The Witness of the Spirit

Jesus Christ taught the doctrine of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, and St. Paul, “an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,” taught the complemental doctrine of a direct personal witness of the same Spirit to the soul that had become renewed, — the Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit, t?iat we are the children of God.” In a sense, then, which is evidently as probable as it Is consolatory, the act of regeneration Is succeeded by the act of confirmation; which, indeed, would seem to be the divine method even in nature Itself, seeing that not only did God create the heavens and the earth, but He followed each act of creation with the assurance that it was “very good;” thus, as creation was followed by approval, so the higher act of regeneration is attested by a special witness and seal. It is quite true that the works of nature are continually vindicating their own goodness, and it is not less true that spiritual sonship is its own witness in the presence of all men; yet the soul which has passed through the agonies of penitence and reconstruction — having known all the sinfulness of sin, and felt that self-redemption is as impossible as it is blasphemous — needs just that word of tender assurance and comfort which is expressed in the doctrine of the Witness of the Spirit. It is not enough that great events be merely accomplished, as If by a great strain which has taxed every power; their accomplishment is often followed -by a wonder that stuns the beholder; a wonder so great, indeed, that it is not unlikely to settle into doubt and fear unless the mind be well fortified and watched; and so a beneficent revolution may collapse and leave behind only memories of disappointment and pain. Take the case of the New Birth: a man has been born again, a new world is round about him, new impulses animate his conduct, new hopes enlarge and brighten his future, — the probability is that the very completeness of the change (seeing that he is limited and embarrassed by the old physical conditions) may be attended by perilous excitement. In vievvT, then, of such possibilities, an extension of the divine ministry is required: re-creation must be followed by assurance, benediction, clear and tender witness that the change is a reality, not a dream, and that all exigencies are more than provided against by the infinite sufficiency of God. So, the mind is stayed; superstition is warded oft”, and the fear which often succeeds paroxysms of joy, is not allowed to descend upon the newly-born and newlyillumined soul.

Thus, the Witness of the Spirit brings with it the most gracious and nourishing comfort, in which sense it may be well to consider the doctrine for a moment. In all the great experiences of life we need a voice other than our own to give us conildence, and to complete the degree of satisfaction which begins in our own consciousness. For current action in common affairs we may be strong enough without external encouragement; even our mistakes in such affairs may be a part of our education; but when life is sharpened into a crisis, and the whole world seems to have become our assailant, we need something more than is possible to our unaided powers. Even where by a violent strain we could encounter opposition single-handed, it is most strengthening and comforting to have the support of a second witness. There are times when we need to hear our own convictions pronounced by the voice of another; we know they are right; death itself could not affright us from their avowal; yet when we hear them spoken aloud by a friendly voice, we seize them with a still firmer grasp, and strengthen our heart in God. Let that second witness ho. greater than ourselves, and his testimony will bring with it proportionate comfort; let him be the zuisest of men, and still the consolation is increased; let that witness be not a man but God Himself, and at once we are filled with peace that passeth understanding, with joy unspeakable and full of glory! According to this view of the case the renewed man is entitled to talk to himself in some such fashion as this: — “I know that I am born again because of the complete change of my convictions, sympathies, and habitudes; old things have passed away and all things have become new; still, I am often tempted, and often sorrowful on account of sin; when I would do crood, evil is present ‘.vlth me; I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which Is in my members; yet through all my conflict there comes a voice which tells me that my divine sonship Is a fact, but that not until resurrection has done for the body what regeneration has done for the soul can I have perfectness of spiritual release and enjoyment; this Is the witness of the Spirit which calms me with Ineffable tranquillity.” The witness is not that the whole work is done, but simply that it is begun; and after all, that is the great difficulty. As to progression and sanctlfication there Is a great law of movement; but how to re-establish life itself was the question which astounded and baffled the universe. Possibly, men may be occasioning themselves grievous pain by mistaking the scope of the witness: they may be expecting too much all at once; It is not that we are already in heaven, but that we are the children of God, that the Holy Spirit testifies in the exierlencc of regenerated men.

Still, the very divineness of this comfort clothes the witness with the severity of Inexorable discipline. Apostolic teaching will not allow man to settle down Into the enjoyment of spiritual comfort, as if sonship had no responsibilities. “Know ye not that ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost.’^” Will any man make the temple of the Lord a temple of idols? Will the Holy Ghost share the heart of man with the spirit of evil? There is to be no balancing- between the comparative advantages of two rival dominions, for “no man can serve two masters.” We are to walk in the Spirit; to mind the things of the Spirit; and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. Otherwise there can be no comfort! If -there is sweetness in the mouth, it is the taste of stolen honey. The comfort is not a spiritual luxury, a genial condition of feeling which has no relation to moral health, — it is the assurance of a true standine before God, the summer which descends out of heaven from the Spirit of righteousness. The apostolic doctrine Is that the promises of God should move the heart towards more and more purity; thus St. Paul’s says, “Having these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all hlthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness In the fear of God.” That Is, do not let your comfort from heaven be lost upon you, but let It encourage you towards the very highest progress possible to earthly conditions; If you are living trees, the sunshine will help you to grow; if you are dead plants. It will hasten your corruption. A terrible thing to have the witness of the Spirit as to newness of life, if men do not erou) in grace and In the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ! God’s purpose as to character Is orowth. Let the sacred orcrm lie dormant in the heart, and the witness of the Spirit will decline In vividness and emphasis, and the germ itself will perish beyond all possibility of restoration:” For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and YERE

MADE PARTAKERS OF THE HoLY GlIOST, if they shall

fall away to renew them again to repentance;” “If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, throuoh the knowledofe of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them tkan the beginning.” Their spiritual state is not to be described by mere negations. No man can blaspheme so consummately as the man who once knew how to pray; therefore, says the apostle, “Pray without ceasing,” because to “cease” is to recall the dominion of the devil. Once interrupt the communion of the soul with the Father, and the soul may never be able to resume the fellowship: then (the apostle would say) “Pray without ceasing” if you would enjoy the permanent witness of the Spirit. Thus the argument arising out of Divine comfort in the human soul points steadfastly towards disciplhte, “If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit;” “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live;” “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit,” — a high law of discipline given for the preservation and ennoblement of the sons of God upon earth.

Yet with all the comfort is there not an a^pi ration hardly distinguishable from discontent, and with all the discipline is there not a secret but most gladdening hope which makes it easy? The explanation is found in the fact that the present enjoyment of the Spirit is but an earnest, — a gift beforehand, — a pledge of the coming fulness. In his Epistle to the Romans (viii. 23) St. Paul speaks of those “which have the first fruits of the Spirit;” and in his other epistles he uses equivalent expressions: thus — “After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance;” — “Now He that hath wrouo-ht us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit;” — “Whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” What can be meant by such words but that the spiritual life is a continuous progression, receiving, with its widening capacities, richer gifts of the wisdom and holiness of God? The church by mistaking the “earnest “for the” fulness,” runs the risk of stating incomplete truths as final revelations, and then follows a sensitiveness lest the enlargement of its own dogmas should involve an offence to the Spirit of truth, utterly forgetting, in its unreasoning veneration, that self-correction is a moral necessity of spiritual expansion and enlightenment. The “earnest” .of the Spirit constitutes a lien upon the future service of the receiver; if the- service be unperformed, the “earnest” will be withdrawn; whereas if the service be lovingly rendered with the whole might of the heart, the measure of the gift will be filled up even to the sanctification of the “whole body, soul, and spirit.” The church is in its infancy as to realisation of spiritual blessing.’ It is, too, so much engaged in contro- ’ versy, that it can hardly be preparing itself for the completion of the holy promise. By mistaking the part for the whole it is in danger of settling itself into premature satisfaction, as if it had exhausted the possibilities of prayer! Will it be uncharitable to suetrest that the church is too much

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engaged in that worst and most cankering of all worldliness, the elevation of one sect above another, and the angry defence of forms which are but transient conveniences? What is delaying the outpouring of the fulness of the Spirit? There is, indeed, a still sterner inquiry, which cannot be put without emotion, yet it may not be honestly suppressed. Is not the Presence of the Holy Ghost ill the church less distinct to-day than in the apostolic age? Without encroaching upon the function of the preacher, it may be well to urge this inquiry, and so force the church in the direction of self-examination or penitence. Certainly there is not much appearance of pentecostal inspiration and entlrusiasm in contemporary Christianity. Can modern piety enrich its history- with such a passage as this: — “W’lien they had prayed, thq place was shaken. where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Or this:” And they were all filled with the Iloly

Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance “? Is the church baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire? (Matt, iii. 11.) Is it honourable to escape the challenge involved in such inquiries by suggesting that such manifestations were confined to the early church? It was after those manifestations that the apostle Paul described the measure of the Spirit already given as an “earnest,” and if only an earnest, where is the fulness which there is not room enough to receive? Christianity is nothing, if not spiritual; yet its spirituality is not to be shown by its adroitness in substituting refinements of wickedness for the o;-ross vulg-arlties of crime, but in that heavenly-mindedness which can neither be tempted by vanity, nor disturbed by such accidents as shake the world of the atheist. With a felicitous accommodation of himself to human ideas God speaks of the gift of the Holy Ghost in terms of measure and quantity; hence we read of “first fruits,” “earnest,” “double portion,” — terms which do not impair the personality and unity of the Holy Ghost, but describe rather our human realisation and enjoyment of His presence. We may be said to receive more and more of the sun as noontide approaches, and to. receive a “double portion” of the spirit of every author whose wrilings we study with admiring affection. Now, why has not a church eighteen hundred years old a fuller realisation of the witness of the Holy Ghost than had the church of the first century? Has the church accomplished all the purpose of God, and passed for ever the zenith of her light and beauty?

It is true that believers in the Holy Ghost have been guilty of the opposition of fanaticism, which is probably more mischievous than are the assaults of disbelief. Macedonius openly degraded the ministry of the Holy Ghost to a level with the ministry of angels; and Pelagius, whilst confessing the Holy Ghost, actually disowned His grace. On the other hand, Montanus not only claimed to reproduce the phenomena of Pentecost, but to represent in his own person a larger effusion of the Divine Spirit than had ever been realised in the history of mankind. After Montanus arose his disciple, Tertullian, who claimed for his master at least an equality of inspiration with St. Paul. In the great African schism, distinguished by the name of Donatism, the most arrogant claims to exclusiveness of inspiration were asserted; and the Paulicians, of the seventh century, insisted upon a spiritual pre-eminence not less vain and impious. What has to be found, then, is the point between hostility and superstition, — the doctrine of a simple and joyous communion with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. How, then, are men to know that they enjoy the witness of the Spirit? Partly by the anxiety with which they put the question, and partly, too, by the occasional comforts which suffuse the soul with Inexplicable gladness, but mainly by the daily sacrifice of loving service, and the disquietude of an unutterable and enrapturing expectation which sometimes touches the very point of agony. How is it, nevertheless, that men who do enjoy this holy witness have to confess many sins, and to humble themselves in the deepest abasement because of many omissions? Were the inward witness genuine and reliable, surely the heart which received it would be incapable of coldness or disloyalty towards God, would it not? But as a matter of fact, no heart has attained to the high estate of unblemished and incorruptible piety; of what value, then, is the spiritual witness? Can any man be both good and bad at the same time? This is a question which requires a special exposition and argument, which shall be given immediately.