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TURNBULL, D.D. 1 % (All rights reser'ved) • of FOREWORD Among the many treatises upon the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, these two volumes from the pen of Dr. A. B. Simpson have won a unique and com- manding place. Lucidity of style, comprehensiveness of treatment, and spirituality of message are the marked characteristics of these, as of all the works of this gifted writer. Profound students of Scripture and a host of beginners in the faith have alike been helped by their rich spiritual instruction. Just as his great series, ''Christ in the Bible,*' opens the Scriptures to reveal Jesus upon every page, so this great exposition, **The Holy Spirit; or, Power from on High " leads the reader to recognize the Holy Spirit in the types, sym- bols, and prophecies of the Old Testament, and in the promises, records, and revelation of the New Testa- ment. This monumental work shoidd be in the library of every worker who covets a spiritual ministry, and should be prayeriuUy perused by every Christian who longs for a life of victory. Its pages will repeatedly convict, inspire, and refresh. The chapters of these books were originally given as burning messages from the Gospel Tabernacle p\dpit in New York and were designed to lead the members of the congregation into the personal experience of the truth set forth. Sunday after Sunday Dr. Simpson poured out his heart in Scriptural teaching and earnest exhortation, aiming constantly to lead his auditors to definite acceptance of the fullness of the Spirit. His own life flamed with the reality of the message his lips proclaimed. These volumes, therefore, are the vials con- taining the essence of Dr. Simpson's deepest ministry. Because of the nature of their preparation, there is in 3 FOREWORD tliesL' pa^es a pinifjfcm-e that penclratt's the soul and a power that strangely moves the spirit. Keadcrs of these and other books of Dr. Simpson will readily understand the constant increase of the move- ment which he initiated. The man passed on, but his message abides. It was given to him to restate in kindling word the eternal truths of Scripture. He brought no new message but earnestly summoned the Church to listen to the old, old story in its revealed completeness. The conviction is growing that Albert B. Simpson was a voice to his generation like that of Luther and Wesley. Like Luther's classic on Galatians and John Wesley's immortal sermons, the writings of Dr. Simpson are a sacred heritage. Among all these treasures none is more vitally important to Christians generally or more worthy of wide dissemination than "The Holy Spirit; or, Power from on High." Walter AL Turnbull. ;i if. INTRODUCTION. BY REV. STEPHEN MERRITT. Dear Brother Simpson : It was a cause of great joy to my soul to read the announcement that the first volume of The Holy Spirit, or, Power From on High, would soon be issued. You will remember that at the Old Or- chard Convention last year I was led to exclaim, "The hook of the Holy Ghost is yet unwritten," and to ro(iuest tlie vast audience to rise and pray that the Holy Spirit might inspire Rev. A. B, Simpson to write the work of llie age for Ilim. That this petition is now being an- swered is the delight of my life, I cannot but believe that He has selected you for this work of faith and labor of love, and that He has had you in peculiar training and made Himself personally known to you, so that you may be able, with the pen of a ready writer, to make Him known to a hungry, famishing church and world. I rejoice that you know Him, and that He knows you, and I believe that you know by wisdom from above how to make Him known. 1 am so glad you have written not an artick, a treatise, or sermons; but volumes — to show His com- pleteness of power, His adequateness, and adaptibility to meet every need of the body, soul, and spirit, for time and for eternity. 1 have not read tho. forthcoming volume, but shall do so with intense interest, pleasure, and profit, for in it I shall see the mind of the Spirit as expressed by Him thr ugh your God-touched pen. What strides He has taken since you first began to 7 8 INTRODUCTION toach Hira; with what desire the people receive Him and tht. truth eonceming Him; and how abundantly He blesses with power all who accept Him. This is the Book of His Age. Thousands will rise up and call you blessed for its publication, and your influence for Ilim will be greatly enhanced by Him for His glory ParousYa '^'^^*^"' "^'^'^^ ^^ ^«'^'' heart-the coming Stephen Mebritt. CONTENTS PAGE Foreword 3 Introduction 7 I. liike a Dove (Genesis) 15 II. The Breatii of God (Genesis) 24 III. The Sword of the Spirit (Genesis) 37 IV. The Pillar of Cloud and Fire (Exodus and Numbers) 53 V. The Livin«jr Water (Exodus and Num- bers) fi6 VI. The Anointing: Oil (Exodus and Levi- ticus) 76 Vll. The Baptism witli Fire 87 VITI. The Spirit of Wisdom 98 IX. The Holy Spirit in the Book of Judges 109 X. The Spirit-filled Man 121 XI. The Holy Spirit in the Lives of Saul and David ( I and 2 Samuel) 129 XII. The Holy Spirit in the Book of Proverbs 141 XIII. The Still Smnll A^oice (1 Kings) ...... 151 XIV. The Pot of Oil [2 Kings) 165 XV. The Valley of Ditches (2 Kings) 174 XVI. The Spirit of Inspiration 183 XVII. The Holy Spirit in the Book of Joel ... 195 XVIII. The Holy Spirit in the Book of Isaiah . . 206 XIX. The Holy Spirit in the Life and Testi- mony of Jeremiah 217 XX. The Holy Spirit in Ezekiel 232 XXI. The Spirit of the Resurrection (Ezekiel) 244 9 10 CONTENTS FAGK XXTT. The River of Blessing (Ezekiel) 253 XXIII. The Holy Spirit in the Days of the Res- toration 263 XXIV. The Olive Trees and the Golden Lamps (Zechariah) 274 XXV. The Last Message of the Holy Ghost to the Old Dispensation 285 chaptp:r I. LIKE A DOVE. THE first cmhlcin under which we see the IToly* Spirit in the New Testament is the dove desct^nding upon the head of Jesus at His baptism on the banks of the Jordan. The first emblem under which the Holy Spirit is pre- sented in the Old Testament is also a dove. In th\i story of creation, in the first chapter of Genesis, second verse, we read: "The earth was without form and void,| and darkness brooded over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters." This is the figure of the mother dove brooding over her nest and cherishing her young. What a strange background for such a picture; chaos, desolation, the seething waters, the hissing flames, the wild abyss, th(^ starless night, the reign of ruin, death, and desolation! This was thf! scene where the mother dove of eternal love and peace began to build her nest, and she rested not until out of that scene of wreck she had evolved a bright and happy world, and a smiling paradise, with its human family and its pure and heavenly happiness and hope. We pass over seven chapters, and we come to anoti er scene of desolation and wreck. The waters of the de- luge are sweeping round the world. The work of twenty centuries is submerged beneath that awful flood, and 'he world's countless millions are lying in d'cath beneath those waves. One solitary ship is riding above the f.torm with eight human beings within its walls, the sole survivors of all earth's population. Once again we behold the figure of the dove. We read in Genesis 8: 6-12: "And it came to pass, at the end of 15 16 rOWEK FROM ON HIGH forty clays, thrt Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: and he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters wt3re dried up from off the earth. "Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground: but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto hira into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth : then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. "And he stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark: and the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf, pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. "And he stayed yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him any more." Back of this dove there is another figure, the black- winged raven, the emblem of Satan, as the other is of the Holy Ghost. And now we see three very remarkable stages iu the sending forth of this dove, and they seem to sp^ak of three dispensations of the Holy Spirit. First, we have tlie dove going forth frcia the a'\, and finding no rest up^ r the wild and di'ifting waste of sin and judgmc^nt. This represt^nts the Old Testament period, perhaps, when the Holy Ghost visited this sin- ful world, but could find no resting-place, and ever went back to the bosom of God. Next, v/e have the dove going forth and returning with the olive leaf in her mouth, a symbol and a pledge of peace and reconciliation, a sign that judgment had passed and peace was returning. Surely this may beau- tifully represent the next stage of the Holy Spirit's manifestation, the going forth in the ministrj^ and resur- LIKE A DOVK 17 rection of Jesus Christ, to proclaim reconciliation to a sinful world. But, as yet, He is not at liberty to reside in this Kin- cursed earth. There is, therefore, a third stage, when, at length, the dove goes forth from the ark and returns no more, but makes the world its home, and builds its nest amid the habitations of men. This is the third and present stage of the Holy Spirit's blessed work. Thus He has now come forth, not to visit this sinful world, returning again to heaven, but to make it His abiding home. During the ministry of Christ on earth, the Spirit dwelt in Him, and not in men. Jesus said He was with the disciples, but He adds, **He shall be in you." Like Noah's dove, still lingering in the ark. and going forth only to visit the earth, so the Holy Ghost dwelt in Jesus, and touched the hearts of men from time to time. But now Jesus has sent Him forth, and His residence is no longer in heaven, but in the heart of the believer, and in the bosom of the Chureh. This earth is now His home; and here among sinful, suffering men, the same dove is building her nest and rearing her brood for the celestial realms, where they shall one day soar and sing In the light of God. Such is the symbolical unfolding of the Holy Spirit in these two first pictures of the Old Testament. Let us now gather out of the figure itself, some of its most pointed lessons and suggestions. The first thought is motherhood. It is the figure of the mother dove. In one of the recent and most brilliant works of Mr. Drummond, he develops with great fullness the idea that the goal of nature is always motherhood. In the vegetable ereation everything moTt>s toward 18 POWER FROM ON HIGH seed and fruit. The flower is but the cradle and the swaddling bands of the living germ. The plant lives simply to develop the life of another plant, to reproduce itself. Thus, in the natural world, the first appearance of love is not in the sexual, but in the maternal relations; and in like manner, the great thought in the heart of God is motherhood, and God Himself possesses in Himself that true nature which has been manifested in the creation. There is in the divine Trinity a personality corres- ponding to human relationships. Human fatherhood express-es a need which is met in God the Father. Hu- man motherhood has its origin in the Holy Ghost. Hu- man brotherhood, and the higher, closer fellowship of the husband and the bridegroom, are met in Christ, the Son of God, our Brother and our Bridegroom. We cannot reason out the divine Trinity, but God can make it real to our spiritual instincts. There are times when we need a father's strength and love, and our pressed spirits cry out, **0h, if my father were only here, how quickly he w^ould help me!" And God our Father answers that cry. There are times when the orphaned spirit feels the need of a mother's more delicate and tender touch, and we think how mother once used to comfort and help us as no other frend could do. Then we need the mother heart of God. " ~ "' ~ I envy not the man who has outgrown the weakness of needing a mother's love, and whose heart finds no response to such words as these: Who fed me from hpr gentle breast f Who taught me in her arms to rest? And on my lips sweet kisses pressed! My mother. \', ho ran to help me when I fell, And would sotne pretty story tell, Or kiss the plsi^'.o to make it well? My mother. LIKE A DOVE J9 The Holy Ghost, the author oi the mother's heart and the child's dependent love, is able to meet in us the deep need which has outgrown our infant years, and still lo:)ks up to God with its orphaned cry for love and sympathy. Also there is in eveiy human heart the memory of some brave, true brother, and a longing for o divine arm that can uphold us with a love **that sticketh closer than a brother"; yes, there is a deeper longing for »i friendship more intimate and a fellowship more dear, which Jesus meets as the divine Husband, the Ishi of our heart. All the representations which the Scriptures give us of the Holy Ghost are in harmony with this thought of divine motherhood. The regeneration of the soul is described as a new birth, and the Holy Ghost is the mother that gives us this birth. The guidance and nurture of the Spirit after our conversion are described in language bor- rowed from the nursery and the home. In the deeper needs of the soul, the comfort of the Holy Ghost is described to us under the very iiuage of a mother's caresses and a mother's love. "As one whom his mothei' comforteth, so will I eomfort you, and ye shall be com- forted, saith the Lord." In turn, as we are filled with the Holy Ghost, we ourselves have the mother-heart for others, and are able to reflect the blessing and dispense the comfort which we have received. Our prayers for others be- come maternal longings, travailings, and soul-births, and we learn to say with the apostle, ''My little children, of v.hom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you," and to understand such language as this, "As soon as Zion travailed she brought forth." The Holy Ghost in the consecrated heart often gives a yearning for others, and a prayer for the lost and the tempted, as intensely real as the pangs of maternal 20 POWER FROM ON HIGH auguisli iiud love; and people are born of us as truly as the children of our households, and are linked to us by bonds as real as our natural kindred. n. The figure of the dove is suggestive of peace. The dove from the ark was the messenger of peace, and brought back an olive branch as the symbol of recon- ciliation. Thus is the Holy Spirit the messenger of peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He loads the soul to understand and accept the message of mercy and to find the peace of God. He then brings the deeper *' peace of God, which keeps the heart and mind through Christ Jesus." Wherever the Holy Spir- it reigns there is peace. Back of the picture of the dove is the raven, rest- lessly passing to and fro, to and fro, to and fro, a type of the troubled spirit of evil, that finds no rest even in the pleasures of sin, but is driven from excitement to excitement in the vain pursuit of rest, until at last it is thrown upon the wild billows of a lost eternity, the victim of everlasting disquietude and unrest. But the spirit in which the Holy Ghost rules is at rest. It has a peace that nothing can offend, ' ' the peace of God that passeth all understanding." ui. THE DOVE IS THE SYMBOL OF PURITY. ''Harmless as a dove," is Christ's interpretation of the beautiful emblem. The Spirit of God which is purity itself, cannot dwell in an unclean heart. He cannot abide in the natural rjind. It was said of the anointing of old, "On man's fiesh it shall not be poured." The purity which the Holy Spirit brings is like a white and spotless little plant which grows up out of a heap of manure, or out of black soil, without one LIKE A DOVE 21 grain of impurity adhering to its crystalline surface, spotless as an angel's wing. So the Holy Spirit gives a purity of heart which brings its own protection, for it is essentially unlike the evil things which grow around it. It may be sur- rounded on every side with evil, but it is uncontami- nated and pure because its very nature is essentially holy and divine, It cannot be soiled, because like the plumage of the dove, which, protected by its oily cover- ing, comes forth from the miry pool unstained and \ unsullied by the dark waters, it sheds off every defile- ment and is proof against the touch of every stain. THE DOVK IS THE SYMBOL OP GENTLENESS. The Comforter is gentle, tender, and full of patience and love. How gentle are God's dealings even with sin- ners! How patient His forbearance! How tender His discipline with His own erring children ! How He led Jacob, Joseph, Israel, David, Elijah, and all His ancient servants, until they could truly say, "Thy gentleness hath made me great"! The heart in which the Holy Spirit dwells will al- ways be characterized by gentleness, lowliness, quiet- ness, meekness, and forbearance. The rude, sarcastic spirit, the brusque manner, the sharp retort, the unkind cut, — all these belong to the flesh. They have nothing in common with the gentle teaching of the Comforter. The Holy Dove shrinks from the noisy, tumultuous, excited, and vindictive spirit, and finds His home in the lowly breast of the peaceful soul. "The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness, meekness." THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE SPIRIT OF LOVE. The dov<> is the special emblem of affection. The special object of the divine Comforter is to "shed abroad 22 POWER FROM ON HIGH the love of God in our hearts," and to show that **the fruit of the Spirit is love." Wherever He dwells there is to be found a disposition of unselfisliness, considera- tion for others, loving helpfulness, and kindness; and Ho wants love from us. He asks not so much our service as our communion. He has plenty to serve Him; but He wants us to love Him and to receive His tender love for us. He is longing for our tiffection and is disap- pointed when we give Hira anything else. A very sweet thought connected with the symbol of the dove, and true also of the Holy Spirit, is that we find in the Scriptures many allusions to the mourning of the dove. It is a bird of sorrow, and its plaintive notes have more of sadness in them than the voice of any other bird. Any one who has heard the cooing of the turtle dove will never forget the plaintive sadness of its tone. How can this be true of the Holy Spirit? Simply because love is always sensitive to suffering. The more we love, the more we sorrow, especially when the loved one disappoints our expectations, or our affection. The lone dove coos for its lost mate, and mourns for its scattered brood. And so the Holj^ Spirit is represented as loving us even unto the extreme of sorrow. We do not read of the anger of the Holy Ghost, but of the grief of the Spirit. "They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit," and we are w^arned, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit where- by ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." There is a beautiful passage 11. James which has been unhappily translated in our Revised Version : "The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to en\y." It ought to be, "The Spirit that dwelleth in us loveth us to jealousy." It is the figure of a love that suffers be- cause of its intense regard for the loved object. The Holy Ghost is so anxious to accomplish in us and for us the highest will of God, and to receive from I IS ! I ad I I woi C apF teni the i givf I "^ i ado I whc thir I so 1 ^ L LIKE A DOVE 23 ' that **the Iwclls there , considera- 'ss; and He our service : Him; but tender love d is disap- I symbol of is that we 3 mourning i ts plaintive I he voice of I e cooing of ive sadness t? Simply The more n the loved ction. The ms for its loving "US not read of rief of the ly Spirit," Dirit where- ion." which has sion: "The It ought )veth us to suffers be- oct. in us and ?ceive from us the truest love for Christ, our divine Husband, tluit He becomes jealous when in any way we disappoint Him, or divide His love with others. Therefore, it is said in the preceding passage, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" Oh, shall we grieve so kind a Friend! Shall we dis- appoint so loving a Husband? Shall we provoke bo tender and unselfish a jealousy? Shall we not meet the blessed Holy Spirit with the love He brings us, and •give in return our undivided and unbounded affection? Strange, indeed, that God should have to plead with us for our love. Strange that He whom all Heaven adores should have a rival in the hearts of the children whom He has created, and the beings who owe every- thing they have to His i^^finite mercy! Strange that so gentle a Friend should have to plead so long and so tenderly for our affections! Let us turn to Him with penitential love, and cry: *'Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, With all Thy quickening powers; Kindle a flame of sacred love In these cold hearts of ours." h CHAPTER n. THE BREATH OF GOD. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man be- came a living soul." — Genesis 2:7. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that ig born of the Spirit." — John ?>: S. "And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." — .John 20:22. THE first of these passages contains the second refer- ence to the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, and the other passages prolong the line, and fix the application of the beautiful picture in Genesis to the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The e- blera under which the Spirit is here presented to us is the breath and the air, the atmosphere in which we live, and the act by which we inhale or exhale its vital properties and its vitalizing power. The value and importance of the atmosphere U self- evident. We can live for days Avithout food, and for a lifetime without sight or hearing, but we cannot live an hour without breath. To breathe is the most essential of all our physical functions and is in the Scriptures almost synonymous with life. Again and again we find such expressions as, ''Everj- living thing that hath breath upon the earth." We cannot see it, we can scarcely feel it, and yet around us there is an ocean of air without which we could not exist, and without which almost all our senses would be blind, deaf, and vain, Sound could not be communi- cated without air, the sweet hymns that we have sung could not have been uttered or heard, the voices of our H THE BREATH OF GOD e grounc^, 1 man be- sarest the (I wliitlu'r John 3 : S. and said 1(1 refer- ent, and fix the s to the iresented in which chale its . self- and for not live ssential riptures friends would never reaoh ns, and the harnionioH of mnsie would be silent and dead. Sight also is dependent upon the atmosphere. Yonder sun seems like a ball of fire in the midst of a pall of darkness, when we get beyond the earth's atmosphere. Like a fine, transparent lens, the atmosphere reeeivinj? the solar rays, diffuses them in floods of light for the organs of vision. Without the atmosphere heat would be unknoMrn. In yonder upper spaees, although seeming to be nearer the sun, there is an everlasting frigid zone; and every droj) of blood in our body would be frozen into ice in an instant, were we to pass beyorul the tempering air whioh receives and distributes the solar heat. Such is the striking and beautiful image under which the Spirit of God is represented. He brings to us the the verj^ breath of life for spirit, soul, and body, and creates the atmosphere in which we see the things of God, hear His voice, and dwell in the warmth and radi- ance of His love. The present passage unfolds the work of the Spirit in man's original creation, and also suggests the Spirit's work in the higher unfolding of His restoring and quickening grace. The first thing we notice in this passage is the marked distinction that is made between the creation of man and that of all other animals. At the creative word, they sprang immediately into existence, and fell into their places in the great economy of nature, without further note or comment. But when man 's creation is about to begin, everything is different. By a significant pause our attention is called to a most important crisis. Then, step by step, the great transaction is accomplished, and we see the first human being coming forth from his Creator's di- rect touch in all the completeness of his manifold nature, the wondrous handiwork of God. 26 POWER FROM 0\ HIGH Wc sec cvon the Creator Himself appearing under a new nauie and in an entirely new aspect. The lii^^her criticiKni has been loud of questioning the unity of the book of Genesis, because this second chapter gives an entirely new name to God. Because we here meet with Jehovah Pilohim, the critics liave worked up the astute hypothesis that this is a different God from the Elohim of the first chapter, and that this chapter, there- fore, must have had a different author. They tell us also tiuit this is another of the old fragments of Hebrew lore that have come dov.n to us along with Babylonian and l']^yptian scrolls and tablets, and that this distinctly proves that ]\loscs could not have been the author of both these chapters. Ah, how much deei)er is the thought of God! They used to tell us that the creation of the sun on the fourth day contradicted the statement that light was formed in the beginning. But science has lately discovered that ligiit did exist before the sun, and still exists apart from it ; and thus has this earlier wisdom fallen into a ruinous mound of folly. Moreover, reverent and heaven taught scholarship has found that there was an infinitely wise and beautiful reason for the change in the divine Name in the second chapter of Genesis. In the first chapter the writer is speaking about dead and soulless matter, and it is quite proper that he should thus speak of God as the Creator of matter. In the second chapter he comes to deal with God in direct relation to His children. It is the Father coming to His household. Man in his spiritual nature is now to be created and presented to us in all the tender spirit- ual relationships winch he is to sustain to God, and to his own race. Therefore, it is as a Father that God comes down into human relations with man and reveals His name as Jehovah God, the God of infinite love and tenderness, the God who was about to send His Son, ot tel THE BREATH OF GOD 27 our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The very change of name is both a mark of the kindest design and the tenderest proof of love. Next we see the formation of the human body out of the dust of the earth. Man's form was not created out of nothing. The elements of matter were made from nothing, but man was made out of elements already existing, made however, not by a process of evolution whif'ii gradually developed a human being of a higher order, but made immediately a complete human form. It was still lifeless, until God touched it with His divine breath, from His own lips; just as in the vision of Ezekiel, where the picture of the final resurrection shows the body first appearing reorganized in all its constitu- ent parts, *'bone to its bone, with flesh and skin to cover them above; but there is no breath in them." There is no evolution here, but the immediate act of creation, succeeded by another act of animation, inspira- tion, and the divine quickening of the soulless matter into immortal life. We see here surely, the sacredness of the human body and the value and importance of life. It is the direct work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the life of a man is infinitely more precious than the life of a beast ; and the crime of murder is recognized by God as a blow struck at God's own life, and one which He will most terribly avenge. The daring act of suicide, therefore, is a defiance of the Creator and a reckless destruction of His grandest work. It is one of the awful signs of our times that not only are men killing others, but that in our public press, one of the leaders of infidelity has been allowed publicly to discuss the question of suicide, and to point out the perfect right of every man to do what he chooses with his own life. It is no wonder that such discussions have been followed by an awful increase of suicides in our midst. Such men are desperate and dreadful crim- 28 I'OWEB FKOM ON HIGH inals who pass redhandod in the very act and crinin of rebellion into the presence and up to the judgment sent of God. No man has a right even for an instant to entertain such a thought. Life is God's gift and jnan's momentous trust, to be used for God and given back to Him at last in the great account. We see here that human life eome.s through the hu- man soul, not through the human body, and springs from the direct touch of the Creator and tiie inspiration of the Almighty. Man's life is not, like the life of the brute, a pari of hi.H physical organism. The human organs are com- plete before they receive the touch of life. Our life came not from the ground, nor from the phj'sical forces and functions, but from the imparting of the human soul through God's direct inbreathing, Man's life is so sacred, because it is the direct gift of Go wis- dom, grace, and i^\oTy which constitute His infinite attributes. True, man has perverted these splendid gifts, and often made them become selfish, unholy, and even diaboli- cal ; but they are none the less splendid, and they were no less originally the gifts of the Spirit and the proofs of His wisdom and power. Is it not inspiring to think that this Holy Ghost who fills our heart, is no mere sentiment of spiritual ecstasy or emotional joy, but is the great Mind from which all minds come, the mighty Soul by Whom all souls were made, the Infinite Spirit from whom all being emanated? As we look at the rainbow as it spans the cloud, and the verdure as it crowns the mountain, the fragrant blos- soms that hide in every nook, clothe every rock, and smile on every field, let us think that these are only some of His royal robes, revealing to us a little of what His own essential glory means, and making us think : "How beautiful, how glorious, how infinite is the bless- ed Holy Spirit!" Brother, sister, He made thy soul, He gave thee thy mind. He created for Himself and His high purpose thy talents and thy powers of both brain and being. What art thou doing with thy trust? What wilt thou say, when He shall ask it back, and call upon thee to give an account of thy stewardship? We see here the peculiar characteristic of man as originally created. "'Man became a living soul." The predominant characteristic of natural man is expressed by this word, "soul," just as the predominant character- istic of the new man in the New Testament is expressed by the word, "spirit." The soul represents the intellectual and emotional elements that constitute man. The spirit represents the higher and the divine life which links us directly lu God and enables us to know and to come into rela- tionfthip with divine things. 30 POWER FROM ON HIGH There is no doubt that man, as originally created, bad also a higher and spiritual nature, because the true translation of this passage is, ''The Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man became a living soul." His life was manifold. There was physical life, mental life, and spiritual life, but the controlling element was soul. So we read in Corinthians, ''The first man Adam was made a living soul, the sec- ond man Adam was made a quickening Spirit." It would seem as if, at his fall, man lost his spiritual life, or, at least, it became so utterly subordinated to his soulish nature that the natural man was not spiritual. He needed to be born from above by the Spirit of God, and to receive a new spiritual being, in order to be saved. Even in his highest estate Adam was distinctively a living soul, rather than a lofty spirit. His soul life was predominant. It was sinless and loyal to God, hrt it was a lower life than that which redeemed men now enjoy. It v/as, notwithstanding, a verj'^ glorious life, received as it was by a very significant and glorious touch from the Spirit of God. "The Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives." The Great Artist fash- ioned his outward form from the finest clay, and per- fected every feature and everj^ function, and then, like a fond mother, kissed the cold lips with His own warm oreath of life, flashing into the lifeless form the spark of His eternal life, and lo! the beautiful form sprang into His arms, and man became the living child of his loving Creator. It was only a touch of life, a touch of love, that forever separated and distinguished man above all other beings as the special object of God's infinite love and care. THE BREATH OF GOD 31 *'Lord, what is man? Extremes how wide In his mysterious nature join; His flesh to worms and dust allied, His soul immortal and divine." that other and Such was the Spirit's work in the original creation of man. Our text suggests, what the New Testament so freely unfolds, the higher work of the Holy Spirit in the new creation. The Lord Jesus in His discourse respecting the new birth, in the third chapter of John, gives us a very significant hint of this work under the same figure which we find in our text. There He in- troduces the figure of the wind in its viewless, yet mighty energy and potency, in connection with the re- generation of the human soul b}^ tne Holy Ghost. In His closing interviews with the disciples, in the twentieth chapter of John, "He breathed upon them, and said. Receive ye the Holy Ghost." That picture is so much like the picture of our text that the one seems the complement of the other. In the one case we see the Spirit breathe the old creation into life, and in the other the same Spirit breathes into the new crea- tion the life of God and the power of a higher principle. The figure of the new creation runs through all the Epistles of Paul. "If any man bo in Christ Jesus, ho is a new creation." "Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and tri'e holiness." "After God" distinctly implies not only resemblance to God, but derivation froin God. Now, what is the work which the Holy Spirit per- forms in this now creation? Is it simply the restora- tion of the Adamic nature in perfection, or is it some- thing higher and more divine? Most assuredly it is the latter. "The first man." the apostle tolls us, "was of the earth earthy, the second Man was the Lord from heaven; the first man was made a living soul the sec- ond Man a qniekenin£r Spirit." Then he adds. "As 32 POWER FROM ON HIGH if !• we Have borne the image of the earthly, so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly." The Adamic life at its best was only a human life. The Christ life is divine. Natural life is soul life. Divine life is Spirit life. When the New Testament talks about the natural man it does not mean a gross, sordid, sensual, brutal wretch, grovelling in swinish lusts; but it means a man with all the graces and gifts of the highest genius and the most refined culture. He may be a poet like Shakes- peare, a composer like Mozart, a sculptor like Phidias, a painter like Raphael, an architect like Wren, an ora- tor like Cicero, or a man with a face as beautiful as an angel and a life as virtuous and stainless as a marble statue, and yet be purely natural, earth-born, and merely a soulish man. When the apostle speaks of *'the natural man who perceiveth not the things of God, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," he uses the word "psychical" man. Now everybody knows that Psyche was not the figure of sensualism, but of beauty, virtue, and moral purity. The spiritual man is entirely distinct from all this. His life ever finds its centre in God, and its delight in His will and fellowship. Its sphere of existence is not the earth, but the joming world, the heavenly kingdom. It does not belong here. Its very instincts turn higher. It has its natural affection and qualities: but they have been transformed by death into a higher life and have risen from the old to the new life, from transient to everlasting. It is true by the veiy nature of things that **they that are of the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit." As the river runs to the sea, as the fire ascends to the sun, C( s s THE BREATH OP GOD 33 •*So a soul that's born of God Pants to see His glorious face; Upward tends to His abode, To rest in His embrace." Thus the chief characteristic of the spiritual man is to have his abode with the Heavenly Spirit. It is not so much the man, as The addition to the man, which constitutes his high character and heavenly power. A spiritual man is not so much a man possessing a ^^rong spiritual character as a man filled with the Holy ISpirit. So the apostle says : * ' Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if uo be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." The glory of the new creation, then, is not only that it recreates the human spirit, but also that it fits it for the abode of God Himself, and makes it dependent upon Him for its life, just as the flower is dependent upon the sun, and the child upon the mother. The liighest spirituality, therefore, is the most utter help- lessness, the most entire dependence, and the most com- plete possession by the Holy Spirit. The beautiful act of Christ in breathing upon His disciples, and im- parting to them from His own lips the very Spirit that was already in Him, expressed in the most vivid manner the crowning glory of the new creation. When the Holy Spirit thus possesses us, He fills every part of our being. Our spirit is Kis central throne, our soul is under His control, and even our body becomes *'the temple of the Holy Ghost." We may be sancti- fied wholly, that is, in the whole man ; and our whole ''spirit, soul, and body preserved blameless unto the coming of Jesus Christ." The final stage of this glorious indwelling will be reached when the vision of Ezekiel is fulfilled, and the Spirit shall breathe into the resurrection body the life of glorious immortality. "And we shall be like Him when we shall see Him as He is." 34 1>0WER FROM ON HIGH \ There are some lessons which we may leam from this picture and from the whole subject. 1. The lower is dependent upon the higher, and should be kept subordinate to it. Man's physical frame was lifeless until his higher nature, the soul, entered it; and then he lived. So, still, our life is dependent upon our higher being; and life and health come not from below, but from above and from within. This is the essential principle of divine healing, founded as it is on the great law of creation, and ex- pressed by Christ Himself in His answer to the tempter, about His own physical life and ours, **Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that passeth o.ut of the mouth of God." Our higher spiritual nature should control the soul. Just as the soul is superior to the body, so the spirit should be predominant to the soul. The fatal defect of natural life is that the soul is predominant, and the natural mind controls both spirit and body. The culti- vated Athenian, therefore, is just as much in the flesh as the brutal African savage. The true life is where the body and the soul are un- der the control of the spirit, and the spirit is under the control of the Holy Ghost, the indwelling Spirit and Life of God. 2. The beautiful figure of the breath and the air teaches us some practical lessons about the receiving of the Holy Spirit. It is a simple law of nature, that air alwaj's comes in to fill a vacuum. You can produce a draught at any time, by heating the air until it ascends, and then letting the cold air rush in to supply its place. Tlius we can always be filled with the Holy Spirit by provid- ing a vacuum. This breath is dependent upon exhaust- ing the previous breath before you can inliale a fresh one. We must in like manner empty our hearts of the THE BREATH OF GOD i 35 last breath of tlit» Holy Spirit that we have reeeivo«1 • for it becomes impure tlie moment we have received it, and we need a new supply to prevent spiritual as- phyxia. We must learn the secret of breathing out, as well as breathing in. Now the breathing in will continue if the other part is rightly done. One of the best ways to make room for the Holy Spirit is to recognize the needs that come into the life as vacuums for Him to fill. We sliall find plenty of needs all around us to be filled ; and, as we pour out our lives in holy service, He will pour His in, in full measure. A board of trustees once put a heating apparatus into a church, and then put in a furnace, and announced the opening service. But the church was as cold as a barn. The hot air would not come in, although the ducts were open and the fire burning at its hottest. An expert was called in, who quietly told them that while they had made provision for letting in the fresh air, they had made none for letting out the old air in the building, and that no fresh air could come in until the old air was expelled. As a result the people sat there shivering. Thus some of us are shivering and wondering why the Holy Spirit does not fill us. We have plenty com- ing in, but we do not give it out. Give out the blessing you have, start larger plans for service and blessing. You will soon find that the Holy Ghost is before you, and that He will present you with blessings for goodness and will gi\e 3''ou all that He can trust you to give away to others. There is a beautiful fact in nature which has its spir- itual parallels. There is no music so heavenly as that of an ^olian harp. This harp is nothing but a set of musical cords arranged in harmony, and then left to be touched by the unseen fingers of the wandering v^nnds. As the breath of heaven floats over the chords, it is said POWKl{ rU'OM ON FfTOTr l.i' that notes almost divine float out upon the air, as if a choir of angels were wandering around and touching the strings. It is possible to keep our hearts so open to the touch of the Holy Spirit that He can play upon them at will. As we quietly wait in the pathway of His service, again and again the touch of hands unseen will wake the echoes, and the heavenly song will spring within the depths of our being, and vi^e shall wonder at our strange gladness. But it is still the ^olian liarp of a heart wholly consecrated and attuned to God, and under the touch and breathing of the Holy Ghost. This is what it moans, ''The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will sav»», He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing. ' ' Gi evi eJ v'i r, as if oiiching f! ioucli hem at service, 11 wake hin the strange I heart lor the in the rest in i I CHAPTER III. THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. "So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." — Genesis 3: 24. "And the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." — Eph. 6: 17. "For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a dis- eerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." — Hebrews 4: 12. WE are accustomed to think of this scene at the gate of Eden as a picture of terror and judg- ment. Cowering under their awful curse, the fugitive pair stand in the front of the picture, hurrying forth from their happy Eden home, to return no more : while behind them, and above the gate that was closing upon them forever, a fiery sword flashes with angry severity, to keep the way of the tree of life from which they are henceforth to be debarred, as they go forth on their sorrowful journey to the grave. But as we take a second look at that glorious symbol, it assumes a brighter phase ; until, after a little while, we learn to behold it as a symbol of grace, and not of judgment. Doubtless it so became to them, and ere long, the very symbol of the divine presence that marked the place of worship where they came to meet with their covenant God at the gate of Eden. The figure of the cherubim, which appears for the first time in this chapter, becomes in the later Scriptures the very signal of God's covenant love and manifested presence. We see it in the tabernacle of the wilderness above the mercy-seat. We see it in the visions of Isaiah and Ezekiel in connection with the throne of God. And 37 38 POWER FROM ON HIGH i;^ ti* it reappears in the Apocalypse in the vision of heavenly glory. It was doubtless a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, or, at least, a symbol of His person and glory. The I'our faces of the lion, the ox, the eagle, and the man, represent His kingliness, His sacrifice. His humanity, and His Deity; and the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are just an unfolding of His person in these four glorious aspects. As this figure appeared at the gate of their lost Eden, it became to our first parents the symbol of Him, the promised seed of the woman, in whom that lost inherit- ance was to be restored and that forfeited paradise re- gained. It did not mean that the tree of life was lost forever; but rather it pointed out the new way by which that tree could be restored again, restored by way of the cherubim, through the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SWORD? The sword was the token and emblem of the Holy Spirit, even as the cherubim was the figure of Christ. The word in the Hebrew is, The Lord God Shekinah, the cherubim, the fiaming sword. This was the same Shekinah that afterward appeared in the Holy of Holies. This flaming sword, therefore, was nothing else than the special symbol of God's immediate presence with the Holy Ghost. It was the symbol, therefore, of grace rather than of judgment ; and while it involved essentially the prin- ciple of the divine righteousness, which could no longer permit a sinful race to partake of the tree of life in the old way, yet it also pointed forward to the coming redemption and the pro\nsion through Jesus Christ which was to open those gates of mercy even to sinful men through the blood of Jesus and the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit. THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT 39 eavenly Christ, ►'. The le man, inanity, , Mark, person t Eden, im, the inherit- dise re- ^as lost r which way of le Lord 3 Holy Christ, skinah, i same Holies, an the th the ■ than ) prin- longer ife in oming: Christ sinful grace The flaming sword at the gate of Eden was the embryo of the cross. It emphasized the great truth that judg- ment must come before mercy, that death must be the gate to life, and that the old natural life must fall before the piercing sword, ere we can enter through the gates of the new paradise, and partake of the tree of life, that life that is incorruptible and everlasting. I. It represents the slaying power of the Spirit. The sword is the symbol of death, and death is the deepest revelation of Christ's great salvation. The grave is for- ever the symbol of the Gospel, and the Cross means not only His death, but ours too. Therefore Satan hated it, and tried to make Peter reject it, as he cried, "Pity Thyself, Lord"; but Jesus refused it, and told him his thought was born of Satan. The reason men try to get the Cross and the Blood out of their new Gospel is because they have a shrewd suspicion that as there was a cross for Him, so there must also be a cross for them; but in no other way can we enter into life everlasting. All that is born of the flesh is flesh, and under the curse. Every fragment and fibre of the natural life is evil. You may coax it, you may flatter it, and it will smile upon you; but some day, if you cross its will, it will spring upon you and strike you. Therefore, the sentence of death has passed upon all the Adam race, and the fierj'' sword must destroy every vestige of the old humanity before the new life can enter in and partake of that life-giving tree which stands be- hind the glorious cherubim. And this is the work of the Holy Spirit, to put to death the life of self and sin. "We cannot do it. He alone can. We may trj' to crucify ourselves and muti- late ourselves with a thousand blows; but every time 3 40 POWER FItOM ON llIGJl wc will succeed in just missing a vital part, and the old / will come through the process, all alive still. Only the flaming sword can smite to death the self-centred, self -destroying life of the natural man. Wo, therefore, read in the eighth of Romans, "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." We see this truth foreshadowed through the whole Old Testament. The destruction of the race by the flood was but a figure. The Apostle Peter says of the true baptism, ''The like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Therefore, the apostle intimates that the eight souls who passed through the waters of the flood were saved hy water, not from water. The flood that destroyed and swept away the ungodly race that was engulfing everything in corruption, was God's merciful judgment, sending salvation through destruction. God Himself had said, "The end of all flesh is come before me." The deluge was just the death and burial of the great putrid carcase of corrupt flesh into which humanity had ripened. The sacrifice on Mount Moriah was another foreshad- owing of the life that comes through self -surrender. The sufferings of Joseph were the very pathway to his elevation and coronation. The passage through the Red Sea w^as Israel's baptism of death. The death of the first-born and the destruction of Egypt 's host in the same flood emphasized and vivified the same picture. .Vnd the redemption of Israel's firstborn was God's own striking figure of the fact that the whole nation was ac- counted dead, and saved as from the dead. Before Israel could enter Canaan, the old generation was left in Egypt to die, and a new race passed through the gates of Kadesh. The passage of the Jordan was but the type of deeper death. The death of Moses and the succession of Joshua who alone could bring them he old Only ntred, refore, Spirit whole e flood e true th also hrist." lis who ved b?y n godly >n, was h rough of all list the orrupt reshad- I'cnder. to his h the ath of in the icture. 's own as ac- »ration irough m was les and them THE ?WORI> OF THE SPIRIT 41 into the proiniscul land, hlill further emphasized the (Irath-side of IIumt liiglirr inhoritance ii'ul ours. 'I'hu cireiuucisioi] was the Hguro of God's death-stroke upon our natural life. All the types of the canonical law were touched by the death-mark. Through the blood of burnt oftVrings, sin offerings, and peace offer- ings, the Hebrew worshippers and the Aaronic priests entered into their pbu'e of privilege and acceptance. The cleansing of the k'i)er was accompanied by the touching figure of the death of the little bird and the sprinkling of its blood upon the wing of its companion. The two were the parable of (Jod's cleansing of the sin- ful heart of man. I'ivcn the razor nnist cut off the last hair of his natural strength before he could pass in among the worshippers. And in the ordinance of the red heifer, not only the s(!arlet wool that was the figure of sin, but also the little hyssop which represented our natural life and the finest tendrils of its strength and beaut}', must be consumed with the burning heifer. Not only must **the grass wither, but the flower of the grass must perish, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it." The death sentence must be executed against the beauty and the blossom, as well as against the grossness and the sensuality of the natural life. Even the very best things become a curse to us so long as we hold them with our natural hands and hearts and self-centred spirits. That sweet and innocent child whom God has taught you to love, can be only an idol until he coasos to be your child, and becomes God's child, and the death stroke passes upon your love, and you learn in the resurrection life to hold him for God, and love him not as a selfish pleasure but as a sacred trust. Even the husband into whose strong hand God may have put your trusting little hand, may become but a substitute for your God, and a separating influence from Him, until you die to your own selfish affection, and learn to love him not for your own gratification, ■■'H 42 POWER PROM ON TIIGII in: or his, but in God and unto (rod and for his own highest good. Money cannot hurt you if you do not love it for its own sake. It is not your fortune that hurts you, but your clinging fondness for it ; and so long as that fond- ness is alive, your little world of five hundred dollars a year is as much hindrance to you as would be a mil- lionaire's palaces and vast investments. It is not the size of your world that God sees, but the extent to which it fills your heart. Even your Christian influence, your reputation as a worker for God, and your standing among your breth- ren, may be to you an idol that must die, before you can be free to live for Him alone. If you have ever noticed the type on a printed page, you must have seen that the little **i'^ has always a dot over it, and that this dot elevates it above the other letters in the line. Now, each of us is a little i; and over every one of us there is a little dot of self-importance, self-will, self- interest, self-confidence, self-complacency, or something to which we cling and for which we contend, which just as surely reveals self-life as if it were a mountain of real importance. This i is a rival of Jesus Christ, an enemy of the Holj^ Ghost, and of our peace and life. Therefore, God has decreed its death, and (he Holy Spirit, with His flaming sword, is waiting to destroy it, that we may be able to enter through the gates and come to the Tree of Life. How can this be accomplished? 1. We must ourselves consent to it. We must rec- ognize the true character of our self-life and the real quality of the evil thing. We must consent to its de- struction, and we ourselves must take it as Abraham did Isaac, and lay it at the feet of God in willing sacri- fice. 1 lii THK bWORD OJ' THE HPIUIT 43 UghPRt for its u, but ; fond- dollars a mil- lOt tlU! which ;ion as breth- re you i page, ways a e other one of 11, self- [lething eh just tain of of the re, God th His ^e may le Tree ist rec- he real its de- )raham sacri- This is a hard work for the natural heart; but the moment the will has been yielded and the choiee has been made, that death is past; tlu; agony is over, and we are astcmishud to find that th. death is aec^)niplisliod. Usually the erisis of life in such cases hangs u[)on a single point. God does not need to strike us in a hun- dred places to inflict a death wound. There is one ])oint that touches the heart, and that is the point God usually strikes, the dearest thing in our life, the decisive thing in our plans, the citadel of the will, the centre of the heart. Wlien we 3'ield there, there is little left to yield anywhere else; and when we refuse to yield at this point, a spirit of evasion and compromise enters into all the rest of our life. The man or woman who has honestly and entirely met God at tlie decisive point will always be found un- compromising and thorough at every other crisis; and the man or woman who has begun with a half-sur- rendered will always has a reservation up to the end of the chapter, unless he meets with God at some later point and begins where he ought to havvi begun before. The cause of Saul's ruin was his unwillingness to obey God and yield up Agag and Anialek to death. Saul carried out the divine commission through every chapter but one. He fought his battles bravely, he managed his campaigns skillfully, he subdued Amalek, he captured Agag, he left no point in the possession of the enemy ; but he kept the best of the spoil and the life of the king for hw own gratification, pretending that he did it for the worship of God. This was the cause of his ruin. Old Samuel gave to the ages to come an object lesson of what God meant when he took his great broadsword and hewed Agag to pieces before the king, and told his cowardly master **that obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." At one time when we talked with a dear friend who 44 POWER FROM ON HIGH had been struggling for years to enter into a satisfactory spiritual experience, she told us how disappointed and unsatisfied her heart was. As we looked at her earnest face it seemed to us that there must be something in the way, and we asked her if tiiere were not some reserva- tion in her entire consecration. We did not need to wait for the answer for it bespoke itself. "We then asked her if she would not be brave enough to let the last cord go, to give herself unreservedly to Christ at any cost, and especially to let go the thing that she shrank most at the thought of surrendering. She looked so sadly in our face, and answered, "I have not the cour- age." Alas! it is the old and oft-repeated story; and yet those coward hearts who shrink from God's gentle 8v/( rd will yet have to bear suiferings inconceivably more severe, and to be pierced with sorrows that make one's heart ache even to think of. The brave heart that dares to die once for all and forever is the wise heart, the happy heart, the heart that finds **the yoke easy and the burden light." Beloved, will you dare to die, or rather to yield unto death that thing in your heart, your life, your will, V'hich constitutes the strength of your natural life, and the axis around which all your being is enfolded? Having yielded yourself unto death, you must next believe that God accepts you, and that the Holy Ghost undertakes the work, and really accomplishes it. The command of the Scriptures is very simple and explicit at this point, "Reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." This act is purely a matt^n* of faith. Faith and sight always differ to such an extent that, while to your senses it does not seem to be so, your faith must still reckon it as true. This is a very difficult attitude to hold, and only as we thoroughly believe God, can we thus reckon upon His Word and His Working. As we do so, how- THE SWORD OF THE Sl'IRIT 45 ever, faith will convert it into fact, and it will be even so. These two words, ** yield" and ''reckon," are pass- words into the resurrection life. They are like the two edges of the "Sword of the Spirit" through which we enter into crucifixion with Christ. Thia act of surrender and this reckoning of faith are recognized in the New Testament as marking a very definite crisis in the spiritual life. It does not mean that we are expected to be going through a continual dying, but that there should be one very definite act of dying, and then a constant habit of reckoning our- selves as dead and meeting everything from this stand- point. In the sixth chapter of Romans, the apostle takes the position that we arje to meet God as those that are alive from the dead, and thus enjoy the benefit of an accomplished act of crucifixion. Once for all we are to hand over our sin, our self, and all our belongings to the Holy Ghost; and henceforth, whatever comes up in us, we are to reckon it as no longer a part of ourselves, but to steadily refuse to recognize it, and count it simply as a temptation. Thus we shall have power to overcome it, and shall be able to maintain our consciousness of purity and victory unmoved. As any evil comes up, and the consciousness of any unholy thing touches our inner senses, it is our privilege at once to hand it over to the Holy Ghost and to lay it upon Jesus, as something already crucified with Him; and as of old, in the case of the sin offering, it will be carried without the camp and burned to ashes. There may be deep suffering, there may be protracted pain, it may be intensely real ; but throughout all there will be a very sweet and sacred sense of God'*: presence, of intense purity in our whole spirit, and of our separa- tion from the evil wliicli is b'^ing consumed. Truly, it will be borne without the camp, so that even the smell 46 POWER FROM ON HIGH of the burning will not defile the holy sanctuary of the consecrated heart; and we shall come out of the fire without even the smell of the flames upon our garments. It is so blessed to have the Holy Spirit slay things. No sword but His can pass so perfectly between us and the evil, so that it consumes the sin without touching the spirit. Just as the skillful surgeon, with brave heart and keen instrument, can pass between the arteries and veins with such exquisite delicacy that no fibre is severed, and no injury done to a single organ, so the blessed Holy Spirit, and He alone, can separate the evil from the good, and "pierce even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow." n. This brings us to the searching power of the Holy Spirit, for this fiery sword is a heart-searching weapon as well as a sin destroying power. Undoubtedly the passage in the fourth chapter of Hebrews already quoted, refers to this ancient figure. "The Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and mar- row, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight." There is a strong and subtle power in electric fire to search out and discriminate between substances and detect abnormal and unwholesome conditions. When the electric sponge passes over the human frame, it leaves no sensation in the healthful places; but if there is disease anywhere it will cling to the spot and seem to search it out and penetrate it with a subtle touch, often with the keenest pain. In like manner the Holy Ghost passes through those portions of our being that are right and pure, without any sense of resistance, or, perhaps, without any sen- I THE SWORD OF THE SPIKIT 47 'ch it with sation whatever. He has such free course that He just seems to blend with our own consciousness. But when He comes to anything wrong, there is immediate resist- ance; and as He presses His hand upon it, there is intense suffering. The sword of the Spirit is searching out the evil and compelling it to declare itself, just as the skirmishing companies in the advance guard of the army, by their firing and their feint attacks, bring out the foe and compel him to sliow his position. The greatest hindrance to our spiritual life and prog- ress is found in the disguise of the enemy and the de- ception of our own nature. The evil cannot be crucified ^ntil it is recognized, diagnosed, brought into the Hght. and delivered over to death. Self clothes itself in so many disguises that nothing but the piercing sword of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures can compel it to take its true place, and own its evil character. Some one has said that it is half the battle of life to call things by their true names. The Holy Spirit searches out our sins, and He finds sin in many places where our own self-complacency would never have sus- pected it. Not only does He detect and condemn the gross ' furms of immorality and disobedience, which hav<^ ii»al directly with the ten commandments and the ia\^ ^r i.'ighteousness; but He brings us face to face with the la*, of love, and shows us that even the unkindly thought is murder, the unforgiving spirit is an unpar- donable sin, the habit of living to ourselves rebellion against God, and a selfish motive, even in the holiest act, a soul-defiling sin. He brings us face to face with the law of faith, and shov i us that to doubt God is a crime, to treasure an aiixii {3 care for the morrow is wickedness, to pray in unbelief is to take the name of God in vain, and, in short, that "whatever is not of faith is sin." \t'y 48 POWER FROM ON HIGH He takes us through the realm of truth and error. He gives us the touchstone whereby we detect the false, and learn to answer even Satan 's quotation of Scripture by Christ 's own weapon, * ' It is written again. ' ' He discriminates between the false peace and the true, the earthly and the incorruptible joy, the love that is purely a natural instinct and the charity that is Christ 's love, which never faileth, the zeal of Jehu, which is but a selfish passion, and the holy zeal that burns as strongly when no man approves, and stands as firmly when it costs ut -^nr very life, as when it leads us to a throne. He disui lates between the false and the true worship, the pi^/er prompted by the Holy Spirit to the Father who seeth in secret, and the religious emotion which is kindled in the aesthetic nature by an eloquent sermon, a pathetic story, a sentimental appeal, or a sublime musical symphony which may bring tears to the eyes while the heart is as hard as adamant to God and our fellowmen. He shows us the difference between true and false sub- mission and the weakness that yields to sickness and Satan. On the other hand. He shows us the true patience that lovingly bows to the will of God, bui refuses the weights that the adversary would put upon us. He leads us to pray with the Psalmist, ''Search me, God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.'* He gives us that perfect abandonment of spirit which makes us willing to be searched and glad to be laid open to the eye of God, and to cry, "See if there be in me any way of grief," as the margin reads, or **any way of pain," as the new version renders it. It makes us glad to be sanctified from not only the wicked but also the earthly thing, and to be so separated from all self-life that every way of pain shall be prevented. THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT 49 which laid re be any Tiakes but m all nted. and everything in us that could hurt us shall be sub- dued. Thus shall we be enabled not only to lay aside the sin that so easily besets us, but every weight that would so lightly hold us back. The blessed Holy Spirit, who possesses the consecrated heart, is intensely concerned for our highest life, and watches us with a sensitive, and even a jealous love. Very beautiful is the true translation of that ordinary passage in the Epistle of James, "The Spirit that dwell- eth in us loveth us to jealousy." The heart of the Holy Ghost is intensely concerned in preserving us from every stain and blemish, and bringing us into the very highest possibilities of the will of God. The Heavenly Bridegroom would have His Church free not only from every spot, but also from "every wrinkle, or any such thing." The spot is the mark of sin, but the wrinkle is the sign of weakness, age, and decay. He wants no such defacing touch upon the holy features of His Beloved. Therefore, the Holy Ghost, who is the Executor of His will, and the divine Mes- senger whom He sends to call, separate, and bring home His Bride, is jealously concerned in fulfilling in us all the Master's will, and is ever searching us through and through, with more and more tenderness, and with the most earnest solicitude, to find out every hidden fault and every unsupplied lack, and to bring us up into the fullness of the stature of spiritual manhood and entire preparation for the marriage of the Lamb. Shall we wel ome His loving scrutiny and His faith- ful caret Shall we cry, "Search me, O God, search me and know my heart, Search me and try me in the hidden part; Cleanse me and make me holy as Thou art, And lead me in the way everlastinjj. " 50 POWER KKOM ON HIGH m. i'M 'i. THE SUBDUING POWER OP THE HOLY SPIRIT. The Holy Ghost is God's Executive not only for the salvation and sanctification of His people, but for the conviction of sinners and the judgment of wicked men, the destruction of the enemies of God, and the final punishment of the devil and his angels. This sword is God's weapon for slaying the proud and willful sinner and laying him at the feet of mercy. We can entertain and interest men, but only the Holy Ghost can convict them of sin, and pierce them to the heart with profound and soul-saving conviction. We are so glad that there is One who bears this mighty sword, and uses it through His Holy Word, when faith- fully presented, to break the sinner's heart and bring him to the feet of Jesus. But the Holy Spirit is also God's mighty hand to avenge His honor against the wicked, and punish those who disobey Him and harm His people. The same power that struck down Ananias and Sapphira in Pentecostal days is still in the church and the world; and wher- ever God's presence is, there, in a remarkable degree. His judgments are made known. It is a very solemn thing to presume against the Holy Ghost. He is the author of liuman life, and in a moment He can take it away. "If I whet my glittering sword, and my hand take hold on judgment," God Himself hath said, and "Who is he that can deliver out of my hand?" That is a true and awful word: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord," and again, "De- fraud not one another, for God is the avenger of all such." I would not like to have orphan children and widowed wives cry out against me to God. I would not like to have the little hand of wronged and innocent children pleading to heaven for my punishment. T would not i . THE SWORD OF THK SPIRIT 51 like to have to meet that tvemendoiis sentence, after n life of reckless evil-speaking against the servants of God, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." I would rather play with the forked light- ning, or take in my hands living wires with their fiery current, than speak a reckless word against any servant of Christ, or idly repeat the slanderous darts which thousands of Christians are hurling on others, to the hurt of their own souls and bo» 56 powKu FROM ON Tiir.n 2. The pillar of cloud aud lire wa^ a sour(3e of light, of truth and guidance to His people. BarbHric super- stition delights in the wonderful, but divine power mani- fests itself in the practical and the useful. God wants not to play with us, an a magician with his wondering audience, but to guide us as a shepherd would his Hock. Because He wants to give us His life, His Word has little to say about subjects that appeal principally to our curiosity, but speaks mainly to the intelligence, the understanding, and the heart. The Holy Grhost comes not to give us extraordinary manifestations, but to give us life and light. The nearer we come to Him, the more simple will His illumination and leading be. He comes to ''guide us into all truth." He comes to shed light upon our own hearts, and to show us ourselves. He comes to reveal Christ, to give, and then to illumine the Holy Scriptures, and to n\p divine realities vivid and clear to our spiritual ap] hension. He comes as a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, to "enlighten the eyes of our understanding, that we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power." Without Him there is no true light. These holy mys- teries, these divine realities which to us are so dear, are incomprehensible to the most intelligent human minds. Two men sitting side by side hear the same truths, read the same words, live under the same re- ligious influences. To the one they are uninteresting and unreal, while to the other they are his very life. As of old, when the same cloud was light to Israel, and darkness to the Egyptians, "so that they came not near each other all the night," so still it is true that "the natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither indeed can he know them, for they are THE PILLAI? OF CLOm AND VUIK a7 f light, i supcr- r mani- i wants lulering lis tiock. ord has pally to jnce, tlie ordinary le nearer inination I truth." I, and to , to give, to m;' al api 'cvelation 3 eyes ol: the hope ry of his 'xceeding leeording loly mys- so dear, human he same same re- |teresting ery life. o Israel, ame not rue that e Spirit they are spiritually discerned; h\\\ Ijo tliat is spiritual scarchoth all things, yea, the deep things of God." 3. As it was a pillar of cloud as well as of light, so, as we have seen, the Holy Ghost is as dark to the unbeliever as He is light to the saint. The things of God are as dark to the world as they are beautiful and plain to the true disciple. And even to God's children there is an element of cloud, as well as luminousness. There is a veiled light which is as necessary some- liiiies as the unclouded sun. The Holy Ghost is given to reveal many things to us, '*but we cannot bear them now." Ho reserves His deeper teachings until we can stand them and understand them. We do not always see our way, and it is better that we do not. We nmst learn, as well as trust, even in the c' »ud. The very highest lessons on faith are taught by the veiled light, and the way we cannot understand. *'I will lead them by the way they know not," is still His word to every trusting child; but He always adds, "These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." The presence of clouds upon your sky, and trials in your path, is the ver>' best evidence that you are fol- lowing the pillar of cloud, and walking in the presence of Gt)d. They had to enter the cloud before they could behold the glory of the transfiguration. A little later that same cloud became the chariot to receive the as- cending Lord, and it is still waiting as the chariot that will bring His glorious appearing. Still it is true that while "clouds and darkness are round about His throne," mercy and truth are ever in their midst, and shall go before His face. Perhaps the most beautiful and gracious use of the cloud was to shelter them from the fiery sun. Like a great umbrella, that majestic pillar spread its canopy above the camp, and became a shielding shadow from the burning heat in the treeless desert. No one who 58 POWER FROM ON HIGH has never felt an oriental sun can fully appreciate how much this means, — a shadow from the heat. So the Holy Spirit comes between us and the fiery, scorching rays of sorrow and temptation, and under His shadow we sit and sing: ' * All my hope on Thee is stayed, All my help from Thee 1 bring; Cover my defeuseless head With the shadow of Thy wing." 4. It was a pillar of fire. Fire is more than light. It not only iliumiiios, it warms, it purifies, it destroys. It is the same Holy Ghost who baptizes with water and with fire, but it is not the same measure of the baptism. The baptism of fire is a baptism that penetrates the inmost fibres of our being, consuming the old life, cleansing and quickening our entire being,, and endu- ing us with power from on high. God wants to bring every one of us to such a place, that we shall not fear the fire, because everything com- bustible will have been consumed. 5. The pillar went beforr them. They saw it first in front of them, far off, and far above them. It came to them first when they were in Egypt, and it led them out of the land of bondage. And so the Holy Spirit aomes to us even in our life of sin, and ieads us out of the world to Christ, and to begin our pilgrimage toward oar Promised Land. The presence of the Holy Ghost in His first mani- festation is distant, and we shrink, perhaps, from Hi.s closer touch. We know Him an One that brings to us the knowledge of God, the message of Christ, and the hope of salvation, and guides us in our first steopings into Christian life; but we have not yet come to know Hira as our indwelling Guest and our everlasting Com- forter. THE PILLAR OF CLOUD ANV FIRE 59 ate how le fiery, i under an light. destroys. 'ater and baptism. lenetrates old life, nd endu- a place, ling com- it first It came id it led our life It, and to land. hi mani- Erora Hift igs to us and the ^teppii'gs to know if.g Com- 6. The pillar of cloud came closer to them, passed through the camp, and baptized them in its very pres- ence, and then passed and stood behind them. This was as they went through the waters of the Red Sea When that hour of peril came, and they walked down by faith into what seemed a living death, tlien their glorious Guide came nearer to their trembling hearts, enfolded them in His very arms, and then stood behind them like a wall of defence against their foes. Thus when we step out in living faith, and cross the Red Sea which separates us from our past and sin- ful life, and we go down into the waters of death with Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes nigher and baptizes us with His very touch and presence. The baptism of water, which is the type of death, is significant of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. When Jesus went down into the Jordan and received baptism at the hands of John, "He saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit, like a dove descending, and it abode upon Him." And the nromise of the Spirit, in Acts wa.s connected with baptism. "Repeat and be baptized, everj' one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remissions of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." So we read that "they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." As they stepped into the Red Sea, the heavenly cloud enwrapped its folds around them, and they were immersed in both baptisms. . Probably at the moment when th^ cloud passed through the midst of the camp, they were less conscious of its presence than they had been when it stood in the front. So when we pass into the cloud we are not conscious of it. All we are conscious of is mist and darkness, so that, frequently, when we receive the Holy Ghost we are not directly conscious of what is occurring. We are, perhaps, so plunged in darkness, so consumed with hunger and desire, and so constantly reachinc out to 00 POWER FROM ON HIGH 'f : .■i!;;:| ■ , 1 God that we do not realize our own condition. All the better, should it be so. A friend said to me the other day, "I am so hungry, I so long for the baptism of the Holy Ghost." T asked him, **Wlio made you so hungry? Who gave you this longing? It was the very Holy Ghost. He is already with you in the shadow-side of the blessing, and He who gave the capacity for the appetite is Himself near to meet it and satisfy it." 7. The pillar stood behind them. The Holy Spirit is ever our rear-guard. He takes our past and hides it from us. Behind them lay Egypt and the Egyptians, all the past with its sin and its shame, and all their adversaries. Thus the Holy Ghost shuts us off from all that we have been, and from all that can come against us. Oh, how blessed it is, to put Him between you and your sins, between you and your troubles, between you and your enemies, between you and your memories, and to have Him for your glorious rearward! 8. The pillar of cloud and fire, a little later, came and dwelt within them. There came a day, — and it was an era in their history, — when a very wonderful change occurred in the position of that pillar. It was the first day of the first month, in the second year of their history. They had just completed the erection of the taber- nacle, that simple and divinely planned little sanctuary, which was God's perfect pattern and type of the Church and the individual saint. Every board, tache, loop, and curtain had been finished and placed according to God's precise command. Every article of furniture wa.s in its place, and they simply took their hands off, and gave it God, anointing it with oil, as the symbol of the Holy Spirit's receiving and accepting the offer- ing. ^.k THE PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE 61 I. All lungry, [ asked ou this already md He slf near ie takes ^ Egypt and its that we us. Oh, nd your you and and to »r, came -and it mderful It was year of le taber- (nctuary, Church le, loop, Irding to lurniture mds off, symbol offer- Immediately that majestic cloud which had crowned the mount with its fiery glory, and floated in the heavens in its lofty grandeur, stooped from the skies and entered that holy place; and there, in the Holy of Holies, be- tween the wings of the cherubim and the mercy seat, it took its place as the glowing Shekinah, that mysterious light and awful flame, which henceforth became the supernatural sign of God's immediate presence, and which lit up the holy chamber with supernatural light and glory, God had moved into His consecrated and accepted abode, and henceforth He was no longer at a distance on a throne of glorj--, but within the midst of Israel, seated on the throne of grace. i\jid so in the opening verses of the very next chapter we read that God spoke unto Moses, not from the moun- tain, nor from the cloud, but from the tabernacle. Mystery of mysteries! Gift of gifts! Privilege un- speakable and divine! This is the promise which He has at length fulfilled to His Church and Hi^ people, and which every believer may now personally claim. ''Know ye not that ye are the temple of d. and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in j'ou?" *'! will put my Spirit within you. and cause you to walk in my stattites, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." 'I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." "If any man w'ill hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in unto him, and sup with him, and he with me." "He dw^elleth with von, and shall be in you." At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in mo, and I in yon." "If a man love me, he will keep m.y words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Where is thy God? Yonder on a throne of glory, in the heights of heaven, or here in the aanctuaiy of your heart, enthroned within you? 62 POWER FROM ON HIGH ' I ,1 ! " jj i; i ;!i :' n ' I Yes, this is the second great era of Christian life, the fiist day of the second year. The first year was the Passover, the sprinkled blood, the acceptance of Jesus as the Saviour. That was the beginning of Israel's history, for God said it should be the beginn'^^g of months. But this is the second blessing, a crisis just as definite, an era just as marked, a moment just as eter- nally memorable. That was Calvary. This is Pentecost. It has its time, and there is a day, when Pentecost has fully come. No soul that has ever known it can mistake it or forget it. Beloved, has it come to yoia, or rather has He come to abide in you forever? 9. The pillar of cloud and fire continued to lead them thenceforward in all their journeys. When they were to march, it moved before them. When they were to rest, it paused and spread its covering wings above them, as the mother bird brooding over her young, as the mighty canopy of a heavenly tent under which they were gathered. And so the Holy Spirit is our Guide, our Leader and our Resting-place. There are times when He presses us forward into prayer, into service, into suffering, into new experiences, new duties, new claims of faith and hope and love; but there are times when He arrests us in our activity, and rests us under His overshadowing wing, and quiets us in the secret place of the Most High, teach- ing us some new lesson, breathing into us some deeper strength or fullness, and then leading us on again, at His bidding alone. He i^ the true guide of the saint, and the true leader of th(! Church, our wonderful Coun- sellor, our unerring Friend. He who would deny the personal guidance of the Holy Ghost in order that he might honor the Word of God as our onh guide, must dishonor that other word of promise, that His sheep shall know His voice, and that His hearkening and obedient THE PILLAE OF CLOUD AND FIRE 63 n life, 7as the ' Jesus [srael 's S'^g of just as IS eter- citecost. jntecost it can come to id them By were were to s above ^ung, as eh they << This children shall hear a Voice behind them saying, is the way, walk ye in it." And now let us notice that the pillar of cloud which had entered the tabernacle did not linger there and cease to be visible externally; but it rose from the presence chamber where the Shekinah shone, and hovered above 'ii, and then spread over the sky just as before, an ex- ternal as well as an internal presence. The difference was this. In its first stage it was an external sign only ; then it became an int^ernal presence ; and then, finally, it become both internal and external, the Shekinab within and the eloud above. So in our earlier experiences we know the Holy Ghost only at a distance, in things that i:appen in a providen- tial direction, or in the Word alone; but after awhile we receive Him as an inward Guest, and He dwells in our very midst, and He speaks to us in the innermost chambers of our being. The external working of His power does not cease, but it is increased and seems ti 64 POWER FROM ON HIGH 5.' ■, ! if.i 10. It will be noticed, however, that aft»er they entered the Land of Promise, all the external manifestations of God's presence disappeared, and the vision that came to Joshua in front of Jericho — the Son of God with a drawn sword in His hand — became henceforth a pledge of the same presence, protection, and power. Hencefortli, Ihe external sign was withdrawn, and their Leader was to be with them by faith and not by sight. In like manner, when we come into the fullness of Christ, we have fewer signs, we have less of the wonder- ful in form ; but we have more of the working of faith and power. God showed Himself to Joshua, not by the luminous cloud, but by the falling of the walls of Jericho, by the defeat of the Canaanites at Beth-horan, by the capture of Hebron, by the conquest of the Anakim, and by the subjugation of all the thirty-one kings of Canaan. These were the wonders of His power and the signals of His presence. Thus God, as He leads us into a deeper life of faith and power, will show to us His mind, and manifest His presence by the things He does every (Uiy through us. by the salvation of souls around us, by the breaking of proud and sinful hearts, by the opening of heathen na- tions to the Gospel, by the working of His providence in the events of our time, by the evangelization of the world, by these mighty overturnings which are to bring the glorious advent of His Son. But in all this, the blessing will be given to faith, and not to sight. We must learn to trust the Holy Ghost, even when we cannot perceive the signals of His presence. In conclusion; have we kept pace with this advanc- ing cloud? Have we followed Hira from Egypt down into the depths of the Red Sea and the floods of the Jordan? Have we let Him lead us into the Promised Land? Has He come to be our holv Guest, our indwell- THE PILLAR OP CLOUD AND FIRE 65 Dtered ons of came with a pledge eforth, er was less of ;'onder- .f faith ing Presence? Have we proved His mighty works with us as well as in lis, and has He led us out into victories of faith and service for which His own heart is longing, that He may glorify Jesus and hasten His return? Shall we not send up the prayer : Holy Ghost I bid Thee welcome, Come and be my holy Guest ; Heavenly Dove, within my bosom Make Thy home, and build Thy nest. minous by the [japture by the These of His )f faith est His gh us. ing of en na- e in world, Ing the lenc( < I c jth, and \i, even ^nce. dvanc- down lof the )mised lid well- • ! CHAPTER V. (Hi;.! THE LIVING WATER. "And did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank ef the spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. ' '—I Cor. 10 : 4. "Having therefore, brethern, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh; and having a high priest over the house of God; let iis draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." — Hebrews 10: 19-22. INHERE is no emblem of the Holy Spirit" more fre- quently used in the Scriptures than water. Natural- ly suggestive of cleansing, refreshing, and fullness, it expresses most perfectly the most important offices of the Holy Ghost. It is not possible for us to refer to all the passages and incidents which are based upon this figure ; but we shall call attention to four remarkable passages which unfold in logical and chronological order the work of the Holy Spirit in our redemption and complete salva- tion. I I" I M'l: J I!. The first of these passages, quoted above, refers to the first three of these unfoldings of the Holy Spirit. They are all connected with incidents in the journey of the Israelites through the wilderness. The first is the smiting of the rock in Horeb, of which we read in the seventeenth chapter of Exodus. They had come to the fountain at Meribnh, but t'onnrl it dry; and, as usual, instead of trusting and praying, tliey began to murmur and complain. Then God commanded Moses to lead them to the rock in Horeb, and to ^miio it with the 66 If' THE LJVTNO WATER 67 y drank ock wa8 e holiest he hath is flpsh; us draw ^'ing our j washed ore fre- satural- 'uUness, ffices of •assages but we which ork of salva- to the They I of the which ley had and, li^an to )ses to Ith the rod wherewith he had divided tlie Red Sea and per- formed the miracles of judgment in Egypt. The cleft rock gave forth a flood of water, and the people drank abundantly, and their cattle. The smiting of the rock in Horeb was, of course, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ* and the stroke of the Father's judgment on Calvary by which our guilt was expiated and the fountain of mercy was opened for sin- ful men. But the water which flowed from that rock was also a type of the Holy Spirit, purchased for us as the most precious gift of His redemption. Water is always a type of the Holy Ghost. Jesus, Himself, has explained the symbol in John 7 : 88-39, where, after speaking of the living water which was to flow from the believer, he added, ' ' This He spake of the Holy Spirit, which they that believe on Him should re- » J ceive The water from the rock in Horeb was the type of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, in conse- quence of Christ's accomplished redemption. This is its dispensational meaning. So far as the successive eras of our Christian life are concerned, it prefigures our first experiences of the Holy Spirit after our conversion. There is a very real sense in which the Spirit of God is given to the believer as soon as he accepts t«he Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour. There is a deeper fullness which follows at a later stage. But let not that discredit nor displace the other real experience in which He comes to the believer, in so far as the heart is open to receive Him. This was the first promise to the infant church and the youngest believers of Pentecost, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, as many as the Lord, our God. shall call." This is the only security for the establishing and standing of any believers ; and no convert should be left t 68 POWKU FROM ON TITO IT until \ui has definitely received the Holy Spirit, and bern sealed unto the day of redemption by the indwelling power and the presence of God. f I n. In the twentieth chapter of Numbers we have a second incident very similar to the first and yet essentially dif- ferent. Again the people come to the place of extremity. They are without water and ready to perish from thirst. Once again, God interposes for their deliverance. Once again, He leads them to the rock and the waters ilow in abundance for the supply of all their need, ''and the people drink, and their cattle," and they are refreshed and satisfied. All this seems exactly like the other mir- acle, but when we look a little closer we find important differences. In the first place, it is forty years later in their history. The first miracle was at the beginning of their wilderness life. This is near its close, and is intended, therefore, to mark some advanced stage in their experience. It is at a different place — Kadesh. The word "Ka- desh" means holiness, and we know that Kadesh was the gate to the Promised Land. This, therefore, would sug- gest that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit here set forth has reference to the more advanced stages of our Chris- tian life. There is an era in every complete Christian life ; there is a Kadesh where God brings us into His holi- ness and gives to us the Spirit to dwell within us, and causes us to walk in His statutes and keep His judg- ments and do them ; there is a promised land whose gate- way lies at Kadesh, into which we enter by receiving the Holy Ghost in His fullness. There is a place where we either pass out of the wilderness into the ''rest that re- maineth for the people of God," or where we pass on to the ceaseless round of ^ailure and disappointment in which so many ar« living. THK LI V J NO WATKK 69 id been welling . Roeond illy dif- tremity. Li thirst. I. Once , flow in and the efreshed her mir- iportant ■ history. ild(irness lerefore, •d **Ka- was the uld sug- ;et forth Chris- hristian is holi- us, and is judg- •se gate- ing the Ihere we Ithat re- ;s on lent in There is an infinite difference between t«his reception of the Holy Spirit and His coming to us at our conver- sion. There He comes to witness to our acceptance and forgiveness; here He comes to accept our perfect offer- ing of ourselves to Him, and to possess us fully for Him- self, bringing us into personal union witli Jesus, and keeping us hencefortli in obedience and victory. Again, it will be noticed t»hat the manner of the mir- acle was entirely different. In the first instance, the rock was to be struck by the rod of the law-giver, but in this case it was not to be struck. Moses was simply to speak to it, and it« would give forth its waters at tlie quiet voice of faith and prayer. Moses disobeyed this command and vehemently struck the rock repeatedly. "Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch water out of the rock?" God, displeased with his haste and unbelief, severely punished him by excluding him from the Prom- ised Land; yet He honored His own promise by giving the water to the people, notwithstai ''ng the failure of Moses. All this action is exceedingly significant. The rock was not to be struck again, because it was already smitten and opened, and the waters were already flowing freely. All that was needed was to receive by faith what had al- ready been secured by the great sacrifice. And so for His, the Holy Ghost* is given, the sacrifice is finished, the price is paid, the conditions are fulfilled, the heavens are opened, and the Holy Ghost has come. Let us not crucify Christ afresh, or ignore the value of His death by trying to bring down the Spirit again from heaven. All we have to do is to simply receive Him and make room for His entrance. Our part is not to strike but to speak to the Rock, and, as we come in the simplicity of trust, quietly, expectantly claim His en- tering in ; more willingly than a father would give good gifts to his children, will the Father on high bestow the Holy Spirit on them that ask Him. Not like the priests If. I 5 70 POWER FROM ON HIGH -I of Baal, with noisy clamor and imbelicnitifx r<^potitions are we to ask for Him, but in unliesitating eoMU ourselves, for it is hid with Christ iu God; but the fountain is always there, THE LIVING WATER 73 carried li or car [oUowed rranean , but it ) was to ,vell and i waters e in the spiritual )irit, the tinues to Not al- 3 channel en under ?t desert, leed with ,, and the r, in His to some Eully and e waters [from tlie 'here is a made bv iGod have ;ss. They editions, exceeding les us the I in Christ it is hid lys there, and we may ever drink from its hidden depths and find the supply of every need in Him. IV. There is another figure of the Holy Spirit suggested by the pasvsage quoted from the Hebrews. There we see the worshipper entering int'O the Holy of Holies with his body washed with pure water. This suggests the ancient laver which stood at the entrance of the tab(n'- nacle, and was intended for the use of the priests who went within to wash their faces and their hands and cleanse tf Jesus le laver erations 3sh, and ransient Ks God 's throu^li hat con- ing life. ; let us :♦ eleans- 11 under ahere of ion, and not only ntention le outlet V within 'er itself ts brim; 2ould be id to the 3ven the open window and sunshine to meet the petals of the opening flower. Let us send up to Him the simple, whole-hearted prayer, Blessed Holy Spirit Welcome to my breast; In my heart forever Be my Holy GuesU V. I I 5s of the need to but He lear and the pres- ' present inter the into the 1: :| CHAPTER VI. THE ANOINTING OIL. "Now He which stablisheth us with you iu Christ, and hath anointed us, is God." — 2 Cor. 1: 21. THE usG of oil is more common in eastern lands than it is with us. The olive tree is one of the typ- ical trees of Palestine. It is a wonderful tree. Its leaf is lustrous and seems always as if it had been bathed in the oil of its own olive tree, and the tree itself seems almost indestructible. It is usually crooked, gnarled, twisted, and almost torn to pieces. Nearly every tree is hollow, and oft»en you see the larger part of the trunk apparently t'l-n away, with perhaps a single root adhering to the soil ; but above it rises a luxuriant mass of boughs and foliage seeming to be imbued with imper- ishable freshness. Some of the olives of Gethsemane must be at least a thousand years old; indeed the olive tree seems as if it could scarcely die. It is a good type of the Holy Spirit and the soul anointed with His life and power. He may be exposed to all the trials of time; but, filled with the elixir of im- perishable life, his leaf is always green, and he shall not cease from yielding fruit even in ishe parched land and the most inhospitable climate. The ordinance of anointing with oil was one of th<^ most common and signifieant ceremonials of the Old Testament. The leper was anointed, the tabernacle was anointed, the priests were anointed. t«he prophets were anointed, the kings were anointed, the guest was anoint edj the sick were anointed, t was the special symbol of the Holy Ghost and the dedication of tin- person anointed to His service and possession. 76 THE ANOINTING OIL 77 id hath lands le typ- e. Its bathed ' seems oarled, tri'e is of the ;lc root it mass imper- le must ve tree ne sold xposed of iiii- all not lid and of th<' ho Old (de was ts were anoint - mbol of nointed THE PREPARATION OF THE ANOINTING OIL. We have a full acount of this in Exodus 30:23-33. "Take thou unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so mucli, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet ealumus two hundred and fifty shekels, and of cassia five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin : and thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary : it shall be an holy anointing oil. And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, a!id the ark of the testimony, and the table and all his vessels, and the candlestick and his vessels, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all his vessels, and the laver and his foot. And thou shalt sancti- fy them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrat'C them, that they may minister unto rae in the priest's office." The method was particularly prescribed in every de- tail, and no counterfeit was allowed under the most severe penalties. It will be noticed: 1. That this oil was specially prepared. It» was not ordinary olive oil; but other ingredients were added, chiefly perfumes, making it exquisitely fragrant, so that it not only was visible to tne eye, but expressed to the sense of smell the sweetest suggestions of the divine pres- ence, of which fragrance was always a peculiar sign. The Holy Ghost has been prepared in like manner for His special work in us, just as the body of Jesus was prepared and His incarnation arranged for, so that He might come to ua, not as the pure Deity alone, but as Ood manifest in the flesh. So the Holy Ghost has been prepared to dwell within us and to bring us into the V. I 78 POWER FROM ON HIGH 11^ [ : ' i If r presence of God in the way best adapted to our weak human nature. The Holy Ghost who dwells in the believer is not the Deity who comes directly from the throne in the majesty of His Godhead. He is the Spirit that dwelt in the human Christ for three and a half years, the Spirit who wept in His tears, suffered in his agonies, spake in His words of wisdom and love, took the little children in His arms, healed the sick and raised the dead, allowed John to lean upon His bosom, and said to the sorrow- ing disciples, **Let not your heart be troubled." This is the Spirit, therefore, that comes to us, softened and humanized by His union with the blessed Jesus, and calling Himself the Spirit of Christ, so that in receiv- ing Him we receive the heart of Jesus and the person of Jesus into our inmost being. How gracious of the Holy Ghost to come to us thus fitted to meet pur frailty and our need and to satisfy the wants of all our being! 2. As the oil was fragrant and sweet, so the Holy Ghost brings to us the very sweetness of heaven. iVlI these spices have, perhaps, some special significance. The myrrh used, as w(^ know, for embalming the dead, suggests to us the comfort of the Holy Ghost; the cinnamon was sweet to the taste, and fitly expresses the delightful and joyful influences of the Spirit; and the cassia, a healing and wholesome ingredient, reminds us of the Holy Ghost as our Health Bringer and our Sanctifier. 3. The oil was not to be counterfeited or imitated. Neither can the Holy Ghost be imitated. Satan has always tried to stimulate the Spirit of God, and to get us to worship him instead of Jehovah. Even in the days of Moses men sometimes brought strange fixe; but they were met with fiery judgment from the jealous God, who will not suffer His holy things to be profaned or confounded with evil. Men are still constantly in THE ANOINTING OIL 79 danger of accepting the false for the true. Spiritualism, Christian Science, and Theosophy come with their un- holy imitations, but no deep discernment* is needed to detect tlieir disguises. He would be a bold man who willingly would be mixed up with these sorceries and Satanic delusions which leave a blister and a scar wher- ever they touch the soul. , There are other counterfeits less glaring and daring. Intellectual brilliancy, eloquence, and pathos often pre- sume to imitate the operations of the Spirit and pro- duce the impression w^hich only He can bring. Music attempts to thrill our aesthetic nature wdth the emotions and feelings which many mistake for real devotion. Architecture and art are called into play to impress the imagination with the scenic effects of senuous worship. But none of those do the work of the Holy Spirit. Peo- ple can weep under entrancing music and heart-stirring eloquence, and yet as much as before go out and live lives of cruel selfishness and gross unrighteousness. People can bow with a kind of awe under the imposing arch and before the vivid painting, or the impressive pageant of ceremonial worship, and yet> have no fear of God before their eyes. There is no substitute for the Holy Ghost. He alone can produce conviction, divine impression, time devotion, unselfish life, and rev- erent worship. 4. The oil must not be poured on man's flesh. It was to be used exclusively for the consecrated and separated ones. No stranger was to receive this anointing. It was the badge of separation to God. Thus the Holy Ghost comes upon the separated, dedicated, consecrated heart. You cannot receive it upon a carnal and fleshly soul. God will not dwell in a sinful spirit. You must separate yourself from evil, dedicate yourself to Him, and be crucified wit-h Christ to self and sin before He will make your heart, His abiding place. His promise is: "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, f i 5 80 POWER FKOM ON HIGH $ i i ill, i and a new spirit will I put within you. ' ' Then he adds, ' ' I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." You cannot get power from God until you receive holiness. Simon Magus wanted this power from the Apostle Peter ; but his wicked heart received only God 's terrific rebuke and the awful words, "Thou art in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniciuity." Men are still trying to get power without holiness, but it can only bring disappointment and danger. In their search for power they will probably end where Simon Magus did, with the unholy power of the wicked one and the curse of a holy God. The Spirit's first work is to cleanse us, to separate ua, to sanctify us, to dedicat«e us wholly to God. Then as the property of God, He takes passession of us for God and uses us for His service and glory alone. n. PARTICULAR CASES IN VTKICH THE ANOINTING OIL WAS USED. 1. The anrnting of the leper is described in Leviti- cus 14. This represents the Holy Spirit's cleansing and consecrating work upon the sinner. This poor leper outside the camp represents our worst estate, and it is for such sinners t'hat the Holy Ghost has come to bring all the fullness of Jesus. First, the poor leper must be met and welcomed, and then brought by the priest inside the camp and under the cleansing water and sprinkled blood; then the an- ointing oil is applied, and he is touched over the blood- mark that has already been given, upon his right ear, his right thumb, and his right toe. This means the consecrating and the filling of all his powers of appre- hension and reception represented by the ear, all his THE ANOINTING OIL 81 adds, walk i and Bceive a the God's n the m are it can search Magus id the parate Then us for L WAS eviti- ansing r leper d it is bring ;d, and under ;he an- blood- ht ear, ns the appre- all his powers of appropriating faith and holy service repre- sented by the hand, and all his stoppings and ways represented y his feet. All these are dedicated to God and taken possession of by the Holy Ghost. The oil does not come first, but< the blood. Then the oil is placed upon the blood. The Holy Ghost comes only to those who have received Jesus. There is no spiritual power apart from the cross and the Saviour. Those higlicr revelations and deeper teachings which discard the blood of Calvary come from beneath. Like the ancient St. Francis, we can always know the true Christ by the print' of the nails and the spear. How- ever, we need the oil as much as the blood. Our ears, our hands, and our feet must be divinely quickened, possessed, and filled before we can rightly hear and understand for God, rightly appropriate the things we know, rightly work for Him, and walk in His holy ways. But this is not all. This is but a drop of oil. We no\v read that the remnant of the oil was poured upon the head of him who was to be cleansed. This is a much larger filling. The \ev}' word "pour" means a fullness of blessing, and the remnant of oil means all the oil that was left, all that was in the priest's hand. We know that the priest is no one else than the Son of God, the Mighty One, who holds the ocean in the hollow of His hand, and, therefore, the rest of the oil that the palm of His hand can hold is an ocean of in- finite fullness. Tt means that all the oil, t»hat Jesus Himself had, is poured upon our head. The same anoint- ing came upon Him that He also shares with us. All this for a poor leper ! Beloved, have you received the remnant of the oil? 2. The anointing of the priest is unfolded in Exodus 29:7-21, and Leviticus 8:12, 80. Here we find a dif- ferent application of the oil. Tt is applied to the priest with the object of fitting him for service in waiting C' 82 POWER FROM ON HIGH t . fi: upon the Lord and ministering in His presence. We also must receive the holy anointing, not only for cleansr ing but for service. We are not fit to represent God in the world or to do any spiritual work for Him until we receive the Holy Ghost. You will notice a double operation here in connection with the oil. First, Aaron is anointed, and then after- wards his sons are anointed with him, Aaron is anointed alone, even as Christ received the baptism of the Holy Ghost first upon Himself on the banks of the Jordan; and then later He shed the same spirit upon His diciples. Even as He, we may receive this divine anointing. The oil that falls on Aaron's head goes down to the skirts of his garment. The Spirit that was upon Him He shed upon His followers. ^ nding in their midst, He breat'hes upon them and sa^s unto them, ** Receive ye the Holy Ghost," and then He explains the great enduement and the great commission by the strange and mighty words, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." This is our true preparation for the highest of all priestly ministries, for prayer, and for every other serv- ice in which we would represent God or bless men. Even the blaster did not venture to go forth to fulfill His great commission until He could stand before the world and say, **The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, .... to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." For any man to pre- sume to represent the Son of God, to stand between the living and the dead, to act as ambassador for Christ, to bear salvation to dying men, to bring men from dark- ness to light and from the power of Satan unto God without the anointing of the Holy Ghost, is the most daring presumption and the most offensive impertinence THE ANOINTING OIL 83 , We 'leansr t God I until lection after- lointed e Holy ordan -, iciples. ^. The i skirts [im He midst, Receive le great strange le, even t of all ler serv- i. Even IfiU His le world because le poor; • • • each the to pre- between r Christ, lorn dark- nto God the most ertinenci to the God whom he misrepresents and to the men on whom he imposes. 3. The anointing of the tabernacle represents some- thing higher than even cleansing or service; namely, the indwelling and abiding presence of God Himself in the believer, as His consecrated temple. We read the full account of it in Exodus 40:9-16. As we have seen ii a former chapter, it is a groat' day; it marks a special era in their national history. It was on the first day of the first month of the second year. It marked a new departure and a higher experience. The glory that had hitherto marched in front of them or shone above them in t>he cloud or on the mountain, was hence- forth to be brought into their very midst in the Holy of Holies. But before that presence could come and dwell among them, that tabernacle, that was to be its shrine and home, must be completed according to the divine commandment in every part, and then presented to God in the solemn ordinance of anointing. It was definitely laid at the feet of Jehovah, and the sacred oil was poured upon it, as a symbol that God God Himself now took possession of the sacred edifice and was to make it« henceforth His personal abode. Then the cloud descended and the tabernacle became the very throne of the divine presence. And so, when we present our bodies "a living sacri- fice, holy, a(^ceptable unto God," we become the sacred abode of the Holy One. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transfigured, is the apostle's inspiring message to such consecrated lives. Life henceforth becomes a transfiguration and we go forth shining like the Master, with the glory of the inward presence which the world cannot understand, but which the angels perceive, and which makes the consecrated heart the house of God and the very gate of heaven. Beloved, have we come to this also ? Have we reached the glory of this mystery, which is ''Christ in you, the hope of glory"? 84 POWKR KUOM ON ilWU 1 P Ancient minds in heathen lamls rlreanied of something like this, when they cut in marble tiM-ir ideals of beauty and grace and then called them gods. It was the dream of the human heart, trying to bring CJod down in union with man. But Jesus has accomplished it t-iirougli His incarnation in our image and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in our hearts, the incarnation of tin; Fathei* in Jesus and the incarnation of Jesus in us by the Holy Ghost. This is the climax; this is the consummation; this is the crowning glory of redemption; and all that which is now being realized in the individual, shall yet, some glorious day, be gathered tc^ether into the whole num- ber of glorified and transfigured ones. Theu when the whole Church of Christ shall meet and the body shall be complete, and the building shall be crowned with the glorious headstone, then the universe shall look upon a spectacle for which all ages have been preparing, the infinit« and eternal God, enshrined in glorified human- ity. And the heavens shall cry, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God." There are three or four other instances of anointing, to which we shall briefly refer, inasmuch as they will be considered more fully in a later chapter. 4. The ancient prophets were anointed. Thus Elisha was called to his high office. And thus we are called and qualified by the Holy Ghost to present the will of God, to bear the Word of God to our fellowmen. 5. Kings were anointed, as David was set apart by the anointing oil to be God's chosen king. Likewise we are anointed kings and priests unto Him — a royal priesthood of love and victorious life, to bear upon our brow the majesty of the saints of God as the joint heirs with Christ in His coming kingdom. 6. The sick were anointed for healing. The Holy THE ANOINTING OIL 85 heirs Holy Ghost boi'onu's to us the quicken in<; and health-bringing power, ulio imparts the life of Jesus to our mortal frames, expelling disease and bringing us into the divine and resurrection life of the Son of God. 7. Guest«< were anointed. We read in the twenty- third Psalm the beautiful picture of the guest sitting ut the table of the royal banquet and exclaiming, "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over." We find Jesus complaining to the Pharisee, "My head with oil thou didst not anoint; but i,lie hath anointed my feet." The ancient host received his guest with great court- esy and took him into the bathroom, where the stains of the wayside were washed away, where fresh gar- ments were put upon him. Then sweet and fragrant oil was poured upon his head. So the blessed Holy Ghost not only becomes our guest; but He turns around and makes us as guests, and then anoints us with the sweet, fragrant oil and feeds us with the heavenly banquet of His love. A missionary of the Northwest tells us that once in a while he and his wife used to visit the Indians and have a little feast with them in their homes. The missionary's wife would tell the Indian mother on Sab- bath at the little chapel to be ready for her on a certain day that week, and to prepare her best for dinner. The poor squaw perhaps would answer that she had nothing worthy of the missionary save a little fish. But the missionary would toll her to prepare what she had and to have everything clean and bright, and it would be all right. So on the appointed day the missionary would arrive, and she would take from her dog-sleigh bundle aft-er bundle of things. There were tea and coffee, there were sugar and bread, there were potatoes, and perhaps butter and little delicacies that that poor savage never had seen before. When all was ready the missionary I ' ■ n n f^i: ir \ I U: 86 POWER FROM ON HIGH husband would arrive in another dog-sleigh from visiting the stations, and then the feast would begin, and they would dine together. The missionary and his wife were the real host and hostess, and the poor Indian family ate of things that day that they had never tasted be- fore; and the missionaries found their joy in the joy wliieh they brought. Ah, that is the way that our precious Lord loves to do with us. We take Him into our humble home, and we give Him our best, although it is very poor at the best, and He condescends to accept it; and then He brings His best — all that heaven affords— and He feeds us out of His bounty, and it< is true, as He promised, *'I will sup with him and he will sup with me." He takes what we have to give, but He brings His richer gifts to us; and as we sit at His table and feast upon His love we say with the Psalmist, *'Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies ; thou anointest' my head with oil; my cup runneth over." CHAPTER VII. THE BAPTISM WITH FIRE. "He shall baptize you with the Holy Uhost, and with fire." — Matthew 3:11. "For our God is a consuming fire." — Hebrews 12: 2iJ. FIRE is one of the most powerful and striking ele- iuents of the material world. \:. has always been an object of importance and of superstitious regard in the religious ideas and customs of all nations. In ancient Greece and Rome the sacred fire was guarded by consecrated priests and vestal virgins, and was t'he centre of the commonwealth and the home. When the fire went out, all executive and national affairs were suspended, and it had to be rekindled, either from the lightnings of the skies, from the concentrated rays of the sun, or by the process of friction and the rubbing together of two pieces of wood. The foreign ambassador had to walk by the holy fire before he could be received in the Council of State. The Slavonic and Teutonic bride had to bow before the holy fire as she entered her new home. The Red Indian sachem walked t'hrice around the camp-fire be- fore he would give his counsel or confer with his i)ublic visitor. The twelve Grecian tribes brought their twelve firebrands to Theseus, and were tlius consolidated into the State, and their sacred fires were combined in the Oracle of Delphi. The Persian fire-worshippers looked upon tlie sim and the flame as sacred things, and it was an unpardon- able profanity to spit in the fire or conunit auy im- propriety in the presence of these holy elements. Fire was recognized as identical with life, and the Parsees of India today worship it v/ith holy veneration. 87 C: I; I I .K-^M^;, ._y-„ 88 POWER FROM ON HIGH Gc/d had always recognized it in His Word, not as an object of superstitious regard, but as the symbol of His own transcendent glory, and the power of His presence and His Holy Spirit. As the discoveries of science and the progress of human knowledge increase, we learn to trace the deeper analogies and more significant lessons in this sacred symbolism. Fire is the most valuable physical force with which we are acquainted. In yonder sun it is the centre of power in our n'hole planetary system. Stored up in our vast coal-mines, it is the power that drives the en- gines of commerce and the wheels of industry throughout the world. We see it in the tremendous forces of modern artillery, the torpedo, the bomb, the dynamite, the nitro- glycerine, and the death-dealing cannon. It is the prime factor in all t'he implements of modern warfare. In the still higher forces of electricity, witli their countless and ever-increasing adaptations, it is revolu- tionizing all the methods of modern busines.^, and direct- ing the whole course of trade and labor. Science is be- ginning to believe that the ultimate force of all Jiature is just electricity, and that the power that moves the plpnets in their orbits and the stars in their courses is biic a form of electric fire. The t»ruth is, that when they get to the end of their ultimatum they will find that God Himself is there, the personal source of all these forces, and by His own will directing this tremendous battery by which the universe is kept in moMon. For ** power belongeth unto God." and He is the "Consum- ing Fire" from whose bosom all other forces emanate. The Holy Ghost Himself has taught us to recoj»nize in this tremendous force His own appropriate symbol **He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." There is someMiing very striking in the analogy be- tween the story of fire and the dispensational unfolding m THK BAPTISM WITH FIRE 89 as an >i His ?sence 2SS of ieeper sacred which Ltre of up in the en- vighout nodern 3 nitro- 3 prime \\ their revolu- direct- is be- jiature 'cs the urses is en they id that I these ndoiiii For orisum- 111 ate. 3C0J?nize symbol Dd with ai fir n. of the Holy Ghost. There was a time in the history of the natural world when yonder celestial fires were the objects of mystery, uncertainty, and almost dread. The lightnings of the skies were known to be real forces, but men knew not when they would strike, and dared not attempt to use or control them. But in these last days science has scaled the heavens, has caught the light- nings, and has brought the tremendous forces of elec- tricity under the dir<:'Ction of such laws that the simplest child can use them at pleasure. They have become the instruments of our everj'-day life, ringing our front door-bells, driving our street-cars, lighting our chambers and our streets, moving our machinery, carrying on our business, and even conveying our messages on the phono- graphic and telegraphic wires over the world. So, in like manner, there was a time when the Holy Ghost's heavenly fire was a mysterious force, flashing, like the lightning in the skies, we krew not why or whither; coming now upon a Moses, and again upon an Elijah; sometimes falling as at Carmel, in awful majesty upon the altar of sacrifice; sometimes striking, as in Israel's camp, in the destroying flame of God's anger; sometimes appearing, as in the burning bush at Horeb, as tile strange, mysterious symbol of Jehovah 's presence. But since Christ's ascension the Holy Spirit has con- descended to dwell amongst us under certain plainly- revealed laws, and to place at our service and command all the forces and resources of His power, according to definite, simple and regular laws of operation, in ac- cordance with which the simplest disciple can use Him for the needs of his life and work just as easily as we use the force of electricity for the business of life. He has even been pleased to call Himself ''the law of the Spirit of life in Chrisi Jesus." He has come down to the level of oui' common life, and is ready to meet us in every need of our being, and to become to us, not only the Author of our higher J'OWEK l''KOM ON HIGH :f (c sijE^irit ual lile, but tl:w> Director and power of our 4m^y i:0Ti4\ime,n j/»«t to His servants. In all the sacrifices and (M^nniiA Hfo. was an important element. Tlie pascbj^l hmh w#m roayred in the fire and eaten by the peopU^ a^ a symbol of Christ s fic;;h prepared for us and m'lnis^ ff/i to us by th ^ Holy Ghost as our Living Bread. The sin offering was carried withoit the camp and burned wit-h fire, as a symbol of our sin laid upon »jesus and consumed by the Holy Ghost outside the pale of our consciousness, so tluit we \ ave nothing more to do with it, but shuply to lay it on the Lamb of God and leave it with Him. The burnt offering was eonsunicd upon the altar by fire, the type of (Christ., offered not fm our sins, but THE BAPTISM WITH FIRE 91 for our acceptance with God, and the type of our true consecration as we yield ourselves up to God by the Holy Ghost. As the fire was kept ever burning, so the Holy Ghost in the consecrated soul will make our whole life a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. The peace offering was also connected wit-h the sacred fire. It was the type of our communion with God. In this sacrifice the fat and the inwards were given to God, and consumed upon the altar by the fire. This was the type of God's part in the communion of the believer. Then the shoulder and breast were given to t-he priest and eaten by him, a symbol of our part in this holy com- munion. But it is the Holy Ghost alone that can maiu- tain the true fellowship of the peace offering, and en- able us first to give to God the worship and homage due t'^ Him, and then to take our part and feed up^ Christ as our Living Bread. Next, the nipiil oll'ering whs an offering b^^ fire. It was fine flour baked in the fire, mingled with oil and frank- incense, and free from leaven and honey. It v. as the type of Jesus Christ, our spiritual sustenance, nour- ishing and feeding us with His own life by the fire of the Holy Ghost'. It is one thing to feed upon the truth; it is anotiu r thing to feed upon Christ Only the Spirit of God cat? raak»^ even the life of Christ our Living Broad. The difference is just the same as if you should attempt to feed upon raw wheat instead of prepared bread. It is the work of the Holy Spirit* to prepare for us tlu^ Bread o^ Life, and to minister il to us as the Living Christ. One of the most beautiful of all the offerings was the incense prerf'nted in the holy place. This also was an offf'ring by fire. The sweet spices were ground and mixed, some of them beaten very small; and then they were burned in the golden censer, and their sweet' fra- I? ! M ' ■>• 92 POWER FROM ON HIGH i |i grance went up in clouds of incense before the Lord, filling all the holy place with fragrance, and breathing out the very spirit of worship continually. This is the type of Christ's priesthood first, and then of our true ministry of prayer. Like the incense beaten small, it may have to do with the most trifling things. Like the spices, whose very names we do not now under- stand, and whose nature is unknown, except the frank- incense, so in all prayer there is much of mystery, and much that even the praying heart does not fully compre- hend. And yet, like the frankincense, which was well known, there are ingredients and elements in prayer of which we do know, and things for which we ask of which we are definitely aware, and for which we may definite believe. But' above all, the fire which consumed the incense is the type of the Holy Ghost, without whom all our prayers must stop short of heaven, and through whom alone our desires can reach the throne and become ef- fectual with God. There is no deeper experience in the Christian life than this ministry of prayer in the Spirit. '*For we know not what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot Ik uttered. And he that seareheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh in- tercession for the saints according to the will of God," Again, we see the use of the fire in the ordinance of the red heifer. This type was especially for God's people in their wilderness life. The red heifer repre- sented Christ our Sacrifice, slain and consumed for us on the '\ltar of God. But in the burning of the heifer there come the scarlet wool, the cedar and the hyssop leaves, representing something which is to be consumed, along with the death of Christ. The starlet wool represents our sins, the cedar oiJ* THE BAPTISM WITH FIRE 93 >r 01 J strength, and the hyssop our weakness and the clinging element in our nature. All these things are to be crucified with Christ, and this can be done only through the power of the Holy Ohost. We are not equal to the task of self-crucifixion, but we can hand over anything and everything to flini. and consent that it shall alv.. Then by the power of His Holy Spirit He will put it to death and make the cruci- fixion real. Even after the death of the heifer the fire was to be preserved and made perpetual by the preservation of the ashes. You know ashes are a kind of preserved fire. By pouring water upon these ashes you create lye, a very acrid, pungent, burning substance. Now, these ashes were preserved and water poured upon them, and used as a water of separation or purification when any one had contracted any sin or defilement whatso- ever. It was the type of the work of the Holy Spirit in constantly cleansing us from defilement or pollution con- tracted from earthly things and absorbed from the Ht- mosphere in which we live. This cleansing is not always pleasant. It is sometimes like the touch of lye, a consuming fire ; but it is a whole- some thing, like the burning away of proud flesh by caus- tic, to have our very nature purified for us from self aihl sin. It is blessed to be able thus to come in every moment of defilement, and to walk in the constant cleansing of the Holy Spirit, knowing that we are not only cleansed but kept clean, ever acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, and ready for constant fellowship and holy service as He may require. We find the fire manifested in a very remarkable way in connection with Elijah's history. On Mt. Carmel the fire came from heaven as a special sign of God's acceptance of the saerifi(;e and the manifestation of His ? it'. 94 POWER FROM ON HIGU f 1 power to His returning people. As it fell upon the altar it not only consumed the sacrifice, but it licked up tiie water in trenches. To complete the faith of the people in Jehovah, He made the miracle as difficult as possible by covering the altar and filling the trenches round about with floods of water, so that deception was impossible. God met the faith of His servant, and wrought a work so glorious and divine that it was manifest to every eye that it was the finger of God ; and the great multi- tude sent up the cry, ''Jehovah, He is God! Jehovah, He is God!" The Holy Ghost is thus the power of God in our work, the fire that' all the devil's floods cannot extinguish, the fire that delights in the hardest places and the most difficult undertakings. We need not fear to claim this power for even the impossi))!e, but may boldly bring to God the mightiest difficulties, and glorify Him all the more in the face of Satan's fiercest and most formidable opposition. Once more, we see the fire as the emblem of destruc- tion. When the presuming priests dared to offer strange fire before the Lord, t-hen God's consuming fire fell upon them and destroyed them. And so the Holy Ghost is still present as God's aveng- ing power. He that struck down Ananias and Sapphira in their presumption and hypocrisy, is still present in the Church as the Executive of Jehovah, and the "con- suming fire," to whom we can safely leave all our en- emies and all the hate of earth and hell. There are several lessons which we may learn from the figure itself. Fire is a cleansing element. It diffei*s from water in this, that, while water cleanses externally, fire purifies internally and intrinsically, penetrating lo the very substance of things, and filling everv^ fibre and particle of matter with its own element. THE BAPTISM WITH FIRE 95 >phira mt in con- ir en- frora er in uifios very irticle The baptism of John represented the cleansing of our life and conduct, the reformation of our character, and the work of the law and the truth upon human hearts. But Clirist's baptism was by fire, and went to the roots of conduct. The purity He required included motives, aims, and "the thoujrhts and intents of the heart." He not only requires but He gives the purity that springs from the depths of our being. Like the flame that consumes the dross and leaves the molten metal pure and unalloyed, so the Holy Ghost separatos us from our old sinful and self-like and burns into i-s the nature and the life of Christ. Again, fire quickens and gives life. The returning spring and the solar heat call int'O life the buried seeds of field and garden, and all nature springs into beauty and fruitfulness. The heated greenhouse germinates the seeds and plants of the gardener and pushes them for- ward into rapid and luxuriant growth. The process of heat incubates the little birdling in its shell and nurses it into life. So the Holy Ghost is the quickener of life. We are born again by the Spirit, nursed into spiritual being, and cherished into growth and maturity, by the Spirit of God. Again, t-he Holy Spirit warms and cpiickens the heart into love. Like the change from the cold winter to the vernal sunshine of the spring is the transition which He brings into the heart. It is His mission to break the fetters of fear and sorrow, and to kindle in the heart the love of Christ and the joy of heaven, warming every affection of the new nature, and shedding abroad the love of God in the soul until it becomes a summer- land of love. And, finally, fire is an energizing force. It gives power. So the Holy Ghost is the source of power. Sure- ly, if He has been able to give to the forces of nature iheir tremendous power; to give to the sun the force it' 96 POWER FKOM ON HIGH In that can hold the planets in their course, and quicken and warm the earth into life and luxuriance; if He has stored up in the lightnings, and the coal-mines, and the atmosphere, the yet only half-revealed dynamics which propel the industries of the human race, He Him- self is able to accomplish more than any of His agencies or works. How blind are they who are trying to do the work of God without His power! How we would laugh at the man who today would try to turn the great driving- wheel of a factory by a treadmill, with a dozen men turning it with their weight, as they still do in China! And yet thousands of Christians are trying to carry on their Lord's work by their own puny hands. Science has grown wise enough to turn on the forces of steam and electricity. Oh, let faith turn on the dynamo of heaven and the power of the Holy Ghost ! This is the secret' of victory over temptation and sin and all our spiritual enemi**s. Archimedes of old was said to Ifeve consumed ^h« vessels of the enemies of his country by setting fire to them in the harbor of Syracuse by a burning-glass, by which he attracted the solar rays in a focus upon the hostile fleet ; and they went up in a blaze of destruc- tion. So let us consume our enemies and His by the fii*e of the Holy Ghost. When the little camp on the vast prairie finds that a wave of fire is sweeping over the plain, and that in and hour or two they will be engulfed in flame and destroyed by tlie resistless element, they are wise enough to clear an open space around them and then start another fire from their own camp and send it out to meet the approaching wave. As it* rolls across the open plain, destroying every combustible thing that is in the way at length it meets the advancing fire; and the two leap up to heaven in one wild outburst of fury and then expire for the want of fuel. The i W' THE BAPTISM WITH FIRE 97 travellers are left in safety on the prairie, where there is nothing to feed the fire. So let us meet the fire of evil with the fire of the H'jly Ghost. We have divine resources. Why should we stoop to the human? We have God to fighl our battles for us. Why should we do it ourselves? In ancient Rome when the fire went out all statb business had to cease. They dared not do a tiling with- out the sacred fire. So all true work ceases when the Holy Ghost is withdrawn from the Church of God and from the midst of tht^ work. God does not accept any- thing that is not done in the power of the Spirit. In ancitMit Rome the fire had to be rekindled either from the lightnings of the sky, or from the sun, or from the friction of two pieces of wood. So sometimes God sends u>s the lightnings of his power to rekindle the flame Although this is often a very dangerous thing, He has sometimes to strike with a stroke of judgment before His people awake to their need. We can always draw the fire by the burning-glass of faith from the Son of Righteousness. And God has yet another way of increasing our spiritual fire, and that is by friction. The other day, in one of our cities, I was asked to notice the factory where the electric force was gen- erated for the trolley engines. I found it was generated entirely by friction. Great wheels were constantly re- volving and producing the electric force by rubbing together. So GrO(\ in like manner often quickens our lives and deepens our spiritual force by the tests and trials which throw us upon Him, and compel us to take more of His life and strength. Then let us, instead of quarrelling with our circum- stances and mourning over our trials, use everything that comes to bring us more of God, and strengthen us for higher service and mightier usefulness, through the power of the Holy Ghost, I' AS ^> IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // /M/y '/My w. C/j /ly. 1.0 I.I 1.25 IIIIM IIM 1.6 I: 1^ 1.4 ^ ^W w Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 w ''vAs. :i O \ CHAPTER VIII. THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM. "God hath . . . given us the Spirit ... of a sound mind/' — 2 Tim. 1 : 7. "Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them." — Nehe- miah y : 20. THE latter passage suggests the work of the Holy Sprit as the teacher and guide of God's people through their history in the wilderness. The pre- vious verses connect the passage with the history of Israel during the forty years of their wandering, and identifies the pillar of cloud and fire which led them through the wilderness with the Holy Spirit who is our Leader and Guide. The other passage from the Epistle to Timothy pre- sents to us the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of wisdom and of a sound mind. It is interesting and instructive to trace the revelation of the divine Spirit in the Old Testament, as the Spirit of wisdom and guidance. Let us look at a few special examples. 1. The first is the case of Joseph, referred to in Gene- sis 41 : 38-40, "And Pharoah said unto his servants. Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And Pharoah said unto Joseph. Forasmuch as God has shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art : thou shalt be over my house, and according to thy word shall all my people be niled : only in the throne will 1 be greater than thou," Here we get a glimpse of the secret that lay back of Joseph's extraordinary life; it was the Spirit of God. Perhaps there never was a life that touched more closely the common life of suffering humanity. We see in him a 98 THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM 99 true and noble nakire exposed to the discipline of tlio keenest suffering ; separated from home and friends ; car- ried into captivity in a foreign land; misunderi-tood traduced, unjustly condemned, and cast into a prison under the deepest and most unjust opprobrium and dis- grace; and yet, so heroically standing true to God and righteousness, and so steadfastly trusting in the divine faithfUiUess and love, that he triumphed at length over all his difficulties, rose from the prison to a princedom of honor and influence, and from the very lowest place found a pathway to the highest position that it was pos- sible for a mortal to attain. Was there ever a more ex- traordinary transformation, was there ever a more st-nk- ing object lesson of the power of high and holy char- acter? But the passage we have quoted reveals the secret of it all. It was not the triumph of human character, but the result of a divine direction that led him through all his steppings and lifted him above all his trials. It was a beautiful illustration of the work of the Holy Spirit in the practical affairs of human life, and the commonplace sphere through which the largest part of our existence here has to pass. The most beautiful fact about it all was, that even Pharoah himself, the proud and ungodly king of Egypt, was the first to recognize this divine presence in Joseph's life. Joseph did not have to advertise himself as one possessed of the Holy Spirit ; but as the men of the world watched him, they themselves were compelled to say, ' ' Can we find such a one as this in whom the Spirit of God is?" It is so beautiful when even ungodly men are com- pelled to see and glorify God in our lives. There is no greater triumph of holy character than to compel the testimony of the men of the world to the power of God in us. I 100 POWER FROM ON HIGH in This was the glory of Daniel 's life, that even his worst enemies had to say, "We can find nothing against this man, except it be as concerning the law of his God ' ' ; and the grandest testimony ever given to Jesus Christ by hu- man lips was that of His judge, Pontius Pilate, when he was forced to say, ' ' I bring Him forth to you that ye may know that I find no fault in Him." 0, men of the world, 0, young men, looking out upon the future and wanting to know the secret of the highest success, would that you might know that the same Spirit that guided Joseph 's steps, and led him through his pain- ful pathway until from the dungeon of Pharoah and the kitchen of Potiphar he reached the premiership of all Egypt, and indeed of all the world, is ready to be your Guide, your Teacher, your Wisdom, and the Source of all your strength, success, and happiness. 2. The next example is the case of Moses and Aaron: Exodus 4 : 10-16. In this passage we have an account of God's call to Moses to undertake the leadership of Israel from Egypt to Canaan, and the special task of going to Pharoah to demand the release of God's people from their bondage. We find Moses shrinking from the task because he was slow of speech and asking God to send somebody else. God answers Moses by saying, "Who hath made man's mouth, or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind ? Have not I, the Lord ? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt* say." Still Moses was iinsatisfied and unwilling, and then God became displeased with him and bade him call his brother Aaron. ''And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God." Here we see God offering to be to Moses not only the THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM 101 wisdom to know what he ought to say, but the power of utterance to say it rightly. The faith of Moses, however, was not quite equal to the mighty promise. God, there- fore, indulged him in his timidity and unbelief by shar- ing the commission with another, and giving him Aaron to be a voice and an utterance for him. In accepting this compromise, Moses lost a great deal, for the same God that gave Aaron the power of utterance could just as well have given it to him. It was all of God from beginning to end, and Moses might just as well have had the whole blessing as the half. Indeed, as the sequel proved, the partnership of Aaron was per- haps a doubtful blessing, because the day came when this same Aaron became the tempter of Israel and the snare of Moses. It was he who made for the children of Israel the golden calf which they worshipped in idolatrous wickedness at the foot of Mt. Sinai, thereby bringing down upon their heads the anger and judgment of an offended God. So that, instead of being altogether a help to him, the prop that he leaned upon broke under his weight and pierced his own hand and heart. The lesson is a very practical one for us. The same Spirit that called and commissioned Moses for his great undertaking is promised to us as our enduement of power for the service to which He sends us. He is able to be to us a "mouth and wisdom, which all our adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist." But if we look to our own strength or weakness, or lean upon the strength and wisdom of others, we, like Moses, shall find that our earthly reliance will become a snare, and we shall be taught by painful experience the wretchedness of ''the man who trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm," and the safety and happiness of depending only upon God for all cur resources of wisdom and strength for the work for v/^hieh He sends us. 3. The next example of the Spirit of wisdom we find in Numbers 6 : J 1-1'^, and also verses 24-29. This passage I ''I it MUMH 102 f'OWER FROM ON HIGH is .similar to tlie last in its general significanct^. We find Moses feeling' the heavy pressure of t'he responsibility tiiat re8t:ht, all this looks like a very great increase of help and power to Moses; instead of iDearing the burdens of the people alone he gets seventy men to help him, men of wisdom aad experience, men poss'is- sing the same Spirit which was upon him. But when we look more closely at it we notice that these men did not receive any additional power whatever, but only a por- tion of the same Spirit which was already upon Moses. In other words, God took a little of the power that Moses already had and distributed it among a number of per- ■^:i'iiii:-'h THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM 103 Their ; aud nth. a God, . that sons, so that instend of one person having the power, sev- enty-one persons now had it ; hut there was no more power among tlie sev^enty-onc than there had been upon the one. All the wisdom of God and all the strength of God had been given to Moses personally, and God had no more to give to the seventy elders. It was spread out a little more and over a wider surface. Nay, before the storj'- was ended, these seventy elders became as great a trial to the heart of Moses as Aaron, his brother. Indeed, they were the beginning of the famous Council of Seven- ty, who afterwards were called the Sanhedrim or Coun- cil of the Seventy Elders, the very Council of Seventy who afterwards condemned to death and became guilty of the crucifixion of the Son of God Himself. These, the seventy elders for whom Moses in \\vt. unbelief asked, instead of being a real help, became, perhaps, a hin- drance. What is the lesson for us? That the Spirit of God is our All-Sufficiency for every work to which He sends us, and that He is able to work as well by few as by many, by one as by one thousand. Our trust should not' be in numbers or in human wisdom, but in the strength of God Himself, whether that strength is given without human instrumentalities, or through the sym- pathy and help of multitudes. Men may help us in the work of God, but only as God sends them and fills them with His ovm power. A little later in this narrative we have the account of two of the elders, namely, Eldad and Medad, verses 26-29, who were found prophesying beyond the limits of their special appointment. Moses' friends were dis- posed to rebuke them and restrain them, but Moses in his large-hearted wisdom recognized the fact that God 's gifts often overrun all ordinary channels and that the Holy Spirit cannot be confined by our ideas of pro- priety. He let' them alone, as we should do with our brethren when we see them working for God and wit- 'j^mmmmmmft 101 POWER FROM ON llIGti nessiuj^ Tor the truth, eveu outside the pale of our con- ventional forms and organizations. God's power is greater than our petty programs, and if a man is but honoring Christ and witnessing for Him in the power of the Holy Spirit, let us not try to bring him into our particular set or make him pronounce our petty Shi- boleth. 4. The next example of this divine enduiement is Joshua, Numbers 27 : 18. " And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay thine hand upon him; and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in their sight.'* In this i)assage we see Joshua already possessing the Spirit before Moses ordains him to a special charge, showing that personal preparation must always come before public ordination. It is not the act of ordination that gives a man the Spirit, but it is the possession of the Spirit that entitles a man to public ordination. God must make a minister first by his own direct en- ablinre all ight.'* Qg the iharge, ; come mation sion of nation. 3ct en- is the md to special which ^ed in deeper Nuii id laid Moses uUnesa Dshua's ore h« to the Would as be s baud >f t for whatever ministry He needs us, and \vc shall be more likely to be called. Have we been called to special service? Then let us throw ourselves upon Him for larger measures of His grace and, like Joshua, be filled with the Spirit. This was the secret of Joshua's wondrous life. While Muses was divinely endued for his great task by the Spirit of wisdom, and Joseph was fitted for his practi- cal life by the Spirit of righteousness, discretiou, and courage, Joshua needed just as distinct and divine an enabling for his mighty undertaking. He was to be the military leader of Israel's great campaign, the war- rior captain of the Lord's triumphant host, and he need- ed peculiar equipment for his mighty task. He was sent against the mightiest nations of antiquity, the powerful Hittite kings, who, as we learn from the records of the post, were the rivals of the Egyptians themselves in military prov^'css. He was sent with an army of undis- ciplined men to attack the mightiest strongholds of powerful nations. Before his victorious legions in a few short years their mij^htiest citadels fell, and no less than thirty-one powerful sovereigns were brought into sub- jection. No grander military campaign was ever fought, and the very highest qualities of wisdom, strategy, courage, faith, and perseverance were needed for this mighty un- dertaking. All these were given by the Holy Spirit; and all these the Holy Spirit can still give to the soldier of Christ and the servant of God for conflict, leadership, service in the grander undertakings of these last days when Christ is marshalling His hosts for the conflict of the ages and the coming of the King. 5. We have yet one more example of the practical gifts of the Holy Spirit. In some respects it is the most remarkable and encouraging of all. We find the record in Exodus 35 : 30-35. It is the story of Bezaleel and Aholiab, who were specially skilled as mechanics and MO '' TOG POWER FROM ON HIGH ,'iitisans to prepan* the skilk'd work for the erection of the tab'Tiiacle in the wilderness. And Moses said unto the children of Israel, "See, the Lord hath called by name Bezaleel . . . and hath hlled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship; and to devise curi- ous works, to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, and in the cutting of stones to set them, and in the carvinj? of wood, to make any manner of cunning work. And He hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he and Aholiab . . . Them hath He filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning work." Here we have a list of almost all kinds of mechanical and artistic work. It is work of the most practical kind and of the very highest style of decorative art, the work of the jeweler, the carver, the embroiderer, the sculptor. All this is the result not of education, nor of careful training, but of direct divine inspiration. Here were people who had come from the brickfields of Egypt, a race of slaves without the advantages of culture, and yet God divinely enabled them in the hour of need, to devise and execute the most elaborate and ornamental designs for the most perfect and beautiful edifice which ever was constructed by the hands of man. "What a lesson for the toiling artisan, for the hard- working Christian, for the man of business, in the practi- cal affairs of our work-a-day life. Here we have the divine Presence revealed as not only for the pulpit, the prayer meeting and the closet of prayer, but just as available for the factory, for the workshop, for the business office, for the school-room, and even for the kitchen. Here is a Holy Spirit who is just as much at home THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM 107 on of \into h\ by Spirit ledge, curi- 5, and irvinf? And )th he om of r, and er, in and of £ those lanical il kind e work ulptor, careful were ypt, a and ced, to mental which hard- practi- ive the pulpit, at just for the or the t home amid the toiling hours and heavy pressures of Monday and Saturday, as in the holy worship and the r ligious occupations of the Sabbath. Here is u divine sulmicncy, not only for our spiritual experiences and our ivligious duties, so-called, but for everything that fills up our common life. Oh, how it helps and comforts us in the plod of life to know that we have a Christ who spent the first thirty years of His life in the carpenter shop at Nazareth, swinging the hammer, covered with sweat and grimy dust, physically weary as we often are, and able to under- stand all our experienees of drudgery and labor, One who still loves to share our common tasks and equip us for our difficult luidertakings of hand and brain! Yes, humble sister. He will help you at the washboard and the kitchen-sink as gladly as at the hour of prayer. Yes, busy mechanic, He will go with you and help you to swing the hammer, or handle the saw, or hold the plow in the toil of life ; and you shall be a better mechanic, a more skillful workman, and a more successful man, because you take His wisdom for the common affairs of life. The God we serve is not only the God of the Sab- bath, and of the world of sentiment and feeling; but He is the God of Providence, the God of Nature, the Author and Director of the whole mechanism of human life. There is no place nor time where He is not al)le and willing to walk by our side, to work through our hands and brains, and to unite Himself in loving and all-sufficient partnership with all our needs and tasks and trials, and to prove our all-sufficiency for all things. Such then is the Old Testament picture of the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of wisdom and of a sound mind. In Joseph we see Him in the trials of human life. In Moses we see Him qualifying a great leader for his high commission, and able to sustain him through the most trying emergencies and pressures. In Joshua we see Him able to equip a mighty warrior for his conflicts ■■Hni 108 POWER FROM ON IIKJH III and campaigns and to crown his career with splendid victory, and in Bezaleel and Aholiab we st'o Him coming down to the level of our secular callings and our com- monplace duties, and fitting us for all the tasks and toils of life. Blessed Holy Spirit — our Wisdom and our Guide I Let us enlarge the sphere of His operations, let us take Him into partnership in all the length and breadth of our human life, and let us prove to the world that, '*We need not bid ft)r cloistered cell, Our neighbor and our work farewell. The daily round, the common task, Will furnish all we need to ask. Room to deny ourselves a road To bring us daily more of God." CHAPTER IX. THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE BOOK OF JUDGES. "But God has cbosen tho foolish things of the world, to con- found the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things whu'h are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, huth God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence. — 1. Cor. I: ii7, 28, 29. TILE book of Judges marks the deepest depression and declensiou in the Old Testament records, just as the book of Joshua which precedes it, marks the most glorious triumph of Israel's history. That triiunph staiids between the story of the wilderness on the one side, with its forty years of wandering, and the story of the Judges on the other, with its four hundred years of declension, Tlie dark cloud that followed the conquest of Canaan WHS far deeper and denser than the one that preceded it, and it lasted throiii^'h four and a haii; centuries, until the time of the Reformation under Samuel and David. But God loves to use the darkest clouds as Ilis back- frround for the rainbows of His most gracious manifesta- tions. The br!ehind the devil's scarecrows of prejudice and misrepresentation. The Holy Ghost is not ashamed to use unpopular people. And if He uses them, what need they care for men? There was once a captain in the British army, pro- moted for merit, but despised by his aristocratic com- panions. One day the colonel found it out, and deter- mined to stop it. So he quietly called on the young officer, and walked arm and arm with him up and down the parade ground, the captains meanwhile being obliged to salute both him and his companion every time they passed. That settled the new captain's standing. After that there were no cuts nor sneers. It was enough that the commanding officer had walked by his side. Oh, let us but have His recognition and man's notice will count for little, and He will give us all we need of t n I mmm 118 POWER FROM ON niGII human help and praiso. Lot us make no compromise to please men. li^t ns only seek His will, His glory, His approval. Let us go for Him oti the hardest errands and do the most menial tasks. Honor enough that He uses us and sends us. Let us not fear in this day to follow Him outside the earap, bearing His reproach, and bye-and-bye He will own our worthless name before the myriads of earth and sky. V. Samson in whom the Holy Ghost is the source of physical strength. There is no more remarkable figure in the Bible than the sturdy giant of Timnath-serah, who represented in his own body, as no other man has ever done, the con- nection between physical strength and the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. The strength of Samson was not the result of physical culture and unusual size and vigor of bone, muscle, or members, but was entirely due to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwell- ing in him and working through him. The secret of his great sti-ength is given very simply and plainly in such passages as these: Judges 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15: 14. In all these cases it will be noticed that it was the Spirit of the Lord that moved upon Samson and gave him his superhuman strength of body. It was not the strengtli of muscle or frame which comes from food or stimulants ; but it was the direct power of God Himself working through his being. This was connected entirely with his separation to God and his obedience to his Nazarite vow. The strength of Samson, therefore, was divine strength given through spiritual conditions and entirely dependent upon his righteousness of life and obedience to God. This is the very principle of divine healing, as God is teaching it to us in these last days. It is not the self- HOLY SPIRIT IN THE BOOK OF JUDGES 119 constituted strength of physical organism; but it is the supernatural force of a divine presence, filling our frame and quickening our vital system when we are wholly separated from earthly and forbidden things and living in touch with the Holy Spirit. It may be enjoyed even in th^" fullest measure by a feeble constitution and a man or womar naturally frail. It is not our life, LUt i life of Jesus manifested in our mortal flesh. It is a very sacred life, for it keeps us constantly sep- arated from the world and unto God, and is a wholesome check upon the purity and obedience of our lives. Samson lost his strength the moment he touched the forbidden world and the lap of Delilah. For us, too, the secret of strength is this: **If thou wilt diligent^} hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee." This is the blessed ministry of the Holy Ghost; first, to give us this practical righteousness and keep us in the perfect will of God, and then to give us the physical life and quickening promised in connection with obedience. His own promise is, "If the Spirit of Him which raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." Such, then, is the blessed fullness of the Holy Spirit as unfolded in this ancient book of Judges. How much more rich and full the grace we may expect from Him today ! Shall we take Him with Othniel as the Spirit of cour- age; with Deborah, for woman's high and glorious min- istry ; with Gideon and Jepthah, to use the weak things of this world to confound the mighty, and the things which are despised, yea, and the things which are not, V20 POWER FROM ON HTOTI to bring to uauglit tlio things vvliicli are; and shall we, like Samson, "out of weakness be made strong, wax valiant in fight and turn to flight the armies of the aliens"? CIIAPTEK X. A SPIRIT-FILLED MAN. "But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth thenj undorsjaiulin^. " — .lob '^2: 8. "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of \ho Almighty hath given mo life. ' ' — Job 33 : 4. THE book of Jol) is rhc oldest poem in the world. It has come down to us from a period somewhere between the time of Abraham and Joshua. It is a profoundly interestinjjj drama. unfoldinr»ncealed in vvery human soul, until, at length, Job appears imder the searchlight of the Holy Ghost a pitiful spectacle, not only of disease and suffering, but of self-righteousness, self-vindication, and rebellion against God Himself. One by one various characters appear upon the scene, representing the wisdom and comfort and friendship of the world — in fact, all that the world can do to help us in our trouble. We have Bildad and Eliphaz and Zophar representing, perhaps, the wisdom, the wealth, and the pleasure of the w^orld, but all failing to bring to Job the comfort, the instruction, and the discipline that he needs. Finally, Elihu appears upon the stage; and, for the first time, he brings the message and the help of God. 121 •CI" 122 POWKR I'HO' ON nTGII His very name signifies God Hiraself, and his words are in keeping with the source from which his message comes. Let us look at him as one of the old(!st examples of the indwelling, iuworking, and outflowing of the Holy Spirit. First, we have the man. Secondly, we will consider his message. And then we will notice the effect of his message in its influence upon Job, the object of attention in the whole drama of this wonderful book. First, he tells us himself that he was a young man. **I am young," he says, "and ye are very old; where- fore I was afraid, and durst not shew you my opinion." God can speak to and through even the; youngest of His disciples. But notice the modesty of Elihu. He was sensitive, shrinking, and full of that modest diffidence which is always the criterion of true worth. The more God uses us, the more should we shrink out of self -con- sciousness and human observation. Then, we see not only his modesty, but his respect for others and his beautiful disi)osition to wait and to show the utmost deference to those who are naturally his superiors. There is no reason why we should thrust ourselves forward because we have the Holy Spirit and are trusted with His messages. The Spirit-filled man will always be filled vnth deference and consideration for others. In speaking to the New Testament assemblies, the apostle tells them particularly to guard against this very thing, for He says, "The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.'* When God gives us a message He can afford to have us wait. So Elihu waited till the others were through, and then he spoke with effect. But while Elihu is respectful and modest, he is at the same time perfectly independent of the opinions of people, and is bold and fearless in obeying the voice of God, which he has heard in the depths of his own soul. Let me not, I pray you, accept any man's person*, t( A SPIRIT- KILLED MAN 123 neither let me give flattering titles unto man. For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my Maker would soon take rac away." And so the Spirit- filled man is free from all men. He does not try to copy any man, but listens directly to the voice of God through His Word and II is Spirit. So many of us are parrots, catching the opinion and the ideas of others. God wants individual characters and individual mes- sages, and every one of us to be himself filled and taught of the Holy Ghost. We see in Elihu a man so filled with the Holy Ghost that he cannot keep back his words. He says, "The Spirit within me constraincth me. Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles." This is the way the apostle felt, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." We need this volcanic power to give force and propelling power to the message with which God trusts us. Again, we see in Elihu a man supremely anxious to glorify God, and grieved because Job's friends have not answered his questions and vindicated God. llis one desire is to glorify his Maker and his Master. Such a man always will be taught and used of His Master. The Holy Spirit is waiting for such men and women. n. THE MESSAGE OP ELIHU. It is a very wonderful message. It unfolds the deepest principles of God's moral government, and rises to the loftiest height of inspired eloquence. There is no pro- founder discussion of God's dealings with His chil- dren. God is always speaking to His people. "God speaketh once, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not," is heedless, or blind and deaf, failing therefore, to un- derstand his Father's voice. Then God has to speak 12-1 POWER FROM ON HIGH i if ! again through sickness and physical suffering; and so we have the picture in the thirty-third chapter, from the nineteenth to the twenty-socoud verses. It is the picture of a poor sufferer chastened with pain, sinking day by day into emaciation and exhaustion, until he is ready to drop into the grave. This, however, is not God's last voicv; there is another message, but oh, how rarely and how seldom the true messenger is found ! * * One among a thousand. ' ' What a blessed mes- sage He brings ! He shows man His uprightness, the lov- ing kindness of His chastening, leading him to repent- ance, and then He unfolds the blessed message of the great atonement, and cries, "Deliver him from going down to the pit ; I have found a ransom. ' ' What is the effect of this? *'His flesh shall be fresher than a child's; he shall return to the days of his youth." This is the blessed Gospel of the Atonement — atone- ment for sickness as well as sin; this is the blessed Gos- pel of Healing — healing for body as well as soul. It was God's ancient thought, and it is still unchanged — His will for all who will simply believe and receive. This is God's uniform principle of dealing with His children. ''These things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlight- ened with the light of the living." God's chastenings are not the zigzag lightnings of the sky, that strike we know not where or when, but the intelligent, inti-lligible, loving dealings of a Father, who will let us understjvnd why He afflicts us. He Himself has told us in the New Testament, "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." This is God's object in dealing with His chil- dren, to bring them out of some position that is wrong into His higher will; and as soon as we learn our les- son. He is glad to remove the pressure, and to bring us into the full manifestation of His favor and blessing for A SPIRIT- FILLED xMAN 125 both soul and body. Can we find anywhere a wiser, broader, truer unfolding of God's gracious providence and His loving, faithful dealings with His children than in the old message of Elihu, more than three thou- sand years ago. Then He passes on to a more sublime discourse, in which He sweeps the whole circle ^f the heavens and the whole field of nature and unfolds the glory and majesty of God in all His works. At length, as He reaches His loftiest height, God interrupts Him, and closes His sublime oration with a yet grander perora- tion, as? He speaks through the whirlwind to Job with a voice that he can no longer answer nor gainsay. III. THE EFFECT OF THE MESSAGE. This brings us to the effect of the message upon Jol) himself. This is the great central thought of the whole book and the entire drama. Job meets us as the central figure and the type of our- selves. He represents man at his best, just as Elihu at the close represents mjin at God's besit. We see in Jol) an upright man. the best man of his time, the best that man can be by the help of divine grace, until he dies to himself altogether and enters into union with God Himself. The first picture of Job is a favorable one, both to himself nnd to everybody else. He seems to be all right, until God brings the searchlight and the surgical probe to bear upon him, when, like everything else that is hu- man, he breaks conipictely down, and shows himself in all the weakness and worthlessness of our lost humanity. The woi-st thing that we find in Job is Job himself. God was not trying to convin<*e him of any glaring sin. hut of his self-sufficiency, self-righteousness, and sHf-eon- fidence. The thing that we have to deny is self. The / '*5::' 126 POWER FROM ON HIGH hardest thing to see and to crucify is our own self-con- fidence and self-will ; and we have to pass through many a painful incident and many a humiliating failure be- fore we find it out and fully recognize it. Accordingly we find Job, under the divine searchlight, signally failing, revealing his unbelief, vindicating him- self, and even blaming God for unjustly afflicting him. One by one his various friends appear upon the scene representing the wisdom, wealth, and pleasure of the world; but Job sees through the fallacy of all their arguments, and refuses their messages, until, at length. Elihu comes with the inspired messpge of God. God follows it by directly revealing Himself to Job, and speaking from the whirlwind with a voice that he can no longer resist. Job in the light of God at length wakes up to his own worthlessness and nothingness, and falling silent at Jehovah's feet, he cries, "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and a.shes." This is, at last, the death of self; and now God is ready to pick up His servant, to forgive his errors and faults, and even to vindicate him in the face of his friends. Then, for the first time, we hear God approving Job and saying to his unwise friends, "Ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, as my servant Job hath. ' ' What was the thing which Job had spoken of Him that was right? It was his language of self-condemna- tion, humiliation, renunciation. Job had now ended and God was ready to begin. God immediately responds to him not only with His favor and blessing, but with all the prosperity and blessing which he had lost; and Job rises to a new place in every way. This is the resurrection life unfolded in the ancient type. This is the resurrection life into which the Holy Ghost is waiting to bring all who are willing, like Job. A SPIRIT-FILLED MAN 127 to die to the life of self. God was not looking in Job for any open sin or flagrant wrong ; but He was search- ing for the subtle self-life which lies concealed behind a thousand disguises in us all, and which is so slow and so unwilling to die. God has often to bring us not only into the place of suffering, and to the bed of sickness and pain, but also into the place where our righteousness breaks down, and our character falls to pieces, in order to humble us in the dust and to show us the need of entire crucifixion to all our natural life. Then, at the feet of Jesus we are ready to receive Him, to abide in Him, to depend upon Him alone, and to draw all our life and strength each moment from Him, our Living Head. It was thus that Peter was saved by his very fall. He had to die to Peter that he might live more perfectly to Christ. Have we thus died, and have we thus renounced the strength of our own self-confidence? Happy, indeed, are we if this be so; for we shall have Christ and all His resources of strength. Then He can afford to give to us, as he did to Job, all the riches of His goodness and all the gifts of His providence that we need in our secu- lar and temporal life. We begin life with the natural, next we come into the spiritual; then, when we have truly received the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, the natural is added to the spiritual, and we are able to receive the gifts of His providence and the blessings of life with- out becoming centred in them or allowing them to sep- arate us from Him. This is the sweet lesson of the life of Job. This is the bright and happy sequel to all his sorrow. This is the ripening of the seed of death and pain. This is the blessed fruition of all his affliction. This is but a little type of that richer resurrection life which the New Testament reveals. •UK;:; 128 POWER FROM ON HIGH The blessed Holy Spirit is waiting to lead us all into the path of life through the gates of death. Some one tells of a gentleman who called upon an old friend and was invited by the proprietor to go with him to survey his splendid new warehouse. As they started to go to the upper floor, the visitor began immediately to climb the stair. **01i," said his friend, "this way," and opened a little side door and led him down a few steps to a platform where a door opened into an eleva- tor. "This is the way we go up now"; and then they mounted by that elevator to the very top of the build- ing, eight or ten stories high, and came down from floor to floor without the slightest effort. As they returned to the office the gentleman said: "I have just been thinking that this is God's new way of ascension. He leads us down first, and then He puts us into His ele- vator and lifts us up to Himself." This is the story of Job. This is the story of Jesus. This is the story of everj^ true life. "Except a com of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." God help us to die. Fear not the pain, the sacrifice, the surrender. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil: for thou art with me." And on the other side you shall say, "Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Si Oh, how sweet it is to die with Jesus, To the world and self and sin! Oh, how sweet it is to live with Jesus, As He lives and reigns within! ::3 CHAPTER XI. THE HOLY SPIRIT IX THE LIVES OF SAUL AND DAVID. ' ' Create in nic a clean heart, O God ; and renew a right spirit within nie. Cast nie not away froni thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit from me, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold in« with thy free Spirit."— Psalm 5: 10-12. THESE words express the prayer of David at an important era in his life, and suggest to us his rela- tion to the Holy Spirit in his deepes.t experience. Back of this picture there lies in dim outline another picture, that of a life that had also possessed the Holy Spirit but had lost Ilis blessing; and it was, perhaps, in reference to this dark, sad background that David cried, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." The other picture is that of Saul. These two lives stand side by side as companion pictures illustrating the dealings of the Holy Spirit with tvo opposite characters, and lead- ing to entireiy opposite issues. It is a very solemn con- trast and a very instructive lesson. 1. First, in the story of Saul we find that he, too, had the Holy Spirit. We have a very distinct account of his call and enduement by the Spirit. We find the story in the tenth chapter of First Samuel. Here we see the Spirit coming upon a man almost unsought, and apparently without any spiritual preparation. It was the Spirit of God coming for service, giving him power to prophesy, to conquer, to rule, the enduement for service rather than for personal experience. There is always real danger just at this point. It is a very serious thing to want the Holy Ghost simply 129 / 12:: 130 POWER FROM ON HIGH to give us power to work for God. It is much more important that we should receive the Holy Spirit for personal eharacter and personal holiness. Perhaps the deep secret of Saul's failure was that, like Balaam, he had power to witness and to work rather than to live and obey. God's graces are higher than God's gifts, and one grain of love is worth a thousand lightning flashes of prophetic fire. Again, we see, perhaps, another secret of Saul 's failure, in the fact that the power came upon him largely from others. It was when he was in company with the proph- ets that the spirit of prophecy came upon him. There is always danger of absorbing much from the atmosphere around us, and being too little self-contained and directly centred in God. "Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and raaketh flesh his arm, and whose heart is departed from the Lord." The difference be- tween Saul and David was that David knew God for himself, and knew Him from a deep personal experience of the indwelling life of the Spirit, and the outflowing life of habitual obedience, while Saul knew Him only as a supernatural impulse for his public life. But notwithstanding these drawbacks, the enduement of Saul with the Spirit of God was very deep and very important. It marked a complete crisis in his life, and his heart was changed into another heart, and he became another man. It is very remarkable how fully God can possess a human soul. We read of demoniac possession through which the entire being of a man becomes so controlled by evil spirits that they are able to add tenfold intensity and force to his life. Why may not a man be just as much God-possessed as he can be Satan-possessed, so that every faculty and power of his being shall be filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, and his energy and capa- bility shall be redoubled? THE HOLY SPIRIT IN SAUL AND DAVID 131 This was the case with Saul, and it may be true of us. Look again, how all-sufficient His divine presence was for every emergency. "When this is come upon thee," Samuel said, "thou shalt do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee." We do not need to have elaborate plans or depend upon our own wisdom; for we have a Guide and a Friend that will direct us as need shall require, and, if we will acknowledge Him in all our ways. He will direct our paths. So Saul started in his career. No man ever had a more promising beginning, supported by splendid per- sonnel, an enthusiastic people, a clear call of God and a manifestly divine endueraent for his great work. Sure- ly he had every opportunity to accomplish the grandest results for God and man. But, alas! he ended in disappointment and failure. His kingdom ere long was rent from him by the hand of God, and his sun went down in darkness and blood. What were the causes of his failure, and what are the lessons of this strange career? We find the test coming to him very soon. Samuel sent him on a high commission, and told him to wait a certain time until he should arrive. He bade him tarry seven days, promising him to come and oft> r sacri- fices to God before marching against their enemies. Saul waited until the seven days had expired, and then, be- coming impatient and anxious, he rashly offered the sacrifice himself. No sooner was the sacrifice accomp- lished than Samuel arrived and told him that, by his disobedience, he had forfeited the approval of God and the permanence of his kingdom. It may seem a little thing, but little things are always deciding the issues of life because they are the best tests of real principle and character. It was but a little thing that wrecked the human race. One trifling act of disobedience, one minute detail of God's commandments i\ 132 POWER FROM OX Hinir !| I ill whieli Dur iirsi pun ills (himl to tjtkc lljt'ir own way began the career ol." rebellion and in«lf>ptMi- fore the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth : while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the high<>st part of the dust of the world." Next, we see Him taking part in the work of creation. *'When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth ; when he established the clouds above; when he strengthened the fountains of the deep; when he gave to the sea his de- THE irOTiY SPIRIT IN PR0VERB8 143 ^ord Wis- pages it iam(3. It ;)ur Lorr! lie Word, iv of the [ Wisdom )rd Jesus 3S in His ys stands lim, and igh Ilim n in the of Jesus s blessed al glory, ith chap- le begin- ^ blessed up from rtli was. 1 ; when sr. Be- s was I le earth, : of the reation. : when vhen he ned the his de- cree, that the waters should not pass his commandment; when he apt)ointed the foundations of the earth : then I was by hira, as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." Oh, what depths of light these strange illuminated verses pour upon the fellowship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in the remote eternal ages ! And, oh, what love to our poor human race these words reveal, "Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men"! This blessed Christ, this blessed Comforter, who seeks your love, is no less than the second and third Persons of the Eternal Godhead. By them these heavens were made and this earth was formed. All the majesty of nature is their handiwork. All the wisdom of the ages has come from their eternal mind. Not only do they represent the wisdom and power of God, but they repre- sent a love that has thought of us from the very begin- ning, and will love us to the end. When this world was made, when the mountains were settled and the fountains and the rivers were opened. God was thinking of us, the Holy Ghost was planning for our happiness and welfare. The whole material universe, the whole structure of nature, the whole economy of the ages was planned with a view to our creation, our redemption, our eternal glory. Redemption is no after-thought of God; but when He made this earth, and settled the stars in their orbits, He did it with a view to man's creation and future destiny. Oh, surely we can trust Him with our future when we think of His eternal past! Oh, surely we need not hesitate to commit our destiny to those Al- mighty hands, that have spanned these heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and to that heart of eternal love that loved us from the first of time, and loves us to the last! But not only do we see His part in creation, but also »