02 - Chapter 02

CHAPTER II. The Work of the Spirit under the Mosaic Dispensation. In the brief synopsis of events before the flood, we read these mournful words: "And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man! And this expression "Strive with man," implies an earnest and persistent struggle on the Spirit’s part to hold men back from sin and the threatened doom. A like record is made of his efforts to save the Israelites on their way to Canaan, when it is said, "They rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit." Another still and not less strong in the expression, "How can I give thee up Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together!" This on the one hand. On the other we read of his successful work in a multitude of instances. There were Enoch and Elijah, so sanctified by his power and so ripened for heaven, that they were not suffered to see death, but were translated! Others like Moses, David and Melchisadek, become types of the coming Messiah! All their great teachers, we are told, spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Indeed, the list of the Spirit’s triumphs in converting and sanctifying men, while yet the nations were groping and feeling their way amid the shadows of the old dispensation, and awaiting the rise of the Sun of Righteousness, is too large to be transcribed here.