*****************
 
 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT
 
 THE 
 
 
 MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT, 
 
 A. J. GORDON, D. D. 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. F. B. MEYER 
 Minister at Christ Church, London 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 
 
 1420 CHESTNUT STREET 
 
 1895
 
 Copyright 1894 by the 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
 
 INHERITORS OF THE SPIRIT
 
 PREFACE 
 
 IT is not claimed that in this little volume all has 
 been said that might be said upon the subject 
 treated. On the contrary, the writer has proceeded 
 upon the belief that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit 
 can be better understood by limiting the sphere of 
 discussion, rather than by extending it to the largest 
 bounds. For finite beings, at least, presence is 
 more intelligible than omnipresence. So, though 
 the subject of this book is in itself profoundly mys- 
 terious, we have sought to simplify it by dwelling 
 upon the time-ministry of the Holy Ghost without 
 entering upon the consideration of his eternal min- 
 istry. What the Spirit did before the incarnation 
 of Christ, and what he may do hereafter beyond 
 the second advent of Christ, is a question hardly 
 touched upon in this volume. We have sought 
 rather to emphasize and to magnify the great truth 
 that the Paraclete is now present in the church : 
 that we are living in the dispensation of the Spirit, 
 with all the unspeakable blessing for the church 
 and for the world which this economy provides. 
 Hence, as we speak of the ministry of Christ
 
 V11 * PREFACE 
 
 meaning a service embraced within denned limits, 
 so we name this volume the " Ministry of the 
 Spirit," as referring to the work of the Comforter 
 extending from Pentecost to the end of this dis- 
 pensation. 
 
 How deep a subject for a study ! What prayer 
 more becoming for those entering upon it than the 
 humble petition that the Spirit himself will teach 
 us concerning the Spirit ! Deeply sensible of the 
 imperfection of this work, it is now committed to 
 the use and blessing of that Divine Person of the 
 Godhead of whom it so unworthily speaks. 
 
 A. J. G. 
 
 BOSTON, Dec., 1894.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 IT is remarkable how many in these last days 
 have been led to deal with the sublime subject to 
 which this treatise is devoted. Without doubt the 
 mind of the church is being instructed, and her 
 heart prepared for a recognition of the indwelling, 
 administration, and co-operation of the blessed 
 Paraclete, which has never been excelled in her his- 
 tory, and is fraught with the greatest promise both 
 to her and to the world. 
 
 Each of these treatises has brought out some 
 new phase in respect to the person or mission of 
 the Holy Spirit, but I cannot recall one that is so 
 lucid, so suggestive, so scriptural, so deeply 
 spiritual as this, by my beloved friend, Dr. Gordon. 
 The chapters on the Embodying, the Enduement, 
 and the Administration of the Spirit seem specially 
 fresh and helpful. But all is good, and deserving 
 of prayerful perusal. Let only such truths be well 
 wrought into the mental and spiritual constitution
 
 X INTRODUCTION 
 
 of God's servants, and there would be such a 
 revival of pure and undefiled religion in the 
 churches, and such marvelous results through them 
 on the world that the age would close with a world- 
 wide Pentecost. And there are many symptoms 
 abroad that this also is in the purpose of God. 
 Nothing else can meet the deepest needs and yearn- 
 ings of our time. 
 
 Christianity is beset with three powerful cur- 
 rents, which insidiously operate to deflect her from 
 her course. Materialism, which denies or ignores 
 the supernatural, and concentrates its heed on 
 ameliorating the outward conditions of human life ; 
 criticism, which is clever at analysis and dissection, 
 but cannot construct a foundation on which the 
 religious faculty may build and rest ; and a fine 
 literary taste, which has greatly developed of late, 
 and is disposed to judge of power by force of 
 words or by delicacy of expression. 
 
 To all of these we have but one reply. And 
 that is, not a system, a creed, a church, but the liv- 
 ing Christ, who was dead, but is alive forevermore, 
 and has the keys to unlock all perplexities, prob- 
 lems, and failures. Though society could be re-
 
 INTRODUCTION XI 
 
 constituted, and material necessities be more evenly 
 supplied, discontent would break out again in some 
 other form, unless the heart were satisfied with his 
 love. The truth which he reveals to the soul, and 
 which is ensphered in him, is alone able to appease 
 the consuming hunger of the mind for data on 
 which to construct its answer to the questions of 
 life and destiny and God, which are ever knocking 
 at its door for solution. And men have yet to 
 learn that the highest power is not in words or 
 metaphors or bursts of eloquence, but in the in- 
 dwelling and out-working of the Word, who is the 
 wisdom and the power of God, and who deals with 
 regions below those where the mind vainly labors. 
 Jesus Christ, the ever-living Son of God, is the 
 one supreme answer to the restlessness and travail 
 of our day. But he cannot, he will not reveal him- 
 self. Each person in the Holy Trinity reveals 
 another. The Son reveals the Father, but his own 
 revelation awaits the testimony of the Holy Ghost, 
 which, though often given directly, is largely 
 through the church. What we need then, and 
 what the world is waiting for, is the Son of God, 
 borne witness to and revealed in all his radiant
 
 Xll INTRODUCTION 
 
 beauty of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, as he 
 energizes with and through the saints that make 
 up the holy and mystical body, the church. 
 
 It is needful to emphasize this distinction. In 
 some quarters it seems to be supposed that the 
 Holy Spirit himself is the solution of the perplexi- 
 ties of our time. Now what we may witness in 
 some coming age we know not, but in this it is 
 clear that God in the person of Christ is the one 
 only and divine answer. Here is God's yea and 
 amen, the Alpha and Omega, sight for the blind, 
 healing for the paralyzed, cleansing for the polluted, 
 life for the dead, the gospel for the poor and sad 
 and comfortless. Now we covet the gracious be- 
 stowal of the Spirit, that he may take more deeply 
 of the things of Christ, and reveal them unto us. 
 When the disciples sought to know the Father, the 
 Lord said, He that hath seen me hath seen the 
 Father. It is his glory that shines on my face, his 
 will that molds my life, his purpose that is fulfilled 
 in my ministry. So the blessed Paraclete would 
 turn our thought and attention from himself to him, 
 with whom he is One in the Holy Trinity, and 
 whom he has come to reveal.
 
 INTRODUCTION Xlll 
 
 Throughout the so-called Christian centuries the 
 voice of the Holy Spirit has borne witness to the 
 Lord, directly and mediately. Directly, in each 
 widespread quickening of the human conscience, in 
 each revival of religion, in each era of advance in 
 the knowledge of divine truth, in each soul that has 
 been regenerated, comforted, or taught. Mediately 
 his work has been carried on through the church, 
 the body of those that believe. But, alas ! how 
 sadly his witness has been weakened and hindered 
 by the medium through which it has come. He 
 has not been able to do many mighty works because 
 of the unbelief which has kept closed and barred 
 those avenues through which he would have poured 
 his glad testimony to the unseen and glorified 
 Lord. 
 
 The divisions of the church, her strife about 
 matters of comparative unimportance, her magnifi- 
 cation of points of difference, her materialism, her 
 love of pelf and place and power, her accounting 
 herself rich and increased in goods and needing 
 nothing, when she was poor, and miserable, and 
 blind, and naked these things have not only 
 robbed her of her testimony, but have grieved and
 
 XIV INTRODUCTION 
 
 quenched the Holy Spirit, and nullified his testi- 
 mony. 
 
 We gladly hail the signs that this period of 
 apathy and resistance is coming to a close. The 
 Church which is in the churches is making herself 
 felt, is arising from the dust and arraying herself 
 in her beautiful garments. There is a widespread 
 recognition of the unity of all who believe, together 
 with an increasing desire to magnify the points of 
 agreement and minimize those of divergence. The 
 great conventions for the quickening of spiritual life 
 on both sides of the Atlantic in which believers 
 meet, irrespective of name or sect, are doing an 
 incalculable amount of good in breaking down the 
 old lines of demarcation, and making real our 
 spiritual oneness. The teaching of consecration 
 and cleanliness of heart and life is removing those 
 obstacles that have restrained and drowned the 
 Spirit's still small voice. The fuller's soap and 
 the refiner's fire have been largely resorted to, with 
 the best results. And as believers have become 
 more consistent and devoted, . they have grown 
 increasingly sensitive to the indwelling, energy, and 
 co- witness of the Holy Spirit.
 
 INTRODUCTION XV 
 
 If only this glorious movement is permitted to 
 achieve its full purpose, the effect will be trans- 
 cendently glorious. The church will become as 
 pliant to the Divine Tenant as the resurrection 
 body of our Lord to the impulse of his divine 
 nature. And so the Lord Jesus will increasingly 
 become the object of human hope, the center around 
 which the concentric circles of human life shall 
 circle. 
 
 That the Lord Jesus should be thus magnified 
 and glorified through the ministry of the Holy 
 Spirit, and with this end in view, that the hearts 
 and lives of believers should be made more sensi- 
 tive to and receptive of his blessed energy, this 
 treatise has been prepared ; and I add my testi- 
 mony to the beloved author's, that in the mouth 
 of two witnesses, every word may be established ; 
 and my prayer to his that the yea of the Spirit to 
 the great voice of the gospel may be heard more 
 mightily and persistently amongst us.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE AGE-MISSION OF THE SPIRIT. INTRODUCTORY, II 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT, 33 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT, 5 1 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT, 65 
 
 I. Sealing ; 2. Filling ; 3. Anointing. 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT, 97 
 
 1. The Spirit of Life : Our Regeneration. 
 
 2. The Spirit of Holiness : Our Sanctification. 
 
 3. The Spirit of Glory : Our Transfiguration. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT, 127 
 
 1. In the Ministry and Government of the Church. 
 
 2. In the Worship and Service of the Church. 
 
 3. In the Missionary Enterprise of the Church.
 
 XV111 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT, 163 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT 185 
 
 I. Of Sin ; 2. Of Righteousness ; 3. Of Judgment. 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE ASCENT OF THE SPIRIT, 2OJ
 
 THE AGE-MISSION OF THE SPIRIT
 
 "It is evident that the present dispensation under which 
 we are is the dispensation of the Spirit, or of the Third Per- 
 son of the Holy Trinity. To him in the Divine economy, 
 has been committed the office of applying the redemption of 
 the Son to the souls of men by the vocation, justification, and 
 salvation of the elect. We are therefore under the personal 
 guidance of the Third Person, as truly as the apostles were 
 under the guidance of the Second." Henry Edward Man- 
 ning.
 
 THE AGE-MISSION OF THE SPIRIT INTRODUCTORY 
 
 IN some observations on the doctrine of the Spirit, 
 which lie before us as we write, an eminent 
 professor of theology remarks on the disproportion- 
 ate attention which has been given to the person 
 and work of the Holy Spirit, as compared with that 
 bestowed on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. 
 It is affirmed, moreover, that in many of the works 
 upon the subject now extant there is a lack of defi- 
 niteness of impression which leaves much still to be 
 desired in the treatment of this subject. These ob- 
 servations lead us to ask : Why not employ the same 
 method in writing about the Third Person of the 
 Trinity as we use in considering the Second Person ? 
 Scores of excellent lives of Christ have been written ; 
 and we find that in these, almost without exception, 
 the divine story begins with Bethlehem and ends with 
 Olivet Though the Saviour lived before his incar- 
 nation, and continues to live after his ascension, yet 
 it gives a certain definiteness of impression to limit 
 one's view to his historic career, distinguishing his 
 visible life lived in time from his invisible life lived 
 in eternity. 
 
 B 13
 
 14 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 So in considering the Holy Spirit, we believe 
 there is an advantage in separating his ministry in 
 time from his ministry before and after, bounding 
 it by Pentecost on the one side, and by Christ's 
 second coming on the other. We have to confess 
 that in many respects one of the best treatises on 
 the Spirit which we have found is by a Roman 
 Catholic Cardinal Manning. Notwithstanding 
 the papistical errors which abound in the volume, 
 his general conception of the subject is in some 
 particulars admirable. His treatise is called "The 
 Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost." How 
 much is suggested by this title ! Just as Jesus 
 Christ had a time-ministry which he came into the 
 world to fulfill, and having accomplished it returned 
 to the Father, so the Holy Spirit, for the fulfillment 
 of a definite mission, came into the world at an 
 appointed time ; he is now carrying on his ministry 
 on earth, and in due time he will complete it and 
 ascend to heaven again this is what these words 
 suggest, and what, as we believe, the Scriptures 
 teach. If we thus form a right conception of this 
 present age-ministry of the Spirit, we have a defi 
 nite view-point from which to study his operations 
 in the ages past, and his greater mission, if there 
 be such, in the ages to come. 
 
 Now we conceive that the vagueness and mystery 
 attaching in many minds to the doctrine of the 
 Spirit, are due largely to a failure to recognize his
 
 THE AGE-MISSION 15 
 
 time-ministry, distinct from all that went before 
 and introductory to all that is to come after a 
 ministry with a definite beginning and a definite 
 termination. Certainly no one can read the fare- 
 well discourse of our Lord, as recorded by John, 
 without being impressed with the fact that just as 
 distinctly as his own advent was foretold by 
 prophets and angels, he now announces the advent 
 into the world of another, co-equal with himself, 
 his Divine successor, his other self in the myste- 
 rious unity of the Godhead. And moreover, it 
 seems clear to us that he implied that this coming 
 One was to appear not only for an appointed work, 
 but for an appointed period : "He shall give you 
 another Comforter, that he may abide with you for- 
 ever " its rdv alwva. If we translate literally and 
 say "for the age" it harmonizes with a parallel 
 passage. In giving the great commission, Jesus 
 says : " And lo, I am with you alway, even 
 unto the end of the age" Here his presence 
 by the Holy Ghost is evidently meant. The per- 
 petuity of that presence is guaranteed, "with 
 you all the days " ; and its bound determined, 
 " unto the end of the age." Not that it need be 
 argued that he shall not be here after this dis- 
 pensation is finished ; but that there is such a 
 thing as a temporal mission of the Holy Spirit 
 does seem to be implied. And a full study con- 
 firms the view. The present is the dispensation of
 
 16 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 the Holy Ghost ; the age-work which he inaugu- 
 rated on the day of Pentecost is now going on, and 
 it will continue until the Lord Jesus returns from 
 heaven, when another order will be ushered in and 
 another dispensational ministry succeed. 
 
 In the well-known work of Moberly, on "The 
 Administration of the Holy Spirit in the Body of 
 Christ," the author divides the course of redemption 
 thus far accomplished into these three stages : The 
 first age, God the Father ; the second age, God the 
 Son; and the third age, God the Holy Ghost. 
 This distribution seems to be correct, and so does 
 his remark upon the inauguration of the last of 
 these periods on the day of Pentecost. " At that 
 moment," he says, " the third stage of the develop- 
 ment [manifestation] of God for the restoration of 
 the world finally began, never to come to an end or 
 to be superseded on earth till the restitution of all 
 things, when the Son of Man shall come again in 
 the clouds of heaven, in like manner as his disciples 
 saw him go into heaven." And what shall be the 
 next period, " the age to come," whose powers they 
 have already tasted who have been " made partakers 
 of the Holy Ghost " ? This question need not 
 be answered, as we have done all that is required, 
 defined the age of the Spirit which constitutes the 
 6eld in which our entire discussion lies.
 
 n 
 
 THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT
 
 "Therefore the Holy Ghost on this day Pentecost de- 
 scended into the temple of his apostles, which he had pre- 
 pared for himself, as a shower of sanctification, appearing 
 no more as a transient visitor, but as a perpetual Comforter 
 and as an eternal inhabitant. He came therefore on this 
 day to his disciples, no longer by the grace of visitation and 
 operation, but by the very presence of his majesty." Au- 
 gustine.
 
 II 
 
 THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 11 t?OR the Holy Ghost was not yet" is the more 
 A than surprising saying of Jesus when speaking 
 of "the Spirit which they that believe on him 
 should receive." Had not the Spirit been seen de- 
 scending upon Jesus like a dove at his baptism, and 
 remaining on him ? Had he not been the divine 
 agent in creation, and in the illumination and in- 
 spiration of the patriarchs and prophets and seers 
 of the old dispensation ? How then could Jesus 
 say that he "was not yet given," as the words 
 read in our Common version ? The answer to this 
 question furnishes our best point of departure for 
 an intelligent study of the doctrine of the Spirit. 
 Augustine calls the day of Pentecost the "dies 
 natalis " of the Holy Ghost ; and for the same rea- 
 son that the day when Mary "brought forth her 
 first-born son" we name "the birthday of Jesus 
 Christ." Yet Jesus had existed before he lay in the 
 cradle at Bethlehem ; he was " in the beginning with 
 God " ; he was the agent in creation. By him all 
 things were. But on the day of his birth he became 
 incarnate, that in the flesh he might fulfill his great 
 
 19
 
 20 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 ministry as the Apostle and High Priest of our con- 
 fession, manifesting God to men, and making him- 
 self an offering for the sins of the world. Not 
 until after his birth in Bethlehem was Jesus in the 
 world in his official capacity, in his divine ministry 
 as mediator between man and God ; and so not till 
 after the day of Pentecost was the Holy Spirit in 
 the world in his official sphere, as mediator between 
 men and Christ. In the following senses then is 
 Augustine's saying true, which calls Pentecost " the 
 birthday of the Spirit " : 
 
 I. The Holy Spirit, from that time on, took up 
 his residence on earth. The Christian church 
 throughout all this dispensation is the home of the 
 Spirit as truly as heaven, during this same period, 
 is the home of Jesus Christ. This is according to 
 that sublime word of Jesus, called by one "the 
 highest promise which can be made to man " : " If 
 a man "love me he will keep my words: and my 
 Father will love him, and we will come unto him, 
 and make our abode with him " (John 14 : 23). 
 This promise was fulfilled at Pentecost, and the 
 first two Persons of the Godhead now hold residence 
 in the church through the Third. The Holy Spirit 
 during the present time is in office on earth ; and 
 all spiritual presence and divine communion of the 
 Trinity with men are through him. In other words, 
 while the Father and the Son are visibly and per- 
 sonally in heaven, they are invisibly here in the
 
 THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT 21 
 
 body of the faithful by the indwelling of the Com- 
 forter. So that though we affirm that on the day 
 of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to dwell upon 
 earth for this entire dispensation, we do not imply 
 that he thereby ceased to be in heaven. Not with 
 God, as with finite man, does arrival in one place 
 necessitate withdrawal from another. Jesus uttered 
 a saying concerning himself so mysterious and 
 seemingly contradictory that many attempts have 
 been made to explain away its literal and obvious 
 meaning : "And no man hath ascended up to heaven 
 but he that came down from heaven, even the Son 
 of man who is in heaven" Christ on earth, and 
 yet in glory ; here and there, at the same time, 
 just as a thought which we embody in speech and 
 send forth from the mind, yet remains in the mind 
 as really and distinctly as before it was expressed. 
 Why should this saying concerning our divine Lord 
 seem incredible ? And as with the Son, so with the 
 Spirit. The Holy Ghost is here, abiding perpetu- 
 ally in the church ; and he is likewise there, in com- 
 munion with the Father and the Son from whom he 
 proceeds, and from whom, as co-equal partner in the 
 Godhead, he can never be separated any more than 
 the sunbeam can be dissociated from the sun in 
 which it has its source. 
 
 2. Again : The Holy Spirit, in a mystical but 
 very real sense, became embodied in the church on 
 the day of Pentecost. Not that we would by any
 
 22 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 means put this embodiment on the same plane with 
 the incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity. 
 When " the Word was made flesh and dwelt among 
 us," it was God entering into union with sinless 
 humanity ; here it is the Holy Spirit uniting him- 
 self with the church in its imperfect and militant 
 condition. Nevertheless, it is according to literal 
 Scripture that the body of the faithful is indwelt 
 by the divine Spirit. In this fact we have the dis- 
 tinguishing peculiarity of the present dispensation. 
 " For he dwelleth with you and shall be in you" 
 said Jesus, speaking anticipatively of the coming of 
 the Comforter ; and so truly was this prediction ful- 
 filled that ever after the day of Pentecost the Holy 
 Spirit is spoken of as being in the church. "If so 
 be tliat the Spirit of God dwell in you " is the in- 
 spired assumption on which the deep teaching in 
 Romans eighth proceeds. All the recognition 
 and deference which the disciples paid to their 
 Lord they now pay to the Holy Spirit, his true 
 vicar, his invisible self, present in the body of be- 
 lievers. How artlessly and naturally this comes out 
 in the findings of the first council at Jerusalem : 
 "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us" runs 
 the record ; as though it had been said : " Peter and 
 James and Barnabas and Saul and the rest were 
 present, and also just as truly was the Holy Ghost." 
 And when the first capital sin was committed 
 in the church, in the conspiracy and falsehood
 
 THE ADVENT OP THE SPIRIT 23 
 
 of Ananias and Sapphira, Peter's question is : 
 " Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the 
 Holy Ghost ? " " How is it that ye have agreed 
 together to tempt the Holy Ghost ? " Not only is 
 the personal presence of the Spirit in the body of 
 believers thus distinctly recognized, but he is there 
 in authority and supremacy, as the center of the 
 assembly. " Incarnated in the church ! " do we 
 say? We get this conception by comparing to- 
 gether the inspired characterizations of Christ and 
 of the church. " This temple " was the name which 
 he gave to his own divine person, greatly to the 
 scandal and indignation of the Jews ; and the evan- 
 gelist explains to us that " he spoke of the temple 
 of his body." A metaphor, a type ! do we say ? 
 No ! He said so because it was so. " The Word 
 was made flesh and tabernacled among us, and we 
 beheld his glory" (John I : 14). This is temple im- 
 agery. " Tabernacled " (iffxyvaxrev) is the word used 
 in Scripture for the dwelling of God with men ; and 
 the temple is God's dwelling-place. The " glory " 
 harmonizes with the same idea. As the Shechinah 
 cloud rested above the mercy-seat, the symbol and 
 sign of God's presence, so from the Holy of Holies 
 of our blessed Lord's heart did the glory of God 
 shine forth, " the glory as of the only begotten of 
 the Father, full of grace and truth," certifying him 
 to be the veritable temple of the Most High. 
 
 After his ascension and the sending down of the
 
 24 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 Spirit, the church takes the name her Lord had borne 
 before ; she is the temple of God, and the only tem- 
 ple which he has on earth during the present dis- 
 pensation. " Know ye not that ye are the temple 
 of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? " 
 asks the apostle. This he speaks to the church in 
 its corporate capacity. "A holy temple in the 
 Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a 
 habitation of God through the Spirit," is the sub- 
 lime description in the Epistle to the Ephesians. It 
 is enough that we now emphasize the fact that the 
 same language is here applied to the church which 
 Christ applies to himself. As with the Head, so 
 with the mystical body; each is indwelt by the 
 Holy Spirit, and thus is God in some sense incar- 
 nated in both ; and for the same reason. Christ 
 was " the Image of the Invisible God " ; and when 
 he stood before men in the flesh he could say to 
 them, "He that hath seen me hath seen the 
 Father." Not otherwise than through the incar- 
 nation, so far as we know, could the unknown God 
 become known, and the unseen God become seen. 
 So, after Christ had returned to the Father, and the 
 world saw him no more, he sent the Paraclete to be 
 incarnated * in his mystical body, the church. As 
 the Father revealed himself through the Son, so 
 the Son by the Holy Spirit now reveals himself 
 through the church ; as Christ was the image of 
 the invisible God, so the church is appointed to be
 
 THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT 25 
 
 the image of the invisible Christ ; and his members, 
 when they are glorified with him, shall be the ex- 
 press image of his person. 
 
 This then is the mystery and the glory of this 
 dispensation ; not less true because mysterious ; 
 not less practical because glorious. In an ad- 
 mirable work on the Spirit, the distinction be- 
 tween the former and the present relation of the 
 Spirit is thus stated : " In the old dispensation the 
 Holy Spirit wrought upon believers, but did not in 
 his person dwell in believers and abide permanently 
 in them. He appeared unto men ; he did not in- 
 carnate himself in man. His action was intermit- 
 tent ; he went and came like the dove which Noah 
 sent forth from the ark, and which went to and fro, 
 finding no rest ; while in the new dispensation he 
 dwells, he abides in the heart as the dove, his emblem, 
 which John saw descending and alighting on the head 
 of Jesus. Affianced of the soul, the Spirit went oft 
 to see his betrothed, but was not yet one with her ; 
 the marriage was not consummated until the Pen- 
 tecost, after the glorification of Jesus Christ." * 
 
 3. A still more obvious reason why before the 
 day of Pentecost it could be said that " the Holy 
 Ghcst was not yet," is contained in the words, 
 "Because tJiat Jesus was not yet glorified" In the 
 order of the unfolding ages we see each of the per 
 sons of the Godhead in turn exercising an earthly 
 
 1 " The Work of the Holy Spirit in Man," by Pastor Tophel, p. 32. 
 C
 
 26 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 ministry and dealing with man in the work of 
 redemption. Under the law, God the Father comes 
 down to earth and speaks to men from the cloud of 
 Sinai and from the glory above the mercy-seat ; 
 under grace, God the Son is in the world, teaching, 
 suffering, dying, and rising again ; under the dis- 
 pensation of election and out-gathering now going 
 on, the Holy Spirit is here carrying on the work of 
 renewing and sanctifying the church, which is the 
 body of Christ. There is a necessary succession 
 in these Divine ministries, both in time and in char- 
 acter. In the days of Moses it might have been 
 said : " Christ is not yet," because the economy 
 of God-Jehovah was not completed. The law must 
 first be given, with its sacrifices and types and cere- 
 monies and shadows ; man must be put on trial 
 under the law, till the appointed time of his school- 
 ing should be completed. Then must Christ come 
 to fulfill all types and terminate all sacrifices in 
 himself ; to do for us " what the law could not do 
 in that it was weak through the flesh," and to 
 become " the end of the law for righteousness to 
 every one that believeth." When in turn Christ 
 had completed his redemption-work by dying on the 
 cross for our sins, and rising again from the dead 
 for our justification, and had taken his place at 
 God's right hand for perpetual intercession, then 
 the Holy Ghost came down to communicate and 
 realize to the church the finished work of Christ.
 
 THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT 37 
 
 In a word, as God the Son fulfills to men the work 
 of God the Father, so God the Holy Ghost realizes 
 to human hearts the work of God the Son. 
 
 There is a holy deference, if we may so say, 
 between the Persons of the Trinity in regard to 
 their respective ministries. When Christ was in 
 office on earth, the Father commends us to him, 
 speaking from heaven and saying : " This is my 
 beloved Son, hear ye him " ; when the Holy Ghost 
 had entered upon his earthly office, Christ com- 
 mends us to him, speaking again from heaven with 
 sevenfold reiteration, saying : "He that hath an 
 ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the 
 churches." 1 As each Person refers us to the teach- 
 ing of the other, so in like manner does each in 
 turn consummate the ministry of the other. 
 Christ's words and works were not his own, but his 
 Father's : " The words which I speak unto you I 
 speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth 
 in me he doeth the works." 2 The Spirit's teaching 
 and communications are not his own, but Christ's : 
 " Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come, he 
 will guide you into all truth ; for he shall not speak 
 of himself ; but whatsoever he shall hear that shall 
 he speak ; and he will show you things to come." 
 " He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine 
 and show it unto you'' 
 
 This order in the ministries of the Persons of 
 
 1 See epistles to the seven churches : Rev 2 : II. J John 14 : 10.
 
 28 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 the Godhead is so fixed and eternal that we find it 
 distinctly foreshadowed even in the typical teaching 
 of the Old Testament. Many speak slightingly of 
 the types, but they are as accurate as mathematics ; 
 they fix the sequence of events in redemption as 
 rigidly as the order of sunrise and noontide is fixed 
 in the heavens. Nowhere in tabernacle or in temple, 
 shall we ever find the laver placed before the altar. 
 The altar is Calvary and the laver is Pentecost ; 
 one stands for the sacrificial blood, the other for 
 the sanctifying Spirit. If any high priest were 
 ignorantly to approach the brazen laver without 
 first having come to the brazen altar, we might 
 expect a rebuking voice to be heard from heaven : 
 " Not yet the washing of water" ; and such a say- 
 ing would signify exactly the same as : " Not yet 
 the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Again, when the leper was to be cleansed, 
 observe that the blood was to be put upon the tip 
 of his right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and 
 the great toe of his right foot ; and then the oil was 
 to be put upon the right ear, the right thumb, and 
 thi right foot the oil upon the blood of tJie trespass- 
 offering (Lev. 14). Never, we venture to say, in 
 all the manifold repetitions of this divine ceremony, 
 was this order once inverted, so that the oil was 
 first applied, and then the blood ; which means, in- 
 terpreting type into antitype, that it was impossible 
 that Pentecost could have preceded Calvary, or
 
 THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT 29 
 
 that the outpouring of the Spirit should have 
 anticipated the shedding of the blood. 
 
 (Then let us reflect, that not only the order of 
 these two great events of redemption was fixed 
 from the beginning, but their dates werp marked in 
 the calendar of typical time. The slaying of the 
 paschal lamb told to generation after generation, 
 though they knew it not, the day of the year and 
 week on which Christ our Passover should be sacri- 
 ficed for us. The presentation of the wave sheaf 
 before the Lord, " on the morrow after the Sabbath " 1 
 had for long centuries fixed the time of our Lord's 
 resurrection on the first day of the week. And the 
 command to "count from the morrow after the 
 Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of 
 the wave offering, seven Sabbaths" 1 determined the 
 day of Pentecost as the time of the descent of the 
 Spirit. We sometimes think of the disciples wait- 
 ing for an indefinite period in that upper room for 
 the fulfillment of the promise of the Father ; but 
 the time had been fixed not only with God in 
 eternity, but in the calendar of the Hebrew ritual 
 upon earth. They tarried in prayer for ten days, 
 simply because after the forty days of the Lord's 
 sojourn on earth subsequent to his resurrection, ten 
 days remained of the " seven Sabbaths " period.^) 
 
 To sum up what we are saying : The Spirit of 
 God is the successor of the Son of God in his offi- 
 
 1 Lev. 23 : 1 1 -i 6.
 
 30 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 cial ministry on earth. Until Christ's earthly work 
 for his church had been finished, the Spirit's work 
 in this world could not properly begin. The office 
 of the Holy Ghost is to communicate Christ to us 
 Christ in. his entirencss. However perfectly the 
 photographer's plate has been prepared, there can 
 be no picture until his subject steps into his place 
 and stands before him. Our Saviour's redemptive 
 work was not completed when he died on the cross, 
 or when he rose from the dead, or even when he 
 ascended from the brow of Olivet. Not until he 
 sat down in his Father's throne, summing up all his 
 ministry in himself, " I am he that liveth and was 
 dead, and behold I am alive forevermore," did the 
 full Christ stand ready to be communicated to his 
 church. 1 By the first Adam's sin, God's communion 
 with man through the Holy Ghost was broken, and 
 their union ruptured. When the second Adam 
 came up from his cross and resurrection, and took 
 his place at God's right hand, there was a restora- 
 tion of this broken fellowship. Very beautiful are 
 
 i " Christ having reached his goal, and not till then, bequeathes 
 to his followers the graces that invested his earthly course; the 
 ascending Elijah leaves his mantle behind him. It is only an exten- 
 sion of the same principle, that the declared office of the Holy Spirit 
 being to complete the image of Christ in every faithful follower by ef- 
 fecting in this world a spiritual death and resurrection, a point 
 attested in every epistle, the image could not be stamped until the 
 reality had been wholly accomplished ; the Divine Artist could not 
 fitly descend to make the copy before the entire original had been pro- 
 vided." Archer Butler.
 
 THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT 31 
 
 the words of our risen Lord as bearing on this 
 point : " I ascend to my Father and your Father, to 
 my God and your God." l The place which the 
 divine Son had won for himself in the Father's 
 heart, he had won for us also. All of acceptance 
 and standing and privilege which was now his, was 
 ours too, by redemptive right ; and the Holy Ghost 
 is sent down to confirm and realize to us what he 
 had won for us. Without the expiatory work of 
 Christ for us, the sanctifying work of the Spirit in 
 us were impossible ; and on the other hand, without 
 the work of the Spirit within us, the work of Christ 
 for us were without avail. 
 
 " And when the day of Pentecost was fully come" 
 What these words mean historically, typically, and 
 doctrinally, we are now prepared to see. The true 
 wave sheaf had been presented in the temple on 
 high. Christ the first-fruits, brought from the grave 
 on "the morrow after the Sabbath," or the first day 
 of the week, now stands before God accepted on 
 our behalf ; the seven Sabbaths from the resurrec- 
 tion day have been counted, and Pentecost has 
 come. Then suddenly, to those who we>e " all of 
 one accord in one place," "there came a sound from 
 heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all 
 
 i John 20 : 1 7. " Because though he and the Father are one, and the 
 Father his Father by the propriety of nature, to us God became a 
 Father through the Son, not by right of nature, but by grace." Am- 
 brose,
 
 32 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 the house where they were sitting, and there ap- 
 peared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and 
 sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with 
 the Holy Ghost." As the manger of Bethlehem 
 was the cradle of the. Son of God, so was the 
 upper room the cradle of the Spirit of God ; as 
 the advent of " the Holy Child " was a testimony 
 that God had "visited and redeemed his people," 
 so was the coming of the Holy Ghost. The fact 
 that the Comforter is here, is proof that the Advo- 
 cate is there in the presence of the Father. Boldly 
 Peter and the other apostles now confront the rulers 
 with their testimony, " Whom ye slew and hanged 
 on a tree . . . Him hath God exalted with his 
 right hand to be a prince and a Saviour, to give re- 
 pentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins ; and we 
 are his witnesses of these things ; and so also is the 
 Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey 
 him'' As the sound of the golden bells upon the 
 high priest's garments within the Holiest gave evi- 
 dence that he was alive, so the sound of the Holy 
 Ghost, proceeding from heaven and heard in that 
 upper chamber, was an incontestable witness that 
 the great High Priest whom they had just seen 
 passing through the cloud-curtain, entering within 
 the veil, was still living for them in the presence of 
 the Father. Thus has the " dies natalis" the birth- 
 Jay of the Holy Spirit, come ; and the events of his 
 earthly mission will now be considered in their order.
 
 Ill 
 
 THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT
 
 " The name Paraclete is applied to Christ as well as to 
 the Spirit ; and properly : For it is the common office of 
 each to console and encourage us and to preserve us by 
 their defense. Christ was their [the disciples'] patron so 
 long as he lived in the world ; he then committed them to 
 the guidance and protection of the Spirit. If any one asks 
 us whether we are not under the guidance of Christ, the 
 answer is easy : Christ is a perpetual guardian, but not visi- 
 bly. As long as he walked on the earth he appeared 
 openly as their guardian : now he preserves us by his Spirit. 
 He calls the Spirit ' another Comforter, ' in view of the dis- 
 tinction which we observe in the blessings proceeding from 
 each." John Calvin.
 
 Ill 
 
 THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 '"THE Son of God was named by the angel before 
 J- he was conceived in the womb : " Thou shalt 
 call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people 
 from their sins." Thus he came, not to receive a 
 name, but to fulfill a name already predetermined 
 for him. In like manner was the Holy Ghost 
 named by our Lord before his advent into the 
 world : " But when the Paraclete is come, whom I 
 will send unto you from the Father " (John 1 5 : 
 26). This designation of the Holy Spirit here 
 occurs for the first time a new name for the 
 new ministry upon which he is now about to enter. 
 The reader will find in almost any critical commen- 
 tary discussions of the meaning of the word, and 
 of the question of its right translation, whether by 
 "Comforter," or "Advocate," or "Teacher," or 
 " Helper." But the question cannot be fully set- 
 tled by an appeal to classical or patristic Greek, 
 for the reason, we believe, that it is a divinely 
 given name whose real significance must be made 
 manifest in the actual life and history of the Spirit. 
 The name is the person himself, and only as we 
 know the person can we interpret his name. Why 
 
 35
 
 36 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 attempt then to translate this word any more than 
 we do the name of Jesus ? We might well trans- 
 fer it into our English version, leaving the history 
 of the church from the Acts of the Apostles to the 
 experience of the latest saint to fill into it the 
 great significance which it was intended to contain. 
 Certain it is that the language of the Holy Ghost 
 can never be fully understood by an appeal to the 
 lexicon. The heart of the church is the best dic- 
 tionary of the Spirit. While all the before-men- 
 tioned synonyms are correct, neither one is adequate, 
 nor are all together sufficient to bring out the full 
 significance of this great name, " The Paraclete." 
 
 Let us consider, however, how much is suggested 
 by the literal meaning of this word, "the Para- 
 cletos" and by all that our Lord says c'oncerning 
 him in his last discourse. " To call to one's aid," 
 is the meaning of the verb, napaxattut, from which 
 the name is derived. Very beautiful therefore is 
 the word in its application to the disciples of Christ 
 at the time when the Spirit was given. They had 
 lost the visible presence of their Lord. The sor- 
 row of his removal from them through the cross 
 and the sepulchre had after three days been turned 
 into joy by his resurrection. But now another 
 separation had come, in his departure to the Father 
 after the cloud had received him out of sight. In this 
 last and longer bereavement, what should they do ? 
 Their beloved Master had told them beforehand
 
 THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT 37 
 
 what to do. They were to call upon the Father to 
 send them One to fill the vacant place, and he who 
 should be sent would be the " Paraclete," the " one 
 called to their help." * 
 
 But what deep questionings must have arisen in 
 their hearts as they heard the Saviour's promise : 
 " If I go not away the Paraclete will not come unto 
 you ; but if I depart I will send him unto you." 
 Did they begin to ask whether the mysterious 
 comer would be a " person " ? Impossible to 
 imagine. For he was to take the place of that 
 greatest of persons ; to do for them even greater 
 things than he had done ; and to lead them into 
 even larger knowledge than he had imparted. 
 The discussion of the personality of the Holy 
 Ghost is so unnatural in the light of Christ's 
 last discourse that we studiously avoid it. Let us 
 treat the question, therefore, from the point of view 
 of Christ's own words, and try to put ourselves 
 under the impression which they make upon us. 
 To state the matter as simply and familiarly as pos- 
 sible : Jesus is about to vacate his office on earth as 
 teacher and prophet ; but before doing so he would 
 introduce us to his successor. As in a complex 
 problem we seek to determine an unknown quantity 
 by the known, so in this paschal discourse Jesus 
 
 1 The word -irapaK^rtap is used in the Septuagint (Job 16 : 2) with 
 the meaning of " Comforter] ' and the term jrapaKATjro? occurs in the 
 Talmud, signifying "Interpreter" 
 
 D
 
 38 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 aims to make us acquainted with the mysterious, 
 invisible coming personage whom he names the 
 " Paraclete " by comparing him with himself, the 
 known and the visible one. Collating his compari- 
 sons we may find in them several groups of seem- 
 ing contradictions, and just such contradictions as 
 we should expect if this comer is indeed a person 
 of the Godhead. Of the coming Paraclete then 
 we find these intimations. 1 
 
 i. He is another, yet the same : " And I will pray 
 the Father and he shall give you another Com- 
 forter" (John 14 : 1 6). By the use of this expres- 
 sion " another " our Lord distinguishes the Para- 
 clete from himself, but he also puts him on the 
 same plane with himself. For there is no parity 
 or even comparison between a person and an influ- 
 ence. If the promised visitor were to be only an 
 impersonal emanation from God, it would seem im- 
 possible that our Lord should have so co-ordinated 
 him with himself as to say : " I go to be an Advo- 
 cate for you in heaven (i John 2:1), and I send 
 another to be an Advocate for you on earth." 
 
 1 The most obvious reason for concluding that the Holy Spirit is a 
 person is that he performs actions and stands in relations which l^long 
 only to a person, e. g. : He speaks (Acts I : 1 6) ; he works mira- 
 cles (Acts 2 : 4 ; 8 : 39) ; he sets ministers over churches (Acts 20 : 
 28) ; he commands and forbids (Acts 8: 29; H:l2;l3:2;i6: 
 6, 7) ; he prays for us (Rom. 8 : 26) ; he witnesses (Rom. 8 : 1 6) ; 
 he can be grieved (Eph. 4 : 30) ; he can be blasphemed (Mark 3 : 
 29) ; he can be resisted (Acts 7 : 51, etc).
 
 THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT 39 
 
 But if Christ thus distinguishes the Comforter 
 from himself, he also identifies him with himself : 
 " I will not leave you orphans : / will come to you " 
 (John 14 : 1 8). By common consent this promise 
 refers to the advent of the Spirit, for so the con- 
 nection plainly indicates. And yet almost in the 
 same breath he says : " The Comforter whom I will 
 send unto you " (John 14 : 26). Thus our Lord 
 makes the same event to be at once his coming and 
 his sending ; and he speaks of the Spirit now as 
 his own presence, and now as his substitute during 
 his absence. So what must we conclude but that 
 the Paraclete is Christ's other self, a third Person 
 in that blessed Trinity of which he is the second. 
 
 2. The Paraclete is subordinate yet superior in 
 his ministry to the church. " For he shall not 
 speak of himself ; but whatsoever he shall hear that 
 shall he speak He shall glorify me ; for he shall re- 
 ceive of mine and show it unto you " (John 16 : 13). 
 
 Well may we mark the holy deference between 
 the persons of the Trinity which is here pointed 
 out. Each receives from another what he com- 
 municates, and each magnifies another in his 
 praises. As Bengel concisely states it : " The Son 
 glorifies the Father ; the Spirit glorifies the Son." 
 What then is the office of the Holy Ghost, so far 
 as we can interpret it, but that of communicating 
 and applying the work of Christ to human hearts ? 
 If he convinces of sin it is by exhibiting the
 
 4O THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 gracious redemptive work of the Saviour and show- 
 ing men their guilt in not believing on him. If he 
 witnesses to the penitent of his acceptance it is by 
 testifying of the atoning blood of Jesus in which 
 that acceptance is grounded ; if he regenerates and 
 sanctifies the heart it is by communicating to it the 
 life of the risen Lord. Christ is " all " in himself, 
 and through the Spirit " in all " those whom the 
 Spirit renews. This reverent subjection of the 
 earthly Comforter to the heavenly Christ contains 
 a deep lesson for those who are indwelt by the 
 Spirit ' and makes them rejoice evermore to be 
 witnesses rather than originators. 
 
 With this subordination of the Holy Spirit to 
 C hrist, how is it yet true that such a great advan- 
 tage was to accrue to the church by the departure 
 of the Saviour and the consequent advent of the 
 Spirit to take his place ? That it would be so is what 
 is plainly affirmed in the following text : " Neverthe- 
 less I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you 
 that I go away : for if I go not away the Comforter 
 will not come unto you ; but if I depart I will send 
 him unto you " (John 16:7). If the Spirit is simply 
 the measure of the Son, his sole work being to com- 
 municate the work of the Son, what gain could 
 there be in the departure of the one in order to 
 
 1 If the Holy Spirit may not speak of himself as preacher, how 
 canst thou draw thy preaching out of thyself out of thine head of 
 even out of thine heart. Pastor Gossncr.
 
 THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT 41 
 
 the coming of the other ? Would it not be simply 
 the exchange of Christ for Christ ? his visible 
 presence for his invisible ? 
 
 To us the answer of this question is most ob- 
 vious. It was not the earthly Christ whom the 
 Holy Ghost was to communicate to the church, but 
 the heavenly Christ, the Christ re-invested with 
 his eternal power, re-clothed with the glory which 
 he had with the Father before the world was, and 
 re-endowed with the infinite treasures of grace 
 which he had purchased by his death on the cross. 
 It is as though to use a very inadequate illustra- 
 tion a beloved father were to say to his family : 
 " My children, I have provided well for your needs ; 
 but your condition is one of poverty compared with 
 what it may become. By the death of a kinsman 
 in my native country I have become heir to an im- 
 mense estate. If you will only submit cheerfully 
 to my leaving you and crossing the sea, and enter- 
 ing into my inheritance, I will send you back a 
 thousand times more than you could have by my 
 remaining with you." Only in the instance - ve are 
 considering, Christ is the " testator " as well as the 
 heir. By his death the inheritance becomes avail- 
 able, and when he had ascended into heaven he 
 sent down the Holy Spirit to distribute the estate 
 among those who were joint heirs with him. 
 What this estate is, may be best summarized in two 
 beautiful expressions of frequent recurrence in the
 
 42 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 epistles of Paul, " The riches of his grace " (Eph. i : 
 7), and " The riches of his glory " (Eph. 3:16). On 
 the cross " the riches of his grace " was secured to 
 us in the forgiveness of sins ; on the throne " the 
 riches of his glory" was secured to us in our being 
 strengthened with all might by his Spirit in the 
 inner man ; in the indwelling of Christ in our 
 hearts by faith, and in our infilling with all the full- 
 ness of God. The divine wealth only becomes 
 completely available on the death, resurrection, and 
 ascension of our Lord ; so that the Holy Spirit, the 
 divine Conveyancer, had not the full inheritance to 
 convey till Jesus was glorified. 
 
 Observe therefore, in the valedictory discourse 
 of our Lord, the frequent recurrence of the words : 
 " Because I go to the Father" one of the sayings 
 which greatly perplexed his disciples. In the light 
 of all which Jesus says in this connection, let us 
 see if its meaning may not be clear to us. " If ye 
 loved me ye would rejoice because I go unto the 
 Father ; for the Father is greater than I " (John 
 14 : 28), he says in the same connection. We can- 
 not here enter into the deep question of the kenosis^ 
 or self-emptying of the Son of God in his incarna- 
 tion. It is enough that we follow the plain teach- 
 ing of the Scripture, that though "being in the 
 form of God, he counted it not a thing to be 
 grasped to be on an equality with God ; but emptied 
 himself, taking the form of a servant" (Phil. 2 :
 
 THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT 43 
 
 6, /, R. V.). What now does his going to the 
 Father signify but a refilling with that of which he 
 had been emptied, or a resumption of his co-equal- 
 ity with God ? The greater blessing which he 
 could confer upon his church by his departure 
 seems to lie in the fact of the greater power and 
 glory into which he would enter by his enthrone- 
 ment at God's right hand As Luther pointedly puts 
 it : " Therefore do I go, he saith, where I shall be 
 greater than I now am, that is, to the Father, and 
 it is better that I shall pass out of this obscurity 
 and weakness into the power and glory in which 
 the Father is." In the light of this interpretation 
 the meaning of our Lord's words above quoted 
 does not seem difficult. The Paraclete was to com- 
 municate Christ to his church, his life, his power, 
 his riches, his glory. In his exaltation all these 
 were to be very greatly increased. "All things 
 that the Father hath are mine" (John 16 : 15), he 
 says. And though he had for a time voluntarily 
 disinherited himself of his heavenly possessions, he 
 is now to be repossessed of them. " Therefore said I, 
 that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto 
 you" (16 : 15). Christ at God's right hand will 
 have more to give than while on earth ; therefore 
 the church will have more to receive through the 
 Paraclete than through the visible Christ. What 
 obvious significance then do the following sayings 
 from this farewell sermon of Jesus have : " Verily
 
 44 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me the 
 works that I do shall he do also ; greater works than 
 these shall he do ; because I go unto the Father" (John 
 14 : 12). The earthly Christ is equal only to himself 
 thus conditioned ; and if the Holy Spirit shall com- 
 municate his power to his disciples, they will do the 
 same works that he does. But the heavenly Christ 
 is co-equal with the Father, therefore when he shall 
 ascend to the Father, and the Spirit shall take of 
 his and communicate to his church, it will do 
 greater works than these. The stream of life, in 
 other words, will have greater power because of the 
 higher source from which it proceeds. Very deep 
 are the mysteries here considered, and we can only 
 speak of them in the light which we get by compar- 
 ing Scripture with Scripture. Did the risen Christ 
 breathe on his disciples and say to them : " Receive 
 ye the Holy Ghost " ? x "It is enough, Lord, that we 
 have received the Spirit from thee," they might 
 well have said. Yet it was not enough for him to 
 give ; for looking on to the day of his enthrone- 
 ment, he says : " But when the Paraclete is come, 
 whom I will send unto you from the Father, even 
 the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the 
 Father, he shall testify of me " (John 1 5 : 26). 
 When Jesus hath ascended " on high," then can the 
 
 1 Let it be observed that in this communication of the risen Christ 
 it is not said, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost" the article being sig- 
 nificantly omitted Aa/Jr n^G^o Sytov (John 20 : 22).
 
 THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT 45 
 
 Holy Ghost communicate "the power from on 
 high." Therefore it is expedient that he go away. 
 As with the power which Christ was to impart 
 to his church through the Paraclete, so with the 
 righteousness which he was both to impute and to 
 impart ; its highest source must be found in heaven : 
 " And when he, the Comforter, is come, he will con- 
 vince the world of righteousness ; ... of righteous- 
 ness because I go to my father, and ye see me no 
 more " (John 16 : 8-10). We may say truly that the 
 righteousness of Christ was not completely finished 
 and authenticated till he sat down at the right hand 
 of the majesty on high. By his death he perfectly 
 satisfied the claims of a violated law, but this fact 
 was not attested until the grave gave back the cer- 
 tificate of discharge in his released and risen body. 
 By his resurrection he was " declared to be the Son 
 of God in power, according to the Spirit of holi- 
 ness " (Rom. i : 4). But the fact was not fully 
 verified till God had " set him at his own right hand 
 in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and 
 power, and might, and dominion, and every name 
 that is named" (Eph. i : 20, 21). Now in his con- 
 summated glory he is prepared to be " made wis- 
 dom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and re- 
 demption " to his people. He who had been 
 " manifest in the flesh " that he might be made sin 
 for us, was now "justified in the Spirit" and "re- 
 ceived up into glory," that he might be made
 
 46 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 righteousness to us, and that " we might be made 
 the righteousness of God in him." Christ's cor- 
 onation, in a word, is the indispensable condition to 
 our justification. Till he who was made a curse for 
 us is crowned with glory and honor we cannot be 
 assured of our acceptance with the Father. l How 
 deep the current of thought which flows through 
 this narrow channel " Because I go to the Father." 
 3. The Paraclete teaches only the things of 
 Christ ; yet teaches more than Christ taught : " I 
 have yet many things to say unto you, but ye can- 
 not bear them now. Howbeit when he the Spirit 
 of truth is come, he will guide you into all the 
 truth " (John 16 : 12, 13). It is as though he had 
 said : " I have brought you a little way in the 
 knowledge of my doctrine ; he shall bring you all 
 the way." One reason for this saying seems plain : 
 The teaching of Jesus during his earthly ministry 
 waited to be illumined by a light not risen the 
 light of the cross, the light of the sepulchre, the 
 light of the ascension. Therefore until these 
 events had come to pass, Christian doctrine was 
 undeveloped, and could not be fully communicated 
 to the disciples of Christ. But this is not all. 
 The " because I go to the Father " still gives the 
 key to our Lord's meaning. " But what things so- 
 
 1 How righteous must he be, who will go to the Father from the 
 cross and the grave ! Thus will the Holy Spirit convince the world 
 that he is a righteous man, and truly righteous for man. Ruos.
 
 THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT 47 
 
 ever he shall hear, these shall he speak, and he 
 shall declare unto you things to come " (John 
 1 6 : 13, R. V.). Very wonderful is this hint of the 
 mutual converse of the Godhead, so that the Para- 
 clete is described as listening while he leads, as 
 having an ear in heaven attentive to the converse 
 of the Father and the glorified Son, while he ex- 
 tends an unseen guidance to the flock on earth, 
 communicating to them what he has heard from 
 the Father and the Son. And we may reverently 
 ask, Has not the glorified Christ more of knowl- 
 edge and revelation to communicate than he had in 
 the days of his humiliation ? Of " the things to 
 come" has he not secrets to impart which hitherto 
 may have been hidden in the counsels of the 
 Father? To take a single illustration from the 
 words of Christ. Speaking of his second advent, 
 he says : " But of that day or that hour knoweth no 
 one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the 
 Son, but the Father" (Mark 13 : 32*). It is best 
 that we should interpret these words frankly, and 
 instead of saying, with some, that he did not know 
 in the sense that he was not permitted to disclose, 
 admit it possible that while in his humiliation and 
 under the veil of his incarnation, this secret was 
 hidden from his eyes. 
 
 But is it not presumptuous for us to reason, that 
 
 1 " Neither the Son " : " It is more than neither ; it is not yet the 
 Son," says Morrison the commentator.
 
 48 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 therefore he does not now know the day of his 
 coming ? How constantly is that text quoted as a 
 decisive and final prohibition of all inquiry into the 
 proximate time of our Lord's return in glory. But 
 they who so use this saying simply remand us to the 
 childhood of the church, to the spiritual nonage of the 
 ante-Pentecostal days. Have we forgotten that since 
 our Lord ascended to the Father he has given us a 
 further revelation, that wondrous book of the Apoca- 
 lypse, which opens and closes with a beatitude upon 
 those who read and faithfully keep the words of this 
 prophecy ? And one characteristic feature of this 
 book is its chronological predictions concerning the 
 time of the end, its mystical dates, which have led 
 many sober searchers of the word of God to inquire 
 diligently "what and what manner of time" the 
 Spirit did signify in giving us these way-marks in 
 the wilderness. This being so, we may ask : If we 
 are not irreverent in concluding with many devout 
 expositors that our Saviour meant what he said in 
 declaring that he did "not yet" know the time of 
 his advent, are we presumptuous in taking literally 
 the opening words of the Apocalypse ? : " The 
 R.evelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto 
 him, to show unto his servants the things which 
 must shortly come to pass." It was because of 
 his going unto the Father that greater works and 
 greater riches were to attend the church after 
 Pentecost. Why may we not assign to the same
 
 THE NAMING OF THE SPIRIT 49 
 
 cause also the fuller revelation of the future and the 
 leading into completer truth concerning the blessed 
 hope of the church? In other words, if we may 
 think of Christ as entering into larger revelation as 
 he returns to the glory which he had with the 
 Father must we not think of larger communica- 
 tions of truth by the blessed Paraclete ? 
 
 Have we not learned something of the nature 
 and offices of the Spirit by this study of his new 
 name, and of all that the departing Lord says 
 in the wondrous discourse wherein he introduces 
 him to his disciples ? At least the study should 
 enable us to distinguish two inspired terms which 
 have been needlessly confounded by not a few 
 writers, viz.: the words "Paraclete" and " Parou- 
 sta." The latter word, which constantly occurs in 
 Scripture as describing our Lord's second coming, 
 has been applied in several learned works to the 
 advent of the Holy Spirit ; and since Christ came 
 in the person of the Spirit, it has been argued that 
 the Redeemer's promised advent in glory has al- 
 ready taken place. But this is to confuse terms 
 whose use in Scripture marks them as clearly dis- 
 tinct. Observe their difference : In the Paraclete, 
 Christ comes spiritually and invisibly ; in the Pa- 
 rousia, he comes bodily and gloriously. The advent 
 of the Paraclete is really conditioned on the Saviour's 
 personal departure from his people : " If I go not away 
 the Paraclete will not come to you" (John 16 : 7). 
 
 E
 
 50 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 The Parousia, on the other hand, is only realized in 
 his personal return to his people : " For what is our 
 hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even 
 ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his 
 comingl" (i Thess. 2 : 19.) The Paraclete attends 
 the church in the days of her humiliation ; the 
 Parousia introduces the church into the day of her 
 glory. In the Paraclete, Christ came to dwell with 
 the church on earth : " I will not leave you orphans ; 
 I will come to you" (John 14 : 18). In the Pa- 
 rousia, Christ comes to take the church to dwell 
 with himself in glory : " I will come again and 
 receive you unto myself; that where I am there 
 ye may be also" (John 14 : 3). Christ prayed on 
 behalf of his bereaved church for the coming of 
 this Paraclete : " And I will pray the Father and he 
 shall give you another Paraclete." The Holy Spirit 
 now prays with the pilgrim-church for the hasten- 
 ing of the Parousia. "And the Spirit and the 
 bride say, Come" (Rev. 22 : 17). These two can 
 only be understood in their mutual relations. Christ, 
 who gave the new name to the Holy Spirit, can best 
 interpret that name to us by making us acquainted 
 with himself. May that name be for us so real a 
 symbol of personal presence that while strangers 
 and pilgrims in the earth we may walk evermore 
 "in the paraclesi s of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 9:31).
 
 IV 
 
 THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT
 
 " But now the Holy Ghost is given more perfectly, for he is 
 no longer present by his operation as of old, but is present 
 with us so to speak, and converses with us in a substantial 
 manner. For it was fitting that, as the Son had conversed 
 with us in the body, the spirit should also come among us 
 in a bodily manner." Gregory Nazianzen.
 
 IV 
 
 THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 church, which is his body," began its his- 
 tory and development at Pentecost. Be- 
 lievers had been saved, and the influences of the 
 Spirit had been manifested to men in all previous 
 dispensations from Adam to Christ. But now an 
 ecclesia, an outgathering, was to be made to con- 
 stitute the mystical body of Christ, incorporated 
 into him the Head and indwelt by him through the 
 Holy Ghost. The definition which we sometimes 
 hear, that a church is " a voluntary association of 
 believers, united together for the purposes of wor- 
 ship and edification " is most inadequate, not to say 
 incorrect. It is no more true than that hands and 
 feet and eyes and ears are voluntarily united in the 
 human body for the purposes of locomotion and 
 work. The church is formed from within ; Christ 
 present by the Holy Ghost, regenerating men by 
 the sovereign action of the Spirit, and organizing 
 them into himself as the living center. The Head 
 and the body are therefore one, and predestined to 
 the same history of humiliation and glory. And as 
 they are one in fact, so are they one in name. He 
 whom God anointed and filled with the Holy Ghost 
 
 S3
 
 54 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 is called "the Christ," and the church, which is his 
 body and fullness, is also called " the Christ." " For 
 as the body is one, and hath many members, and 
 all the members of that one body, being many, are 
 one body, so also is the Christ" (i Cor. 12 : 12). 
 Here plainly and with wondrous honor the church 
 is named <J Xpiaros, commenting upon which fact 
 Bishop Andrews beautifully says : " Christ is both 
 in heaven and on earth ; as he is called the Head 
 of his church, he is in heaven ; but in respect of his 
 body which is called Christ, he is on earth." 
 
 So soon as the Holy Ghost was sent down from 
 heaven this great work of his embodying began, and 
 it is to continue until the number of the elect shall 
 be accomplished, or unto the end of the present 
 dispensation. Christ, if we may say it reverently, 
 became mystically a babe again on the day of Pente- 
 cost, and the hundred and twenty were his infantile 
 body, as once more through the Holy Ghost he in- 
 carnated himself in his flesh. Now he is growing 
 and increasing in his members, and so will he con- 
 tinue to do " till we all come in the unity of the 
 faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto 
 a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of 
 fullness of Christ." Then the Christ on earth will 
 be taken up into visible union with the Christ in 
 heaven, and the Head and the body be glorified to- 
 gether. Observe how the history of the church's 
 formation, as recorded in the Acts, harmonizes with
 
 THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT 55 
 
 the conception given above. The story of Pente- 
 cost culminates in the words, " and the same day 
 there were added about three thousand souls" 
 (Acts 2 : 41). Added to whom ? we naturally ask. 
 And the King James translators have answered our 
 question by inserting in italics " to them." But 
 not so speaks the Holy Ghost. And when, a few 
 verses further on in the same chapter, we read : 
 " And the Lord added to the church daily such as 
 should be saved," we need to be reminded that the 
 words "to the church" are spurious. All such 
 glosses and interpolations have only tended to mar 
 the sublime teaching of this first chapter of the 
 Holy Spirit's history. "And believers were the 
 more added to the Lord" (Acts 5 : 14.) "And 
 much people were added unto the Lord" (Acts 
 1 1 : 24.) This is the language of inspiration Not 
 the mutual union of believers, but their divine co- 
 uniting with Christ ; not voluntary association of 
 Christians, but their sovereign incorporation into 
 the Head and this incorporation effected by the Head 
 through the Holy Ghost. 
 
 If we ask concerning the way of admission into this 
 divine ecclesia, the teaching of Scripture is explicit : 
 " For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one 
 body " (i Cor. 12 : 13). The baptism in water marks 
 the formal introduction of the believer into the 
 church ; but this is the symbol, not the substance. 
 For observe the identity of form between the ritual
 
 56 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 and the spiritual. " I indeed baptize you in water," 
 . . said John, " but he that cometh after me . . . 
 shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire " 
 (Matt. 3:11). As in the one instance the disciple 
 was submerged in the element of water, so in the 
 other he was to be submerged in the element of the 
 Spirit. And thus it was in actual historic fact. The 
 upper room became the Spirit's baptistery, if we may 
 use the figure. His presence " filled all the house 
 where they were sitting," and "they were all filled 
 with the Holy Ghost." The baptistery would never 
 need to be re-filled, for Pentecost was once and for 
 all, and the Spirit then came to abide in the church 
 perpetually. But each believer throughout the age 
 would need to be infilled with that Spirit which 
 dwells in the body of Christ. In other words, it 
 seems clear that the baptism of the Spirit was given 
 once for the whole church, extending from Pente- 
 cost to Parousia. " There is one Lord, one faith, 
 one baptism " (Eph. 4 : 5). As there is one body 
 reaching through the entire dispensation, so there is 
 " one baptism " for that body given on the day of 
 Pentecost. Thus if we rightly understand the mean- 
 ing of Scripture it is true, both as to time and as to 
 fact, that " in one Spirit we were all baptized into one 
 body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free." 
 The typical foreshadowing, as seen in the church 
 in the wilderness, is very suggestive at this point : 
 " Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be
 
 THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT 57 
 
 ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the 
 cloud and all passed through the sea ; and were all 
 baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea " 
 (i Cor. 10 : i). Baptized into Moses by their pas- 
 sage through the sea, identified with him as their 
 leader, and committed to him in corporate fellowship ; 
 even so were they also baptized into Jehovah, who in 
 the cloud of glory now took his place in the midst of 
 the camp and tabernacled henceforth with them. 
 The type is perfect as all inspired types are. The 
 antitype first appears in Christ our Lord, baptized 
 in water at the Jordan, and then baptized in the 
 Holy Ghost which " descended from heaven like a 
 dove and abode upon him." Then it recurred again 
 in the waiting disciples, who besides the baptism of 
 water, which had doubtless already been received, 
 now were baptized " in the Holy Ghost and in fire." 
 Henceforth they were in the divine element, as 
 their fathers had been in the wilderness, " not in the 
 flesh but in the Spirit " (Rom. 8:9); called " to 
 live according to God in the Spirit" (i Peter 4:6); 
 to "walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5 : 25) ; "praying al- 
 ways with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit " 
 (Eph. 6 : 1 8). In a word, on the day of Pentecost 
 the entire body of Christ was baptized into the ele- 
 ment and presence of the Holy Ghost as a perma- 
 nent condition. And though one might object that 
 the body as a whole was not yet in existence, we 
 reply that neither was the complete church in ex-
 
 58 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 istence when Christ died on Calvary, yet all be- 
 lievers are repeatedly said to have died with him. 
 
 To change the figure of baptism for a moment to 
 another which is used synonymously, that of the 
 anointing of the Spirit, we have in Exodus a beauti- 
 ful typical illustration of our thought. At Aaron's 
 consecration the precious ointment was not only 
 poured upon his head, but ran down in rich profu- 
 sion upon his body and upon his priestly garments. 
 This fact is taken up by the psalmist when he sings : 
 " Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to 
 dwell together in unity. It is like the precious 
 ointment upon the head that ran down upon the 
 beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the 
 skirts of his garments" (Ps. 133 : I, 2). Of our 
 great High Priest we read : "How God anointed 
 Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with 
 power" (Acts 10 : 38). But it was not for himself 
 alone but also for his brethren that he obtained this 
 holy unction. He received that he might communi- 
 cate. " Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descend- 
 ing and remaining on him, the same is he that bap- 
 tizeth in the Holy Ghost " (John i : 33). And now 
 we behold our Aaron, our great High Priest, who has 
 passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, 
 standing in the holiest in heaven. "Thou didst 
 love righteousness and didst hate iniquity," is the 
 divine encomium now passed upon him, "therefore 
 God, thy God, anointed thee with the oil of gladness
 
 THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT 59 
 
 above thy fellows " (Heb. I : 9). He, the Christos, 
 the Anointed, stands above and for the Christoi, 
 his anointed brethren, and from him the Head, the 
 unction of the Holy Ghost descended on the day of 
 Pentecost. It was poured in rich profusion upon 
 his mystical body. It has been flowing down ever 
 since, and will continue to do so till the last mem- 
 ber shall have been incorporated with himself, and 
 so anointed by the one Spirit into the one body, 
 which is the church. 
 
 It is true that in one instance subsequent to 
 Pentecost the baptism in the Holy Ghost is spoken 
 of. When the Spirit fell on the house of Corne- 
 lius, Peter is reminded of the word of the Lord, how 
 that he said : " John indeed baptized in water, but ye 
 shall be baptized in the Holy Ghost " (Acts 1 1 : 16). 
 This was a great crisis in the history of the church, the 
 opening of the door of faith to the Gentiles, and it 
 would seem that these new subjects of grace now 
 came into participation of an already present Spirit. 
 Yet Pentecost still appears to have been the age- 
 baptism of the church. As Calvary was once for 
 ail, so was the visitation of the upper room. 
 
 Consider now that, as through the Holy Ghost 
 we become incorporated into the body of Christ, we 
 are in the same way assimilated to the Head of that 
 body, which is Christ. An unsanctified church 
 dishonors the Lord, especially by its incongruity. 
 A noble head, lofty-browed and intellectual, upon a
 
 60 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 deformed and stunted body, is a pitiable sight. 
 What, to the angels and principalities who gaze 
 evermore upon the face of Jesus, must be the sight 
 of an unholy and misshapen church on earth, 
 standing in that place of honor called " his body." 
 Photographing in a sentence the ecclesia of the 
 earliest centuries, Professor Harnack says : " Origi- 
 nally the church was the heavenly bride of Christ, 
 and the abiding place of the Holy Spirit" Let the 
 reader consider how much is involved in this defini- 
 tion. The first and most sacred relation of the 
 body is to the head. Watching for the return of 
 the Bridegroom induces holiness of life and con- 
 duct in the bride ; and the supreme work of the 
 Spirit is directed to this end, that " He may estab- 
 lish our hearts unblamable in holiness before God 
 our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 with all his saints" (i Thess. 3 : 13). In accom- 
 plishing this end he effects all other and subordi- 
 nate ends. The glorified Christ manifests himself 
 to man through his body. If there is a perfect 
 correspondence between himself and his members, 
 then there will be a true manifestation of himself 
 to the world. 1 Therefore does the Spirit abide in 
 the body, that the body may be " inChristed," to 
 
 i " The Holy Spirit not only dwells in the church as his habitation, 
 but also uses her as the living organism whereby he moves and walks 
 forth in the world, and speaks to the world and acts upon the world. 
 He is the soul of the church which is Christ's body." Bishop Webb t 
 TTie Presence and Office of the Spirit, p. 47.
 
 THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT 6l 
 
 use an old phrase of the mystics ; that is, indwelt 
 by Christ and transfigured into the likeness of 
 Christ. Only thus, as "a chosen generation, a 
 royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people," 
 can it "shew forth the virtues of him who has 
 called us out of darkness into his marvelous 
 light." And who is the Christ that is thus to be 
 manifested ? From the throne he gives us his 
 name : " I am he that liveth and was dead, and 
 behold I am alive for evermore" (Rev. i : 18). 
 Christ in glory is not simply what he is, but what 
 he was and what he is to be. As a tree gathers 
 up into itself all the growths of former years, and 
 contains them in its trunk, so Jesus on the throne is 
 all that he was and is and is to be. In other words, 
 his death is a perpetual fact as well as his life. 
 
 And his church is predestined to be like him 
 in this respect, since it not only heads up in him, 
 as saith the apostle, that ye " may grow up into 
 him in all things which is the Head, even Christ," 
 but also bodies itself forth from him, " from whom 
 the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted 
 by that which every joint supplieth, . . maketh 
 increase of the body " . . (Eph. 4:16). If the 
 church will literally manifest Christ, then she must 
 be both a living and a dying church. To this she 
 is committed in the divinely given form of her bap- 
 tism. " Know ye not that so many of us as were 
 baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his 
 
 F
 
 62 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 death ; therefore we were buried with him by bap- 
 tism into death, that like as Christ was raised up 
 from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so 
 we also should walk in newness of life " (Rom. 
 6 : 3, 4). And the baptism of the Holy Ghost into 
 which we have been brought is designed to accom- 
 plish inwardly and spiritually what the baptism of 
 water foreshadows outwardly and typically, viz., to 
 reproduce in us the living and the dying of our 
 Lord. 
 
 First, the living. " For the law of the Spirit of 
 life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the 
 law of sin and death " (Rom. 8 : 2). That is, 
 that which has been hitherto the actuating princi- 
 ple within us, viz., sin and death, is now to be met 
 and mastered by another principle, the law of life, 
 of which the Holy Spirit of God is the author and 
 sustainer. As by our natural spirit we are con- 
 nected with the first Adam, and made partakers of 
 his fallen nature, so by the Holy Spirit we are now 
 united with the second Adam, and made partakers 
 of his glorified nature. To vivify the body of 
 Christ by maintaining its identity with the risen 
 Head is, in a word, the unceasing work of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 Secondly, the dying of our Lord in his members 
 is to be constantly effected by the indwelling Spirit. 
 The church, which is the fullness of him that fill- 
 eth all in all," completes in the world his crucifix-
 
 THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT 63 
 
 ion as well as his resurrection. This is certainly 
 Paul's profound thought, when he speaks of fill- 
 ing up "that which is behind of the afflictions of 
 Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is 
 the church " (Col. I : 24). In other words, the 
 church, as the complement of her Lord, must have 
 a life experience and a death experience running 
 parallel. 
 
 It is remarkable how exact is this figure of the 
 body, which is employed to symbolize the church. 
 In the human system life and death are constantly 
 working together. A certain amount of tissue 
 must die every day and be cast out and buried, and 
 a certain amount of new tissue must also be created 
 and nourished daily in the same body. Arrest the 
 death-process, and it is just as certain to produce 
 disorder as though you were to arrest the life-pro- 
 cess. Literally is this true of the corporate body 
 also. The church must die daily in fulfillment of 
 the crucified life of her Head, as well as live daily 
 in the manifestation of his glorified life. This itali- 
 cised sentence, which we take from a recent book, 
 is worthy to be made a golden text for Christians : 
 " The Church is Christian no more than as it is tJie 
 organ of the 'continuous passion of Christ" To 
 sympathize, in the literal sense of suffering with 
 our sinning and lost humanity, is not only the duty 
 of the church, but the absolutely essential condition 
 to her true manifestation of her Lord. A self-
 
 64 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 indulgent church disfigures Christ ; an avaricious 
 church bears false witness against Christ ; a worldly 
 church betrays Christ, and gives him over once 
 more to be mocked and reviled by his enemies. 
 
 The resurrection of our Lord is prolonged in his 
 body, as we all see plainly. Every regeneration is 
 a pulse-beat of his throne-life. But too little do 
 we recognize the fact that his crucifixion must be 
 prolonged side by side with his resurrection. " If 
 any man will come after me let him deny himself 
 and take up his cross daily and follow me." The 
 church is called to live a glorified life in communion 
 with her Head, and a crucified life in her contact 
 with the world. And the Holy Spirit dwells ever- 
 more in the church to effect this twofold manifesta- 
 tion of Christ. "But God be thanked, that ye 
 have obeyed from the heart that pattern of doctrine 
 to which ye were delivered," writes the apostle 
 (Rom. 6:17). The pattern, as the context shows, 
 is Christ dead and risen. If the church truly lives 
 in the Spirit, he will keep her so plastic that she 
 will obey this divine mold as the metal conforms to 
 the die in which it is struck. If she yields to the 
 sway of "the spirit that now worketh in the chil- 
 dren of disobedience," she will be stereotyped 
 according to the fashion of the world, and they that 
 look upon her will fail to see Christ hi her.
 
 V 
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT
 
 To the disciples, the baptism of the Spirit was very dis- 
 tinctly not his first bestowal for regeneration, but the definite 
 communication of his presence in power of their glorified 
 Lord. Just as there was a two-fold operation of the one 
 Spirit in the Old and New Testaments, of which the state of 
 the disciples before and after Pentecost was the striking illus- 
 tration, so there may be, and in the great majority of Chris- 
 tians is, a corresponding difference of experience. . . When 
 once the distinct recognition of what the indwelling of the 
 Spirit was meant to bring is brought home to the soul, and it 
 is ready to give up all to be made partaker of it, the believer 
 may ask and expect what may be termed a baptism of the 
 Spirit. Praying to the Father in accordance to the two 
 prayers in Ephesians, and coming to Jesus in the renewed 
 surrender of faith and obedience, he may receive such an 
 inflow of the Holy Spirit as shall consciously lift him to a 
 different level from the one on which he has hitherto lived." 
 Rev. Andrew Murray.
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 WE have maintained in the previous chapter that 
 the baptism in the Holy Ghost was given 
 once for all on the day of Pentecost, when the 
 Paraclete came in person to make his abode in the 
 church. It does not follow therefore that every be- 
 liever has received this baptism. God's gift is one 
 thing ; our appropriation of that gift is quite another 
 thing. Our relation to the second and to the third 
 persons of the Godhead is exactly parallel in this 
 respect. " God so loved the world that he gave his 
 only begotten Son" (John 3 : 16). "But as many 
 as received him to them gave he the right to become 
 the children of God, even to them that believe 
 on his name" (John I : 12). Here are the two 
 sides of salvation, the divine and the human, which 
 are absolutely co-essential. 
 
 There is a doctrine somewhat in vogue, not inap- 
 propriately denominated redemption by incarnation, 
 which maintains that since God gave his Son to the 
 world, all the world has the Son, consciously or un- 
 consciously, and that therefore all the world will be 
 saved. It need not be said that a true evangelical 
 teaching must reject this theory as utterly unten- 
 
 67
 
 68 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 able, since it ignores the necessity of individual faith 
 in Christ. But some orthodox writers have urged 
 an almost identical view with respect to the Holy 
 Ghost. They have contended that the enduement 
 of the Spirit is " not any special or more advanced 
 experience, but simply the condition of every one 
 who is a child of God " ; that "believers converted 
 after Pentecost, and living in other localities, are 
 just as really endowed with the indwelling Spirit as 
 those who actually partook of the Pentecostal bless- 
 ing at Jerusalem." * 
 
 On the contrary, it seems clear from the Script- 
 ures that it is still the duty and privilege of believers 
 to receive the Holy Spirit by a conscious, definite 
 act of appropriating faith, just as they received 
 Jesus Christ. We base this conclusion on several 
 grounds. Presumably if the Paraclete is a person, 
 coming down at a certain definite time to make his 
 abode in the church, for guiding, teaching, and 
 sanctifying the body of Christ, there is the same 
 reason for our accepting him for his special minis- 
 try as for accepting the Lord Jesus for his special 
 ministry. To say that in receiving Christ we 
 necessarily received in the same act the gift of 
 the Spirit, seems to confound what the Scriptures 
 make distinct. 2 For it is as sinners that we accept 
 
 1 Rev. E. Boys, " Filled with the Spirit," p. 87. 
 1 It is assumed by some that because those that walked with Christ 
 of old received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire at Pentecost,
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 69 
 
 Christ for our justification, but it is as sons that 
 we accept the Spirit for our sanctification : "And 
 because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit 
 of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father " 
 (Gal. 4 : 6). Thus, when Peter preached his first 
 sermon to the multitude after the Spirit had been 
 given, he said : " Repent and be baptized, every one 
 of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remis- 
 sion of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost " (Acts 2:38). 
 
 This passage shows that logically and chrono- 
 logically the gift of the Spirit is subsequent to 
 repentance. Whether it follows as a necessary 
 and inseparable consequence, as might seem, we 
 shall consider later. Suffice that this point is 
 clear, so clear that one of the most conservative 
 as well as ablest writers on this subject, in com- 
 menting on this text in Acts, says : " There- 
 fore it is evident that the reception of the Holy 
 Ghost, as here spoken of, has nothing whatever to 
 do with bringing men to believe and repent. It is 
 a subsequent operation; it is an additional and 
 
 more than eighteen hundred years ago, therefore all believers now 
 have received the same. As well might the apostles, when first 
 called, have concluded that because at his baptism the Spirit like a 
 dove rested upon Christ, therefore they had equally received the same 
 blessing. Surely the Spirit has been given and the work in Christ 
 wrought for all ; but to enter into possession, to be enlightened 
 and made partakers of the Holy Ghost, there must be a personal 
 application to the Lord, etc. Andrew Jukes, " The A r ew Man."
 
 70 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 separate blessing ; it is a privilege founded on faith 
 already actively working in the heart. . . I do not 
 mean to deny that the gift of the Holy Ghost may 
 be practically on the same occasion, but never in 
 the same moment. The reason is quite simple too. 
 The gift of the Holy Ghost is grounded on the fact 
 that we are sons by faith in Christ, believers rest- 
 ing on redemption in him. Plainly, therefore, it 
 appears that the Spirit of God has already regen- 
 erated us." 1 
 
 Now, as we examine the Scriptures on this point, 
 we shall see that we are required to appropriate the 
 Spirit as sons, in the same way that we appropri- 
 ated Christ as sinners. "As many as received him, 
 even to them that believe on his name," is the con- 
 dition of becoming sons, as we have already seen, 
 receiving and believing being used as equivalent 
 terms. In a kind of foretaste of Pentecost, the 
 risen Christ, standing in the midst of his disciples, 
 " breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy 
 Ghost ' The verb is not passive, as our English 
 version might lead us to suppose, but has here as 
 generally an active signification just as in the fa- 
 miliar passage in Revelation : "Whosoever will, let 
 him take the water of life freely." Twice in the 
 Epistle to the Galatians the possession of the Holy 
 Ghost is put on the same grounds of active appro- 
 
 i William Kelly, " Lectures on the New Testament Doctrine of the 
 Holy Spirit," p. 161.
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 71 
 
 priation through faith : " Received ye the Spirit by 
 the works of the law or by the hearing of faith ? " 
 (3 : 2). "That ye might receive the promise of 
 the Spirit through faith" (3 : 14). These texts 
 seem to imply that just as there is a "faith toward 
 our Lord Jesus Christ " for salvation, there is a 
 faith toward the Holy Ghost for power and conse- 
 cration. 
 
 If we turn from New Testament teaching to New 
 Testament example we are strongly confirmed in this 
 impression. We begin with that striking incident in 
 the nineteenth chapter of Acts. Paul, having found 
 certain disciples at Ephesus, said unto them : " Did 
 ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed? And 
 they said unto him, Nay ; we did not so much as 
 hear whether there is a Holy Ghost." This passage 
 seems decisive as showing that one may be a disci- 
 ple without having entered into possession of the 
 Spirit as God's gift to believers. Some admit this, 
 who yet deny any possible application of the inci- 
 dent to our own times, alleging that it is the miracu- 
 lous gifts of the Spirit which are here under consid- 
 eration, since, after recording that when Paul had 
 laid his hands upon them and "the Holy Ghost 
 came upon them," it is added that " they spake with 
 tongues and prophesied." All that need be said 
 upon this point is simply that these Ephesian dis- 
 ciples, by the reception of the Spirit, came into the 
 same condition with the upper-room disciples who
 
 72 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 received him some twenty years before, and of 
 whom it is written that " they were all filled with 
 the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other 
 tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." In 
 other words, these Ephesian disciples on receiving 
 the Holy Ghost exhibited the traits of the Spirit 
 common to the other disciples of the apostolic age. 
 Whether those traits the speaking of tongues 
 and the working of miracles were intended to be 
 perpetual or not we do not here discuss. But that 
 the presence of the personal Holy Spirit in the 
 church was intended to be perpetual there can be 
 no question. And whatsoever relations believers 
 held to that Spirit in the beginning they have a 
 right to claim to-day. We must withhold our con- 
 sent from the inconsistent exegesis which would 
 make the water baptism of the apostolic times still 
 rigidly binding, but would relegate the baptism in 
 the Spirit to a bygone dispensation. We hold 
 indeed, that Pentecost was once for all, but equally 
 that the appropriation of the Spirit by believers is 
 always for all, and that the shutting up of certain 
 gi eat blessings of the Holy Ghost within that ideal 
 realm called "the apostolic age," however conve- 
 nient it may be as an escape from fancied difficulties, 
 may be the means of robbing believers of some of 
 their most precious covenant rights. 1 Let us trans- 
 
 1 It is a great mistake into which some have fallen, to suppose 
 that the results of Pentecost were chiefly miraculous and temporary.
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 73 
 
 fer this incident of the Ephesian Christians to our 
 own times. We need not bring forward an imag- 
 inary case, for by the testimony of many experienced 
 witnesses the same condition is constantly encoun- 
 tered. Not only individual Christians, but whole 
 communities of disciples are found who have been 
 so imperfectly instructed that they have never 
 known that there is a Holy Spirit, except as an in- 
 fluence, an impersonal something to be vaguely 
 recognized. Of the Holy Ghost as a Divine Per- 
 son, dwelling in the church, to be honored and 
 invoked and obeyed and implicitly trusted, they 
 know nothing. Is it conceivable that there could 
 be any deep spiritual life or any real sanctified 
 energy for service in a community like this ? And 
 what should a well-instructed teacher or evangelist 
 do, on discovering a church or an individual Chris- 
 tian in such a condition ? Let us turn to another 
 passage of the Acts for an answer : " Now when 
 the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that 
 Samaria had received the word of God they sent 
 unto them Peter and John, who when they were 
 come down prayed for them that they might receive 
 the Holy Ghost ; for as yet he had fallen upon 
 none of them ; only they were baptized in the name 
 
 I'he effect of such a view is to keep spiritual influences out of sight ; 
 and it will be well ever to hold fast the assurance that a wide, deep, 
 and perpetual spiritual blessing in the church is that which above all 
 things else was secured by the descent of the Spirit after Christ was 
 glorified. Dr. J. Elder Gumming, "Through the ternal Spirit." 
 
 G
 
 74 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on 
 them and they received the Holy Ghost " (Acts 
 
 8: 14-17)- 
 
 Here were believers who had been baptized in 
 water. But this was not enough. The baptism in 
 the Spirit, already bestowed at Pentecost, must be 
 appropriated. Hear the prayer of the apostles 
 " that they might receive the Holy Ghost." Such 
 prayer we deem eminently proper for those who to- 
 day may be ignorant of the Comforter. And yet 
 such prayer should be followed by an act of believ- 
 ing acceptance on the part of the willing disciple : 
 " O Holy Spirit, I yield to thee now in humble sur- 
 render. I receive thee as my Teacher, my Com- 
 forter, my Sanctifier, and my Guide." Do not 
 testimonies abound on every hand of new lives 
 resulting from such an act of consecration as this, 
 lives full of peace and power and victory among 
 those who before had received the forgiveness of 
 sins but not the enduement of power ? 
 
 We conceive that the great end for which the 
 enduement of the Spirit is bestowed is our qualifi- 
 cation for the highest and most effective service in 
 the church of Christ. Other effects will certainly 
 attend the blessing, a fixed assurance of our accept- 
 ance in Christ, and a holy separateness from the 
 world ; but these results will be conducive to the 
 greatest and supreme end, our consecrated useful- 
 ness.
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 75 
 
 Let us observe that Christ, who is our example 
 in this as in all things, did not enter upon his min- 
 istry till he had received the Holy Ghost. Not 
 only so, but we see that all his service from his 
 baptism to his ascension was wrought in the Spirit. 
 Ask concerning his miracles, and we hear him say- 
 ing : " I by the Spirit of God cast out devils " 
 (Matt. 12 : 28). Ask concerning that decease 
 which he accomplished at Jerusalem, and we read 
 " that he through the eternal Spirit offered himself 
 without spot unto God " (Heb. 9 : 14). Ask con- 
 cerning the giving of the great commission, and we 
 read that he was received up " after that he through 
 the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the 
 apostles " (Acts I : 2). Thus, though he was the 
 Son of God, he acted ever in supreme reliance 
 upon him who has been called the " Executive of 
 the Godhead." 
 
 Plainly we see how Christ was our pattern 
 and exemplar in his relation to the Holy Spirit. 
 He had been begotten of the Holy Ghost in 
 the womb of the virgin, and had lived that holy 
 and obedient life which this divine nativity would 
 imply. But when he would enter upon his public 
 ministry, he waited for the Spirit to come upon 
 him, as he had hitherto been in him. For this 
 anointing we find him praying : "Jesus also being 
 baptized and praying, the heaven was opened, and 
 the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a
 
 76 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 dove upon him " (Luke 3 : 22). Had he any 
 " promise of the Father" to plead, as he now asked 
 the anointing of the Spirit, if as we may believe 
 this was the subject of his prayer ? Yes ; it had 
 been written in the prophets concerning the rod out 
 of the stem of Jesse : " And the Spirit of the 
 Lord shall rest upon him ; the spirit of wisdom and 
 understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, 
 the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the 
 Lord " (Isa. 1 1 : 2). " The promise of the seven- 
 fold Spirit," the Jewish commentators call it. Cer- 
 tainly it was literally fulfilled upon the Son of God 
 at the Jordan, when God gave him the Spirit with- 
 out measure. For he who was now baptized was 
 in turn to be baptizer. " Upon whom thou shalt 
 see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, 
 the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost " 
 (John i : 33). "I indeed baptize you in water unto 
 repentance : but he that cometh after me is might- 
 ier than I ... he shall baptize you in the Holy 
 Ghost and in fire" (Matt. 3:11, R. V.). And 
 now being at the right hand exalted, and hav- 
 ing "the seven spirits of God" (Rev. 3 : 3), the 
 fullness of the Holy Ghost, he will shed forth his 
 power upon those who pray for it, even as the 
 Father shed it forth upon himself. 
 
 Let us observe now the symbols and descriptions 
 of the enduement of the Spirit which are applied 
 equally to Christ and to the disciples of Christ.
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 77 
 
 I. The Sealing of the Spirit. We hear Jesus 
 saying to the multitude that sought him for the 
 loaves and fishes, " Labor not for the meat which 
 perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto 
 eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto 
 you, for him hath God the Father sealed" (John 
 6 : 27). This sealing must evidently refer back to 
 his reception of the Spirit at the Jordan. One of 
 the most instructive writers on the Hebrew worship 
 and ritual tells us that it was the custom for the 
 priest to whom the service pertained, having 
 selected a lamb from the flock, to inspect it with 
 the most minute scrutiny, in order to discover if it 
 was without physical defect, and then to seal it 
 with the temple seal, thus certifying that it was fit 
 for sacrifice and for food. Behold the Lamb of 
 God presenting himself for inspection at the Jor- 
 dan ! Under the Father's omniscient scrutiny he 
 is found to be " a lamb without blemish and with- 
 out spot." From the opening heaven God gives 
 witness to the fact in the words : " This is my 
 beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," and then 
 he puts the Holy Ghost upon him, the testimony 
 to his sonship, the seal of his separation unto sacri- 
 fice and service. 
 
 The disciple is as his Lord in this experience 
 " In whom having also believed ye were sealed with 
 the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. i : 13). As 
 always in the statements of Scripture, this trans-
 
 78 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 action is represented as subsequent to faith. It is 
 not conversion, but something done upon a con- 
 verted soul, a kind of crown of consecration put 
 upon his faith. Indeed the two events stand in 
 marked contrast. In conversion the believer re- 
 ceives the testimony of God and " sets his seal to 
 it that God is true" (John 3 133). In consecration 
 God sets his seal upon the believer that he is true. 
 The last is God's " Amen " to the Christian, verify- 
 ing the Christian's " Amen " to God. " Now he 
 which establisheth us with you in Christ, and 
 anointed us, is God ; who also sealed us and gave us 
 the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts " (2 Cor. i : 
 21, 22). 
 
 If we ask to what we are committed and separated 
 by this divine transaction, we may learn by study- 
 ing the church's monograph, if such we may name 
 what is brought out in a mysterious passage in one 
 of the pastoral epistles. In spite of the defection 
 and unbelief of some, the apostle says : " Neverthe- 
 less the foundation of God standeth sure, having 
 this seal." Then he gives us the two inscriptions 
 on the seal : " The Lord knoweth them that are 
 his " ; and, " Let every one that nameth the name 
 of the Lord depart from unrighteousness " (2 Tim. 
 2 : 19) Ownership and holiness. When we re- 
 ceive the gift of the Holy Spirit it is that we may 
 count ourselves henceforth and altogether Christ's. 
 If any shrink from this devotement, how can he
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 79 
 
 have the fullness of the Spirit ? God cannot put 
 his signature upon what is not his. Hence, if under 
 the sway of a worldly spirit we withhold ourselves 
 from God and insist on self-ownership, we need not 
 count it strange if God withholds himself from us 
 and denies us the seal of divine ownership. God is 
 very jealous of his divine signet. He graciously 
 bestows it upon those who are ready to devote 
 themselves utterly and irrevocably to his service, 
 but he strenuously withholds it from those who, 
 while professing his name, are yet " serving divers 
 lusts and pleasures." There is a suggestive pas- 
 sage in the Gospel of John which, translated so as 
 to bring out the antitheses which it contains, reads 
 thus : " Many trusted' in his name, beholding the 
 signs which he did ; but Jesus did not trust him- 
 self to them " (John 2 : 23, 24). Here is the great 
 essential to our having the seal of the Spirit. Can 
 the Lord trust us ? Nay ; the question is more 
 serious. Can he trust himself to us ? The Holy 
 Spirit, which is his signet ring, can he commit it to 
 our use for signing our prayers and for certifying 
 ourselves, and his honor not be compromised ? 
 
 The other inscription on the seal is : " Let every 
 one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from 
 unrighteousness." * The possession of the Spirit 
 
 i It will be observed that the inscription on the seal is substantially 
 the same as that upon the forehead of the High Priest, HIIT? t^n'p 
 HOLINESS TO THE LORD (Exod. 39 : 30).
 
 8o THE MINISTRY OF THE) SPIRIT 
 
 commits us irrevocably to separation from sin. For 
 what is holiness but an emanation of the Spirit of 
 holiness who dwells within us ? A sanctified life is 
 therefore the print or impression of his seal : " He 
 can never own us without his mark, the stamp of 
 holiness. The devil's stamp is none of God's badge. 
 Our spiritual extraction from him is but pretended 
 unless we do things worthy of so illustrious birth 
 and becoming the honor of so great a Father." The 
 great office of the Spirit in the present economy is 
 to communicate Christ to his church which is his 
 body. And what is so truly essential of Christ as 
 holiness ? " In him is no sin ; whosoever abideth 
 in him sinneth not." The body can only be sinless 
 by uninterrupted communion with the Head ; the 
 Head will not maintain communion with the body 
 except it be holy. 
 
 The idea of ownership, just considered, comes out 
 still further in the words of the apostle : " And 
 grieve not the Spirit of God in whom ye were 
 sealed unto the day of redemption " (Eph. 4 : 30). 
 The day of redemption is at the advent of our Lord 
 in glory, when he shall raise the dead and translate 
 the living. Now his own are in the world, but the 
 world knows them not. But he has put his mark 
 and secret sign upon them, by which he shall rec- 
 ognize them at his coming. In that great quicken- 
 ing, at the Redeemer's advent, the Holy Spirit will 
 be the seal by which the saints will be recognized,
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 8 1 
 
 and the power through which they will be drawn up 
 to God. " If the Spirit that raised up Jesus dwell 
 in you " (Rom. 1 1 : 9), is the great condition of final 
 quickening. As the magnet attracts the particles 
 of iron and attaches them to itself by first impart- 
 ing its own magnetism to them, so Christ, having 
 given his Spirit to his own, will draw them to him- 
 self through the Spirit. We are not questioning 
 now that all who have eternal life dwelling in them 
 will share in the redemption of the body ; we are 
 simply entering into the apostle's exhortation against 
 grieving the Spirit. We must fear lest we mar the 
 seal by which we were stamped, lest we deface or 
 obscure the signature by which we are to be recog- 
 nized in the day of redemption. 1 
 
 In a word the sealing is the Spirit himself, now 
 received by faith and resting upon the believer, with 
 all the results in assurance, in joy, and in empower- 
 
 1 The allusion to the seal as a pledge of purchase would be pecu- 
 liarly intelligible to the Ephesians, for Ephesus was a maritime city, 
 and an extensive trade in timber was carried on there by the ship- 
 masters of the neighboring ports. The method of purchase was this : 
 The merchant, after selecting his timber, stamped it with his own 
 signet, which was an acknowledged sign of ownership. He often did 
 not carry off his possession at the time ; it was left in the harbor with 
 other floats of timber ; but it was chosen, bought, and stamped ; and 
 in due time the merchant sent a trusty agent with the signet, who 
 finding that timber which bore a corresponding impress, claimed and 
 brought it away for the master's use. Thus the Holy Spirit impresses 
 on the soul now the image of Jesus Christ ; and this is the sure pledge 
 of the everlasting inheritance. E. H. Bickersteth, " The Spirit of 
 Life," p. 176.
 
 82 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 ing for service, which must follow his unhindered 
 sway in the soul. Dr. John Owen, who has written 
 more intelligently and more exhaustively on this 
 subject than any with whom we are acquainted, thus 
 sums up the subject : " If we can learn aright how 
 Christ was sealed, we shall learn how we are sealed. 
 The sealing of Christ by the Father is the commu- 
 nication of the Holy Spirit in fullness to him, au- 
 thorizing him unto and acting his divine power in 
 all the acts and duties of his office, so as to evidence 
 the presence of God with him and .approbation of 
 him. God's sealing of believers then is his gracious 
 communication of the Holy Spirit unto them so to 
 act his divine power in them as to enable them unto 
 all the duties of their holy calling, evidencing them 
 to be accepted with him both for themselves and 
 others, and asserting their preservation unto eternal 
 life." 1 
 
 2. The Fullness of the Spirit. Immediately upon 
 his baptism we read : " And Jesus, full of the Holy 
 Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by 
 the Spirit into the wilderness" (Luke 4:1). The 
 same record is made concerning the upper-room 
 disciples, immediately after the descent of the 
 Spirit : " And they were all filled with the Holy 
 Spirit " (Acts 2 14). What is here spoken of seems 
 nothing different from what in other Scriptures is 
 
 1 John Owen, D. D., "Discourse Concerning the Spirit," pp. 406, 
 407.
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OK THE SPIRIT 83 
 
 called the reception of the Spirit. It is a trans- 
 action that may be repeated, and will be if we are 
 living in the Spirit. But it is clearly an experience 
 belonging to one who has already been converted. 
 This comes out very plainly in the life of Paul. If 
 according to the opinion quoted in the early part of 
 this chapter, the reception of the Spirit is associated 
 always and inseparably with conversion, one will 
 reasonably ask, why a conversion so marked and so 
 radical as that of the apostle to the Gentiles need 
 be followed by such an experience as that named in 
 Acts 9:17: " And Ananias departed and entered 
 into the house, and laying his hands on him, said : 
 Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus who appeared 
 unto thee in the way which thou earnest, hath sent 
 me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be 
 filled with the Holy Ghost." We seem to have a 
 clear allusion here to that which so constantly ap- 
 pears in Scripture, both in doctrine and in life, a 
 divine something distinct from conversion and sub- 
 sequent to it, which we have called the reception of 
 the Spirit. "The enduement of power" we may 
 well name it ; for observe how constantly through- 
 out the book of Acts mighty works and mighty 
 utterances are connected with this qualification. 
 "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto 
 them " (Acts 4 : 8), is the preface to one of the 
 apostle's most powerful sermons. " And they were 
 all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the
 
 84 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 word with boldness" (Acts 4: 31), is a similar 
 record. And they chose Stephen, a man full of 
 faith and of the Holy Ghost, the narrative runs, re- 
 garding the choice of deacons in Acts 6 : 5. "And 
 he, being full of the Holy Ghost" is the keynote to 
 his great martyr-sermon. This infilling of the Spirit 
 marks a decisive and most important crisis in the 
 Christian life, judging from the story of the apostle's 
 conversion, to which we have just referred. 
 
 But, as we have intimated, we are far from main- 
 taining that this is an experience once for all, as the 
 sealing seems to be. As the words "regeneration " 
 and " renewal " used in Scripture mark respectively 
 the impartation of the divine life as a perpetual 
 possession and its increase by repeated communica- 
 tions, so in our sealing there is a reception of the 
 Spirit once for all, which reception may be followed 
 by repeated fillings. It is reasonable to conclude 
 this since our capacity is ever increasing and our 
 need constantly recurring, according to the beauti- 
 ful saying of Godet : " Man is a vessel destined to 
 receive God, a vessel which must be enlarged in 
 proportion as it is filled and filled in proportion as 
 it is enlarged." 
 
 And yet we confess here to a degree of uncer 
 tainty as to the use of terms, and as to whether 
 the two now under consideration are identical. 
 We may well pause therefore and lift a prayer, 
 that since "we have received not the spirit of
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 85 
 
 the world but the Spirit which is of God, that we 
 might know the things which are freely given to us 
 of God," this blessed Revelator and Interpreter may 
 not only reveal to us our privilege and inheritance 
 in the Holy Ghost, but teach us to name and dis 
 tinguish the terms by which it is conveyed. 
 
 While the fact of which we are speaking seems 
 undoubted, the exposition of it is far from being 
 easy. Therefore we should attach no little value to 
 a consensus of opinion on this subject from those 
 who have thought most carefully and searched most 
 prayerfully concerning it This is our apology for 
 the multiplied quotations which we are introducing 
 into this chapter, believing that the Holy Spirit is 
 most likely to interpret himself through those who 
 most honor him in seeking his guidance and illumi- 
 nation. 
 
 In a recent work upon this subject, in which care- 
 ful scholarship and spiritual insight seem to be 
 well united, the author thus states his conclusions : 
 " It seems to me beyond question, as a matter of 
 experience both of Christians in the present day 
 and of the early church, as recorded by inspiration, 
 that in addition to the gift of the Spirit received at 
 conversion, there is another blessing corresponding 
 in its signs and effects to the blessing received 
 by the apostles at Pentecost a blessing to be 
 asked for and expected by Christians still, and to 
 be described in language similar to that employed 
 
 H
 
 86 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 in the book of the Acts. Whatever that blessing 
 may be, it is in immediate connection with the 
 Holy Ghost ; and one of the terms by which we 
 may designate it is ' to be filled with the Spirit.' 
 As with the early Christians so with us now, the 
 filling comes when there is special need for it. . . 
 And there is an occasion when that blessing comes 
 to a man for the first time. That first time is a 
 spiritual crisis from which his future spiritual life 
 must be dated. There may be a question as to 
 what it is to be called, or at least by what name in 
 Scripture we are authorized to call it. . . Whether 
 consciously or not, it is to the fact of the Holy 
 Spirit's coming in new power to the soul that all 
 new life is due ; and the more that this is consciously 
 understood the more is the Holy Ghost in his due 
 place in our hearts. It is only when he is con- 
 sciously accepted in all his power that we can be 
 said to be either ' baptized ' or ' filled ' with the 
 Holy Ghost. I should like to add that it is possi- 
 ble to maintain that God from the first offered to 
 his own people a higher position in this matter 
 than they have generally been able to occupy, in 
 that the fullness of the Spirit was and is offered to 
 each soul at conversion ; and that it is only from 
 want of faith that subsequent outpourings of the 
 Holy Ghost become needful." * 
 
 1 " Through the Eternal Spirit," by James Elder Gumming, D.D., 
 pp. 146, 147.
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 87 
 
 That the filling of the Spirit belongs to us as a 
 covenant privilege seems to be clear from the ex- 
 hortation in the Epistle to the Ephesians, which 
 is confessedly of universal application : " Be not 
 drunken with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled 
 with the Spirit" (Eph. 5 : 18). The passive verb 
 employed here is suggestive. The surrendered will, 
 the yielded body, the emptied heart, are the great 
 requisites to his incoming. And when he has come 
 and filled the believer, the result is a kind of pas- 
 sive activity, as of one wrought upon and controlled 
 rather than of one directing his own efforts. Under 
 the influence of strong drink there is an outpour- 
 ing of all that the evil spirit inspires frivolity, 
 profanity, and riotous conduct. "Be God-intoxi- 
 cated men," the apostle would seem to say; "let 
 the Spirit of God so control you that you shall 
 pour yourself out in psalms and hymns and spirit- 
 ual songs." If such divine enthusiasm has its 
 perils, we believe that they are less to be dreaded 
 than that " moderatism " which makes the servants 
 of G">d satisfied with the letter of Scripture if only 
 that letter be skillfully and scientifically handled, 
 rather than giving the supreme place to the Spirit 
 as the inspirer and motor of all Christian service. 
 
 3. The Anointing of the Spirit. After the 
 baptism and temptation we find our Lord ap- 
 propriating to himself the words of the prophet, 
 as he read them in the synagogue of Nazareth :
 
 88 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he 
 hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the 
 poor" (Luke 4 : 18). Twice in the Acts there is a 
 reference to this important event in similar terms : 
 "Thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint " 
 (Acts 4 : 27, R. V.). "Jesus of Nazareth, how 
 that God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and 
 with power" (Acts 10 : 38). And as with the Lord 
 so with his disciples : " Now he that establisheth 
 us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God " (2 
 Cor. i : 21, R. V.). 
 
 A student of the Scriptures need not be told 
 how closely the ceremony of anointing was related 
 to all important offices and ministries of the ser- 
 vants of Jehovah under the old covenant. The 
 priest was anointed that he might be holy unto the 
 Lord (Lev. 8 : 12). The king was anointed that 
 the Spirit of the Lord might rest upon him in 
 power (i Sam. 16 : 15). The prophet was anointed 
 that he might be the oracle of God to the people 
 (i Kings 19 : 16). No servant of Jehovah was 
 deemed qualified for his ministry without this holy 
 sanctifying touch laid upon him. Even in the 
 cleansing of the leper this ceremony was not want- 
 ing. The priest was required to dip his right fin- 
 ger in the oil that was in his left hand and to put it 
 upon the tip of the right ear, upon the thumb of 
 the right hand, and upon the great toe of the right 
 foot of him that was to be cleansed, the oil " upon
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 89 
 
 the blood of the trespass-offering" (Lev. 14 : 17). 
 Thus with divine accuracy did even the types foretell 
 the two-fold provision for the Christian life, cleansing 
 by the blood and hallowing by the oil justifica- 
 tion in Christ, sanctification in the Spirit. 
 
 If we ask now what this anointing is, the reply 
 is obviously the Holy Spirit himself. As before he 
 was the seal attesting us, so now he is the oil sanc- 
 tifying us the same gift described by different 
 symbols. And as it was the Aaron who had been 
 the first anointed who was qualified to anoint others, 
 so with our great High Priest. It is he within the 
 veil who gives the Spirit unto his own, that he may 
 qualify them to be ".an elect race, a royal priest- 
 hood, a holy nation, a people for God's own posses- 
 sion (i Peter 2 : 9, R. V.). "But ye have an 
 anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all 
 things " (i John 2 : 20). Christ in the New Testa- 
 ment is constantly called "the Holy One." And 
 because the Spirit was sent to communicate him to 
 the people, they are made partakers of his knowl- 
 edge as well as of his holiness. If it should be said 
 that this unction of which John speaks is miracu 
 lous, the divine illumination of evangelists and 
 prophets who were commissioned to be the vehicles 
 of inspired Scripture, we must call attention to other 
 passages which connect the knowledge of God with 
 the Holy Ghost. " For who among men knoweth 
 the things of a man save the spirit of a man which
 
 9O THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 is in him ; even so the things of God none knoweth 
 save the Spirit of God " (i Cor. 2 : 1 1, R. V.). The 
 horse and his rider may see the same magnifi- 
 cent piece of statuary in the park ; the one may be 
 delighted with it as a work of human genius, but 
 upon the dull eye of the other it makes no impression, 
 and for the reason that it takes a human mind to 
 appreciate the work of the human mind. Likewise 
 only the Spirit of God can know and make known 
 the thoughts and teachings and revelations of God. 
 This seems to be the meaning of John in his dis- 
 course concerning the divine unction : " But the 
 anointing which ye have received of him abideth 
 in you, and ye need not that any man teach you ; 
 but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things " 
 (i John 2 : 27). 
 
 In nothing does the enduement of the Spirit 
 more distinctly manifest itself than in the fine dis- 
 cernment of revealed truth which it imparts. As 
 in service, the contrast between working in the 
 power of the Spirit and in the energy of the flesh 
 is easily discernible, even more clearly in knowledge 
 and teaching is the contrast between the tuition of 
 learning and the intuition of the Spirit. While we 
 should not undervalue the former, it is striking to 
 note how the Bible puts the weightier emphasis on 
 the latter ; so that really the unspiritual hearer is 
 to be accounted less blameworthy for not discern- 
 ing the truth than the intellectual preacher is for
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 9! 
 
 expecting him to do so. When, for example, one 
 attempts with the utmost learning to convince an 
 unbeliever of the deity of Christ and fails, the 
 word of Scripture to him is : " No man is able to 
 say ' Lord Jesus ' save in the Holy Ghost " (i Cor. 
 12 : 3). 
 
 The Spirit of Jesus can alone reveal to men 
 the lordship of Jesus, and this key of knowledge 
 the Holy Ghost will never put into the hand of 
 any man however learned. As it is written that 
 Christ is the "raying forth" of the Father's glory, 
 and " the express image of his person " (Heb. I : 3), 
 thus by a beautiful figure reminding us that as we 
 can only see the sun in the rays of the sun, so we 
 can only know God in Jesus Christ, who is the 
 manifestation of God. It is so likewise between 
 the second and third Persons of the Trinity. Christ 
 is the image of the invisible God ; the Holy 
 Ghost is the invisible image of Christ. As Jesus 
 manifested the Father outwardly, the Spirit mani- 
 fests Jesus inwardly, forming him within us as 
 the hidden man of the heart, imaging him to the 
 spirit by an interior impression which no intel- 
 lectual instruction, however diligent, can effect. 
 
 In his profound discourse concerning the " unc- 
 tion " and accompanying illumination, John was 
 only expounding by the Spirit what Jesus had said 
 before his departure : " Howbeit, when he the 
 Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all
 
 92 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 truth ; he shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of 
 mine and shall show it unto you" (John 16 : 13). 
 " The Spirit of truth " How much instruction 
 and suggestion is conveyed by this term ! As he 
 is called "the Spirit of Christ," as revealing 
 Christ in his suffering and glory, so he is called 
 " the Spirit of truth," as manifesting the truth in 
 all its depths and heights. As impossible as it is 
 that we should know the person of Christ without 
 the Spirit of Christ who reveals him, so impossible 
 it is that we should know the truth as it is in Jesus 
 without the Spirit of truth who is appointed to 
 convey it. " The Spirit of truth whom the world 
 cannot receive" (John 14 : 17) We must come 
 to Christ before the Spirit can come to us. " The 
 Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father " 
 (John 15 : 26) He can only teach us in intelli- 
 gent sonship to cry "Abba, Father." The Spirit 
 of truth . . . shall guide you into all truth " (John 
 1 6 : 13). Divine knowledge is all and altogether 
 in his power to communicate, and without his 
 illumination it must be hidden from our under- 
 standing. 
 
 Thus we have had the enduement of the Spirit 
 presented to us under three aspects sealing, filling, 
 and anointing all of which terms, so far as we 
 can understand, signify the same thing the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost appropriated through faith. Each 
 of these terms is connected with some special
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 93 
 
 Divine endowment the seal with assurance and 
 consecration ; the filling with power ; and the 
 anointing with knowledge. All these gifts are 
 wrapt up in the one gift in which they are included, 
 and without whom we are excluded from their 
 possession. 
 
 While thus we conclude that it is a Christian's 
 privilege and duty to claim a distinct anointing of 
 the Spirit to qualify him for his work, we would be 
 careful not to prescribe any stereotyped exercises 
 through which one must necessarily pass in order 
 to possess it. It is easy to cite cases of decisive, 
 vivid, and clearly marked experience of the Spirit's 
 enduement, as in the lives of Dr. Finney, James 
 Brainard Taylor, and many others. And instead 
 of discrediting these experiences so definite as to 
 time and so distinct as to accompanying credentials 
 we would ask the reader to study them, and 
 observe the remarkable effects which followed in 
 the ministry of those who enjoyed them. The 
 lives of many of the co-laborers with Wesley and 
 Whitefield give a striking confirmation of the 
 doctrine which we are defending. Years of 
 barren ministry, in which the gospel was 
 preached with orthodox correctness and literary 
 finish, followed, after the Holy Spirit had been 
 recognized and appropriated, by evangelistic pastor- 
 ates of the most fervent type, such is the history 
 of not a few of these mighty men of God.
 
 94 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 Let not this great subject be embarrassed by too 
 minute theological definitions on the one hand, nor 
 by the too exacting demand for striking spiritual ex- 
 ercises on the other, lest we put upon simple souls a 
 burden greater than they can bear. Nevertheless 
 we cannot emphasize too strongly the. divine crisis 
 in the soul which a full reception of the Holy Ghost 
 may bring. " My little children, of whom I travail 
 in birth again until Christ be formed in you " (Gal. 
 4 : 19), writes the apostle to those who had already 
 believed on the Son of God. Whatever he may 
 have meant in this fervent saying, we doubt not 
 that the deepest yearning of the Spirit is for the 
 informing of Christ in the heart, in order to that 
 outward conformity to Christ which is the supreme 
 end of Christian nurture. If we conceive of the 
 Christian life as only a gradual growth in grace, is 
 there not danger that we come to regard this 
 growth as both invisible and inevitable, and so take 
 little responsibility for its accomplishment ? Let 
 the believer receive the Holy Ghost by a definite 
 act of faith for his consecration, as he received 
 Christ by faith for his justification, and may he not 
 be sure that he is in a safe and scriptural way of 
 acting ? We know of no plainer form of stating 
 the matter than to speak of it as a simple accept- 
 ance by faith, the faith which is 
 
 An affirmation and an act, 
 
 Which bids eternal truth be present fact.
 
 THE ENDUEMENT OF THE SPIRIT 95 
 
 It is a fact that Christ has made atonement for 
 sin ; in conversion faith appropriates this fact in 
 order to our justification. It is a fact that the 
 Holy Ghost has been given ; in consecration faith 
 appropriates this fact for our sanctification. One 
 who writes upon this subject with a scholarship 
 evidently illuminated by a deep spiritual tuition, 
 says : " If a reference to personal experience may 
 be permitted, I may indeed here ' set my seal.' 
 Never shall I forget the gain to conscious faith and 
 peace which came to my own soul, not long after a 
 first decisive and appropriating view of the crucified 
 Lord as the sinner's sacrifice of peace, from a more 
 intelligent and conscious hold upon the living and 
 most gracious personality of the Spirit through 
 whose mercy the soul had got that blessed view. 
 It was a new development of insight into the love 
 of God. It was a new contact as it were with the 
 inner and eternal movements of redeeming goodness 
 and power, a new discovery in divine resources. " 1 
 
 Well is our doctrine described in these italicised 
 words : " A contact with the inner movements of 
 Divine power." The energy of the Spirit appropri 
 ated, even as with uplifted finger the electric car 
 touches the current which is moving just above it 
 in the wire and is borne irresistibly on by it. 
 Thus does the power which is eternally for us 
 become a power within us ; the law of Sinai, with 
 
 1( < Veni Creator Spiritus" by Principal H. C. G. Moule, p. 13.
 
 g6 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 its tables of stone, is replaced by " the law of the 
 Spirit of life " in the fleshly tables of the heart > 
 the outward commandment is exchanged for an in- 
 ward decalogue ; hard duty by holy delight, that 
 henceforth the Christian life may be " all in Christ, 
 by the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God."
 
 VI 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT
 
 " In his intimate union with his Son, the Holy Spirit is the 
 unique organ by which God wills to communicate to man his 
 own life, the supernatural life, the divine life that is to say, 
 his holiness, his power, his love, his felicity. To this end 
 the Son works outwardly, the Holy Spirit inwardly." 
 Paitor G. F. TopheL
 
 VI 
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT* 
 
 r FHE familiar benediction which invokes upon us 
 J- the " communion of the Holy Ghost " has prob- 
 ably a deeper meaning in it than has generally been 
 recognized. The word " communion " xoivwia 
 signifies the having in common. It is used of the 
 fellowship of believers one with another, and also 
 of their mutual fellowship with God. The Holy 
 Spirit dwelling in us is the agent through whom 
 this community of life and love is effected and 
 maintained. " And truly our fellowship," says John, 
 " is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ " 
 (i John i : 3). But this having in common with 
 the first two persons of the Godhead were only pos- 
 sible through the communion of the Holy Ghost, 
 the third person. In his promise of the Comforter, 
 Jesus said : " He shall take of mine and show it 
 unto you." As the Son while on earth communi- 
 cated to men the spiritual riches of the invisible 
 Father, so the Spirit now communicates to us the 
 hidden things of the invisible Son ; and if we were 
 required to describe in a word the present office- 
 work of the Holy Ghost, we should say that it is to 
 make true in us that which is already true for us in 
 
 99
 
 IOO THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 our glorified Lord. All light and life and warmth 
 are stored up for us in the sun ; but these can only 
 reach us through the atmosphere which stands be- 
 tween us and that sun as the medium of communi- 
 cation ; even so in Christ are " hidden all the 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge," and by the 
 Holy Spirit these are made over to us. It will be 
 our endeavor in this chapter to count up our hid 
 treasures in Christ, and to consider the Spirit in his 
 various offices of communication. 
 
 I. The Spirit of Life : Our Regeneration. Not 
 until our Lord took his place at God's right hand 
 did he assume his full prerogative as life-giver to us. 
 He was here in the flesh for our death ; he took on 
 him our nature that he might injiimself crucify our 
 Adam-life and put it away. But when he rose from 
 the dead and sat down on his Father's throne, he 
 became the life-giver to all his mystical body, which 
 is the church. To talk of being saved by the 
 earthly life of Jesus is to know Christ only " after 
 the flesh." True, the apostle says that " being 
 reconciled " by Christ's death, " much more being 
 reconciled we shall be saved by his life." But he 
 here refers plainly to his glorified life. And Jesus, 
 looking forward to the time when he should have 
 risen from the dead, says : " Because I live, ye shall 
 live also." Christ on the throne is really the heart 
 of the church, and every regeneration is a pulse- 
 beat of that heart in souls begotten from above
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT IO1 
 
 through the Holy Spirit. The new birth therefore 
 is not a change of nature as it is sometimes denned ; 
 it is rather the communication of the Divine nature, 
 and the Holy Spirit is now the Mediator through 
 whom this life is transmitted. If we take our 
 Lord's words to Nicodemus : " Except a man be 
 born again he cannot see the kingdom of God," and 
 press the "again" avwOev back to its deepest signi- 
 ficance, it becomes very instructive. " Born from 
 above," say some. And very true to fact is this 
 saying. Regeneration is not our natural life carried 
 up to its highest point of attainment, but the Divine 
 life brought down to its lowest point of condescen- 
 sion, even to the heart of fallen man. John, in 
 speaking of Jesus as the life-giver, calls him "he 
 that cometh from above" (3 : 31); and Jesus, in 
 speaking to the degenerate sons of Abraham, says : 
 "Ye are from beneath, I am from above" (John 
 8 : 23). It has been the constant dream and delu- 
 sion of men that they could rise to heaven by the 
 development and improvement of their natural life. 
 Jesus by one stroke of revelation destroys this hope, 
 telling his hearer that unless he has been begotten 
 of God who is above as truly as he has been be- 
 gotten of his father on earth, he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 Others make these words of our Lord signify 
 "born from the beginning" There must be a re- 
 sumption of life de novo, a return to the original
 
 102 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 source and fountain of being. To find this it is not 
 enough that we go back to the creation-beginning 
 revealed in Genesis ; we must return to the pre- 
 creation-beginning revealed in John, the book of 
 re-genesis. In the opening of Genesis we find 
 Adam, created holy, now fallen through temptation, 
 his face averted from God and leading the whole 
 human race after him into sin and death. In the 
 opening of the Gospel of John we find the Son of 
 God in holy fellowship with the Father. " In the 
 beginning was the Word, and the Word was toward 
 God, xpb': TOV dzdv not merely proceeding from God, 
 but tending toward God by eternal communion. 
 Conversion restores man to this lost attitude : " Ye 
 turned to God, ff/><*c rdv e^dv, from idols to serve the 
 living and true God " (I Thess. I : 9). Regeneration 
 restores man to his forfeited life, the unfallen life 
 of the Son of God, the life which has never wavered 
 from steadfast fellowship with the Father. " I give 
 unto them eternal life," says Jesus. Is eternal life 
 without end ? Yes ; and just as truly without be- 
 ginning. It is uncreated being in distinction from 
 all-created being ; it is the I-am life of God in con- 
 trast to the I-become life of all human souls. By 
 spiritual birth we acquire a divine heredity as truly 
 as by natural birth we acquire a human heredity. 
 
 In the condensed antithesis with which our Lord 
 concludes his demand for the new birth, we have 
 both the philosophy and the justification of his
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT 103 
 
 / ' 
 
 doctrine : " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, 
 
 and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 
 Marvel not that I say unto you, Ye must be born 
 anew " (John 3 : 7, R. V.). By no process of evo- 
 lution, however prolonged, can the natural man be 
 developed into the spiritual man ; by no process of de- 
 generation can the spiritual man deteriorate into the 
 natural man. These two are from a totally different 
 stock and origin ; the one is from beneath, the 
 other is from above. There is but one way through 
 which the relation of sonship can be established, and 
 that is by begetting. That God has created all men 
 does not constitute them his sons in the evangelical 
 sense of that word. The sonship on which the New 
 Testament dwells so constantly is based absolutely 
 and solely on the experience of the new birth, while 
 the dpctrine of universal sonship rests either upon 
 a daring denial or a daring assumption the denial 
 of the universal fall of man through sin, or the 
 assumption of the universal regeneration of man 
 through the Spirit. In either case the teaching be- 
 longs to "another gospel," the recompense of whose 
 preaching is not a beatitude but an anathema. 1 
 The contrast between the two lives and the way 
 
 i Milton probably gives the true genesis of this doctrine in these 
 words, which he puts into the mouth of Satan : 
 
 " The son of God I also am or was ; 
 And if I was, I am ; relation stands ; 
 All men are sons of God."
 
 IO4 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 in which the partnership the xotwvia with the 
 new is effected, is told in that deep saying of Peter : 
 " Whereby he hath granted us his precious and ex- 
 ceeding great promises ; that through these ye may 
 become partakers xotvuvoi of the divine natuie, 
 having escaped from the corruption which is in the 
 world by lust" (2 Pet. I : 4, R. V.). Here are the 
 two streams of life contrasted : 
 
 i The corruption in the world through lust. 
 
 2. The Divine nature which is in the world 
 through the incarnation. 
 
 Here is the Adam-life into which we are brought 
 by natural birth ; and over against it the Christ-life 
 into which we are brought by spiritual birth. From 
 the one we escape, of the other we partake. The 
 source and issue of the one are briefly summarized : 
 " Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin, 
 and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." 
 The Jordan is a fitting symbol of our natural life, 
 rising in a lofty elevation and from pure springs, 
 but plunging steadily down till it pours itself into 
 that Dead Sea from which there is no outlet. To 
 be taken out of this stream and to be brought into 
 the life which flows from the heart of God is man's 
 only hope of salvation. And the method of effecting 
 this transition is plainly stated, "through these," or 
 by means of the precious and exceeding great prom- 
 ises. As in grafting, the old and degenerate stock 
 must first be cut off and then the new inserted, so
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT 105 
 
 in regeneration we are separated from the flesh and 
 incorporated by the Spirit. And what the scion is 
 in grafting, the word or promise of God is in regen- 
 eration. It is the medium through which the Holy 
 Spirit is conveyed, the germ cell in which the Divine 
 life is enfolded. Hence the emphasis which is put 
 in Scripture upon the appropriation of divine truth. 
 We are told that "of his own will begat he us 
 with the word of truth" (James I : 18). "Having 
 been begotten again, not of corruptible seed but of 
 incorruptible, throtigJi the word of God, which liveth 
 and abideth" (i Peter I : 23, R. V.). 
 
 Very deep and significant, therefore, is the saying 
 of Jesus hi respect to the regenerating power of his 
 words, in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. 
 He emphasizes the contrariety between the two 
 natures, the human and the divine, saying : " It is 
 the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth noth- 
 ing." And then he adds : " The words which I 
 have spoken unto you are spirit and life." As God 
 in creation breathed into man the breath of life and 
 he became a living soul, so the Lord Jesus by the 
 word of his mouth, which is the breath of life, re- 
 creates man and makes him alive unto God. And 
 not life only, but likeness as well, is thus imparted. 
 " So God created man in his own image ; in the 
 image of God created he him," is the simple story 
 of the origin of an innocent race. Then follows 
 the temptation and the fall, and then the story of the
 
 IO6 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 descent of a ruined humanity : " And Adam begot 
 a son in his own likeness, after his image." 
 
 And yet how wide the gulf between these two 
 origins. The notion is persistent and incurable in 
 the human heart, that whatever variation there may 
 have been from the original type, education and train- 
 ing can reshape the likeness of Adam to the likeness 
 of God. " As the twig is bent the tree is inclined," 
 says the popular proverb. True ; but though a 
 crooked sapling may be developed into the upright 
 oak, no bending or manipulation can ever so change 
 the species of the tree as to enable men to gather 
 grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. Here again 
 the dualism of Jesus Christ's teaching is distinctly 
 recognized. " A good tree cannot bring forth evil 
 fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good 
 fruit." And what is the remedy for a corrupt tree? 
 The cutting off of the old and the bringing in of a 
 new scion and stock. The life of God can alone 
 beget the likeness of God ; the divine type is 
 wrapped up in the same germ which holds the 
 Divine nature. Therefore in regeneration we are 
 said to have " put on the new man who is renewed 
 in knowledge after the image of him that created 
 him" (Col. 3 : 10), and "which after God hath been 
 created in ... true holiness " (Eph. 4 : 24). 
 
 In a word, the lost image of God is not restamped 
 upon us, but renewed within us. Christ our life 
 was " begotten of the Holy Ghost," and he became
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT 107 
 
 the fount and origin of life henceforth for all 
 his church. This communication of the divine 
 life from Christ to the soul through the Holy Spirit 
 is a hidden transaction, but so great in its signifi- 
 cance and issues that one has well called it " the 
 greatest of all miracles." As in the origin of our 
 natural life we are made in secret and curiously 
 wrought, much more in our spiritual. But the issue 
 has to do with the farthest eternity. " As when the 
 Lord was born the world still went on its old way, 
 little conscious that one had come who should one 
 day change and rule all things, so when the new 
 man is framed within, the old life for a while goes 
 on much as before ; the daily calling, and the earthly 
 cares, and too often old lusts and habits also, still en- 
 gross us ; a worldly eye sees little new, while yet 
 the life which shall live forever has been quickened 
 within and a new man been formed who shall in- 
 herit all." l 
 
 2. The Spirit of Holiness : Our Sanctification. 
 " According to the Spirit of holiness " Christ " was 
 declared to be the Son of God in power by the res- 
 urrection from the dead" (Rom. i : 4). How strik- 
 ing the antithesis between our Lord's two natures, 
 as revealed in this passage, Son of David as to the 
 flesh, Son of God as to the Spirit. And " as he is so 
 are we in this world." We who are regenerate have 
 two natures, the one derived from Adam, the other 
 
 1 Andrew Jukes, " The New Man," p. 53.
 
 108 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 derived from Christ, and our sanctifi cation consists 
 in the double process of mortification and vivifica- 
 tion, the deadening and subduing of the old and the 
 quickening and developing of the new. In other 
 words, what was wrought in Christ who was " put 
 to death in the flesh but quickened in the spirit " is 
 rewrought in us through the constant operation of 
 the Holy Ghost, and thus the cross and the resur- 
 rection extend their sway over the entire life of 
 the Christian. Consider these two experiences. 
 
 Mortification is not asceticism. It is not a self- 
 inflicted compunction, but a Christ-inflicted cruci- 
 fixion. Our Lord was done with the cross when 
 on Calvary he cried : " It is finished." But where 
 he ended each disciple must begin : " If any man 
 will come after me let him deny himself and take 
 up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will 
 save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose 
 his life for my sake shall find it" (Matt. 16 : 24, 25). 
 These words, so constantly repeated in one form or 
 another by our Lord, make it clear that the death- 
 principle must be realized within us in order that 
 the life-principle may have final and triumphant 
 sway. It is to this truth which every disciple is 
 solemnly committed in his baptism : " Know ye 
 not that so many of us as were baptized into Christ 
 were baptized into his death ? Therefore we were 
 buried with him by baptism into death, that 
 like as Christ was raised up from the dead by
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT 109 
 
 the glory of the Father, even so we also should 
 walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6 : 3, 4). Bap- 
 tism is the monogram of the Christian ; by it 
 every believer is sealed and certified as a participant 
 in the death and life of Christ ; and the Holy Spirit 
 has been given to be the Executor of the contract 
 thus made at the symbolic grave of Christ. 
 
 In considering the great fact of the believer's 
 death in Christ to sin and the law, we must not 
 confound what the Scriptures clearly distinguish. 
 There are three deaths in which we have part : 
 
 1 . Death in sin, our natural condition. 
 
 2. Death for sin, our judicial condition. 
 
 3 . Death to sin our sanctified condition. 
 
 1 . Death in sin. " And you . . . who were dead 
 in trespasses and sins," " And you being dead in your 
 sins " (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2 : 13). This is the con- 
 dition in which we are by nature, as participants 
 in the fall and ruin into which the transgression of 
 our first parents has plunged the race. It is a con- 
 dition in which we are under moral insensibility to 
 the claims of God's holiness and love ; and under 
 the sentence of eternal punishment from the law 
 which we have broken. In this state of death in 
 sin Christ found the whole world when he came to 
 be our Saviour. 
 
 2. Death for sin. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye 
 also are become dead to the law by the body of 
 Christ " (Rom. 7 : 4). This is the condition into 
 
 K
 
 IIO THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 which Christ brought us by his sacrifice upon the 
 cross. He endured the sentence of a violated law 
 on our behalf, and therefore we are counted as hav- 
 ing endured it in him. What he did for us is 
 reckoned as having been done by us : " Because 
 we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all 
 died" (2 Cor. 5 : 14, R. V.). Being one with 
 Christ through faith, we are identified with him on 
 the cross : " I have been crucified with Christ " 
 (Gal. 2 : 20, R. V.). This condition of death 
 for sin having been effected for us by our Saviour, 
 we are held legally or judicially free from the 
 penalty of a violated law, if by our personal faith 
 we will consent to the transaction. 
 
 3. Death to sin. " Even so reckon ye also your- 
 selves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in 
 Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6 : 1 1, R. V.). This is the con- 
 dition of making true in ourselves what is already 
 true for us in Christ, of rendering practical what 
 is now judicial ; in other words, of being dead to 
 the power of sin in ourselves, as we are already 
 dead to the penalty of sin through Jesus Christ. 
 As it is written in the Epistle to the Colossiars : 
 " For ye died," judicially in Christ, " mortify " 
 make dead practically "therefore your members 
 which are upon the earth" (Col. 3 : 2, 5, R. V.). It 
 is this condition which the Holy Spirit is constantly 
 effecting in us if we will have it so. " If ye 
 through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT III 
 
 ye shall live " (Rom. 8 : 13). This is not self- 
 deadening, as the Revised Version seems to suggest 
 by its decapitalizing of the word " Spirit." Self is 
 not powerful enough to conquer self, the human 
 spirit to get the victory over the human flesh. 
 That were like a drowning man with his right hand 
 laying hold on his left hand, only that both may 
 sink beneath the waves. " Old Adam is too strong 
 for young Melancthon," said the Reformer. It is 
 the Spirit of God overcoming our fleshly nature by 
 his indwelling life, on whom is our sole dependence. 
 Our principal care therefore must be to " walk in 
 the Spirit " and " be filled with the Spirit," and all 
 the rest will come spontaneously and inevitably. 
 As the ascending sap in the tree crowds off the 
 dead leaves which in spite of storm and frost cling 
 to the branches all winter long, so does the Holy 
 Ghost within us, when allowed full sway, subdue 
 and expel the remnants of our sinful nature. 
 
 One cannot fail to see that asceticism is an abso- 
 lute inversion of the Divine order, since it seeks 
 life through death instead of finding death through 
 life. No degree of mortification can ever bring us 
 to sanctification. We are to " put off the old man 
 with his deeds." But how ? By " putting on the 
 new man who is renewed in knowledge after the 
 image of him that created him." " For the law of 
 the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me 
 free from the law of sin and death " (Rom. 8 : 2),
 
 112 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 writes Paul. It is a pointed statement of the case 
 which one makes in describing the transition from 
 the old to the new in his own experience, from the 
 former life of perpetual defeat to the present life 
 of victory through Christ. " Once it was a con- 
 stant breaking off, now it is a daily bringing in," 
 he says. That is, the former striving was directed 
 to being rid of the inveterate habits and evil ten- 
 dencies of the old nature its selfishness, its pride, 
 its lust, and its vanity. Now the effort is to bring 
 in the Spirit, to drink in his divine presence, to 
 breathe, as a holy atmosphere, his supernatural life. 
 The indwelling of the Spirit can alone effect the 
 exclusion of sin. This will appear if we consider 
 what has been called "the expulsive power of a 
 new affection." " Love not the world, neither the 
 things that are in the world," says the Scripture. 
 But all experience proves that loving not is only 
 possible through loving, the worldly affection being 
 overcome by the heavenly. 
 
 And we find this method clearly exhibited in the 
 word. " The love of the Spirit " (Rom. 1 5 : 30) 
 is given us for overcoming the world. The divine 
 life is the source of the divine love. Therefore 
 "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by 
 the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Because 
 we are by nature so wholly without heavenly affec- 
 tion, God, through the indwelling Spirit, gives us 
 bis own love with which to love himself. Herein
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT 113 
 
 is the highest credential of discipleship : " By this 
 shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye 
 have love one to another" (John 13 : 35). As 
 Christ manifested to the world the love of the 
 Father, so are we to manifest the love of Christ a 
 manifestation, however, which is only possible 
 because of our possessorship of a common life. 
 As one has truly said concerning our Saviour's 
 command to his disciples to love one another : " It 
 is a command which would be utterly idle and 
 futile were it not that he, the ever-loving One, is 
 willing to put his own love within me. The com- 
 mand is really no more than to be a branch of the 
 true vine. I am to cease from my own living and 
 loving, and yield myself to the expression of 
 Christ's love." 
 
 And what is true of the love of Christ is true of 
 the likeness of Christ. How is the likeness ac- 
 quired ? Through contemplation and imitation ? 
 So some have taught. And it is true, if only the 
 indwelling Spirit is behind all, beneath all, and ef- 
 fectually operative in all. As it is written : " But 
 we all with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the 
 glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same 
 image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, 
 the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18, R. V.). It is only the 
 Spirit of the Lord dwelling within us that can fashion 
 us to the image of the Lord set before us. Who 
 is sufficient by external imitation of Christ to become
 
 114 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 conformed to the likeness of Christ ? Imagine one 
 without genius and devoid of the artist's training 
 sitting down before Raphael's famous picture of the 
 Transfiguration and attempting to reproduce it. 
 How crude and mechanical and lifeless his work 
 would be ! But if such a thing were possible that 
 the spirit of Raphael should enter into the man 
 and obtain the mastery of his mind and eye and 
 hand, it would be entirely possible that he should 
 paint this masterpiece ; for it would simply be 
 Raphael reproducing Raphael. And this in a mys- 
 tery is what is true of the disciple filled with the 
 Holy Ghost. Christ, who is. " the image of the in- 
 visible God," is set before him as his divine pat- 
 tern, and Christ by the Spirit dwells within him as a 
 divine life, and Christ is able to image forth Christ 
 from the interior life to the outward example. 
 
 Of course likeness to Christ is but another name 
 for holiness, and when, at the resurrection, we 
 awake satisfied with his likeness (Ps. 17: 15), we 
 shall be perfected in holiness. This is simply say- 
 ing that sanctification is progressive and not, like 
 conversion, instantaneous. And yet we must ad- 
 mit the force of what a devout and thoughtful 
 writer says as to the danger of regarding it as only 
 a gradual growth. If a Christian looks upon himself 
 as "a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring- 
 eth forth his fruit in his season," he judges rightly. 
 But to conclude therefore that his growth will be as
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT 115 
 
 irresistible as that of the tree, coming as a matter 
 of course simply because he has by regeneration 
 been planted in Christ, is a grave mistake. The 
 disciple is required to be consciously and intelli- 
 gently active in his own growth, as a tree is not, 
 " to give all diligence to make his calling and elec- 
 tion sure." And when we say " active " we do not 
 mean self -active merely, for " which of you by being 
 anxious can add one cubit unto his stature ? " asks Je- 
 sus (Matt. 6 : 27, R. V.). But we must surren- 
 der ourselves to the divine action by living in the 
 Spirit and praying in the Spirit and walking in the 
 Spirit, all of which conditions are as essential to 
 our development in holiness, as the rain and the 
 sunshine are to the growth of the oak. It is possi- 
 ble that through a neglect and grieving of the 
 Spirit a Christian may be of smaller stature in his 
 age than he was in his spiritual infancy, his progress 
 being a retrogression rather than an advance. There- 
 fore in saying that sanctification is progressive let 
 us beware of concluding that it is inevitable. 
 
 Moreover, as candid inquirers, we must ask what 
 of truth and of error there may be in the doctrine 
 of " instantaneous sanctification," which many de- 
 vout persons teach and profess to have proved. If 
 the conception is that of a state of sinless perfec- 
 tion into which the believer has been suddenly 
 lifted and of deliverance from a sinful nature 
 which has been suddenly eradicated, we must con-
 
 Il6 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 sider this doctrine as dangerously untrue. But we 
 do consider it possible that one may experience a 
 great crisis in his spiritual life, in which there is 
 such a total self-surrender to God and such an in- 
 filling of the Holy Spirit, that he is freed from the 
 bondage of sinful appetites and habits, and enabled 
 to have constant victory over self, instead of suffer- 
 ing constant defeat. In saying this, what more do 
 we affirm than is taught in that scripture : " Walk 
 in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the 
 flesh" (Gal. 5: 16). 
 
 Divine truth as revealed in Scripture seems often 
 to lie between two extremes. It is emphatically so in 
 regard to this question. What a paradox it is that 
 side by side in the Epistle of John we should have 
 the strongest affirmation of the Christian's sinful- 
 ness : " If we say that we have no sin we deceive 
 ourselves, and the truth is not in us " ; and the strong- 
 est affirmation of his sinlessness : " Whosoever is 
 born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remain- 
 eth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of 
 God" (i John 1:853:9). Now heresy means a 
 dividing or choosing, and almost all of the gravest 
 errors have arisen from adopting some extreme 
 statement of Scripture to the rejection of the other 
 extreme. If we regard the doctrine of sinless per- 
 fection as a heresy, we regard contentment with sin- 
 ful imperfection as a greater heresy. And we 
 gravely fear that many Christians make the apos-
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT 1 17 
 
 tie's words, " If we say we have no sin we deceive 
 ourselves," the unconscious justification for a low 
 standard of Christian living. It were almost better 
 for one to overstate the possibilities of sanctifica- 
 tion in his eager grasp after holiness, than to under- 
 state them in his complacent satisfaction with a 
 traditional unholiness. Certainly it is not an edi- 
 fying spectacle to see a Christian worldling throw- 
 ing stones at a Christian perfectionist. 
 
 What then would be a true statement of the 
 doctrine which we are considering, one which would 
 embrace both extremes of statement as they appear 
 in the Epistle of John ? Sinful in self, sinless in 
 Christ is our answer : " In him is no sin ; whoso- 
 ever abideth in him sinneth not" (i John 3 : 5,6). 
 If through the communication of the Holy Spirit 
 the life of Christ is constantly imparted to us, that 
 life will prevail within us. That life is absolutely 
 sinless, as incapable of defilement as the sunbeam 
 which has its fount and origin in the sun. In pro- 
 portion to the closeness of our abiding in him will 
 be the completeness of our deliverance from sin- 
 ning. And we doubt not that there are Christians 
 \\ ho have yielded themselves to God in such abso- 
 lute surrender, and who through the upholding 
 power of the Spirit have been so kept in that con- 
 dition of surrender, that sin has not had dominion 
 over them. If in them the war between the flesh 
 and the spirit has not been forever ended, there has
 
 Il8 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 been present victory in which troublesome sins have 
 ceased from their assaults, and "the peace of God " 
 has ruled in the heart. 
 
 But sinning is one thing and a sinful nature is 
 another ; and we see no evidence in Scripture that 
 the latter is ever eradicated completely while we are 
 in the body. If we could see ourselves with God's 
 eye, we should doubtless discover sinfulness lying 
 beneath our most joyful moments of unsinning con- 
 duct, and the stain of our old and fallen nature so 
 discoloring our whitest actions as to convince us 
 that we are not yet faultless in his presence. Only 
 let us gladly emphasize this fact, that as we inherit 
 from Adam a nature incapable of sinlessness, we 
 inherit from Christ a nature incapable of sinfulness. 
 Therefore, it is written : " Whosoever is born of 
 God cannot sin, for his seed remaineth in him." 
 It is not the nature of the new nature to sin ; it is 
 not the law of " the law of the Spirit of life " to 
 transgress. For the new-born man to do evil is to 
 transgress the law of his nature as before it was 
 to obey it. In a word, before our regeneration we 
 lived in sin and loved it; since our regeneration we 
 may lapse into sin but we loathe it. 
 
 3. The Spirit of Glory : Our Transfiguration, 
 " The Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you," 
 writes Peter (i Peter 4 : 14). Let us recall this 
 apostle's habit of dividing the stages of redemption 
 into these two, "the sufferings of Christ and the
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT Iig 
 
 glory that should follow," in which he seems to 
 conceive of our Lord's mystical body, the church, 
 as passing through and reproducing the twofold 
 experience of its Head, in humiliation and in sub- 
 sequent exaltation. Even in the time of her 
 humiliation she has the Spirit of glory abiding on 
 her, as the cloud of glory rested down upon the 
 tabernacle in the wilderness during all the pilgrim- 
 age of the children of Israel. And is not Peter's 
 saying the same as Paul's, in his picture of the 
 suffering creation : " But ourselves also, which 
 have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we our- 
 selves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adop- 
 tion, to wit, the redemption of our body " (Rom. 
 8 : 23). Not yet have we reached the consumma- 
 tion of our hope, at the "appearing of the glory of 
 our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ " (Titus 
 2 : 13, R. V.) ; but the Spirit, through whose inwork- 
 ing power this great change is to be wrought, already 
 dwells in us, giving us by his present quickening 
 the pledge and earnest of our final glory. And so 
 we read in another Scripture : " But if the Spirit of 
 him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, 
 he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also 
 quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwell- 
 eth in you" (Rom. 8 : n). It is not our dead bodies 
 which are here spoken of as the objects of the 
 Spirit's quickening, but our mortal bodies bodies 
 liable to death and doomed to death if the Lord
 
 120 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 tarry, but not yet having experienced death. Hence 
 the quickening referred to has to do rather with the 
 vivifying of the living saints than the resurrection 
 of the dead saints. 
 
 Of course the consummation of this vivifying is 
 at the Lord's coming, when those who have died 
 shall be raised, and those who are alive shall be 
 transfigured ; but because of the Spirit of life 
 dwelling in us, who shall say that the process has 
 not even now begun ? To explain : " Behold I 
 shew you a mystery," says Paul ; " we shall not all 
 sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in 
 the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump " (i Cor. 
 15 : 51, 52). That is, as at Christ's coming the dead 
 saints will be raised, so the living saints will be 
 translated without seeing death. A change will 
 come to them, so far as we can understand, like 
 that which came to Jesus at his resurrection the 
 body glorified, all of mortal and earthly belonging 
 to it by nature eliminated in an instant, and the 
 Holy Ghost so completely transforming and immor- 
 talizing it that it shall become perfectly fashioned 
 to the likeness of Christ's glorified body. But 
 having the Spirit dwelling in us we have, even now, 
 the first-fruits of this transformation in the daily 
 renewing of our inward man, in the helping and 
 healing and strengthening which sometimes comes 
 to our bodies through the hidden life of the Holy 
 Ghost. Sanctification is progressive, waiting to be
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT 121 
 
 consummated in the future; so is glorification in 
 some sense progressive, since by the presence of 
 the Spirit we already have the earnest of the glory 
 that is to be. As Edward Irving beautifully states 
 it, condensing his language : " As sickness is sin 
 apparent in the body, the presentiment of death, 
 the forerunner of corruption, and as disease of 
 every kind is mortality begun, so the quickening of 
 our mortal bodies by the inward inspiration of the 
 Spirit is the resurrection forestalled, redemption 
 anticipated, glory begun in our humiliation." 
 
 When is sanctification completed ? At death, is 
 the answer which we find given in some creeds and 
 manuals of theology. This may be true ; but we 
 say it not, because the Scripture saith it not. So 
 far as we can infer from the word of God the date 
 of our sanctification or perfection in holiness is 
 definitely fixed at the appearing of the Lord " a 
 second time without sin unto salvation." Our 
 sanctification, now going on, is glory begun in us ; 
 our glorification then ushered in will be glory com- 
 pleted in us. The Spirit of glory now working in 
 us brings forward and already works within us the 
 beginning of the perfect life. Because we have 
 been made "partakers of the Holy Ghost" we 
 have thereby " tasted the powers of the age to 
 come " (Heb. 6 : 4, 5, R. V.), that age of complete 
 deliverance from sin and sickness and death. But at 
 most we have only tasted as yet ; we have not 
 
 L
 
 122 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 drunk fully into the fountain of immortal life. It 
 is at Christ's advent that this blessed consumma- 
 tion is fixed : " To the end he may establish your 
 hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and 
 Father at tJie coming of our Lord Jesus with all his 
 saints" (i Thess. 3 : 13, R. V.). Not simply blame- 
 less but faultless, seems to be the condition here 
 foretold, since it is unblamable in the sphere and 
 element of holiness. 
 
 And with this agrees another text in the same 
 epistle : "And the God of peace himself sanctify you 
 wholly ; and may your spirit and soul and body be 
 preserved entire without blame at the coming of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ" (i Thess. 5 123, R. V.). 
 The time appointed for the consummation of this 
 blameless wholeness is at the Saviour's advent in 
 glory. And how suggestive the order maintained 
 in naming the threefold man : " Your spirit, soul, 
 and body." Our sanctification moves from within 
 outward. It begins with the spirit, which is the 
 holy of holies ; the Spirit of God acting first on 
 the spirit of man in renewing grace, then upon the 
 soul, till at last it reaches the outer court of the 
 body, at the resurrection and translation. When 
 the body is glorified, then only will sanctification be 
 consummated, for then only will the whole man, 
 spirit, soul, and body, have come under the Spirit's 
 perfecting power. 
 
 We may see the difference between progressive
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT 123 
 
 sanctification and perfected sanctification, or glori- 
 fication, by comparing familiar texts. One already 
 has been quoted in this chapter : " We all, behold- 
 ing as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed 
 into the same image from glory to glory, even 
 as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18). Here 
 are degrees of progress "from glory to glory," 
 and it is a progress in the glorified life gradual 
 conformity to the Lord of glory, through success- 
 ive stages of glory, effected by the Spirit of glory. 
 The word-painting of the passage inevitably asso- 
 ciates it in our thought with the great transfigura- 
 tion experience of our Lord, when by a kind of 
 rapture he was for a little while taken out of " this 
 present evil age " (Gal. i : 4), and translated into 
 " the age to come," and made to taste of its powers 
 as he appeared in glory" (Heb. 6 : 5, R. V.). So 
 says the apostle : " Be not fashioned according to 
 this age, but be ye transformed by the renewing of 
 your minds " (Rom. 12 : 2, R. V.). That is, by his 
 inward transformation the Holy Spirit is to be daily 
 repeating in us the Lord's glorification, separating 
 us from the present age of sin and death and as- 
 similating us to the age to come, with its resurrec- 
 tioi triumph and its perfected restoration to God, 
 when we shall be presented "faultless before the 
 presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). 
 This is our step-by-step advancement into a predes- 
 tined inheritance ; and it must for the present be
 
 124 TH E MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 step by step. " Of his fullness have all we received," 
 but we can appropriate that fullness only "grace 
 by grace" (John I : 16). Of his righteousness we 
 have all been made partakers, but we only advance 
 in its possession " from faith to faith " (Rom. i : 
 17). Even in passing through the valley of Baca 
 we can make it a place of springs, going " from 
 strength to strength" as we appear "before God in 
 Zion " (Ps. 84 : 6). Thus our growth in grace is 
 our glory begun ; but the progress is like the 
 artist's slow and patient perfecting of his picture. 
 Turn now to another statement : " We know that 
 if he shall be manifested we shall be like him, for 
 we shall see him even as he is " (i John 3 : 2, R. V.). 
 Whatever difficulty may arise from another transla- 
 tion of this passage, one thought seems to be 
 taught in the entire connection, viz., that the un- 
 veiled manifestation of God will bring the full per- 
 fection of his saints. Thus Alford sums up the 
 meaning of the passage. As the believer, having 
 by a knowledge of God been regenerated, " becomes 
 more and more like God, having his seed in him, so 
 the full and perfect accomplishment of this knowl- 
 edge in the actual fruition of God himself must of 
 necessity bring with it entire likeness to God." In 
 a word, it seems to us that the sanctification taking 
 place at the manifestation of our incarnate Lord 
 will be as the instantaneous photograph compared 
 with the Spirit's slow and patient limning of the
 
 THE COMMUNION OF THE SPIRIT 125 
 
 image of Christ in our present state. " In a 
 moment, in the twinkling of an eye," " we shall be 
 changed" (i Cor. 15 : 52). Then the glorified 
 body and the glorified spirit, long divorced by sin, 
 will be remarried. So long as this twain are sepa- 
 rated by death, or are at war in our present earthy 
 life, our perfection in holiness were impossible. 
 
 It is because the resurrection and translation of 
 the saints are instantaneous that we affirm sanctifi- 
 cation to be instantaneous at the coming of the 
 Lord. The Scripture is always harmonious with 
 itself, however widely separated the writers of its 
 books by time or distance. David struck the same 
 joyful note with John, though the learned may 
 insist that he did not know of the resurrection. 
 " As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteous- 
 ness " the seeing him as he is and being made fit 
 to see him. " I shall be satisfied when I awake in 
 thy likeness " the conformity to the Divine image 
 at the instant sound of the resurrection trump. 
 (Ps. 17 : 15.) Perhaps we may conjecture wherein 
 will consist the perfection of the resurrection state. 
 We may find it in that one saying : " It is raised 
 a spiritual body " (i Cor. I 5 : 44). Now, how often 
 the body dominates the spirit, making it do what it 
 would not ; but then, the spirit will dominate the 
 body, making it do as it will. In a house divided 
 against itself there can be neither perfection nor 
 peace. Such is the condition in our present state
 
 126 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 of humiliation. And not the body alone, but the 
 immaterial within us may be at war with the divine. 
 What does the Apostle Jude mean in his descrip- 
 tion of certain who separated themselves, saying 
 that they are "sensual, having not the Spirit " (Jude 
 19). The soul, the middle factor in the man, if 
 we may say so, instead of being in alliance with 
 our higher nature, the spirit, takes sides with the 
 lower, the flesh, so that instead of being spiritual 
 we become " earthly, sensual, devilish " (James 
 3:15). The whole man must be presented blame- 
 less at the coming of the Lord before we can enter 
 upon a state of blessed perfection. Our spirit 
 must not only rule our soul and our body, but both 
 these must be subject to the Holy Spirit of God. 
 Dimly and imperfectly do we thus image to our- 
 selves the perfection of our " spiritual body." Now 
 the body bears the spirit, a slow chariot, whose 
 wheels are often disabled, and whose swiftest motion 
 is but labored and tardy. Then the spirit will bear 
 the body, carrying it as on wings of thought whither- 
 soever it will. The Holy Ghost, by his divine in- 
 working will, has completed in us the Divine like- 
 ness, and perfected over us the Divine dominion. 
 The human body will now be in sovereign subjection 
 to the human spirit, and the human spirit to the 
 divine Spirit, and God will be all and in all.
 
 VII 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE 
 SPIRIT
 
 " The Holy Ghost from the day of Pentecost has occupied 
 an entirely new position. The whole administration of the 
 an'airs of the Church of Christ has since that day devolved 
 upon him. . . That day was the installation of the Holy 
 Spirit as the Administrator of the Church in all things, 
 which office he is to exercise according to circumstances at 
 his discretion. It is as vested with such authority that he 
 gives his name to this dispensation. . . There is but one 
 other great event to which the Scripture directs us to look, 
 and that is the second coming of the Lord. Till then we 
 live in the Pentecostal age and under the rule of the Holy 
 Ghost." James Elder Gumming, D. D.
 
 VII 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 '"THE Holy Spirit, as coming down to fill the place 
 J- of the ascended Redeemer, has rightly been 
 called "The Vicar of Jesus Christ." To him the 
 entire administration of the church has been com- 
 mitted until the Lord shall return in glory. His 
 oversight extends to the slightest detail in the or- 
 dering of God's house, holding all in subjection to 
 the will of the Head, and directing all in harmony 
 with the divine plan. How clearly this comes out 
 in that passage in the twelfth chapter of First 
 Corinthians. As in striking a series of concentric 
 circles there is always one fixed center holding each 
 circumference in defined relation to itself, so here 
 we see all the " diversities of administrations " de- 
 termined by the one Administrator, the Holy Ghost. 
 "Varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit" ; "diversi- 
 ties of working, but the same God" ; different 
 words "according to the same Spirit" ; "gifts of 
 faith in the same Spirit" ; "gifts of healing in the 
 one Spirit" ; miracles, prophecies, tongues, inter- 
 pretations, " but all these worketh the one and the 
 same Spirit, dividing to each one severally as he 
 will." Whether the authority of this one ruling sov- 
 
 129
 
 130 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 ereign Holy Ghost be recognized or ignored deter- 
 mines whether the church shall be an anarchy or a 
 unity, a synagogue of lawless ones or the temple of 
 the living God. 
 
 Would one desire to find the clue to the great 
 apostasy whose dark eclipse now covers two- thirds 
 of nominal Christendom, here it is the rule and 
 authority of the Holy Spirit ignored in the church ; 
 the servants of the house assuming mastery and 
 encroaching more and more on the prerogatives of 
 the Head, till at last one man sets himself up as 
 the administrator of the church, and daringly 
 usurps the name of " The Vicar of Christ." When 
 the Spirit of the Lord, speaking by Paul, would 
 picture the mystery of lawlessness and the culmina- 
 tion of apostasy, he gives us a description which 
 none should misunderstand : " So that he, as God, 
 sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that 
 he is God " (2 Thess. 2 : 4). What is the temple of 
 God ? The church without a question : " Know 
 ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the 
 Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (i Cor. 3 : 16). 
 Whose prerogative is it to sit there? The Holy 
 Ghost's, its ruler and administrator, and his alone, 
 
 When Christ, our Paraclete with the Father, 
 entered upon his ministry on high, we are told 
 more than a score of times that he " sat down at 
 the right hand of God." Henceforth heaven is his 
 official seat, until he returns in power and great glory.
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OK THE SPIRIT 131 
 
 When he sent down another Paraclete to abide 
 with us for the age, he took his seat in the church, 
 the temple of God, there to rule and to administer 
 till the Lord returns. There is but one "Holy 
 See " upon earth : that is, the seat of the Holy 
 One in the church, which only the Spirit of God 
 can occupy without the most daring blasphemy. It 
 becomes all true believers to look well to that pic- 
 ture of one " sitting in the temple of God," and to 
 read the lesson which it teaches. We may have no 
 temptation toward the papacy, which thrusts a man 
 into the seat of the Holy Ghost, 1 or toward clerisy 
 which obtrudes an order of ecclesiastics arch- 
 bishops, cardinals, and archdeacons into that sa- 
 cred place ; but let us remember that a democracy 
 may be guilty of the same sin as a hierarchy, in 
 settling solemn issues by a " show of hands," in- 
 stead of prayerfully waiting for the guidance of 
 the Holy Spirit, in substituting the voice of a 
 
 1 Of course Catholic writers claim that the pope is the " Vicar of 
 Christ " only as being the mouth-piece of the Holy Ghost. But the 
 Spirit has been given to the church as a whole, that is to the body of 
 regenerated believers, and to every member of that body according to 
 his measure. The sin of sacerdotalism is, that it arrogates for a 
 usurping few that which belongs to every member of Christ's mystical 
 body. It is a suggestive fact that the name <cAJ)po, which Peter gives 
 to the church as the " flock of God," when warning the elders against 
 being lords over God's heritage, now appears in ecclesiastical usage 
 as the clergy, with its orders of pontiff and prelates and lord bish- 
 ops, whose appointed function it is to exercise lordship over Christ's 
 flock.
 
 132 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 majority for the voice of the Spirit. Of course, 
 in speaking thus we concede that the Holy Spirit 
 makes known his will in the voice of believers, as 
 also in the voice of Scripture. Only there must be 
 such prayerful sanctifying of the one and such 
 prayerful search of the other, that in reaching 
 decisions in the church there may be the same de- 
 claration as in the first Christian council : " It 
 seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us " (Acts 
 15:28). 
 
 In some very profound teaching in 2 Cor. 3 we 
 seem to have a hint as to how we hear the voice of 
 the Lord in guiding the affairs of the church. There 
 the administration (8iaz<iv(a) of the Spirit is distinctly 
 spoken of in contrast with the administration of 
 the law. Its deliverances are written "not with 
 ink, not in tables of stone, but in the tables that 
 are the hearts of flesh, with the Spirit of the 
 living God" (R. V.). There must be a sensitive 
 heart wherein this handwriting may be inscribed ; 
 an unhindering will through which he may act. 
 " Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," 
 it is written in the same passage ; liberty for God 
 to speak and act as he will through us, which 
 begets loyalty ; not liberty for us to act as we will, 
 which begets lawlessness. 
 
 To us there is something exceedingly suggestive 
 in the teaching of the Lord's post-ascension gospel, 
 the Revelation, on this point. The epistles to the
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 133 
 
 seven churches we hold, with many of the best 
 commentators, to be a prophetic setting forth of 
 the successive stages of the church's history its 
 declines and its recoveries, its failures and its re- 
 pentances, from ascension to advent. And because 
 the bride of Christ is perpetually betrayed into 
 listening to false teachers and surrendering to the 
 guidance of evil counsellors, the Lord is constantly 
 admonishing her to heed the voice of her true 
 Teacher and Guide, the Holy Ghost. How forci- 
 bly this admonition is introduced into the great 
 Apocalyptic drama ! As in the opening of the 
 successive seals, representing the judgments of God 
 upon apostate Christendom, the cry is repeated, 
 "Come"! "Come"! "Come"! "Come"! (Rev. 
 6) as though the church under chastisement would 
 repeatedly relearn the advent prayer which her 
 Lord put into her mouth in the beginning : " Even 
 so, come, Lord Jesus," so at each stage of the 
 church's backsliding a voice is heard from heaven 
 saying : " He that hath an ear, let him hear what 
 the Spirit saith unto .the churches." It is the 
 admonition "of him that hath the seven spirits of 
 God," seven times addressed to his church through- 
 out her earthly history, calling her to return from 
 her false guides and misleading teachers, and to 
 listen to the voice of her true Counsellor. 
 
 From this general statement of the administra- 
 tion of the Holy Spirit let us now descend to the 
 
 M
 
 134 TH E MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 particular acts and offices in which this authority is 
 exercised. 
 
 I. The Holy Spirit in the -ministry and govern- 
 ment of the church. In speaking to the elders of 
 Ephesus Paul says : " Take heed unto yourselves, 
 and to all the flock in the which the Holy Ghost 
 hath made you bishops, to feed the church of God " 
 (Acts 20 : 28, R. V.). Clearly in the beginning 
 bishops or pastors were given by the Spirit of God, 
 not by the suffrages of the people. The office and 
 its incumbent were alike by direct divine appoint- 
 ment. We find this distinctly set forth in the 
 Epistle to the Ephesians : " When he ascended on 
 high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto 
 men. . . And he gave some to be apostles ; and some, 
 prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors 
 and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, unto 
 the work of ministering, unto the building up of 
 the body of Christ " (Eph. 4 : 8-12, R. V.). The 
 ascent of the Lord and the descent of the Spirit 
 are here exhibited in their necessary relation. In 
 the one event Christ took his seat in heaven as 
 " Head over all things to his church " ; in the other 
 the Holy Ghost came down to begin the work of 
 "building up the body of Christ." Of course it is 
 the Head who directs the construction of the body, 
 as being " fitly framed together it groweth into a 
 holy temple in the Lord"; and it is the Holy Ghost 
 who superintends this construction since "we are
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 135 
 
 builded together for an habitation of God in the 
 Spirit." Therefore all the offices through which 
 this work is to be carried on were appointed by 
 Christ and instituted through the Spirit whom he 
 sent down. Suppose now that men invent offices 
 which are not named in the inspired list, and set up 
 in the church an order of popes and cardinals, arch- 
 bishops and archdeacons ? Is it not a presumption, 
 the worst fruit of which is not alone that it introduces 
 confusion into the body of Christ, but that it begets 
 insubordination to the rule of the Holy Ghost ? But 
 suppose, on the other hand, that we sacredly main- 
 tain those offices of the ministry which have been 
 established for permanent continuance in the church, 
 and yet take it upon us to fill these according to our 
 own preference and will ; is this any less an affront 
 to the Spirit ? 
 
 Doubtless the mistakes of God's servants, as 
 given in Scripture are as truly designed for our 
 instruction and admonition as their obedient exam- 
 ples. We think we do not err in finding such a 
 recorded warning in the opening chapter of the 
 Acts of the Apostles. A vacancy had occurred in 
 the apostolate. Standing up in the upper room, 
 amidst the hundred and twenty, Peter boldly 
 affirmed that this vacancy must be filled, and of 
 the men who had companied with them during the 
 Lord's earthly ministry, "one must be ordained to be 
 a witness with us of his resurrection." But the disci-
 
 136 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 pies had hitherto had no voice in choosing apostles. 
 The Lord had done this of his own sovereign will : 
 " Have I not chosen you twelve ? " Now he had 
 gone away into heaven, and his Administrator had 
 not yet arrived to enter upon his office-work. 
 Surely if the divine order was to be, that having 
 " ascended on high " he was " to give some apos- 
 tles," it were better to await the coming of the Para- 
 clete with his gifts. Not only so, but we are per- 
 suaded that, with Christ departed and the Holy 
 Spirit not yet come, a valid election of an apostle 
 were impossible. But in spite of this, a nomination 
 was made ; prayer was offered in which the Lord 
 was asked to indicate which of the candidates he 
 had chosen ; and then a vote having been taken, 
 Matthias was declared elected. Is there any indi- 
 cation that this choice was ever ratified by the 
 Lord ? On the contrary, Matthias passes into ob- 
 scurity from this time, his name never again being 
 mentioned. Some two years subsequent, the Lord 
 calls Saul of Tarsus ; he is sealed with his Spirit, 
 and certified by such evident credentials of the 
 Divine appointment that he boldly signs himself 
 " Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but 
 by Jesus Christ and God the Father" (Gal. I : i). 
 
 We believe that the apostolic office has passed 
 away, the qualification therefor, that of having been 
 a witness of the Lord's resurrection, being now im- 
 possible. But the office of pastor, elder, bishop, or
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 137 
 
 teacher of the flock still remains. And the divine 
 plan is that this office should be filled, just as in 
 the beginning, by the appointment of the Holy 
 Ghost. Nor can we doubt that if there is a pray- 
 erful waiting upon him for guidance, and a sancti- 
 fied submission to his will when it is made known, he 
 mil now choose pastors and set them over their 
 appointed flocks just as manifestly as he did in the 
 beginning. Very beautiful is the picture in Revela- 
 tion of the glorified Lord, moving among the candle- 
 sticks. There are "seven golden candlesticks" 
 now, not one only as in the Jewish temple. The 
 Church of God is manifold, not a unit. 1 He who 
 " walketh in the midst of the seven golden candle- 
 sticks " "holdeth the seven stars in his right hand." 
 These stars are " the angels of the seven churches " 
 their ministers or bishops as generally understood. 
 The Lord holds them in his right hand. Does he 
 not require us to ask of him alone for their be- 
 stowal ? Yes. " Pray ye therefore the Lord of the 
 harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his 
 harvest " (Luke 10:2). There is no intimation in 
 Scripture that we are to apply anywhere but to him 
 for the ministry of his church. Does he not give 
 
 1 By the candlesticks being seven instead of one, as in the taber- 
 nacle, we are taught that whereas in the Jewish dispensation, God's 
 visible church was one, in the Gentile dispensation there are many 
 visible churches ; and that Christ himself recognizes them alike. 
 Canon Garratt, " Commentary on the Revelation" p. 32.
 
 138 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 such ministry, and he alone ? Yes. " When he 
 ascended on high ... he gave some . . . pastors 
 and teachers." And now, speaking to the church in 
 Ephesus, the elders of which, chosen by the Holy 
 Ghost, Paul had so affectionately exhorted, he is seen 
 in the attitude of Chief-shepherd and Bishop giving 
 pastors with his own hand ; placing them with his 
 own right hand, and warning the church that though 
 they have tried and rejected false apostles, they 
 have nevertheless left their "first love." Signifi- 
 cant word ! On this love our Lord conditioned the 
 indwelling of the Father and of the Son through 
 the Holy Spirit (John 14 : 23). Losing this the 
 peril becomes imminent that the candlestick may 
 be removed out of its place ; and so the warning 
 is solemnly announced : " He that hath an ear, let 
 him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." 
 Without the Spirit the candlestick can shed forth 
 no light, and loses its place of testimony. 
 
 Dead churches, whose witness has been silenced, 
 whose place has been vacated, even though the life- 
 less form remains, have we not seen such ? And 
 what is the safeguard against them, if not that 
 found in the apostle's warning : " Quench not the 
 Spirit ? " The voice of the Lord must be heard in 
 his church, and to the Holy Ghost alone has been 
 committed the prerogative of communicating that 
 voice. Is there any likelihood that that voice will 
 be heard when the king or prime minister of a civil
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 139 
 
 government holds the sole function of appointing 
 the bishops, as in the case of State churches ? Is 
 there any certainty of it when an archbishop or 
 bishop puts pastors over flocks by the action of his 
 single will ? We may congratulate ourselves that 
 we are neither in a State church nor under an epis- 
 copal bishop ; but there are methods of ignoring or 
 repressing the voice of the Holy Ghost, which 
 though simpler and far less apparent than those just 
 indicated, are no less violent. The humble and 
 godly membership of the little church may turn to 
 some pastor, after much prayer and waiting on God 
 for the Spirit's guidance, and the signs of the divine 
 choice may be clearly manifest ; when some pulpit 
 committee, or some conclave of "leading brethren," 
 vetoes their action on the ground, perchance, that 
 the candidate is not popular and will not draw. 
 Alas ! for the little flock so lorded over that the 
 voice of the Holy Ghost cannot be heard. 
 
 And majorities are no more to be depended upon 
 than minorities, if there is in both cases a neglect 
 of patient and prolonged waiting upon the Lord to 
 know his will. Of what value is a " show of hands " 
 unless his are stretched out " who holdeth the seven 
 stars in his right hand ? " Of what use is a viva 
 voce choice, except the living voice of Christ be 
 heard speaking by his Spirit ? One may object 
 that we are holding up an ideal which is impossible 
 to be realized. It is a difficult ideal we admit, as
 
 140 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 the highest attainments are always difficult , but it 
 is not an impossible one. It is easier to recite our 
 prayers from a book than to read them from the 
 tab.es of a prepared heart, where the finger of the 
 Spirit has silently written them ; but the more 
 difficult way is the more acceptable way to him who 
 seeks for worshipers who " worship in Spirit and in 
 truth." It is easier to get " the .sense of the meet- 
 ing " in choosing a pastor than to learn " the mind 
 of the Spirit " by patient tarrying and humble sur- 
 render to God ; but the more laborious way will 
 certainly prove the more profitable way. The fail- 
 ure to take this way is, we are persuaded, the cause 
 of more decay and spiritual death in the churches 
 than we have yet imagined. From the watch- 
 tower where we write we can look out on half a 
 score of churches on which " Ichabod " has been 
 evidently written, and the glory of which has long 
 since departed. They were founded in prayer and 
 consecration, "to serve the living and true God, 
 and to wait for his Son from heaven." Why has 
 their light been extinguished, though the lampstand 
 which once bore it still remains, adorned and beau- 
 tified with all that the highest art and architecture 
 can suggest ? Their history is known to him who 
 walks among the golden candlesticks. What violence 
 may have been done, by headstrong self-will, to him 
 who is called " the Spirit of counsel and might" ? 
 What rejection of the truth which he, " the Spirit
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 141 
 
 of truth," has appointed for the faith of God's 
 church till at last the word has been spoken: 
 "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your 
 fathers did, so do ye." Is it only Jewish worshipers 
 to whom these words apply ? Is it only a Jewish 
 temple of which this sentence is true: "Behold 
 your house is left unto you desolate " ? The Spirit 
 will not be entirely withdrawn from the body of 
 Christ indeed, but there is the Church, and there 
 are churches. A man may yet live and breathe 
 when cell after cell has been closed by congestion 
 till at last he only inhales and exhales with a little 
 portion of one lung. Let him that readeth under- 
 stand. 
 
 The Spirit is the breath of God in the body of 
 his church. While that divine body survives and 
 must, multitudes of churches have so shut out the 
 Spirit from rule and authority and supremacy in the 
 midst of them that the ascended Lord can only say 
 to them : " Thou hast a name to live and art dead." 
 In a word, so vital and indispensable is the ministry 
 of the Spirit, that without it nothing else will avail. 
 Some trust in creeds, and some in ordinances; 
 some suppose that the church's security lies in a 
 sound theology, and others locate it in a primitive 
 simplicity of government and worship ; but it lies 
 in none of these, desirable as they are. The body 
 may be as to its organs perfect and entire, wanting 
 nothing; but simply because the Spirit has been
 
 142 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 withdrawn from it, it has passed from a church into 
 a corpse. As one has powerfully stated it : " When 
 the Holy Spirit withdraws, ... he sometimes al- 
 lows the forms which he has created to remain. 
 The oil is exhausted, but the lamp is still there ; 
 piayer is offered and the Bible read; church-going 
 is not given up, and to a certain degree the service 
 is enjoyed ; in a word religious habits are preserved, 
 and like the corpses found at Pompeii, which were 
 in a perfect state of preservation and in the very 
 position in which death had surprised them, but 
 which were reduced to ashes by contact with the 
 air, so the blast of trial, of temptation, or of final 
 judgment will destroy these spiritual corpses." 1 
 
 2. The Holy Spirit in the Worship and Service 
 of the Church. Is there anything, from highest to 
 lowest, which we are called to do in connection with 
 the worship of God's house, of which the Holy Spirit 
 is not the appointed agent ? Believers are the in- 
 struments indeed through which he acts ; but they 
 have no function apart from his inspiration and 
 guidance, any more than the organ-pipe has without 
 the wind, which breathing through it causes it to 
 resound. To make this clear, we may consider the 
 several parts of the service of the church as we are 
 accustomed to participate in it, and observe their 
 relation to the divine Administrator. 
 
 1 " The Work of the Holy Spirit in Man," by Pastor G. F. Tophel, 
 p. 66.
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 143 
 
 (l) Preaching is by general consent an important 
 factor of the work of the ministry, both for the 
 pastor and for the evangelist. In what consists its 
 inspiration and authority ? We " have preached I he 
 gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
 heaven" (i Peter i : 12), is Peter's simple story of 
 the apostolic method. And the words direct our 
 thought to the Spirit not as instrumental but as in- 
 spiring. "In the Holy Ghost" the words mean 
 literally. The true preacher does not simply use 
 the Spirit ; he is used by the Spirit. He speaks as 
 one moving in the element and atmosphere of the 
 Holy Ghost, and mastered by his divine power. 
 
 In this fact the sermon differs immeasurably from 
 the speech, and the preacher from the orator. How 
 distinctly Paul emphasizes this contrast in his letter 
 to the Corinthians (i Cor. 2 : 4). The sole sub- 
 stance of his preaching he declares to be "Jesus 
 Christ and him crucified," and the sole inspiration 
 of his preaching, the Holy Ghost : "And my speech 
 was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but 
 in demonstration of the Spirit and power." What 
 did good Philip Henry mean by his resolve "to 
 preach Christ crucified in a crucified style " ? More 
 perhaps than he thought or knew. "He shall 
 testify of me," is Jesus' saying concerning the prom- 
 ised Paraclete. The Comforter bears witness to 
 
 * 
 
 the Crucified. No other theme in the pulpit can 
 be sure of commanding his co-operation. Philoso-
 
 144 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 phy, poetry, art, literature, sociology, ethics, and his- 
 tory are attractive subjects to many minds, and they 
 who handle such themes in the pulpit may set them 
 forth with alluring words of human genius ; but 
 there is no certainty that the Holy Ghost will 
 accompany their presentation with his divine attes- 
 t ition. The preaching of the Cross, in chastened 
 simplicity of speech, has the demonstration of the 
 Spirit pledged to it, as no secular, or moral, or even 
 formal religious discourse has. And when Paul 
 writes to the Thessalonians : " Our gospel came 
 not unto you in word only, but also in power and in 
 the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance " (i Thess. 
 I : 5), we need only to be reminded that " our gos- 
 pel " meant but one thing to Paul, the setting forth 
 of Jesus Christ crucified in the midst of the 
 people, and we have found the secret of evangel- 
 ical power. Ought it not therefore to be the 
 supreme question with the preacher, what themes 
 can assuredly command the witness of the Holy 
 Spirit, rather than what topics will enlist the atten- 
 tion of the people ? Let us set the popular preacher 
 and the apostolic preacher side by side, and consider 
 whose reward we would choose, universal admira- 
 tion or " God also bearing witness, both with signs 
 and wonders and with divers miracles, and gifts of 
 the Holy Ghost, according to his will " (Heb. 2 : 4) 
 the sermon greeted with applause and the clap- 
 ping of hands, or " the word received with joy of
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 the Holy Ghost" (i Thess. i : 6) ? admiration of the 
 preacher possessing all who listen to the discourse, 
 or " the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard 
 the word" (Acts 10 : 44) ? Language cannot express 
 the vital moment of the question which we are here 
 discussing. Our generation is rapidly losing its 
 grip upon the supernatural ; and as a consequence 
 the pulpit is rapidly dropping to the level of the 
 platform. And this decline is due, we believe, more 
 than anything else, to an ignoring of the Holy 
 Spirit as the supreme inspirer of preaching. We 
 wish to see a great orator in the pulpit, forgetting 
 that the least expounder of the word, when filled 
 with the Holy Ghost, is greater than he. We want 
 the gospel, forsooth ; but in the strenuous demand 
 that it be set forth according to the " spirit of the 
 age" we ignore the supremacy of the "Spirit of 
 God." And the method of discourse soon tells 
 upon the matter. We cannot very long have the 
 truth in the pulpit after we have lost "the Spirit of 
 truth " therefrom. "When one possesses not the 
 whole of life," says Vinet, "he possesses not the 
 whole of truth." 
 
 In all that we have said we do not ignore the human 
 element in preaching, nor undervalue good learning 
 and sanctified mental training, as a furnishing for 
 this high office. We only emphasize the extreme 
 peril of making that supreme which God has made 
 subordinate. As it is genius which raises the great 
 
 N
 
 146 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 painter or poet far above the common man, so it is 
 the Holy Spirit which lifts the preacher far above 
 the man of genius. A gifted artist spoke wisely 
 when one, thinking only of the implements of his 
 profession, asked, " With what do you mix your 
 paints?" "With brains, sir," he replied. The 
 preacher who brought three thousand to believe on 
 a crucified Christ, under a single sermon, antici- 
 pated the question of those who, with an eye upon 
 the mere human accessories of his sermon, might 
 ask after the secret of his power ; and he unfolds 
 that secret in a single terse sentence : " With the 
 Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." 
 
 (2) Prayer is a most vital element in the worship 
 of God's church. " Lord, teach us how to pray, as 
 John also taught his disciples.'' Jesus complied 
 literally with this request of his followers. As 
 John, under the law, could only give rules and rudi- 
 ments, not yet having come to the dispensation of 
 grace and of the Spirit, so did Jesus give a form of 
 prayer, a lesson in the "technique of worship." 
 But only when he reaches the eve of his passion, 
 when he announces the coming of the Comforter, 
 does he lead his disciples into the heart and mys- 
 tery of the great theme, teaching them to pray as 
 John could not have taught his disciples. "Hitherto 
 ye have asked nothing in my name," said Jesus, in 
 his paschal discourse. But now that he was about 
 to enter into his mediatorial office at God's right
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 147 
 
 hand, and to send forth the Comforter into the 
 midst of his disciples, this joyful privilege was to 
 be accorded to him : " Whatsoever ye shall ask the 
 Father in my name he will give it you "* (John 
 1 6 : 23). The words are equivalent to "in me." 
 The thought is not surely that of using the name 
 of Jesus as a password or as a talisman, but of 
 entering into his person and appropriating his will ; 
 so that when we pray, it shall be as though Jesus 
 himself stood in God's presence and made interces- 
 sion. Nor is it " as though " it is the literal fact. 
 We become identified with Christ through the Spirit, 
 now sent down, and his will is wrought within us by 
 the Holy Ghost, so that to ask what we desire of 
 him is to ask what he desires for us. We are in- 
 willed by his will, because inspired by his Spirit, 
 who lives and breathes within us. Therefore we 
 may know that we are always heard, since we are in 
 him who can boldly say to the Father : " I know that 
 thou always hearest me." It is Christ's mediator- 
 ship with the Father, and the Holy Ghost's media- 
 torship with us, that gives us this high privilege of 
 praying in the name of Jesus, as it is written : " For 
 t hrough him we both have access in one Spirit unto 
 the Father." 
 
 When therefore, under the fuller development of 
 
 1 It was impossible up to the time of the glorification of Jesus to 
 pray to the Father in his name. It is a fullness of joy peculiar to the 
 dispensation of the Spirit to be able to do so. Alford.
 
 148 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 doctrine, as found in the epistles, we read of " pray- 
 ing always with all prayer and supplication in the 
 Spirit " (Eph. 6 : 1 8), and of " praying in the Holy 
 Ghost" (Jude 20), it is simply an admonition to 
 use our privilege of asking in the name of Jesus. 
 For to be in the Spirit is to be in Christ, united to 
 his person, identified with his will, invested with his 
 righteousness, so that we are as he is before the 
 Father. 
 
 In that fullest exposition of the doctrine of the 
 Spirit, given in the eighth of Romans, we see 
 clearly that the ministry of the Comforter consists 
 in his effectuating in us that which Christ is 
 accomplishing for us on the throne. Especially is 
 this true of prayer. In the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 we read : " Wherefore also he is able to save to the 
 uttermost them that draw near to God through 
 him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for 
 them " (Heb. 7 : 25, R. V.). In the Epistle to the 
 Romans we read : " And in like manner the Spirit 
 also helpeth our infirmity ; for we know not how to 
 pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself maketh 
 intercession for us with groanings which cannot be 
 uttered ; and he that searcheth the hearts know- 
 eth what is the mind of *he Spirit, because he 
 maketh intercession for the saints according to the 
 will of God" (Rom. 8 : 26, 27, R. V.). These 
 passages, read together, clearly show the Spirit 
 doing the same thing in us which Christ in heaven
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 149 
 
 is doing for us. And, moreover, they reveal to us 
 the method of the glorified Christ in helping those 
 who know not what to pray for as they ought, 
 teaching them, not by an outward form, but by an 
 inward guidance. Indeed, the prayer inspired by 
 the Holy Spirit is often so deep that it cannot be 
 expressed in formal words, but reaches the ear of 
 the Father only in unspeakable yearnings, in 
 unuttered groanings. The keynote of all true 
 intercession is the will of God. In the disciples' 
 prayer, as taught them by the Master, this note is 
 distinctly sounded : " Thy will be done on earth as 
 in heaven." In the Saviour's garden-prayer it is 
 heard again, as with strong crying and tears the 
 Son of God exclaims : " Not my will but thine be 
 done " ; and in the revelation of the doctrine of 
 prayer through an inspired apostle we read : " If 
 we ask anything according to his will he heareth 
 us." It is the Spirit's deepest work in the believei 
 to attune his mind to this exalted key, as he 
 " maketh intercession for the saints according to the 
 will of God" There is a promise which all dis- 
 ciples love to quote for their assurance in prayer : 
 " If two of you shall agree on earth as touching 
 anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for 
 them of my Father which is in heaven " (Matt. 
 1 8 : 19). The word translated "agree" is a very 
 suggestive one. It is, ffutxpujvrjfftuffiv, from which our 
 word " symphony " comes. If two shall accord
 
 150 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 or symphonize in what they ask, they have the 
 promise of being heard. But, as in tuning an 
 organ all the notes must be keyed to the standard 
 pitch, else harmony were impossible, so in prayer. 
 It is not enough that two disciples agree with each 
 other ; they must both accord with a Third the 
 righteous and holy Lord before in the scriptural 
 sense they can agree in intercession. There may 
 be agreement which is in most sinful conflict with the 
 divine will : "How is it that ye have agreed together 
 [ffuv(/fiovr;07j, the same word] to tempt the Spirit of 
 the Lord ? " asks Peter (Acts 5 : 9). Here is 
 mutual accord, but guilty discord with the Holy 
 Ghost. On the contrary it is the Spirit's ministry 
 to attune our wills to the Divine ; thus only can 
 there be praying in the Holy Ghost. 
 
 We cannot therefore emphasize too strongly the 
 administration of the Spirit in directing the wor- 
 ship of God's house. The use of liturgical forms 
 is a relapse into legalism, a consent to be taught to 
 pray as "John taught his disciples." True, there 
 may be extemporaneous forms as well as written 
 forms, praying by rote as well as praying by the 
 b")ok. Against both habits we simply interpose 
 the higher teaching of the Spirit, as belonging espe- 
 cially to this dispensation, in which the Father 
 seeketh worshipers who " worship in Spirit and 
 in truth." To pray rightly is the highest of all 
 attainments. And it is so because the secret lies
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 151 
 
 between these two opposites ; a spirit supremely 
 active while supremely passive, a heart prevailing 
 with God because prevailed over by God. " O 
 Lord," says a high saint, "my spirit was like a 
 harp this morning, making melody before thee, 
 since thou didst first tune the instrument by the 
 Holy Spirit, a'nd then didst choose the psalm of 
 praise to be played thereon." Most solemn and 
 suggestive words these have always seemed : " The 
 Father seeketh such to worship him." Amid all 
 the repetition of forms and the chanting of litur- 
 gies, how earnestly the Most High searches after 
 the spiritual worshiper, with a heart inwardly retired 
 before God, with a spirit so sensitive to the hidden 
 motions of the Holy Ghost that when the lips 
 speak they shall utter the effectual inwrought 
 prayer that availeth much ! 
 
 If any shall interpose the objection that what we 
 are saying is too high to be practical, it may be 
 well to confirm our position by the witness of ex- 
 perience. We are not speaking of pulpit prayers 
 especially, in what we have said. The universal 
 priesthood of believers, which the Scriptures so 
 plainly teach, constitutes the ground for common 
 intercession, for " the praying one for another " 
 which is the distinctive feature of the Spirit's dis- 
 pensation The prayer meeting, therefore, in which 
 the whole body of believers participate, probably 
 comes nearer the pattern of primitive Christian
 
 152 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 worship than any other service which we hold. To 
 apply our principle here, then, what method is found 
 most satisfactory ? Shall the service be arranged 
 beforehand, this one selected to pray, and that one 
 to exhort ; and during the progress of the worship, 
 shall such a one be called up to lead the devotions, 
 and such a one to follow ? In a word, shall the 
 service be mapped out in advance and manipulated 
 according to the dictates of propriety and fitness as 
 it goes on ? One, after many years of experience, 
 can bear emphatic testimony to the value of another 
 way that of magnifying the office of the Holy 
 Spirit as the conductor of the service, and of so 
 withholding the pressure of human hands in the 
 assembly that the Spirit shall have the utmost free- 
 dom to move this one to pray and that one to wit- 
 ness, this one to sing and that one " to say amen 
 at our giving of thanks," according to his own 
 sovereign will. Here we speak not theoretically but 
 experimentally. The fervor and spirituality and 
 sweet naturalness of the latter method has been 
 demonstrated beyond a peradventure, and that too, 
 after an extended trial of both ways, the first in 
 ignorance of a better way, with constant labor and 
 worry and fret, and the last with inexpressible ease 
 and comfort and spiritual refreshment. Honor the 
 Holy Ghost as Master of assemblies ; study much 
 ihe secret of surrender to him ; cultivate a quick 
 ear for hearing his inward voice and a ready tongue
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 153 
 
 for speaking his audible witness ; be submissive to 
 keep silence when he forbids as well as to speak 
 when he commands, and we shall learn how much 
 better is God's way of conducting the worship of 
 his house than man's way. 1 
 
 (3) The service of song in the house of the Loid 
 is anotner element of worship whose relation to the 
 Spirit needs to be strongly emphasized. Spiritual 
 singing has a divinely appointed place in the church 
 of Christ. Church music, in the ordinary sense of 
 that phrase, has no such place, but is a human in- 
 vention which custom has, with many, unhappily 
 elevated into an ordinance. We often quote the 
 exhortation of the apostle : " Be filled with the 
 Spirit," without marking the practical service with 
 which this fullness stands immediately connected : 
 " Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and 
 spiritual songs, singing and making melody in 
 your heart to the Lord" (Eph. 5 : 19). As imme- 
 diately as prayer is connected with the Holy Ghost 
 in this same epistle : " Praying at all seasons in the 
 Spirit" - and our edification in the church : "Builded 
 
 1 It were well for us to give more heed to the voice of Christian his- 
 tory as related to such questions as these. The rise of " sporadic sects " 
 like the " Quietists," the " Mystics," the " Friends," and the Breth- 
 ren, 1 ' with their emphasis on " the still voice " and " the inward 
 leading,' ' is very suggestive. If we may not go so far as some of 
 these go in the insistence on speaking only as sensibly moved by the 
 Spirit we may be admonished of the hard, artificial man-made wor 
 ship which made their protest necessary.
 
 154 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 together in the Spirit" (Eph. 2 : 22, R. V.) ; and our 
 spiritual energizing : " Strengthened with power 
 through his Spirit" (Eph. 3 : 16, R. V.); and our 
 approach to God, "Access in one Spirit unto the 
 Father" (2:18, R.V.), so intimately is the worship of 
 praise here connected with the Holy Ghost and 
 made dependent on his power. Therefore it would 
 seem too obvious to need arguing, that an unregen- 
 erate person is disqualified from ministering in the 
 service of song in God's house. Scripturally this 
 seems incontestable ; and as to the teaching of expe- 
 rience, we should hardly know how to name any cus- 
 tom which has brought a sorer blight upon the life 
 of the church, or a heavier repression upon its 
 spiritual energy, than the habit, now so general, 
 of introducing unsanctified, unconverted, and even 
 notoriously worldly persons into the choirs of the 
 churches. 
 
 Now the teaching of the text just cited is de- 
 cisive, not only against such performers hi choirs, 
 but against the choirs themselves, if by the latter 
 term is meant certain ones employed to dispense 
 music for the delectation of the congregation. 
 For observe how distinctly the mutual and inter- 
 congregational character of Christian singing is 
 here pointed out : " Speaking to one another in 
 psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." The one 
 feature of the worship of the church, which distin- 
 guishes it radically and totally from that of the
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 155 
 
 temple, is that it is mutual. Under the law there 
 were priests and Levites to minister and people to 
 be ministered to ; under the gospel there is a uni- 
 versal spiritual priesthood, in which all minister and 
 all are ministered to. Every act of service belonging 
 to the Christian church is so described. There must 
 be prayer, and the exhortation is, " Pray one for 
 another" (James 5 : 16). There must be confession, 
 and the injunction is : " Confess your sins one to 
 another" (James 5: 16, R. V.). There must be 
 exhortation, and the command is : " Exhort one 
 another" (Heb. 3 : 13). There must be love, and we 
 are enjoined to "love one another" (i Peter i : 22). 
 There must be burden-bearing, and the exhortation 
 is : " Bear ye one another's burdens " (Gal. 6 : 2). 
 There must be comforting, and the command is : 
 " Wherefore comfort one another " (i Thess. 4: 18). 
 So with the .worship of song. Its reciprocal char- 
 acter is emphasized, not only in the passage just 
 quoted, but also in the Epistle to the Colos- 
 sians : " Teaching and admonishing one another in 
 psalms and hymns and spiritual songs " (Col. 3 : 16). 
 This is according to the clearly defined method of 
 the Spirit in this dispensation. He establishes our 
 fellowship with the Head of the church, and 
 through him with one another. All blessing in 
 the body is mutual, and the worship which is or- 
 dained to maintain and increase that blessing is 
 likewise mutual.
 
 156 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 As now the Spirit is the inspirer and director of 
 the worship of God's church, he must have those 
 who have been renewed and are indwelt by him- 
 self as the instruments through whom he acts ; 
 and by a teaching of Scripture too clear to be mis- 
 understood all others are disqualified. How dis- 
 tinctly is this shown even in the types and symbols 
 of the old dispensation. The holy anointing en- 
 joined in Exodus for Aaron and his sons, is confess- 
 edly a type of the unction of the Holy Ghost. And 
 mark the rigid and sacred limitations in its use : 
 " And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and 
 consecrate them that they may minister unto me 
 in the priest's office. And thou shalt speak unto 
 the children of Israel, saying : This shall be a holy 
 anointing oil unto me throughout your generation. 
 Upon man's flesh it shall not be poured ; neither 
 shall ye make any other like it, after the composi- 
 tion of it ; it is holy, and shall be holy unto you ; 
 whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whoso put- 
 teth any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off 
 from his people " (Exod. 30 : 30-33). 
 
 Now, of these minute directions and prescribed 
 transactions we may say confidently that "they 
 happened unto them for ensamples and they are writ- 
 ten for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the 
 world [ages] are come " (i Cor. 10 : 1 1). The three 
 rigid prohibitions here named touch just the errors 
 which are most characteristic of the present gener-
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THK SPIRIT 157 
 
 ation. " Upon mans flesh it shall not be poured" ; 
 honoring the natural man, and exalting human 
 nature into that place which belongs only to the re- 
 generate. This is the error of those who believe 
 in the universal sonship of the race, and call the 
 carnal man divine. " Whosoever putteth any of it 
 upon a stranger." This is the sin of those who 
 thrust into the ministry and service of the church 
 persons who have never by the new birth through the 
 Spirit been brought into the family of God, into the 
 household of faith. " Whosoever compoundeth any 
 like it." This is the artificial imitation of the Spirit's 
 offices and ministration. Let the Christian reader 
 pause and ponder well this last prohibition. In 
 the story of the primitive church sample sins 
 are given for our warning, as well as specimen 
 graces for our emulation. One such sin, so subtle, 
 so dangerous, and so constantly recurring in Chris- 
 tian history, having taken the name of its first 
 author and being called " simony," has been handed 
 down from generation to generation. " Because 
 thou hast thought that the gift of God can be pur- 
 chased with money " is the solemn indictment 
 against one who had purposed to buy the power of 
 the Holy Ghost. Many desire the gifts of the 
 Spirit who little care for the Spirit himself. Di- 
 vine music is greatly coveted. Why not, with 
 our thousands of gold, buy this spiritual luxury ? 
 Bring the singing men and singing women from the
 
 158 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 opera and from the concert hall ; bid them com- 
 pound a potion of sanctuary music, which shall en- 
 trance all ears and draw to the church those who 
 could not be drawn thither by the plain attractions 
 of the Cross. But what is the exhortation of 
 Scripture ? " By him therefore let us offer the sacri- 
 fice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of 
 our lips, giving thanks to his name " (Heb. 13 : 15). 
 This kind of sacrifice costs earnest prayer, deep 
 communion, and the fullness of the Spirit ; but no 
 sum of gold, however large, is adequate for its pur- 
 chase, nor can any musician's art, however inge- 
 nious, imitate it. Is there no approach to the sin 
 of simony in those churches which spend thousands 
 yearly in artistic music ? And is not this attempted 
 purchase of the Holy Ghost closely linked with the 
 other sin of robbing God, considering how this lav- 
 ish expenditure on artificial worship is almost 
 always accompanied with meagre giving for the 
 carrying out of the Great Commission ? Our conclu- 
 sion is, that the service of song has been committed 
 to the church, and to the church alone, under the 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit. Some of her num- 
 ber may be appointed to lead this service, if they 
 themselves are under the leadership of the Spirit. 
 But the church cannot commit this divine ministry 
 to unsanctified hireling minstrels, without affront 
 to the Spirit of God and serious peril to her own 
 communion with God.
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT 159 
 
 If again any object that we are setting up an ex- 
 aggerated and impossible ideal, let the voice of ex- 
 perience be heard in evidence. Let pastors be 
 called to testify of the added blessing and fervor 
 which have come to their sanctuaries when this 
 ideal has been approximately realized. Let history 
 i epeat its story of song driven in times of apostasy 
 into some narrow stall of the church, and into the 
 hands of a few trained monopolists of worship ; 
 and then, in eras of revival, of the bursting of the 
 barriers and the people of God seizing once more 
 their defrauded heritage and breaking forth, a great 
 multitude, into " hallelujahs of the heart." The 
 annals of the I Bollards, and of the Lutherans, and 
 of the Wesleyans, and of the Salvationists bear 
 harmonious witness on this point, and are deeply 
 instructive. 
 
 3. The Holy Spirit in the Missions of the Church. 
 In the Gospels which contain the story of Christ's 
 earthly life we have the record of the giving of 
 the Great Commission : " Go ye into all the world 
 and preach the gospel to every creature." In the 
 Acts, which contains the story of the life of the 
 Spirit, we have the promise of the coming of the 
 Executor of that Commission : " But ye shall receive 
 power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you ; and 
 ye shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in 
 Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of 
 the earth " (Acts I : 8, R. V.). Nowhere is the hand
 
 160 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 of the Spirit more distinctly seen than in the origi- 
 nation and superintendence of missions. The field 
 is the world, the sower is the disciple, and the seed 
 is the word. The world can only be made ac- 
 cessible through the Spirit "When he is come 
 he will convict the world of sin " ; the sower is 
 energized only through the Spirit "Ye shall re- 
 ceive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon 
 you " ; and the seed is only made productive 
 through the quickening of the Spirit " He that 
 soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eter- 
 nal life " (Gal. 6 : 8, R. V.). In the simple story of 
 the primitive mission, as recorded in the thirteenth 
 of Acts, we see how every step in the enterprise 
 was originated and directed by the presiding Spirit. 
 We observe this : 
 
 (1) In the selection of missionaries : " The Holy 
 Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for 
 the work whereunto I have called them" (13 : 2). 
 
 (2) In their thrusting forth into the field : " So 
 they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed 
 unto Seleucia" (13 : 4). 
 
 (3) In empowering them to speak : " Then Saul, 
 who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, 
 said" (13 19). 
 
 (4) In sustaining them in persecution : " And 
 the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy 
 Glwst" (13 : 52). 
 
 (5) In setting the Divine seal upon their min-
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT l6l 
 
 istry among the Gentiles : " And God, which 
 knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving 
 them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us " 
 (15:8). 
 
 (6) In counseling in difficult questions of mis- 
 sionary policy : " It seemed good to the Holy Ghost 
 and 'to us" (15 : 28). 
 
 (7) In restraining the missionaries from enter- 
 ing into fields not yet appointed by the Lord : 
 They " were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach 
 the gospel in Asia. . . They assayed to go 
 into Bithynia but the Spirit suffered them not" 
 (16 : 6, 7). 
 
 Very striking is this record of the ever-present, 
 unfailing, and minute direction of the Holy Ghost 
 in all the steps of this divine enterprise. "But 
 this was in apostolic days," it will be said. Yes ; 
 but the promise of the Spirit is that "He shall 
 abide with you for the age." Unless the age has 
 ended he is still here, and still in office, and still 
 entrusted with the responsibility of carrying out 
 that work which is dearest to the heart of our glo- 
 rified Lord. Who can say that there is not need 
 in these days of a return to primitive methods 
 and of a resumption of the Church's primitive en- 
 dowments ? The Holy Spirit is not straitened in 
 himself, but only in us. If the Church had faith to 
 lean less on human wisdom, to trust less in pruden- 
 tial methods, to administer less by mechanical 
 
 o
 
 1 62 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 rules, and to recognize once more the great fact 
 that, having committed to her a supernatural work, 
 she has appointed for her a supernatural power, 
 who can doubt that the grinding and groaning of 
 our cumbrous missionary machinery would be vastly 
 lessened, and the demonstration of the Spirit be far 
 more apparent ?
 
 VIII
 
 "Have you visited the Cathedral of Freyburg, and 
 listened to that wonderful organist, who with such enchant- 
 ment draws the tears from the traveler's eyes while he 
 touches, one after another, his wonderful keys, and makes 
 you hear by turns the march of armies upon the beach, or 
 the chanted prayer upon the lake during the tempest, or the 
 voices of praise after it is calm ? Well, thus the Eternal 
 God, embracing at a glance the key-board of sixty centuries, 
 touches by turns, with the fingers of his Spirit, the keys 
 which he had chosen for the unity of his celestial hymn. He 
 lays his left hand upon Enoch, the seventh from Adam, and 
 his right hand on John, the humble and sublime prisoner of 
 Patmos. From the one the strain is heard : ' Behold the 
 Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints ' ; from the 
 other: 'Behold he cometh with clouds.' And between 
 the notes of this hymn of three thousand years there is eter- 
 nal harmony, and the angels stoop to listen, the elect of God 
 are moved, and eternal life descends into men's souls." 
 Gaussen's Theopneustia.
 
 VIII 
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 INSPIRATION signifies inbreathing. Both the 
 A scribe and the Scripture, both the man of God 
 and the word of God were divinely inbreathed. In 
 that memorable meeting of the risen Lord and his 
 disciples within the closed doors, we read that "He 
 breathed on them and saith unto them, Receive ye 
 the Holy Ghost ; whosesoever sins ye forgive, they 
 are forgiven unto them ; whosesoever sins ye retain, 
 they are retained" (John 20 : 22, R. V.). Well 
 may the question of the scribes concerning Jesus 
 now arise in our hearts concerning his disciples : 
 " Who can forgive sins but God only ? " And the 
 answer should be : " True ; God alone can forgive 
 sins. And it is only because the Spirit of God, 
 who is God, is in the apostles, endowing them with 
 his divine prerogatives, that they are able to exer- 
 cise this high authority." 
 
 We are persuaded, however, that this commission 
 was not given to all Christians, though all have the 
 Spirit. In a note in Olshausen's Commentary the 
 matter seems to be correctly stated : " To the apos- 
 tles was granted the power, absolute and uncondi- 
 tioned, of binding and loosing, just as to them was 
 
 165
 
 l66 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 given the power of publishing truth unmixed with 
 error. For both they possessed miraculous spiritual 
 endowments." Only we should say "sovereign" 
 rather than " miraculous " endowments. " The Spirit 
 breatheth where he wills, and thou hearest his voice," 
 said Jesus. 1 While miraculous gifts were not con- 
 fined to the apostles, Christ may have committed to 
 these, and to these alone, the sovereign prerogative 
 of forgiving sins ; gifts of healing, on the other 
 hand, the working of miracles, prophecy, the dis- 
 cerning of spirits, and tongues, being distributed 
 throughout the church ; " but all these worketh 
 one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one 
 severally even as he will" (i Cor. 12 : II, R. V.). 
 In a word, the action of the Holy Ghost was 
 supremely sovereign in the assignment of spir- 
 itual offices, and when Jesus breathed on his 
 apostles the Holy Ghost, and gave them authority 
 
 1 John 3:8. " The wind bloweth where it listeth." Without pro- 
 nouncing dogmatically, it must be said that the translation of Bengal 
 and some others " The Spirit breatheth where he wills, and thou 
 hearest his voice" has reasons in its favor which are well-nigh lire- 
 sistible ; e. g., If rb wevfia here is the wind, it has one meaning in the 
 first part of the sentence and another meaning in the second ; and that 
 meaning too, one which it bears in no other instance of the more than 
 two hundred and seventy uses of the word in the New Testament. It 
 is not the word used in Acts 2 : 2, as might be expected if it signified 
 wind. Then it seems unnatural to ascribe volition to the wind, MA. 
 On the contrary, if the words apply to the Spirit, the saying is in en- 
 tire harmony with other Scriptures, which affirm the sovereignty of the 
 Holy Ghost in regeneration (John I : 13) and in the control and direc- 
 tion of those who are the subjects of the new birth (2 Cor. 12 : 4-11).
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT 167 
 
 to remit sins, he separated them unto a prerogative 
 of which others, indwelt by the same Spirit, might 
 have known nothing. It is very generally held that 
 the order of apostles ceased with the death of those 
 who had seen the Lord and companied with him 
 until the day that he was received up. But the 
 reason for this cessation has been too little consid- 
 ered. May we not believe that the apostles and 
 their companions were commissioned to speak for 
 the Lord until the New Testament Scriptures, his 
 authoritative voice, should be completed ? If so, in 
 the apostolate we have a provisional inspiration ; in 
 the gospel a stereotyped inspiration ; the first being 
 endowed with authority ad intetim to remit sins, and 
 the second having this authority in perpetuam. The 
 New Testament, as the very mouthpiece of the 
 Lord, pronounces forgiveness upon all in every 
 generation who truly repent and believe on the Son 
 of God ; and preachers in every age, with the Bible 
 in their hand, are authorized to do the same declara- 
 tively. But when it is urged, as by Catholic 
 writers, that this infallibility for teaching and abso- 
 lution, which was committed to the apostles, has 
 descended through a succession of ministers called 
 the clergy, the answer seems to be, that this au- 
 thority has not been perpetuated in any body of 
 men apart from the Scriptures, but was transferred 
 to the New Testament and lodged there for all 
 time. Historically, at least, it seems to have been
 
 1 68 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 the fact, that as the apostles and prophets of the 
 new dispensation disappeared, the Gospels and Epis- 
 tles took their place, and that henceforth the divine 
 authoritative voice of the Spirit could be distinctly 
 recognized only in the written word. As coal has 
 been called "fossil sunlight," so the New Testa- 
 ment may be called fossil inspiration, the super- 
 natural illumination which fell upon the apostles 
 being herein stored up for the use of the church 
 throughout the ages. 1 
 
 "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God 
 [QeonveuffToi; God-breathed], and is profitable for 
 doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- 
 tion in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3 : 16). As the 
 Lord breathed the Spirit into certain men, and 
 thereby committed to them his own prerogative 
 of forgiving sin, so he breathed his Spirit into 
 certain books and endowed them with his in- 
 fallibility in teaching truth. God did not choose 
 to inspire all good books, though he has chosen to 
 
 i The proof that the inspiration of the apostles and scribes of the New 
 Testament was not transmitted to successors is thus stated by Nean- 
 der : " A phenomenon singular in its kind is the striking difference 
 between the writings of the apostles and those of the apostolic fathers, 
 so nearly their contemporaries. In other instances transitions are wont 
 to be gradual, but in this instance we observe a sudden change. 
 There is no gentle gradation here, but all at once an abrupt transition 
 from one style of language to another a phenomenon which should 
 lead us to acknowledge the fact of a special agency of the Divine 
 Spirit in the souls of the apostles and of a new creative element in the 
 first period." Church History, II., 405.
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT 169 
 
 inbreathe one book, thereby separating it and set- 
 ting it apart from all other books. 1 The phrase, " the 
 Bible is simply literature," which some are using 
 to-day, as a suggestion against bibliolatry, is not 
 true. Literature is the letter; Scripture is the 
 letter inspired by the Spirit. What Jesus said in 
 justification of his doctrine of the new birth is 
 equally applicable to the doctrine of inspiration : 
 " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that 
 which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Educate, de- 
 velop, and refine the natural man to the highest pos- 
 sible point, and yet he is not a spiritual man till, 
 through the new birth, the Holy Ghost renews and 
 indwells him. So of literature ; however elevated 
 its tone, however lofty its thought, it is not Script- 
 ure. Scripture is literature indwelt by the Spirit 
 of God. The absence of the Holy Ghost from any 
 writing constitutes the impassable gulf between it 
 and Scripture. Our Lord, in speaking of his own 
 doctrine, uses the same language, to show its sepa- 
 rateness from common teaching which he employs 
 above to mark the distinction of the new man. He 
 says : " It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh 
 profiteth nothing ; the words that I have spoken unto 
 
 1 There are the strongest reasons for rejecting the rendering of this 
 passage as given in the Revised Version : "Every Scripture inspired 
 of God is also profitable, etc. The reader will find the objections to 
 this rendering powerfully and conclusively set forth in Tregelles on 
 Daniel. Note, p. 267. 
 
 P
 
 I7O THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 you are spitit and are life" (John 6 : 63, R. V.). 
 Words they were, and in that respect, literature ; but 
 words divinely inbreathed and therefore Scripture. 
 In fine, the one fact which makes the word of God a 
 unique book, standing apart in solitary separateness 
 from all other writings, is that which also parts off 
 the man of God from common men the indwelling 
 of the Holy Ghost. Therefore we may say truly 
 of the Bible, not merely that it was inspired, but it 
 is inspired ; that the Holy Ghost breathes within 
 it, making it not only authoritative in its doctrine 
 but life-giving in its substance, so that they who 
 receive its promises by faith " have been begot- 
 ten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incor- 
 ruptible, through the word of God which liveth and 
 abideth " (i Peter I : 23, R. V.). 
 
 Thus far in this volume we have been dwelling 
 upon the various works and offices of the Paraclete. 
 Now we come to consider that the Holy Spirit not 
 only acts but speaks. Let us listen to the repeated 
 affirmations of this fact. Seven times our glorified 
 Lord says, speaking in the Apocalypse : " He that 
 hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto 
 the churches " (Rev. 2 : 7). The Paraclete on 
 earth answers to the Paraclete above, so that to the 
 voice from Heaven saying : " Write, blessed are the 
 dead which die in the Lord from henceforth," the 
 response is heard : " Yea, saith the Spirit, that 
 they may rest from their labors," etc. (Rev. 14 : 1 3).
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT 17 1 
 
 This accords with the general tenor of Scripture 
 as to its own Author. In referring to the Old Tes- 
 tament, Peter says : " This Scripture must needs 
 have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the 
 mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, 
 which was guide to them that took Jesus " (Acts 
 I : 1 6). And again: "David himself said by 
 the Holy Ghost" (Mark 12 : 36), our Lord thus 
 plainly recognizing the voice of the Spirit in the 
 voice of the psalmist. So again : " The Spirit of 
 the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my 
 tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel 
 spake to me " (2 Sam. 23:2, 3), and " Wherefore 
 as the Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear his 
 voice " (Heb. 3 : 7). 
 
 And what is it to speak ? Is it not to express 
 thought in language ? The difference between 
 thinking and saying is simply the difference of 
 words. Therefore, if the Holy Ghost " saith" we 
 are to find in the words of Scripture the exact sub- 
 stance of what he saith. Hence verbal inspiration 
 seems absolutely essential for conveying to us the 
 exact thought of God. And while many affect to 
 ridicule the idea as mechanical and paltry, the con- 
 duct and method of scholars of every shade of be- 
 lief show how generally it is accepted. For, why 
 the minute study of the words of Scripture carried 
 on by all expositors, their search after the precise 
 shade of verbal significance, their attention to the
 
 172 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 minutest details of language, and to all the delicate 
 coloring of mood and tense and accent ? The high 
 scholars who speak lightly of the theory of literal 
 inspiration of the Scriptures by their method of 
 study and exegesis are they who put the strongest 
 affirmation on the doctrine which they deny. Then 
 we cannot forget what we imply when we say that 
 language is the expression of thought. Words de- 
 termine the size and shape of ideas. As exactly as 
 the coin answers to Ihe die in which it is struck, 
 does the thought answer to the word by which it is 
 uttered. Vary the language by the slightest modi- 
 fication, and you by so much vary the thought. 
 
 As ultra spiritualism interprets Paul's words " a 
 spiritual body" to mean a ghost, when the accent is 
 as strongly on the 0^0. as on the msuij.aru6v, his 
 real thought evidently being that of a body spirit- 
 ualized ; so some, remembering that "the letter 
 killeth," would etherealize Scripture by telling us 
 that the divine idea is the chief thing, and the lan- 
 guage quite secondary. But wisely and well has 
 Martin Luther reminded us that " Christ did not 
 say of his Spirit, but of his words, they are spirit 
 and life." 
 
 To deny that it is the Holy Ghost who speaks in 
 Scripture, is an intelligible position ; but admitting 
 that he speaks, we can only understand his thoughts 
 by listening to his words. True, he may beget 
 within us emotions too deep for expression, as when
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT 173 
 
 "The Spirit himself maketh intercession for us 
 with groanings which cannot be uttered " (Rom. 8 : 
 26). But the idea which is really intelligible is the 
 idea that is embodied in speech. For finite minds, 
 at least, words are the measure of comprehensible 
 thoughts. Evidently Jesus claims for his teaching 
 not only inspiration, but verbal inspiration, when 
 he says that his words are " spirit and life." And 
 to this agrees the saying of Paul, in speaking of 
 the inspiration of the Holy Ghost : " But God hath 
 revealed them unto us by his Spirit : for the Spirit 
 searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 
 For what man knoweth the things of man, save the 
 spirit of man which is in him ? even so the things 
 of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 
 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, 
 but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know 
 the things which are freely given to us of God, 
 which things also we speak, not in the words which 
 mans wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost 
 teacketh, comparing spiritual things with spiritual " 
 (i Cor. 2 : 10-13). 
 
 And what if one objects that this theory makes 
 inspiration purely mechanical, and turns the writers 
 of Scripture into stenographers, whose office is 
 simply to transcribe the words of the Spirit as they 
 are dictated ? It must be confessed that there is 
 much in Scripture to support this view of the case. 
 Should we see a student who, having taken down
 
 174 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 the lecture of a profound philosopher, was now 
 studying diligently to comprehend the sense of the 
 discourse which he had written, we should under- 
 stand simply that he was a pupil and not a master ; 
 that he had nothing to do with originating either 
 the thoughts or the words of the lecture, but was 
 rather a disciple whose province it was to under- 
 stand what he had transcribed, and so be able to 
 communicate it to others. And who can deny that 
 this is the exact picture of what we have in the 
 following passage from Scripture : " Of which sal- 
 vation the prophets have inquired and searched 
 diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should 
 come unto you, searching what, or ivJiat manner of 
 time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did 
 signify, wJien it testified beforeJtand the sufferings of 
 Cht ist and the glory that should follow ; unto whom 
 it was revealed," etc. (i Peter i : 10, 1 1.) Here were 
 inspired writers, studying the meaning of what they 
 themselves had written. If they were prophets on 
 the man ward side, they were evidently pupils on the 
 Godward side. With all possible allowance for the 
 human peculiarities of the writers, they must have 
 been reporters of what they heard, rather than the 
 formulators of that which they had been made to 
 understand. How nearly this also describes the 
 attitude of Christ, a hearer that he might be a 
 teacher : " All things that I have heard of my 
 Father I have made known unto you " (John 1 5 :
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT 175 
 
 1 5) ; a reporter that he might be a revealer : " I 
 have given unto them the words which thou gavest 
 me" (John 17 : 8). 
 
 In these days scholars are very jealous for the 
 h uman element in inspiration ; but the sovereign 
 element is what most impresses the diligent student 
 of this subject. "The Spirit breatheth where he 
 wills." Concerning regeneration by the Holy Ghost, 
 we are carefully told that it is " not of the will of 
 the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God " ; and 
 concerning inspiration by the Spirit, the teaching is 
 equally explicit : " For no prophecy ever came by 
 the will of man, but men spake from God, being 
 moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter I : 21, R. V.). 
 
 The style of Scripture is, no doubt, according to 
 the traits and idiosyncracies of the several writers, 
 as the light within the cathedral takes on its various 
 hues from passing through the stained windows; 
 but to say that the thoughts of the Bible are from 
 the Spirit, and the language from men, creates a 
 dualism in revelation not easy to justify ; so that we 
 must quote with entire approval the words of an 
 eminent writer upon this subject: "The opinion 
 that the subject-matter alone of the Bible proceeded 
 from the Holy Spirit, while its language was left to 
 the unaided choice of the various writers, amounts 
 to that fantastic notion which is the grand fallacy 
 of many theories of inspiration ; namely, that two 
 spiritual agencies were in operation, one of which
 
 176 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 produced the phraseology in the outward form, 
 while the other created within the soul the concep- 
 tions and thoughts of which such phraseology was 
 the expression. The Holy Spirit, on the contrary, 
 as the productive priticiple, embraces the entire 
 activity of those whom he inspires, rendering their 
 language the word of God." * 
 
 If it be urged that the quotations which the New 
 Testament makes from the Old are rarely ipsissima 
 uerba, the language being in many instances greatly 
 changed, it should be noted in reply how significant 
 even these changes often are. If the Holy Spirit 
 directed in the writing of both books, he would have 
 a sovereign right to alter the phraseology, if need 
 be, from the one to the other. In the opinion of 
 many scholars the change of " the Redeemer shall 
 come to Zion, and unto them that turn from trans- 
 gression in Jacob," in Isa. 59 : 20, to "There shall 
 come out of Zion the Deliverer," in Rom. 1 1 : 26, 
 is an inspired and intentional change. 2 So of the 
 citation from Amos 9:11, "In that day will I raise 
 up the tabernacle that is fallen," as given in Acts 
 15:16," After these things I will return, and I will 
 build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen " ; 
 the modification of the language seems designed, in 
 order to make clear its significance in its present 
 setting. Many other examples might be given of 
 
 1 Lee on the " Inspiration of the Holy Scripture," pp. 32, 33. 
 ' See Lange's " Commentary" in loco.
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT 177 
 
 a reshaping of his own words by the divine Author 
 of Scripture. On the other hand, the constant re- 
 currence of the same words and phrases in books 
 of the Bible most widely separated in the time and 
 circumstances of their composition, strongly sug- 
 gests identity of authorship amid the variety of pen- 
 manship. The individuality of the writers was no 
 doubt preserved, only that their individuality was 
 subordinated to the sovereign individuality of the 
 Holy Spirit. It is with the written word as with 
 the incarnate Word. Because Christ is divine, he 
 is more truly human than any whom the world has 
 ever seen ; and because the Bible is supernatural, it 
 is natural as no other book which was ever written ; 
 its divinity lifts it above those faults of style which 
 are the fruits of self-consciousness and ambition. 
 Whether we read the Old Testament story of Abra- 
 ham's servant seeking a bride for Isaac, or the New 
 Testament narrative of the walk of the risen Christ 
 with his disciples to Emmaus, the inimitable sim- 
 plicity of the diction would make us think that we 
 were listening to the dialect of the angels who 
 never sinned in thought, and therefore cannot sin 
 in style, did we not know rather that it is the phrase- 
 ology of the Holy Spirit. 1 
 
 1 I am satisfied only with the style of Scripture. My own style 
 and the style of all other men cannot satisfy me. If I read only 
 three or four verses I am sure of their divinity on account of their 
 inimitableness. // is the style of the heavenly court. Oetixger.
 
 178 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 An eminent German theologian has written a 
 sentence so profoundly significant that we here re- 
 produce it in Italics : " We can in fact speak with 
 good reason of a language of the Holy Ghost. For 
 it lies in the Bible plainly before our eyes, how the 
 Divine Spirit, who is the agent of revelation, has 
 fashioned for himself a quite peculiar religious dia- 
 lect out of the speech of that people which forms its 
 theatre" 1 So true do we hold this saying to be, 
 that it seems to us quite impossible that the exact 
 meaning of many of the terms of the New Testa- 
 ment Greek should be found hi a Lexicon of classic 
 Greek. Though the verbal form is the same in 
 both, the inbreathed spirit may have imparted such 
 new significance to old words, that to employ a 
 secular dictionary for translating the sacred oracles, 
 were almost like calling an unregenerate man to 
 interpret the mysteries of the regenerate life. Do 
 we not know how modern progress and discovery 
 have even put new meanings into many English 
 words, so that one must be in "the spirit of the 
 age " in order to comprehend them ? 2 Thus like- 
 
 i Rothe, " Dogmatics," p. 238. 
 
 * For example, Shakespeare, and Milton, and Dryden, employ the 
 words " car " and " engine " and " train " in their writings ; but liv- 
 ing before the age of steam and railways they knew nothing of the 
 meaning which these terms convey to us. And it is possible that 
 Homer and Plato knew as little of the meaning of such words as 
 (UUP and ffopaxAirroc, as found in the revelation of Jesus Christ, by 
 whom " the ages were framed " and the Comforter sent down.
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT 179 
 
 wise, even in the work of verbal criticism, it is 
 essential that one possess the spirit of Christ in 
 order to translate the words of Christ. 
 
 As to the question of the " inerrancy of Script- 
 ure," as the modern phrase is, we may well pass by 
 many minor arguments, and emphasize the one 
 great reason for holding this view, viz. : If it is 
 God the Holy Ghost who speaks in Scripture, then 
 the Bible is the word of God, and like God, infallible. 
 A recent brilliant writer has challenged us to show 
 where the Bible anywhere calls itself " The word 
 of God." * The most elementary student of the 
 subject can, with the aid of a concordance, easily 
 point out the passages which so describe it. But 
 we dwell on the fact that is not only called 6 Uyos 
 
 TOO deou, " the word of God," but r<i Myta. TOO Oeou, 
 
 " the oracles of God." This collective name of the 
 Scriptures is most significant. We need not in- 
 quire of the heathen as to the meaning which they 
 put upon the words as the authoritative utterances 
 of their gods ; let the usage of Scripture make its 
 own impression : " What advantage then hath the 
 Jew ? or what is the profit of circumcision ? Much 
 every way; first of all, that they were intrusted 
 with the oracles of God" (Rom. 3 : 2, R. V.). 2 
 This comprehensive expression is very helpful 
 
 1 Dr. R. F. Hoiton, in " Verbum Dei." 
 
 * The apostle in calling the Old Testament Scriptures the " ora 
 cles of God," clearly recognizes them as divinely inspired books. The
 
 180 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 to our faith. When critics are assailing the books 
 of the Old Testament in detail, the Holy Spirit 
 authenticates them for us in their entirety. As 
 Abigail prayed for a soul " bound in the bundle of 
 life " with the Lord, so here an apostle gives us the 
 books of the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms 
 bound together in one bundle of inspired authority. 
 Stephen, in like manner, speaks of his nation as 
 " those who received the lively oracles (of God) to 
 give unto us " (Acts 7 : 38) ; and Peter says, " If 
 any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God" 
 ( i Peter 4:11). And not only this ; the same apostles 
 who submitted to the authority of the Old Testament 
 as the oracles of God, themselves claimed to write 
 as the oracles of God in the New Testament. " If 
 any man," says Paul, "think himself to be a 
 prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that 
 the things that I write unto you are the com- 
 mandments of the Lord" (i Cor. 14 : 37). "We 
 are of God," writes John. " He that knoweth God 
 heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not 
 us" (i John 4 : 16). These claims are too great 
 to be put forth concerning fallible writings. Ad- 
 mitting their premises, the Jews were right in 
 charging Jesus with blasphemy, in that being a man 
 
 Jewish church was the trustee and guardian of these oracles till the 
 coming of Christ. Now the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
 ment are committed to the guardianship of the Christian Church. 
 Dr. Philip Schaff.
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT l8l 
 
 he made himself God. If Christ is not God, he is 
 not even a good man. And if the Scriptures are 
 not inerrant, they are worse than errant ; since, 
 being literature, they make themselves the word of 
 God. 
 
 And what if it be said that there are irreconcila- 
 ble contradictions in this book which calls itself the 
 oracles of God ? Two things may be said : First, 
 it should be expected that under "the scientific 
 method" such contradictions should appear and 
 constantly multiply. The Bible is a sensitive plant, 
 which shuts itself up at the touch of mere critical 
 investigation. In the same paragraph in which it 
 claims that its very words are the words of the Holy 
 Spirit, it repudiates the scientific method as futile 
 for the understanding of those words : " Eye hath 
 not seen, nor ear heard," and insists on the spir- 
 itual method as alone adequate, "but God hath 
 revealed them unto us by his Spirit" (i Cor. 2 : 
 9, 10). Not only does the Bible not yield roses to 
 the critic, it yields the thorns and briars of hopeless 
 contradiction. " Intellige ut credas verbum meum," 
 said Augustine to the rationalists of his day, " sed 
 creds ut intelligas verbum Dei" " Understand 
 my word, that you may believe it ; believe God's 
 word, that you may understand it." Faith holds 
 not only the keys of all the creeds, but of all 
 the contradictions. He who starts out and pro- 
 ceeds under the conviction that the Bible is the
 
 182 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 infallible word of God, will find discrepancies con- 
 stantly turning into unisons under his study And 
 this remark leads to the second observation : that 
 the contradictions of man may really be the harmo- 
 nies of God. An uncultivated listener, hearing an 
 oratorio of one of the great masters, would detect 
 discords again and again in the strains ; and as a 
 matter of fact, what are called "accidentals" in 
 music are discords, but discords inserted to 
 heighten the harmony. Thus, as one after another 
 of the alleged discrepancies of Scripture having 
 been noted and made to jar upon the ear have 
 then been reconciled, with what an emphatic and 
 heightened harmony have the words of the psalm- 
 ist, speaking by the Holy Ghost, fallen on our ear : 
 "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the 
 soul ; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making 
 wise the simple " 1 There seems to the critic to be 
 historic error in the statement of Stephen that 
 Jacob was buried at Sychem (Acts 7 : 16) in- 
 stead of in the field of Machpeiah before Mamre, 
 as recorded in Gen. 50 : 13, just as it was once 
 thought that Luke had made a mistake, not to 
 be explained away, in his reference to Cyrenius 
 in chapter 2:1,2. But as the latter contradiction 
 has disappeared, only confirming the veracity of 
 Scripture by the investigation which it has called 
 forth, so may the former. And so also with such 
 alleged discrepancies as that between the record in
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT 183 
 
 one place that King Solomon had four thousand 
 stalls for horses, and in another forty thousand ; 
 or that of the statement in one passage that King 
 Josias began to reign at eight years of age, and in 
 another, at eighteen. What if we freely admit that 
 we cannot reconcile these statements ? That does 
 not prove that they are not reconcilable. The his- 
 tory of solved contradictions has certainly shown 
 this, that as "the foolishness of God is wiser than 
 men, and the weakness of God stronger than men," 
 so the discords of God are more harmonious than 
 men. 
 
 We may say, in closing this chapter, that almost 
 the highest proof of the infallibility of Scripture is 
 the practical one, that we have proved it so ; that 
 as the coin of the State has always been found able 
 to buy the amount represented on its face, so the 
 prophecies and the promises of Holy Scripture have 
 yielded their face value to those who have taken 
 pains to prove them. If they have not always done 
 so, it is probable that they have not yet matured. 
 Certainly there are multitudes of Christians who 
 have so far proved the veracity of Scripture that 
 they are ready to trust it without reserve in all that 
 it pledges for the world yet unseen and the life yet 
 unrealized. "Believe that thou mayest know," 
 then, is the admonition which Scripture and history 
 combine to enforce. In the farewell of that rare 
 saint, Adolph Monod, these golden words occur :
 
 1 84 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 " When I shall enter the invisible world, I do not 
 expect to find things different from what the word 
 of God represented them to me here. The voice I 
 shall then hear will be the same I now hear upon 
 the earth, and I shall say, ' This is indeed what God 
 said to me ; and Jww thankful I am that I did not 
 ivait till I had seen in order to believe' "
 
 IX 
 THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT
 
 "The Comforter in every part of his threefold work glorifies 
 Christ. In convincing of sin he convinces us of the sin of 
 not believing on Christ. In convincing us of righteousness, 
 he convinces us of the righteousness of Christ, of that right- 
 eousness which was made manifest in Christ going to the 
 Father, and which he received to bestow on all such as 
 should believe in him. And lastly, in convincing of judg- 
 ment, he convinces us that the prince of the World was 
 judged in the life and by the death of Christ. Thus through- 
 out, Christ is glorified ; and that which the Comforter shows 
 to us relates in all its parts to the life and work of the incar- 
 nate Son of God." Julius Charles Hare.
 
 IX 
 
 THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 "AND when he is come he will convict the world 
 ** in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of 
 judgment" (John 16 : 8, R.V.). It is too large a con- 
 clusion which many seem to draw from these words, 
 that since the day of Pentecost the Spirit has been 
 universally diffused in the world, touching hearts 
 everywhere, among Christians and heathen, among 
 the evangelized and the unevangelized alike, and 
 awakening in them a sense of sin. Does not our 
 Lord say in this same discourse concerning the 
 Comforter: " Whom the world cannot receive, be- 
 cause it seeth him not neither knoweth him " ? 
 (John 14 : 17.) With these words should be asso- 
 ciated the limitation which Jesus makes in the gift 
 of the Paraclete : " If I depart I will send him unto 
 you" Christ's disciples were to be the recipients 
 and distributors of the Holy Ghost, and his church 
 the mediator between the Spirit and the world. 
 " And when he is come (to you) he will reprove the 
 world." And to complete the exposition, we may 
 connect this promise with the Great Commission, 
 " Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel 
 to every creature," and conclude that when the 
 
 187
 
 188 THE MINISTRY OP THE SPIRIT 
 
 Lord sends his messengers into the world, the 
 Spirit of truth goes with them, witnessing to the 
 message which they bear, convincing of the sin 
 which they reprove, and revealing the righteousness 
 which they proclaim. We are not clear to affirm 
 that the conviction of the Spirit here promised goes 
 beyond the church's evangelizing, though there is 
 every reason to believe that it invariably accom- 
 panies the faithful preaching of the word. 
 
 It will help us then to a clear conception of the 
 subject, if we consider the Spirit of truth as sent 
 unto the church, testifying of Christ, and bringing 
 conviction to the world. 
 
 As there is a threefold work of Christ, as prophet, 
 priest, and king, so there is a threefold conviction 
 of the Spirit answering thereto : " And he, when 
 he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin 
 and of righteousness and of judgment ; of sin, because 
 they believe not on me ; of righteousness, because I 
 go to the Father and ye behold me no more ; of judg- 
 ment, because the prince of this world hath been 
 judged" (John 16 : 8-12, R. V.). It is concerning 
 the testimony of Christ as he spake to men in the 
 days of his flesh ; and concerning the work of Christ 
 now carried on in his intercession at God's right 
 hand ; and concerning the sentence of Christ when 
 he shall come again to be our judge, that this wit- 
 ness of the Spirit has to do. 
 
 " He sliall convince tht world of sin" Why is he
 
 THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT 189 
 
 needed for this conviction since conscience is pres- 
 ent in every human breast, and is doing his work so 
 faithfully ? We reply : Conscience is the witness 
 to the law; the Spirit is the witness to grace. 
 Conscience brings legal conviction ; the Spirit 
 brings evangelical conviction ; the one begets a 
 conviction unto despair, the other a conviction 
 unto hope. 
 
 " Of sin, because they believe not on me, 1 ' de- 
 scribes the ground of the Holy Spirit's conviction. 
 The entrance of Christ into the world rendered 
 possible a sin hitherto unknown : "If I had not 
 come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin ; 
 but now they have no cloak for their sin " (John 
 1 5 : 22). Evil seems to have required the presence 
 of incarnate goodness, in order to its fullest mani- 
 festation. Hence the deep significance of the 
 prophecy spoken over the cradle of Jesus : " Behold 
 this child is set for the fall and rising again of many 
 in Israel ; and for a sign which shall be spoken 
 against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be re- 
 vealed" (Luke 2 : 34, 35). All the most hideous sins 
 of human nature came out during the betrayal and 
 trial and passion of our Lord. In that " hour and 
 power of darkness " these sins seem indeed to have 
 been but imperfectly recognized. But when the 
 day of Pentecost had come, with its awful revealing 
 light of the Spirit of truth, then there was great 
 contrition in Jerusalem a contrition the sting of
 
 190 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 which we find in the charge of Peter : " Jesus of 
 Nazareth, whom ye have taken and by wicked hands 
 have crucified and slain." Was not that deep con- 
 viction, following the gift of the Spirit, in which 
 three thousand were brought to repentance in a 
 single day, a conviction of sin because they had not 
 believed on Christ ? 
 
 For our reproof the Holy Ghost presents another 
 side of the same fact, calling us to repentance, not 
 for having taken part in crucifying Christ, but for 
 having refused to take part in Christ crucified ; not 
 for having been guilty of delivering him up to 
 death, but for having refused to believe in him who 
 was " delivered for our offenses and raised again for 
 our justification." Wherever, by the preaching of 
 the gospel, the fact of Christ having died for the 
 sins of the world is made known, this guilt becomes 
 possible. The sin of disbelieving on Christ is, 
 therefore, the great sin now, because it summarizes 
 all other sins. He bore for us the penalties of the 
 law ; and thus our obligation, which was originally 
 to the law, is transferred to him. To refuse faith 
 in him, therefore, is to repudiate the claims of the 
 law which he fulfilled and to repudiate the debt of 
 infinite love which, by his sacrifice, we have in- 
 curred. Nevertheless, the Spirit of truth brings 
 home this sin against the Lord, not to condemn the 
 world, but that the world through him might be 
 saved. In a word, as has been well said, "it is not
 
 THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT 191 
 
 the sin-question but the Son-question " which we 
 really raise now in preaching the gospel. " Christ 
 having perfectly satisfied God about sin, the ques- 
 tion now between God and your heart is : Are 
 you perfectly satisfied with Christ as the alone por- 
 tion of your soul ? Christ has settled every other to 
 the glory of God." In dealing with the guilty 
 Jews, it was the historical fact which the Holy 
 Ghost urged for their conviction : " Ye denied the 
 Holy One and the Just, and killed the Prince of 
 Life" (Acts 3 : 14, 15). In dealing with us Gen- 
 tiles, it is rather the theological or evangelical fact : 
 " Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just 
 for the unjust, that he might bring us to God" 
 (i Peter 3 : 18), and you are condemned that you 
 have not believed on him and confessed him as Sa- 
 viour and Lord. It is the same sin in the last in- 
 stance, but viewed upon its reverse side, if we may 
 say it. In the one case it is the guilt of despising 
 and rejecting the Son of God ; in the other, it is 
 the guilt of not believing in him who was despised 
 and rejected of men. Yet if submissively yielded 
 to, the Spirit will lead us from this first stage of reve- 
 lation to the second, since what Andrew Fuller said 
 of the doctrines of theology is equally true of the 
 convictions of the Spirit, that " they are united to- 
 gether like chain-shot, so that whichever one enters 
 the heart the other must certainly follow." 
 
 " Of righteousness, because I go to the Father and
 
 192 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 ye see me no more" Not until he had been seated 
 in the heavenly places had Christ perfected right- 
 eousness for us. As he was " delivered for our of- 
 fenses and raised again for our justification," so 
 must he be enthroned for our assurance. It is 
 necessary to see Jesus standing at the right hand 
 of God, in order to know ourselves " accepted in 
 the Beloved." How beautiful the culmination of 
 Isaiah's passion-prophecy wherein, accompanying 
 the promise that " he shall bear the sin of many," 
 is the prediction that " by his knowledge shall my 
 righteous servant justify many " ! But he must be 
 shown to be righteous, in order that he may justify; 
 and this is what his exaltation does. " It was the 
 proof that him whom the world condemned, God 
 justified that the stone which the builders re- 
 jected, God made the Headstone of the corner 
 that him whom the world denied and lifted up on 
 a cross of shame in the midst of two thieves, God 
 accepted and lifted up in the midst of the throne." 1 
 The words " and because ye see me no more," 
 which have perplexed the commentators, seem to us 
 
 1 For as the ministry of Enoch was sealed by his reception into 
 heaven, and as the ministry of Elijah was also abundantly proved 
 by his translation, so also the righteousness and innocence of 
 Christ. But it was necessary that the ascension of Christ should be 
 more fully attested, because upon his righteousness, so fully proved 
 by his ascension, we must depend for all our righteousness. For if 
 God had not approved him after his resurrection, and he had not 
 taken his seat at bis right hand, we could by no means be accepted of 
 God . Carhuright.
 
 THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT 193 
 
 to give the real clue to the meaning of the whole 
 passage. So long as the High Priest was within 
 the veil, and unseen, the congregation of Israel 
 could not be sure of their acceptance. Hence the 
 eager anxiety with which they waited his coming 
 out, with the assurance that God had received the 
 propitiation offered on their behalf. Christ, our 
 great High Priest, has entered into the Holy of 
 Holies by his own blood. Until he comes forth 
 again at his second advent, how can we be assured 
 that his sacrifice for .us is accepted ? We coi Id 
 not be, unless he had sent out one from his 
 presence to make known this fact to us. And this 
 is precisely what he has done in the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost. "Who being the brightness of his 
 glory, and the express image of his person, and 
 upholding all things by the word of his power, 
 when he had by himself purged our sins, he 
 sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on 
 high " (Heb. I : 3). There he will remain through- 
 out the whole duration of the great day of atone- 
 ment, which extends from ascension to advent. 
 But in order that his church may have immedi- 
 ate assurance of acceptance with the Father, 
 through his righteous servant, he sends forth the 
 Paraclete to certify the fact ; and the presence of 
 the Spirit in the midst of the church is proof posi- 
 tive of the presence of Jesus in the midst of the 
 throne ; as is said by Peter on the day of Pente-
 
 194 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 cost : " Therefore being by the right hand of God 
 exalted, and having received of the Father the 
 promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this 
 which ye now see and hear " (Acts 2 : 33). 
 
 Now the Lord's words seem plain to us. Be- 
 cause he ascends to the Father, to be seen no more 
 until his second coming, the Spirit meantime comes 
 down to attest his presence and approval with the 
 Father as the perfectly righteous One. How 
 clearly this comes out in Peter's defense before the 
 Council: "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, 
 whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath 
 God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and 
 a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and for- 
 giveness of sins ; and we are witnesses of these 
 things, and so also is the Holy Glwst, whom God 
 hath given to them that obey him " (Acts 5 : 30-32). 
 Why this two-fold witness? The reason is obvi- 
 ous. The disciples could bear testimony to the 
 crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, but not to 
 his enthronement ; that event was beyond the ken 
 of human vision ; and so the Holy Ghost, who had 
 been cognizant of that fact in heaven, must be sent 
 down as a joint-witness with the apostles, that thus 
 the whole circle of redemption-truth might be at- 
 tested. Therein was the promise of Jesus in his 
 last discourse literally fulfilled : " But when the 
 Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from 
 the Father, even the Spirit of truth which pro-
 
 THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT 195 
 
 ceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me ; and 
 ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been 
 with me from the beginning " (John 15 : 26, 27). 
 
 As we have said, it is not only the enthronement 
 of Christ in righteous approval with the Father that 
 must be certified, but the acceptance of his sacrifi- 
 cial work as a full and satisfying ground of our 
 reconciliation with the Father. And the Spirit 
 proceeding from God is alone competent to bear to 
 us this assurance. Therefore in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, after the reiterated statement of our 
 Lord's exaltation at the right hand of God, it is 
 added : " For by one offering he hath perfected 
 forever them that are sanctified, whereof the Holy 
 Ghost is also a witness to us" (Heb. 10 : 14, 15). 
 In a word, he whom we have known on the cross 
 as " the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of 
 the world," must now be known to us on the throne 
 as " the Lord our righteousness" But though the 
 angels and the glorified in heaven see Jesus, once 
 crucified, now "made both Lord and Christ," we 
 see him not. Therefore it is written that " no man 
 can say Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit" (i 
 Cor. 12:3, R. V.). So also we are told that "if any 
 man sin we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus 
 Christ the righteous" (I John 2:1); but we can 
 only know Christ as such through that " other Para- 
 clete " sent forth from the Father. It was promised 
 that " when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall
 
 196 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 not speak from himself ; but what things soever he 
 shall hear, these shall he speak" (John 16:13, R.V.). 
 Hearing the ascriptions of worthiness lifted up to 
 Christ in heaven, and beholding him who was made 
 a little lower than the angels for the suffering of 
 death, now "crowned with glory and honor," he 
 communicates what he sees and hears to the church 
 on earth. Thus, as he in his earthly life, through 
 his own outshining and self-evidencing perfection, 
 " was justified in the spirit " ; so we, recognizing 
 him standing for us in glory, and now "of God 
 made unto us righteousness," are also "justified in 
 the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our 
 God" (i Cor. 6 : ii). 
 
 Thus, though unseen by the church during all 
 the time of his high-priestly ministry, our Lord has 
 sent to his church one whose office it is to bear 
 witness to all he is and all he is doing while in 
 heaven, that so we may have " boldness and access 
 with confidence by the faith of him," and that so 
 we may come boldly to the throne of grace, " the 
 Holy Ghost this signifying" what he could not 
 under the old covenant "that the way into the 
 holiest of all " (Heb. 9 : 8) has been made manifest. 
 
 And yet strange paradox in this identical dis- 
 course in which Jesus speaks to his disciples of see- 
 ing him no more, he says : " Yet a little while and 
 the world seeth me no more, but ye see me ; because 
 I live ye shall live also" (John 14 : 19); words
 
 THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT 197 
 
 which by common consent refer to the same time 
 of Christ's continuance within the veil. But it is 
 now by the inward vision, which the world has not, 
 that they are to. behold him. And they are to be- 
 hold him for the world, since Christ said of him : 
 ' Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth 
 him not, neither knoweth him." And yet it is " to 
 convince the world" " of sin and of righteousness and 
 of judgment " that the Spirit was to be sent. How 
 shall we make it plain ? When the sun retires be- 
 yond the horizon at night, the world, our hemi- 
 sphere, sees him no more; yet the moon sees him, 
 and all night long catches his light and throws it 
 down upon us. So the world sees not Christ in the 
 gracious provisions of redemption which he holds 
 for us in heaven, but through the illumination of 
 the Comforter the church sees him ; as it is written : 
 " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
 entered into the heart of man the things which God 
 hath prepared for them that love him ; but God 
 hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit" (i Cor. 
 2 -.9, 10). And the Church seeing these things, 
 communicates what she sees to the world. Christ 
 is all and in all ; and the Spirit receives and reflects 
 him to the world through his people. 
 
 The moon above, the church below, 
 
 A wondrous race they run ; 
 But all their radiance, all their glow, 
 
 Each borrows of its sun.
 
 198 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 " Of judgment, because the prince of this world 
 is judged" Here, we believe, is a still farther 
 advance in the revelation of the gospel, and not a 
 retreat to the doctrine of a future judgment, as 
 some would teach. For we repeat our conviction, 
 that in this entire discourse the Holy Spirit is 
 revealed to us as an evangel of Grace, and not as a 
 sheriff of the Law. Hear the Apostle Peter once 
 more, as, pointing to him who had been raised from 
 the dead and seated in the heavenlies, he says : 
 " By him every one that believeth is justified from 
 all things from which ye could not be justified by 
 the law of Moses " (Acts 13 : 39, R. V.). Justifi- 
 cation, in the evangelical sense, is but another name 
 for judgment prejudged and condemnation ended. 
 In the enthroned Christ every question about sin is 
 answered, and every claim of a violated law is abso- 
 lutely met ; and though there is no abatement in 
 the demands of the decalogue, yet because " Christ 
 has become the end of the law for righteousness to 
 every one that believeth," now "grace reigns 
 through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus 
 Christ our Lord." Strange paradox set forth in 
 Isaiah's passion psalm : " By his stripes we are 
 healed" as though it were told us that sin's smiting 
 had procured sin's remission. And so it is. If 
 the Holy Spirit shows us the wounds of the dying 
 Christ for condemning us, he immediately shows us 
 the wounds of the exalted Christ for comforting us,
 
 THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT 199 
 
 His glorified body is death's certificate of discharge, 
 the law's receipt in full, assuring us that all the 
 penalties of transgression have been endured, and 
 the Sin-bearer acquitted. 
 
 The meaning of this last conviction seems plain 
 therefore: " Of judgment^ because the prince of this 
 world is judged." Recall the words of Jesus as he 
 stood face to face with the cross : " Now is the 
 judgment of this world ; now shall the prince of 
 this world be cast out" (John 12 : 31). "The 
 accuser of the brethren " is at last non-suited and 
 ejected from court. The death of Christ is the 
 death of death, and of the author of death also. 
 " That through death he might destroy him that 
 hath the power of death, that is, the devil ; and 
 deliver them who, through fear of death, were all 
 their lifetime subject to bondage " (Heb. 2 : 14, 1 5). 
 If the relation of Satan to our judgment and con- 
 demnation is mysterious, this much is clear, from 
 this and several passages, that Christ by his cross 
 has delivered us from his dominion. We must 
 believe that Jesus spoke the literal truth when he 
 said : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hear- 
 eth my word and believeth him that sent me, hath 
 eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath 
 passed out of death into life " (John 5 : 24, R. V.). 
 On the cross Christ judged sin and acquitted those 
 who believe on him ; and in heaven he defends 
 them against every re-arrest by a violated law.
 
 200 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 " There is therefore now no condemnation to them 
 that are in Christ Jesus " (Rom. 8 : i). Thus the 
 threefold conviction brings the sinner the three 
 stages of Christ's redemptive work, past judgment 
 and past condemnation into eternal acceptance 
 with the Father. 
 
 In striking antithesis with all this, we have an 
 instance in the Acts of the threefold conviction of 
 conscience, when Paul before Felix "reasoned of 
 righteousness, and temperance, and the judgment to 
 come" (Acts 24 : 25). Here the sin of a profligate 
 life was laid bare as the apostle discoursed of chas- 
 tity ; the claims of righteousness were vindicated, and 
 the certainty of coming judgment exhibited ; and 
 with the only effect that " Felix trembled." So it 
 must ever be under the convictions of conscience, 
 compunction but not peace. We have also an 
 instructive contrast exhibited in Scripture, between 
 the co-witness of the Spirit and the co-witness of 
 conscience. " The Spirit himself beareth witness 
 (ffo/jifiapTupsf) that we are the children of God " (Rom. 
 8 : 1 6). Here is the assurance of sonship, with all 
 the divine inward persuasion of freedom from con- 
 demnation which it carries. On the other hand 
 is the conviction of the heathen, who have only the 
 law written in their hearts : " Their conscience bear- 
 ing witness (ffv/j./j.apTupou<rr]<;) t their thoughts one with 
 another accusing, or else excusing them, in the day 
 when God shall judge the secrets of men " (Rom.
 
 THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT 2OI 
 
 2 : 15, 1 6). Conscience can "accuse," and how uni- 
 versally it does so, abundant testimony of Christian 
 missionaries shows ; and conscience can " excuse," 
 which is the method that guilty thoughts invariably 
 suggest ; but conscience cannot justify. Only the 
 Spirit of truth, whom the Father hath sent forth 
 into the world, can do this. The work of the two 
 witnesses may be thus set in contrast : 
 
 The Comforter Convinces 
 
 Conscience Convinces 
 Of sin committed ; 
 Of righteousness impossible ; 
 Of judgment impending. 
 
 Of sin committed ; 
 
 Of righteousness imputed ; 
 
 Of judgment accomplished. 
 
 Happily these two witnesses may be harmonized, 
 as they are by that atonement which reconciles man 
 to himself, as well as reconciles man to God. Very 
 significantly does the Epistle to the Hebrews, in 
 inviting our approach to God make, as the condi- 
 tion of that approach, the "having our hearts 
 sprinkled from an evil conscience" As the High 
 Priest carried the blood into the Holy of Holies in 
 connection with the old dispensation, so does the 
 Spirit take the blood of Christ into the inner sanc- 
 tuary of our spirit in the more wondrous economy 
 of the new dispensation, in order that he may 
 " cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve 
 the living God " (Heb. 9 : 14). Blessed is the man 
 who is thus made at one with himself while made 
 at one with God, so that he can say : " I say the 
 truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bear-
 
 2O2 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 ing me witness in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 9 : n). 
 The believer's conscience dwelling in the Spirit, 
 even as his life is "hid with Christ in God," both 
 having the same mind and bearing the same testi- 
 mony this is the end of redemption and this is 
 the victory of the atoning blood.
 
 X 
 
 THE ASCENT OF THE SPIRIT
 
 " The Apostle Paul evidently saw the redemption of the 
 bodies of the saints and their manifestation as the sons of 
 God and with them the redemption of the whole creation 
 from its present bondage to be the complete harvest of the 
 Spirit, whereof the church doth now possess only the first- 
 fruits, that is, the first ripe grains which could be formed into 
 a sheaf and presented in the temple as a wave-offering unto 
 the Lord. ' That Holy Spirit of Promise which is the earn- 
 est of our inheritance,' saith the same apostle the earnest, 
 like the first-fruit, being only a part of that which is to 
 be earned. . . yet a sufficient surety that the whole shall 
 in the fullness of the times, be likewise ours." Edward 
 Irving.
 
 THE ASCENT OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 " TT E that descended is the same also that ascended 
 -i-1 up far above all heavens." So writes the 
 apostle concerning the Paraclete who is now with 
 the Father, " Jesus Christ the righteous " (Eph. 4 : 
 9). And what is true of the one is true of that 
 " other Paraclete," the Holy Ghost, who was sent 
 down to abide with us during this age. When he 
 has accomplished his temporal mission in the world 
 he will return to heaven in the body which he has 
 fashioned for himself that "one new man," the 
 regenerate church, gathered out from both Jews 
 and Gentiles during this dispensation. For what is 
 the rapture of the saints predicted by the apostle 
 when, at the sound of the trumpet and the resur- 
 rection of the righteous dead, "we which are alive 
 and remain shall be caught up together with them in 
 the clouds to meet the Lord in the air?" (i Thess 
 4 : 17.) It is the earthly Christ rising to meet the 
 heavenly Christ ; the elect church, gathered in the 
 Spirit and named O;^O:<JTOC, (i Cor. 12 : 12,) taken 
 up to be united in glory with " Christ, the Head of 
 the church, himself the Saviour of the body " (Eph. 
 
 s 205
 
 206 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 5 : 23, R. V.). In the council at Jerusalem this is an- 
 nounced as the distinctive work of the Spirit in this 
 dispensation "to gather out a people for his name" 
 It was not by accident and as a term of derision 
 that the first believers received their name ; but 
 " the disciples were divinely called Christians first 
 in Antioch " (Acts 11 : 26). This was the name 
 pre-ordained for them, that " honorable name " by 
 which they are called (James 2 : 7). When, there- 
 fore, this out-gathering shall have been accom- 
 plished, and the people for his name shall be com- 
 pleted, they will be translated to be one with him 
 in glory, as they were one with him in name, the 
 Head taking the body to himself, " as Christ also, 
 the church " (Eph. 5 : 29). And this translation of 
 the church is to be effected by the Holy Spirit who 
 dwells in her. "But if the Spirit of him that 
 raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that 
 raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken 
 your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in 
 you (Rom. 8 : n). It is not by acting upon the 
 body of Christ from without, but by energizing it 
 from within, that the Holy Ghost will effect its 
 glorification. In a word, the Comforter, who on 
 the day of Pentecost, came down to form a body 
 out of flesh, will at the Parousia return to heaven 
 in that body, having fashioned it like unto the body 
 of Christ, that it may be presented to him "not 
 having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, . . holy
 
 THE ASCENT OF THE SPIRIT 207 
 
 and without blemish " (Eph. 5 : 27). Is it meant to 
 be implied in what is here said that the Comforter 
 is to leave the world at the time of the advent, to 
 return no more ? By no means. And yet what is 
 meant needs to be very explicitly set forth. 
 
 A very able writer on the doctrine of the Spirit 
 makes this remark, so striking and yet so true that 
 we have put it in italics : " As Christ shall ulti- 
 mately give up his kingdom to the Father (i Cor. 15 
 : 2428), so the Holy Ghost shall give up his admin- 
 istration to the Son, when he comes in glory and all 
 his holy angels with him" 1 The church and the 
 kingdom are not identical terms, if we mean by the 
 kingdom the visible reign and government of Jesus 
 Christ on earth. In another sense they are iden- 
 tical. As the King, so the kingdom. The King is 
 present now in the world, only invisibly and by the 
 Holy Spirit ; so the kingdom is now present invisi- 
 bly and spiritually in the hearts of believers. The 
 King is to come again visibly and gloriously ; so 
 shall the kingdom appear visibly and gloriously. In 
 other words, the kingdom is already here in mys- 
 tery : it is to be here in manifestation. Now the 
 spiritual kingdom is administered by the Holy 
 Ghost, and it extends from Pentecost to Parousia. 
 At the Parousia the appearing of the Son of Man 
 in glory when he shall take unto himself his great 
 power and reign (Rev. n : 17), when he who has 
 
 1 "Through the Eternal Spirit," by Elder Gumming, D. D., p. 185.
 
 208 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 now gone into a far country, to be invested with a 
 kingdom, shall return and enter upon his govern- 
 ment (Luke 19 : 15), then the invisible shall give 
 way to the visible ; the kingdom in mysteiy shall 
 emerge into the kingdom hi manifestation, and the 
 Holy Spirit's administration shall yield to that of 
 Christ. 
 
 Here our discussion properly ends, since the age- 
 ministry of the Holy Spirit terminates with the 
 return of Jesus Christ hi glory. But there is an 
 "age to come" (Heb. 6 : 5), succeeding "the pres- 
 ent evil age " (Gal. I : 4), and we may, in closing, 
 take a glimpse at that for the light which it may 
 throw upon the present dispensation. 
 
 What significance has the phrase, " the first-fruits 
 of the Spirit" which several times occurs in the 
 New Testament ? The first-fruits is but a handful 
 compared with the whole harvest ; and this is what 
 we have in the gift of " the Holy Spirit of promise, 
 which is the earnest of our inheritance until the re- 
 demption of the purchased possession " (Eph. 1:13, 
 14). The harvest, to which all the first-fruits look 
 forward, is at the appearing of the Lord. Christ, 
 by his rising from the dead, became " the first-fruits 
 of them that slept" (i Cor. 15 : 20). The full har- 
 vest, of course, is at the advent, when " they that are 
 Christ's at his coming " shall be raised up (i Cor. 
 15:23). So of the Holy Ghost. We have all the 
 Spirit, but not all of the Spirit. As a person of
 
 THE ASCENT OF THE SPIRIT 209 
 
 the God-head, he is here in his entirety ; but as ta 
 his ministry, we have as yet but a part or earnest 
 of his full blessing. To make this statement plain, 
 let us observe that the work of the Holy Spirit, 
 during this entire dispensation, is elective. He 
 gathers from Jew and Gentile the body of Christ, 
 the ecclesia, the called-out. This is his peculiar 
 work in this gospel age. In a word, the present is 
 the age of election, and not of universal ingath- 
 ering. 
 
 But is this all we have to hope for ? Let the 
 word of God answer. Paul, hi considering the 
 hope of Israel, says that there is at this present 
 time "a remnant according to the election of grace" ; 
 and a little farther on he declares that in connec- 
 tion with the coming of the Deliverer " all Israel 
 shall be saved" (Rom. 11:5, 26). Here is an elec- 
 tive out-gathering, and then a universal in-gather- 
 ing; or, as the apostle sums it up in this same 
 chapter : " If the first-fruits be koly, so also the 
 lump" On the other hand, James, speaking by 
 the Holy Ghost concerning the Gentiles, says first 
 that " God did visit the Gentiles to take out of them 
 a people for his name" and " after this will I re- 
 turn," etc., "that the residue of men might seek 
 after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my 
 name is called, saith the Lord" (Acts 15 : 14, 17). 
 Here, again, is first an elective out-gathering and 
 then a total in- gathering.
 
 210 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 Now, by looking at other scriptures, it seems 
 clear that the Holy Spirit is the divine agent in 
 both these redemptions, the partial and the total. 
 If we refer to Joel's great prophecy : " / will pour 
 out my Spirit upon all flesh" and then to Peter's 
 reference to the same, as recorded in the Acts, we 
 are led to ask, Was this prediction completely ful- 
 filled on the day of Pentecost ? Clearly not. 
 Peter, with inspired accuracy, says : " This is that 
 which was spoken by the prophet Joel" without af- 
 firming that herein the prophecy of Joel was entirely 
 fulfilled. Turning back to the prediction itself, we 
 find that it includes within its sweep " the great and 
 the terrible day of the Lord," and the " bringing 
 again of the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem " 
 (Joel 2:3153:1), events which are clearly yet future. 
 If again we examine the vivid prophecy of Israel's 
 conversion, we observe that their looking upon him 
 whom they pierced, and mourning for him, follows 
 the prediction : " And I will pour upon the house 
 of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerualem the 
 Spirit of grace and supplication" (Zech. 12 : 10). 
 So in the picture of the desolations of Jerusalem, 
 as they have actually existed during the present age, 
 the prophet represents this judgment of thorns and 
 briars and forsaken palaces and desertion of popu- 
 lation, as continuing " until the Spirit be poured upon 
 us from on high " (Isaiah 32 : 15). 
 
 Indeed the Scriptures seem to be harmonious in
 
 THE ASCENT OF THE SPIRIT 211 
 
 their teaching that, after the present elective work 
 of the Spirit has been completed, there will come a 
 time of universal blessing, when the Spirit shall lit- 
 erally be "poured out upon all flesh" ; when "that 
 which is perfect shall come " and " that which is in 
 part shall be done away." 
 
 Thus in the doctrine of the Spirit there is a con- 
 stant reference to the final consummation. " The 
 Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto 
 the day of redemption" says Paul (Eph. 4 : 30). 
 Again : " Ourselves also which have the first-fruits 
 of the Spirit, even we ourselves, groan within our- 
 selves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemp- 
 tion of our body" (Rom. 8 : 23). 
 
 All which the Comforter has yet brought us, or 
 can now bring us, is only the first sheaf of the 
 great harvest of redemption which awaits us on our 
 Lord's return. "Ye have received the Spirit of 
 adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father" (Rom. 
 8 : 15); but for the adoption itself we wait ; sons 
 of God already by birth from above, we with the 
 whole creation yet wait for " the manifestation of 
 the sons of God" (Rom. 8 : 19). 
 
 To his tender exhortation to be patient until the 
 coming of the Lord, which James writes in the 
 first chapter of his epistle, there is added the sug- 
 gestive illustration : " Behold the husbandman wait- 
 eth for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient 
 over it until it receive the early and latter rain."
 
 213 THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 As in husbandry the one rain belonged to the time 
 of sowing, and the other to the time of harvest, so 
 in redemption the early rain of the Spirit was at 
 Pentecost, the latter rain will be at the Parousia ; 
 the one fell upon the world as the first sowers 
 went forth into the world to sow, the other will ac- 
 company "the harvest which is the end of the age," 
 and will fructify the earth for the final blessing of 
 the age to come, bringing repentance to Israel and 
 the remission of sins, " that the times of refreshing 
 may come from the presence of the Lord, and that 
 he may send Jesus Christ, before appointed for you, 
 whom the heavens must receive until the times of 
 the restitution of all things" (Acts 3 : 19-21).
 
 SCRIPTURE INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 QenesU 50 : 13 .... 182 
 
 Exodus 30 : 30-33 _ 156 
 
 Leviticus 14_ 28 
 
 Leviticus 23 : 11-16 29 
 
 Leviticus 8 : 12 
 
 Leviticus 14 : 17 _ 89 
 
 1 Samuel 16 : 15 88 
 
 2 Samuel 23:2,3 171 
 
 1 Bangs 19 : 16 88 
 
 Psalms 133 : 1, 2 68 
 
 Psalms 17 : 15 114 
 
 Psalms 84 : 6 > 124 
 
 Psalms 17 : 15 126 
 
 Isaiah 11 : 2 76 
 
 Isaiah 59 : 20 176 
 
 Isaiah 32 : 15 210 
 
 Joel 2 : 31 210 
 
 Joel 3 : L. 210 
 
 Amos 9 : 11 176 
 
 Zechariah 12 : 10 - 210 
 
 Matthew 3 : 11 - 56 
 
 Matthew 12 : 28 75 
 
 Matthew 3 : 11, R. V 76 
 
 Matthew 16 : 24, 25 ' 108 
 
 Pifil 
 
 Matthew 6 : 27, R. V . 115 
 
 Matthew 18: 19 - 149 
 
 Mark 13 : 32._ 47 
 
 Mark 12: 36 171 
 
 Luke 3 : 22 76 
 
 Luke 4 : ! - 82 
 
 Luke 4 : 18 88 
 
 Luke 10 : 2 137 
 
 Luke 2: 1,2 182 
 
 Luke 2 : 34, 36 189 
 
 Luke 19 : 15 208 
 
 John 14 : 23 _ 20 
 
 John 1 : 14 23 
 
 John 20:17 - 31 
 
 John 15 : 26 35 
 
 John 14 : 16 38 
 
 John 14 : 18 ; 14 : 26 ; 16 : 13 39 
 
 John 16 : 7 40 
 
 John 14 : 28 42 
 
 John 16 : 15 43 
 
 John 14 : 12 ; 15 : 26..... 44 
 
 John 16 : 8-10 45 
 
 John 16 : 12, 13 ., 46 
 
 John 16 : 13, R. V - 47 
 
 John 16 : 7 ~ 49 
 
 John 14 : 18 ; 14 : 3 - 50 
 
 John 1 : 33 58 
 
 John 3 : 16 ; 1 : 12 . 67 
 
 John 1 : 33... 76 
 
 John 6 : 27 ... 77 
 
 John 3 : 33 _ 78 
 
 John 2 : 23, 24 79 
 
 213
 
 214 
 
 SCRIPTURAL INDEX 
 
 John 16-13; 14 : 17; 15 
 
 : 26; 
 
 Acts 11 : 26 
 
 PAOB 
 
 206 
 
 16 : 13 
 John 3 31 8 : 23 
 
 92 
 101 
 
 Acts 15 : 14, 17 
 Acts 3 : 19 
 
 _ 209 
 212 
 
 John 3 7, R. V 
 
 
 
 
 John 13 -35 
 
 _ 113 
 
 
 45 
 
 John 1 : 16 
 
 124 
 
 Romans 8: 9 
 
 57 
 
 John 14-23- 
 
 138 
 
 
 62 
 
 John 16- 23_ 
 
 147 
 
 
 64 
 
 John 20 : 22, R. V 
 
 ....... 165 
 
 
 81 
 
 John 6 : 63, R. V._ 
 
 
 
 ..... 107 
 
 John 15 : 15; 17 : 8 
 
 175 
 
 
 109 
 
 John 16 : 8, R. V. ; 14 : 17 .... 
 
 187 
 
 Romans 6: 11, R. V _ 
 
 no 
 
 John 16 : 8, 'R. V 
 
 igS 
 
 Romans 8 - 13 8-2 
 
 . . Ill 
 
 John 15 22 
 
 189 
 
 Romans 15 30 
 
 112 
 
 John 15 : 26, 27 
 
 _ 195 
 
 Romans 8: 23; 8: 11 
 
 119 
 
 John 16 : 13, R. V.; 14 : 19.... 
 
 196 
 
 Romans 12: 2 R. V 
 
 ... 123 
 
 John 12 : 81 ; 5 : 24 R. V.- 
 
 
 
 124 
 
 Acts 9 : 31._ 
 
 . 50 
 
 Romans 8: 26, 27, R. V- __ 
 Romans 8 26 ........ 
 
 143 
 .. 173 
 
 Acts 2 : 41 ; 5 : 14 11 24 
 
 
 Romans 11: 26 
 
 176 
 
 Acts 10 : 38 
 
 58 
 
 Romans 3- 2, R. V 
 
 179 
 
 Acts 11 16 
 
 
 
 200 
 
 Acts 2 :38 
 
 69 
 
 Romans 2 -15 16 
 
 . ... 201 
 
 Acts 8 : 14-17 
 
 74 
 
 
 202 
 
 Acts 1 : 2 
 
 75 
 
 
 .. . 206 
 
 Acts 2 : 4 
 
 82 
 
 Romans 11: 5 26 
 
 209 
 
 Acts 9 : 17; 4 : 8 
 
 83 
 
 Romans 8: 23; 8: 15; 8:19 
 
 211 
 
 Acts 4 : 31 ; 6 : 5 
 
 _ 84 
 
 
 
 Acts 4 : 27, R. V. ; 10 : 38 
 
 ....... 88 
 
 1 Corinthians 12- 12 ._ 
 
 . 54 
 
 Acts 15 -28 _.. 
 
 132 
 
 1 Corinthians 12- 13 
 
 60 
 
 Acts 20 28 R V 
 
 134 
 
 1 Corinthians 10: 1 
 
 57 
 
 Acts 10: 44.. 
 
 145 
 
 1 Corinthians 2: 11, R. V _. 
 
 .... 90 
 
 Acts 5 : 9 _ 
 
 
 1 Corinthians 12: 3 
 
 .... 91 
 
 Acts 1 8, R V 
 
 159 
 
 1 Corinthians 15: 51, 52 
 
 120 
 
 Acts 13: 2; 13:4; 13:9; 18: 
 Acts 15 8 15 28 16-6 7 
 
 52 160 
 161 
 
 1 Corinthians 15: 52; 15: 44..... 
 1 Corinthians 3 - 16 
 
 .... 125 
 .... 130 
 
 Acts 1 16 
 
 171 
 
 1 Corinthians 2- 4 
 
 .... 143 
 
 Acts 15 16 
 
 176 
 
 1 Corinthians 10: 11 
 
 .... 156 
 
 Acts 7 38 
 
 180 
 
 1 Corinthians 12: 11, R. V 
 
 .... 166 
 
 Acts 7 16 
 
 182 
 
 
 ..._ 173 
 
 Acts 3 14 15 .... 
 
 
 1 Corinthians 14: 37..- 
 
 .... 180 
 
 Acts 2- 33- 5 30-32 
 
 194 
 
 1 Corinthians 2: 9, 10 
 
 .... 181 
 
 Acts 13-39 R. V 
 
 198 
 
 1 Corinthian* 12: 3, R. V 
 
 195 
 
 Acts 24 : 25 
 
 .._ 200 
 
 1 Corinthians 6: 11.... 
 
 .... 194
 
 SCRIPTURAL, INDEX 
 
 215 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 Corinthians 2 : 9, 10 197 
 
 1 Corinthians 12: 12 20i 
 
 1 Corinthians 15: 24-28 207 
 
 1 Corinthians 16: 20 ; 15: 23. 208 
 
 2 Corinthians 1 : 21, 22 78 
 
 2 Corinthians 1 : 21, R. V 
 
 2 Corinthians 5: 14, R. V _ 110 
 
 2 Corinthians 3 : 18, K. V 113 
 
 2 Corinthians 3: 18...... _ 123 
 
 2 Corinthians 3 _ 132 
 
 Galatians5: 25 57 
 
 Galatians4: 6 69 
 
 Galatians3:2; 3:14 71 
 
 Galatians 4 : 19. 94 
 
 Galatians 2 : 20, B. V 110 
 
 Galatians 5: 16 116 
 
 Galatians 1 : 14. 123 
 
 Galatians 1: 1 136 
 
 Galatians 6 : 2. 155 
 
 Galatians 6: 8, R. V 160 
 
 Galatians 1:4. 208 
 
 Ephesians 1 : 7 ; 3:16 42 
 
 Ephesians 1 : 20, 21 45 
 
 Ephesians 4: 5.. 56 
 
 Ephesians 6: 18 57 
 
 Ephesians 4: 16 61 
 
 Ephesians 1: 13 77 
 
 Ephesians 4: 30 80 
 
 EphesiansS: 18 87 
 
 Ephesians 4: 24 .. 106 
 
 Ephesians 2: 1 .. 107 
 
 Ephesians 4: 8-12, R. V 134 
 
 Ephesians 6: 18 148 
 
 EphesiansS-: 19 ~ 153 
 
 Ephesians 2 : 22, R. V. ; 3 : 16, R. 
 
 V.; 2: 18, R. V 154 
 
 Ephesians 4: 9 _ 205 
 
 Ephesians 6 : 23; 5 : 29 206 
 
 EphesiansS: 27 207 
 
 Ephesians 1: 13, 14 208 
 
 Ephesians 4: 30. 211 
 
 PAQK 
 
 Philippians 2 : 6, 7, R. V 42, 43 
 
 Colossians 1 : 24 63 
 
 ColossiansS: 10 106 
 
 Colossians 2: 13 107 
 
 Colossians 3 : 2, 5, R. V 110 
 
 Colossians 3: 16 _ 155 
 
 1 Thessalonians 2 : 19 60 
 
 1 Thessalonians 3 : 13 _ 60 
 
 1 Thessalonians 1 : 9 102 
 
 1 Thessalonians 5: 23, R. V 122 
 
 1 Thessalonians 1 : 5 _ 144 
 
 1 Thessalonians 1:6 145 
 
 1 Thessalonians 4 : 18 _ 155 
 
 1 Thessalonians 4: 17 205 
 
 2 Thessalonians 2 : 4 130 
 
 2 Timothy 2: 19 78 
 
 2 Timothy 3: 16_ _ 168 
 
 Titus 2 : 13, R. V 119 
 
 Hebrews 1 : 9 ;... 69 
 
 Hebrews 9 : 14. 76 
 
 Hebrews 1 : 3 91 
 
 Hebrews 6 : 4, 5, R. V _ 121 
 
 Hebrews 6 : 5, R. V 123 
 
 Hebrews 2 : 4 144 
 
 Hebrews 7 : 25, R. V 148 
 
 Hebrews 3: 13 156 
 
 Hebrews 3 : 15 158 
 
 Uebrews3:7 '. 171 
 
 Hebrews 1 : 3 193 
 
 Hebrews 10 : 14, 15 195 
 
 Hebrews 9 : 8 196 
 
 Hebrews 2: 14,15 199 
 
 Hebrews 9 : 14 201 
 
 Hebrews6:5 208 
 
 James 1:18 105 
 
 James 3 : 15 126 
 
 James 5 : 16 ; 5 : 16, R. V 155
 
 216 
 
 SCRIPTURAL INDEX 
 
 James 2 7 .. - 
 
 PISE 
 
 ......... 208 
 
 1 John 2 27~ 
 
 PAOB 
 
 90 
 
 
 
 1 John 1 3_ 
 
 ^.. 99 
 
 1 Peter 4 6 .......... 
 
 . 57 
 
 1 John 1 8- 3-9 ... 
 
 116 
 
 1 Peter 2 : 9, R. V 
 
 ......... 89 
 
 1 John 3:6, 6._ 
 
 _ 117 
 
 1 Peter 1 : 23, R. V ... 
 
 105 
 
 1 John 3 : 2, R. V._. 
 
 124 
 
 1 Peter 4 * 14 
 
 ......... 118 
 
 1 John 4 : 16 
 
 _ 180 
 
 1 Peter 1: 12- 
 
 143 
 
 1 John 2: 1 
 
 _ 195 
 
 1 Peter 1 22. 
 
 155 
 
 
 
 1 Peter 1 23 R. V- .... 
 
 170 
 
 jnde 1 24....... 
 
 ...... 123 
 
 1 Peter 1 : 11 
 
 174 
 
 Jude 1 : 19 
 
 126 
 
 1 Peter 4: 11- 
 
 .._.... 180 
 
 Jude 1 : 20_ 
 
 148 
 
 1 Peter 3 : 18_ .... 
 
 .._... 191 
 
 
 
 
 
 Revelation 22 : 17 .... 
 
 50 
 
 Z Peter 1-4 R. V 
 
 104 
 
 Revelation 1 : 18... .. 
 
 61 
 
 2 Peter 1 : 21, R. V- ~ 
 
 . 175 
 
 Revelation 3 3.. ... 
 
 , 7$ 
 
 
 
 
 133 
 
 1 John 2 : 1 
 
 88 
 
 Revelation 2:7; 14 : 
 
 13 .... 17t 
 
 1 John 2 : 30 
 
 - 89 
 
 Revelation 11 : 17 
 
 W7
 
 GENERAL INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Adam : fall of. - 102 
 
 child of. 106 
 
 nature derived from _ 107 
 
 inheritance from 118 
 
 Adam life: birth into 104 
 
 AdolphMonod: farewell of. 184 
 
 Age of the Spirit : denned 16 
 
 Age-work : continuance of. 16 
 
 Ambrose: observation of 81 
 
 Ananias and Sapphira : sin of.. 22, 23 
 Andrews, Bishop: beautiful words 
 
 Of 64 
 
 Anointing : importance of. 88, 89 
 
 examples of 89 
 
 Ante-Pentecostal days : spiritual 
 
 nonage of 48 
 
 Apostles : Matthias chosen by 136 
 
 prerogatives of...... 166 
 
 order of, ceased 167 
 
 Asceticism: inversion of divine 
 
 order Ill 
 
 Augustine : quotation from 18 
 
 calls Pentecost 19 
 
 saying of true 20 
 
 replies to rationalists 181 
 
 Baptism : a monogram 109 
 
 Baptized : into Moses 57 
 
 Bengel : statement of. 89 
 
 Bible: Holy Qhost breathes with- 
 in it 170 
 
 divine author of. - 177 
 
 infallibility of. 179 
 
 a sensitive plant 181 
 
 TA.OS 
 Bickers teth, E. II.: quotation 
 
 from 81 
 
 Boys, E.: extract from 68 
 
 Butler, Archer: quotation from... .30 
 
 Calvary: typology of. 28 
 
 once for all 59 
 
 Calvin, John : quotation from..... 34 
 
 Canon Garratt : excerpt from...... 137 
 
 Cartwright : extract from _ 192 
 
 Choirs : composed of. 154 
 
 Christ: life of. - 14 
 
 on earth _ 21 
 
 inspired characterizations of.... 23 
 
 image of 24 
 
 fulfills all types 26 
 
 our Passover 29 
 
 earthly work of, completed 80 
 
 ready to be communicated 80 
 
 expiatory work of. 81 
 
 accepted by God 31 
 
 foretells Comforter 39 
 
 the testator 41 
 
 indwelling of. 42 
 
 generosity of. 43 
 
 earthly equal to 44 
 
 power to impart 45 
 
 coronation of 46 
 
 prayers of. 60 
 
 mystical body of. 53 
 
 present by _ 53 
 
 visible union of - 54 
 
 manifestation of. 60 
 
 Indwelt by 61 
 
 T 217
 
 218 
 
 INDEX 
 
 mm 
 
 Chrlat : description of......... ......._ 61 
 
 vivifying power of..~..._ 62 
 
 disfigured.- 64 
 
 twofold manifestation of.. ......._ 64 
 
 faith of, ignored _ 68 
 
 our justification _ 69 
 
 effective service for 74 
 
 example in all things 75 
 
 our pattern 76 
 
 endued by the Spirit 76 
 
 possessed by 77 
 
 holiness essential to - 80 
 
 draws to himself. 81 
 
 justification in 89 
 
 the Holy One 89 
 
 deityof. .. 91 
 
 image of God 91 
 
 conformity to 94 
 
 made atonement , 95 
 
 treasure hidden in 100 
 
 the heart of the church 100 
 
 begotten by Holy Ghost 106 
 
 origin of life 107 
 
 nature derived from _ 108 
 
 came as Saviour - 109 
 
 efficacy of his sacrifice 110 
 
 victory through - 111 
 
 manifested love of. 113 
 
 pattern of God 114 
 
 imparting life. - 117 
 
 inheritance from 118 
 
 official seat of. 130 
 
 bride of, betrayed. 133 
 
 living roice of. 139 
 
 identification with 147 
 
 helping us to pray _ 149 
 
 attitude of, described 174 
 
 divinity ol 177 
 
 spirit of, necessary 179 
 
 threefold work of- 188 
 
 died for the sins of the world... 190 
 
 satisfied God _ 191 
 
 perfected righteousness 192 
 
 our High Priest 193 
 
 PAQl 
 
 Christ: resurrection of. 194 
 
 enthronement of __ 195 
 
 lifted to heaven 196 
 
 continuance of within the veil- 197 
 
 not seen by the world _ 197 
 
 reflected by the Spirit.... 197 
 
 answers all questions 198 
 
 death of _ 199 
 
 judged sin on the cross 199 
 
 redemptive work of - 200 
 
 administration of 208 
 
 the first-lruits _ 208 
 
 Christ-life: spiritual birth into.... 104 
 
 Christian Church : home of the 
 Spirit _ 20 
 
 Christian doctrine : undeveloped.. 46 
 
 Christian life: crisis in 84 
 
 a gradual growth. 94 
 
 possibilities of- 96 
 
 Christians: good text for 68 
 
 ignorance of- 73 
 
 privilege of. 93 
 
 belief of.-.. 117 
 
 possessors of the Spirit 165 
 
 prove veracity of Scripture- 183 
 
 divine naming of. 206 
 
 Church : first capital sin of. 22 
 
 temple of God 24 
 
 Image of. - 25 
 
 greater riches for. 48 
 
 history of begun..... 53 
 
 definition of. - 53 
 
 formation of - 54 
 
 introduction into 55 
 
 unsanctified, sometimes 69 
 
 to be like Jesus 61 
 
 appellation of. _ 62 
 
 complement of her Lord _... 63 
 
 disfigures Christ- 64 
 
 Paraclete abides in 68 
 
 effective service in 74 
 
 monograph of. 78 
 
 Christ the heart of. 100 
 
 the temple of God 130
 
 INDEX 
 
 219 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Church : guidance of the Lord for 132 
 
 is manifold 137 
 
 dead yet living 138 
 
 appointments in State _ 139 
 
 Spirit withdrawn from 141 
 
 feature of worship in 164 
 
 service of, described 165 
 
 fellowship with Head of. 155 
 
 requirements of. 161, 162 
 
 Spirit sent unto 188 
 
 communications of to the world 197 
 translation of 206 
 
 Comforter: another given 15 
 
 indwelling of 21 
 
 coming of. 22 
 
 presence of. 32 
 
 foretold by Christ 89 
 
 reverent subjection of. 40 
 
 ignorant of. 74 
 
 Jesus' promise of. _ 99 
 
 witness of the 143 
 
 sending of the 147 
 
 ministry of the 148 
 
 return of to heaven 206 
 
 consolation of 211 
 
 Communion: significance of 99 
 
 through Holy Spirit 107 
 
 Conscience: definition and work 
 
 of 189 
 
 accusing power of. 201 
 
 Conversion: definition of 78 
 
 Course of redemption : Moberly's 
 divisions 16 
 
 Cross: plain attractions of. 158 
 
 Gumming, J. Elder : quotation 
 
 from 72, 73 
 
 excerpt from .. 85, 86 
 
 quotation from 128, 207 
 
 Day of Pentecost : Holy Spirit 
 
 embodied in the church at 21 
 
 Death: division of. 109 
 
 Disciple: requirements of. 115 
 
 Dispensation : mystery and glory 
 O f 25 
 
 FAGS 
 
 Divine lore: source of... 112 
 
 Divine ministries : succession of... 26 
 
 Ephesians: description in 24 
 
 Exodus : typical illustration of..... 68 
 
 Father: Jesus' return to 14 
 
 Felix: reference to 200 
 
 Fuller, Andrew : statement of. 191 
 
 Qaussen's Theopneustia : quota- 
 tion from 164 
 
 Gentiles: door opened to 59 
 
 God: omnipresence of...., - 21 
 
 union of, to humanity 22 
 
 indwelling with men 23 
 
 becomes known 24 
 
 emanation from - 88 
 
 witness of. 77 
 
 withholding from 79 
 
 claims of ~ 109 
 
 Christ, pattern of. 114 
 
 total surrender to 116 
 
 action of Spirit of. 122 
 
 manifestation of. 124 
 
 all in all 136 
 
 created all men. 103 
 
 communion with, imperiled 158 
 
 Godet: beautiful words of... _ 84 
 
 Godhead : mysterious unity of.... 15 
 
 persons of 20 
 
 co-equal partner in 21 
 
 earthly ministry of. 25 
 
 distinctly foreshadowed. 28 
 
 Paraclete a member of. 88 
 
 mutual converse of 47 
 
 our relations to 67 
 
 executive of. - 75 
 
 God-Jehovah: economy of, in- 
 complete 26 
 
 God's communion: broken and 
 restored 80 
 
 Great Commission : meagre giving 
 
 for the 158 
 
 record of giving of the 159
 
 220 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Gregory Nazianzen : quoted 52 
 
 Hare, Julius Charles: extract 
 
 from 186 
 
 Hamack, Prof. : statement of 60 
 
 Heresy: meaning of 116 
 
 Holiness: explanation of 80 
 
 synonymous name for 114 
 
 IJoly Ghost : " dies natalis " of..... 19 
 
 personality of _ 87 
 
 office of. 89 
 
 work of. 41 
 
 communicates power 44 
 
 great work of begun ... 64 
 
 statement of. 65 
 
 all filled with 66 
 
 baptized in 67 
 
 unction of. - 69 
 
 incorporation into body of 
 
 Christ through 69 
 
 baptism of the 62 
 
 unceasing work of. 62 
 
 Tiew of, urged 68 
 
 possession of... _ 70 
 
 faith toward 71 
 
 traits of. - 72 
 
 blessings of. 72 
 
 ignorance regarding 73 
 
 Christ begotten by - 76 
 
 fullness of 76 
 
 incidents regarding 83, 84 
 
 inheritance in _ 85 
 
 the gift of - 92 
 
 crisis brought by a full recep- 
 tion of. _ 94 
 
 has been given 95 
 
 present office- work of 99 
 
 operation of 108 
 
 hidden life of. 120 
 
 completed in us 126 
 
 the one Administrator 129 
 
 prerogative of - 130 
 
 insubordination to 135 
 
 appoints leaders 136, 137 
 
 FAQB 
 
 Holy Ghost: elders chosen by 138 
 
 ignoring voice of 139 
 
 preaching in the 143 
 
 inspiration of, ignored. 145 
 
 God's interpreter 147 
 
 prayer in the 150 
 
 office of, magnified 152 
 
 unction of. 156 
 
 attempted purchase of - 158 
 
 minute directions of 161 
 
 action of, supreme 166 
 
 renewing power of 169 
 
 breathes within the Bible 170 
 
 position regarding _ 172 
 
 testimony of Paul to 173 
 
 regeneration by 176 
 
 David's words concerning...... 182 
 
 disciples, recipients of. - 187 
 
 presentation of 190 
 
 the gift of the _ 193 
 
 sent by the Lord..... 196 
 
 temporal mission of. 205 
 
 administration of. 207 
 
 age-ministry of, terminates 203 
 
 Holy Spirit : lack of attention to_ 13 
 
 consideration of 14 
 
 best treatise on _ - 14 
 
 age-ministry of. 14 
 
 vagueness of doctrine of 14 
 
 Jesus' presence by lt> 
 
 temporal mission of 15 
 
 dispensation of. 16 
 
 made partakers of. 16 
 
 came into the world - 20 
 
 resides on earth _ 20 
 
 abides perpetually in church..... 21 
 
 deference paid to 22 
 
 indwelling of. 24 
 
 Son revealed by 24 
 
 relation of stated by Tophel 25 
 
 descent of. - 26 
 
 commended by Christ. 27 
 
 office of. - 80 
 
 sent down >1
 
 INDEX 
 
 221 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Hol/ Spirit : filled with 32 
 
 a witness 32 
 
 " dies natalis " of- 32 
 
 named by our Lord 35 
 
 subordination to 40 
 
 distributes the estate 41 
 
 the divine Conveyancer 42 
 
 communicates power 44 
 
 advent of. 49 
 
 prays with church 60 
 
 kietory of. 65 
 
 union through , 62 
 
 duty to receive 68 
 
 personality of. 72 
 
 Ignorance regarding 73 
 
 reception of gift of. 78 
 
 our signet ring 79 
 
 will be the seal 80 
 
 interprets himself. 85 
 
 is the anointing. 89 
 
 recognition of. 93 
 
 agent for 99 
 
 power of. 101 
 
 conveyance of. 105 
 
 the Executor 109 
 
 subdues sinful nature Ill 
 
 subjection to ., 126 
 
 designation of. 129 
 
 guidance of. 131 
 
 administration of. 133 
 
 in church service 142 
 
 witness of 144 
 
 supremacy of. 146 
 
 prayer inspired by..... 149 
 
 in missions of the church......... 159 
 
 acts and speaks 170 
 
 directing power of 176 
 
 sovereign individuality of. 177 
 
 iniaitableness of. 177 
 
 authenticates books for us 180 
 
 ground of conviction of 189 
 
 an evangel of grace 198 
 
 imparts to us 198 
 
 church translated by 206 
 
 PAOI 
 
 Holy Spirit : Person of the God- 
 head 209 
 
 work of, elective 209 
 
 a divine agent 210 
 
 Human system : life and death ... 63 
 
 Inspiration: significance of. - 165 
 
 gospel a stereotyped 167 
 
 Scripture given by 168 
 
 verbal, essential 171 
 
 Jesus claims verbal 173 
 
 of the Holy Ghost 173 
 
 of Scripture writers 173, 174 
 
 Irving, Edward: beautiful state- 
 ment of. 121 
 
 quotation from 204 
 
 Isaiah : passion-prophecy of. 192 
 
 reference to 198 
 
 James: words of. 209 
 
 exhortation of. 211 
 
 Jesus: surprising saying of. 19 
 
 pre-existence of. 19 
 
 agent in creation 19 
 
 birth of. 20 
 
 sublime word of. 20 
 
 mysterious saying ot 21 
 
 not yet glorified 25 
 
 paschal talk of. 38 
 
 atoning blood of. 39 
 
 farewell sermon of 43, 44 
 
 teaching of. 46 
 
 parousia of. _ 49 
 
 All in all 61 
 
 replies of. 75 
 
 full of the Spirit 83 
 
 spirit of. 91 
 
 significant saying of. 105 
 
 question of. 115 
 
 scribes' question concerning..... 165 
 
 words of concerning Spirit 166 
 
 doctrine of. 169 
 
 claims of. 173 
 
 charged with blasphemy 180 
 
 limitation of. 187
 
 222 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Jesus: prophecy at birth of 189 
 
 literal fulfillment of promise of 194 
 
 strange paradox of. 196 
 
 words of at the cross. 199 
 
 spake literal truth 199 
 
 government of 207 
 
 Jesus Christ: ministry of. 13 
 
 time-ministry of... 14 
 
 gives Great Commission... 15 
 
 dualism of teaching of. 106 
 
 Jews: charge of against Jesus...... 180 
 
 denial of. 191 
 
 church gathered from the. _ 205 
 
 John: mentioned 180 
 
 Jordan: symbolism of. 104 
 
 Jukes, Andrew : extract from.. ..68, 69 
 excerpt from 107 
 
 Kelly, William : observation of._.69, 70 
 
 Lee, Inspiration of the Holy 
 Scriptures : quotation from.175,176 
 
 Leper: cleansing of. 28 
 
 Lord : farewell discourse of......... 15 
 
 question concerning 21 
 
 deference paid to 22 
 
 glory shines forth from 23 
 
 presentation of sheaf. 29 
 
 words of risen 81 
 
 named the Holy Ghost 85 
 
 words of concerning "Fara- 
 
 cletos" 86 
 
 Paraclete distinct from 88 
 
 speaks concerning Spirit 89 
 
 valedictory discourse of. 42 
 
 return of to glory 48 
 
 dying of. ~ 62 
 
 complement of the church......... 63 
 
 resurrection of. 64 
 
 advent of. 80 
 
 appropriating to himself. 87 
 
 assumed prerogative of. 100 
 
 words of to Nicodemua 101 
 
 antithesis of two natures in 107 
 
 oonstaut word* of. 108 
 
 FAOl 
 
 Lord : fashioned to image of. 118 
 
 mystical body of. 119 
 
 coming of. 120 
 
 experience of. 123 
 
 guiding the church 132 
 
 post-ascension gospel of. 132 
 
 ascent of. 134 
 
 calls Saul of Tarsus 138 
 
 power of 1S7 
 
 conditions imposed by 131 
 
 voice of heard in church _ 138 
 
 commission to speak for. 167 
 
 Spirit breathed by 168 
 
 testimony of 169 
 
 Apocalyptic words of. 170 
 
 Abigail's prayer to _ 180 
 
 words of, concerning Comforter 187 
 
 messengers sent by 188 
 
 a sin against the 190 
 
 exaltation of. 195 
 
 sent the Uoly Ghost 196 
 
 harvest at return of. 211 
 
 Luther : pointed statement of. 43 
 
 wise words of. 172 
 
 Manning, Henry E. : quotation 
 
 from 12 
 
 best treatise from 14 
 
 Master: instructions of to disci- 
 ples 36,37 
 
 Method : that employed in writing 14 
 
 Milton: quotation from 103 
 
 Ministry: of Jesus 20 
 
 Moberly: divisions of. 16 
 
 quotation from 18 
 
 Morrison: comment of. 47 
 
 Moule, H. C. G. : excerpt from...... 95 
 
 Murray, Andrew : quotation from 66 
 
 Neander, Church History: ex- 
 cerpt from 168 
 
 New birth: definition of. 101 
 
 acquirement of. 102 
 
 New Testament Scriptures: au- 
 thoritative voice of the Lord.. 167
 
 INDEX 
 
 223 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Old Testament: words of Peter 
 
 concerning 170 
 
 as oracles of God 180 
 
 Olshausen's Commentary: note 
 from 165,166 
 
 Owen, John : summing up of. 82 
 
 Paraclete: sent ty Christ 24 
 
 meaning of. 35 
 
 attributes of.. 38 
 
 conclusion regarding. 39 
 
 duties of. 43 
 
 teaching of. 46 
 
 difference of. 49 
 
 realization of. 60 
 
 question and answer of. 170 
 
 related to limitation of Jesus... 187 
 
 certifies to 193 
 
 with the Father 195 
 
 statement concerning 205 
 
 Parousia: Lord's second coming.. 49 
 introduces the church 50 
 
 Paschal lamb : typology of. 29 
 
 Paul: epistles of _ 41, 42 
 
 words of 71, 111, 112, 120, 180, 211 
 
 exponent of 83 
 
 subject of preaching of 143 
 
 work of 144 
 
 words of, interpreted 172 
 
 testimony of... 173 
 
 words of, before Felix 200 
 
 observation of 209 
 
 Pentecost: work inaugurated at.. 16 
 
 styled " dies natalis " 19 
 
 promise fulfilled at 20 
 
 impossible precedence of. 28 
 
 typology of. 28 
 
 predetermined 29 
 
 has come 81 
 
 church began Its history at 63 
 
 tory of. 55 
 
 body of Christ baptized at 57 
 
 Holy Ghost descended at..... 59 
 
 foretaste of. 70 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Pentecost: once for all 72 
 
 Persons of the Trinity : deference 
 
 of. _ 27 
 
 Peter: question of. 83 
 
 bold testimony of. 32 
 
 deep saying of 104 
 
 statement of. 118 
 
 reference of to Old Testament... 171 
 
 talk of, on Pentecost 194 
 
 defense of - 194 
 
 words of. 198 
 
 inspired saying of. 210 
 
 Prayer : a vital element 146 
 
 in the name of Jesus 147 
 
 high ground regarding 151 
 
 connected with Holy Ghost 153 
 
 Preaching: importance of. 143 
 
 of the cross 144 
 
 the inspiration of. 145 
 
 Redemption by incarnation : doc- 
 trine of in vogue 67 
 
 Regeneration: what is it?- 101 
 
 power of. _ 102 
 
 examples of. 106 
 
 Resurrection : time fixed for 29 
 
 Romans eighth : deep teachings of 22 
 
 Roos: quotation from 46 
 
 Rothe, Dogmatics : excerpt from.. 178 
 
 Salvation : two sides to 67 
 
 Sanctification : continuous 121 
 
 instantaneousness of. 125 
 
 Saul of Tarsus: sealed with the 
 Spirit 138 
 
 Saviour: lived before incarna- 
 tion 13 
 
 redemptive work of, completed. 80 
 
 promise of. 37 
 
 follow teachings of. 42 
 
 and a comparison . 44 
 
 departure of, conditioning. 49 
 
 Scriptures: teaching of 14 
 
 confounding of G8
 
 224 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Scriptures : examined, regarding.. 70 
 
 giTen by inspiration 168' 
 
 definition of.. 169 
 
 minute study of. 171 
 
 literal inspiration of. 172 
 
 the style of. 175 
 
 divine Author of. 177 
 
 alleged discrepancies of. 182 
 
 veracity of, confirmed .. 182 
 
 infallibility of. 183 
 
 contrast exhibited in 200 
 
 harmony of. 211 
 
 Bheehinah : resting-place of. 23 
 
 Son of God: naming of. 35 
 
 self-emptying of. 42 
 
 Sonship: doctrineof. 103 
 
 Spirit: descending on Jesus 19 
 
 study of doctrine of. - 19 
 
 indwelling of. 22 
 
 sending down of. 24 
 
 teaching of. 27 
 
 typology of. 29 
 
 work of, begun 80 
 
 history of. 35 
 
 best dictionary of. 36 
 
 promise of advent of..... 39 
 
 the measure of the Son 40 
 
 signified time 48 
 
 nature and offices of. 49 
 
 Influence of, manifested... 53 
 
 baptistery of 66 
 
 baptism of. 56 
 
 walk in - 57 
 
 praying in 57 
 
 fell on house of Cornelius 59 
 
 supreme work of. 60 
 
 the indwelling of. 62 
 
 enduement of. 68,76 
 
 gift subsequent to 69 
 
 appropriation of..... 70 
 
 God's gift 71 
 
 reception of 71 
 
 traits of~ 72 
 
 baptism in_ 74 
 
 MMB 
 Spirit: Christ waited for ............. 76 
 
 anointing of.. 76 
 
 sealing of the 77, 81 
 
 possession of. 79, 80 
 
 great office of. 80 
 
 fullness of. 82 
 
 reception of 83 
 
 infilling of 84 
 
 supreme place of 87 
 
 anointing of. 87 
 
 sanctification in.. 89 
 
 of God 90 
 
 manifestation of.. 90 
 
 appellations of. , 92 
 
 Christian's privilege in 93 
 
 illustrations of enduement of. ... 93 
 
 yearning of. 94 
 
 energy of. 95 
 
 communicates to us 99 
 
 life by 100 
 
 incorporation by 105 
 
 of holiness 107 
 
 supremacy of. Ill 
 
 effects exclusion of sin.. 112 
 
 behind all 113 
 
 surrender to. 115 
 
 of glory 118 
 
 change wrought by 119 
 
 working in us 121 
 
 perfecting power of 122 
 
 descent of. 134 
 
 power of, ignored 140 
 
 is the breath of God 141 
 
 dispensation of the 146 
 
 doctrine of the 148 
 
 deepest work of.. 149 
 
 ministry of. 150 
 
 strengthening power of 154 
 
 access by, unto the Father ~ 154 
 
 method of. 155 
 
 inspirer of worship 156 
 
 imitation of. 157 
 
 story of. 109 
 
 directing enterprises 160, 161
 
 INDfiX 
 
 225 
 
 PACK 
 
 Spirit : Christians possessors of... 105 
 
 Jesus' words concerning 166 
 
 authoritative voice of. 168 
 
 intercedes for us 173 
 
 thoughts regarding 175 
 
 of Christ necessary 179 
 
 universal diffusion of. 187 
 
 conviction of. 188 
 
 sent unto the church 188 
 
 the witness to grace 189 
 
 proceeds from God 195 
 
 sent to convince the world 197 
 
 reflects Christ 197 
 
 co-witness of 200 
 
 distinctive work of..... ... 206 
 
 PAflB 
 
 Spirit: elective work of, completed 211 
 
 Stephen: words of 180 
 
 error in statement of. 182 
 
 Streams of life : two contrasted... 104 
 
 Testimonies: of new life 74 
 
 Tophel, Pastor : quotation from... 25 
 
 excerpt from..... 98 
 
 criticism of...l 142 
 
 Types: accuracy of. 28 
 
 foretell accurately.. 89 
 
 Webb, Bishop: extract from 60 
 
 Word of God : a unique book 170 
 
 infallible 188
 
 BT 
 1*1,2. 
 
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