“O, yes, I have,” said the great artist. “It was too full here, and I have reduced it somewhat. I have brought that muscle out better. I have rounded off this arm. I have improved the lip here; and the chin there, and I have put more expression into the face.”
“Well, but these are mere trifles,” said the visitor.
“They help to make my work perfect; and perfection is no trifle,” was the great man’s wise reply.
And this shows us exactly what the Spirit’s work is in making us holy. It is trying to make us more and more like the model of perfection we have set before us in Jesus. But there is one point of difference between Michael Angelo’s work on his marble statue and the Spirit’s work upon us. That block of marble was a dead stone. It could do nothing at all to help the sculptor in his work upon it. But we are living stones, in the hands of the heavenly Artist. We can and must take hold, and help in the great work which the Holy Spirit is carrying on, in trying to make us more holy, or more like Jesus. And as we yield ourselves to the blessed influences of the Spirit, we should be lifting up our hearts to Jesus in the prayer:
“Make us, by transforming grace,
Dear Saviour, daily more like thee!”
And then there is one other thing the Holy Spirit has to do in carrying on his great work, and that is to—help and comfort—us.
The work we have to do, as the followers of Christ, is what we never can do of ourselves. We need the help of the Holy Spirit here all the time. It is only he who can, in the language of one of our beautiful Collects, help us to “think those things that are good, and then enable us to perform the same.” But he can, as another of the Collects says, both “put into our hearts good desires, and give us grace to bring the same to good effect.” The Spirit is given for this purpose. And if we seek and secure his help, we shall not only be able to do all that God requires, but we shall find comfort in doing it. The work of the Spirit is to give help and comfort to those who are trying to serve the blessed Saviour. And it is because he does this that he is so often called the Comforter. How many illustrations we find of the way in which the Spirit does this part of his work! But we have only room for one.
“Blind Robert.” Robert’s mother was a poor widow. She had a large family of children. Robert was the youngest. His mother took in washing. His brothers and sisters all helped to support the family by working in one way or other. But poor blind Robert could not work. The only way in which he could help his mother was by carrying home the clothes for her when the washing and ironing were over. And it was a touching sight to see him with a large basket on his arm, full of clothes, and groping his way slowly and carefully along. But Robert had been taught by the Spirit to know and love the Saviour; and what help and comfort he found in him appears in the following conversation, between him and a gentleman who met him on the road one day.
After talking with him for a while about his mother and family, the gentleman asked him if it did not make him unhappy to think of being blind. For a moment, he looked sad; then he smiled, and said: “Sometimes I think it hard to have to creep about so. I should so like to look at the bright sun that warms me; and the sweet birds that sing for me; and the beautiful flowers that feel so soft as I touch them. But God made me blind, and I know that it is best for me. I am glad that he did not make me deaf and dumb, too. I am glad that he gave me such a good mother. But, above all, I am so glad that he has taught me to know and love the blessed Saviour; for I find it such a help and comfort to think about him.”