The Holy Spirit
I do not think any man has power over his fellow-creature’s will; but the Spirit of God has. He maketh the unwilling sinner so willing that he is impetuous after the Gospel; he who was obstinate now hurries to the cross. He who laughed at Jesus now hangs on his mercy; and he who would not believe is now made by the Holy Spirit to do it, not only willingly, but eagerly; he rejoices in the sound of Jesus’ name, and delights to run in the way of the Lord’s commandments.
The corporeal frame of the Lord Jesus Christ was a master-’ piece of the Holy Spirit. I suppose his body to have excelled all others in beauty; to have been like that of the first man, the very pattern of what the body is to be in heaven, when it shall shine forth in all its glory. That fabric, in all its beauty and perfection, was modelled by the Spirit.
The Spirit alone has power over man’s heart. If any man thinks that a minister can convert the soul, I wish he would try. Let him go and be a Sabbath-school teacher; he shall have the best books that can be obtained, he shall have the best rules, he shall draw his lines of circumvallation about his spiritual Sebastopol, he shall take the best boy in his class, and if he is not tired in a week I shall be very much mistaken.
The power of the Holy Spirit is your bulwark, and all his omnipotence defends you. Can your enemies overcome omnipotence? then they can conquer you. Can they wrestle with Deity, and hurl him to the ground? then they might conquer you. For the power of the Spirit is our power; the might of the Spirit is our might.
The creation of every man is the work of the Spirit: and the creation of all life and all flesh-existence in this world is as much to be ascribed to his power as the first garnishing of the heavens, or the fashioning of the crooked serpent.
Many a good old Jerusalem blade has been blunted against the hard heart. Many a piece of the true steel that God has put into the hands of his servants has had the edge turned by being set up against the sinner’s heart. We cannot reach the soul, but the Holy Spirit can.
There are four works which are the outward and manifest signs of the power of the Spirit: creation works; resurrection works; works of attestation, or of witness; and the works of grace.
The Spirit can make Sinai’s thunders audible; yea, and he can make the sweet whisperings of Calvary enter into the souL
Let the Gospel be preached and the Spirit poured out, and you will see that it has such power to change the conscience, to ameliorate the conduct, to raise the debased, to chastise and to curb the wickedness of the race, that you must glory in it
The creation of the heavens above us is said to be the work of God’s Spirit. All the stars of heaven are said to have been placed aloft by the Spirit, and one particular constellation called the “crooked serpent” is specially pointed out as his handiwork. He looseth the bands of Orion; he bindeth the sweet influences of the Pleiades, and guides Arcturus with his sons.
My Master has given instructions to his Holy Spirit that if men will not come of themselves, he should compel them to come in that his house may be filled. Then, poor sinner, you must be welcome, he will have enough sinners to fill his table.
The Spirit of God speaks in the heart of man without the use of means. There be many secret impulses, many solemn thoughts, many mysterious directions given to us without a single word uttered, by the simple motions of God’s Spirit in the heart
While God is pouring out his Spirit till some hearts are fall to the very brim, there are some dry, without a drop of heavenly moisture. But the day of God’s power is a day of personal power in our souls, like that day of Zaccheus when the Lord said, “Make haste, and come down.” It is a day not of argument of man, but a day of omnipotent power — God working in the heart
When the Holy Ghost comes home to a man, God’s arrow goes into his heart; it does not graze his helmet, or make some little mark upon his armour, but it penetrates between the joints of his harness, entering the marrow of the souL
When God the Holy Ghost has dealings with a man, they are always immediate dealings.
If God the Holy Ghost hath shown thee that thou art dead in sin; if he hath revealed to thee the desperate character of thine iniquity, and broken thee in pieces with penitence on account of thy guilt — hear me, I speak not now at hap-hazard, I speak with God’s authority — Jesus Christ died for thee; yes, for thee, thou vilest of the vile.
When by the Holy Spirit our eyes have been anointed with eye-salve, we have sometimes caught a sufficient glimpse of Christ to know him by it We have never seen him except reflectedly. When we have looked on the Bible, he has been above us and looked down upon it; and we have looked there as into a looking-glass, and have seen him “as in a glass darkly.”
With the word of God there goeth forth his Holy Spirit, which changes men, renews their characters and hearts, and makes them what they never were before.
There is nothing like reading an illuminated Bible. You may read to all eternity, and never learn anything by it, unless it is illuminated by the Spirit; and then the words shine forth like stars. The book seems made of gold leaf; every single letter glitters like a diamond.
It needs but little intellect to be taught of God. If you feel your ignorance, do not despair. Go to the Spirit — the great Teacher — and ask his sacred influence; and it shall come to pass that he “shall guide you into all truth.”
No man can know Jesus Christ unless he is taught of God. There is no doctrine of the Bible which can be safely, thoroughly, and truly learned, except by the agency of the one authoritative teacher.
The same promise that Christ made to his apostles stands good to all his children; and in reviewing it we shall take it as our portion and heritage, and shall not consider ourselves intruders upon the manor of the apostles, or upon their exclusive rights and prerogatives. Jesus says even to us, “When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth,”
Canst thou measure the love of the Spirit? Dost thou know how great is the affection of his soul towards thee? Go, measure heaven with thy span; go, weigh the mountains in scales; go, take the ocean’s water, and tell each drop; go, count the sand upon the sea’s wide shore, and when thou hast accomplished this thou canst tell how much he loveth thee.
How wise the Holy Spirit is! He takes the soul and dissects it in a moment; he finds out the root of the matter, he sees where the complaint is, he applies the knife where something is required to be taken away, or puts a plaster where the sore is; and he never mistakes.
We may preach for ever, but unless God the Spirit shall begin the work, it will be of no more use than if we preached to stocks and stones.
No man ever learns anything aright, unless he is taught of the Spirit. You may learn election, and you may know it so that you shall be damned by it if you are not taught of the Holy Ghost. I have known some who have learned election to their soul’s destruction: they have learned it so that they said they were elect, whereas they had no marks, no evidences, no work of the Holy Ghost in their souls.