By temple shrine and lotus pool

Front matter

BV 3265 .R6 1910 Robinson, William.

WILLIAM ROBINSON

{Salem, S. India)

Prefatory Note

BY

GEORGE SMITH, C.I.E., LL.D., F.R.G.S., F.S.S.

^HIS work, “By Temple Shrine and Lotus Pool,” has a unique value. There is nothing like it in all the literature of Foreign Missions.

It has to do chiefly with India, which has a special claim on every member of the Churches of the United Kingdom and its Colonies.

The special value of the volume is that it is written from the inside of things, revealing Hinduism and Caste as they have never before been laid bare, in popular language, in a scholarly fashion, and with literary skill.

G. S.

Chapter I The Call Page

Apostolic Simplicity ...... 4

Efficacy of Prayer ...... 4

Paul’s First Vision ...... 5

Few comparable in Supreme Devotion . . .6

Jefferson’s Journal ...... 7

Men who defy Argument . . . . .8

Mixed Motives. . . . . . .11

Carey’s Reminder . . . . . .13

CHAPTER II Totality of Surrender . . . . .17

Its Objective . . . . . . .18

The Divine Filling ...... 18

Varied Operations of the same Spirit . . .19

Spiritual Humility ...... 19

An Infallible Test ...... 20

Yogism Defined ...... 20

Its Value to Christians ..... 21

The Way of the Moravians . . . .22

A Great Admonition . . . . .24

The Persistence of Faith ..... 24

vii

Chapter III “go Ye Therefore”

PAGE

Intrepid Pioneers . . . . . .29

Roman Catholic Failure . . . . .30

The New Enthusiasm . . . . .31

The Moravians . . . . . .32

Wholesale Apostasy . . . . . .33

Reign op Rationalism . . . . .34

The Old Way and the New . . . .34

The Transition . . . . . .35

Rampant Depravity . . . . . .36

On Fire with Pity . . . . . .37

Higher and Lower Hinduism . . . .38

CHAPTER IV An Impregnable Indictment . . . .43

Impartial Inquiry . . . . . .44

Seeking out many Inventions . . . .45

Conciliation Impossible . . . . ,45

Typical Idolatry . . . . . .46

The Gratitude op Ignorance . . . .47

Vice as Worship . . . . . .48

Perverted Teaching . . . . . .49

Hinduism self-contradictory . . . .49

A Doctrine op Devils . . . . .50

Ultimate Empty Delusion . . . . .51

A Sweeping Denunciation . . . . .52

Proof by Comparison . . . . . .53

CHAPTER V Monstrous and Grotesque . . . . .58

Paralyzing Influence . . , . .60

viii pAaE

Religion is Caste . . . . . .60

Moral Conviction Wanting . . . . .61

Hinduism All-absorbing . . . . .62

Its Inferiority . . . . . .62

China’s Advantage . . . . . .63

Hope from Education . . . . .64

No Surrender ....... 65

Christ v. Hinduism . . . . . .66

Brands from the Burning . . . . .66

CHAPTER VI The Abominations of the Heathen . . .72

Women Votaries . . . . . .73

An open Shame . . . . . .73

Monstrous Fables . . . . . .75

Buckle’s Opinion . . . . . .76

Revelation Ignored . . . . . .77

Quixotic Contracts . . . . . .77

Phtsiolatry . . . . . . .78

How Idolatry Grows. . . . .79

The True Remedy . . . . . .80

The Neglected Dynamic . . . . .81

Going-home Missionaries . . . . .81

CHAPTER VII CONVERSION Hoping all Things . . . . . .86

Artificial Sins . . . . . .87

Divine Diversity . . . . . .88

Wise Treatment . . . . . .89

Differing Conversions . • . . .90

Heroism of Converts. . . . . .91

Ridiculous Tests . . . . . .93

Value of Trust . . . . . .93

The Miracle of Conversion . . . .94

After many Days . . . . . .95

IX

CHAPTER VIII An Inorganic Medley

PAGE

. 99

An Unconscious Saint

. 100

A Lofty Moralist

. 101

The Devout Student .

. 102

Travesty and Reality

. 103

Degrees of Education

. 105

A Great Field Open .

. 106

A Type of Hindu Sainthood

. 107

The Inner Light

. 108

Reconciliation ....

. 109

Speculative Religion .

. no

A Sound Working Principle

. Ill

CHAPTER IX Validity

. 115

Terminology ....

. 115

A Right Leading

. 116

Sanctified Common Sense

. 117

Persecutions Oft

. 118

Desolating Idolatry .

. 119

Missionary Church is the Healthiest

. 120

Marching Orders

. 121

“Workers Together”

. 122

Shallows and Deeps .

. 123

Slow but Solid Growth

. 124

Sir Alfred Lyall’s Prediction

. 125

Noble Counsel

. 125

CHAPTER X Sowing Dragon’s Teeth

. 129

Blind Teaching

. 131

True Need ....

. 132

X

Denying the Light

PAGE

. 133

A Sterile Atmosphere

. 134

Loyal and Disloyal .

. 135

Materialistic Lawlessness .

. 136

The Missionary’s Task

. 136

Unfair Comparisons .

. 137

New and Old Difficulties .

. 138

Festina Lente

. 139

CHAPTEE XI

NOTHING FOE NOTHING

The “Governor” of the Engine .

. 144

Fitness False and True

. 145

Precision Needed ....

. 146

The Fitness of Things

. 147

The Child Leading ....

. 148

The Comprehending God

. 149

The Worker Uplifted

. 150

CHAPTEE XII

The Eeward of Loneliness .

. 156

Devotion’s Offering .

. 157

Patmos Company ....

. 158

Influence of Climate

. 159

Jungle Isolation ....

. 160

Conservation of Energy

. 161

The Strong Consolation

. 161

Yet not Alone ....

. 164

CHAPTEE XIII

MISSION INDUSTEIES

A Master Craftsman ....

. 167

Spade Work .....

. 168

Adaptability .....

. 169

Training versus Trading

. 170

XI

PAGE

Failures and Successes . . . . .171

Vast Eesources ...... 172

A Momentous Requisition . . . . .172

Handicraft found Indispensable . . .173

Method in “Tiger” Taming. .... 174

The Famine Orphans ...... 175

Educational Difficulties . . . . .176

The Revival of Old Industries .... 177

CHAPTER XIV

Physical Salvation . . . . . .182

Treasuring the Gift of Life . . . .183

Diet Wisdom ....... 184

Author’s Jail Chaplain Experience . . . 185

Coolie Inventiveness ..... 186

Primary Precautions . . . . . .186

Medical Common Sense ..... 187

Life -FORFEITING Neglect ..... 188

A Spiritual Handy-man . . . . .189

The Body a Trust ...... 189

Hot-Weather Policy ...... 190

CHAPTER XV

Saved by Many or by Few . . . . .195

Steadfast and Unmoved ..... 196

The Serpent’s Wisdom ..... 197

Self-Discrimination . . . . . . 197

Past “Days of Small Things” . . . .198

The “Old Guard” ...... 199

Then and Now ...... 200

In Perils by mine Own Countrymen . . . 200

Ruinous Blundering ...... 201

Survival and Final Success .... 202

The True Pastoral Type ..... 203

Indian Ministerial Brethren .... 203

The Value of Experience ..... 204

Over-ploughed Fields . . . . . 205

Dark Spot Cultivation ..... 206

xii

CHAPTER XVI HIGHWAYS AND HEDGES

PASS

A Difficult Sphere . . . . . .211

Dealing with Frowardness . . . . .212

Incidents of Campaigning ..... 213

Trials by the Wat ...... 214

Bazaar Preaching Limitations . . . .215

Priestly Confidences . . . . . .215

Opium’s Slave ....... 217

Preparing the Wat ...... 219

Music, Heavenly Maid ..... 219

CHAPTER XVII THE LITTLE FLOCK

Disguised Blessings ...... 223

Rain’s Twin Effects ...... 223

Primitive Rough- and-Ready Justice . . . 225

A Village Meeting ...... 227

The Fellowship of Believers .... 228

A Responsive Audience ..... 229

Work plus Arrears . ... . . . 230

Town and Country Contrasts . . . .231

Personal Supervision Needed .... 232

To Celibate or not to Celibate .... 232

Two Kinds of District Visiting . . . .233

CHAPTER XVIII

“FAITHFUL IS HE THAT CALLETH”

True Faithfulness . . . . . .238

Failure turned Critic ..... 238 The Offence of the Unconventional . . . 240

To Every Man His Work ..... 241 Patient Waiting unto Harvest .... 242

xiii

PAGE

Another Rbapeth ...... 242

Desires and Needs ...... 243

The Outward Appearance and the Inward Heart . 245 Obey His Voice ...... 246

The Truth shall Prevail ..... 246

The Supreme Message ..... 247

CHAPTER XIX DON’T

Advice to Beginners . . . . . .251

An Unknown Land ...... 252

Avoiding Stripe ...... 252

Charitable Wisdom ...... 253

Salaaming v. Handshaking ..... 253

Rule by Elders ...... 254

Accusing Brethren ...... 254

A Just Balance ...... 255

Currying Favour ...... 256

Burying the Past ...... 256

CHAPTER XX LUKE

A Straight Issue ...... 259

Luke’s Specialism ...... 260

A Winner op Gratitude ..... 261

The Best Laid Plans ..... 262

Precautionary Measures ..... 263

Respect op Persons ...... 263

Vital Necessity por Medical Missionaries . . 264

Coals to Newcastle ...... 265

Travelling Necessities and Generous Aid . . 265

Unrequited Love ...... 266

Disease, Sin’s Parallel ..... 266

Both Antecedent and Supplementary . . . 266

XIV

CHAPTEK XXI PERSIS

PAGE

A Ministering Angel. . . . . .271

Self-Abnegation in excelsis .... 272

Unequally Yoked ...... 273

Solitude’s Self-Respect ..... 274

A Gift of Tongues ...... 274

Silence as a Remedy ...... 275

The Rest Cure in Abeyance .... 276

Sore Stricken ....... 276

The True Metal ...... 277

The Intuitive Faculty ..... 278

Grace to help in Time of Need .... 278

CHAPTER XXII

God’s Ancient Method

Owned of God

The Master Praises, what are Men?

Success Deferred but Sure .

The Law of Progress

As IN THE Beginning . ...

Ripe unto Harvest .

Critics op God

Hindu Slowness

Is Britain Christian ?

Principal Miller’s Wise Words

An Essential Distinction

By the Spirit Alone .

Gideon’s Sifting

God our Refuge

“My soul was shamed and knew its shame, 0 Shiv ! What horrors in thy name In Shrine and Temple have I seen,

With no protecting veil to screen.

What mortal eyes should never see.

My eyes have seen, and woe is me ! ”

I

“ I send thee to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. . . . Whereupon, 0 King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” — Acts xxvi. 17-19.

“They that were scattered abroad went, . . . preaching the word.” — Acts viii. 4.

“Inquire not of the distressed darwesh in his destitution and time of want, ‘How art thou?’ save on the condition that thou puttest ointment on his wound and settest money before him.” — Gulistan, Cap. viii. Maxim 64.

I

NDKEW first found his own brother, Simon

Peter, and he brought him to Jesus; Philip did the same with his friend Nathanael. Andrew and Philip were not only obedient to the call of Christ ; their obedience found its instant expression in service. And if you ask. What makes a Missionary? you will find the answer in the example of the man who, because he has found Christ himself, brings his brother to Jesus. This is the earliest and most striking instance of the Missionary Call and Motive.

The incident has still the bloom of its early freshness, and its fragrant essence is the expression of all that is holiest in the Christian life. It contains the first Missionary history ; its august emphasis cannot be diminished, and you may not add to its pregnant simplicity. Its modesty rebukes us ; may its spirit energise us, and save us from the inexpressive existence of men who neither seek nor serve !

How often we hear it said : “If the Church would achieve apostolic success, it must come back to apostolic methods and do first things first.” Four sentences containing forty words round off into completeness the first record of Missionary work. What pyramids of literature are written in the way of reports which may enshrine a mummy or perpetuate a list of subscribers’ names ! This is not written in any fault-finding spirit. The yearly report is needed in these days of a complex Christianity ; but the simpler follows more closely our Master’s example.

It is impossible to read early Missionary lives without being arrested by this supreme fact of simplicity. It may be said that Andrew’s act was not an expression of spiritual enthusiasm, and that its motor efficacy was the desire to do his brother Simon a good turn. In the so-called imperfect teachings of our Lord, one, according to the Church of Rome, was that He did not teach His followers the utility of prayer — the utility, of course, according to the Church of Rome. The fact remains, however much priests may water it down, that our

Lord taught men that they ought always to pray and not to faint ; as to the utility, the parable of the importunate widow surely proves that the Master knew the exact and awful value of prayer beyond what any of His critics have ever imagined.

If we look at His earliest words, we shall find that the germ of the Missionary aim is covered by the golden rule : “ Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” The proper understanding of these words makes the true Missionary of Christ, and this verse is the master-light of all his seeing. Much has been made of the Macedonian vision, “Come over and help us ” ; while, with curious obtuseness, that fact of the greater vision on the way to Damascus has been hidden. Here was Missionary work beyond all knowing of it, pregnant with mighty issues : “ I send thee to open their eyes ; to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto Grod.”

The great Apostle received his call at the moment of his conversion ; the twenty -seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles is but its expression in marvellous service, and shows his equally marvellous obedience to the call. He conferred not with flesh and blood, and at the end could wish himself accursed if only Israel were saved. “If only”: there is no need to expand the words into a commentary. Could they be saved, he was ready to suffer to the direst hell all that men or devils could do. Looped up with his heart’s desire and prayer for Israel is the daily practice of martyrdom ; and the famous list of perils in Corinthians represents the rugged peaks of service none of his successors have attained.

That fiery indomitable soul still lights the path of all Missionary feet ; few, except the very elect of God, have come within measurable distance of him. You may almost count their names on your fingers ; Ziegenbalg, Eingeltaube, Carey, Kircherer, Henry Martyn, Rhenius, Duff, John Hunt, Dober, Livingstone, William Jones, Patteson, Chalmers, Hannington, and Edwin Lewis. From America, Judson, who endured more than they all.

The names represent a blend of all the Churches that have sent their best sons to this great and enduring service. Some of the names are known all the world over ; the others are not known save to the people to whom they gave the Word of life. Six of the men were great linguists. Lewis was a powerful preacher in three Indian languages ; Rhenius was a heaven-sent administrator, as well as a linguist. Kircherer lived in a native hut, in the days when a notice-board on Dutch chapels in South Africa contained the prohibition : “ Dogs and Hottentots not admitted.” Ziegenbalg spent four months in an Indian jail, kept there by a brutal Governor who assured him that “ Heaven was very high above his head, and Copenhagen very far off.”

That most pathetic of all Missionary reading. The Journal of the First Mission to the South Seas, ought to have special study and informed editing. The Eev. J. Jefferson carefully kept the record in plain words, but with an unction that springs from the Acts of the Apostles. This Journal tells the pitiless truth of those trying and perilous days. What searchings of heart, what confessions of unworthiness, what grievings over lapses into sin and over tragedies that numb the heart and make one wonder how such horrors could be ! The men who passed through this fire are forgotten, except by readers who look at Jefferson’s Journal.

In an old magazine there is an affecting story of a young Wesleyan Missionary, named George Warren, who died at Sierra Leone, “the Englishman’s graveyard,” as it used to be called. Before leaving England friends tried to dissuade him from going to West Africa. They used all the arguments the ingenuity of love could suggest ; but at last he said to them: “Do the angels know the way to Sierra Leone ? ”

“ Oh yes,” was the answer.

“ Then,” said he, “I would just as soon be carried by angels to heaven from Sierra Leone as from any other part of the world.”

You cannot argue with men like these. They hear a voice you cannot hear bidding them carry the banner of the Lamb once slain, and they must do it. There is no escape from the needs-be of men —

Who trample death beneath their feet,

And gladly die their Lord to meet.

There are always friends who will try to turn a man from his purpose. P^re Du Eoy, who died in China in 1769, was told that he would do better to try and convert his own people. His reply was : “I can do only that which God wishes ; I go to China because I am persuaded He wishes it. Whenever it shall please Him to desire another thing for me, I hope I shall desire the same. I have no zeal for one country more than another. If in place of China contrary winds drive me into another country, where Providence marks out another Mission, I shall be just as content. After all that God has done for me, I should be unfit to live if I wavered.” Years after Henry Martyn’s decease one of his converts, who had lapsed, said with bitter tears to William Milne in Malacca : “ Were every hair on my body a tongue, I could not fully tell that man’s worth ” — and the reference was to his old teacher Martyn.

Surely the same Spirit Who animated men like these can still move the heart and chain the purpose to this great work of God. It may be admitted that the heroic age of Missions is gone, the romance has hardened into organised work ; but the motive of service is as strong as ever, and the instinct for saving souls ought to answer its end in the attempt to save them. Nor need any worker regret that he or she cannot show the splendid muster-roll of services of men like Martyn, Moffat, or Livingstone. The humble workman can show what for him may be better ; and that is the spectacle of a common man possessed by an uncommon enthusiasm. It will be found, in the ultimate value of service, that the highest has not happened in the way of great opportunity. Trafalgafs and Waterloos occur once in a century ; but the binding up of broken hearts is a daily experience, and the healing of wounded consciences is work that never ceases. He Who would not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, may be trusted to lift drudgery to its true level ; and the “ one crowded hour of glorious life” may at the end take its place behind the “ sentry go ” God’s hidden servants have had to do. They have had to keep open the city gates all the day long ; and gate-keeping never was a pleasant business. But, in the joy of all the nations getting home, the keepers of the gates will gain their exceeding great reward. They have been fellow-helpers of their Lord and King, doing their best to keep both road and kingdom clean. Now if we are fellow-workers with Him, this partnership must be alive at all points. It is significant to note that no church or creed can close these ever-open gates. The dwellers in God’s Eternal City are to come from the East and the West, from the North and the South ; and the Missionary is simply a messenger to help wanderers on their way from nature cults — from Hinduism, from Confucianism and ancestor worship — home to infinite love.

Our Lord has prepared the way, and His servants must keep the road in order. The King’s highway of holiness must have no lion or any ravenous beast thereon ; and His keepers must see to it that the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein.

It would be ridiculous, human nature being what it is, to suppose that the call comes in the same way to every man. The outstanding instances quoted may mislead a cursory reader into the belief that every man or woman on the Mission-field has come out in the spirit of simple obedience to our Lord’s emphatic command : ‘^Go lO ye therefore.” It is notorious that some men have deluded themselves into a belief that they had a call to foreign service because no church at home would have them. The man who fails in England, America, or Germany, is a thousand times a greater failure on the Mission-field. If he cannot sow and reap in his own country, he cannot in China, Africa, India, or New Guinea. Then, a man may be an orientalist, according to notions which prevail, say, at Oxford, to give him the hall-mark of respectable scholarship ; but what is he at the end of it ? If a man knows thirteen languages, but is unable to speak a single sentence of common-sense in any of the thirteen, then his place is not in the Mission-field but in a Museum, where he can spell out epigraphs or read inscriptions on ancient coins.

Eestlessness is at times, a moving factor in the call. This case is hopeful in two aspects : the man may really settle down in a new environment and do excellent work ; or he may leave it and let better men come in.

Women Missionaries from Scotland, or Germany, or Denmark are beyond praise. English Societies have not, as a rule, sent out ladies so soundly educated. Here again the estimate of a church, or a vicar, has been allowed too much room in the selection of a candidate. It does not follow

1 1 because a woman is an indefatigable district visitor, or a Sunday School teacher, that she is quite adapted to work in China or India. Piety first, scholarship a close second, ought to be the rule in this selection.

China and India are the dumping ground of certain “ one-horse Missions,” as a Missionary, who ranks with the great ones, describes them. It is simple cruelty to send out workers unready and untrained, to starve in a country like China or India. The Missionary referred to had to go from house to house and beg funds — the place had a great number of Europeans in it — to send home people who had been deluded into the belief that anything was good enough for India.

These remarks do not imply that only the rich and noble are called to this service. With but few exceptions Missionaries have come from lowly stock. Williams and Morrison were handicraftsmen ; John Hunt was a farm labourer ; and Robert Moffat a gardener. Livingstone was a striking instance of a man who was never ashamed of his early poverty and his weary hours in a mill. It must be noted, however, that these men were thoroughly equipped for their work ; but one reason of their success may be found in their humility. When Dr. Marshman was engaged in the most unpleasant task of compelling the then secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society to eat his own words, the doctor quoted the Secretary’s words on the title page of the pamphlet : Dr. Carey is universally known to be one of the humblest and most modest of human beings.” Carey cultivated humility as he did his garden. A young Missionary lady, an inmate of Carey’s house in 1828, puts on record that she saw a shoemaker’s last hanging up in the doctor’s study ; asking the reason why such a curious ornament held such a conspicuous place, the doctor replied ; “I keep it there simply to remind me what I once was — a humble shoemaker.”

“ The wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” In a true spiritual birth there is contained another birth, and that is the supreme desire to serve Christ. Wherever He calls, thither must His servants speed, to do His bidding over land and sea.

This question of the call needs not only the Master’s clear, unmistakable voice, but also the receptive ear of the listener. It is so easy to mistake the call of a meeting for the call of Christ. In that most searching and microscopic book, Letters on Missions^ by William Swan, late Missionary in Siberia, there is a resume of motives which should be all that is needed to an intending Missionary.

irmpm a

II

“ I have thrown myself blindfold, and I trust without reserve, into His Almighty hands.” — Whitefield.

“How too did the great movement in England originate? It was from no University, from no Established Church, from no distinguished man. It was in the mind of a shoe-maker, the honoured Carey. For years the idea was within him, as a fire shut up in his bones.” — Hopkins.

“ Do good unto all men. Let your charity begin at home, but do not let it end there. Do good to your family and connexions, and, if you please, to your party ; but after that look abroad. Look at the Universal Church, and, forgetting its divisions, be a catholic Christian — look at your country, and be a patriot — look at the nations of the earth, and be a philanthropist.” — Henry Martyn.

i6

II

IN the previous chapter it is assumed, if not stated, that Christ has spoken to His servant, and that the servant has answered : “ Here am I, Lord ! send me.” There is no need to speak much upon this fact of expectant and anticipatoryobedience. The abnegation of the human to the Divine will has different modes of expression. Paul longed to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness ; an almost equally fervid soul in one of his letters prays that he may be “ lost in Christ ” — meaning thereby his desire for absolute passivity in the hands of his Lord, willing to go anywhere, willing to do anything, willing just to mark time, and be the veriest coolie for Christ, if Christ wills it. In the old Wesleyan hymn-book is the striking couplet which combines both experiences —

Here then, to Thee Thy own I leave,

Mould as Thou wilt Thy passive clay.

And in devout Hindu thought you come to the wish of a certain lofty soul, who prays that he may be absorbed into the passive essence of the supreme God. In spiritual reaches of this kind the reader may think that Paul and Wesley and a devout Hindu are practically on the same plane. As a fact they are, so far as regards one-ness of desire; but Paul and Wesley differ from the Hindu in the vital fact and the ultimate end of the desire. They want to be found, or lost, or absorbed in Christ, that He may direct them to never-ending service. The Hindu desires absorption simply that he may gain Nirvana, and be no more tormented by the power of deeds. In the one it is the home-bells of evening calling the world to rest ; in the other it is the clang of the trumpet which summons to strife and victory.

It is therefore a matter for earnest and continuous prayer to find out what the Master calls upon His servant to do. To ascertain this there must be spiritual Yogism — prayer that shall put its finger upon the Divine purpose, that shall feel and know the will of God. The question is one of telepathy ; our Lord taught it twenty centuries before the word became current. The fact and the power of the fact are not only in His parables, but were found in a certain Upper Eoom. We have forgotten the glory of that Pentecostal Day

i8 when the followers of our Lord “ were all together in one place,” and the rushing of the mighty wind of God filled all the house, and filled every heart in it. Here was a call to men and women on an unprecedented scale, but “ the Spirit gave them utterance.”

With all reverence let it be said that crises like these ought to come to every follower of Christ, if the man or woman who follows is alive to His call. That mighty rushing wind did not affect Galileans only ; it captured devout men from every nation under heaven. The same wind of the Spirit has swept over the world in certain alarming facts of history. The accessories have not been an Upper Room, and a host of weeping disciples. National upheavals, plague, pestilence, persecution, and war have been the heralds of the Spirit’s advent ; but the fact remains — the Spirit has come.