Filled with the Spirit

1 Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.’ — Ephesians v. 18 (R.V.).

TjTHAT is an extraordinary antithesis. The contrast would appear to be almost irrelevant. We are accustomed to oppose excessive drinking by the claims of abstinence; but here the alternative counsel is the reception of the Holy Ghost. Be not drunken with wine, but be filled with the Spirit, Do not try to accomplish by one way what can only be attained by another. Do not seek the stimulus of life primarily through the senses, but through the heart. The fundamental need of life is not a sensation, but an inspiration. Man has a body; he is a soul. It is folly to seek to spur the essential powers of life by a stimulus of the flesh. The stimulus must be more inward, and must be given by the Holy Ghost in the soul. If a man wants buoyancy, power to contend with a ’ sea of troubles,’ and ftffe* will tU £pm* 31

keep his head above the water; if he would be light-hearted, and have power to resist the awful, pressing weight of urgent care; if he would be optimistic, with reason that can pierce the near and frowning horizon, and realize the golden morrow beyond, the secret must be sought, not in the highways of the body, but in the deep recesses of the soul. And so the subject of the contrast expressed in the apostle’s words is this — the real stimulus of life; what is it? What is it that reaches and quickens the innermost man? And the answer given is this — the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Wine may excite a nerve; the Holy Ghost inspires and stimulates the life. ‘Be not drunken with wine, but be filled with the Spirit/

But how are we to become filled with the Spirit? Along what lines may we receive stimulus and inspiration? The apostle supplies an answer which, to the worldly-wise man, may savour of foolishness, and appear as a message for babes. ‘Speak one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.’ That is to say, one of the great means of revival and stimulus is to be found in the channels of fellowship. I am to take psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, the rich, inspired, Spirit-filled utterances of my brethren,

and I am to use them for my own inspiration. Along the way of life they made discoveries, and I am permitted to share in the fruits of their painful toil. They trod the winepress, and I may drink the juice. They put their experiences into ‘psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,’ in order that what to them had been a doubtful experiment may be to me an unwavering assurance. I am afraid that in our day this means of spiritual stimulus is very largely ignored, and its loss is partly responsible for the flatness and low vitality of much of our Christian discipleship. We cannot afford to drop the hymn and the psalm out of our daily religious life. They offer us the vehicles of the Spirit for the carrying away of fear and despondencies, and for the bringing in of a buoyant faith and peace. Goethe’s mother used to say that whenever her son had a grief he turned it into a poem, and so got rid of it. We may not be able to turn our griefs into our own poems, but we may turn them into other people’s poems, and so be rid of them. Stimulus is sometimes gained by mere expression. Souls are often heavy because of pent-up feeling. A mode of expression would be a means of relief. Utterance would be revival. The means of utterance can be fifte* ms tU §yyltlt 33

found in ‘psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.’ In these we may find our stimulus. We may gain our inspiration from that which is inspired.

How else may life receive stimulus and inspiration? The apostle gives a second answer, as startlingly simple as the first. Stimulus, may be found, not by drinking wine, but by cultivating gratitude — ’ giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Is not that profoundly true? An ungrateful heart can never be exuberant. Where there is no gratitude, the spiritual nerve is dormant or dead. But how is it where gratitude abounds? The whole life is quick, alert, exhilarant, expressionable. We say that a man’s face ‘beams’ with gratitude. That is the right word. There is exhilaration within, and it reveals itself in a countenance illuminated without. Gratitude confers the quality of ’ aliveness,’ and acts as a stimulus to all the complex faculties of the soul.

There is still another method of inspiring the life, mentioned by the apostle in this great passage — the method of self- subjection; ‘Subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.’ Self-subjection is a powerful stimulant. It makes life buoyant and exuberant. At the heart of the self-seeking man,

God has ordained that flatness and deadness shall reign. He may appear bright and energetic, but his exuberance is forced; at his heart there is heaviness, weariness, death. If you want to revive your life, go and lose it in another. When a man subjects himself to the service and welfare of another, he enters into the joy of his Lord. Seek your stimulus, not in wine, but in fellowship, in thanksgiving, and in self-subjection.