THUS

CHAPTER III.

HUS far we have dealt almost exclusively with the revealed truth of the Blessed Spirit's personality and divine glory, only turning aside to remember that most sacred and wonderful of all His works, His action in the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Human Life of the Incarnate One. I do not attempt to retrace any of these steps in the present chapter. Only let me again claim for that last aspect of the doctrine of the Spirit the most earnest, reverent, loving attention of the believer, as he "lives by faith in the Son of God." A great wealth of spiritual blessing surely lies ready for use, for the Christian who will recollect it and use it, in the truth of the Spirit's work for, on, and in, the Incarnate Lord. That work, that unspeakably deep and precious connexion of the Spirit

Gal. ii. 20.

with the Redeemer in the work of redemption, is meant to throw the full light of life eternal upon our connexion by the Spirit with Christ Jesus, who is our Life. We shall recur often to this side of truth in later pages; but let it be kept always in view. We, every one of us who believe on the name of the Son of

1 Cor. vi. 17. God, are "joined unto Him, one Spirit." Our contact, our union, our embodiment, is such as to be rightly described in the holy Word by that surprising phrase. And is not light thrown upon the phrase by the remembrance that the Spirit who has given us our Life, who has imparted to us Christ, is indeed the Spirit of Christ, not only in the inner relations of Deity, but in the blessed Incarnation of our glorious Head? He who is Himself thus doubly united to Christ—if I may express it so-can He not indeed with richest and holiest fulness pour into us Christ's members the power and virtues of our Head? Indeed He can. And we therefore, the favoured members, will bear that fact in wondering and loving memory. We will cherish it in our heart of hearts. We will use it in our hourly

MYSTICAL UNION; A TRUTH FOR USE. 45

life. Having the Spirit, we will remember how fully and truly by the Spirit we possess the Son. And in weakness, in sadness, in temptation, under the burthening sense it may be of spiritual decline, we will without delay or misgiving use our wonderful treasure. We will by the Spirit enjoy our possession of the Son, not after the hour of need but in it. With such a Bond to such a Head, why should we for one minute walk in failure? Nay, "when we are weak, then are we strong;" "in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 1

2 Cor. xii. 10. I Cor. vi. II.

And now to advance more directly to the study of the work of the Holy Spirit "for us men and our salvation." And do Thou, most blessed Spirit of God, shine on us and in us as we go!

1 I would earnestly commend to my readers Marshall's Gospel Mystery of Sanctification (first published about 1680). It is very old-fashioned, and by no means light reading; but it is full of truth inestimably precious to those who seek to walk with God at once in humble watchfulness and holy liberty. further p. 174.

See

It might seem right that we should here first consider His divine work in creation, in the "old creation," in "nature." For in a large range of Scripture passages, from Gen. i. 2 onwards, we find Him mysteriously but distinctly revealed as the immediate divine Agent in the making and manipulation, so to speak, of material things.

But our proposed subject (p. 1) is the Spirit's work in redemption, a subject which indeed will give us material enough. All I would do here is to call attention in a general way to this Scriptural connexion of the SPIRIT with the world of Matter. It is one among the many suggestions in the divine Word that matter has for its immediate basis the absolutely immaterial will and power of God; that in this respect, as in others, la dernière raison des choses, c'est Dieu.1 And, like all those other suggestions, it reminds the believer, as he rests on his God for spiritual life and power, that the whole material universe, wrought by the

1 Pascal. For a good account of pagan, apocryphal, and Scriptural views of matter see the note (by Dr F. W. Farrar) on Wisdom xi. 17 in the Speaker's Commentary.

THE SPIRIT AND THE SCRIPTURES. 47

same will that saves him, is infinitely pliable in its Maker's hands for the ultimate good of His spiritual new creation.

Reverently leaving alone, then, this field of truth I turn deliberately to another for some brief but earnest recollections and suggestions. That other field is the work of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Holy Scriptures.

I hardly need say that I am aware of the present gravity of that subject, and of the extreme difficulty of speaking upon it to edification amidst the unsettlement, and indeed tumult, of present speculations and negations. But it may be both possible and helpful to take it up in this chapter along a line single, in a sense simple, and yet all-important. We will adhere strictly to the terms of our great subject -the Holy Spirit's work in relation to the Scriptures. It appears to me that many widely prevalent present views of the nature and function of the written Word, however much truth of detail may enter into their formation, err in their ensemble by their deeply humanitarian, naturalistic character. Taking up the perfectly true position that human agency and natural