words. There must be _love_ to Christ and to all men; _obedience_ to
His will, so far as it is revealed; _recognition_ of His mediation and
intercession, as alone giving us the right to draw nigh;
_identification_ with Him, so as to be able to use His name;
_passionate desires for the Father's glory_. Where these five
conditions exist, there can be no doubt as to our receiving the
petitions which we offer. Prayer that complies with them cannot fail,
since it is only the return tide of an impulse which has emanated from
the heart of God.
(3) Note how the Saviour lives for the promotion of His Father's glory.
How often, during His earthly ministry, He declared that He was
desiring and seeking this beyond all else! Though His prayer could
only be granted by His falling into the ground to die, He never
flinched from saying, "Father, glorify Thy Name." But here He tells us
that through the ages as they pass He will still be set on the same
quest. By all means He must glorify His Father; and if, in any prayer
of ours, we can show that what we ask will augment the Father's glory,
we are certain to obtain His concurrence and glad acquiescence.
"That," He says, "will I do."
(4) We must pray "in His Name." As the ambassador speaks in the name
of queen and country; as the tax-collector appeals in the name of the
authorities; both deriving from their identification with their
superiors an authority they could not otherwise exercise; so our words
become weighted with a great importance when we can say to our Father,
"We are so one with Jesus that He is asking in and through us; these
words are His; these desires His; these objects those on which His
heart is set. We have His sanction and authority to use His name."
When we ask a favor in the name of another, that other is the
petitioner, through us; so when we approach God in the Name of Jesus,
it is not enough to append His sacred name as a formula, but we must
see to it that Jesus is pleading in us, asking through our lips, as He
is asking through His own in the heart of the sapphire throne.
III. THE LINK BETWEEN THESE TWO.--"He will give you another Comforter."
The word Comforter might be rendered Advocate. We have two Advocates;
one with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and one with us. As
the one went up, the other came down. As the one sat down at the right
hand of God, the other rested on the heads and hearts of the company in
the upper room. As the one has compassion on our infirmities, so the
other helps our infirmities. As the one ever liveth to intercede for
us in heaven, so the other maketh intercession in us for the saints
with groanings that cannot be uttered.
This is the clue to the mystery of prayer. It is all-important that
the Church on earth should be in accord with its Head in His petitions
before the Throne. Of what avail is it for a client and advocate to
enter an earthly court of justice unless they are in agreement? Of
what use is it to have two instruments in an orchestra which are not
perfectly in tune? And how can we expect that God will hear us unless
we ask what is according to His will, and, therefore, what is in the
heart and thought of Jesus?
This, then, is the problem that confronts us. How can we ascertain
what Jesus is pleading for? We may guess it generally, but how be
assured of it particularly? Who will tell us the direction in which
the current of His mighty pleadings is setting, that we may take the
same direction? These inquiries are answered in the ministry of the
Holy Spirit. On the one hand, He fills and moves the Head, and on the
other, His members. There is one Spirit of life between Jesus in the
glory and His believing people everywhere. One ocean washes the shores
of all natures in which the life of God is found.
Be still, therefore, and listen carefully to the voice of the Spirit of
God speaking in thine heart, as thou turnest from all other sounds
toward His still small whisper, and He will tell thee all. Coming, as
He does, from the heart of Jesus, He will tell thee His latest thought.
In Him we have the mind of Christ. Then, sure that we are one with
Him, and therefore with the Father, we shall ask what is according to
His will to give. Prayer goes in an eternal circle. It begins in the
heart of God, comes to us through the Saviour and by the Spirit, and
returns through us again to its source. It is the teaching of the
raindrops, of the tides, of the procession of the year; but wrought out
and exemplified in the practice of holy hearts.
IX
The Other Paraclete
"He shall give you another Comforter."--JOHN xiv. 16.
There was no doubt in our Lord's mind that His asking would be at once
followed by the Father's giving. Indeed, the two actions seemed, in
His judgment, indissolubly connected--"I will ask, and He shall give."
From which we learn that prayer is a necessary link in the order of the
Divine government. Though we are assured that what we ask is in God's
purpose to communicate--that it lies in the heart of a promise, or in
the line of the Divine procedure, yet we must nevertheless make
request. "Ye have not," said the Apostle James, "because ye ask not."
"Ask," said the Master, His eye being open to the laws of the spiritual
world, "and it shall be given you."
The prayer of the Head of the Church was heard, and He received the
Holy Spirit to bestow Him again. "Having received of the Father the
promise of the Holy Spirit," said the Apostle Peter, "He hath shed
forth this, which ye now see and hear." Thus the Holy Spirit is the
gift of the Father, through the Son, though He is equal with each of
the blessed Persons in the Trinity, and is with them to be worshipped
and glorified.
I. THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST.--That word, "another"--"He shall
give you _another_ Comforter"--is in itself sufficient to prove the
Divinity and Personality of the Holy Ghost. If a man promises to send
another as his substitute, we naturally expect to see a man like
himself, occupying his place, and doing his work. And when Jesus
foreannounced another Comforter, He must have intended a Person as
distinct and helpful as He had been. A breath, an afflatus, an
impersonal influence could not have stood in the same category with
Himself.
There are those who think that the Holy Spirit is to the Lord Jesus
what a man's spirit is to his body; and imagine that our Lord simply
intended that the spirit of His life-teaching and self-sacrifice would
brood over and inspire His followers; but this could not have fulfilled
the promise of "the other Comforter." It would simply have been
Himself over again, though no longer as a living Person; rather as the
momentum and energy of a receding force which gets weaker and ever
weaker as the ages pass. Thus the spirit of Napoleon or of Caesar is
becoming little more than a dim faint echo of footsteps that once shook
the world.
Jesus knew how real and helpful He had been to His followers--the
centre around which they had rallied; their Teacher, Brother, Master;
and He would not have tantalized them by promising another Paraclete,
unless He had intended to announce the advent of One who would adjust
Himself to their needs with that quickness of perception, and
sufficiency of resource, which characterize a personal Leader and
Administrator. There were times approaching when the little band would
need counsel, direction, sympathy, the interposition of a strong wise
Hand--qualities which could not be furnished by the remembrance of the
past, fading like the colors on clouds when the sun has set; and which
could only be secured by the presence of a strong, wise, ever-present
Personality. "I have been one Paraclete," said the Lord in effect;
"but I am now going to plead your cause with the Father, that another
Paraclete may take My place, to be My other self, and to abide with you
forever."
There is no adequate translation for that word _Paraclete_. It may be
rendered Comforter, Helper, Advocate, Interpreter; but no one word
suffices. The Greek simply means one whom you call to your side, in a
battle, or a law-court, to assist you by word or act. Such a One is
Christ; such a One is the Holy Spirit. He is a definite Person whom
you can call to, and lean on, and work with. If a man were drowning,
he would not call to the wandering breath of the wind; but to any
person who might be on the bank. The Spirit is One whom you can summon
to your side; and it is therefore quite in keeping with Scripture to
pray to the Holy Spirit. On the whole we are taught to direct prayer
to the Father, through the Son, and as prompted by the Holy Spirit; but
as a matter of practice and habit, it is indifferent which Person in
the Holy Trinity we address, for each is equally God. As the Father is
God, so also is the Son, and so the Holy Spirit. In her hymns and
liturgies the Church has never hesitated to summon the Holy Spirit to
her help.
It is in recognition of the Personality of the Holy Spirit that the
historian of the Acts of the Apostles quotes His solemn words,
"Separate _Me_ Barnabas and Saul"; tells us that Ananias and Sapphira
lied to Him; and records that the Church at Jerusalem commenced its
encyclical letter with the words, "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and
to us." Happy that body of Christians which has come to realize that
the Holy Ghost is as certainly, literally, and personally present in
its midst, as Jesus Christ was present when, in the days of His flesh,
He tarried among men!
II. A SEVENFOLD PARALLEL BETWEEN THE ADVENTS OF THE TWO
PARACLETES.--(1) _Each was in the world before His specific
advent._--Long before His incarnation the delights of the Son of God
were with men. In Angel-form, He visited their tents, spoke with them
face to face, calmed their fears, and fought on their behalf. He trod
the holy fields of Palestine with noiseless footfall that left no
impress on the lightest sands, long before He learned to walk with
baby-feet, or bore His cross up Calvary.
So with the Holy Spirit. He brooded over chaos, strove with men before
the deluge, moved holy men to write the Scriptures, foreshadowed the
advent of the Messiah, equipped prophets and kings for their special
mission. In restraining evil, urging to good, preparing the way for
Christ, the Holy Spirit found abundant scope for His energies. But His
influence was rather external than internal; savored rather of gift
than grace; and dealt more often with the few than with the many--with
the great souls that reared themselves to heaven like Alpine summits
touched with the fires of dawn, rather than with the generality of men,
who dwelt in the valley of daily commonplace, enwrapped in the mists of
ignorance and unbelief. It was to be the special prerogative of this
age, that He should be poured out on all flesh, so that sons and
daughters should prophesy, whilst servants and handmaidens participated
in His gracious influences.
(2) _The advent of each was previously announced._--From the Fall, the
coming of the great Deliverer was foretold in type and sign, in speech
and act, in history and prophecy. Indeed, as the time of the
Incarnation drew nigh, as Milton tells us in his sublime ode on the
Incarnation, surrounding nations had caught from the chosen people the
spirit of expectancy, and the world was in feverish anticipation of the
coming of its Redeemer. He was the Desire of all nations. All the
ages, and all the family of man, accompanied Mary to Bethlehem, and
worshipped with the Magi.
So with the Holy Spirit. Joel distinctly foretold that in the last
days of that dispensation. God would pour out of His Spirit; and His
message is echoed by Isaiah, Zechariah, Ezekiel, and others; till Jesus
came, who more specifically and circumstantially led the thoughts of
His disciples forward to the new age then dawning, which should be
introduced and signalized by the coming and ministry of the Spirit.
(3) _Each was manifested in a body._--The Lord Jesus in that which was
prepared for Him by the Father, and born of a pure Virgin. We are
told, that He took on Him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of man. Similarly the Holy Spirit became, so to speak,
incorporate in that mystical Body, the Church, of which Jesus is the
Head.
On the day of Pentecost, the hundred and twenty who were gathered in
the upper room, and who, up to that time, had had no corporate
existence, were suddenly constituted a Church, the habitation and home
of the Divine Spirit. What the human body of Jesus was to the second
Person of the Holy Trinity, that the infant Church was to the third;
though it did not represent the whole body, since we must add to those
gathered in the upper room many more in heaven and on earth, who by
virtue of their union with the risen Christ constituted with them the
Holy Catholic Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who
filleth all in all. "This," said the Blessed Spirit, "is My rest
forever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it."
(4) _Each was named before His advent._--"Thou shalt call His name
Emmanuel." "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Thus was the Lord
Jesus designated to loving hearts before His birth.
So also with the Holy Spirit. The last discourses of Jesus are full of
appellatives, each setting forth some new phase of the Holy Spirit's
ministry; some freshly-cut facet of His character. The Spirit of
Truth; the Holy Spirit; the Paraclete; the Spirit of Conviction--such
are some of the names by which He was to be known.
(5) _Each was dependent on another._--Our Lord said distinctly, "The
Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do"; and He
said of the Holy Spirit, using the same preposition, "He shall not
speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak."
What a conception is here! It is as though the Holy Spirit were ever
listening to the Divine colloquy and communion between the Father and
the Son, and communicating to receptive hearts disclosures of the
secrets of the Deity. The things which eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, God hath revealed unto us by His Spirit; "for the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God."
(6) _Each received witness._--The Father bore witness to His Son on
three separate occasions. On the first, at His baptism, He said, "This
is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"; on the second, when the
three apostles were with Him on the holy mount, and He received from
the Father glory and honor; and on the third, when the inquiry of the
Greeks reminded Him of His approaching death, and the voice from heaven
assured Him that glory would accrue to the Father through His falling
into the ground to die.
So in regard to the Holy Spirit. Seven times from the throne the
ascended Lord summons those that have ears, to hear what the Spirit
saith to the churches; as though to emphasize the urgent importance of
His message, and the necessity of giving it our most earnest heed, lest
we should drift past it.
(7) _The presence of each is guaranteed during the present age._--"I am
with you," saith the Lord, and they were among the closing words of His
posthumous ministry, "all the days, even unto the end of the age"; and
here it is foretold that the Comforter would abide during the age, for
so the phrase might more accurately be rendered.
This is specially the age of the Holy Spirit. He may be grieved,
ignored, and rejected; but He will not cease His blessed ministry to
the bride, till the Bridegroom comes to claim her for Himself. Oh, let
us avail ourselves of His gracious presence to the utmost of our
opportunity, that He may realize in us the full purpose of His
ministry. Let us not pray for Him, as if in any degree He had been
withdrawn, but as believing that He is as much with the Church of
to-day as on the day of Pentecost; as near us as when awe-struck eyes
beheld Him settling in flame on each meekly-bowed head.
The Lord said, "He shall remain with you to the end of the age." The
age is not closed, therefore He must be with us here and now. There
can be no waning of His grace or power. The pot of oil is in the
Church, only she has ceased to bring her empty vessels. The mine is
beneath our feet, but we do not work it as of yore. The electric
current is vibrating around, but we have lost the art of switching
ourselves on to its flow. It is not necessary then for us to pray the
Father that He should give the Holy Paraclete in the sense in which He
bestowed Him on the Day of Pentecost in answer to the request of our
Lord. That prayer has been answered: the Paraclete is here; but we
need to have the eyes of our heart opened to perceive, and the hand of
our faith strengthened that we may receive, Him.
The work of the Holy Spirit in and through us is conditioned by certain
great laws, which call for our definite and accurate obedience. Not on
emotion, nor on hysteric appeals, nor on excitement, but on obedience,
does the power of God's Spirit pass into human hearts and lives.
Therefore, let us walk in the Paracletism of the Paraclete, continually
in the current of His gracious influences, which will bear us on their
bosom ever nearer to our Lord. Oh to glorify Him; to know and love
Him; to become passionately eager that all hearts should enthrone Him
regardless of the personal cost it may involve! Glory be to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the
beginning, is now, and shall be forevermore. Amen.
X
The Three Dispensations
"The Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth
Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with
you, and shall be in you."--JOHN xiv. 17.
They are lofty themes which we have been discussing in the foregoing
pages; and just because they touch the highest matters of the spiritual
life, they involve us in profound responsibility. It was because
Capernaum had been exalted to heaven in privilege, that she could be
cast down to hell. Of those to whom much is given, much is required.
Better not to have known these truths of the inner life, if we are
content to know them only by an intellectual apprehension, and make no
effort to incorporate them into the texture of our character. Few
things harden more certainly than to delight in the presentation of the
mysteries of the kingdom, without becoming the child of the kingdom.
The object, therefore, which now engages us is less one of elucidation
than of self-examination. Let us discern ourselves. Let us see
whether we be in the faith. Let us expose soul and spirit to the
discrimination of the Word of God, which is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart.
I. THERE ARE TWO AVENUES OF KNOWLEDGE.--"Whom the world cannot receive,
because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." Three things are
specified as beyond the range of the world's power: it does not
receive, it does not know, it does not see, the things of the unseen
and eternal world. It cannot see them, therefore it does not know
them, and therefore does not receive them, and this is especially true
of its attitude toward the Holy Ghost.
When the world hears talk of the Holy Spirit it brings to bear upon Him
those organs of cognition which it has been accustomed to apply to the
objects of the natural world, and even to the human life of Christ.
But, as might have been expected, these are altogether useless. It is
as absurd to endeavor to detect the presence of the spiritual and
eternal by the faculties with which we discern what is seen and
temporal, as it would be to attempt to receive the impression of a
noble painting by the sense of taste, or to deal with the problems of
astronomy by the tests that are employed in chemical analysis. The
world, however, does not realize its mistake. It persists in applying
tests to the Spirit of God which may be well enough in other regions of
discovery, but which are worse than useless here. "The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned." "Whom the world cannot
receive, for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him."
There was a touch of this worldly spirit even in Thomas, when he said,
"Except I see in His hand the print of the nails, and thrust my hand
into His side, I will not believe"; and in so far as the world-spirit
is permitted to hold sway within us, our powers of spiritual perception
will be blunted, and become infected with the tendency to make our
intellect or imagination our sole means of apprehending Divine truth.
There is a better way than this; and our Lord indicates it when He
says, "Ye know Him, for He abideth with you, and shall be in you."
Pascal said, "The world knows in order to love: the Christian loves, in
order to know." The same thought underlies these words of Christ. The
world attempts to see the Spirit, that it may know and receive Him; the
child of God receives Him by an act of faith that he may know Him.
An illustration of this habit is given in the story of Naaman. The
spirit of the world whispered to him of the desirability of _knowing_
that the waters of Israel possessed curative properties, before he
committed himself absolutely to the prophet's directions; and if he had
waited to know before bathing in them, he would have remained a
helpless leper to the end of his days. His servants, however, had a
clearer perception of the way of faith, and persuaded him to dip seven
times in the Jordan. He acted on the suggestion, dipped seven times,
and his flesh came as that of a little child. Similarly we are called
to act upon grounds which the world would hold to be inadequate. We
hear the testimony of another; we recognize a suitability in the
promise of the Scripture to meet the deep yearnings of our soul; we
feel that the words and works of Jesus Christ constitute a unique claim
for Him, and we open our hearts toward Him. In absolute humility and
perfect obedience we yield to Him our whole nature. Though the night
be yet dark, we fling wide our windows to the warm southwest wind
coming over the sea. The result is that we begin to know, with an
intuitive knowledge that cannot be shaken by the pronouncements of the
higher criticism. We have received the Spirit, and our after life is
too short to unfold all that is involved in that unspeakable gift. We
know Him because He abideth with us, and is in us. No man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him; and we can
only know the Spirit of God when He has taken up His residence within
us, and witnesses with our spirit, as One who is interwoven with the
very texture of the inner life.
Consecration is therefore the key to this higher knowledge, and if any
who read this page are yearning after a discernment of the things of
God on which they may build the house of their faith amid the swirl of
the storm and the beat of the wave of modern doubt, let them open their
entire nature, humbly to receive, diligently to obey that Spirit whom
Christ waits to give to all who seek.
II. THE CHARACTERISTIC OF THIS DISPENSATION.--"He shall be _in_ you."
It has been repeatedly said that creation is the work of the Father,
redemption of the Son, and regeneration of the Holy Spirit. It may
also be said, that there are three dispensations: that of the Father,
in the earlier history of mankind; that of the Son, culminating in our
Lord's ascension; and that of the Holy Spirit, in which we are now
living. In the history of the world these were successive. In the
history of souls they may be the contemporaneous. In the same house
one member may be in the dispensation of the Father, another in that of
the Son, and a third in that of the Holy Ghost. It is highly
necessary, says the saintly Fletcher, that every good steward of the
mysteries of God should be well acquainted with this fact, otherwise he
will not rightly divide the word of life. There is peril lest we
should give the truth of one order of dispensation to those who are
living on another level of experience.