Incidental Testimony

No survey of the biblical field of evidence can be complete without reference to passages which are full of suggestion as to the function of the Holy Spirit, yet which hardly admit of formal classification. As in the case of Jesus Christ, so in the case of the Holy Ghost, there is a great deal of incidental allusion and illustration, of the utmost importance as bearing upon the argumentative harmony and completeness of the doctrine, yet singularly difficult of effective treatment, and the more so where, as in this case, the exaggeration of details would be fatal to perspective and unity. There is, of course, no one scriptural book, or section of a book, devoted to a special statement of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit; the doctrine permeates the whole field of revelation, here and there, indeed, very broadly, but for the most part in a subtle and assumptive manner, as of power without form. Let us show this by examples: —

“The Spirit searcheth the deep things of God.’’ Are not all the things of God deep, hidden in secrecy and veiled in awfulness? Clearly not. In many places His name is written plainly, and His hand is almost seen; in all goodness, in all pitiful and tender reg”ard for the life of His creatures; in all condescension and healing” grace, — a ministry not to be explained in words, yet to be felt with sereneness and joy. On the other hand there are mysteries which fill life with uneasiness, as if the very earth would break under our feet, and as if enemies beyond number were hovering in the darkness; in our thinking-, too, we come to great deeps that have no explanation, and to fierce contrasts which bewilder our moral sense and tempt us towards atheism and madness. Do we not ourselves often do things which we cannot explain to the young, the foolish, the unsympathetic, or the feeble, yet which we know to be ricrht and wise? Have we not the power of hiding ourselves from the very people who think they know us best, and of concealing our reasons from men who think they comprehend our actions? It was in view of these realities of human consciousness that vSt. Paul wrote the words before us: “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.“” It is impossible that the existence of spiritual mystery can, as was pointed out in a former chapter, be more explicitly recog nised than in the Bible itself. The very book is itself a mystery, and from end to end it cautions its readers against such apprehensions and conclusions as are flattering to human reason. It is the more needful to repeat this even at the risk of tediousness, because it would appear as if some persons were under the impression that by uncommon sagacity on their own part they had discovered that there is something like mystery in the Bible. The Bible says in effect, “I am a mystery; I am a light, touching but a point or two of .infinite secrecy; I can give but small satisfaction to Reason, but I can detain Faith in exercises of wonder, expectation, and worship.” When we would go into the sanctuary whose door is sealed, the Bible warns us off with the words — “These are the deep things of God.” And when we complain of exclusion, it quiets us with the analogy of our own inner life — “What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him, even so” Thus we are to reason upward from the flutter of our own heart towards the pulsations of the infinite I Am. Yet this pressure upon the sealed sanctuary, when controlled and sanctified, is the inspiration of that hopeful and watchful patience which lingers near the hallowed portals that it may catch the first glimpse of the King.

*’ The manifest ation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal’^ No man begins life without a spiritual dower, — without sagacity, moral sense, and power of spiritual discrimination and election. How It Is given to man Is a. secret. But no greater secret, we repeat, than the beginning of that merely intellectual life whose existence is universally acknowledged. At what period does the child become a man in thinking, or is he liberated from the small world of circumstances, and introduced into the illimitable kingdom of philosophy and speculation? Spiritual transitions would seem to be immeasurable as to time, yet what can be more positive as to reality and influence? The apostle, in making this declaration, is but putting into words one of the chief, facts of our own consciousness; that is to say, we know that we are controlled by a discriminate and elective power, though we might not be able to express in words its name, origin, and quality, yet when we hear fit words we can claim them and attest their propriety. The “manifestation of the Spirit “spoken of by St. Paul, distinguishes human life from all other creaturedom below it. Given a case where a child shall be treated merely as an animal, being deprived of education and of all the ministries of human love, it is not improbable that the child might, in the end, be found speechless and irrational. But if that proves anything it proves too much. Its application would destroy the most beautiful distinctions in floral life, and turn the healthiest houses into noisome dungeons. But, apart from this, any inference impugning the dignity of human nature which may be drawn from so violent a hypothesis is at once deprived of all value by an inversion of the terms: instead of degrading the child, exalt the animal; put them, as far as possible, under the same influences, give them the same lessons, send them to the same universities, and the argument shall stand or fall by the results. For what purpose” the mani-Incideiital Testimony. 251

festatlon of the Spirit is given to every man “should be carefully observed, viz., to profit zuit/ial, to profit himself and to profit others; for “to him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance,” and out of that abundance will come an overflow for social benefit. The Spirit dwells with every man, first as an individual illumination, and secondly as a public light, — as an iiidrjidiial illumination (for in the Greek the emphasis is on eKdar(;^ and as a public light, that others may be guided and blessed. The passage has been variously rendered by critics, yet every rendering proceeds on the doctrine that each man has his own individual gift of God, Hence —

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in yon f” The appeal is to those who have received spiritual enlightenment, and not merely Intellectual sagacity. It must be borne in mind that every man has the awful power of deciding whether he will be a temple of the Holy Ghost or a synagogue of Satan, — as to the mere fact of his manhood he is irresponsible, but as to its tises he is an accountable steward. Human intellect would seem to be rather the start-point than the completion of human nature. What are we to do with it? Regard it with a contentment which shall deoenerate into idolatry, or use it as the organon by which we are to acquaint ourselves with God, and lay hold upon a spiritual inheritance? To create an intellect is to create a will, and to create a will is to impose certain limitations upon the Creator himself. You control your dog by force, you control your child by consent; in the one case you insist, and in the other you reason. So God commands the stars, but He entreats and persuades the hearts of men. Where, therefore, there is an acceptance of the presence and rule of the Holy Ghost, the man has consented to become a temple of God. But is it individual man or collective man that is the subject of St. Paul’s inquiry? Clearly both. The individual spirit is regenerated; the individual spirit is sanctified; the individual spirit is renewed in strength ar»d comfort day by day; there can, then, be no violence in carrying the process to its comlletion, and speaking of the individual heart as the temple of the Holy Ghost. It is true also that the church is the temple and dwelling-place of God, for He loveth Zion, and sets Himself in the minds of them that fear Him. God speaks to companies of men as He never speaks to solitary watchers and students; there is a fuller tone, an intenser fervour in Pentecostal revelations than in personal communion, and, as we ourselves know, there is a keener joy in sympathy than can be realised even in the devoutest solitude. The argument of the apostle is more self-consistent and more powerful, and therefore more probable, as an individual appeal than as a charge upon the church corporate. Still, the church in its plurality and unity has its own special enjoyments; thus: — “The comtmtnion of the Holy GJiost be zuith yojt all;” there is to be a general sense of His presence, and a joyous consciousness of eternal oneness through His holy ministry. A deep and tender sympathy is to hold together in slad consent and willino- service “the holy catholic church throughout all the world;” and where two or three are assembled in the name of Christ, they are to realise a bond of kinship which death cannot dissolve, and a power of mutual interpretation which will render mutual misunderstanding impossible. As distance softens the ruggedness of the landscape, so a truly spiritual view of each other throws off into perspective such unevennesses.of human character as are merely superficial and temporary. By the power of the Holy Ghost we see one another in the best light; a new critical faculty (call it a faculty of verification) is brought into exercise, by which we distinguish, with something like infallible accuracy, between the outward and the inward, between the narrowness and even offensiveness which come through physical infirmity or personal disadvantage, and the inward, deep, spiritual love which is the fruit of the Holy Ghost. In a church whose inspiration is deficient, you will find strife, clamour, debate, and alienation; the members see one another in a false light; they mistake the meaning of words and the importance of accidents; they unduly project their own claims and dignities, and thus bring upon themselves penalties and

annoyance? which might have been escaped. But in a church whose inspiration abounds, you will find confidence, honour, love, patience, and peace like the calm of God. The whole difference lies in the degree of inspiration. It would seem as if men could not, in their natural state, live together without violence. If civilisation be pointed to in disproof of this suggestion, it should be remembered that civilisation is a system of checks and judgments specially arranged with a view to the repression of natural tendencies in the direction of social outrage and ^misdemeanour, and that that system is so carefully’ administered as to prevent men showing themselves in their real moral capacity; that is to say, they live in fear, and are good citizens only because they are timid men. In a truly Christian community, the system of repression and penalty is superseded; the church needs no magistracy; it lives in the fear of God, and is ruled by the communion of the Holy Ghost. But there are disorderly men in the church? In the visible body, truly; but not in the invisible fellowship. But good men stumble and err? Certainly; and their penitence, their humiliation, is in the proportion of their goodness. And true men fall below their vocation, do they not? Yes; and none can know the fact so well as themselves, yet they are pursued and recovered by the ministry of the Holy Ghost in proportion as their love of truth is real. “The communion of the Holy Ghost” is “with” the church when the church is pure, meek, earnest, quiet, patient, and loving; when the strong bear the infirmities of the weak; when the moral protest of the church is resented by the world as

Incidental Testimotiy. 255

keen, cruel, relentless, and intolerable; when things not seen throw things visible into shadow and contempt. “The communion of the Holy Ghost” is a bond of union which needs no lettered law to determin(; its function or call attention to its dignity. And this communion is something more than secret and holy love; something more, too, than rapt contemplation or spiritual absorption: in very deed it is a revelation.

“Bid God hath revealed them ttnto us by His SpiiHt;” not unto me only, but unto us. Of what is the apostle speaking? His words are remarkable: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither I have entered into the heart of man, the things which I God hath prepared for them that love Him.” So ’ much for the negative side; with this il contrasted the privilege conferred upon Christian believers: “God hatJi revealed theiii unto tis by His Spirit T So the Christian sees the world wdiich is invisible to others. The horizon is the prison line of other men, but to the man who is enlightened and ruled by the Holy Ghost it is the door of his Father’s higher kingdom. He has s’^wxXm-s foresight because he has spiritual insight. To natural sagacity, foresight is but the result of happy conjecture and venture; but to Christian intuition everything is made plain by the Holy Ghost. John, known pre-eminently by his love, teaches this doctrine in plain words, thus:” Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” Know, i.e., they have been” revealed by

256 The Paj-aclcte.

the Spirit” Heaven is no longer a mystery: its gates and its walls, its rivers and fountains, its thunders and storms of mighty alleluias, its harps and crowns, are made known; they, truly, are distant, but .the heaven of which they are, so to speak, but the accidents, has already sent its light and joy into hearts which have known the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. The Christian who allows himself to be darkened by passing clouds, or to be shut up withii the prison of locality, is simply leaving his supreme privilege unclaimed and unexercised.” Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see Godr

But have we not gone down in the extent of divine revelation as compared with the holy men of Old Testament times? Have we as close intimacy with the spiritual world as they had? They had dreams and visions and many revelations of angels; the darkness brought with it a light above the brightness of the sun, and solitude was peopled by radiant messengers; their life had a side on which heavenly glories were poured in rich profusion, — a side that caught the morning early, and stretched far away as if to the gate of the kingdom. Where are our dreams, our visions of the night, our entertainment of angels, our long detentions in holy solitude? Do we not live in meaner times, — do we not starve on the crumbs which fall from the banqueting tables of the elder saints? These questions are all dismissed by one great answer; it is true that in our time the vision has ceased, and that the

Incidental Testii)ioiiy. 257

angel Is no more seen, but instead of these preliminary and shadowy revelations, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son iitto oicr hearts, crying, Add a, Father! Thus we have the sufficing- revelation, — “Show us the Father and it sufficeth us.” Thus, too, we have an indwelling Spirit in place of a transient though dazzling vision. This, it should be observed, is the natural and proper climax of all preceding hints; symbols, and flashes of the hidden world. All these without a fulfillinof and crowning Spirit would have been signs of weakness, indicatinor throes and aoonies which ended in mere abortions. The better portion has fallen to the latter times. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son,” and hath laid aside the awfulness of His incommunicable name that He might be known to us by the tenderer name of Father. The value of this revelation will be felt exactly in the measure of our spiritual mindedness. If we are yet in the flesh we shall pine for the symbol, the dream, the half-seen, whispering angel; because the carnal mind loves the spectacular, the marvellous, the outward and tangible. But if we are in sympathy with Jesus Christ we shall see in the gift of the Holy Ghost the fulfilment of the richest promises-, and, even from a philosophical point of view, the most rational consummation of God’s elementary spiritual training of mankind. That training, apart from the Holy Ghost, is self-concluding; if continued, it becomes

s the gloomiest of all monotonies, — a circle whose revolutions bring repetition, weariness, and disappointment: the dreams come over again, the angels are but angels still, and thus reverence may drop into familiarity. But, on the other hand, that training, terminating itself in the Holy Ghost, as the dawn terminates in the full liMit, is a traininof towards Fatherhood, sonship, and immortal progress. Without Pentecost the Old Testament is an artificial light; with it, the Old Testament is a brightening uawn. “Have ye received the Holy Ghost?” If

“Gpkve not the Holy Spirit of God Grieve Hirii not by wishing for another ministry than His -^wn, pining after the revelations given to the infantile world, and otherwise hintin“” dissatisfaction. He is all gifts in one. Let your love go out towards Him in great acts of unquestioning trust, knowing that He is “the Holy Spirit of promise,” and consequently that any doubt of His power or grace ill shock Him as would blasphemy itself. Neither grtiie^Him by overt sin. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth;” “neither give place to the devil;” “put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,” “and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” The last exhortation is not thrown in as if it were directed to a mere variety of common sin; it has a special value of its own, — it is subtler and tenderer than any of the others. Not only have we to avoid gross and abominable offences, — lying,

Incidefital Testimony. 259

theft, and corrupt speech, — we have to take infinite care lest we grieve the indwelhng” Spirit. Thus, as we have’before seen, a severe and most jealous discipline is to be set up in the hidden world of motive, purpose, thought, and unuttered desire. AvS a delicate bloom requires more care tan a rough bark, so a thouoht calls for keener watchfulness than an action. We grieve society by a crime, but we grieve the Spirit by a wish. So, we may be able to defy social judgment, yet we may be “vexing the Holy Spirit” by a rebellion of which society knows nothing. How terrible, then, in righteousness are the judgments of God, and to how sensitive a discipline are men called in Christ Jesus! Yet herein is the womanliness of the Divine nature, its infinite grace and pathos, in that it condescends to be grieved! Why not crush the disloyal universe, and set up Death upon the ruins of Life? Why be subjected to tears and anguish because of a few creatures who mar the beautifulness of existence? Let them be stricken down with the sword of anger, O mighty and terrible King! No: He sees Himself in them; He views them in all the possibilities of His own purpcse; and He suffers the “grief” if haply there may in the long run come out of it a sweet and imperishable joy. Yet He “will not always strive;” so men are called to care and to penitence, thus —

“Quench not the Spirit!* This is not an act complete in itself, simple and final; it is the last point of a line that may be very long. To grieve the Spirit is the first motion towards quenching His inspiration. To hesitate to do that which is right; to keep back part of the consecrated price; to modify religious emphasis lest it should irritate worldly contentment, — to do thse things is to begin to quench the holy fire. To exaggerate the tone of the voice, that the cowardliness of the heart may be disguised; to brush with more and more effusive care the earment of personal respectability, that the true condition of the spirit may be concealed from men; to pile with lavish hands mountains of flowers upon the cruel grave of expired affections, — to do these things is to depose God from the throne of the soul! Surely, the fire cools lingeringly; surely, it is with infinite reluctance, with inexpressible pain, that God vanished from the soul of man! Great doctrines may be taught even in tones of expostulation and warning, as is shown with startling distinctness in this case. The sentence is so brief It is like a sudden cry. Who could have thought it possible that God could have been worsted by His own child, — expelled from that child’s holy and loving homage? When the apostle said “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,” it might have been thought that he had been giving unnecessary caution; but when he adds “quench not the Spirit,” the horror of a great darkness seems to come down upon his words. In effect he says, — You can insult God, you can mock Him, you can set His commands at nought, and banish Him from your love and reverence You cannot touch one of His stars, nor can you silence one of His winds, but you can cruelly wound His heart, and utterly exclude Him from your thought. And what can equal the emptiness and desolation of a life from which God has been expelled! “The last end of that man shall be worse than the first.” It is impossible that ever more there can come to such a man the tender hopes and promises of a second spring. “It were better for that man that he had never been born.” Yet v.’ith respect to other cases a very hopeful word is spoken: —

“— reneimng of the Holy Ghost’’ — as if a process of wear and tear took place in spiritual activity, and a counter process of resuscitation had been established in the divine economy. Such words seem to convey a lofty challenge, to this effect, — Give, and it shall be given to you in return; spend and be spent, and at eventide all your strength shall be recruited and increased; go out bravely into the darkest and roughest parts of the world, and sacrifice yourselves in the spirit of Christ for the salvation of mankind, and be assured that the Spirit will abound with the overflow of your love, and as your day so shall your strength be. We know what is meant by physical and intellectual renewal. A mountain climb or a journey on the sea may refresh the blood and make us young again; mental rest, or high companionship of mind, may re-establish our intellectual energy. There is something, analogous to this in spiritual exhaustion. When the heart has emptied itself of its divinest elements for the good of others, it is secretly renewed, and endowed with still higher strength, by the ministry of the Holy Ghost. The athlete says that he is strengthened by exercise; so the good man is made better by his benevolence; the philanthropist enriches himself by blessing others; the liberal soul is made fat, and he who expends most of his spiritual life has most spiritual life to expend, being “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.” Out of all this renewal, so constant and so abounding, there comes what is called —

“yoy in the Holy Ghost.*’’ The awfulness of His presence, so far as it was merely awfulness, has passed away, and is succeeded by “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” “The fruit of the Spirit is joy” “The disciples lyere filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.” Joy is a state in which all the powers and desires of the soul have been brought to the rhythmic point; the contentions of logic have ceased, reason has accepted its boundaries with pious grace, hope has seen lights shining afar, and doublinof themselves even in the intervening stream of death, and thus heaven has been anticipated in first- -fruits and preliminary gladdenings and satisfactions. The joy is not in mere facts or histories; it is not the happiness of momentary surprise; it is spiritual jo)’, vital joy, joy in the Holy Ghost. Why distinguish it so specifically? To show its purity, its duration, and its independence of everything artificial and accidental. This joy, too, unlike much of what commonly goes for joy, admits of analysis, and of defence on the most obviously rational grounds. It is not a flutter that has no meaning, or a throb that has no moral history behind it. If it be likened to a brilliant pinnacle which the sunlight is goldening into glory, it will be because under the pinnacle there is a solid building, and under the building great foundations of rock. Below this exultant joy lie the main facts of spiritual experience, — the fact of pardon, the fact of regeneration, the fact of adoption, the fact of sonship; and out of this solid masonry, a temple not made with hands, there rises the pinnacle of joy which flashes brightly and is seen afar. The Christian cannot but be joyous. All the elements that enter into his new personality conspire to make him the freest and gladdest of men.

We have gathered up these points as specimens of many others, without which the more continuous and formal evidence would be incomplete. The marvellous scope of the Spirit’s work, even as thus imperfectly outlined, cannot have escaped attention. Look at it: He inspires, teaches, guides, leads, comforts, rebukes, helps, prevents; He enters human life by every line of approach; He rules human conduct by every motive that can stir the will; He throws upon human destiny every light that can make it at once solemn and glad. In this way (so profound, so wide) He fulfils every expectation created by the speciality of His mission. Great historical characters have their places and functions well defined; they begin and they end at points which admit of minute indication; their influence has an assignable range and value; even Jesus Christ, in His human and visible revelation, has His Bethlehem and Olivet, His coming and His goir.g amongst men; but the Holy Ghost penetrates every age and every stratum of life; He goes before our very thouofht, and holds His licrhthioh above the secret of our heart; He inspires with gladness, and He shocks the bravest until their knees tremble. His action, like His nature, is mysterious, so sudden, so real, so deeply felt, yet neither to be measured nor expressed in words, — more delicate than thought, tenderer than love, yet mightier than lightning; present everywhere yet nowhere visible; an eternal certainty )’et also an eternal surprise. All’ this is happily self-consistent, and is precisely what might have been (though with infinite imperfectness) predicated of the conditions. A happy sense of satisfaction comes with it all. Our sense of the necessary mystery of spiritual life is met, whilst all the pure hungerings and thirstings of the soul are appeased. W.e feel, as we lay’^hold of the realities of the doctrine, that the revelation of the Person and Ministry of the Holy Ghost is given in the best manner, with awfulness yet with familiarity, — -.that the Holy Ghost Himself combines the solemn magnificence and independent solitude of the Sim, with all the gracious universality and animating friendliness of Light.

At this point the expository and affirmative argument may rest for a while. We have other and less pleasant work to do; yet it must be done for the sake of those who may be undertaking the consideration of the subject from, its controversial side. It must not be forgotten that Christian thinkers are called, not only to expound their Master’s doctrine, but to “contend earnestly for the faith.” As a matter of fact there are not a fewlearned and energetic writers who are doing their utmost (though often in an indirect way) to bring discredit upon Christian theology; and as their books are read by young men, it is important that some notice should be taken of the arguments which are urged upon the attention of their readers. If those arguments 5re sound and unanswerable we must yield to them, at all events until a teacher shall come with adequate power to disprove and overthrow them. It would be convenient to ignore all such arguments were they not troubling the minds and imperilling the faith of many, — of many, too, who only with infinite reluctance would part with anything which they had ever loved or prized for its Christian worth. How does it come, then, that in the ‘face of highly intellectual hostility we still uphold in honour the Christian faith? Can such men as are well known in the most influcnllal literature of Europe be wrong in their conclusions respecting religion? They are honoured as authorities in history, philosophy, logic, and general science, why are they to be discredited as theological controversialists? These are questions which are urged by thoughtful persons, or which secretly trouble them, and to their considerations we now turn.