|
VIII.
I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST.
The Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and
bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.
ST JOHN xiv. 26.
But
when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto
you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which
proceed-
eth from the Father, He shall hear witness of Me.
ST JOHN xv. 26.
Howbeit
when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall
guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak from
Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall
He speak: and He shall declare unto you the things that
are to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall take of
mine, and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever
the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that He taketh
of mine, and shall declare it unto you.
ST JOHN xvi. 13—15.
And in
like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity:
for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit
Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which
cannot be uttered; and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth
what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh
intercession
for the saints according to the will of God.
ROM. viii. 26, 27.
WE now reach the third division of the Creed.
We have declared our belief in God, the
Father, the Ruler and the Maker of all things;
and in His only Son Jesus Christ our Lord, Who
by taking man's nature upon Him has re-united
man to God and fulfilled potentially the destiny
of creation. As following on this we declare our
belief in the Holy Spirit; and so complete the
confession of our faith in God, our Maker, Re-
deemer, Sanctifier, One God.
In the remaining clauses of the Creed the
action of the Holy Spirit is considered in its
typical forms, in relation to the society and to the
individual, and in its final issue. Because
we believe in the Holy Spirit, we believe that
there is a Holy Catholic Church and a Com-
munion of Saints, a Church visible and invisible,
reaching through all time and to all rational
beings. We believe that there is for each
one of us a forgiveness of sins and a resurrection
of the body, the possibility, that is, of the vision
of God and the preservation of all that we truly
|
VIII.
|
104
The revelation of the Holy Spirit
VIII.
|
are. We believe that there is beyond all
the shows and shadows of time, all the changes
which make up earthly life, a life eternal, a life
in the open Presence of God, a life which is the
knowledge of God.
These special articles of our faith we must
reserve for later consideration. I wish now to
notice some of the thoughts which are suggested
by the general confession : I believe in the Holy
Ghost . The confession is indeed the con-
fession of a truth which is characteristic of our
Christian Creed. We are all now living under
that dispensation which is essentially the dispen-
sation of the Spirit. Our whole attitude towards
the facts of life is determined by the devout con-
viction with which we hold it.
The belief in the Holy Spirit is, I say, charac-
teristic of our Christian Creed. The Spirit of God
appears in the Old Testament as the symbol of
the divine energy. He is not yet made known
as a distinct Person with Whom man can hold
communion, though the scope of the energy fore-
shadows the nature of the Person. This
Spirit it was which brooded over chaos at the
Creation: this it was which was breathed into
Adam when he became a living soul: this it was
by which Moses and Joshua led the people of
Israel into the promised land: this it was by
|
made gradually.
105
which judges wrought deliverance, kings reigned,
prophets spoke. Order, life, guidance, truth came
from the Spirit of God. But as yet He was
not specially revealed as the Holy Spirit. Holi-
ness was seen as the attribute of a Divine Ruler
and not as the essence of a Divine Sanctifier.
The Lord of hosts declared Himself as the Holy
One of Israel; but in the language of St John
the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was
not yet glorified. The Spirit was in the fulness
of the Divine Nature, but not in that personal
relation with the Church and with the believer
which followed on the exaltation of the Saviour.
Even in the New Testament the revelation of
the Holy Spirit is gradual. That which is pro-
mised in the Gospels becomes fact in the Acts
and the Epistles. At the Incarnation, the Baptism,
the Temptation, the Spirit Who was active at
the Creation of man was revealed as active at his
new creation. But it was not till the full conse-
quences of sin had been borne, and death had
been conquered, and humanity had been raised in
the Son of man to the right hand of God, that the
rushing wind and fiery tongues told outwardly, at
the festival of the gathered harvest, of the fulfil-
ment of the promise of the Father. Then
first, in virtue of Christ's finished work and in
Christ's name, God took up His dwelling, if I may
|
VIII.
John vii.
39.
|
106
The Revelation of the Spirit
VIII.
|
so speak, not in the flesh only but in men. The
primæval curse of Babel was reversed in the
freedom of spiritual utterance; and Galilæan
peasants proclaimed intelligibly to the collected
nations a universal Gospel. This descent,
this incorporation, of the Spirit was in some sense,
a second Divine Nativity, the birth of the Church,
'Christ's Body,' the beginning of the order under
which we live, the manifestation of that Power
which is around us and in us, in Whose help alone
lies all our strength, in Whose presence alone lies
all our safety. Under this aspect the book of the
Acts is the Gospel of the Holy Spirit, the typical
record of His action. There we see how, at each
stage in the building of the Church, the personal
direction of the Spirit rules the conduct of its
earthly founders. The voice of the Spirit shewed
to St Philip, to St Peter, to St Paul the widening
limits of their teaching, and in some cases the
very details of their fortunes.
The veil which was thus raised for a brief
space from the processes of life in the growth of
the Church of God has now again fallen over them.
We can no longer infallibly interpret the method
in which the Spirit works, but we rest in the
assurance that He is working. We look back to
the first Christian Pentecost and know that we
enjoy a special manifestation of His Being which
|
an interpretation of life.
107
was not made in times of old. As we
acknowledge the blessing we see how the whole
cycle of man's knowledge of God has been com-
pleted, and how the fruits of God's love are
brought into the life of men. We see how
God has been pleased to make Himself known
successively as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in
revelations which correspond with the progress of
His people, and no less, as we are taught to believe,
with the mysteries of His own Being. We
see how the results of the Incarnation are realised
in the Church, and in men, by the abiding
ministry of the Paraclete.
For the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, is sent in
Christ's name. This truth is vital for the under-
standing of our faith in the Holy Ghost. Even as
Christ came in His Father's name, working by
His power and therein revealing His character, so
the Spirit comes in Christ's name, making known
through the ages, as the experience of men grows
richer and their powers gain strength by dis-
cipline, the infinite truths of the Incarnation
which Christ's 'name' embodies. The dis-
pensation of the Spirit is, in other words, the
revelation of Christ, the Son of God and the Son
of man. The promise is for us and for all time.
The assurance of the promise is the living hope of
the Church; and human history, the history of
|
VIII.
John xiv.
26.
|
108
The Holy Spirit
VIII.
|
each soul and the history of all nations, furnishes
the element through which the Spirit reveals
Him.
The Spirit of truth , Christ Himself
said,
shall take of mine and declare it unto you; and
again, all things whatsoever the Father hath are
mine . So He declares to us the method and the
end of that order under which we live. Little by
little the Spirit is bringing home the uttermost
realities of being, bringing home, that is, Christ
and the things of Christ to each man and to all
men. He is bringing to light new truths
which may minister to the knowledge of Him
Who is the Truth. He is ever fashioning for our
use, as we gain power to use them, new forms of
thought, new modes of worship, new spheres of
action. There can be no stationariness where He
is present.
Little by little He is giving through manifold
discipline perfectness to the individual and unity
to the Church. He is enabling us to see through
the spontaneous aspirations of men fresh depths of
promise in the Gospel of Christ. For if our hearts
are moved when statesmen or students speak with
glowing hope of the coming union of nations, of
the progress of society, of the glory of creation,
where shall we find a solid basis for their brilliant
structures, except in the work of Christ, in the
|
interprets Christ's Name. 109
Person of Christ, which the Spirit interprets to
us ? The noblest speculations of men who
have not the Faith are thus unconscious prophecies
of which the Spirit foreshews the fulfilment: stir-
ring calls to us to make clearer the power of that
which we have received: pledges that something
is given us to do that the counsel of God may be
more fully known.
The dispensation of the Spirit is, I repeat, the
revelation of Christ. And how do we stand
towards it ? We often think, I fancy, as we linger
over the pages of the Bible, that if God shewed
Himself to us, as to patriarchs and lawgivers of
old; if Christ taught in our streets, as He taught
in Nazareth or Capernaum; we should penetrate
through every disguise in which the Divine form
was shrouded and welcome the words of life with
the enthusiasm of complete devotion. We forget
that the power to .see God and to hear Him be-
longs by an inalienable gift to the soul which loves
Him. Meanwhile God is reasoning with us
with a voice as clear as that which sounded in the
still evening through the trees of Eden. One is
standing over us—over each one of us—with love
as watchful as that of Jesus in the home at
Bethany. But too swiftly the unbidden voice
dies away in our hearts: the startling conscious-
ness is lost; and we believe that we are alone.
|
VIII.
|
110
A divine message.
VIII.
John xvi.
33.
|
We often think, again, that if we had received
any direct promise, any clear charge, from God,
like Abraham, or David, or Peter, we should be
ready to go forth as wanderers, as leaders, as
martyrs, strong in the might of that eternal assur-
ance, of that irrevocable commission, strong in
spite of loneliness, strong in spite of the burden of
besetting sin, strong in spite of the remembrance
of past faithlessness. In all this we vainly
wish for the signs of another age now at length
made luminous; and we forget that the seal of the
Spirit is on our foreheads, and that we have only
to claim our heritage and go forth to share in a
victory which has been already won.
The inspiration, the personal call, the personal
consecration are all for us if we hold fast our
Faith.
I believe in the Holy Ghost. He who is
able
to make the confession stands as a listener to a
divine message. For him there is a meaning,
however little he may yet be able to grasp it,
in the sequences of natural law, in the confused
conflicts of empires, in the distresses and anxieties
and sordid cares of society. In the confi-
dence of his faith he will not close the least
avenue through which one word of God may come
to him. In the vigour of his hope he will bear
the season of silence when searching finds no
answer. In the breadth of his love he will wel-
|
A personal call and consecration. 111
come as fellow-helpers those who serve uncon-
sciously the creed which they deny.
I believe in the Holy Ghost. He who is
able to
make the confession has found a divine Friend.
For him the Spirit is not an influence, an energy,
of One far off, but a present Comforter Whom
Christ has sent to fulfil His work, a present
Guide ready to lead him into all the Truth, a
present Advocate waiting to gain acceptance for
the deep sighings of the heart before the throne of
God. So it is that Scripture speaks of His
relation to us: so it is that we can understand
how His Presence among men is dependent on the
exaltation of Christ in His human nature to the
right hand of the Father.
I believe in the Holy Ghost. He who is
able
to make the confession recognises the action of
One who is moulding his single life. Each be-
liever is himself a temple to be prepared for the
Master's dwelling. The same Spirit who shapes
the course of the whole world hallows the soul
which is offered to him for a divine use. The
Christian believer is in one sense alone with God,
and God alone with him. He has a work to do,
definite, individual, eternal, through the ordinary
duties and occupations and trials of common busi-
ness; and this the Spirit sent in Christ's name,
bringing to him the virtue of Christ's humanity,
will help him to perfect.
|
VIII.
|
112
An illumination of life.
| VIII.
|
I believe in the Holy Ghost . Life is indeed
full of mysteries to which we can give no interpre-
tation, of griefs to which we can gain no present
remedy. I have no will to extenuate them. Nay
rather we must feel them deeply if we are to
know God; and then the faith in the personal
help of the Holy Spirit—the complement of the
Incarnation—is sufficient for our needs. The
prayer of the warrior of old time bewildered by
the darkness was: 'Give light and let me die.'
We can say: 'Help us to live and the light will
come,' come through life itself.
So may we cherish each impulse towards good
as the direct inspiration of God which bears with
it the assurance of its accomplishment. So
may we watch the signs of an unseen power
moulding us by gentlest influences to the pattern
of a divine likeness. So may we have our
eyes opened to see a heavenly order slowly fulfilled
about us. In that conviction, in that ex-
perience, in that vision, we shall work on with the
certain knowledge that each effort is blessed by
Him who inspired it. Each age, each heart, has
its own questionings, but Christ's words are ad-
dressed to every age and to every heart: they can
never want their accomplishment: The Paraclete
even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send
in my name, He shall teach you all things.
|
|
