The supreme need

Preface

O NE of the most encouraging features of the last twenty-five years has been the multiplication of books respecting the Holy Spirit and His relation to the life and work of Christian believers. It seems to the writer that a Christian teacher can do his generation no better service than to increase the volume of earnest and thoughtful exhortation to consider carefully the nature and conditions of the gift and work of the Holy Spirit. By this means he may hope to promote a diligent striving after a full measure of His presence. The world needs that “ Christian nations ” be christianized almost more than that heathen nations be evangelized.

The present volume is a logical successor to the l Supreme Leader published in 1900. The theme of that volume was the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit. It touched with no fulness on the application of the doctrine to the Christian life. This volume is devoted to the subject briefly treated in that one, and develops it in directions not even suggested in that one, which is now out of print.

As one studies this subject he is compelled to recognize the insufficiency of the knowledge which he has derived from experience and observation. 7

PREFACE

He must broaden his knowledge by the knowledge of others. He jots down phrases and sentences for stimulus to thought or for subjects of reflection. In quotation points they are to be found in the following pages, and the writer cannot now assign them to their author. They are mostly, if not wholly, to be found on the pages of one of the following authors: Bounds, Power Through Prayer; Clark, Philosophy of Christian Experience; Downer, Mission and Ministration of the Holy Spirit; Potten, His Divine Power ; Edghill, The Spirit of Power , to which the second chapter is largely due, and Davison, The Indwelling Spirit ; which is the most suggestive book that the present writer has found.

May this volume and all the others contribute to the full coming of the kingdom of our Lord.

Contents

I. The Importance of the Theme . n

II. What Has the Holy Spirit Done for Christian Life and Work in the Past? . . 19

III. Neglect of the Spirit and Ab-

II

What Has the Holy Spirit Done for Christian Life and Work in the Past?

T HE statement in the previous chapter of the importance of this theme may not seem obvious to every reader. A statement of facts is more convincing than that of principles, therefore appeal is here made to the life of the Christian church. Nothing can be more convincing. If the actual influence of the Holy Spirit has been inconsiderable during the past nineteen centuries, prolonged study of truths concerning Him is not very important. If His influence has been an essential part of the power for good which has been in the Christian church, then measureless loss must come from disregard of Him and His methods.

The history of the church has marvelous features. At the outset it consisted of a small group of men. Under most untoward circumstances they began a movement for which there was no reason, so far as external conditions were concerned, to expect anything but a speedy and complete failure. In three centuries that church had become a power which the Roman empire desired as an ally for 19 the simple reason that during two hundred and fifty years the empire had tried to extirpate it and had utterly failed.

To state the facts in other words, the Christian church, consisting of a few Galilean peasants, was flung into the arena with but two resources for carrying on a struggle against the government of the Roman empire and all its power, against the learning and culture of all the civilized world, against the race prejudices of Jews, Greeks, and Romans. Its two resources were, first, the truth of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, and secondly the Holy Spirit as the Helper who should enable them effectively to utter the truth, who should guide them in their work, who should convince hearers of the truth, and work with transforming power in the hearts of men.

How much has been done by the Holy Spirit as a Helper? The book of the Acts of the Apostles is the first witness on the subject. “ Underline in the book of Acts all the references to the Holy Spirit and watch the result/’ The result will be an explanation of the history of the Christian church. In fact but for such an authoritative clue to the interpretation of Christian history it is doubtful if we should be able to have very sure knowledge of the subject.

An adequate answer to the question at the head of this chapter would fill a bulky work. A considerable space would be given to His work with

WHAT HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT DONE? SI individual lives. The chief attention would be given to the general movements in the history of the church, during the first three centuries, the missionary movements reaching out into Western, Central and Northern Europe; the Reformation of the sixteenth century, the Methodist movement of the eighteenth century, the missionary revival of the nineteenth century and the great stirrings in human life during the generation which has not yet passed. We shall not attempt to do more than to indicate some of the outstanding features of the work of the Holy Spirit during the earlier Christian centuries.

The good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the meaning of the event was preached by men who had received the promise of the Spirit. Because they had received a fulfilment of this promise they were able to proclaim the truth with power. The Spirit continued with the church from the day of Pentecost, leading, restraining, illuminating, strengthening, bestowing the gifts which enabled the church to meet Roman arrogance and power, whether of the law or sword, Greek pride of philosophy, Jewish hatred of a gospel for all men, and heathen hostility to the church’s claim to present a religion which alone had authority. Indeed the gifts of the Spirit were the church’s sole support in maintaining its existence and extending its sway. The power of the Spirit was that which enabled the church to match itself against Roman power, both of law and sword, and to win in the contest.

Without the Spirit the church could not have made good its claim to possess the supreme and universal religion.

It was because of the effectual presence of the Spirit that the cross was transformed from a symbol of execration and infamy to the symbol of whatever is noble, inspiring, uplifting, beautifying and beneficent in human life. Since then, all through the ages it has been the means of showing with vividness the beauty as well as the reality of the divine love. Where has the worship of beauty or any speculative morality ever shown such power as that of the cross given it by the Spirit?

Without the Spirit the hearts of the early Christians could not have been filled with a love which broke down the barriers due to prejudices of race, rank and culture and which astonished the world. “ See, they [non-christians] say, how they [the Christians] love one another, — how they are ready even to die for one another.” (Tertul. Apol. 39). Men may smother the manifestation of antipathy for a great variety of prudential or selfish reasons. Men do not subdue inbred antipathies of any sort, and substitute love in their place without power from above. These Christians loved the men for whom Christ had died, and who in consquence had come into the fellowship of Christ.

Their love was not restricted merely to their fel-

WHAT HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT DONE? 23 low Christians, but it reached out broadly for all men, because Christ had died for all. The blessings of salvation which they received they wished to share with all men, for in Jesus Christ “ there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman: but Christ is all, and in all.” (Col. iii. n).

On this basis woman was raised to a plane of equality with man. Reverence for humanity as such became manifest in the treatment of children, of the very poor, of slaves and of those in prison.

Even farther was the reach of this love for men. The sense of human brotherhood and faith in the Holy Spirit was very evident from the welcome given to the lowest and vilest. The Spirit justified this faith. He made purity one of the glories of the Christian life. The impurity of the Greek and Roman world is not to be described. Out of this impurity and away from it the church attracted many souls to its own purity, which was manifested both in the marriage state and out of it. The genuineness of this purity was proved by the joy it gave, even as formerly there had been pleasure in impurity. The vilest were transformed into a recognizable likeness to Christ. The dishonest slave received power to become the honest Christian servant, serving his earthly master faithfully in order to please his heavenly Master. Thus was shown the power of regeneration and the sanctifying agency of the Holy Spirit.

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Of course the Spirit used those motives to which the man was susceptible, and brought to bear all the ordinary agencies for sanctifying character. Such motives came from the Christian idea of God who could not be pleased without holiness in living, also from the moral teachings of Jesus who had given his life in obedience to the will of the Father, and from the future life and judgment guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus. The motives that were more directly convincing came from the life of Christians. Their love, their pure lives were made attractive by the Spirit. Thus he gave them power “ in their patience, the steadfastness of their prayers, spirituality of their worship, their virtuous conversation, their victorious crusade against the fleshly lusts that war against the soul, and their humility withal and their charity.” (Edghill, p. 72). All these were due to the power of the Spirit, “ to the Christ reincarnate in their hearts.”

Not only did the Spirit endue the church with the attractiveness of love and of purity, but He made the sufferings of the churches a vehicle for the persuasive power of the Spirit. The power to endure suffering and to rise victorious over it was perhaps the most effective means for persuading men. It certainly was the most spectacular.

Their sufferings and tribulations, persecutions and distresses had been foretold by Jesus. His promise of reward for giving up family, home and

WHAT HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT DONE? 25

possessions was coupled with an assurance of persecutions. He gave his disciples directions for their conduct when persecuted, and when on trial for their lives. Such experiences were to be proofs that they were genuine disciples. The New Testament shows that the apostles expected persecution and counted it an honor. Speedily it became manifest that a power not resident in human nature enabled them to endure these tests.

Persecution came first from the Jews. The recognition that Jesus was Messiah divided families. When the first Christians testified to his Messiahship and urged his acceptance as such they angered the Jews who had rejected Him. Then as Christianity became more aggressive it raised up bitter antagonism which only a Divine Spirit could give power to overcome.

Persecution came from the Roman state. The state might overlook a non-aggressive Christianity. The headship of the state and of its emperor was a religious headship as well as a civil one. The state demanded worship of the emperor. This was an idolatrous headship. The early Christians conformed to the civil headship. They refused to yield the required religious homage to the emperor as head of the state. Their religion was new and unauthorized by law. It claimed supreme religious authority. They were accordingly pronounced to be disloyal and rebellious and therefore criminal. They did not remain merely disobedient to the requirements of Rome’s imperialism. They defied the might of the empire by the authority of their God, their Master. A Divine Spirit empowered them.

The sufferings of the Christians tested their convictions. Opinions lightly formed would have quickly vanished. The supremacy of conscience was felt more and more. The sense of fellowship in suffering with one another and for the Divine Master became more fresh and living. Thus the sympathies of Christians with one another reached out more and more broadly. The persistent pressure of the empire deepened the brotherly consciousness of Christians into something like a corporate consciousness. This even developed into a kind of political consciousness that made some sort of general organization inevitable.

The Christians came to realize the need of attempting with set purpose to substitute a new moral order in the place of the order then prevalent. The churches therefore began an attempt not merely to transform the lives of individual men, to make them a fresh revelation of Christ, but also to establish the divine order on earth.

The sufferings of the Christians produced unexpected results for the pagans. Christ was revealed to them. The Spirit did His office work. He convinced the onlookers of the reality of a type of life they had not before seen, of the presence of a power which they had not known, and could not

WHAT HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT DONE? Tl

understand. The sufferings of the Christians caused pity or admiration, and opened numberless hearts to the beauty of the misunderstood Christian lives. These lives and their endurance of persecutions convinced pagan onlookers that the Christian religion really had supreme value. The heart of man answered to the heart of man. The devotion of the Christians was inspired by that love which led Jesus through Gethsemane to Calvary. Their devotion often shared his suffering and in consequence shared also in the transforming power of his love. In fact it interpreted to men that love of Jesus and attracted them to him. Thus was the power of the Holy Spirit signally manifested.

It is true that persecution had periods of cessation. In consequence of these came periods of outward prosperity of the church, and unfortunately also decadence of spiritual life. For only maturity of spiritual character or intense love for the Master who grants success can maintain the ardor of devotion to him. Selfishness, forgetfulness of the Master, neglect of the Spirit, are apt to follow outward success, and cause a deterioration of character, while moral superiority and spiritual privilege are still claimed. It is not strange that pagan jealousy should flame up at the sight of Christians whose life had become little better than that of their neighbors. Thus decadence brought another period of testing. There is a striking parallel between the history of the church and the sketch of the history of Israel given in the second chapter of Judges.

Within less than three hundred years after the resurrection of Jesus and the day of Pentecost the little church had become a power which the emperor desired to win to friendship. Long before that time the enemies of the Gospel had come to feel the presence of a strange power and to dread it.

The friendship of the emperor changed the tasks of the church, but did not diminish them. If the church accomplished anything toward christianizing the organism of the imperial government, this was due to the Spirit’s presence.

At the same time there was laid upon the church the task of winning pagan Europe for Christ. By 1500 a.d. pioneer work had so far progressed that nearly all Europe was called Christian. The name of Christ or of His church was supreme. The Holy Spirit had strengthened Saints Columba, Columbanus, Boniface, Ansgar and numberless others for their rude tasks. He worked with persuasion on the hearts of the pagan nations of Europe and led them to call Christ their Lord.

The sixteenth century witnessed the flaming of a passion for righteousness and for a sense of the forgiveness of sins. For this result the Holy Spirit had been moving on the hearts of men for generations. Protestantism took its position as the advanced part of the church universal. Roman Catholicism was moved to reform many of its

WHAT HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT DONE? 29 ways, and to begin its missionary activities. In both parts of the church the Holy Spirit was the moving power. The next two centuries were a period of the deepening of religious life in one part or another of the church universal. Toward their close Protestant churches were moved toward missionary activity. And thus the nineteenth century became one of rich missionary activity.

In the whole course of the history of the Christian church and especially in the later centuries has the Spirit given believers and the churches power to be loyal to righteousness and to evangelical ideals, power to challenge the right and might of worldliness, power to affirm and partly to convince men that righteousness should be supreme in all human affairs. Thus have the Christian forces been mighty as a conscience demanding individual morality and national conformity to the same law of righteousness.

What is yet to be expected of the Holy Spirit? He is to lead into the fulness of the Christian life. (Eph. iv. 13-16). He is to christianize society. He is to lead nations to observe the law of love.

Ill

Neglect of the Spirit and Absence of Power

W HEN the great successes of the church of Christ are considered, some questions occur to the mind: Why has the church not accomplished yet more? Why are not all the peoples of the earth already Christian? Was this a task too great for the Spirit? Or again, is the Spirit capricious in His exercise of power? Or, are His ways so mysterious that it is impossible to count on any aid from Him? Or, may it be after all that He has ways which men must learn and to which they must conform as they conform to physical law? If so, why should not disregard of His ways be disastrous in the spiritual life, as is disregard of physical law in the physical life? Or, why should ignorant or blundering attempts to cooperate with Him be more successful than such attempts are in the physical world? If these questions point to the reason of failures in the work of the church, why is it that Christians or the church have disregarded the ways of the Spirit, and why have any failed to learn of those ways?

If Christians have neglected to follow the ways 30

NEGLECT OF THE SPIRIT of the Spirit, has it been because they did not believe in Him? Have they denied the necessity of His aid in the life and work of the church? No, not in theory. They affirm the necessity of His presence.

Have they habitually sought His aid as the sole power by which the church could hope to accomplish proper results? Have they sought to know the conditions on which the Spirit should give them the power needed? These two questions indicate the reasons of the withholding of power from the churches and from individual Christians.

Whenever men have forgotten that the religious life itself is of supreme value, they have ignored the meaning and presence of the Holy Spirit. Whenever Christian life and service have been given a second place in a man’s life, then he has refused to yield his life to the guidance of the Spirit. He has practically denied that the Spirit is the transforming power in the world for its redemption.

Whenever a man has failed to find his religion in seeking fellowship with God, and substituted moral conduct in its place, he has neglected the Spirit as his Guide. Morality is properly a fruit of religion. This is so inevitable that its absence proves the religion defective. Whenever a man has treated a result of religion as though it were the power which causes the result, he has broken the direct connection with the Spirit of God. He has also disqualified himself for receiving the Spirit of power.

Has a man made his religion to consist in worship? This is an expression of religion. The verdure of a tree is an expression of its life. It is also a means of growth. Thus with religion and worship. Without worship religion cannot come to maturity. When, however, religion means worship instead of life which compels worship the Spirit finds no inner life for its fellowship and use. Hence the man cannot be a vehicle of power.

Again, correct conceptions of the truths of religion have been treated as though they were the essence of the Christian religion. How can correct views be obtained? In preaching to the unconverted we attempt to illustrate the meaning of fellowship with God by our human fellowships. Further, the beginning of this fellowship involves the deliverance of the human soul from sin. This deliverance also can be illustrated from a great variety of human experiences. Can a man understand the deliverance from sin and the fellowship with God without an actual experience? Can he then have correct conceptions of the truths of the Christian religion without the life? How again can it be right to treat something dependent upon the life as the life itself? If the man centers his religious activities in the ideas about the life instead of in the life, how can the Spirit use him as a means for transforming the lives of others?

NEGLECT OF THE SPIRIT

Such failures in the life of the individual Christian have appeared on a larger scale in a church and crippled its efficiency. Sometimes they have even caused the activities of a church to cease entirely. When a church has forgotten that its mission as a body of Christ is to carry on His redemptive work in the world, it has ignored the Spirit and become indifferent to His moving.

A church has sometimes centered attention on outward conduct and discipline. This has made the religious life mechanical. Thus the church has lost the guidance of the Spirit, and developed unspiritual systems of penance and even of indulgences.

A church sometimes has come to think so much of worship and the modes of worship, that it has failed to share Jesus’ love of men who need to be redeemed. Thus that church came to prize this one of the manifestations of Christian life as though it were the sole manifestation, or that for which all others exist. Until it opens itself to the great passion of Jesus Christ it alienates itself from the ways of the Spirit. Hence at times even a large portion of the church of Christ has ceased to be filled with the power of the Spirit because it did not put first things first.

The church has sometimes overestimated the relative value of correct statement of the truths of the Christian life. When this was put in the place of the life itself it involved a radical falsehood. It should never be forgotten that a life that is thor-

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oughly loyal to our Lord is the best corrective of error in intellectual operations. The logic of Christian experience will correct error in a mind seeking to be led by the Spirit of Truth far better than the logic of dialectic, no matter how correct in form. When the church has been diverted from the main issue of life to the secondary question of conceptions of truth, it has put itself outside the direct purpose of the Holy Spirit and has not been used. Where controversy about doctrine prevails spiritual life languishes.

Another failure to receive the power of the Spirit has come from a lack of faith in the Spirit. The church has accepted non-spiritual auxiliaries to help secure those visible results which attend the Christian life. This appears wherever the church has permitted a power other than the Holy Spirit to direct its policy. A conspicuous illustration was when the church sought the aid of the Constantinopolitan emperors and deferred to their will respecting doctrine and management of church affairs. These emperors did not appreciate or know the meaning of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, else they would not have retained for more than fifty years the title of Pontifex Maximus. The very constitution of the imperial government was too thoroughly pagan to be qualified to share the guidance of a Christian society. “ Centuries of pagan civilization, traditions of national greatness, recollections of imperial religion made it impossible

NEGLECT OF THE SPIRIT for the new faith to master public and political life with any effective authority. The incurable paganism of the empire proved the insurmountable difficulty of the church.” (Edghill, p. 190). When the church entered into partnership with this body, it compromised its independence and failed to maintain a fully spiritual character, hence pagan, i.e. unspiritual, ideals and methods found a place in the thought and work of the church. Too often Christian churches became contented with attaining outward prosperity and success in place of the spiritual power which should have been their passion.

Still another form of lack of faith in the Holy Spirit was a failure to heed the principle stated by Jesus to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s. (Mt. xxii. 21). In truth, the error noted just above was rendering homage to Caesar in things spiritual, homage which should have been rendered to God alone. The new error was the failure to believe that the Spirit could and would lead the civil government to act in the interest of the kingdom of God. Therefore the church leaders sought to obtain control of Caesar’s power. They refused to render unto Caesar the things that were Caesar’s.

The ideal of a state conformed to the will of God is a noble one. It should be the inspiration of those men who in the providence of God serve Him in civic affairs. The church is not called upon to take the sword of the magistrate out of his hands, or to dictate to him the acts he shall perform with it.

The mission of the church is to represent the kingdom of God in its highest aspect. It must be loyal to the confession of Jesus before Pilate, “ My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.” (Jo. xviii. 36). The spiritual power of the church has been greatest when it has shown fullest loyalty to the spirit and letter of these two utterances of Jesus.

When the church ventured to use other means than spiritual ones, as it must whenever it seeks to gain control in the domain of Caesar, then it gave up its dependence upon the Spirit for power, and it lost in moral influence over the world.

Whenever the church has taken the leadership of its policy and activities from sources other than the Spirit of God, it has forfeited its right to look for aid from a divine power. It has occasioned the belief that it had no access to such power. More than that, the belief has arisen that such power never had been with the church, and never would be. The church’s claims were not believed because nothing then present in history seemed to justify them.

When the church has put the fruits of religion in place of the religious life itself, it has uttered an

NEGLECT OF THE SPIRIT 37

uncertain sound about the essential facts of the Christian life.

Attempts to enforce assent to particular statements of truth have caused degeneration into an unspiritual holding of truth and have made divisions. Attempts to enforce outward unity have caused forgetfulness of the Spirit and have produced schisms. Whether by lack of faith in the Holy Spirit, or by unspiritual conceptions of religion, individual Christians and churches have failed to enter into the fulness of their privilege in establishing the kingdom of God.

Thus the reason why the world is not now more fully Christian must be attributed to the fact that however glorious a career the church of Christ has had, it has fallen short of its rights by reason of lack of faith and lack of loyalty to the Spirit.

IV Necessity of the Spirit for Effective Service

W HEN we reflect upon the facts of Christian history we recall with amazement the fact that at the outset the church was composed of a few weak and despised disciples. Our amazement does not diminish as we follow the story of the first Christian centuries. We need often to recur to these facts when effectiveness in Christian service seems to have ceased in our immediate environment. The lesson taught by those facts will have little value if we so dwell on the activity of the Holy Spirit in those remote centuries as to lose sight of what He is doing in our own generation. He often changes His methods.

“ The old order changeth, yielding place to new,

And God fulfills himself in many ways,

Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.”

(Tennyson, Passing of Arthur).

It is saddening to see men clinging to old methods through which the Spirit once worked and striving to fill forms with life after men have ceased to respond to them. Any man who has lived fifty years with eyes open to the Spirit’s operations can name 38 modes or points of approach to men previously unused by which the Spirit is now reaching the hearts of men. The wonder grows that, when men’s hearts have become insensitive to certain truths, and the heart of the Christian worker becomes wearied and distrustful of the power of the Gospel, the Spirit should adopt an unexpected avenue of successful approach to the soul. Though men do not respond now as they sometimes have to the preaching of sin and the consequent need of redemption, nevertheless the Spirit is surely leading men into the kingdom. Perhaps in the next generation we shall again see men responsive to the preaching of these great Biblical truths. This generation is moving more largely along the lines of Christian education, philanthropic service and care for the physical well being of men. We may need to alternate activities. The conviction which we should cultivate is that all good work for men is due to the stirrings of the Spirit : and a conviction yet more important is that no good work, least of all the best work, can be done without His guidance.