The Spirit of Truth

“Another Comforter, even the Spirit of Truth.” John xiv:16, 17.

THE Holy Spirit has given us His supreme message in the Holy Scriptures. The Bible is the standard of spiritual truth, and in all His teachings and leadings, the Holy Ghost never contradicts His own Word. They who are most fully led of the Spirit will always most reverence the authority of the Scriptures, and walk in the most perfect conformity with their principles and precepts.

But it is not enough to have the letter of the Word; He who gave it must also interpret it and make it spirit and life. It is His to unfold to the heart the power and reality of the written Word and to bring it to our remembrance in the opportune moment as the lamp of guidance, or the sword of defence in the hour of temptation.

A prominent member of the House of Representatives, speaking the other day about the inestimable value of the National Library of Congress, was asked how it was possible for a busy member, without much study and labor, to know how to use it effectually, and to be able always to find the right volume or page where a given subject was discussed: ‘‘Oh,’’ he replied, “that is made perfectly

easy for us by our invaluable librarian, who knows every book and subject, and all we have to do is to send a little page from our desk in the House with a note to him requesting the best authority on any subject we require, and he immediately comes back with the right book and the leaves turned down at the very spot where we need the information.” Blessed be God, we have a Divine Librarian who understands the Bible better than we ever can, and who has come to be our Monitor and Guide, not only into its meaning, but also into its practical application to every need of life.

It is not enough to have a good light, we must have the organs of vision or it is of no use; and we must have them in perfect condition. Now, the Holy Spirit comes to be to us sight as well as light.

This is the special work of the Holy Ghost, to give to us a new spiritual vision and organ of apprehension; so that the soul directly perceives divine things and realities. Perhaps the first effect of this divine illumination is that the things of God become intensely real, and stand out with vividness and distinctness, like figures cut in relief on the wall. The person of Christ, the light of His countenance, the distinct sweetness of His Spirit, the ‘’peace that passeth all understanding,’’ “the joy of the Lord,” the heavenly world, all become to the heart more actual and intensely vivid than the things we see with our outward eyes, and touch with our human hands.

In the first chapter of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul has given us a sublime view of the effect of this inward illumination upon the heart. “I cease not,” he says, “to make mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you tl;e Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The eyes of your heart being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

“And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.

“Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.

“Far above all principality, and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come;”

“That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus,”

Here we find it is not the eyes of our intellect, but the eyes of the heart that are to be illuminated, and when so quickened by the Spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Him, we shall understand what is the hope of our calling, and the glorious privileges and prospects which we are to inherit in Christ.

And we shall see that the riches of the glory of His inheritance are not only for us, but for us, and even in us now. We shall be stirred with a realization of the exceeding greatness of His power toward us and tor us. We shall have an adequate conception of the mighty things that we may dare to claim of Him, and we shall learn to: —

Rise with our risen Lord,

Ascend with Christ above
And in the heavenlies dwell with Him
Whom seeing not we love.