parts of his preaching and conversations; but "whatsoever" he had said to the disciples, that the Spirit brought to their remembrance, and opened to their understanding. Now, to say nothing of the light which this fact throws upon the perfection of the gospels, see how it reveals the love of the Spirit to the world and the church. He refused not, grudged not, hesitated not, to repeat all that Christ had said, to encourage the guiltiest, or to cheer the timid, or to win the worst. Nothing was too good, too kind, or too strong for him to sanction. He kept back nothing, weakened nothing, shaded nothing, of all the goodness which the Saviour had ever uttered to friends or enemies. Thus we have the gospel, the whole gospel, and nothing but the gospel, from the lips of the Spirit, as well as from the lips of the Son and the Father. What a glorious confirmation, as well as illustration, we thus have of the perfect concurrence and equal cordiality of the Godhead, in the glad tidings of salvation! This fact proves that the Trinity are as much one in heart, as they are one in essence, and each person of the Godhead as truly “love” as “light.” You have often read and repeated various great and precious promises, as the word of the Father, and as the word of the Son, and marked with delight how they prove their love. Well; just observe now, and remember in future, how they prove the love of the Spirit also. They came from his heart and lips, too; and that when, humanly speaking, many of them might have been lost for ever, had he not republished them to the apostles. For he thus sanctioned them all, as well as preserved them. the Holy Spirit identified himself, heart and hand, with "all things whatsoever," which Jesus had spoken. He did as much justice to the doctrine of the Son, as the Son did to the doctrine of the Father. Whatever Christ heard from the Father, he fully declared; and whatever Christ declared, the Spirit faithfully preserved. You cannot be uninterested nor unaffected by these facts. They explain and justify the assertion of Christ, that the Spirit would be " another comforter." This, however, is not all that I want to fix your attention upon, in the office of the Holy Ghost as a remembrancer. Recollect how little was known, even in Judea, concerning the Spirit. His existence and personality were far from being unknown: but, except in reference to prophecy, his office and operations were very little understood, when the ministry of Christ began. Remember also, how little the apostles themselves comprehended the work of the Spirit. The Saviour had actually to begin his doctrine on this subject, by speaking only of "water and the Spirit;" not of the "Truth" and the Spirit; so little did they connect the Spirit with means. He had, therefore, to put him forward, almost apart from means, in the first instance, before he could gain any thing like a fair attention to the agency of the Holy Spirit. In like manner, at the close of his ministry, or in his last great intercessory prayer, Jesus had just to reverse this order; and, that the instrumentality of truth might not seem to be displaced by the prominence formerly given to the agency of the Spirit, he said nothing about him when praying for the sanctification and preservation of the disciples; but pleaded thus, "Sanctify This is the point to which I would now fix your them by thy truth, thy word is truth." John xvii. attention. The HOLINESS of the Spirit did not 17. Now our tendency to run to extremes on lead him to hold back, or to qualify, the pardons this subject, is just as great as theirs was at first. offered by Christ to the vilest and the most hope- The natural bent of the human mind is, to make less. The SOVEREIGNTY of the Spirit did not pre- means every thing, and the Spirit nothing; and vent him from repeating the invitations of Christ, the artificial bent of it is, to make the Spirit every in all their original width, warmth, and freeness. thing, and means nothing. Accordingly, to preThe SUPREMACY of the Spirit, or that entire de-vent both extremes, the Holy Spirit left the matpendance of all means upon his agency, (without ter just as the Saviour placed it. He added nowhich we can neither will nor do what is com- thing to the prayer, "Sanctify them by thy truth;" manded,) did not lead him to alter one word of the and he took nothing away from the assertion, "ye Saviour's commands to repent, and believe the must be born again of the Spirit." He neither gospel. No; although all the power of doing so spoke of himself at all where Christ had said depended upon himself, he made the apostles re- nothing, nor spoke less concerning himself, where member and write on the subject of human duty, Christ had said much. The reason is obvious, exactly as Christ had spoken to the world; taking and full of love; namely, that we may use apcare to bind upon all men, every where, the per- pointed means as diligently as if salvation dependsonal obligation,-"Strive to enter in at the straited upon the right use of them, and yet depend gate;"" "Labor for that meat which endureth upon the Spirit as simply and entirely as if there unto everlasting life;" "Seek, and ye shall find; were no means used, or none to use. knock, and it shall be opened unto you;" Repent, or ye shall perish." In like manner, the MAJESTY of the Spirit did not prevent him from reminding the evangelists, of the most condescending and tender things which Jesus had said to the despairing and the despised. No; the Eternal Spirit, like the High and Lofty One, who inhabiteth eternity, was not ashamed of the contrite or the trembling; but preserved for them, and transmitted to them, all that the friend of sinners had ever said to the weary or heavy laden; to publicans or harlots; to prodigals, malefactors, or outcasts! He took care to preserve even the Saviour's dying prayer for his murderers. Thus 66 In like manner, the Spirit took no exception to any thing, however strong, which the Saviour had ever said of the fulness or the freeness of divine influence. Jesus had said, "If ye being evil know how to give good things unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask him?" and that Spirit repeated this promise exactly as Christ gave it, without demur or limitation; thus pledg ing himself to be the "free Spirit," which Christ had said. So also, he took no exception to the work which Christ pledged him, although the world was its field, and the end of time its period. Jesus had said, "He shall convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment ;" and the Spirit put this promise in writing, as openly and willingly as Christ put it into words; thus undertaking to be the illuminator of the world as fully as Christ was the Saviour of the world. And not less willingly did he remind the apostles of the promise, that "He shall abide for ever" in the church. He sanctioned and sealed that pledge too, although he foresaw all the labor it would involve, and all the provocation he would have to endure. His majesty took no offence at the weakness or the unworthiness of the myriads he had to teach; nor his purity, at the vileness of those he had to sanctify; nor his patience, at the waywardness of those he had to guide; nor his independence, at the poverty of those he had to console. In a word, like the Saviour, the Spirit came, "not to be ministered unto, but to minister." The epistles of the New Testament form another illustration and proof of the love of the Spirit. In them, he as faithfully taught the writers "all things," as in the gospels he had brought "all things" to their "remembrance." In the latter he led them back to "all truth;" and in the former led them "into all truth." 80. My limits will not allow me to trace, throughout the epistles, the fulness nor the frequency with which he expanded and explained "the truth as it is in Jesus." And it is not necessary to do You can see at a glance, that whilst he adhered to the very letter of all that Christ taught and did, he also brought out the spirit of the whole, in new forms of argument and appeal, of power and glory, which set all the Saviour's "apples of gold, in pictures of silver." The experimental design of this little treatise requires now, that the office of the Spirit as a remembrancer, be traced in the well known fact, that he still suggests and applies the things of Christ unto the mind. "He shall take of mine," said the Saviour, "and show it unto you." This he did to the apostles; and the gospels were the first fruits, and the epistles the full harvest of his revealing love. He did not, however, cease to suggest nor to apply the truth, when he closed the canon of Scripture. No; he closed the canon, to open the heart to understand and enjoy it. Accordingly, every Christian recollects well, many timely and useful suggestions of both promises and warnings, which, if they had not been brought to his remembrance by the Spirit, he must have sunk under trials or fallen before strong temptations. How true it is, that "when the enemy cometh in as a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him!" That repelling and protecting standard is never a new truth, in the sense of revelation; but, in the sense of application, it is, although brought from the old armory, as new to the mind, as if it were created at the moment. For then, we see in some promise what we never saw before. It suits and soothes us, just as if it had been made for no other purpose or person. It takes a place in, and exercises a power over, the mind, which could hardly be greater, were it a direct communication from heaven, or an entirely new gift from the Spirit. I do not wonder, whoever else does, that such timely and tender applications of suitable promises, have been mistaken for revelations. This was a mistake: but it is no mistake, to regard that application as the direct and immediate work of the Spirit. There is new work, although only the old word. I have not a little sympathy even with the more questionable experience, which speaks of "getting a promise"-lighting upon a promise-having a promise wonderfully borne in upon the mind." When the promise itself, and not the manner of obtaining it, is the source of comfort, I see no harm nor weakness in ascribing to the Spirit, the timing of its application. Getting hold of a promise at a critical moment, is no small blessing. In the case of those who have but little knowledge, or weak faculties, it is a very great blessing. Yes; and even those who are mightiest in the Scriptures, and strongest in mind, are glad at times to plead before God, like David, "the word in season," upon which God had "caused them to hope," in the day of former calamity or darkness. I am fully aware that the Spirit has often been dishonored by having ascribed to him, visionary and crude applications of insulated passages of Scripture. He applies nothing but the meaning or the sense of the word; and that, only in its holy design. He whispers no sweet promise in the ear of the disobedient or the backsliding, except to remind them, that they dare not appropriate it to themselves. He has nothing to do with the comforts which those get from "dark sayings," who refuse to take comfort from the plain glad tidings of the gospel. It is an evil spirit, not the Holy Spirit, who leads into fanciful interpretations of Jewish history or ceremony, which the apostles have not spiritualized. In like manner, it may be laid down as a universal maxim in the teaching of the Spirit, that he never stops at one lesson. Whenever, therefore, any person takes up with one promise, suddenly or signally brought home to him, and then rests his hope of pardon upon that promise, to the neglect of all other truth, it is quite certain that the Spirit of truth did not apply the comfort: for he leads into all truth, whoever he leads. This, indeed, he does gradually in almost all cases; but in no case does he begin the lesson which does not go on, or which is not followed up by others. But whilst I readily allow and proclaim, that they are all duping, and thus ruining their souls, who are satisfied with having had a promise brought home to them at one time, whilst ever since they have paid no attention to the Scriptures, and but little to personal religion, I must contend for the experimental fact, that the Spirit does, from time to time, open and apply the Scriptures to the emergencies of the divine light, and according to the wants of the prayerful. A standing proof of this occurs in the sanctuary from Sabbath to Sabbath. It is always the case, that experimental sermons seem to some of the audience, actually made for them; and as much to the point, as if "the man of God" had heard their family conversation in their secret prayers, in the morning. He, of course, knew nothing of either; but the Spirit, who led them to desire and pray for a word in season, led him to the word they wanted. There are only two things farther, which my space will allow me to hint at. The first is, that t would be a sad abuse of the love of the Spirit, to depend on his suggestions, to the neglect of searching the Scriptures, and treasuring up the word of Christ in our hearts. Those who neglect this duty, will not find the Spirit to be their remembrancer for comfort, in the day of trouble. He will not supersede the use of the Bible by suggesting any thing, but warnings, to them who do not use it; for he is the Spirit of truth, not of impulse; and only "the Spirit of wisdom," to those who honor him as "the Spirit of revelation." The other hint is, (and it might be expanded to a volume,) that we should find it almost as useful to go over the New Testament, looking for the mind of the Spirit, as the apostles found it to listen to the Spirit, when they wrote from his dictation. How differently the words of Christ sounded to them, when the Holy Ghost repeated and explained the truth as it is in Jesus! How often they must have said, whilst hearing the Spirit, How foolish and ignorant was I, when I first heard these wonderful things from the lips of Christ!" 66 Why should you not go over your Testament again, marking, from page to page, the new light and loveliness, which you now see, in parts that once made no impression upon you? Why not number and review every part, which you have found experimentally true and sweet? Do mark in the margin of your closet or family Bible, every passage which the Spirit has ever shone upon. You will thus increase your own evidences of having been led by the Spirit; and confirm your confidence in his teaching; and meet his love to yourself by more ardent love to him than you have yet cultivated. And all this, he would soon and amply repay, by witnessing to and sealing his own work on your soul. No. XII. THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT AS A COMFORTER. WHEN the Saviour promised to send the Spirit as a comforter, he called him, " another Comforter;" not a different one to what he himself had been. It is by overlooking this fact, or by not considering what kind of a comforter the Saviour himself was whilst in the world, that so many of the serious and the suffering are uncomfortable. They look for more, or for another kind of comfort, than was promised; and, not finding it, they are disappointed, and thus tempted to reckon the consolations of the Spirit "few or small." This is a sad mistake! The Spirit is always, in the case of all believers, just such a comforter as Christ himself was, when he comforted his disciples. Look at this fact. What kind of a comforter was the Saviour to his friends, whilst he remained with them on earth? Not a "miserable" comforter, certainly but still, as cautious as he was kind; as prudent as he was tender, he comforted his disciples, just as he taught them as they could bear it, and not always as they wished for t. Accordingly, when they would have called (16) 70 down "fire from heaven," to punish their enemies, he not only refused their wish, but also reproved their spirit thus, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." Luke ix. 55. In like manner, when they gave way to an ambitious spirit, and strove which of them should be greatest in his kingdom, Jesus rebuked them both by words and significant actions. All this, and much more, he did and said, whenever they fell into wrong tempers or habits. But, was he not their comforter, notwithstanding all the reproofs and warnings he thus gave them from time to time? They themselves felt that he was so, in the best sense: a comforter, who neither spoiled them by indulgence, nor disappointed them by caprice. Peter, no doubt, felt very uncomfortable at first, when Christ said to him, "Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest not the things which be of God;" and equally so, when told that he would deny his Lord. The mother of Zebedee's children, and her two sons also, thought it any thing but comforting them, when Jesus refused to maternal solicitude, the right and left hand seats in his kingdom. Martha, too, found him any thing but the kind of comforter she wished and expected, when she was absorbed, beyond all reason and necessity, with worldly things. But still, none of these chastised children, thought his consolations few or small upon the whole. Accordingly, "sorrow filled" all their hearts, when Jesus began to explain to them his approaching return to heaven. The sad prospect of losing his endeared company even for a time, soon revealed to them, what a comforter he had always been! Now it was whilst they thus remembered, and appreciated, and felt, both the kind and the degree of the comfort they had enjoyed for years, that he promised the Spirit as "another comforter," or just such another friend as he himself had been; a very present help in all real trouble: a very gentle reprover of all imaginary fears; and a very faithful monitor against whatever was sinful in conduct or temper. You thus see, that they could not mistake his meaning. It must have been as obvious to them, from their own experience of his comforts, as his promise of “Peace" was to them, when he qualified the words, "Peace I leave with you," by the additional clause, “My peace give I unto you; let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." This timely appeal to his own peace, was intended to prevent all visionary dreams of earthly ease. The disciples knew well what his peace had been! Not peace arising from the absence of trials or temptations; but peace under them, and notwithstanding them all. And equally well did they know what kind of a comforter the Saviour had been: and thus they were prepared to look only for similar comfort, when the Spirit was given. You now see at a glance, that Peter would not expect the Holy Ghost to comfort him, when he gave way to his fiery and rash temper; nor Martha, when she cumbered herself unduly with bustle; nor James and John, if they became ambitious again; nor any of them expect the cheering and sealing comforts of the Spirit, apart from walking in the Spirit. In a word, they would all lay their account, with finding the Holy Spirit o God just such a comforter, as they had found, by experience, the Holy Son of God to be; full of We are fast-you see! Nor can we extricate ourselves from the grasp of this general principle, by picturing to ourselves how differently we should have acted in every thing, had the Saviour been on earth, ever since we professed to be his friends and followers. Such fancies are mere fictions. We have no reason to suppose, that we should have acted a whit better than his first disciples did. The probability is, that we should have fallen oftener than Peter, and aspired more than John, and bustled more than Martha. The wonder is, you see, that we have had any comfort from the Holy Ghost; and not that we have had so little for it is no more a part of his office, than it was of the Saviour's practice, to comfort at all hazards, or in spite of all circumstances. I mean, that the Holy Spirit will not wink at sin, nor connive at sloth, nor humor caprice, nor overlook worldly-mindedness. It is his great object to cure these faults; and, therefore, he must correct us for them, instead of consoling us under them. And this is true kindness, as well as real prudence! For, only think for a moment, what imprudent ministers-yea, what "almost Christians," the disciples would have been, had Christ always smiled upon them, or even been silent, when they acted inconsistently! They were not very steady nor discreet, until the day of Pentecost, notwithstanding all the checks and warnings which they got: and, had they got none, they would either have been unfit for apostleship, or they would have had to "tarry at Jerusalem" much longer than they did, before "power from on high" had descended upon them. In like manner it would be any thing but good for us-it would be very bad for us, were the Holy Spirit to consult nothing but what we call "our comfort." We mean by that, happiness in prayer: times of refreshing at the sacrament; foretastes of heaven in the sanctuary, and the prevalence of a good hope through grace at home: but, if we could make sure of all this comfort, by merely going to the closet and the sanctuary; and, independent of our conduct and spirit during the week, we should soon be more inconsistent than we are, and eventually have as little relish for the consolations of religion, as we have now for some of its self-denying duties and sacrifices. The historical facts we have thus reviewed, furnish us with a simple clew to both the kind and degree of comfort we may expect from the Spirit. We have now, in order to judge how he is likely to act towards us, only to ask ourselves-what This cannot but lead you into "great searchings of heart;" and these may lead you to suspect, that you would hear nothing from the lips, and see nothing in the looks of the Saviour but reproof. It would not be so, however, if the fear humble and pain your heart. "A bruised reed he will not break, nor quench the smoking flax." He would be faithful to your conscience; but he would be equally tender to your spirit, lest it should "fail before him." He would rebuke you sharply, but he would "not leave you comfortless." Now, just such has the love of the Spirit been to us all along. "The many waters" of our folly have modified and varied the manifestations of his love; but they have "not quenched it." He has visited our transgressions with the rod, and our iniquities with stripes; but his loving-kindness he has not taken away utterly, nor suffered his good work in us to fail entirely. It, indeed, has been carried on by him, although we have not always carried out its holy designs. But now, what a motive—what a way-opens before us for increasing our comforts! What "joy in the Holy Ghost," we may obtain by diligence and circumspection, now that we see clearly, that he will do all that the Saviour would do for our comfort! O, our joy might be full, were we only willing to make room for fulness of joy, and determined to throw aside the weights which impede its progress! for there is not a healing leaf of all the foliage, nor a ripe fruit of all the vintage of the tree of life, which the heavenly dove would not as willingly bring to our ark, and place in our hand, as the dove of the deluge did the "olive leaf" to Noah. We are not straitened in the Comforter! But he cannot do many mighty works amongst us, because of our unbelief and disobedience. But whilst thus magnifying the comfort which might be obtained, I do not forget what is enjoyed, nor feel ashamed to submit it even to the world, as demonstration of the love of the Spirit. J know and deplore, that the sum of actual comfort is far less than it ought to be: but I know too, that the world can produce no such specimens of happiness as the church. It may taunt the church with the sadness of some penitents, and with the suspense of others, and with the too prevalent fear of death amongst all but dying Christians; but the saddest of all the saints would not exchange places or prospects with the happiest man of the world under the sun. Many of them are in the valley of humiliation, and not a few of them in the slough of despond, and none of them altogether free from fightings without or fears within: but the world can neither buy nor bribe them out of the valley of tears, by the wealth or the gaiety of its high places. It is not the sad, nor the doubting, nor the timid, which move when the world, unfolding her treasures and trappings, cries from her volcanic mountain-tops, "Come up hither, and be happy." No, no; those who dance to her piping, are those only whom the church of Christ stands in doubt of; and never those who suffer from the doubts and fears of an humble mind. Like the women of Galilee, at Calvary and the sepulchre, the weeping followers of Christ care least for the joy of the world; and his rejoicing followers despise it. Be not deceived by appearances. Christians are not so uncomfortable as they seem, nor as they say at times. They do not falsify nor pretend when they complain, "that he who should comfort them is far away from them." He is far away at the time; but he is not altogether out of sight, nor out of mind: for even then, they would not give up their faint hope of his return, for any or all the comforts which life, without godliness, could furnish. Thus I challenge the world, not from where I might throw down the gauntlet of defiance-from the sunny summits and the shady munitions of the Mount of Communion, nor from the Bethels, Pisgahs, and Olivets, which form "the borders of Emmanuel's land;" but from the valley of Achor and Baca, where trouble and weeping abound: and even there, the universal sentiment is, as he pointed to coffers he could hardly count. Yes; treasure appears trash then, and the wisdom of this world folly. But the death-bed of a Christian presents no such extravagance. If he has any property, he can look at it without shame, and leave it without cursing it. It is not embittered to his family, as the price of his soul; nor, if given in charity, dreaded by the church, as a price for his salvation. Thus it is not the world's fault, if we reckon the consolations of religion "few or small." The ungodly are very faulty in caricaturing a life of piety, as dull and dismal; but they repair that fault, so far as we are concerned, by a death more dismal than the fears they once ridiculed, or more sad than the seriousness which they called melancholy. There is another thing which ought never to be lost sight of, in judging of the love of the Spirit, as a Comforter; he comforts the church, chiefly for the sake of the world; or that she may do good to others. This is the explanation which the apostles have of their abundant and abiding comfort from the Holy Ghost. It was given, Paul says, "that we might be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." 2 Cor. i. 4. And this reason is the Spirit's rule, in the case of private Christians, as well as public ministers. Accordingly, we are solemnly charged to "comfort one another, and especially the feeble-minded." 1 Thess. iv. 14,-the faint-hearted, or dispirited.These must not be neglected when they fall in our way, nor when we can find access to them, if we ourselves would be comfortable. The current maxim, that "we have enough to do, to take care of ourselves, without attending to the case of others," is both false, and fearfully true. They have enough to do, and not a little to suffer-who live only for themselves, however circumspectly they live for even circumspection will not secure the joy of the Holy Ghost, without sympathy and zeal of some kind. All Christians cannot indeed, do the same work in the world or the church; but all can show the same goodness to both in some way. "I could not comfort my pious people," said the great and good Andrew Fuller, "however or whatever I preached to them, until they began to care for the souls of the perishing heathen."And now, even that is not enough, to secure the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, as an abiding Comforter. Perishing souls at home as well as abroad must be pitied, and prayed for, and watched over, if we would have our own souls filled with joy or peace in the Holy Ghost. No wonder ! He has a world to convince of sin; a world to convince of righteousness; a world to convince of judgment; and he will only do this by the instrumentality of those whom he has made wise unto salvation.But then, what comfort there might be in all the Never forget either, when it is, that the men of churches, were they to fall in, heart and hand, the world question and despise the happiness of a with this magnificent mission of the Spirit to the Christian. It is not when they are dying, nor world. There would soon be none of the harps of when they are sick, nor when they are in adver- Zion upon the willows of Babylon, were Zion sity. Then, they feel the hollowness of earthly determined to lengthen her cords to the ends of comfort, and complain of it, in tones and terms the earth, and to strengthen her stakes amongst more bitter than any Christian employs, when he the dwellings of the poor at home. In reference exclaims, "All is vanity and vexation of spirit." to the neglect of this, as well as of other duties, the "Trash!-I would give it all for a day longer to Spirit saith to the churches, "O, that my people care for my soul," said a rich man whom I knew, I had hearkened unto me: I would have fed them "Were I possessor of the earth, And called the stars my own, You will now judge of the comfort administered by the Comforter, by remembering how many, in all ages, have thought it enough to compensate them for all they could do and suffer; enough to reconcile them to poverty, reproach, and persecution; and more than enough, to justify them in refusing both deliverance and rewards, when the world tried to win them from Christ. |