in Christ, nor an emotion of spiritual comfort and joy, nor a successful effort for the extension of the Redeemer’s kingdom, unless he gives it. " All these worketh that self-same Spirit."

Yes, he is employed in this holy work still. He is now working in men to will and to do. And this is your hope. This gracious Reformer and Comforter meets the sinner in his deepest and most dire necessity. He gives him what he needs, because he makes him willing to receive the great salvation. He cannot come to Christ without the power of the Holy Spirit; but he can ask, he can seek, he can humbly knock at the door of heavenly grace, and will not be sent away empty. God gives his Holy Spirit to them that ask him. The promise is sure, " Then shall ye find me when ye search for me with your whole heart."

Let this truth be appreciated. It is no easy task for the sinner to resist the tenderness and importunity of the Spirit of truth and grace. To all the dispensations of God’s Providence, all the truths of his word, all the checks of conscience, the ascended Redeemer is adding the appeals of his own Spirit. Wait not for them; for they are with you. Long has the Spirit of God been striving with you. From earliest childhood, he has been repeating his invitations, his remonstrances, his convictions. You have no such friend. Only do not grieve him. " Beware of him, and obey his voice; provoke him not, for the name of the Lord is in him," and he has come to show you his great glory.