IV
TO BOYS
THE EFFECT OF THE HOLY GHOST ON HUMAN CHARACTER[25]
"For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith."—Acts xi. 24.
I need not tell you, not only how much I look forward to my Marlborough day, but also how much I have thought as to what message I would give you. When I think of the many to whom I have preached at Marlborough year by year, of the three hundred now dead, of the hundreds more who are fighting, and of the fact that many of those to whom I am speaking would soon, if the war went on, be in the thick of it, I realise what a very solemn thing it is to come down to Marlborough and give a message to my old school.
I will tell you what made me choose this message. The fact that Whitsuntide this year comes on the same day as St. Barnabas' Day gives me a subject, the most solemn subject I have ever taken at Marlborough—viz., the effect of the Holy Ghost upon human character. St. Barnabas was one of the most attractive characters in the New Testament, an example of attractive goodness. He was such a gentleman in all he did, and therefore, if we could have produced in us, by the Holy Ghost, the wonderful character that the Holy Ghost produced in St. Barnabas, we might have that description used of us; just think what it would be for men to say of us—"He was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith."
What, then, is the effect of the Holy Ghost upon human character? You might say, "But do we have the falling of the Holy Ghost, too?" Why did we have that hymn this morning, "Our blest Redeemer, ere He breathed"? I was asked to choose the hymns, and I chose that one because it so beautifully describes the indwelling of the Holy Ghost on your Confirmation day, and that is what makes the School Confirmation the crowning event of the year. At Confirmation you have the falling of the Holy Ghost in exactly the same way as happened in the early Church. Yesterday, for instance, I confirmed, under the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, two hundred and thirty people of all ages. "What is the effect of the Holy Ghost upon human character?" Some people imagine that what is called "doctrine" has no practical value. But is this true?
(1) The first thing that the Holy Ghost does is to convict the world of sin. He shows people what they really are. You may have heard of the National Mission of Repentance and Hope, and wondered what it was. I will tell you. I have just come from a tour round twenty-four dioceses in support of that Mission. I do not for one moment understand by that Mission that we do not believe we are fighting God's battles in the war. I believe that those three hundred Old Marlburians who have fallen in the war have died as martyrs. I believe the world is being redeemed by precious blood again to-day, and that that precious blood is being mingled with the Precious Blood. I believe also that the freedom of the world and the national honour are being saved to-day by the precious blood of our sons and brothers. It is, therefore, not because we do not believe we are doing the right thing in this war that we are engaged in this Mission; it is because we believe we are called to save the freedom of the world, and the national honour, and to see the Nailed Hand prevailing over the Mailed Fist, that we have to repent. Admiral Beatty said, in effect, that we should never win the war until the nations came back to God, and it is Lord Roberts (peace to his ashes, and glory to his memory!) who, just before he died, said we had got the men, the ammunition, and the guns now; what we wanted was the nation on its knees. And it is to bring the nation to its knees, back to God, that is the great object of the National Mission of Repentance and Hope. A messenger in connection with that Mission will very likely be sent down to Marlborough.