I Believe in the Holy Ghost

The Lord and Giver of Life

When we are born into this world we are not sons of God in the high sense in which we may become so, for we are distinctly told that only those who receive the Christ-life into their hearts obtain the right to become children of God, who’ were born, “‘not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John i. 14). It is equally clear that we are not born children of the devil, men only become so when they have made a decisive choice of evil, and have, into the family of the Devil. We are born simply children of men. ‘‘ Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image” (Gen. v. 3).

At birth the spirit, which is our capacity for God, the window of the soul that looks out on the Infinite, resembles the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle of old, a mere dark unused chamber, before the shechinal Light and Fire shone within its curtained walls. If Regeneration never takes

place, the sowl is the supreme guide and rule of 174 so to speak, been “born again’

life, and the man remains a merely natural, or as the Greek word signifies, a sowlish man (Cor. ii. 14). But in Regeneration, which may take place in the earliest dawn of consciousness, or on the verge of Eternity, the Spirit of the Living Christ introduces into the spirit the seed or germ of His exalted and glorious Being. We are begotten again, “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (I Peter i. 23).

If there were no bees in a garden, with the musical hum of their quivering wings, the plants would be unable to produce bud, blossom, or fruit. It is only as they pursue their untiring ministry of bearing the pollen from one flower to another, fertilising and fructifying them, that the garden is aglow with radiant colour and luscious fruit; and it is only as the Holy Spirit brings the Christ-germ into our hearts, that we become fragrant or fruitful.

“Ye must be born again.” We cannot force our way up into the Kingdom, but must receive the seed of the Kingdom, dropping into us from above. Hence we are told, “‘ Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John iii. 3); ‘“‘ Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the

Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (6). Nothing could more plainly asseverate and certify the declaration that the Holy Spirit is the Giver of Life. It is only as He breathes on the slain that the dead of the valley of Vision arise to become a great army.

But He is also the Lord of Life. There is no opportunity for mistaking the accent of authority in His voice. With good reason He has been described as the Vicegerent of the Deity. “Arise and get thee down,” He said to Peter, when He was hesitating as to his duty, “and go with them” (te, the messengers from Cornelius), “nothing doubting; for I have sent them” (Acts x. 20). ‘Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them” — was there not the imperial ring in those words, which indicated the next forward movement of the Church (Acts xiii. 1-4)? He forbade the Apostles to preach the word in Asia Minor, and suffered them not to go into Bithynia, doing for them what He would do for us all (Acts xvi. 7, 8). Happy are they, then, who are led by the Spirit!

The secret of a blessed Christian experience is to live in the power of this truth, that the Holy Spirit is literally the Lord, as He is the Giver, of Life. Sometimes He will direct us towards individuals, as when He said unto Philip, ‘“‘ Go near, and join thyself to this chariot” (Acts viii. 29); at other times, we shall be bound in the Spirit to go up unto Jerusalem, knowing that bonds and afflictions await us, but not able to draw back (Acts xx. 22, 23). The note and mark of His Rule are always the crucifixion of the self-life to the glorification of the Christ-life, and the combination of circumstances, which lock with His inspirations, as the wards of a lock with its key. Whether to act or rest, whether to speak or be still, whether to go in or go out — all will be made clear by the witness and leading of the Spirit in the depths of our heart.