Of all the weird, fanciful and fabulous stories appertaining to
the gods and other pious frauds, that concerning the Holy Ghost
ranks them all! Now listen to what the Bible has to say about
that mythical personage--alias, the Holy Ghost. You will see that
scarcely any two references to it agree in assigning it the same
character or attributes. (It reminds me of what an old lady said at a
prayer-meeting: "Dear brothers and sisters, it seems to me that there
are no two of a mind here tonight, nor hardly one!")
In John xiv: 26, the Holy Ghost is spoken of as a person or personal
God. In Luke iii: 22, the Holy Ghost changes and assumes the form of
a dove. In Matthew xiii: 16, the Holy Ghost becomes a spirit. In John
i: 32, the Holy Ghost is presented as an inanimate senseless object.
In I John v: 7, the Holy Ghost becomes a God--the third member of
the Trinity. In Acts ii: 1, the Holy Ghost is averred to be a mighty
rushing wind. In Acts x: 38, the Holy Ghost, we infer from its mode
of application, is an ointment. In John xx: 22, the Holy Ghost is the
breath, as we legitimately infer by its being breathed into the mouth
of the recipient after the ancient Oriental custom. In Acts ii: 3, we
learn the Holy Ghost "sat upon each of them." In Acts ii: 1, the Holy
Ghost appears as cloven tongues of fire. In Luke ii: 26, the Holy Ghost
is the author of a revelation or inspiration. In Mark i: 8, the Holy
Ghost is a medium or element for baptism. In Acts xxviii: 25, the Holy
Ghost appears with vocal organs and speaks. In Hebrews vi: 4, the Holy
Ghost is dealt out or imparted by measure. In Luke iii: 22 the Holy
Ghost appears with a tangible body. In Luke i: 5, we are taught that
people are filled with the Holy Ghost. In Matthew xi: 15, the Holy Ghost
falls upon the people as a ponderable substance. In Luke iv: 1, the Holy
Ghost is a God within a God--Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost.
These are only a few quotations. There are many more, but we can all
see what a multifarious personage, or rather _he_, _she_, or _it_ the
Holy Ghost is.
* * * * *
I remember hearing much about the unpardonable sin against the Holy
Ghost. The sin against the Holy Ghost consisted in resisting its
operations in the second birth--that is, the regeneration of the heart
or soul by the Holy Ghost. And it was considered unpardonable simply
because as the pardoning and cleansing process consisted in, or was at
least always accompanied with, baptism by water, in which operation
the Holy Ghost was the agent in effecting the "new birth," therefore,
when the ministrations or operations of this indispensable agent were
resisted or rejected, there was no channel, no means, no possible mode
left for the sinner to find a renewed acceptance with God.
When a person sinned against the Father or the Son, he could find a
door of forgiveness through the baptizing processes, spiritual or
elementary, of the Holy Ghost. But an offense committed against this
third limb of the Godhead had the effect of closing and barring the
door so that there could be no forgiveness, either in this life or in
that which is to come.
To sin against the Holy Ghost was to tear down the scaffold by which
the door of Heaven was to be reached. This _sin_ against the Holy Ghost
has caused thousands of the disciples of the Christian faith the most
agonizing hours of alarm and despair.
It has always been my opinion that many people who thought they had
sinned against the Holy Ghost simply had dyspepsia.
_If people should deceive in other matters as the priests, parsons
and teachers do in religion, they would not escape arrest._
The destruction of religions and superstition means the upbuilding
of charity and ethics.--_Ralph W. Chainey._
Superstition is nothing but a misplaced fear of some fancied
supernatural phantasm of divinity.