Pray for the Holy Spirit ...

Part I

WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD EARNESTLY SEEK THIS PRICELESS GIFT FOR THEMSELVES.

PART IT.

THE DUTY OF SEEKING THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR THE CHURCH OF CHRIST AND FOR THIS FALLEN WORLD.

BY THE

Rev. WILLIAM SCRIBNER,

AUTHOR OF U PRAY FOR YOUR CHILDREN. "

NEW YORK : ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY,

nsjl .

WASHINGTON

COPYRIGHT, 1875, BY

Anson D. F. Randolph &

EDWARD O. JENKINS, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPES. 20 NORTH WILLIAM ST., N.Y.

The Publisher j by permission, prints the following letters addressed to the author.

i.

"It seems to me that you have composed a treatise upon the office of the Holy Spirit, and the duty of Christians in reference to it, which will be very useful to Christian readers.

"It is sufficiently theological to lay a foundation for the exhortations to the duty of prayer and the use of means, and at the same time is practical and popular in the style of remark. You have made good use of Owen, who, in my judgment, is unequalled in the treatment of this great theme, and have adapted the discussion to the mental habits and characteristics of the present generation of readers. The attention of the Church needs to be directed to the internal work which needs to be carried on, in order that outward service may be persevering and successful. Praying for the Holy Ghost and praying in the Holy Ghost is the only method of obtaining that great measure of prosperity for the Church, both at home and among the heathen, which is both promised and prophesied in Scripture.

" Hoping that your volume will have a wide circulation, I am,

" Yours sincerely,

"Wm, G. T. Shedd."

II

"I have just finished reading your manuscript, and give you, at once, my thanks for writing it and letting me see it. Surely you can have no doubt as to its publication. More brilliant and more theologically subtle books may have been written on the importance of prayer for, and dependence on, the Spirit ■ but a more useful treatise than yours for the Christian Church at large, I could not lay my hands on. Your language is very plain, and almost lacks color, but verve and movement more than make up for the deficiency in color, metaphor, and illustration. Your points are all points indeed, so that the table of contents alone creates an appetite for your discussion of them. The importance of prayer — as not to an abstraction, but to the Spirit of God — not for abstractions, but for carefully enumerated things — looms more largely before my mind every page I read of your book, and then the things themselves separately and cumulatively increase their dimensions in proportion. A safer, more judicious treatise, is scarcely possible. The Church at large needs just the instruction your book gives, and the 6 common people ' for whom you evidently wrote it will 'hear it gladly.'

c< Yours as ever,

"Wm. C. Stitt."

Contents

PAGE

Preliminary * n

PART I.

Part II. Earnestly Seek The Holy Spirit For The Church And For

PERISHING MEN :

I. — That He would ever abide with the Church for her enlargement and

prosperity ' . . . . . . 149

II. — That his converting influences may be granted unto millions who

already know enough of truth to be saved 158

CONTENTS.

III. — That He would enable the Church to obey Christ's last command . 164

IV. — That He would descend with converting power upon the heathen

world 173

V. — That He would continually call laborers into the harvest, and would

assist and strengthen those actually at work ..... 184 VI. — Entreat the Holy Spirit to have compassion on other classes and conditions of men besides those already enumerated .... 195 VII. — That He would restrain the wicked, and keep within bounds their

corruptions . 204

VIII. — You do truly seek the Holy Spirit for your fellow-men, when you pray for the progress of Christ's kingdom in the world by means of

genuine revivals 210

Appendix. — The condition and character of the French as affected by the

suppression of the Reformation . . . . „ .251

PRELIMINARY.

PRAY FOR

THE HOLY SPIRIT.

PRELIMINARY.

r | ^HE infinitely blessed God did not become tripersonal for the sake of carrying out the plan of redemption. He has subsisted in three distinct Persons from all eternity. This, however, was not revealed until after the fall ; and when the revelation was made, it was made in connection with the disclosure of the Divine purpose, to save the lost.

In the earliest books of the Old Testament, the doctrine of the Trinity is only obscurely intimated. In its later books, the revelations are much more full. The writings of the New Testament everywhere take it for granted that, while true believers, in all places and in all times, recognize but one God, they do truly worship three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even though their knowledge of the doctrine of the Trinity may be no greater than is barely involved in such worship, and may

(ii)

fall short of what is taught in the definite statements of the creeds of the Church.*

These three Persons are equal in power and glory. But, while there are three Persons, there are not three Gods ; for the Persons are not three in the same sense in which they are one. It is in the sense of participating in a common divine nature that they are one, while in their distinct subsistences they are three.

At the baptism of Christ we have presented to us three Persons. We know that each of these is God — that the Father is God, that the Son is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God. We also know that there is but one only living and true God. But as long as it is admitted that the Three are not one, and three, in the same sense, the doctrine, however incomprehensible, is not self-contradictory. As to equality, the three Persons must be equal in power and glory if they are the same in substance.

* " It is characteristic of the Scriptures, that the truths therein presented are exhibited in the form in which they address themselves to our religious consciousness. A truth often lies in the mind of the Church as an object of faith long before it is wrought out in its doctrinal form ; that is, before it is analyzed, its contents clearly ascertained, and its elements stated in due relation to each other." — Dr. Hodge's Theology, vol. I, pp. 448, 449-

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If we sincerely believe in, and love the doctrine of the Trinitv because the Bible teaches it, it is not necessary that in every prayer which we offer, the thought should be distinctly in our minds that there are three divine persons in the Godhead. As the Three are one God, — one in essence, knowledge, will, and power, we may pray to God as God. And we may also pray to each of the persons separately. But though we may address, and ought often to address, and worship each person separately, we cannot do so without worshipping the whole Trinity.

Each person of the Godhead has an agency in our redemption. This truth is set before us throughout the whole Bible with great prominence — that each divine person of the Trinity has an agency and an office in the redemption of those who are saved. The Father performs a part in our redemption — the Son also performs a part — and it is no less true that the third Person, the Holy Spirit, has an agency and performs a part in man's salvation. And it is expressly in order that He may do His part, that He may execute His own office in the work of redemption that Fie is given to men.

We see then why they are happy who do truly ask for the Holy Spirit and to whom He is given by our Heavenly Father. We see why God himself regards them as happy. They may not be the world's favorites — they may often indeed he found among the poor, the sorrowful, and the neglected. But in being made possessors of the Holy Spirit — the very temples in which He dwells, they are unspeakably blessed. They, however, prove that they are indeed God's children by valuing the blessing and by asking for it. It is only by asking, that it can be obtained.

It is sad to think that there are some who hold errors which make it impossible for them to pray for the Holy Spirit. We refer to those who maintain that the term Holy Ghost is merely used in the Scriptures to designate a divine influence — the power of God — God's energy, when exercised in a particular way. They have adopted this view, because they do not, they say, recognize it as true, and therefore cannot admit, that the blessed Spirit is a person having an individual subsistence, and possessed of all divine perfections.

Now while it is true that the third Person of the Godhead is not as separate from the Father and the Son precisely as one human person is from every other, it is equally true that He is in Himself a distinct, living, intelligent, powerful, and divine Person.

PREL IM IN A R V. 1 5

We deem it unnecessary to quote the numerous passages of Scripture in which the Holy Spirit is represented as one who can be the object of our acts; in which He is spoken of as performing operations which imply intelligence and will ; in which intelligence, will, and individual subsistence are distinctly attributed to Him ; and in which the personal pronouns are used in relation to Him. With these passages the readers of this little volume are doubtless familiar, and are convinced by them that the Spirit is as truly and really a distinct person, as the Father and the Son. " The Scripture tells us that the Holy Ghost governs the Church ; appoints overseers over it ; discerns and judges all things; comforts the faint; strengthens the weak; is grieved and provoked by sin; and that in these and many other affairs He works, orders, and disposes all things according to the counsel of His own will. Can any man credit this testimony and conceive otherwise of the Spirit than as a holy, wise, intelligent Person ?"

They with whom these evidences of the personality and divinity of the Holy Spirit go for nothing, and who assert that what is called the Spirit of God, is nothing but a power, cannot, as was said, pray for Him. Refusing to admit that any such Person exists, they of course deny His activity, His agency in human redemption, His operations, His gifts, and influences. They cannot then entreat that they and others may be the subjects of His operations and influences, and the recipients of His gifts. They cannot, we say, pray for the Holy Spirit.

No true Christian will intelligently reject the doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit. Such a one will neither maintain that there is but one person in the Godhead, — who is called Holy Spirit in certain relations, — nor that what is spoken of as the Spirit is merely the power that God exerts for particular purposes.

" Every believer feels that he stands to the Holy Spirit in the relation which one person sustains to another : a person on whom he is dependent for all good ; whose assistance must be sought ; and whose assistance may be granted or withheld at pleasure; and who may come or withdraw either for a season or forever. Such has been the faith of the Church in all ages . . . Hence the prayers so frequent in Scripture and so constantly on the lips of believers, that the Spirit would not cast us off; would not give us up; would not be grieved by our ingratitude or resistance: but that He would come to us, enlighten us, purify, elevate, strengthen, guide, and comfort us ; that He would come to our households, renew our children, visit our churches, and multiply His converts as the drops of the morning dew; and that He would everywhere give the Word of God effect." *

The Holy Spirit not only causes the Word of God to take effect upon the hearts of men ; if He performs an inward work on the heart, He is also present and active in the external world, and has been so from the beginning of the creation. The forming and perfecting of the host of heaven are ascribed peculiarly to the Spirit of God, for it is said, " By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens." We know from the language of the inspired writer that while the Earth was as yet unfinished He brooded over the waters and reduced chaos to order.

The work of producing a new supply of creatures is ascribed to the Holy Ghost. " Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit and they are created, and Thou renewest the face of the earth." u He daily replenishes the earth with life and beauty." The intelli- * gence which we see evinced in the structures of vegetables and animals is likewise to be referred to

* Dr. Hodge's Theology, vol iii., page 475.

Him. The omnipresent Spirit also has an efficiency in the actions of men which are concerned in the great affairs of the world.

The Holy Spirit inspired all the prophets and writers of the Bible. It is said that "holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost/' and that "they searched what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." That the Apostles had the habitual guidance of the Holy Spirit, that He abode in them to enlighten and fit them for their work is evident from their express declarations. They declared that they " preached the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," that they "had received not the spirit which is of the world, but the Spirit which is of God;" that they "spoke these things not in words which man's wisdom taught, but which the Holy Ghost taught ;" and that they " could be judged of no man," because "none knew the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him, and they had the mind of Christ."

The prominence which our Saviour Jesus Christ has in all religious instruction, and in the religious experience of believers is necessarily great, but that

PRELIM IN A RY. I g

should not cause them to overlook the obligations they are under to the blessed Spirit of God. Let it be considered that the Holy Spirit is intimately concerned in every thing which endears the Saviour himself to us.

He who in consequence of the sweetness and glory of His person, and His mediatorial work, is to us the chief among ten thousands, was once divine without being human, but now through the Holy Spirit's creative agency He wears human nature, while notwithstanding that He is, and ever will be, both God and man, He remains only one Person, just as He was only one Person before His incarnation.

We know that the blessed Spirit had an agency in bringing into existence Christ's human body and soul, for the Scriptures expressly teach that when the time arrived for the Son of God to assume human nature into personal union with Himself, the Holy Spirit produced that nature by His own creating act. Said the angel to the Virgin Mary : t " The Holy Ghost shall' come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore, also, that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Having created the body of our Lord, and infused a rational

2o PRELIM IN A R Y.

soul to quicken it, the blessed Spirit carried on the work which He had begun, by anointing Christ with those extraordinary qualifications and gifts which w T ere necessary for the discharge of His office. During our Lord's whole course on earth, the Divine Spirit directed, strengthened, and comforted Him. And the work which He performed for the Redeemer is to be regarded as a proof of His love to us. It implies His concurrence with the Father, and the Son, in the great scheme of man's redemption.

It delights believers, and what wonder, to dwell on the Person, work, and glory of their dear Lord. All divine and human excellencies are so combined in Him as to ravish their hearts. And, in addition to being the only object of their saving faith, He is the central sun in their entire religious experience. " Their whole inward spiritual life terminates on Him. ,, But, as w r as said, the Holy Spirit is intimately concerned in Christ being that complex Person which makes Him so glorious and attractive to us, in His possessing the graces, and extraordinary gifts with which He was anointed, and so in all the blessedness and joy which the Son of God designed to secure for us when He assumed our nature.

Flow closely is the Divine Spirit united with the Redeemer in bringing about our salvation. If Jesus purchased our redemption, the Holy Spirit applies it. Regeneration is His sole and special work. " Not by works of righteousness which wc have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Having breathed spiritual life into our souls, He sustains and nourishes it. He carries forward our sanctification. He is our Comforter. He is our loving, careful, tender Friend, and such is His condescension that He is sincerely concerned in our good and well-doing. He is our ruler, teacher, and guide. We are His disciples. W e are His worshippers, and we humbly offer supplications to Him.

It was said that regeneration is the sole and special work of the Hoi)' Spirit. But, besides this, whatever progress in holiness the soul may make after its regeneration, is likewise due to the power of the Holy Spirit working in it. f Divine truth is, indeed, quick and powerful — a sanctifying influence, indeed, belongs to it ; but even on the regenerated soul the truth can have no sanctifying, purifying effect, unless the Holy

Spirit attends it, works with it, and gives it effect. It would be a sad mistake to suppose that whenever a soul is saved, the activity of the Blessed Spirit is confined to that one operation by which it is created anew. His agency is still necessary, and ' His agency is continued during the believer's whole life. We should, therefore, feel how entirely dependent, as Christians, we are on the Holy Spirit's influences, and should constantly pray that He would enlighten the eyes of our understandings, increase our spiritual life in vigor, and soften our hearts.

The power, then, which is the cause of our growth in holiness, and which produces in our souls the Christian graces, is no less supernatural than the power which new creates or makes alive a soul dead in trespasses and sins.

What, then, is there peculiar and distinctive about the regenerating act of the Holy Spirit? In what does it differ from His other supernatural operations on the soul? Since, in every case in which a soul is saved, the Spirit's agency is continued after His regenerating act has been put forth, wherein is His regenerating act in contrast with that agency or work which He carries on in the soul already born again ? The points of dissimilarity are several, but we will confine ourselves to one, which we proceed very briefly to state.

Although in order to the believer's sanctification there is need of the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit, yet this is not because there is no power or adaptation in divine truth, in itself considered, to sanctify ; for if it had no such adaptation or fitness, it could not even be employed by the Holy Spirit as an instrument. It has fitness in itself considered, and yet it remains true that it performs in the hands of the Omnipotent Spirit, only the part of an instrument And as an instrument or means, it is always employed. In maintaining and advancing holiness in our souls, He works for that purpose, in no other way than by using the truth. There must always be knowledge of the Word. It is by the Word that all the graces are called into exercise. It is by the Word, and by that means alone, that the Spirit works in the people of God to will and to do.

But in regenerating a soul — in raising it from death to life (for we use the word regeneration as designating the instantaneous change from spiritual death to spiritual life) — the Spirit makes no use of the truth to impart life. When by His divine power He regenerates a soul, the regenerating act then put forth is not one in which the truth also concurs. There is not a concurrence of both the Spirit and the truth in the act, as there is in the work of sanctification. The Spirit's operation on the soul when He regenerates it, is an operation in which the truth performs no part, just as when our Saviour enabled Bartimeus to see the light, the light itself performed no part in removing Bartimeus' blindness.

Divine truth indeed has power— it has an adaptation to transform an}' soul upon which it is brought to bear, into the likeness of God. But the soul while unregenerate and blind has no susceptibility to that renovating influence which the truth possesses. It fails to perceive the truth in its real nature, and tlurefore experiences not in the slightest degree the renovating effect which it is fitted to produce.

Spiritual life— power of spiritual perception— must first exist in the soul before divine truth held up to it can have any really saving influence upon it. It is only subsequently to the taking place of the regenerating act, which is the act of God's Spirit upon the heart, that the person begins to experience its saving virtue. The regenerating act is, we repeat it, the act or operation of God's wSpirit.

And the result of this operation is, that the spiritually dead soul is at once quickened— instantaneously receives life, with power spiritually to discern the things of God. But the truth has no cooperation in what takes place ; in other words, the Spirit makes no use of the tfuth itself, to give life and spiritual perception. Our Saviour acted with a divine power directly on the sightless eye-balls of Bartirneus without the intervention of any means, and in like manner the Holy Spirit acts directly and immediately on the soul destitute of spiritual life, without the intervention of the truth. It is in this way that the image of God is not completely, but partially restored to the soul.

In His previous workings on the souls of men, which workings are preparatory to regeneration, the Spirit does indeed use the Word, just as, after the new birth has taken place, He employs the truth to carry forward the Christian's sanctification. Most true is it, that it is the Word which in the hands of the Spirit arouses, alarms, and convinces the unregenerate man. The W ord awakens and enlightens him, so that he is brought, anxiously and with the greatest earnestness, to seek reconciliation with God. But what is maintained is, that the truth has no concurrence or instrumentality in that act of the Holy Spirit by which souls spiritualty dead are quickened."

But it is objected, that if the Divine Agent acts on the soul directly and immediately, the laws by which the human spirit are governed, are then set aside, and violence is done to its nature. This objection, however, assumes what can never be proved. It is altogether unreasonable. Why cannot the direct operation of the Divine Agent on the soul, whereby it is made spiritually alive, be so congruous to its nature, that under its influence the soul shall move most freely? " The Spirit who knows human nature and human sinfulness in their totality, can make His abode in that sphere which is out of sight; and there, with a love all the greater because

* The terms "beget," "begotten," lt being born again," are sometimes so used in the Scriptures as to include more than the bare act of imparting life to the spiritually dead soul. They are sometimes meant to include all that is intended by the comprehensive word conversion. It is evident that the word " begotten " is used as synonymous with conversion in that passage i Peter i. 3 : " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." "Being born again," has also this wide meaning in i Peter i. 23, which is the reason why this latter passage says that we are born again by the Word of God, or through the instrumentality of the Word. In the regeneration of an unrenewed person the truth does indeed co-operate with the Holy Spirit in the production of the effect, if the it is not perceived, He can work at the very foundation of depravity ; resting not till that foundation is undermined, the building that was erected upon it overturned, and a new one raised in its stead. The Restorer of souls may thus work among the principles of our depravity without at all infringing upon any of the laws of the mental nature. Yea, everything like undue pressure may be obviated all the more by the very fact that the Spirit makes no direct assault upon any of the faculties, but is contented to touch the hidden springs that lie far beneath, and thus moving them, He moves effectually the whole man. As sin has fixed its habitation in the very interior of the human spirit, I see not why God may not be acting there with as much safety

term regeneration is meant to include not only the bare act of imparting life, but those exercises of the soul which are consequent to that act. The Apostle teaches that as long as a man is in his natural state, or, in other words, that until the soul's regeneration, or resurrection to life, has already taken place, it has no ability whatever to see the truth, I Cor. ii. 14. The inward work of the Spirit is first necessary before the truth can be discerned in its real nature, — before it can have any transforming effect on the soul.

They who contend that the Holy Spirit is unable to renew the spiritually dead without the concurrence and co-operation of the truth must, in order to be consistent, deny that He ever regenerates infants, and that even if He were willing to regenerate a soul in heathen darkness, it would be impossible for Him to do so.

and efficiency as among those powers whose ongoing is seen by the eye of the soul."

It is of the utmost importance that we recognize this point of dissimilarity between that operation by which the Spirit new creates a soul and that agency by which He afterwards carries forward its sanctification. Other differences might be considered, but it is not so necessary that in this little work they should be presented.

The personality and agency of the Holy Spirit were not as distinctly understood by God's people under the Old Dispensation as by believers in these days. Not only this, but the blessing was not so abundantly given to men. It was not withheld, but it was bestowed with limitations. The purpose and plan of the all-wise and infinitely blessed God was to wait until after the advent, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ before enriching the Church in any remarkable manner with effusions of His Spirit. This is the way we are to understand the promises and predictions of the prophets, Isaiah, Joel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah. The gift of the Hoty Ghost is, by these, prophets, set forth as the great distinguishing blessing of the times of the Messiah.

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We are so favored as to live in the times referred to by the prophets. These are the times of the Messiah. This is the dispensation of the Spirit. If we may congratulate ourselves on this account, we should also remember how solemn and responsible is our position. The thought which should deeply impress us is, that without the sovereign and omnipotent influence of the Third Person of the Godhead, neither the Father nor the Son are of any avail for human salvation. We are now, in a sense, shut up to Him. Everything depends upon His love, and presence, and working. Friendship, power, with Him, are the indispensable duties of the Christian Church.

The impenitent should also remember that the teachings of the Scriptures, concerning the Holy Spirit, sent to convince sinners, and to allure them from the paths of destruction, are guarded by the most awful sanctions. The Scriptures teach that though Pie is long-suffering and kind, yet He will not always strive. " He is a righteous Sovereign, and men can vex His benignant heart and limit His influence, so that He may stop short in His work of mercy. And thus this gracious power, moving in the depths of the soul, secretly guiding, inspiring, urging the sinner to renounce his sin and