Sermons on National Subjects

by Charles Kingsley

I do not pretend to be able to explain to you the whole meaning of this text, or even more than a very small part of it. For it speaks of God; of God the Holy Spirit. And God is boundless; and, therefore, every text which speaks of God is boundless too, as God is. No man can ever see the whole meaning of it, or do more than understand dimly a little of its truth. But what we can see, we must think over and make use of. What can we see, now, from this text? First, we may see that the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, is a person. Not a mere thing, or a state of our own hearts, or a feeling in us, or a power, like the powers and laws by which the trees and plants grow, and the sun and moon move in their courses; but a person, just as each of us is a person. He, the Holy Spirit, gives life to trees and plants, sun and moon: but He is not their life. He gives them their life; and, therefore, that life of theirs is not He, or He could not give it; for you can only give something which is not you.

The Scripture speaks of the Holy Spirit, not as it, but as He; as a person, and not as a thing; as a person who can speak to men’s souls, guide and teach them.

“When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself.”

But we may see also that the Holy Spirit is neither God the Father, nor the Lord Jesus Christ. For the Lord speaks of Him, the Holy Spirit, as a different person either from Him or from the Father. “The Spirit,” He says, “shall glorify me; for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.”

But we may see also that there is no difference in will, or opinion, or love, between the Holy Spirit and the Father and the Son. For the Spirit does not speak of Himself; there is no self-will in Him. There is not one will of the Father, and another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost; or, one love of the Father, another love of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost; or, one righteousness of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Ghost: or, one mercy and grace of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Ghost. For then there would be three Gods and three Lords; and the substance of God would be divided. But they have all one will, and one love, and one righteousness, and one mercy. And such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.

And remember always, that the Holy Spirit is very and indeed God. For He is the Spirit of holiness itself, of righteousness itself, of goodness itself, of love itself, of truth itself; and, therefore, He is the Spirit of God, who is the perfect holiness, and righteousness, and truth, and love. All other holiness, and righteousness, and truth, and love, are only pictures and patterns of God, just as the sun’s reflection in water, or in a glass, is a picture and pattern of the sun. As the Epistle for to-day tells us: “Every good gift and every perfect is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.”

But the Spirit of God must be God. For else what do the words mean? Is not the spirit of a man, a man? Is not your spirit, what you call your soul, you? Is not your soul you, just as much as your body is you; ay, a hundred times more? Just so, the Spirit of God is God, God Himself; and the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.

This, then, is the glorious promise made to you, and to me, and to all who believe and are baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; that that Spirit will come to us, and take charge of our spirits, and work in them, and teach them. We cannot see Him with our eyes, or hear Him with our ears; we cannot even feel Him at work in our hearts and thoughts. For He is a Spirit; and His likeness, the thing in this world which is a pattern of Him, is the wind; as indeed the name Spirit means. You cannot see the wind, you cannot even really feel the wind or hear it: you only know it by its effects, by what it does: by the noise among the branches, the force against your faces, the bending boughs, and flying dust. The Spirit bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth; even so is every one who is born of the Spirit. On him the Spirit of God will work unseen, and unfelt, only to be discovered by the change which He makes in the man’s heart and thoughts; and first by the way in which He convinces him of sin, because men believe not on Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit shows men that the sins of the world, the sin of all sins, the sin which is the root of all other sins, is not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ; that it was because they would not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that they had been falling into every other sort of sin.

But you may say: “How could they believe on Him before He came, and was born in Judæa of the Virgin Mary? How could they believe on Him when He was not there?” Ah! my friends, who told you that the Lord Jesus Christ was not there in the world all along? Not the Bible, certainly. For the Bible tells us that He is the Light who lights every man who cometh into the world; that from Him came, and have come, all the right thoughts and feelings which ever arose in the heart of every human being. The Bible tells us that when God created the world, He was daily rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and His delights were with the sons of men. The Bible tells us that He was in the world, and the world knew Him not; that all along, through the dark times of heathendom, the Lord Jesus Christ was a light shining in darkness, which the darkness could not close round, and hide and quench.