The Personality of the Holy Spirit

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”

bruth of the Holy Spirit as a Divine Person coming rto

Teed

take up. His, dwelling in our hearts,.and to take possesi; sion of our lives and to use us as “He in His infin isdom sees fit.

“Gin the third place, Vedoctrine of the Phesoule; jof. the Holy Spirit is of the Jighest importance from the;

Person This address upon Dee Peron ity of the. fol Hpirit which, for substance, I have given in almost ever ity in which I have ever held a series of meetings, is in some respects seemingly upon the most abstruse and technical subject that I ever attempt to handle before a popular audience, and yet, notwithstanding that fact, more men and women have come to me at the close of this address, and more have written to me afterwards concerning it, testifying of personal blessing received, than of any other address which God has ever permitted me to give.

There are four separate and distinct lines of proof of he Personality of the Holy Spirit. ai.) The first line pot proof of the Personality of the oly Spirit is that, g distinctive marks or cha: “acheroak

50 EE bed to the Fa b.

‘Biblg.] What are the distinctive marks or characteristics s “of personality? Suowledss, fgeling and will. Any being who knows and‘feels and wills is a person. Oftentimes when you say that the Holy Spirit is a Person, people understand you to mean that the Holy Spirit has hands, and feet, and fingers, and toes, and eyes, and ears, and

nose, and mouth, and so on. No, not at all. These are iy; these are the marks of cor-.

Hata the Lord’s return, will cease to have bodies for an

time being; we will be “labsentfrom the body, and at

Q d” (2 Cor. 5:8), but we shall not

cease to be persons; we will be persons still, even though

we have no body. I ht it, the marks of personality

areknowledge, feeling will and an being suseopirit in the Bible, urn in your Bibles fol Cor. 2:11, “For what maf! knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no.

words, is not a mere illumination that ene to your mind and mine, whereby our minds are enlightened and strengthened to see truth that they would not otherwise discover. No, the Ho Di a — Person who Himsel fi knows..the.things of GC and reveals to u wha ia ley Himself knows. ms 42 yNow turn to LCor, 12:11 (RV): “But all cnet i fworketh the one and the Sgine Spirit, dividing to each one everally he thought is that the Holy Spirit is not merely a Divine Power that we get hold ) yand use according to our will, but that the Holy Spirit i i ets hold of us and uses us accy

“Jess earnest-minded Christians are going astray at this point. They are trying to get hold of some which they can use according to their will, I thank God from the depth of my heart that there is no divine power that I can get hold of to use according to my will. What could I do in my foolishness and ignorance with a divine power? What evil I might work! But while I thank God that there is no divine power that I can get hold of and use in my foolishness and ignorance according to my

swill, I am still more are that were is a “IE: Person

3y Now turn to.Romans 8:27, “And He that se: arch-

éth the hearts knoweth what is the mind =f Ethe Spirit because He mak ion for th i according to the will of God”) What I wish you to note here is the

expression, “the mind of the Spirit,” The Greek word “‘cc ‘4” ¥) ‘e pr ‘ 9..

here translated “mind” is “phronema,” and it is a comprehensive word that has in it all three ideas of knowl- edge, feeling and il.y It is the same word which is used jin n the seventh verse of this chapter, where we read, “The mind of the flesh is enmity against God,” where the thought is that not merely the thought of the flesh is’ enmity against God, but the whole moral and intellectual life of the flesh is enmity against God. (4) We now turn to a most remarkable passage fRomans 15:30, “ae beseech you, brethren, for they

What I wish aon to notice particularly 1 in aS verse are these five words, ft the It is a wonderful thought. It teaches that the Holy rh is not a mere blind influence or power, no matter~how

“ombaaai that comes into our hearts and lives, but that.

many of us ministers who are” here today have ever

preached a sermon on ‘The Love of the Spirit.” I wonder how many of you have ever heard a sermon on “The Move-of the Spirit.” “I wonder how many of you have Every day

of your life you kneel down ore God the Father, at ‘east I hope you do, and say, Heavenly Father, I thank

Thee for Thy great love that led Thee to give Thy Son a

esus Christ to come down into this sinful world and to ie upon the cross of Calvary in my place. >) Every day O

e you kneel down and look up into the face of

me in my lost estate, yes, ate my fall and ruin pera

and sending His own Son down to this w ie upon the cross in my place, I would have been a lost man today., LL IIf it had not been for lthe love Of Jesus. pi t the Son. / 7

‘coming down to this world in obedience. cH ather

4 intil at iat He succeeded in brin nging 1 me to my senses

and bri inging metorealize my utterly lostcon condition, and

ealing the Lord |, jesus to me AS just the Saviour Whom peededwand..induced me and enabled me to receive the

f Tord esus as my Sa 10 cand. Lor che - it had not = q for this patie ot, longering never-wea ing ove QO

This passage “does not add corer to me — that we have already had; I have brought it in merely because it is from the Old Testament. There are those who say that the doctrine of the Personali the H is in the New Testament but not in the Old ‘Testament; but here we find it as clearly in the Old Testament as in the New. Of course, we do not find it as frequently in the Old peste as. in the New, for this a rate’ dis penh, many who say that the doctrine of,the Trinity is not in the Old Testament, that while it is in the New Testament is not in the Old Testament. But thedoctring of the Trini in the estament in the firstchapter of the Bible. |-In Genesis 1:26 we re “And God said, ieémaps make man in Our image wns

ere “the plurality of the persons in the

Godhead rEere out clearly. God did not ar be WA

“Let me” “make man in my own image.” No, He

Let us make man in Our image, after Our like.

ersons in the Trinity are found in the
“first three verses in the Bible, {In the

é ed the heaven and the earth;” here we have God the ather. “And the earth was mation form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Andth

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by O OG, TT10 C DON TD DCC O> — $~nC — Vi-3- here.

thaye the Word, “Le here be ight: and the owas. ight.” Here we have the three persons of the Trinity in the first three verses of the Bible.

In actual fact the doctrine inity.is found many hundreds of times in the Old Testament. In the Hebrew Bible it occurs in most of the places where you find the. word “God” in your English Bible, for the Hebrew word ordinarily used for God in the Old Testament is a plural noun; literally translated it would be “Gods,” and not “God.” In the very passage to which the Unitarians and Jews, who reject the Deity of Christ, refer so often as proving conclusively that the Deity of Christ cannot be true, namely, Deut. 6:4, the very doctrine that they are seeking to disprove is found; for Deut. 6:4, literally “translated, would read, “Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our Gods is one Jehovah.”

Why did the Hebrews, with their unquestionable and intense monotheism, use a plural name for God? ‘This was the question that puzzled the Hebrew grammarians and lexicographers of the past, and the best explanation that they could arrive at was that the plural for God here used was “the pluralis majestatis,” that is, the plural of majesty. But this explanation is entirely inadequate. To say nothing of the fact that the pluralis majestatis in the Old Testament is a figure of very doubtful occurrence — I have not been able to find any place in the Old Testament where it is clear that the pluralis majestatis is used — but in addition to that, even if it were true that the pluralis majestatis does occur in the Old Testament, there is another explanation for the use of a plural name for God that is far nearer at hand and far more adequate and satisfactory, and that is, that the Hebrew inspired writers used a plural name for God, in spite of their intens€y monotheism, becg Use 2 there 1s a pluralit of.. persons in hoes one God he si

Tn other “words, the Holy. Spirit is not a mere blind, im-.. Sa onl influence or power that. comes to dwell in your art and mine. No, He is a Person, a.Person. Who.love

7, His la Person. Who. is holy and intensel sensitive against/)

every act and word and thoug ht.

How many a young man is kept back from doing things that He would otherwise do, by the thought that if he did do that his mother might hear of it and she would be grieved beyond expression. How many a young man who went over to France in the late war, and was surrounded by the awful temptations that encompassed our young men on every hand at that time and at that place, in some hour of fierce temptation stood at the door of a house that no self-respecting man ought ever to enter, and just as his hand was on the door-knob and he was about to open the door, the thought came to him, “If I should enter there mother might hear of it, and if she did it would nearly kill her,” and he has turned away without entering. But listen, there is One holier than the holiest mother that you or I ever knew, One Who loves us witt

ome into my mind some “tl aa or imagination, from what source I do not know, but it is a thought I ought not to*entertain, and just as as about to give it lods ent the ore has come,

Be ing ne thought of the Holy pirit in our mind’ will help us to solve all the questions that perplex the young believer’ in our day. For example, the question, “Ought I as a Christian to go to the theatre or the movies?” Well, if you go the Holy Spirit will go, too, for He dwells in the heart of every believer and goes wherever the believer goes. Were you ever in a theatre or moving picture show in your life where you honestly

If not, do not go. Ought I asa Christian go to dances? Well, here again, if you go the Holy Spirit will surely go. Were you ever at a dance in all your life where you really believed the atmosphere of the place would be congenial to the Holy Spirit?) Shall I as a Christian play cards? Were you ever at a card party in your life, even the most select little neighbourhood gathering, or even at a home gathering to play cards, where bye ou the atmosphere of the place would be

: it?) If not, do not play. So
and that some of us|

illus TIT of this in the Bible, but I will limit our con-

sidezation today to three instances, urn to the secon chapter of 1 Corinthians. ingt

. the tenth verse we read§“But unto us aie eel the a

represented as searching the deep things of God. In other words, as we have already said under our previous heading, the Holy Spirit is not a mere illumination whereby our minds are illumined and made strong to apprehend truth that they would not otherwise discover, but the Holy Spirit is a mena Who Hi

into the deep tous ee SEE y which He discovers. Such words, of course, could only

be spoken of a person. SQ) ow turn to Romans 8: 26, “And in like manner hhe — o6irit alsohelpetho infirmity: for we know noty,: I to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself makethy iniereegion Lars tS. with groanings which cannot be ut- i;

Hore the Ho

‘The Holy Spirit i is not merely 2 an influence — :
comes pos us and impels us to pray, nor is He
guidance to us in offering our prayers...
imself a Person Who Himself pra
wei Ever believer!

0, no HL

e [os 2: Dani Heb “7:25) 4
Vho prays through us down here on earth)

When I started around the world in 1901, I sent out five thousand letters to people whom I had learned knew how to pray, asking them if they would pray for Mr. Alexander and me every day as we went around the world. One of the hardest tasks I ever had in my life was signing those letters, signing my name five thousand times, but it paid, for soon letters came back by the thousands from these persons saying that they would pray for us every day. When Mr, Alexander and I reached Melbourne, Australia, ten thousand. people had taken it up and were praying for us every day, and when we reached

England no less than forty thousand people were prayiny for us every day. Who could not preach under such circumstances, and is it any wonder that the marvellous results followed that did follow? I wish they were all praying for me still; but, while I would be glad to have those forty thousand people praying for me every day, if I-had to choose between having forty thousand of the godliest men and women on earth praying for me ever day, or errr ani two — Persons Christ the Son, our yy

4 ee ‘Now turn to two aaa related passages. ohny, 14: 26, “But the Comforter, even the-Ho: Di whom

Rann SRC Sa Eee quae

jthe aber anomie in M name ‘He shall teach ou all

Thave the same thought. in John on (214, Ct ier yet yJmany things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit whenHe, the Spirit of ‘Truth, is come,y He Shall po you into all the truth; a Fle shall no; have often thought when we heard some great human teacher whom God has especially blessed to us, “Oh, if I could only hear that man every day, then I might make some progress in my Christian life.” But listen, we can have a teacher more competent by far than the greatest fe

human teacher that ever spoke on earth for our teacher pos Til

I.

every day, and ak De cricss — -cacnelr 1S — He — Fto7 LYS pitti t.. Vt 3. The third line of proof of the -ersonality a hel B Proeenaceminueunwisnmonwennntil. te als ySpirit An off cis predi cated wi le Haly) °C ahs: au = “edica att ‘ ais med correo ae. a ier, te for example, at John 14: 16, oe Bh we eos ie And wt the Father and H give you another.

Ween Up to this time our Lord Jesus had beck the riend always at hand to ais them in every emergency that arose. But now He was going, and their hearts were filled with consternation, and He tells them that while He is goin Q take His Can you for a moment imagine our Lord Jesus saying this if the other who is coming to take His place were a mere impersonal influence or power? Can you imagine our Lord Jesus saying what He says in John 16:7, “Nevertheless I ‘ you the truth J/t 1s)

ere

Wf that on es coming’ to take His place were not another Person but a mere influence or power? In that case, is it for a moment conceivable that our Lord could say that it was expedient for Him, a Divine Person, to go and a mere influence or ‘power, no matter how divine, come to take His ple

wel ‘take it for granted that you know that the Greet word translated “Comforter” in these verses means far more than Comforter. It means Comforter plus.a great deal beside. The Greek word so translated is “Parakletos.” ‘This word is a compound word, compounded of the word “Para,” which means “alongside,” and “Kletos,” which means “one called”: so the whole word means, “One called to stand alongside another,” one called to take his part and help him in every emergency that arises.

It is the same word that is translated “Advocate” in 1 John 2:1, “If any man sin, we have an Advocate (Parakleton) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” But the word “Advocate” does not begin to give the full force of the word. Etymologically the word “Advocate” means about the same as the word “Parakletos.” Advocate is really a Latin word transliterated into the English; the word is compounded of two words, ‘ad,” meaning “to,” and “vocatus,” which means “one

called;” that is to say, Advocate means one called to another to take his part, or to help him. But in our English usage this word Advocate has obtained a narrower and more restricted, sense. The Greek word, as. have already said, means and the thought is of g

Whenever they got into any trouble they simply turned to Him. For éxample, on one occasion. they.were..perplexed .on..the subject of prayer and they said to the Lord, “Lord, teach us to pray,” and He taught them to pray. On another ocasion when Jesus was coming to them walking on the water, when their first fear was over and He had said, “It is I, be not afraid,” then Peter said unto Him, “Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee upon the water.” And the Lord said, “Come.” ‘Then Peter clambered over the side of the fishing-smack and commenced to go to Jesus, walking on the water. He got along fine for a few moments, and then seemingly he turned around to see if his companions saw how well he was doing, thus he took his eyes off the Lord and saw the wind and the waves, and yo sooner had he gotten his eyes off the Lord than, he began to sink, and he cried out, “Lord, save me,” and Jesus reached out His hand and held him up. Just so,

when they got into any other emergency the disciples turned to the Lord and He delivered them 9 But now He

was going and consternation filled their hearts, and the Lord said to comfort them, “Yes, I am going, byt another

dust as Divine as L, just as loving and tender as I, just as.

ey N How can we fear under any Srcmianeee if we really believe that He is by our side? You may be surrounded by a howling mob; I have been, an Irish mob and a.Chinese mob, but what of it, if He walks between you and the mob? That thought will banish all fear. I had some years ago a Striking illustration of this in my own experience that I shall never forget. I was speaking at a Bible Conference on a lake in New York State. I had a cousin who had a cottage four miles up the lake and I went up there and spent my rest day with him. The next day he brought me down in his steam launch to the pier where the Conference was held. As I stepped off the launch onto the pier he said to me, “Come back again tonight, Archie, and spend the night with us,” and I promised him I would. But I did not realize what I was promising. That night, when my address was over, as I went out of the hotel and started on my walk, I found that I had taken a large contract. The cottage was four miles away, but a four-mile walk or an eight-mile walk was nothing to me under ordinary circumstances, but a storm was coming up and the whole heaven was overcast. Furthermore, the path led along a bluff bordering the lake, and the path was near the edge of the bluff. Sometimes the lake was perhaps not more than ten or twelve feet below, at other times some thirty or forty feet below. I had never gone over the path before and found that it led right along the edge of the bluff; besides that, there was no starlight and I could not see the path at all. There I had already been a storm that had gulleyed out deep ditches across the path into which one might fall and break his leg. I could not see these ditches except when there would be a sudden flash of lightning, when I would see one, and then it would be darker and I blinder than ever,

As I walked along this path, so near the edge of the bluff with all the furrows cut through it, I felt it was perilous to take the walk and thought of going back; but the thought came to me, “You promised that you would come tonight and they may be sitting up waiting for you,” so I felt that I must go on. But it seemed creepy and uncanny to walk along the edge of the bluff on such an uncertain path which I could not see, and could only hear rising from the foot of the bluff the sobbing and wailing and the moaning of the lake as it was moved by the fast approaching storm. Just then the thought came to me, “What was it you told the people there at the Conference about the Holy Spirit being a Person always by our side? Does He not walk by your side now?” Then I at once realized that the Holy Spirit walked between me and the edge of the bluff, and that four miles through the dark was four miles without fear, a gladsome instead of a fearsome walk.

I once threw this thought out in the Royal Albert Hall in London, one dark dismal afternoon. There was a young lady in the audience who had an abnormal fear of the dark. It simply seemed impossible for her to go into a dark room alone. After the meeting was over she hurried home and rushed into the room where her mother was sitting and cried, “Oh, mother, I have heard the most wonderful address this afternoon I ever heard in my life, eee THE HOLY SPIRIT

about the Holy Spirit always being by our side as our ever-present helper and protector. Mother, I shall never be afraid of the dark again.” But her mother was a practical English woman, and said to her, “Well, let us see how real that is. Now, go up-stairs to the top floor, into the dark room, and shut the door and stay in there alone in the dark.” The daughter wrote me the next day, “I went bounding up the stairs, went into the dark room, closed the door and it was pitch dark, and Oh, it was dark, utterly dark, but that room was bright and glorious with the presence of the Holy Spirit.”

you ever have insomnia? I did. For owe ae awful years. Night after night I would go to bed almost dead, it seemed to me, for sleep, and I thought I would certainly sleep as I could scarcely keep awake; but scarcely had my head touched the pillow when I knew I would not sleep, and I would hear the clock strike twelve, one, two, three, four, five, six, and then it was time to get up. It seemed as though I had not slept at all, though I have no doubt I did; for I believe that people who suffer from insomnia sleep far more than they think they do, else we would go insane or die, but it seemed as if I did not sleep at all. This went on for two long years, until I thought that if I could not get sleep I would lose my mind. And then I got deliverance. For years I would retire and fall asleep about as soon as my head touched the pillow. But one night I went to bed in the Bible Institute in Chicago, where I was then stopping. I expected to fall asleep almost immediately, as had become my custom, but scarcely had my head touched the pillow when I knew I was not going to sleep. Insomnia was back. If you have ever had him you will always recognize him. It seemed as if Insomnia was sitting on the footboard of my bed looking like an imp, grinning at me and saying, “I am back for two more years.”

“Oh,” I thought, “two more years of this awful insomnia.” But that very morning I had been teaching to our students, in the lecture-room on the floor below, the Personality of the Holy Spirit, and the thought came to me almost immediately, “What was that you were telling the students down-stairs this morning about the Holy Spirit being a Person always with us?” And I said to myself, “Why don’t you practice what you preach? “4

And He opened to me some of the sweet and precious things about Jesus Christ that are found in

the Word of God, filling my soul with calm and peace and joy, and the next thing I knew I was asleep, and the next — thing I knew it was tomorrow morning, 4 And whenever

Insomnia has come around since and sat on my footboard, I have done the same thing and it has never failed. In this thought of the Hol Spirit being a Personalf

the thought of the Holy Spirit as an Ever-present Friend, Always at hand, once enters your heart and stays there ou will never rare another (Gack moment as long as to live = My life for the larger part of the last twenty-five yea rsd Ld:: have often been separated frond Ss my any for months at a time, sometimes I have not? seen my wife for two or three months at a time, and for eighteen months I did not even once see any member of

my family except my wife. One night I was walking the deck of a steamer in the South Seas between New Zealand and Tasmania. It was a stormy night. Most of the other passengers were below, seasick, and none of the officers or sailors could walk with me, for they had their hands full looking after the boat. Four of the five members of my family were on the other side of the globe, seventeen thousand miles away by the nearest route that I could get to them, and the one member of my family who was nearer was not with me that night. As I walked the deck all alone I got to thinking of my four children seventeen thousand miles away and was about to get lonesome, when the thought came to me of the Holy Spirit by my side, and that as I walked up and down the deck in the night and in the storm He took every step with me, and all my loneliness was gone.

I gave expression to this thought some years ago in the City of St. Paul, and at the close of the address a physician said to me, “I wish to thank you for that thought. I am often called at night to go out alone through darkness and storm far into the country, and I have been very lonely, but I will never be lonely again, for I will know

are in the world ida. Many of us have lost loved ones, but we need not have a moment’s heartache if we only know the communion of the Hol Ghost. “1 There is

perhaps ere e today some woman who a year ago, or it may be only a few months or a few weeks ago, or possibly a few days ago, had by her side a man whom she

dearly loved, a man so strong and wise that she was freed from all sense of responsibility and care, for all the burdens were upon him. How bright and happy were the days of his companionship! But the dark day came

-’when that loved one was taken away, and how lonely

and empty and barren and full of burden and care life

jis today. Listen, woman, there is One Who walks righ® by your side today, Who is far wiser and stronger and morelovi ng and more able to 2 tide and help than the wisest and strongest and most loving husband that ever

2 lived: ready to bear all the burdens and responsibility of

ife for you, yes, ready to do far more, read come in and dwell in your heart and fill ook and corner of our empty and aching hea and suis halal the loneli

IE ess and all the fearuche forever,

‘T said this one afternoon in St. Andrew’s Hall in Glasgow. At the close of the address, when I went out into the reception-room, a lady who had hurried out to meet

’ me, approached. She wore a widow’s bonnet, her face

bore the marks of deep sorrow, but now there was a happy look in her face. She hurried to me and said, “Dr. Torrey, this is the first anniversary of my dear husband’s death (her husband was one of the most highly esteemed Christians in Glasgow), and I came to St. Andrew’s Hall today saying to myself, ‘Dr. Torrey will have something to say that will help me.’ Oh,” she continued, “you have said just the right word. I will never be lonesome agai never have a heartache again. will let the Hol irit come in and fill ever ing cor Eighteen months passed, I was back in Scotland again, taking a short vacation on the Lochs of the Clyde, on the private yacht of a friend. One day we stopped off a point, a little boat put off the point and came alongside the steam yacht. The first one who clambered up the

9 side of the yacht and over the rail and onto the deck was this widow. Seeing me standing on the deck she hurried across and took my hand in both of hers and with a radiant smile on her face she said, “Oh, Dr. Torrey, the thought you gave me in St. Andrew’s Hall that afternoon stays with me still, and I have not had a lonely or sad hour from that day to this.”

But it is in our Christian work that the thought comes to us with greatest power and helpfulness. Take my own experience: I became a minister of the gospel simply because I had to, or be forever lost. .I do not mean that I

as. my Saviour turned upon my preaching the gospel. For several years I refused to come out as a Christian because I was unwilling to preach, and I felt that if I became a Christian I must preach. The night that I surrendered to God I did not say, “I will accept Christ,” or “I will give up my sins;” I said, “I will preach.”

But if there was ever a man who by natural temperament was utterly unfitted to preach, it was I. I was an abnormally bashful boy, and a stranger could scarcely speak to me without my blushing to the roots of my hair. When I went away from home visiting with other members of my family, I could not eat enough at the table, I was so frightened to be among strangers. Of all the tortures I endured at school there was none so great as that of reciting a piece. To stand on the platform and have the scholars looking at me, I could scarcely endure it; and even when my own father and mother at home asked me to recite the piece to them before I went to school, I simply could not recite it before my own father and mother. Think of a man like that going into the ministry. Even after I was a student in Yale College, when I would go home on a vacation and my mother would have callers and send for me to come in and meet them, I could not say a word. After they were gone my mother would say to me, “Archie, why didn’t you say something to Mrs. § or Mrs. D?” and I would say, “Why, mother, I did.” And she would reply, “You did not utter a sound.” I thought I did, but it would get no further than my throat and stick there. I was so ‘bashful that I never even spoke in a church prayer-meeting until after I entered the theological seminary. Then I thought that if I were to be a preacher I must at least be able to speak in my own church prayer-meeting. I made up my mind that I would. I learned a piece by heart, I remember some of it to this day, but I think I forgot some of it when I got up to speak that night. As soon as the meeting was open I grasped the back of the settee in front of me and pulled myself up to my feet and. held on to it lest I should fall. One Niagara went rushing up one side and another down the other, and I tremblingly repeated as much of my little piece as I could remember, and then dropped back into the seat. At the close of the meeting a dear old maiden lady, a lovely Christian woman, came to me and said, “Oh, Mr, Torrey, I want to thank you for what you said tonight. It did me so much good, you spoke with so much feeling.” Feeling? ‘The only feeling I had was that I was scared nearly, to death. Think of a man like that going into the ministry. My first years in the ministry were torture. I preached

three times a day. I committed my sermons to memory, and then J stood up and twisted the top button of my

38 i, THE HOLY SPIRIT

coat until I had twisted the sermon out, and then when the third sermon was preached and finished I dropped back into the haircloth settee back of the pulpit with a great sense of relief that that was over for another week. But then the dreadful thought would at once take possession of me, “Well, you have got to begin tomorrow morning to get ready for next Sunday.” Oh, what a torment life was. But a glad day came, a day when the thought which I am trying to teach you now took possession of me, namely, that when I stood up to preach, that, though we saw me, that there was Another whom they

4 From that day to this, preaching has been the joy of my life; I’d rather preach than eat. Sometimes when [ rise to preach, before I have uttered

ia word, the thought of Him standing beside a able and

oy that I can scarcely refrain from shouting. “Just so in your Sunday School teaching. Some of you worry about your Sunday School class for fear you will say something you ought not to say, or leave unsaid something you ought to say, and the thought of the burden and responsibility almost crushes you. Listen! Always remember this, as S you sit there teaching your class:

ing the res ponsibilit ree ae class let E Him do it det Him iv

Ao. the teaching. y

One Monday morning I met one of the most faithful: laymen I ever knew, and a very gifted Bible teacher. ‘This

Monday morning as I called upon him at his store he was greatly cast down over the failure in his class, or what he regarded as failure. He unburdened his heart to me, and I listened. ‘Then when he had finished I said to him, “Mr, Dyer, did you not ask God to give you wisdom as you went before that class?” He said, “I did.” ‘Then I said, “Did you not expect Him to give it?” He replied, “I did.” Then I said, “What right have you to doubt that He did?” He answered, “I never thought of that before. I will never worry about my class again.” Just so in your personal work. When I or someone else urges you at the close of the meeting to go and speak to someone else, Oh, how often you want to go, but you do not stir. You think to yourself, “I might say the wrong thing. I might do more harm than good.” Well, you will say the wrong thing if you say it. Yes, if you say it you certainly will say the wrong thing, but .trust

et Him have speak through.y It may not appear to be the right thing at the time, but sometime you will find that it was just the right

One night in Launceston, Tasmania, as Mrs, Torrey and I went away from the meeting my wife said to me, * Archie, I wasted the whole evening. I have been talking to the most frivolous girl you ever saw. I don’t think she had a serious thought in her head, and I spent the whole evening with her.” I replied, “Clara, how do you know that you wasted the evening? Did you not ask God to guide your” “Yes.” “Did you not expect Him tor” “Yes,” “Well, leave it with Him.” The very next night at the close of the meeting the same seemingly utterly frivolous young woman came up to Mrs, Torrey, feading her mother by the hand, and said, “Mrs. Torrey, won’t you speak to my mother? You led me to Christ last night, now please lead my mother to Christ.”

But I must close. There is another line of proof of

the Personality. one H oly. Spirit, but we have no time e per its z

befo ore, but do you

retically we Featene all believed that

(in your real thought of Him, in your practical attitude toward Him, ltreat Him as a Person? Do you realy regard the Hol; Dt as just as real.a, person

think of Mim asaDivi ine Per on-always at your side?)

The Holy Spirit y was sent by the peeiet into this world to be to the disciples of our Lord in this present dispensation, after our Lord’s departure and until His return, to be to you and me, just what Jesus Christ had been to His disciples during the days of His personal companionship with them on earth. Is He that to you? Do youion of the Holy Spiri

word, iF say it rever rently, the whole object of this address

is to introduce you to my Friend, the Holy Spirity