The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit begins, carries on, and consummates in us all spiritual feeling, all spiritual worship, all spiritual life and energy. There be nothing more hollow and unreal than religion without the Holy Spirit. That which is external and superficial, that which manifests itself in mere dress, and music, and routine service may flourish without Him; no, can only flourish in His absence. But the deep and the real must be His work from first to last. The Spirit is absolutely necessary to a religion of love, and liberty, and joy. Mere 'religiousness' is at every man's command. Any man may get it up in a day. But 'spirituality' comes from above, and is the product of the Spirit dwelling and working in the heart.

The 'bustle' of the present day hinders our discernment of this difference; no, it grieves the Spirit provoking Him utterly to depart; thus leaving us with a hollowness of heart which yields no rest nor satisfaction, and which cannot be acceptable to God. The Spirit of God loves retirement and silence; it is then He penetrates into our hearts.

It is the Holy Spirit who has been the life of the Church. When He came, all was life; when He departed, all was death. Nothing was lacking so long as He was in the midst, and when He left nothing could compensate for His withdrawal. When He was present, the Church was the garden of the Lord. When He forsook her, every herb and flower of that garden withered. It was the fulness of the Spirit's power, possessed and exercised by holy men, awakening, quickening, sanctifying, that wrought the mighty changes which history records.

Formalism, routine, and external religion, the excitements of mysticism- these are poor substitutes for the life, and glow, and energy of the Holy Spirit. Nothing but His own presence can avail to lift us out of the unreal religiousness into which we have fallen; to transform creeds into realities, and the bodily bowing of the head, or bending of the knee, into spiritual worship; turning the "dim religious light" into the sunshine of a heavenly noon; drawing out of our hymnals the deep 'heart music' of divine and blessed song; delivering us alike from Rationalism and Ritualism, from a hollow externalism, and from an impulsive and unreasoning fanaticism.

It is His presence only that can vitalize ordinances; clothe ministry with power; unite the broken Church; fill the void of aching hearts; impart to service, liberty and gladness; ward off error; and make truth mighty, filling our sanctuaries with living worshipers, and sending forth men of might to preach the everlasting gospel; and to proclaim, as in primitive days, the Christ that has come, and the Christ that is to come again.

The Spirit has come, in His love, to quicken the dead in sin; and He is daily moving upon the face of the waters; bringing life out of death. Nor is His arm shortened, that it cannot save.

The Spirit has come, in His love, to give light for darkness. Nor is there any human heart too dark for Him to illumine. He lights up souls. He lights up Churches. He lights up lands, making those who sit in darkness to see a great light.

The Spirit has come, in His love, to gather in the wanderers, far and near. No strayed one has gone too far into the wilderness for Him to follow and to bring back. The "ends of the earth" form the vast region into which His love has gone forth to seek, and find, and save.

The Spirit has come, in His love, to guide the doubting heart. He takes lovingly and gently the hand of the perplexed and inquiring, and leads them into the way of peace. He knows all their troubles and fears, so that they need not fear being misunderstood. He teaches their ignorance and shows them their mistakes, and points their eye to the cross.

The Spirit has come, in His love, to bind up the broken-hearted. His name is the Comforter, and His consolations are as abundant as they are everlasting. "Comfort, comfort my Persons," are the words which he has written down for every sorrowful one (Isa 40:1). In all trial, bereavement, pain, sorrow, let us realize the love of the Spirit. That love comes out most brightly and most tenderly in the day of mourning. In the chamber of sickness or of death, let us find strength and peace in the presence, companionship, and sympathy of the gracious Spirit.

The Spirit has come down, in His love, to seek after the backslider. From a heart that once owned Him, He has been driven out, and He has retired sorrowfully. But He has not ceased to desire a return to His old abode. He still pities, and yearns, and beseeches. "Turn, you backsliding children, for I am married unto you," are His words of longing and pity.

The Spirit has come, in His love, even to the mis-believing and the deluded, seeking to remove the mists with which a rebellious intellect has compassed itself about; and to lead them out into life, and love, and day. They are groping for an idea; and He brings them into contact with a Person, even God Himself. They are crying vaguely for knowledge; and He presents to them the wisdom deposited in the Person of the Word made flesh. They are in search of sympathy for their wounded hearts; and He places Himself before them in the fulness of His all sympathizing love. They are asking for a creed of certainty and perfection, on which their faith may rest; He offers Himself to them as a living and unerring Teacher- the Author of an infallible Book, all whose pages sparkle with the love of its loving Author. They crave beauty in worship, something to please the eye- aesthetic beauty, as they call it! He draws the eye to Him who is "the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely."

The Spirit has come, in His love, to build up His own. He seeks to fill, with His holy presence, the soul into which He has come. He wants, not a part of the man, but the whole- body, soul, and spirit- the entire being, that it may be altogether conformed to Himself. He has come to His temples, and His purpose is to make them in reality, what they are in name, the "habitation of God, the temples of the Holy Spirit."

The Gospel of the Holy Spirit's

Love

Horatius Bonar

Does the Holy Spirit love us?

There can be but one answer to this question. Yes! He does.

As truly as the Father loves us, as truly as the Son loves us, so truly does the

Spirit love us. The grace or free love which a sinner needs, and which has been

revealed and sealed to us through the Seed of the woman, the "Word made flesh,"

belongs equally to Father, Son, and Spirit. That love which we believe to be in God

must be the same in each Person of the Godhead, else the Godhead would be

divided; one Person at variance with the others, or, at least, less loving than the

others: which is impossible.

Twice over it is written, God is love (1 John 4:8,16); and this applies to each Person

of the Godhead. The Father is love; the Son is love; the Spirit is love. The Trinity is

a Trinity of Love.

When it is said, "God is a Spirit" (John 4:24), the words refer to each Person. If we

lose sight of the love of one, we shall lose sight of the love of all. That which is the

glory of Jehovah, is the glory of each of the three Persons. Let us beware of

misrepresenting the Trinity by believing in unequal love, a love that is not equally

large and free in each.

When it is said, "God is light" (1 John 1:5), we know that these words are true of the

whole three Persons; not merely of the Father or of the Son. The Father is light; the

Son is light; the Spirit is light. As of light, so of love; and he who would doubt that

the Spirit is love, must needs also doubt that the Spirit is light. That which is written

of God, is written of the Spirit of God. That "name" which God has proclaimed as

His, belongs to the Spirit as certainly as to the Father and the Son,- "The Lord God,

merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping

mercy for thousands" (Exo 34:6). Shall we rob the Holy Spirit of that blessed name?

His personality claims it; and the gracious characteristics which go to make up the

name, are as much those of the Spirit as those of the Father and the Son. The

personality of the Spirit requires that what is thus written of one should be

applicable to all. We are wont to say of the three Persons, "They are one God, the

same in substance, equal in power and glory." If so, then the love which we affirm

of the whole we must affirm of each. They must be equal in love, as well as in

"power and glory."

Let not the old question of unbelief come in "How can these things be?" We cannot

"find out the Almighty unto perfection" (Job 11:7); but shall this inability of ours lead

to doubt? Shall it not rather lead to faith? Shall we rob the Spirit of His love,

because we cannot understand the deep wonders of Godhead? Shall we not rather

say, If there be love in God at all, there must be love in the Spirit? For to Him it is

given to carry out in human hearts the purposes of redeeming love, in striving,

awakening, drawing, convincing, quickening, comforting; so that it is impossible to

suppose that His love can be less warm, less tender, less large, less personal than

the love of the Father and the Son.

Laying aside the disputes of intellectual pride, the questionings of vain human

reason, the puzzling suggestions of unhumbled self-righteousness, the fond

endeavors to comprehend the hidden things of God, the stubborn determination

not to believe unless we see "signs and wonders" (John 4:48), let us recognize in

that simple formula, God is love the foundation of our faith as to the Spirit's

gracious character, and the solution of all our perplexities as to His personal and

ineffable love. True, He did not take flesh for us; He did not become poor for us; He

did not die for us; He did not weep for us the human tears which the Son of God

wept over Jerusalem; but none the less does He love us; and none the less is His

work for us and in us the work of love,-love without bounds, or change, or end.

We are baptized "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit"

(Matt 28:19). That threefold name is love; or rather, that one name in its threefold

connection with the three Persons, unfolds itself as the expression of the threefold

love of Father, Son, and Spirit. The name thus named upon us is the divine

declaration and pledge to us of "the love of the Spirit." Our baptism says, not only,

"God the Father loves us," not only, "God the Son loves us"; but also, "God the

Spirit loves us." We are baptized into the love of the Spirit.

Perhaps much of our slow progress in the walk of faith is to be traced to our

overlooking the love of the Spirit. We do not deal with Him, for strength and

advancement, as one who really loves us, and longs to bless us, and delights to

help our infirmities (Rom 8:26). We regard Him as cold, or distant, or austere; we

do not trust Him for His grace, nor realize how much He is in earnest in His dealings

with us. More childlike confidence in Him and in His love would help us on mightily.

Let us not grieve Him, nor vex Him, nor quench Him by our untrustfulness, by

disbelieving or doubting the riches of His grace, the abundance of His

loving-kindness.

He is no mere "influence," but a living "Personality"; and there is a vast

difference between these two things. An "influence" cannot love us, and

we cannot love an "influence." If there is to be love, there must be

personality; and, in this case, it must be the personality of love. The fresh

breath of spring is an influence, but not a personality. It cannot love us nor call on

us to love it. The voice of that which we call "nature" is an influence, but not a

personality. There can be no mutual love between it and us. But a being with a soul

is a personality, not an influence; and the love of man or woman is a personal thing,

a true and real affection-one eye looking into another, and one heart touching its

fellow. So is it with the love of the Spirit. There is a personality about Him passing

all the personalities of earth,-passing all the personalities of men or angels; and it is

this divine personality that makes His love so precious and so suitable, as well as so

true and real. There is no reality of love like that of the Spirit. It has nothing in

common with the coldness or distance of a mere "influence." It comes closely home

to a human heart, because it is the love of Him who formed the heart, and who is

seeking to make it His abode forever.

The proofs of His love are abundant. They are divine proofs; and, therefore,

assuredly true. It is God who has given them to us, that no doubt of the Spirit's love

may ever enter our minds. They are spread over all Scripture, in different forms

and aspects. While the Bible was meant to be specially the revelation of the Son of

God, it is also the revelation of the Holy Spirit. He reveals Himself while revealing

Christ. He utters His own love while showing us the love of the Father and the Son.

The thoughts of the Spirit are thoughts of love. The apostle uses the words,

"the mind of the Spirit," in connection with His gracious intercession (Rom 8:26,27);

and we know that intercession implies love. The "groanings that cannot be uttered"

are awakened in us by the Spirit in His love. He thinks of us; and His thoughts are

"precious" (Psalm 139:17). Yes; He thinks of us; and His thoughts are thoughts of

peace (Jer 29:11). The Bible is filled with the thoughts of the Spirit; and they are

love. They breathe in every page of Scripture; for holy men of God "spoke as they

were moved by the Holy Spirit."

The ways of the Spirit are the ways of love. His manifold dealings with the sons

of men, in "opening hearts" (Acts 16:14), teaching, sanctifying, chastening, are the

dealings of love,-love which many waters cannot quench, and which the floods

cannot drown. The faintest touch of His hand is the touch of love. The gentlest

whisper of His voice is the whisper of love. All His dealings from day to day,

whether of cheer or of chastisement, whether of warning or of welcome, are those

of love. In a thousand ways He beckons us to come to the Cross; He draws us,

unconsciously and imperceptibly, but irresistibly, away from sin and self to God and

heaven. He has not, indeed, human tears to shed, like the son of God when he wept

over Jerusalem; but not the less are His yearnings true and tender, and all His ways

toward us are ways of unutterable compassion (see Gen 6:3; Psalm 51:11,12; Isa

55:8). He is "very pitiful, and of tender mercy."

The works of the Spirit are the works of love. When He "garnished the

heavens" (Job 26:13), it was the work of love. When he moved upon the face of the

deep (Gen 1:2), it was in love. When He came upon holy men of old, it was in love.

When He wrote the Scriptures, it was in love,-love to us. When He anointed Jesus of

Nazareth to preach the gospel to the poor, it was in love to us. When He fulfills His

office of "guiding into all truth," it is in love. When He opens eyes and hearts, it is in

love. When He chastens, it is in love. When He comforts, it is in love. When He

sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, it is in love. When He, as one with the

Father and the Son, wrote the seven epistles of the Revelation, it was in love,-as

the close of each of them shows: "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit

says unto the churches" (Rev 2:7). His works in the soul of man, in regenerating,

upholding, and perfecting, are the works of love,-love like that of Christ, "that

passes knowledge": love to the chief of sinners; love to those who have vexed and

resisted and quenched Him; love which says, "How shall I give you up, Ephraim?

how shall I deliver you, Israel?" (Hosea 11:8).

The words of the Spirit are the words of love. That which we call "the word of

God" is specially the Spirit's word: and it overflows with love; love which, while it

condemns the sin, presents pardon to the sinner; love which, while it spreads out

before us "the exceeding sinfulness of sin," proclaims aloud, to the guiltiest of the

guilty, free forgiveness and "deliverance from the wrath to come." The gospel of

Christ contains in it the good news of the Spirit's love. "He shall baptize you with the

Holy Spirit" (Matt 3:11) are the words in which is described the fitting out of men

for preaching the good news; and in this baptism we have the manifestation of the

Spirit's love. He baptizes because He loves. He sends out men to tell of His love;

and the baptism with which He baptizes them is to fit them for this message of love.

By this baptism the words of love are put into their lips; and these words are truly

those of the Spirit Himself, from whatever lips they may come, by whatever pen

they may be written down. They are the words of sincerity and truth. He means

what He says when He sends out His servants with the language of love upon their

tongues.

Hear some of His words of grace,-grace as boundless and as suitable as

that of the Father and the Son; grace which has lost none of its largeness

or freeness by the lapse of ages or the desperate resistance of human

hearts: "Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; who

redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with loving-kindness and

tender mercies" (Psalm 103:3,4); "O Lord, I will praise you: though You were angry

with me, Your anger is turned away" (Isa 12:1); "Seek you the Lord while He may

be found" (Isa 55:6); "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as

snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isa 1:18); "As I live,

says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked" (Eze 33:11); "I

drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love" (Hosea 11:4); "Who is a God

like unto You, that pardons iniquity" (Micah 7:18); "The Lord is good; a

stronghold in the day of trouble" (Nahum 1:7); "How great is His goodness" (Zech

9:17). These are the Spirit's own words; and He writes them as the witness for God,

the revealer of the divine character, the Unfolder of the love of Father, Son, and

Spirit. They are the words of the Spirit, spoken before the Son of God came into the

world to reveal and to embody in Himself the love of God to man. The New

Testament is yet more abundant in its utterances of love: and in every one of them

the Spirit has His part: until all is summed up in the wondrous words which time

cannot weaken, and which long use cannot make stale: "The Spirit and the bride

say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come.

And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev 22:17).

The Holy Spirit is no mere mechanical agent in the great work of a sinner's

deliverance, and of the Church's up building, obediently doing the work appointed to

Him. "I delight to do Your will" is as true of the Spirit as the Son. He loves the

sinner; therefore He lays hold of him. He pities his misery; therefore He stretches

out the hand of help. He has no pleasure in his death; therefore He puts forth His

saving power. He is longsuffering and patient; therefore He strives with him day by

day; and though "vexed," "resisted," "grieved," and "quenched," He refuses to

retire from, or give up, any sinner on this side of eternity. The extent to which we

resist Him, and the amount of His forbearing love, we cannot know. This only we

may say, that our stubbornness is something infinitely fearful and malignant, while

His patient grace passes all understanding.

We are little alive to the injury we do to ourselves by any misunderstanding as to

the mind and the work of the Spirit. The injustice which we do to Him is great; and

the wrong which we inflict upon ourselves is no less so. No mistakes as to the

Spirit's gracious character can be trivial or harmless. To regard Him as "austere," or

"hard," or inaccessible, or needing to be persuaded to do His work in us, is to treat

Him as at variance with the Father and the Son; slow to carry out the great purpose

of divine love, in which purpose the three Persons of the Godhead are equally

concerned. To raise questions as to the riches of His grace is to misread Scripture,

and to put a dark and false construction upon His testimony for Christ, as well as

upon His dealings with the sons of men,-His dealings with those who have been

saved, as well as with those who are lost. For what do the saved ones not owe to

His love; and what would that love not have done for the lost, had they not

stubbornly set it at nothing to the last! "How often would I have gathered your

children" were the words which accompanied the tears of the Son of God over the

rebellious city; and they are words equally expressive of the Spirit's feelings toward

the stout-hearted of every age and nation.

Imperfect views of the Spirit's character may not be regarded by some as serious or

fatal, but it is hardly possible that they can be entertained without exercising a

darkening and deadening influence upon the soul: not in the same way as defective

views of Christ's work affect us, but still with a most evil result both upon the

conscience and the heart,-as if there were something in the Spirit which repelled us,

whatever there might be in Christ to attract us; as if the light which the Cross

throws upon the love of the Spirit were not quite in harmony with that which it

reveals of the love of Christ; as if the Spirit were not always as ready with His help

as is the Son.

All wrong thoughts of God, whether of Father, Son, or Spirit, must cast a shadow

over the soul that entertains them. In some cases the shadow may not be so deep

and cold as in others; but never can it be a trifle. And it is this that furnishes the

proper answer to the flippant question so often asked, Does it really matter what a

man believes? All defective views of God's character tell upon the life of the soul and

the peace of the conscience. We must think right thoughts of God if we would

worship Him as He desires to be worshiped; if we would live the life He wishes us

to live, and enjoy the peace which He has provided for us.

The want of stable peace, of which so many complain, may arise from imperfect

views of the Spirit's love. True, our peace comes from the work of the Substitute

upon the cross, from the blood of the one sacrifice, from the sinbearing of Him who

has made peace by the blood of the cross. But it is the Holy Spirit who glorifies

Christ to us, and takes the scales from our eyes. If then we doubt His love, can we

expect Him to reveal the Son in our hearts? Are we not thrusting Him away, and

hindering that view of the peace-making which He only can give? Trust His love,

and He will make known the Peacemaker to you. Trust His love, and He will show

the precious blood by which the guiltiest conscience is purged, and the peace which

passes all understanding is imparted. He is the Spirit of peace, and His work is the

work of peace. His office is to make known to us the Prince of Peace. Can there be

peace without the recognition of the Holy Spirit's love? Can there fail to be peace

when this is recognized and acted on? Doubts as to the love of the Spirit must

inevitably intercept the peace which the peace-making cross presents to us.

Perhaps the want of faith, which we often mourn over, may arise from our not

realizing the Spirit's love. "Faith [no doubt] comes by hearing, and hearing by the

word of God": yet it is the Holy Spirit who shines upon the word; it is He who gives

the seeing eye and the hearing ear. Under the pressure of unbelief, have we fled to

Him and appealed to His love? "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief," may be

as aptly a cry to the Spirit as to the Son of God. He helps our infirmities; and in

the infirmity of our faith He will most assuredly succor us. It is through Him that

we become strong in faith; and He loves to impart the needed strength. He gives

to all men, liberally, and upbraids not. Yet in our dealings with Him regarding

faith, let us remember that He does not operate in some mystical or miraculous

way, as if imparting to us a new faculty called faith; but by taking of the things of

Christ and showing them to us; so touching our faculties by His mighty yet invisible

hand, that, before we are aware, these disordered souls of ours begin to work aright,

and these dull eyes of ours begin to see what was all along before them, but what

they never had perceived, "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our

Lord." Thus He works in us, often slowly and imperceptibly, but with divine

power, making us to understand the gospel and to draw out of it that light

and life which it contains for the dead and the dark. Looking at the cross,

under the Spirit's enlightenment, we grow in faith. For never does He

produce or increase faith in us without keeping our eye steadfastly fixed

upon the great redeeming work of the incarnate Son. He is not the Spirit of

unbelief or bondage, but of faith and liberty; and His desire is that we

should be delivered from unbelief and bondage. He loves us too well to be

indifferent to our remaining in distance or in distrust. He longs to see us children of

faith, not of unbelief; to make us strong in faith; to remove whatever from within or

without hinders its growth. Trust His love for the increase of faith; for deliverance

from the evil heart of unbelief; for revealing to you the bright object of faith,-Christ,

and "God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing unto men their

trespasses." As truth is the foundation of faith, so, as "the Spirit of truth," He guides

us out of error into truth, and thus leads us out of unbelief into faith; making us to

see that the root of what we called our want of faith, was not that we were believing

the right thing in a wrong way (as is so often said), but that we were not believing

the right thing, but something else which could not bring rest to us in what way

soever we might believe it.

Perhaps our want of joy may arise from our over-looking the love of the Spirit.

Peace is one thing; joy is something more,- "joy unspeakable and full of glory."

Assuredly He is the Spirit of joy, and as such delights to impart His joy. He who, by

the lips of His Apostle, said, "Rejoice in the Lord always," wants to see you a joyful

man. Will you trust Him for this? Will you rest in His love for this gift? Do not say,

Joy is a secondary thing: a man may be a Christian without joy; some of the best of

God's people have gone mourning all their days. These are poor excuses for not

possessing what God wants you to possess, and what would make you ten times

more useful to all around. God wishes you to be joyful. Your testimony to God is

imperfect without joy. Cultivate joy; and in order to do so effectually, take firmer

hold of the Spirit's power, and rest more implicitly in His love. He loves you too well

to wish you to be gloomy. Be filled with the Spirit and you will be filled with joy. Joy

is a great help in living a holy and consistent life. Holiness is joy, and joy is holiness.

Accept the Spirit's love for both of these.

The "seal of the Spirit" (Eph 1:13); the "witness of the Spirit" (Rom 8:16);

the "indwelling" of the Spirit (Rom 8:11); the "inworking" of the Spirit

(Eph 1:19); the "help" of the Spirit (Rom 8:26); the "liberty" of the Spirit

(2 Cor 3:17); the "strengthening" of the Spirit (Eph 3:16); the "fulness" of

the Spirit (Eph 5:18); the "teaching" of the Spirit (John 14:26); the

"baptism" of the Spirit (Mark 1:8);-all these are most closely connected

with the "love of the Spirit"; and he who would separate them from that

love, would rob them of all their meaning and power and consolation.

It is the loving Spirit that seals, and witnesses, and indwells, and inworks, and

helps, and liberates, and strengthens, and teaches, and baptizes. So that in seeking

these blessings we must ever remember that we are dealing with one whose love

anticipates our longings, and on whose side there exists no hindrance to our

possessing them all. Nowhere in Scripture has God led us to suppose that the Holy

Spirit would be lacking to us in any time of need, or that we could be beforehand

with Him in any desire of ours for any spiritual blessing. "If you then, being evil,

know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your

heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" (Luke 11:13).

In our day, when that which is miraculous or supernatural is suspected or scorned, it

is not easy even to gain a hearing for such truths. The Holy Spirit, we may say, is

discarded as the most incredible part of the supernatural and impersonal. He

Himself is regarded as an airy nothing, or as mist; and His direct and divine agency

is treated as the dream of diseased enthusiasm. The removal of the supernatural

from religion means specially the removal of the Spirit. To retain Him personally in

our theology is considered to be retaining the most incredible part of the

supernatural,-the most visionary article in our creed.

Hence the need of bringing fully into view both His personality and His character.

That modern unbelief should dislike the whole subject, and treat it as incompatible

with reason, and therefore incapable of proof, as being wholly beyond the range of

our senses, need not surprise us: nor would we attempt to meet Rationalism on its

own ground. But what we say is this: Our information regarding the Holy Spirit must

come wholly from revelation; and the question is, Does the Bible bear us out in the

above statements? It certainly does seem to contain the doctrine we have been

affirming. Its Author evidently meant us to accept that doctrine as true. If that

doctrine cannot be true, it must be honestly struck out of the Bible; not by

explaining texts away, or misinterpreting whole chapters, but by boldly affirming

that Scripture is inaccurate. The words regarding the Spirit are too plain to be

diluted into unmeaning figures. He who inspired the Bible has used language that

cannot be mistaken. He has not left us in any doubt as to what He intended. Hence

the quarrel of unbelief is a quarrel with revelation, and more specially with the

Author of revelation. This is the real point at issue in these days, in the controversy

with Rationalism.

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit's person and work must stand or fall with

the Bible. If it is incredible, then Scripture has utterly deceived us, and the God

who made us has given us a book, as the revelation of divine truth, which contains

what no man ought to believe or can believe. If the innumerable references to the

Spirit be mere figures of speech,- Orientalisms,-meaning nothing real, then to

accept them as literal, and to believe in a personal Spirit, must be pure fanaticism;

and as to such a thing as the love of the Spirit, only visionaries or mystics would

accept it.

Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure; and the Word of God is true and

real. Heaven and earth may pass away, but one jot or one tittle of what is written in

Scripture cannot. What God has made known to us concerning the Spirit,-His

wisdom, love, holiness, and power, remains unaltered throughout the ages; as true

to us in these last days as it was in the beginning.

That the Holy Spirit is the producer in the human heart of everything that God calls

religion, is beyond question to any one who accepts Bible statements as divinely

true. He begins, carries on, and consummates in us all spiritual feeling, all spiritual

worship, all spiritual life and energy. Nor can there be anything more hollow and

unreal than religion without the Holy Spirit. That which is external and

superficial,-which manifests itself in dress, and music, and routine service,-may

flourish without Him; no, can only flourish in His absence. But the deep and the

real must be His work from first to last. The love of the Spirit is absolutely

necessary to a religion of love, and liberty, and joy. Religiousness is at every man's

command. Any man may get it up in a day; but religion comes from above, and is

the product of the Spirit dwelling and working in the heart.

The bustle of the present day hinders our discernment of this difference; no, it

grieves the Spirit provoking Him utterly to depart; thus leaving us with a hollowness

of heart which yields no rest nor satisfaction, and which cannot be acceptable to

God. "The Spirit of God," says Melancthon, "loves retirement and silence; it is then

He penetrates into our hearts. The Bride of Christ does not take her stand in the

streets and cross ways, but she leads her spouse into the house of her mother"

(Song 8:2).

"The gifts of the Holy Spirit"! This is the Church's heritage (Acts 2:38,39). How far

she has claimed it or used it is a serious question; but that this gift was meant for

her in all ages is beyond a doubt. The whole book of the Acts of the Apostles is

evidence of this. "My Spirit remains among you," is a promise for the Church as

truly as for Israel (Hag 2:5).

From the beginning it has been so; and the holy men raised up by God to speak His

words or do His works were men "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Exo 31:2). It is this

Spirit that has been the life of the Church. When He came, all was life; when He

departed, all was death. Nothing was lacking so long as He was in the midst, and

when He left nothing could compensate for His withdrawal. When He was present,

the Church was the garden of the Lord; when He forsook her, every herb and flower

of that garden withered.

Even in Old Testament days it was so; but since Pentecost, more largely and more

powerfully. The indwelling and inworking Spirit, who is the promise of the Father

and gift of the Son, is that which belongs to the Church of every age, little as she

may have claimed or welcomed her peculiar glory.

"The gift" and "the gifts" are, both of them, expressions used in connection with the

Spirit (Acts 8:20-10:45). He is one, yet manifold; called "the seven Spirits of God,"

and "the seven lamps of fire," and the "seven eyes," and the "seven horns" (Rev

3:1; 4:5; 5:6). He is not only spoken of in connection with each saint, but with the

body, the Church universal, which is the "habitation of God, through the Spirit" (Eph

2:22); "the temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19); and, as such, possessor of

His love.

Such is the manifold fulness of the Spirit which as the gift of Christ, is the property

of the whole Church of God. That fulness is not only the fulness of peace, and

wisdom, and holiness, but of love. It is given her, not for herself only, but for the

world out of which she has been called. She is to shine in the light of this love upon

a dark earth. She is to pour out of the fulness which she receives upon a parched

and needy world; out of her are to flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). Great is

the world's need; but not greater than the provided supply: for the fountain of love,

out of which the Church receives and pours this living water, is inexhaustible and

divine.

The love of the Spirit is, like that of the Son, a love that passes knowledge, a

fountain whose waters fail not: "A pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,

proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb" (Rev 22:1).

In the possession of this heavenly gift,-of these sevenfold gifts,-the Church is

unspeakably rich, whatever her outward condition may be. Enjoying the fulness of

this abiding Spirit, she manifests her character as the witness for Christ and as the

light of the world. These gifts of the ascended Christ (Eph 4:8) made her what she

was meant to be in the midst of the world's evil and of the powers of darkness, "a

burning and shining light." In the power of such gifts she went forth to do battle with

the idolatries and immoralities of heathendom. Boldly entering the cities of classic

fame, she took possession of pagan temples and Jewish synagogues; and thousands

everywhere, through apostolic preaching gathered round the throne.

It was not the gift of miracle, of healing, or of tongues, that did the work. These

were subordinate things, and in many places never used by the apostles. These

were not "the best gifts" which we are commanded to covet (1 Cor 12:31). It was

the fulness of spiritual power, possessed and exercised by holy men,

awakening, quickening, sanctifying, that wrought the mighty changes

which history records. It is well that we should look back to Pentecost, with

wistful eyes, longing for a ministry of Pentecostal power, as the only remedy for the

unbelief of the last days. But mere physical miracles are not the desirable things.

The gifts of the Spirit, the Church's inalienable inheritance, are quite apart from

bodily manifestations; and they remain with us still. But do we claim them? Do we

use them? Do we not trust in other strength? Do we not lean on learning, on

science, on talent, as if by these we were to fight and overcome? And, in so doing,

do we not mistake our true position, and character, and mission? No, do we not

grieve and quench the Spirit?

Yet, the love of the Spirit is unquenchable. He is unwilling to depart. He

despises not the day of small things; but He bids us look beyond and above them.

Formalism, routine, and external religion, the excitements of mysticism,-these are

poor substitutes for the life, and glow, and energy of the Holy Spirit. Nothing but His

own presence can avail to lift us out of the unreal religiousness into which we have

fallen; to transform creeds into realities, and the bodily bowing of the head, or

bending of the knee, into spiritual worship; turning the "dim religious light" into the

sunshine of a heavenly noon; drawing out of our hymnals the deep heart-music of

divine and blessed song; delivering us alike from Rationalism and Ritualism, from a

hollow externalism, and from an impulsive and unreasoning fanaticism. It is His

presence only that can vitalize ordinances; clothe ministry with power; unite the

broken Church; fill the void of aching hearts; impart to service, liberty and

gladness; ward off error; and make truth mighty,-filling our sanctuaries with living

worshipers, and sending forth men of might to preach the everlasting gospel; and

to proclaim, as in primitive days, the Christ that has come, and the Christ that is to

come again.

He has come, in His love, to quicken the dead in sin; and He is daily moving

upon the face of the waters,-bringing life out of death. Nor is His arm shortened,

that it cannot save.

He has come, in His love, to give light for darkness. Nor is there any human

heart too dark for Him to illumine. He lights up souls. He lights up Churches. He

lights up lands, making them that sit in darkness to see a great light.

He has come, in His love, to gather in the wanderers, far and near. No

strayed one has gone too far into the wilderness for Him to follow and to bring back.

The "ends of the earth" form the vast region into which His love has gone forth to

seek, and find, and save.

He has come, in His love, to guide the doubting heart. He takes lovingly and

gently the hand of the perplexed and inquiring, and leads them into the way of

peace. He knows all their troubles and fears, so that they need not fear being

misunderstood. He teaches their ignorance and shows them their mistakes, and

points their eye to the cross.

He has come, in His love, to bind up the broken-hearted. His name is the

Comforter, and His consolations are as abundant as they are everlasting. "Comfort

you, comfort you my Persons," are the words which he has written down for every

sorrowful one (Isa 40:1). In all trial, bereavement, pain, sorrow, let us realize the

love of the Spirit. That love comes out most brightly and most tenderly in the day of

mourning. In the chamber of sickness or of death, let us find strength and peace in

the presence, companionship, and sympathy of the gracious Spirit.

He has come down, in His love, to seek after the backslider. From a heart

that once owned Him, He has been driven out, and He has retired sorrowfully. But

He has not ceased to desire a return to His old abode. He still pities, and yearns,

and beseeches. "Turn, you backsliding children, for I am married unto you," are His

words of longing and pity.

He has come, in His love, even to the mis-believing and the deluded,

seeking to remove the mists with which a rebellious intellect has compassed itself

about; and to lead them out into life, and love, and day. They are groping for an

idea; and He brings them into contact with a Person, even God Himself. They are

crying vaguely for knowledge; and He presents to them the wisdom deposited in the

Person of the Word made flesh. They are in search of sympathy for their wounded

hearts; and He places Himself before them in the fulness of His all-sympathizing

love. They are asking for a creed of certainty and perfection, on which their faith

may rest; He offers Himself to them as a living and unerring Teacher,-the Author of

an infallible Book, all whose pages sparkle with the love of its loving Author. They

crave beauty in worship, something to please the eye,-aesthetic beauty, as they call

it! He draws the eye to Him who is "the chief among ten thousand, and

altogether lovely."

He has come, in His love, to build up His own. He seeks to fill, with His holy

presence, the soul into which He has come. He wants, not a part of the man, but

the whole,-body, soul, and spirit,-the entire being, that it may be altogether

conformed to Himself. He has come to His temples, and His purpose is to make

them in reality, what they are in name, the "habitation of God, the temples of the

Holy Spirit.