Power and Office of the Holy Spirit

THE POWER AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
BY REV. N. ADAMS, D. D.
BOSTON: NICHOLS AND NOYES. 1866. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by NICHOLS AND NOTES, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SONS.
Number 10. Published by direction of the Congregational Churches of Boston.
DURING those tender and endearing moments when the Saviour was preparing the disciples for his own departure, He promised them "another Comforter," who should abide with them for ever. This implies that He himself had been a Comforter. And what a Comforter Jesus is, let the experience of the eleven disciples, and the sorrowing hearts of eighteen centuries, testify. No one epithet can express the fulness of Christ or of the Holy Spirit; yet, of all the words in our tongue proposed as the rendering of this designation of the Holy Spirit by the Saviour, none is more beautiful, more comprehensive, and, on the whole, more just to the original, than the word " Comforter."
"Another Comforter." Progress is the law in the works of God. Another Comforter, therefore, we may be sure would cause the disciples no painful perception of inferiority, or sense of loss. Not many days after, they found themselves, unlearned and ignorant men, addressing people in strange languages. Words spoken by them made converts by thousands, in one day, to the crucified One. Yet this by no means constituted their chief joy. That which happens to one's own soul has an interest for him beyond all outward phenomena. The Great Teacher seems to imply this when He says, " Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." These disciples came, in one hour, to a consciousness of wonderful enlargement in their spiritual perceptions. The whole life of Jesus, especially words and actions of his till then comparatively obscure, were as when the flames of many gas-burners are raised at once by a single motion. Suddenly these men were in a new spiritual world; and the light of it was He of whom, in relation to heaven, it is said, “the Lamb is the light thereof."
Happy, happy men! conscious of a new spiritual state surpassing in value the mere gift of tongues and influence over a multitude! “They were all filled with the Holy Ghost."
Had the gift of tongues been the chief part of the Holy Spirit's work in the apostles, there would be ground for the apprehension that the excellent greatness in this gift of another Comforter was confined to the early Church. But no; miracles were the least part of His intention, a mere alphabet in his communications to the objects of his grace.
Not to the first disciples alone, therefore, did the gift of the Comforter appertain. For said Jesus, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." You, dear Christian friend, are in all respects as truly included in the gift of the Comforter as were the eleven disciples. These pages are designed to assist you in your conceptions of Him. May He guide us into all truth!
WHO is IT, who must He be, that is capable of taking up the work of the GOD-MAN and carrying it on to perfection?
To make atonement for sin, chief as it is among the works of God, does not bring into view the same executive attributes which are employed in dealing with human minds, one by one; in adapting the method of recovery to the peculiarities of each; and in carrying on the work of grace through the vicissitudes of personal history. Who must He be that creates successive dispensations of thought among men; controls the wonderful tides of religious feeling; brings on those seasons of wide-spread, irresistible impression concerning things spiritual and eternal; and, at the same time, is conversant with every mood of private thought and feeling in every awakening sinner and in every saint? It is He, it can only be He of whom it is said, “For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."
PERSONALITY AND DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
All the attributes of personality are manifest in Him. He is a Divine Person. We are baptized in His name; in his name we are blessed, as in the name of the Father and of the Son. The only sin which is unpardonable is committed against Him. He is not therefore “Divine influence." Christ would not need to go away that "Divine influence" might come. It is noticeable that the Bible never speaks as we do of “the influences of the Holy Spirit," but always refers to Him as a Person. “I will send Him unto you."
HIS POWER ILLUSTRATED.
One illustration of the power with which the Holy Spirit works in human hearts, is seen in the rapid advancement of the first converts to Christianity. It is wonderful that the Epistles of the New Testament, which were to be the sufficient source of instruction for the Church of God in all times, should have been addressed to people so newly lifted out of heathenism. No such progress is made under the influence of letters as these converts from idolatrv must have it made, who were competent so soon to understand, for example, the Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians. Such is the scale on which the Holy Spirit sets forward the human mind and heart. Creation only affords a parallel: "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath sinned in our hearts." We have all been struck with the sudden improvement in the minds, as well as characters, of people newly converted, their good sense, their just perceptions. “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple."
The infinite ease of the Holy Spirit's operation is full of encouragement. He does with one gentle thought, one secret, silent impression, that which reasoning and persuasion had utterly failed to accomplish. Often we expect a difficult work with a stubborn soul, but find it done. Laboring with great pains for a revival of religion in a Church and congregation, and meeting seemingly insuperable obstacles in the characters and conduct of many, all at once you find your utmost hopes surpassed, and praise breaks forth " unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." We should begin every effort for the spiritual good of others with a calm sense of entire dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and of his almighty power, and saying, " So then neither is he that planteth, any thing, neither he that watereth." Thus we should pray and labor. Then we can continue; our efforts will be healthful; the excitement ministered by success will be the excitement of bracing air; and the joy of the Lord will be our strength. To the Holy Spirit belong all the appliances to be used in the conversion of the world.
The Holy Spirit is appointed to be the author of our whole spiritual experience. It is the Holy Spirit who makes the Saviour all that He is to us. What did we know of Christ till the Holy Spirit fulfilled that promise, "He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you"?
Repentance and faith, with all the exercises of our renewed nature, are, from first to last, the work of the Holy Spirit. No more directly dependent are we on Christ for atoning blood than upon the Spirit for religious experience. Sanctification is from Him as peculiarly as justification is by Christ. And as " the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son," so the Father and the Son have committed the entire work of " communion ' to the Holy Spirit, this " communion?: including even our fellowship with the Father and the Son; for as " no man knoweth who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal Him," so every act of love on our part toward God and Christ is by the Holy Spirit. Blessed Spirit! how little do we thank and love Thee! Beautiful, yea, how touching, is thy humility, so willing to be subordinate, so little recognized by many of thine own! Like the parables, thy comparatively hidden nature may be intended to excite our faith, and draw us on to further knowledge. It is with Thee as it was with Him preceding Thee, who "came unto his own and his own received Him not." Thou " seven Spirits which are before his throne! ' Thou multiplicity, variety, and infinitude of spiritual powers and offices! it is only when we are spiritually-minded that we appreciate Thee! Silent, unseen, thy subordination also prevents us in a measure from thinking of Thee as we do of the Father and of the Son; and yet are we not baptized in thy name also? and in thy name we are blessed!
Nothing hinders us from believing that it was the third Person in the Godhead who is spoken of in Genesis 1:2 : “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Incubating upon chaos, if then and there He deposited the seeds of things in the new elements, and created the original models of all forms in nature, organizing life in its endless manifestations, it was in beautiful correspondence with his work, which is still greater, in the moral creation, is the author of regeneration, and of every thing which accompanies and flows from it. We see his work in the religious emotions experienced by the people of God, from the patriarch to the lisping child, from the first pang in conviction of sin, through the day-break of the new-born soul with its penitence, faith, and hope, its conflicts, its victories, its discoveries, its spirit of adoption, its growing likeness to Christ. All this is his immediate work. Creator Spirit! to be a born of" Thee, to be "led by " Thee, to be "sanctified by”: Thee, to have intercession made in us by Thee, and to be "sealed” by Thee to the day of redemption, is worthy to be, as it is, the purchase and the gift even of the incarnation and the cross!
HE MADE THE BIBLE.
The Bible is the work of the Holy Spirit as distinctively as the cross pertains to Christ. It was proposed to make a book for the human race. Was there ever a more difficult undertaking? It is finished. Its plan, its details, none but infinite wisdom could arrange. Who should write it; what its contents should be; how much of history, and what histories; how much of legislation, of biography, prophecy, maxim, song; and in what ages, what countries, amid what manners and customs it should be composed; what length of time it should cover; and, no less difficult than all, what should be left out of it; in a word, how it should be, on the whole, best adapted to the use of all peoples and languages in every condition and stage of life, all this was solved by Him to whom we owe the Bible. He devised the narrative of Joseph. He prepared the books of Esther and Ruth. He indited the Apocalypse. He taught Moses, inspired Daniel, inflamed Isaiah, breathed upon John. Sometimes we see a man doing a difficult work with an ingenious instrument devised and shaped by himself. The Holy Spirit made the Bible as the great instrument in his work. He made it for you, foreseeing your necessities; He helps you in reading it.
Descending from the contemplation of it as a masterpiece of infinite wisdom, select one of its writers, and think what the communion of the Holy Ghost must have been with him, for example, David. " Now these be the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse, said, and the man that was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, ' The Spirit of God spake by me and his word was in my tongue.' This was his most grateful recollection when reviewing life. In the progress of divine tuition, shall we not each of us, fellow-heirs of life! have received from the same Holy Spirit, who "dwelleth with " us " and shall be in " us, as much of communion, and as many great, ennobling, rapturous, and peace-inspiring thoughts as fell to the lot of David? One purpose of God in raising him up and endowing him, seems to have been to show us what He will hereafter do in spiritual things to all who love Him. “I will give you," says He, " the sure mercies of David."
THE INTERCESSION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
His connection with our private, spiritual life is brought to view when it is said, " Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession in the saints according to the will of God."
The meaning of this passage is not that the Holy Spirit intercedes in heaven for us. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." The Holy Spirit makes intercession “for us," by filling us with spiritual emotions so deep and strong that we cannot utter them except in "groanings." They are not unintelligible to God. He discerns their meaning more clearly than the laboring soul itself can either express or comprehend the object of the Holy Spirit when filling us with these earnest desires; and God regards these desires, because the Holy Spirit excites them. It seems, indeed, a singular way of helping our infirmities, to make us feel them all the more, and until we groan; yet this is the divine method, for, “when I am weak, then am I strong. " When our Christian feelings are such that words seem weak, the Holy Spirit is making intercession for us, by working in us.
What encouragement there is in having the apostle Paul say, " We know not what we should pray for as we ought! ' and in perceiving that lie had the same spiritual " infirmities," and the same need of the Comforter, as we.
His PRESENCE WITH A CHURCH.
The chief desire and effort of every Christian Church should be to secure his constant presence. Every thing which tends to disturb harmony, and to make alienation and contention, is quenched by his indwelling in the hearts of Christians. Long-standing griefs and seemingly insuperable difficulties melt away at his coming. In honor "preferring one another," and bearing one another's burdens, there are no jealousies and envyings; mutual love prevails over every tendency to alienation. Weaknesses and faults in others cultivate the Christian graces of each. There is nothing, perhaps, in effect, so much like heaven as this. Our Congregational Church-organization offers peculiar opportunities for such experience; for the government not being vested in one man, or in a select body, the whole brotherhood have opportunities in their frequent intercourse to manifest those graces of the Spirit which Christian communion is fitted to develop. On the other hand, the liberty and equality conferred on all expose us to peculiar temptations; and, unless the Holy Spirit rules in our hearts, scenes may be enacted which will remind you that “there was war in heaven." But praying and laboring with one heart and one mind for the constant presence of the Holy Spirit, and being -led by Him, the members of a Church become "a holy temple in the Lord;” to which others are brought, and are "builded together” with them "for an habitation of God through the Spirit."
THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT REACHES THROUGH TIME.
The work of redemption is to be finished by the Holy Spirit. Some ascribe the termination of efforts for the world's conversion to the interposition of Christ in person. We cannot properly enter here upon the consideration of this subject, but we may be sure that the third Person in the Godhead will not fail of his worthy share in the plan of salvation. The ministration of the Spirit is spoken of (2 Corinthians 3:1-18), in antithesis to the old dispensation, as though it would be the complement of the great redemptive work. Compared with the former dispensation it is to be “the rather glorious." The conception is sublime of this unseen Spirit carrying on, by his mysterious agency, and in perfect consistency with the free agency of men, good and bad, the stupendous work of subduing the world to Christ.
So He fulfils the Saviour's comparison of Him to the wind, which breathes on the softly-bending corn, or stirs the differing murmurs in the leaves of different trees, or comes as the tradewind of commerce, or moves, at one and the same moment, all ships on every sea and ocean, from whatever quarter, and to whatever point they sail. Surely his name, also, shall be called “Wonderful." The very close of the Bible and of prophecy echoes his voice: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come; ' for the honor due to his name requires that his work in redemption continue to the end, and be commensurate with that of the Father and the Son.
HE IS "THE ETERNAL SPIRIT."
The future relation of the Holy Spirit to the redeemed in heaven is a pleasing subject of contemplation. Never can your love to your Redeemer fail of vast accessions through the ages of your heavenly experience; it cannot be supplanted; on the contrary, the love which the Holy Spirit will receive from you will spring from sources which must enhance the love which you will feel toward the Father and the Son. But when we come to know, in full, the personal connection which the Holy Spirit had with us, then Bethlehem, Gethsemane and Calvary will, perhaps, have their counterparts in places, seasons, and events of spiritual history, identified with the work of the Holy Spirit. “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the Spirit," says Paul. Indeed, He must be a loving Spirit who does such acts of loving-kindness, so patiently, so gently, so tenderly, that the affection excited by our misdeeds and perverseness is not wrath but grief, because it is said, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Of course, the third Person in the Godhead does not merely accomplish an earthly mission for our souls; He will have a relation, no doubt, to our whole spiritual existence for ever. If conversion, if repentance, and faith, and the fruits of the Spirit, in our imperfect state be so wonderful, viewed as mental experiences, what must our experiences in heaven be, with the author of these present experiences still in some specific relation to us corresponding to his work, here as Comforter! There we shall begin aright; all our mistakes and follies, prejudices and antipathies, will be removed; we shall have no bias to evil, no law in our members warring against the law of our mind. It will be the Holy Spirit Who will have set us right. Personal indebtedness to those who taught us useful knowledge here, who formed our opinions, led us into the path of discovery, and stimulated our powers, is a faint representation of our love and gratitude to Him who, we shall then see, was, in all the history of our minds and hearts, and in every sense of the word, our "Comforter."
Every Christian has implanted in him now the germ of each perfection which he will have in heaven. Hence the Holy Spirit is said to be " the earnest of our inheritance, the pledge of the purchased possession; ' and, when we believed, we are said to have been " sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise," like the wine which receives the vintner's seal and is left to develop itself, only that there is in the soul a constant presence and agency of the Comforter. Regenerated persons, therefore, are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people." Poor, ignorant, lowly, though some of them may be, they are higher than the kings of the earth who are yet in their sins. Leading others to be of this "chosen generation“ is the work in which we aid when we bring a soul to God. " For we are laborers together with God." Of such and of their labors, the Saviour said, "And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal."
THE WORLD DOES NOT KNOW HIM.
"Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." Infinite loss, never to know Him! “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned." Such were we. None can express or estimate the difference made in us by regeneration. This work of the Holy Spirit in us is likened to the creation of light; more than once it is ascribed to the same power which raised up Jesus from the dead. Have you had this new birth? Then God has done the greatest work in you which He ever accomplishes in the soul of man. What if God should visibly make an angel of some one whom we know and love! Let Him regenerate your soul, and hereafter you will have no occasion to covet an angel's nature, or his bliss. But in further contrast to the world's ignorance, the Holy Spirit imparts to ministers and Christians that indescribable gift called “unction." In preaching, in praying, in conversation, in spirit, in manner, in one's whole influence upon others, this indefinable gift does more than genius, or talent, or learning, or zeal. It cannot be affected; the possessor is unconscious of it; the observer cannot tell what it is; but the Holy Spirit bestows it upon all in whom He specially loves to dwell. But the soul which never receives the Holy Ghost, will be in endless chaos. Disorder and darkness will possess it. For if we are born but once, we shall die twice; and if we are born twice, we shall die but once. " On such the second death hath no power."
SUBORDINATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
To the regenerate it may be useful to say, that subordination on the part of the Holy Spirit, so plainly declared, is a beautiful and powerful example of the same thing among Christians. Subordination in Christ is used by the apostle for the same purpose. “Let the same mind be in you which Was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant."
This was suggested by the exhortation, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." With our Redeemer making himself of no reputation, but humbling himself; with our Sanctifier subordinating himself, surely we should ever be gentle and kind, seeking not our own, " but every man another's wealth."
UNCONDITIONAL PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The Holy Spirit is the only gift which is unconditionally promised. We may pray for life or health or any other blessing, and it may not be consistent for God to grant our prayer. But such are the arrangements of Divine providence and grace, that sincere desires for the Holy Spirit can no more be disregarded than the desire of a child for food. To disregard our desires for the Holy Spirit is compared by Christ to the act of putting a stone into the hand of a child beseeching for bread; or imposing upon his ignorance by giving him, instead of a fish, a scorpion, which he would not know enough to distinguish from a fish. Such is the blessed Redeemer's assurance to every soul who reads these lines, that a true desire for the greatest and best gift which God can impart can never be preferred in vain.
Those words of Christ, "The wind bloweth where it listeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit," are not limited to conversion. Every one that is born of the Spirit will enjoy through life this mysterious agency of the Spirit. This should comfort and encourage those who are afraid, that, if they become Christians, they shall not persevere. Is not the atonement for your sins a divine work, and a full, complete provision for your justification? The Holy Spirit will complete his work, as surely as Christ has completed his. Only do with regard to Him as you have done in believing in Christ; that is, place your entire dependence, for continuance and progress, upon the Holy Spirit; and you “shall never fall." God will “go before thee, and be thy rearward."
What a stupendous plan of redemption this is, dear Christian friends, in which we believe! You are the subjects of that plan. It is worthy to be considered that the mode of the divine existence is disclosed to us only in connection with the development of redemption. The revelation, that Christ " was in the beginning with God and was God," seems to be made because a knowledge of the way of salvation rendered it necessary that this should appear. We learn the deity of the Holy Spirit chiefly in connection with his work in our souls. Let us consider what it is to be a member of the race whose history thus brings to view the mystery of the Godhead; and what it is to be one of that chosen number to whom alone this stupendous work is applied. Consider, too, that such a scheme of salvation, in which the Godhead is thus occupied, must have a counterpart of perdition corresponding to this salvation. What exaggeration, what superfluity of effort, what unnecessary endeavor, there would seem to be here, if all men can after all be saved by discipline!
To have been an object of this redemption, but to fail of being redeemed, and for ever to be sinking as low as, by redemption, you would have been exalted, will be intolerable, more so, even, than the experience of those who fell from heaven and had no Redeemer.
If you who read these lines are not a partaker of the grace which the Holy Spirit imparts, you still may be. He has not withdrawn from you, for a subject like this would not attract and hold your attention, and awaken desire, were you given up to hardness of heart. Even you can be born again. With infinite ease, the Comforter can make you a new creature. Were there nothing supernatural in conversion, Christ would not have thrown such a mystery about a religious change as He does in his comparison of it to the wind. He calls it, also, being “born again." There is a divine, supernatural element, in conversion^ and it is the best part of it. If God creates you anew, that new creation is as indestructible as the soul itself. Let me beg of you to pause just here, wherever you are, close your eyes, and address a prayer to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. It is He who will have put it into your heart thus to pray; therefore, He is waiting to seal you to the day of redemption. Your views and feelings, your temper, disposition, frames of mind, tones of voice, in short, your whole consciousness, will be under his direction. He is so essential, that Christ left the world in order that the Holy Spirit might come. He has long striven with you, patiently, and with great forbearance. If the only sin which is unpardonable is a sin against Him, all sins against Him, it would seem, must have peculiar heinousness. For He is the ultimate remedy; the cross itself is in vain without Him. Let Him prevail with you. He will be to you all that Christ was to the disciples. He is " the earnest of heaven in our hearts.'
The Man Christ Jesus owed every thing to Him. So will you, present grace, and, in its largest sense, " communion' here; and, " He will show you things to come."
COME, thou HOLY SPIRIT! come,
And, from thine eternal home,
Shed the ray of light divine:
Come, thou Father of the poor,
Come, thou Source of all our store,
Come, within our bosoms shine.
Thou, of comforters the best;
Thou, the soul's most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below!
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful shadow from the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine!
Shine within these hearts of thine,
And our inmost being fill:
If thou take thy grace away.
Nothing pure in man will stay;
All our good is turned to ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew,
On our dryness pour thy dew,
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will.
Melt the frozen, warm the chill.
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful who adore
And confess thee, evermore,
In thy sevenfold gifts descend:
Give them virtue's sure reward;
Give them thy salvation. LORD;
Give them joys that never end.
HYMNS ANCIENT AND MODERN.