II

We turn now to the second part of our question: What is it that the Holy

Spirit does for us? Christ's teaching on the work of the Spirit may be

gathered up under two heads: (1) His work in the Church; (2) His work in

the world.

(1) When we speak of the Spirit's work in the Church, it must be

understood that the reference is to no particular ecclesiastical

organization, but to the people of Christ generally, "the men and women

in whom the spiritual work of Christ is going forward." And among these

the Holy Spirit works in two ways.

(_a_) He is the Spirit of truth, the Divine Remembrancer: "He shall

guide you into all the truth;" "He shall take of Mine, and shall declare

it unto you;" "He shall teach you all things, and bring to your

remembrance all that I said unto you." It is not, it will be observed,

all truth, but all the truth of Christ, with which the Spirit deals--the

truth concerning Him, and the truth which He taught. Nor is it a new

revelation which the Spirit gives, but rather a more perfect

understanding of that which has been already given in Christ. Here,

then, is the test by which to try all that claims the authority of

spiritual truth. Does it "glorify" Christ? Does it lead us into a fuller

knowledge of Him "in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge

hidden"? "Whosoever goeth onward," says St. John, in a remarkable

passage, for which English readers are indebted to the Revised Version,

"and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God." In other

words, no true progress is possible except as we abide in Christ. If He

be ignored and left behind, though we still keep the name and boast

ourselves "progressives," we have lost the reality. On the other hand,

every new discovery, every movement in the life of men, every

intellectual and spiritual awakening which serves to make manifest the

glory of Christ as Creator, or Revealer, or Redeemer, is a fresh

fulfilment of His promise concerning the guiding Spirit of truth.

Perhaps our best commentary is the history of the Church. In the New

Testament itself we have the first-fruits of the Spirit's work. There we

may see, in Gospels and Epistles, how the Spirit took of the things of

Christ and showed them unto His disciples. And all through the varied

history of the Church's long past, that same Divine Remembrancer has

been at work, calling us through the lips of an Augustine, a Luther, or

a Wesley, into the fullness of the inheritance of truth which is ours in

Christ Jesus.

(_b_) The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of power. "Behold," said the

ascending Christ, "I send forth the promise of My Father upon you; but

tarry ye in the city until ye be clothed with power from on high." And,

again, "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you."

Of Jesus Himself it was said by one of His disciples "that God anointed

Him with the Holy Ghost and with power"; and of His disciples Jesus

said: "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall He do also;

and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father."

Here, again, our best commentary is the history of the Church, and

especially the first chapter of that history as it is written in the

Acts of the Apostles. This was the promise, "Ye shall receive power,"

and this, in brief, the story of its fulfilment, "With great power gave

the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." Let

any one read the early chapters of St. Luke's narrative; let him mark

the utter disparity between the "acts" and the "apostles"--between the

things done and the men by whom they were done--and then let him ask if

there is any explanation which does really bridge the gulf short of

this, that behind Peter and John and the rest there stood Another,

speaking through their lips, working through their hands, Himself the

real Doer in all those wondrous "acts"? When D.L. Moody was holding in

Birmingham one of those remarkable series of meetings which so deeply

stirred our country in the early 'seventies, Dr. Dale, who followed the

work with the keenest sympathy, and yet not without a feeling akin to

stupefaction at the amazing results which it produced, once told Moody

that the work was most plainly of God, for he could see no real relation

between him and what he had done. Is not this disparity the very

sign-manual of the Holy Spirit's presence? "Why," asked Peter, when the

multitude were filled with wonder and amazement at the healing of the

lame man, "Why fasten ye your eyes on us as though by our own power or

godliness we had made him to walk?" Work that is really of God can never

be accounted for in that fashion. There is always a something in the

effects which cannot be traced back to a human cause. Let "our own power

and godliness" be what they may--and they can never be too great--they

are all vain and helpless apart from the power of God. "I planted,

Apollos watered; God gave the increase." Wherefore let the Church trust

neither in him that planteth nor in him that watereth, but in God who

giveth the increase.

(2) We come now to the Holy Spirit's work in the world. And, just as in

speaking of the "Church" it was not any visible organization which we

had in mind, so now by the "world" is not meant merely the persons who

are outside all such organizations. There is, as we are often reminded

nowadays, a Church outside the Churches; and, on the other hand, not a

little of what Christ meant by the "world" is often to be found inside

what we mean by the "Church." The "world," then, is simply the mass of

men, wherever they are to be found, who are living apart from God. Now,

of this world Christ said it "cannot receive" the Spirit of truth; "it

beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." If, therefore, there is a

ministry of the Spirit in the world, it must be wholly different in kind

from that spoken of above. And this is what we learn from Christ's

teaching: "He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of

sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." There is a ring of judicial

sternness in the words; they call up to our minds the solemnities of a

court of justice--the indictment, the conviction, the condemnation. And

yet one can well believe that there were hours in the after life of the

apostles when, of all the comforting, reassuring words which Christ had

spoken to them in that Upper Room, there were none more helpful than

these. For they knew now that, when they stood up to bear their witness

before a hostile world, they had a fellow-witness in men's hearts. They

could go nowhere--in Jerusalem, Judæa, Samaria, or the uttermost parts

of the earth--where the gracious ministries of the Spirit had not

preceded them. He, the Paraclete, was not only with them, their

"strong-siding Champion," He was in the world also, in the hearts even

of them who set themselves most stoutly against the Lord and against His

Anointed, subduing their rebelliousness and reconciling them to God. We

who teach and preach to-day, do we think of these things as we ought?

Does not our message sometimes win a response which is at once a

surprise and a rebuke to us? We knew that the seed which we cast into

the ground was the word of God; but the soil seemed so poor and thin we

scarce had looked for any harvest; yet the seed sprang up and grew, we

knew not how. We had forgotten that over all that wide field which is

the world the Divine Husbandman is ever at work, at work while men

sleep, breaking up the fallow ground, and making ready the soil for the

seed. We need to learn to count more on God, to grasp more fully the

glorious breadth of promise which He has given us in His Spirit, to

remember that, not only in the Church, but in the world--which is His

world--that Spirit is always present to testify of God, to convict men

of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

And yet, while we encourage ourselves with thoughts like these, we dare

not forget that men may resist, they may grieve, they may quench the

Holy Spirit. He is grieved whensoever He is resisted; He may be resisted

until He is quenched. It was Christ Himself who spoke of a sin against

the Holy Spirit which "hath never forgiveness." Is there any more

painful, perplexing, and yet more certain fact in life than this, that

man can resist God? Is there any that has bound up with it more terrible

and inevitable issues? "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and

ears," cried the martyr Stephen to his judges, "ye do always resist the

Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." And the end for their

fathers and for them we know. Wherefore the Holy Spirit saith: "To-day,

if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts."

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