"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you."
Those who have not the Holy Spirit, or who do not heed Him, fall
easily and naturally into formalism, substituting lifeless
ceremonies, sacraments, genuflections, and ritualistic performances
for the free, glad, living worship inspired by the indwelling
Spirit. They sing, but not from the heart. They say their prayers,
but they do not really pray. "I prayed last night, mother," said a
child. "Why, my child, you pray every night!" replied the mother.
"No," said the child, "I only said prayers, but last night I really
prayed." And his face shone. He had opened his heart to the Holy
Spirit, and had at last really talked with God and worshipped.
But those who receive the Holy Spirit may fall into fanaticism,
unless they follow the command of John to "try the spirits,
whether they are of God."
We are commanded to "despise not prophesyings," but at the same
time we are commanded to "prove all things." "Many false prophets
are gone out into the world," and, if possible, will lead us
astray. So we must beware. As some one has written, we must
"Believe not every spirit; regard not, trust not, follow not,
every pretender to the Spirit of God, or every professor of
vision, or inspiration, or revelation from God."
The higher and more intense the life, the more carefully must it
be guarded, lest it be endangered and go astray. It is so in the
natural world, and likewise in the spiritual world.
When Satan can no longer rock people to sleep with religious
lullabys, or satisfy them with the lifeless form, then he comes
as an angel of light, probably in the person of some professor or
teacher of religion, and seeks to usurp the place of the Holy
Spirit; but instead of leading "into all truth," he leads the
unwary soul into deadly error; instead of directing him on to the
highway of holiness, and into the path of perfect peace, where no
ravenous beast ever comes, he leads him into a wilderness where
the soul, stripped of its beautiful garments of salvation, is
robbed and wounded and left to die, if some good Samaritan, with
patient pity and Christlike love, come not that way.
1. When the Holy Spirit comes in His fullness, He strips men of
their self-righteousness and pride and conceit. They see
themselves as the chief of sinners, and realise that only through
the stripes of Jesus are they healed; and ever after, as they
live in the Spirit, their boast is in Him and their glory is in
the cross. Remembering the hole of the pit from which they were
digged, they are filled with tender pity for all who are out of
the way; and, while they do not excuse or belittle sin, yet they
are slow to believe evil, and their judgments are full of
charity.
"Judge not; the workings of his brain
And of his heart thou canst not see:
What looks to thy dim eyes a stain,
In God's pure light may only be
A scar, brought from some well-won field,
Where thou wouldst only faint and yield."
But the man who has been thus snared by Satan forgets his own
past miserable state, and boasts of his righteousness, and thanks
God that he was never as other men, and he begins to beat his
fellow-servants with heavy denunciations, and thrust them through
with sharp criticisms, and pelt them with hard words. He ceases
to pity, and begins to condemn; he no longer warns and entreats
men in tender love, but is quick to believe evil, and swift to
pass judgment, not only upon their actions, but upon their
motives as well.
True charity has no fellowship with deeds of darkness. It never
calls evil good, it does not wink at iniquity, but it is as far
removed from this sharp, condemning spirit as light is from
darkness, as honey is from vinegar. It is quick to condemn sin,
but is full of saving, long-suffering compassion for the sinner.
2. A humble, teachable mind marks those in whom the Holy Spirit
dwells. They esteem very highly in love those who are over them
in the Lord, and are glad to be admonished by them. They submit
themselves one to the other in the fear of the Lord, welcome
instruction and correction, and esteem "open rebuke better than
secret love" (Proverbs xxvii. 5). They believe that the Lord has
yet many things to say unto them, and they are willing and glad
for Him to say them by whom He will, but especially by their
leaders and their brethren. While they do not fawn and cringe
before men, nor believe everything that is said to them, without
proving it by the word and Spirit of God, they believe that God
"gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists;
and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ"; and, like Cornelius, they are ready to hear these
appointed ministers, and receive the word of the Lord from them.
But Satan seeks to destroy all this lowliness of spirit and
humbleness of mind. Those in whom his deadly work has begun are
"wiser in their own conceit than seven men that can render a
reason." They are wiser than all their teachers, and no man can
instruct them. One of these deluded souls, who had previously
been marked by modesty and humility, declared of certain of God's
chosen leaders whose spiritual knowledge and wisdom were
everywhere recognised, that "the whole of them knew no more
about the Holy Ghost than an old goose." Paul, Luther, and Wesley
were much troubled, and their work greatly hurt, by some of these
misguided souls, and every great spiritual awakening is likely to
be marred more or less by such people; so that we cannot be too
much on our guard against false spirits who would counterfeit the
work and leadings of the Holy Spirit.
It is this huge conceit that has led some men to announce
themselves as apostles and prophets to whom all men must listen,
or fall under the wrath of God; while others have declared that
they were living in resurrection bodies and should not die; and
yet others have reached that pitch of fanaticism where they could
calmly proclaim themselves to be the Messiah, or the Holy Ghost
in bodily form. Such people will be quick to deny the infallibility
of the Pope, while they assume their own infallibility, and
denounce all who dispute it.
The Holy Spirit may lead to a holy rivalry in love and humility
and brotherly kindness and self-denial and good works, but He
never leads men into the swelling conceit of such exclusive
knowledge and superior wisdom that they can no longer be taught
by their fellow-men.
3. Again, the man who is filled with the Spirit is tolerant of
those who differ from him in opinion, in doctrine. He is firm in
his own convictions, and ready at all times with meekness and
fear to explain and defend the doctrines which he holds and is
convinced are according to God's word, but he does not condemn
and consign to damnation all those who differ from him. He is
glad to believe that men are often better than their creed, and
may be saved in spite of it; that, like mountains whose bases are
bathed with sunshine and clothed with fruitful fields and
vineyards, while their tops are covered with dark clouds, so
men's hearts are often fruitful in the graces of charity, while
their heads are yet darkened by doctrinal error.
Anyway, as "the servant of the Lord," he will "not strive; but be
gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness
instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and
that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil"
(2 Timothy ii. 24-26).
But when Satan comes as an angel of light he will, under guise of
love for and loyalty to the truth, introduce the spirit of
intolerance. It was this spirit that crucified Jesus; that burned
Huss and Cranmer at the stake; that strangled Savonarola; that
inspired the massacre of St. Bartholomew and the horrors of the
Inquisition; and it is the same spirit, in a milder but possibly
more subtle form, that blinds the eyes of many professing
Christians to any good in those who differ from them in doctrine,
forms of worship or methods of government. They murder love to
protect what they often blindly call truth. What is truth without
love? A dead thing, an encumbrance, the letter that killeth!
The body is necessary to our life in this world, but life can
exist in a deformed and even mutilated body; and such a body with
life in it is better than the most perfect body that is only a
corpse. So, while truth is most precious, and sound doctrine to
be esteemed more than silver and gold, yet love can exist where
truth is not held in its most perfect and complete forms, and
love is the one thing needful.
"The love of God is broader
Than the measure of man's mind:
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind."
4. The Holy Ghost begets a spirit of unity among Christians.
People who have been sitting behind their sectarian fences in
self-complacent ease, or proud indifference, or proselytising
zeal, or grim defiance, are suddenly lifted above the fence, and
find sweet fellowship with each other, when He comes into their
hearts.
They delight in each other's society; they each esteem others
better than themselves, and in honour they prefer one another
before themselves. They fulfil the Psalmist's ideal: "Behold, how
good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity." Here is a picture of the unity of Christians in the
beginning in Jerusalem: "And they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the
multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one
soul; neither said any of them that aught of the things which he
possessed was his own; but they had all things common." What an
ideal is this! And since it has been attained once, it can be
attained again and retained, but only by the indwelling of the
Holy Ghost. It was for this that Jesus poured out His heart in
His great intercessory prayer, recorded in John xvii., just
before His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. He says, "I pray
for them.... Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also
which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may
be one." And what was the standard of unity to which He would
have us come? Listen!
"As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be
one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me."
Such unity has a wondrous power to compel the belief of worldly
men. "And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that
they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me,
that they may be perfect in one; and that the world may
_know_ that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou
hast loved Me." Wondrous unity! Wondrous love!
It is for this His blessed heart eternally yearns, and it is for
this that the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those who
receive Him. But Satan ever seeks to destroy this holy love and
divine unity. When he comes, he arouses suspicions, he stirs up
strife, he quenches the spirit of intercessory prayer, he
engenders backbitings, and causes separations.
After enumerating various Christian graces, and urging the
Colossians to put them on, Paul adds: "And above all these
things, put on charity," or love, "which is the bond of
perfectness" (Col. iii. 14). These graces were garments, and love
was the girdle which bound and held them together; and so love is
the bond that holds true Christians together.
Divine love is the great test by which we are to try ourselves
and all teachers and spirits.
Love is not puffed up. Love is not bigoted. Love is not
intolerant. Love is not schismatic. Love is loyal to Jesus and to
all His people. If we have this love shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost, we shall discern the voice of our Good Shepherd,
and we shall not be deceived by the voice of the stranger; and so
we shall be saved from both formalism and fanaticism.
"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?"