The Person and Work
of
The Holy Spirit
As Revealed in the Scriptures
And in Personal Experience
By
R. A. Torrey
Fleming H. Revell Company
New York, Chicago, Toronto,
London and Edinburgh
Copyright 1910, by
R. A. Torrey
CONTENTS
Chapter I. The Personality of the Holy Spirit.
Chapter II. The Deity of the Holy Spirit.
Chapter III. The Distinction of the Holy Spirit from the Father and from
His Son, Jesus Christ.
Chapter IV. The Subordination of the Spirit to the Father and to the Son.
Chapter V. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit as Revealed in His
Names.
Chapter VI. The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Material Universe.
Chapter VII. The Holy Spirit Convicting the World of Sin, of Righteousness
and of Judgment.
Chapter VIII. The Holy Spirit Bearing Witness to Jesus Christ.
Chapter IX. The Regenerating Work of the Holy Spirit.
Chapter X. The Indwelling Spirit Fully and Forever Satisfying.
Chapter XI. The Holy Spirit Setting the Believer Free From the Power of
Indwelling Sin.
Chapter XII. The Holy Spirit Forming Christ Within Us.
Chapter XIII. The Holy Spirit Bringing Forth in the Believer Christlike
Graces of Character.
Chapter XIV. The Holy Spirit Guiding the Believer Into a Life as a Son.
Chapter XV. The Holy Spirit Bearing Witness to our Sonship.
Chapter XVI. The Holy Spirit as a Teacher.
Chapter XVII. Praying, Returning Thanks, Worshipping in the Holy Spirit.
Chapter XVIII. The Holy Spirit Sending Men Forth to Definite Lines of
Work.
Chapter XIX. The Holy Spirit and the Believer’s Body.
Chapter XX. The Baptism With the Holy Spirit.
Chapter XXI. The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prophets and Apostles.
Chapter XXII. The Work of the Holy Spirit In Jesus Christ.
Footnotes
CHAPTER I. THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Before one can correctly understand the work of the Holy Spirit, he must
first of all know the Spirit Himself. A frequent source of error and
fanaticism about the work of the Holy Spirit is the attempt to study and
understand His work without first of all coming to know Him as a Person.
It is of the highest importance from the standpoint of worship that we
decide whether the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, worthy to receive our
adoration, our faith, our love, and our entire surrender to Himself, or
whether it is simply an influence emanating from God or a power or an
illumination that God imparts to us. If the Holy Spirit is a person, and a
Divine Person, and we do not know Him as such, then we are robbing a
Divine Being of the worship and the faith and the love and the surrender
to Himself which are His due.
It is also of the highest importance from the practical standpoint that we
decide whether the Holy Spirit is merely some mysterious and wonderful
power that we in our weakness and ignorance are somehow to get hold of and
use, or whether the Holy Spirit is a real Person, infinitely holy,
infinitely wise, infinitely mighty and infinitely tender who is to get
hold of and use us. The former conception is utterly heathenish, not
essentially different from the thought of the African fetich worshipper
who has his god whom he uses. The latter conception is sublime and
Christian. If we think of the Holy Spirit as so many do as merely a power
or influence, our constant thought will be, “How can I get more of the
Holy Spirit,” but if we think of Him in the Biblical way as a Divine
Person, our thought will rather be, “How can the Holy Spirit have more of
me?” The conception of the Holy Spirit as a Divine influence or power that
we are somehow to get hold of and use, leads to self-exaltation and
self-sufficiency. One who so thinks of the Holy Spirit and who at the same
time imagines that he has received the Holy Spirit will almost inevitably
be full of spiritual pride and strut about as if he belonged to some
superior order of Christians. One frequently hears such persons say, “I am
a Holy Ghost man,” or “I am a Holy Ghost woman.” But if we once grasp the
thought that the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person of infinite majesty, glory
and holiness and power, who in marvellous condescension has come into our
hearts to make His abode there and take possession of our lives and make
use of them, it will put us in the dust and keep us in the dust. I can
think of no thought more humbling or more overwhelming than the thought
that a person of Divine majesty and glory dwells in my heart and is ready
to use even me.
It is of the highest importance from the standpoint of experience that we
know the Holy Spirit as a person. Thousands and tens of thousands of men
and women can testify to the blessing that has come into their own lives
as they have come to know the Holy Spirit, not merely as a gracious
influence (emanating, it is true, from God) but as a real Person, just as
real as Jesus Christ Himself, an ever-present, loving Friend and mighty
Helper, who is not only always by their side but dwells in their heart
every day and every hour and who is ready to undertake for them in every
emergency of life. Thousands of ministers, Christian workers and
Christians in the humblest spheres of life have spoken to me, or written
to me, of the complete transformation of their Christian experience that
came to them when they grasped the thought (not merely in a theological,
but in an experimental way) that the Holy Spirit was a Person and
consequently came to know Him.
There are at least four distinct lines of proof in the Bible that the Holy
Spirit is a person.
I. _All the distinctive characteristics of personality are ascribed to the
Holy Spirit in the Bible._
What are the distinctive characteristics, or marks, of personality?
Knowledge, feeling or emotion, and will. Any entity that thinks and feels
and wills is a person. When we say that the Holy Spirit is a person, there
are those who understand us to mean that the Holy Spirit has hands and
feet and eyes and ears and mouth, and so on, but these are not the
characteristics of personality but of corporeity. All of these
characteristics or marks of personality are repeatedly ascribed to the
Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments. We read in 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11,
“But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the
things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” Here knowledge is
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. We are clearly taught that the Holy Spirit is
not merely an influence that illuminates our minds to comprehend the truth
but a Being who Himself knows the truth.
In 1 Cor. xii. 11, we read, “But all these worketh that one and the
selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as _He will_.” Here will
is ascribed to the Spirit and we are taught that the Holy Spirit is not a
power that we get hold of and use according to our will but a Person of
sovereign majesty, who uses us according to His will. This distinction is
of fundamental importance in our getting into right relations with the
Holy Spirit. It is at this very point that many honest seekers after power
and efficiency in service go astray. They are reaching out after and
struggling to get possession of some mysterious and mighty power that they
can make use of in their work according to their own will. They will never
get possession of the power they seek until they come to recognize that
there is not some Divine power for them to get hold of and use in their
blindness and ignorance but that there is a Person, infinitely wise, as
well as infinitely mighty, who is willing to take possession of them and
use them according to His own perfect will. When we stop to think of it,
we must rejoice that there is no Divine power that beings so ignorant as
we are, so liable to err, to get hold of and use. How appalling might be
the results if there were. But what a holy joy must come into our hearts
when we grasp the thought that there is a Divine Person, One who never
errs, who is willing to take possession of us and impart to us such gifts
as He sees best and to use us according to His wise and loving will.
We read in Rom. viii. 27, “And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what
is _the mind of the Spirit_, because He maketh intercession for the saints
according to the will of God.” In this passage mind is ascribed to the
Holy Spirit. The Greek word translated “mind” is a comprehensive word,
including the ideas of thought, feeling and purpose. It is the same that
is used in Rom. viii. 7 where we read that “the carnal mind is enmity
against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be.” So then in this passage we have all the distinctive marks of
personality ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
We find the personality of the Holy Spirit brought out in a most touching
and suggestive way in Rom. xv. 30, “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the
Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the _love of the Spirit_, that ye strive
together with me in your prayers to God for me.” Here we have “_love_”
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The reader would do well to stop and ponder
those five words, “_the love of the Spirit_.” We dwell often upon the love
of God the Father. It is the subject of our daily and constant thought. We
dwell often upon the love of Jesus Christ the Son. Who would think of
calling himself a Christian who passed a day without meditating on the
love of his Saviour, but how often have we meditated upon “_the love of
the Spirit_”? Each day of our lives, if we are living as Christians ought,
we kneel down in the presence of God the Father and look up into His face
and say, “I thank Thee, Father, for Thy great love that led Thee to give
Thine only begotten Son to die upon the cross of Calvary for me.” Each day
of our lives we also look up into the face of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ, and say, “Oh, Thou glorious Lord and Saviour, Jesus Thou Son of
God, I thank Thee for Thy great love that led Thee not to count it a thing
to be grasped to be on equality with God but to empty Thyself and
forsaking all the glory of heaven, come down to earth with all its shame
and to take my sins upon Thyself and die in my place upon the cross of
Calvary.” But how often do we kneel and say to the Holy Spirit, “Oh, Thou
eternal and infinite Spirit of God, I thank Thee for Thy great love that
led Thee to come into this world of sin and darkness and to seek me out
and to follow me so patiently until Thou didst bring me to see my utter
ruin and need of a Saviour and to reveal to me my Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ, as just the Saviour whom I need.” Yet we owe our salvation just as
truly to the love of the Spirit as we do to the love of the Father and the
love of the Son. If it had not been for the love of God the Father looking
down upon me in my utter ruin and providing a perfect atonement for me in
the death of His own Son on the cross of Calvary, I would have been in
hell to-day. If it had not been for the love of Jesus Christ, the eternal
Word of God, looking upon me in my utter ruin and in obedience to the
Father, putting aside all the glory of heaven for all the shame of earth
and taking my place, the place of the curse, upon the cross of Calvary and
pouring out His life utterly for me, I would have been in hell to-day. But
if it had not been for the love of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in
answer to the prayer of the Son (John xiv. 16) leading Him to seek me out
in my utter blindness and ruin and to follow me day after day, week after
week, and year after year, when I persistently turned a deaf ear to His
pleadings, following me through paths of sin where it must have been agony
for that holy One to go, until at last I listened and He opened my eyes to
see my utter ruin and then revealed Jesus to me as just the Saviour that
would meet my every need and then enabled me to receive this Jesus as my
own Saviour; if it had not been for this patient, long-suffering,
never-tiring, infinitely-tender love of the Holy Spirit, I would have been
in hell to-day. Oh, the Holy Spirit is not merely an influence or a power
or an illumination but is a Person just as real as God the Father or Jesus
Christ His Son.
The personality of the Holy Spirit comes out in the Old Testament as truly
as in the New, for we read in Neh. ix. 20, “Thou gavest also Thy good
Spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not Thy manna from their mouth,
and gavest them water for their thirst.” Here both intelligence and
goodness are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. There are some who tell us that
while it is true the personality of the Holy Spirit is found in the New
Testament, it is not found in the Old. But it is certainly found in this
passage. As a matter of course, the doctrine of the personality of the
Holy Spirit is not as fully developed in the Old Testament as in the New.
But the doctrine is there.
There is perhaps no passage in the entire Bible in which the personality
of the Holy Spirit comes out more tenderly and touchingly than in Eph. iv.
30, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the
day of redemption.” Here grief is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is not a blind, impersonal influence or power that comes into our
lives to illuminate, sanctify and empower them. No, He is immeasurably
more than that, He is a holy Person who comes to dwell in our hearts, One
who sees clearly every act we perform, every word we speak, every thought
we entertain, even the most fleeting fancy that is allowed to pass through
our minds; and if there is anything in act, or word or deed that is
impure, unholy, unkind, selfish, mean, petty or untrue, this infinitely
holy One is deeply grieved by it. I know of no thought that will help one
more than this to lead a holy life and to walk softly in the presence of
the holy One. How often a young man is kept back from yielding to the
temptations that surround young manhood by the thought that if he should
yield to the temptation that now assails him, his holy mother might hear
of it and would be grieved by it beyond expression. How often some young
man has had his hand upon the door of some place of sin that he is about
to enter and the thought has come to him, “If I should enter there, my
mother might hear of it and it would nearly kill her,” and he has turned
his back upon that door and gone away to lead a pure life, that he might
not grieve his mother. But there is One who is holier than any mother, One
who is more sensitive against sin than the purest woman who ever walked
this earth, and who loves us as even no mother ever loved, and this One
dwells in our hearts, if we are really Christians, and He sees every act
we do by day or under cover of the night; He hears every word we utter in
public or in private; He sees every thought we entertain, He beholds every
fancy and imagination that is permitted even a momentary lodgment in our
mind, and if there is anything unholy, impure, selfish, mean, petty,
unkind, harsh, unjust, or in anywise evil in act or word or thought or
fancy, He is grieved by it. If we will allow those words, “Grieve not the
Holy Spirit of God,” to sink into our hearts and become the motto of our
lives, they will keep us from many a sin. How often some thought or fancy
has knocked for an entrance into my own mind and was about to find
entertainment when the thought has come, “The Holy Spirit sees that
thought and will be grieved by it” and that thought has gone.
II. _Many acts that only a Person can perform are ascribed to the Holy
Spirit._
If we deny the personality of the Holy Spirit, many passages of Scripture
become meaningless and absurd. For example, we read in 1 Cor. ii. 10, “But
God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for _the Spirit searcheth_
all things, yea, the deep things of God.” This passage sets before us the
Holy Spirit, not merely as an illumination whereby we are enabled to grasp
the deep things of God, but a Person who Himself searches the deep things
of God and then reveals to us the precious discoveries which He has made.
We read in Rev. ii. 7, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what _the Spirit
saith_ unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the
tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” Here the Holy
Spirit is set before us, not merely as an impersonal enlightenment that
comes to our mind but a Person who speaks and out of the depths of His own
wisdom, whispers into the ear of His listening servant the precious truth
of God.
In Gal. iv. 6 we read, “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the
Spirit of His Son into your hearts, _crying_, Abba, Father.” Here the Holy
Spirit is represented as crying out in the heart of the individual
believer. Not merely a Divine influence producing in our own hearts the
assurance of our sonship but one who cries out in our hearts, who bears
witness together with our spirit that we are sons of God. (See also Rom.
viii. 16.)
The Holy Spirit is also represented in the Scripture as one who prays. We
read in Rom. viii. 26, R. V., “And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmity; for we know not how to pray as we ought; but _the Spirit
Himself maketh intercession_ for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered.” It is plain from this passage that the Holy Spirit is not merely
an influence that moves us to pray, not merely an illumination that
teaches us how to pray, but a Person who Himself prays in and through us.
There is wondrous comfort in the thought that every true believer has two
Divine Persons praying for him, Jesus Christ, the Son who was once upon
this earth, who knows all about our temptations, who can be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities and who is now ascended to the right hand
of the Father and in that place of authority and power ever lives to make
intercession for us (Heb. vii. 25; 1 John ii. 1); and another Person, just
as Divine as He, who walks by our side each day, yes, who dwells in the
innermost depths of our being and knows our needs, even as we do not know
them ourselves, and from these depths makes intercession to the Father for
us. The position of the believer is indeed one of perfect security with
these two Divine Persons praying for him.
We read again in John xv. 26, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth
from the Father, _He shall testify_ of Me.” Here the Holy Spirit is set
before us as a Person who gives His testimony to Jesus Christ, not merely
as an illumination that enables the believer to testify of Christ, but a
Person who Himself testifies; and a clear distinction is drawn in this and
the following verse between the testimony of the Holy Spirit and the
testimony of the believer to whom He has borne His witness, for we read in
the next verse, “And _ye also_ shall bear witness because ye have been
with Me from the beginning.” So there are two witnesses, the Holy Spirit
bearing witness to the believer and the believer bearing witness to the
world.
The Holy Spirit is also spoken of as a teacher. We read in John xiv. 26,
“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in
My name, _He shall teach_ you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” And in a similar way, we
read in John xvi. 12-14, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye
cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, _He
will guide_ you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but
whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things
to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show
it unto you.” And in the Old Testament, Neh. ix. 20, “Thou gavest also Thy
good Spirit to instruct them.” In all these passages it is perfectly clear
that the Holy Spirit is not a mere illumination that enables us to
apprehend the truth, but a Person who comes to us to teach us day by day
the truth of God. It is the privilege of the humblest believer in Jesus
Christ not merely to have his mind illumined to comprehend the truth of
God, but to have a Divine Teacher to daily teach him the truth he needs to
know (cf. 1 John ii. 20, 27). The Holy Spirit is also represented as the
Leader and Guide of the children of God. We read in Rom. viii. 14, “For as
many as are _led by the Spirit_ of God they are the sons of God.” He is
not merely an influence that enables us to see the way that God would have
us go, nor merely a power that gives us strength to go that way, but a
Person who takes us by the hand and gently leads us on in the paths in
which God would have us walk.
The Holy Spirit is also represented as a Person who has authority to
command men in their service of Jesus Christ. We read of the Apostle Paul
and his companions in Acts xvi. 6, 7, “Now when they had gone throughout
Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were _forbidden of the Holy Ghost_
to preach the Word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to
go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.” Here it is a Person
who takes the direction of the conduct of Paul and his companions and a
Person whose authority they recognized and to whom they instantly submit.
Further still than this the Holy Spirit is represented as the One who is
the supreme authority in the church, who calls men to work and appoints
them to office. We read in Acts xiii. 2, “As they ministered to the Lord,
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the
work where unto I have called them.” And in Acts xx. 28, “Take heed
therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy
Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath
purchased with His own blood.” There can be no doubt to a candid seeker
after truth that it is a Person, and a person of Divine majesty and
sovereignty, who is here set before us.
From all the passages here quoted, it is evident that many acts that only
a person can perform are ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
III. _An office is predicated of the Holy Spirit that can only be
predicated of a person._
Our Saviour says in John xiv. 16, 17, “And I will pray the Father, and He
shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; Even
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.” Our Lord had announced to the disciples that He was
about to leave them. An awful sense of desolation took possession of them.
Sorrow filled their hearts (John xvi. 6) at the contemplation of their
loneliness and absolute helplessness when Jesus should thus leave them
alone. To comfort them the Lord tells them that they shall not be left
alone, that in leaving them He was going to the Father and that He would
pray the Father and He would give them another Comforter to take the place
of Himself during His absence. Is it possible that Jesus Christ could have
used such language if the other Comforter who was coming to take His place
was only an impersonal influence or power? Still more, is it possible that
Jesus could have said as He did in John xvi. 7, “Nevertheless I tell you
the truth: _It is expedient for you that I go away_: for if I go not away,
the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him
unto you,” if this Comforter whom He was to send was simply an impersonal
influence or power? No, one Divine Person was going, another Person just
as Divine was coming to take His place, and it was expedient for the
disciples that the One go to represent them before the Father, for another
just as Divine and sufficient was coming to take His place. This promise
of our Lord and Saviour of the coming of the other Comforter and of His
abiding with us is the greatest and best of all for the present
dispensation. This is _the_ promise of the Father (Acts i. 4), the promise
of promises. We shall take it up again when we come to study the names of
the Holy Spirit.
IV. _A treatment is predicated to the Holy Spirit that could only be
predicated of a Person._
We read in Isa. lxiii. 10, R. V., “But they _rebelled and grieved_ His
Holy Spirit: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought
against them.” Here we are told that the Holy Spirit is rebelled against
and grieved (cf. Eph. iv. 30). Only a person can be rebelled against and
only a person of authority. Only a person can be grieved. You cannot
grieve a mere influence or power. In Heb. x. 29, we read, “Of how much
sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden
underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant,
wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath _done despite unto_
the Spirit of grace?” Here we are told that the Holy Spirit is “done
despite unto” (“treated with contumely”—Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of
the New Testament). There is but one kind of entity in the universe that
can be treated with contumely (or insulted) and that is a person. It is
absurd to think of treating an influence or a power or any kind of being
except a person with contumely. We read again in Acts v. 3, “But Peter
said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart _to lie to_ the Holy
Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” Here we have the
Holy Spirit represented as one who can be lied to. One cannot lie to
anything but a person.
In Matt. xii. 31, 32, we read, “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of
sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against
the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a
word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever
speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in
this world, neither in the world to come.” Here we are told that the Holy
Spirit is blasphemed against. It is impossible to blaspheme anything but a
person. If the Holy Spirit is not a person, it certainly cannot be a more
serious and decisive sin to blaspheme Him than it is to blaspheme the Son
of man, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ Himself.
Here then we have four distinctive and decisive lines of proof _that the
Holy Spirit is a Person_. Theoretically most of us believe this but do we,
in our real thought of Him and in our practical attitude towards Him treat
Him as if He were indeed a Person? At the close of an address on the
Personality of the Holy Spirit at a Bible conference some years ago, one
who had been a church-member many years, a member of one of the most
orthodox of our modern denominations, said to me, “I never thought of _It_
before as a Person.” Doubtless this Christian woman had often sung:
“Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below,
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”
Doubtless she had often sung:
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
World without end, Amen.”
But it is one thing to sing words; it is quite another thing to realize
the meaning of what we sing. If this Christian woman had been questioned
in regard to her doctrine, she would doubtless have said that she believed
that there were three Persons in the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
but a theological confession is one thing, a practical realization of the
truth we confess is quite another. So the question is altogether
necessary, no matter how orthodox you may be in your creedal statements,
Do you regard the Holy Spirit as indeed as real a Person as Jesus Christ,
as loving and wise and strong, as worthy of your confidence and love and
surrender as Jesus Christ Himself? The Holy Spirit came into this world to
be to the disciples of our Lord after His departure, and to us, what Jesus
Christ had been to them during the days of His personal companionship with
them (John xiv. 16, 17). Is He that to you? Do you know Him? Every week in
your life you hear the apostolic benediction, “The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you
all” (2 Cor. xiii. 14), but while you hear it, do you take in the
significance of it? Do you know the communion of the Holy Ghost? The
fellowship of the Holy Ghost? The partnership of the Holy Ghost? The
comradeship of the Holy Ghost? The intimate personal friendship of the
Holy Ghost? Herein lies the whole secret of a real Christian life, a life
of liberty and joy and power and fullness. To have as one’s ever-present
Friend, and to be conscious that one has as his ever-present Friend, the
Holy Spirit and to surrender one’s life in all its departments entirely to
His control, this is true Christian living. The doctrine of the
Personality of the Holy Spirit is as distinctive of the religion that
Jesus taught as the doctrines of the Deity and the atonement of Jesus
Christ Himself. But it is not enough to believe the doctrine—one must know
the Holy Spirit Himself. The whole purpose of this chapter (God help me to
say it reverently) is to introduce you to my Friend, the Holy Spirit.