The Work of the Holy Spirit. What Is It? What Are Its Relations And Uses?
I know of no religious people who intentionally deny his agency in creation, providence or redemption. But men differ widely in their opinions concerning it and its relations and uses. Many honest-hearted persons have been educated in the theory of an immediate and direct operation of the Spirit upon the hearts of sinners in order to their conversion, which they often call the baptism of the Holy Spirit. On this account thousands of prayers are offered up continually to induce the Lord to pour the Spirit upon sinners and convert and save them. And happy meetings are attributed to wonderful outpourings of the Spirit. What is his work? It is said that he moved upon the face of the great deep, and that God said, Let there be light, and there was light. This operation upon physical nature gave to our planet cosmic light, and the darkness, which had shut out the light of the heavenly bodies through the long lapse of time extending back from Moses' first day to the beginning in which creation took place, was removed. Activity having begun in matter, periods of light and darkness alternate until the conditions of our planet are so changed that the light of the heavenly bodies becomes the light of this world; and the great work of the Spirit having accomplished its purposes, is classified with the extraordinary efforts of God in bringing into existence this beautiful planetary [pg 202] system of ours. It is, consequently, a work of the past. But the work of the Spirit is not over.
There must be a moral and spiritual system, as well as a physical. As the material system would be unworthy of its creator, were it not for the fact that it is governed by law, which is equivalent to saying, it is a system, so the moral and spiritual must be under law, in order to the accomplishment of the ends of its creation, which is equal to saying, it is God's moral government. But how is this system to be brought into existence? And how is it to be perpetuated? In answering these questions let us remember the law of analogy, based upon the simple axiom that God is a God of order. In the use of the analogy about to be instituted we simply pass through the outer court of the temple of God in order to behold the beauties of the inner. Then, as the world of matter existed as an inactive, confused mass, surrounded by an envelope of darkness which shut out the light of the heavens, so the human family, without the knowledge of God, without the light of knowledge, left to its own mental and moral wanderings, without law or system or order, would present all the horrors of pagan darkness and woe. Then the Spirit of God must move again in obedience to the mandate of the Most High. And as the object to be accomplished is now connected with mind, the Spirit now moves upon the face of the great deep of the human heart or mind. But shall he move upon all hearts throughout all time in order to dispel moral darkness, and so the extraordinary become the ordinary? Or shall he move in an extraordinary manner and cause the light of revelation to flash across the world and dispel the darkness consequent upon the mental and moral condition of the children of men, and give us a glorious lamp of light, along with law, order and system? And has the extraordinary given place to the ordinary? And what is the use of the ordinary if we have the extraordinary, or the use of the extraordinary if we have the ordinary?
As the operation of the Spirit upon the face of the great deep was to dispel the surrounding darkness and reveal the [pg 203] sun in the heavens, with all the lesser light bearers, which are dependent upon the sun for the light they give to our planet, so the extraordinary movement of the Spirit upon the world of mind was to give us light in the place of darkness and reveal the Son of God, who is the “Sun of Righteousness,” who rose “with healing in his beams.” This work of the Spirit upon the world of mind is doubted by no Christian, for “holy men of old spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Spirit.” The knowledge thus communicated was given to the prophets of old, without action upon their part—that is to say, they did not attain unto it by taking thought what they should speak or say, for in the proper hour, when it was needful, it was given to them. This grand procedure was kept up until the “Mystery of Christ” was revealed, or until the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, burst upon the vision of the world. Now, he being the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person, and it having pleased the Father that in him all fullness should dwell, he is the “Light of the World”—God's great light bearer. Along with the revelation of Christ comes a revelation of all the lesser lights that shine out in the mental and moral heavens, who have been, and are, dependent upon him for their knowledge, or light. In order to give the world this revelation of Christ, Jehovah selected his own men, and confirmed their mission, and the Spirit moved upon their hearts to give light until the Christ, himself, with all his satellites, should shine forth in the light of life. These men were the ancient prophets of the “High and Holy One.” They were teachers sent from God. Their mission was confirmed by the wondrous works which they were enabled to perform. Nicodemus understood this matter when he said, “Rabbi, we know thou art a teacher sent from God, for no man can do these works which thou dost except God be with him.”
The little Jewish maiden who waited on Naaman's wife understood it, for she said to her, “Would to God my Lord were with the prophet in Samaria! for he would cure him of his [pg 204] leprosy.” It is said of the disciples of Christ that they “went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following.” And also, that the great salvation, “which at the first began to be spoken unto us by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by those who heard him, God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit.” And that the apostles preached the gospel with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.
It was communicated to the prophets and apostles by the Savior, and to the world at large through them. As proof of this proposition Peter says, “The prophets searched diligently with reference to the time which the Spirit of Christ, that was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and of the glory which should follow.” It was an important work for Christ to teach his apostles, and when they had heard him through all his toils they were not suffered to go forth, or shine as stars in the church's crown, until they were moved upon by the Spirit of God to bring to their remembrance those things which Jesus had taught them. But one other course could have been pursued, and there were insurmountable difficulties in the way of its adoption, and that was to make the extraordinary ordinary by causing the Holy Spirit to move upon all hearts throughout all time, and give to each member of the race, regardless of his character and the manner in which he might abuse it, the entire revelation. The first difficulty is in the fact that wicked men who wilfully deceive would have confronted the best men upon the earth, and confusion without remedy would have been the result of leaving our world without a common and infallible test.
Another difficulty appears, in the fact that it would have compromised the purity of God through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all the vile and abominable sinners of earth. There was one way to avoid these results, and that was to irresistibly destroy all disposition in human hearts to have their own way, and so remain unworthy of the presence [pg 205] of the Divine Spirit; but this would have been a complete destruction of moral freedom along with all the principles of accountability, and consequently a destruction of God's moral government. Moral freedom was so sacred with God that “the spirit of the prophets was subject to the prophet.” Hence, the importance of the searcher of hearts choosing his own prophets out from among men. “God, who in ancient times and diverse manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath, in these last days, spoken unto us by his son.” The Lord of Hosts guarded this great work with reference to the deliverance of man by the most severe penalty. The law governing the prophets was in these words: “And that prophet which shall speak a word in my name which I commanded him not, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.” He guarded his own infinite and spotless purity. While he was “in the generation of the righteous, he was far from the wicked.” So there was always, from the time of Adam's offense till the present such a thing as being “without God.”
When the Jewish people became apostate in the times of Malachi, who was the last Old Testament prophet, the Holy Spirit left the world. The proof is in the Savior's words to his disciples: “If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.” And one of the witnesses said, “The Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.” During the long night of apostacy between Malachi and Zechariah, there was a time when “all were gone out of the way;” “when there were none that did good, no, not one;” “when darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people;” when they had not so much as “the dayspring from on high, to give knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins.” “The temple of God was a den of thieves.” The commandments of God were made void through the traditions of men, and there was not a people upon the earth prepared for the Lord, worthy of his introduction among them as the Son of God. The dignity of his person, consequent upon his being the Son of God, along with his purity, rendered [pg 206] it improper for him to be manifested, in his introduction as the Son of God, to a den of thieves. So a people must be prepared for the occasion. Hence John the Baptist was sent from God to prepare or make ready a people for the Lord. He was the “dayspring from on high,” sent to give knowledge of salvation unto the people by the remission of their sins, but the ultimate of his work is expressed in these words: “But that he, Christ, might be made manifest unto Israel, therefore came I baptizing with water.” Which was as much as to say, He will not be made manifest to Israel unless a people in Israel is made ready for him. Therefore John was his forerunner, to prepare the way before him.