1.A 11. LETTER XI

LETTER XI.

Another ground of possibility The promise of the Holy Spirit This always necessary, as well under the old as the new dispensation Proved from sundry examples The common privilege of all believers The Scriptures our guide But these insist on the necessity of the Spirit This the most vital principle of Christianity As without the Spirit there is no lif Sustained by quotations of poetry. MY DEAR M : Knowing that you are not willing to take anything for granted that is not well substantiated, and being desirous to grant all your requests, though you should style your self an "importunate beggar/ I proceed to show, as well as 1 am able, another ground of the possibility of the attainment of perfect love. And if I do not fully meet your wishes, propote your doubts, state your objections, and I will endeavour to gratify the one and to obviate the other, for it gives me unspeakable pleasure thus to converse with you, and to be an humble instrument in the hands of God of communicating light and comfort to such a child of God.

Another ground of this possibility arises from the promise of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the gift of the Holy Spirit did not originate with Jesus Christ, though this dispensation was more fully opened under the Gospel, and particularly at and after the day of Pentecost, than it had ever been before. Yet all the holy men of God, patriarchs and prophets, old men and maidens, looked for the aid of the Holy Spirit, to enlighten their understandings, to soften, change, and purify their hearts, as much under the old, as those did under the new dispensation. It is therefore a great mistake to suppose that they trusted in rites and ceremonies for salvation, however numerously or punctually they might be performed. They were those only who forsook the true worship of God, and trusted in "a vain show," in outward sacrifices and oblations, and substituted these external observances for the " circumcision of the heart," that trusted in these things for the purification of their natures, in dependently of the Holy Spirit. David, who was among the most scrupulous in attending to all the ritual of the sanctuary, arranging the priests in order, appointing the singers and trumpeters to their respective places, said, "Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it; thou delightest not in burnt-offering : The sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Psalms 51:16-17. And what could produce this broken and con trite heart, with which God was so much better pleased than He was with burnt-offerings and sacrifices, but the internal operation of the Holy Spirit, breaking down its natural hardness, and subduing its proud and lofty bearing into a con trite submission to the will of God? This David knew perfectly well, and therefore he thus prays in the llth and 12th verses of this same chapter : " Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit,"

It would indeed be almost endless to quote the numerous passages, or to refer to the many examples, where this dependence upon the Holy Spirit is proved even under the Old Testament dispensation. External rites and ceremonies were but symbols of God’s presence, through which he shone by His Spirit upon their hearts, and through them upon the world around about them. Hence when God spoke to Moses through the burning bush, this burning bush was the symbol of His presence, the external sign of His voice, but the voice itself was spoken to Moses heart by the Spirit of God. How could it be otherwise, seeing that God is a Spirit, and therefore must always manifest Him self spiritually, if at all, to the soul. But if we turn our attention to the New Testament, we shall find this presence of the Holy Spirit peculiarly set forth as the grand privilege of His people, as the efficient agent to work mightily in them in effecting repentance, faith, regeneration, and sanctification. To see this in the clearest light, read, my dear M., the xivth, xvth, and xvith chapters of St. John’s Gospel, and then the viiith chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and read the words of the Saviour as if spoken directly to you, for the promise of the Holy Spirit is " unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call," in every nation, even to the end of the world. Acts 2:39.

How erroneous are the views of those who suppose that this promise of the Spirit was restricted to the apostolic age of the Church! They who assert this heartless error, would deprive the Christian of one of the surest, the greatest, and most efficient, as well as exhaust- less sources of comfort, of strength, and the most encouraging aids he can possibly have. These errorists pretend that the Scriptures are our rule, and that consequently we have no need of the Holy Spirit.

I allow that the Holy Scriptures are our in fallible rule. But what do the Scriptures teach on this subject? Do they not declare most explicitly, that " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his?" The Scriptures all along point the believer to this very promise, as being made to him, and exhort him to come to this flowing fountain, and drink, and live for ever.

What would you, my dear M., think of a man who should publish a book describing where a mine of gold is located, and point out the way by which it could be found, and one of your friends should read the book, and then say he has the gold, merely because he has read the book that describes it, but never takes a single step to ascertain its location, or to possess him self of the rich treasure? Would you not believe him a simpleton? I think you would, and that too very justly. Equally foolish are those who profess to take the Scriptures for their guide, read their sacred pages, and then content themselves with this theoretical knowledge, with out searching for the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which can be revealed to their hearts only by that eternal " Spirit which searches all things, yea, the deep things of God" that Spirit which takes of the things of Christ, and gives them unto his disciples, " even the Spirit of TRUTH, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but YE know him, for he DWELLETH with YOU, and shall be IN YOU." John 14:17.

I take it for granted, therefore, without any further proof, that it is the high and distinguished privilege of all the children of God to have this Holy Spirit to enlighten their understandings, to change and purify their hearts, to guide them in all their ways, to comfort them in all their afflictions, to support them in all their trials, to strengthen them in all their labours, and to shine upon their path, otherwise dark and gloomy, and make it plain before their face. This I consider one of the most vital principles of Christianity. Strip it of this, and you have but a lifeless corpse. Deprive it of this, and you have the "letter that killeth," but have not the " Spirit that giveth life." It is this Spirit that "giveth wisdom to the simple" that unlocks the otherwise hidden meaning of the sacred Scriptures, so that we may read and understand the "words of the Book." Hence those who have this holy Spirit need not fear being en tangled in the net of error, because He is a " Spirit of TRUTH," and the promise is, that when " He is come he shall lead you into ALL TRUTH," that is, all truth necessary for your salvation.

Now the question to be decided is, Is not this Spirit fully adequate to

"Kill and make alive" to kill sin in the heart, and to make the soul alive to God to separate the soul from sin, and to unite it to God by faith in Jesus Christ? Of this, it appears to me, there can be no doubt. He is called the eternal Spirit. And this eternal Spirit is said to work MIGHTILY in them that believe. What then is too hard or difficult for Him to effect? Cannot that eternal Spirit that garnished the heavens with their beauty that said to the world, be, and it was that keeps the worlds in motion that raised Jesus Christ from the dead that penetrates the deepest recesses of the human heart that quickens souls dead in trespasses and sins cannot THIS Spirit, with all its energies, expel sin from the heart of the believer, and make "all things new?" He certainly can. He as certainly will, provided only that we yield a willing obedience to His teachings, and consent to be moulded, by His all- forming Hand, into the image of God.

O, my dear M., do you not remember the happy hour, when, after a long, anxious, and painful struggle of soul, in which you groaned under a consciousness of inbred sin, the Holy Spirit descended upon you, whispered peace to your heart, and brought with this inward peace, joy in the Holy Ghost? Did not his irradiating beams shine through all your soul, and did you not in that very moment look up, and behold " the glory of God, shining in the face of Jesus Christ?" Yes, you did. And the Spirit itself lore witness with your spirit that you were a child of God. And how often, since that most happy era of your life, in prayer, under the preaching of a living minister, in reading and meditating, in conversing with Christian friends, whose spirits were akin to yours, have you felt your heart burning with Divine fire! And this fire was kindled upon the altar of your heart by the secret workings of the Holy Spirit. How often, also, when your soul has been in heaviness through manifold temptations, have you felt yourself suddenly relieved, the tempter was banished, your soul leaped for joy, and you felt the " love of God, wave after wave, roll over you." What caused this but the Spirit of God? Hence He is styled the COMFORTER.

O ye dead formalists! deprive us not of this Divine Comforter. Teach us not a religion that has a body without a soul. Tell us not of a Christianity that is destitute of the inward life, created, kept up, and invigorated by the living principle infused into it by the vivifying power of the eternal Spirit. Talk as eloquently as you please about such a Christianity, and fortify yourself as you may with arguments drawn from your dried-up fountain of metaphysics, and we will believe you not. I and my friend M. will still sing, in the language of our own inimitable poet " Expand thy wings, celestial Dove, And brooding o er my nature’s night, Call forth a ray of heavenly love, Let there in my dark soul be light, And fill th illustrated abyss With glorious beams of endless bliss."

Let then the formalist boast himself, if he will, of the beauty of his forms, and starve himself with its husks; we, my dear M., and all who are "dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ," will feast on the rich banquet provided for us by the Saviour, and imparted to us by the Spirit of truth and love. Yes, we will sing, believingly sing, " Let there be light! again command, And light there in our hearts shall be; We then through FAITH shall understand Thy great mysterious majesty; And by the SHINING OK THY GRACE, Behold in CHUIST thy GLORIOUS FACE."