The Holy Spirit: Who He Is and What He Does

E, begin herewith a series of studies of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. We shall begin this

series s by considering what the Bible has to say

about the oly — as a Soe It is en 2 to

knowHis Blessed wor souls Patiout first coming to know the Holy Spirit as a persom,! One of the most fruitful sources of error and misconception, of unwholesome enthusiasm and false fire and fanaticism, in the treatment of this whole subject, is from trying to know ,the work of the Holy ee before we first come t

subject today is, “The

Oo many of 3 you doubtless that will seem like a rather abstract, abstruse, and impractical subject to take up with a popular audience. I do not blame you if you think so, for I can remember very distinctly the time when I so thought. I recall the first popular address that I ever heard upon the subject of the personality of the Holy Spirit. It was given by the late Dr. James H. Brooks, of St. Louis, that giant of Bible teaching. It was given in St. Paul, Minnesota. As I say, it was the first popular address that I had ever heard on that subject. Of course I had heard lectures upon the subject in the theological +S setninary, but this was an address before a popular audience. When Dr. Brooks had finished his address I said to myself, “Well, Dr. Brooks has proved his point, the) Holy Spirit certainly i “Nbut what difference does it make anyhow whether the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, or whether the Holy Spirit is a Divine Influence whith God the Father, Who doubtless is a person, sends into our hearts? It is divine anyhow.”

But I afterward came to find out that it made all the difference in the world. I discovered from the study of the Word of God, and from my own experience and the

, experience of others, that the doctrine of the personali Lof the Holy Spirit i is not on funda ental, but vital and Jimmeasurably practical.y Any one ‘who does not know Holy Spiritasa prea has not attaineduntg complete and well rounded Christian experience.y Any

one who knowsGod the Father, and God the Son, and

5 — : 3 a ed does not know God the Haly Spirit, has not attained unto [the Christian conception of God, nor to a fully Christian |/ |,experience.

Tur IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE

R: PERSONALITY OF THE Hoty Spirit wt J) In the first place, e doctrine of the personality of

the Holy Spirit is 9 the highestimportance frou.the.

flim as such, if we think of the Holy Spirit merely as an impersonal influence or power, as so many do, then wé are

robbing a Divine Person of the worship which is His due of the love which is His due, and of the faith and confidence and surrender and obedience and j; May I stop just here to ask each one of you, “Do you worship the Holy Spirit?” Theoretically we all — do every time we sing the long metre Doxology:

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,

Praise Father, Son, and H oly Ghost.” ‘Theoretically we all do every time we sing the Gloria Patri:

“Glory be to the Father,
And to the Son,

And to the aol Ghost.
As it was in t e beginning,
Is now,

And ever shall be,
World without end. Amen.”

But it is one thing to do a thing theoretically, and it is quite another thing to,actually do it. It is one thing to sing words, it is quite another thing to realize the meaning and the force of the words that you sing.

I had a very striking illustration of this some years ago. I was going to a Bible Conference in New York State. I had to pass a city four miles from the grounds where the Conference was held. I had a relative living in that city and on the way to the Conference I stopped to call upon my relative, who went with me to the Conference. This relative was a Christian, she was much older than I, and had been a Christian much longer than I, and a member of the Presbyterian Church at that, brought up on the Shorter Catechism, and thoroughly Orthodox. I spoke that morning at the Conference on the Personality of the Holy Spirit. When the address was over and we were waiting on the veranda of the hotel for the trolley to take us back to the city, my relative turned to me and said, “Archie,

I never thought of It before as a person.” Well, I had never thought of “It” as a person, but thank God I had

ets

In the second place, It is of the highest importance from a practical standpoint that w ekpom the fal birth as a Person. If you think of the Holy Spirit, as so ) many” even among Christian people do today, as a mere influence or power, then your thought will constantly be,

“How can I get hold of the scare Spirit and use it?”

here no difference between the thought of man, the “worm, using God to thresh.the mountain, or God using man, the werm, to thresh the mountain? ‘The former conception, the conception of man using God to thresh the mountain, is heathenish; it does not differ essentially from the African fetish worshipper who uses his god. e latter conception, -

hold of us andusi

Spirit getting

Furthermore, if you think of the Holy Spirit Be as an influence or power that you are to get hold of and use, - your thought will necessarily be, “How can I get more of spirit? ’’y But if you think of Him in the

Biblical way, jas L Person gon thought will be, “How

The former conception, the conception of the Holy Spirit as a mere influence or power that you and I are to get hold of and use, leads inevitably to self-confidence, and self-exaltation, and a parade of self. If you think of the Holy Spirit as an influence or power that you are to get hold of and use, and then fancy that you have received the Holy Spirit, the inevitable result will be that you will strut around as if you belonged to a superior order of Christians. How much we see of that sort of thing. I remember a woman who once came to me at the Northfield Bible Conference at the close of an address and she said to me, “Brother Torrey, I want to ask you a question, but before I do, I want you to understand that J am a Holy Ghost woman.” My, it made me shudder, it sent a chill over me. It did not sound like it.

: But, on the other hand, if yon Mie of the Holy Be e Biblica as a Di

of no th ought that is more calculated to put one in the

dust and keep one in the dust, than this-great Biblical”

Keep reading