13 - Chapter 13

CHAPTER XIII. The Divinity and Personality of the Holy Spirit.

Since the foregoing was written a brother in the ministry has recalled my attention to the general ignoring of the Holy Spirit and his work in the religious literature of the times. He also claims that not a few members of our churches deny the personality of the Holy Ghost, and interpret the words " Holy Spirit," "Comforter," etc., as indicative only of a moral and spiritual influence proceeding from the Father and the Son. He suggests that something more written on both these points would be pertinent and profitable. To the first matter we called attention in the introduction. We will add here as a further striking proof of a drift of the modern church from her anchorage in the Spirit, and his agency, the fact that the Bibliotheca Sacra, while published at Andover for the period of thirty-six years from 1844 to 1879, did not contain a single article on this vastly important subject. And this silence of the great Theological Quarterly was matched by a similar silence of the pulpit during all those years, and has been to this day. Is this because of the rapid increase and extension of human agencies, and a natural absorption in them and dependence on them? Possibly. There is doubtless danger here, even as there is to the wealthy to trust in their riches, and the strong to lean on their strength. But whatever may be the cause of this feature of our modern Church literature, there is need that we speedily retrace our steps and say with Paul, " / will not dare to speak of any of those things, which Christ hath not wrought by me, though mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God. " The New Testament from beginning to end, abounds in exultant records of the work of the Holy Ghost. More than two hundred times between Matthew and Revelation, he is spoken of and His mighty work in the early Church. A like frequent acknowledgement of Him, is requisite in modern Church literature, to keep the people from forgetting Him and leaning on an arm of flesh. The other matter referred to by my friend the denial of the personality of the Holy Spirit is graver still. And the results of such a denial, the writer believes, will not be less disastrous than the denial of the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus Mr. Spurgeon speaks of it on page 191 of his late biography: " We have before us the wretched spectacle of professedly Orthodox Christians, publicly avowing union with those who deny the personality of the Holy Ghost. " And because the English Baptist Union did this, he and the Churches which he had planted, withdrew from it and became independent. We will therefore give this matter more lengthy consideration. We begin with the confession of the unity of the Divine being and nature that there is one God and only one. This is asserted positively and often in the Old Testament. It is repeated in the New, and it is grandly confirmed by the unmistakable evidence-of unity of design, manifest in all the works of creation. These two great books Creation and Revelation, testify that God is one. With one voice they cry, " Hear O! Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord! " The Deity is revealed in the Bible and brought home to the understanding of men, under the names and personalities of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In each of these personalities a special presentation of the Divine character and aid is given. To each is ascribed personality and Divine attributes. No candid reader of the book of God can escape the conclusion that it reveals God to us, as one in being and three in personal representation of Himself to us. And if this is so, it must be because God saw that such presentation of Himself to the human family, would most fully reveal His love and help us in our low estate. It would have been one of the easiest things conceivable, for God so to have spoken of the Holy Ghost and also of the Christ, as to have forestalled and prevented all the long controversy over the question of the Trinity the Divinity of Christ, and the personality of tbe Spirit. To that end it was only necessary to use words according to their common use and natural meaning. But for some reason the book of Inspiration so speaks of the Holy Spirit that earnest believers, with rare exceptions, accept Him as a Person, pray to Him as Divine, look to Him for help, and love and worship Him as God. But our friends ask for proofs that the Holy Ghost is recognized in the Bible as a Person, and more than a Divine moral influence. We cannot enter largely into the discussion of this matter, but will give a few points. In John 14:1-31: 1G, Jesus said to the disciples, "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you Another Comforter Paracletos, that He may abide with you forever." The word Paracletes, translated comforter, is a noun in the masculine gender, and designates a person, as truly as do the words, Jesus or Jehovah. And the promise of Another Paracletos by implication says "I have been your Comforter hitherto, but now I am going away, but I will ask the Father and He shall send you another Comforter, who will be my successor, and He shall abide with you forever." In verse 26, of the same Chapter he adds, "But the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, etc." Here also is given the name of a person, and not of an influence, and three times His personality is taught in the italicized noun and pronouns. In the next Chapter, John 15:26, the same testimony to the personality of the Spirit is given in the words, "But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me." In the next Chapter, John 16:7, Jesus said, "It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; But if I depart I will send Him unto you, and when He is come He will reprove the world, etc. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come, He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of mine and show it unto you." What means this repetition of the personal name Paracletos, and the long list of personal pronouns which follow in these last quotations? How easy to have said "it" if only an influence, and not a person was meant. And if Paracletos is not a person, what shall we make of the expression, "He shall not speak of himself?" But these are not the only passages of Scripture which speak of the Spirit as a person. In Acts 13:2, “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate Me Barnarbas and Saul, for the work, whereunto I have called them. " Here the Holy Ghost speaks, as a person and says, " Separate Me (or unto Me) Barnabas and Saul, to the work whereunto / have called them.” The use of the two personal pronouns, I and Me and the act of speaking, assume in the strongest form the personality of the Holy Spirit. More emphatically still is the personality of the Spirit declared in the Baptismal formula which our Lord gave His disciples in Matthew 28:19, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Here the personality of the Spirit is put on a par with that of the Father and the Son. And here by direct injunction of Christ, each person entering the visible Church down through the ages, in the ordinance of baptism is taught, in the most impressive form, the doctrine of the Trinity and the personality of the Holy Ghost. And let me ask why, in such an hour, in a rite so solemn and impressive, when the sensibilities of the convert, like melted wax are so warm and impressible, why choose that occasion for the use of language so expressive of the personality of the Holy Spirit ’? Surely it bespeaks the vast importance of the doctrine. It says in effect, "Let no man enter the visible Church until first taught that he has a personal Father God, a Redeemer Jesus Christ the Son, and a personal Indweller and Sanctifier the Holy Ghost!"

Like unto this and additional to it, is the Apostolic Benediction “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all, amen." 2d Cor. 13:14. This language also assumes and proclaims the personality of the Holy Spirit, equally with that of the Father and the Son. And being the most suitable and complete of all Biblical forms of benediction for the closing of religious services, it has by common consent been adopted with great unamirnity by the Churches of Christendom. And thus in the solemn closing of each religious service down through the centuries, each hearer leaves the house of God with words ringing in his ears, which teach the personality of the Holy Spirit Words assuring him as he goes out into the world, that there is a Father above who loves him, a Saviour who died for his salvation, and a Holy Spirit who has come to dwell with him in loving helpfulness and sympathy, to sanctify, empower and fit him for heaven. And yet again let me ask, why this teaching of the personality of the Spirit, thus impressively, in the closing words of each religions service? The answer must be, because of its pre-eminent importance in the Christian system. That it is of great practical importance is proven.

1st. By observation. Mohamedans and Jews believe, and strongly assert the unity of God. But denying or ignoring the personality and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as well as the Divinity of Christ, the God they profess to worship is far removed from them, and their religion is cold, cheerless and barren as the frozen zone. God is to them a God afar off and not nigh, as He is to those whose thoughts have to do with a Christ, who has walked in very flesh in our human paths, and was in all points tempted as we are, and who have also taken the Holy Spirit into their dwellings, and into their very bodies and souls to dwell with them all their days, in all efficient love and sympathy. Vast is the moral chasm between these two classes of believers in God. The powerful influence of the doctrine of the Trinity is what makes the difference between the two. 2d. It is agreeable to reason also that the doctrine of the Divine personality of the Spirit, should exert a happy and powerful influence over those who accept it. Love in the form of enkindled affection is a great force, lying back of human willing and human action. Invaluable is its aid in the moral strife and in all Christian work. But love attaches itself to a personality, and not to an abstract moral influence. And that personality to affect our human nature powerfully, must be at hand and not afar off. The old adage, “Out of sight, out of mind “expresses an experience in this line as well as in another. With what exquisite satisfaction, John speaks of the preciousness of this personal contact he had with our Lord! " That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life declare we unto you. " 1 John 1:1, and 2. So to love God warmly and strongly there needs to be a presentation to us of Him as an indwelling Spirit, full of sympathy and love, One with whom we can walk all the day long and who will never leave or forsake us. One ready to help and mighty to save.

3d. Experience comes to our aid in proof of this value of the doctrine of the Personality and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is said in John 14:17, "He dwelleth with you and shall be in you." Many other passages assert His constant attendance upon our steps, His fellowship with us, and his occupation of the body itself, making it his holy Temple. This wonderful truth accepted by faith, and confirmed by helps received from an unseen hand, gives the Christian victory over temptations of Satan, over fleshly impulses, over the world, and all the power of the enemy. Because an Almighty personal friend is here by his Will, and in his heart. David said "I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved." This doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit, his indwelling, his sympathy, his help in every time of need, is too precious and too important to be left out of the volume of revealed truth. Nor can it be ignored or underrated, except at the expense of vast spiritual disaster, if not of spiritual death. Finally, the doctrine of the personality, of the Spirit receives its complete and satisfactory demonstration only in the blessed Baptism of which we have been speaking. There is a theoretic acceptance of Christ as a Divine personage. But in it we no more appreciate Him, than we do a man of whom we have only seen his shadow. But beyond this there is an experimental revelation of the God-Man to the soul, given to us by the Spirit and by Him alone. Paul speaks of this latter when he says, "No man can say that Jesus is the Christ, but by the Holy Ghost." So also when he says "But when it pleased God to reveal his son in me." So when Peter said to Jesus. ’-Thou art the Christ!" The Master replied, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee but my Father only." In like manner there is a theoretic acceptance "of the personality of the Holy Spirit, and beyond this an experimental acquaintance with him, demonstrative, realistic, delightful, helpful and personal. As truly personal to us as is a father, mother or a human friend. In a letter before me a lady of eminence, thus speaks of an experience in this line. "Sometimes my communion is with the Father. Then with the Son. At other times with the Third Person in the Adorable Trinity. "Another writer says, "In my early Christian life, Jesus, was the Central Divine Personage around whom my love and thoughts spontaneously clustered. As a rule, my prayers began with the words, Blessed Jesus! After a time so was the Fatherhood of God revealed, that the beginning of my prayer was changed to Our Father! But when at length I received the holy Baptism, then God was revealed in the personality and work of the Holy Spirit, He filled my heart, controlled my life, and became the subject of adoration and largest thought." We think this was true of the Apostles. Doubtless their first worship was of the Father God. At length Jesus, the Messiah, was so revealed to them, that they held him by the feet and worshipped him, and like Thomas exclaimed "My Lord and My God." Afterward came the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, and filled all the house where they were sitting, and thence onward, their frequent mention of His name, their exultant experiences of His work, His holy companionship and power, show a new revelation to them of his Divine nature and personality. Our hymn books also, the richest depositories of religious experience, and of a correct and spiritual theology, bring out vividly, the same experimental apprehension of God, in these three-fold relations of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. As a sample of the hymns referred to, read the following from Chas. Wesley:

"Come thou Almighty King, Help us Thy name to sinar, Help us to praise, Father all glorious, O’er all victorious, Come and reign over us.

Ancient of days.

Come thou Incarnate Word, Gird on Thy mighty sword, Our prayers attend; Come and Thy people bless, And give Thy word success, Spirit of holiness, On us descend.

Come Holy Comforter, Thy sacred witness hear, In this glad hour; Thou who Almighty art, Now rule in every heart, And ne’er from us depart, Spirit of power. To Thee, G-reat One in. Three, The highest praises be, Hence evermore; His sovereign Majesty, May we in glory see, And to eternity, Love and adore!" This tri-personality of God then, is an experience, as well as a doctrine of Theology. And the aim of the doctrine was to lead to the experience, as was the revelation of a heaven, to lead us there. In closing the discussion of this great topic, permit the writer to ask, has it not been a serious fault of most writers upon the Trinity, that they have largely overlooked its practical and experimental influence upon our race? Have they paused before the startling announcement, of a Trinity and a Unity in the God-Head, and sought after some great practical reason there for?

Some want in our human conditions which made it a necessity that God should so reveal Himself to us? Suffer us also to entreat our readers to give themselves no rest, till they have each personally gone to these three gates of approach unto God, and have there been taught in a blessed experience, why these three gates were made and mankind invited to come unto God through them? The Bible is a costly book. There is preciousness in all its doctrines beyond the power of human estimation. They have all a practical value, as well as a theoretical beauty and consistency. May the Lord teach as in a rich experience the intent find value of the One we have been considering.