'He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost!' The
symbolical action reminds us of the Creation story, when into the
nostrils was breathed 'the breath of life, and man became a living
soul.' The symbol is but a symbol, but what it teaches us is that every
Christian man who has passed through the experiences which make him
Christ's envoy, receives the equipment of a new life, and that that
life is the gift of the risen Lord. This Prometheus came from the dead
with the spark of life guarded in His pierced hands, and He bestowed it
upon us; for the Spirit of life, which is the Spirit of Christ, is
granted to all Christian men. Dear brethren! we have not lived up to
the realities of our Christian confession, unless into our death has
come, and there abides, this life derived from Jesus Himself, the
communication of which goes along with all faith in Him.
But the gift which Jesus brought to that group of timid disciples in
the upper room did not make superfluous the further gift on the day of
Pentecost. The communication of the divine Spirit to men runs parallel
with, depends on, and follows, the revelation of divine truth, so the
ascended Lord gave more of that life to the disciples, who had been
made capable of more of it by the fact of beholding His ascension, than
the risen Lord could give on that Easter Day. But whilst thus there are
measures and degrees, the life is given to every believer in
correspondence with the clearness and the contents of his faith.
It is the power that will fit any of us for the work for which we are
sent into the world. If we are here to represent Jesus Christ, and if
it is true of us that 'as He is, so are we, in this world,' that
likeness can only come about by our receiving into our spirits a
kindred life which will effloresce and manifest itself to men in
kindred beauty of foliage and of fruit. If we are to be 'the lights of
the world,' our lamps must be fed with oil. If we are to be Christ's
representatives, we must have Christ's life in us. Here, too, is the
only source of strength and life to us Christian people, when we look
at the difficulties of our task and measure our own feebleness against
the work that lies before us. I suppose no man has ever tried honestly
to be what Christ wished him to be amidst his fellows, whether as
preacher or teacher or guide in any fashion, who has not hundreds of
times clasped his hands in all but despair, and said, 'Who is
sufficient for these things?' That is the temper into which the power
will come. The rivers run in the valleys, and it is the lowly sense of
our own unfitness for the task which yet presses upon us, and
imperatively demands to be done, that makes us capable of receiving
that divine gift.
It is for lack of it that so much of so-called 'Christian effort' comes
to nothing. The priests may pile the wood upon the altar, and compass
it all day long with vain cries, and nothing happens. It is not till
the fire comes down from heaven that sacrifice and altar and wood and
water in the trench, are licked up and converted into fiery light. So,
dear brethren! it is because the Christian Church as a whole, and we as
individual members of it, so imperfectly realise the A B C of our
faith, our absolute dependence on the inbreathed life of Jesus Christ,
to fit us for any of our work, that so much of our work is ploughing
the sands, and so often we labour for vanity and spend our strength for
nought. What is the use of a mill full of spindles and looms until the
fire-born impulse comes rushing through the pipes? Then they begin to
move.
Let me remind you, too, that the words which our Lord here employs
about these great gifts, when accurately examined, do lead us to the
thought that we, even we, are not altogether passive in the reception
of that gift. For the expression, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost' might,
with more completeness of signification, be rendered, 'take ye the Holy
Ghost.' True, the outstretched hand is nothing, unless the giving hand
is stretched out too. True, the open palm and the clutching fingers
remain empty, unless the open palm above drops the gift. But also true,
things in the spiritual realm that are given have to be asked for,
because asking opens the heart for their entrance. True, that gift was
given once for all, and continuously, but the appropriation and the
continual possession of it largely depend upon ourselves. There must be
desire before there can be possession. If a man does not take his
pitcher to the fountain the pitcher remains empty, though the fountain
never ceases to spring. There must be taking by patient waiting. The
old Friends had a lovely phrase when they spoke about 'waiting for the
springing of the life.' If we hold out a tremulous hand, and our cup is
not kept steady, the falling water will not enter it, and much will be
spilt upon the ground. Wait on the Lord, and the life will rise like a
tide in the heart. There must be a taking by the faithful use of what
we possess. 'To him that hath shall be given.' There must be a taking
by careful avoidance of what would hinder. In the winter weather the
water supply sometimes fails in a house. Why? Because there is a plug
of ice in the service-pipe. Some of us have a plug of ice, and so the
water has not come,
'_Take_ the Holy Spirit!'