Advocatus,1" called in " to the aid of the otherwise " orphaned " Church, is seen to be such, and to act so, as to be indeed the Substitute, the more than substitute, for the unspeakably real personality of the Saviour in His seen presence. The passage sets the Holy Spirit before us as not the Father, as not the Son, and yet as the "Vicar of Christ" (the phrase is Tertullian's 2), the ample Consolation for the absence of the familiar company of the beloved Saviour. It scarcely needs the impressive testimony of the Greek grammar of the sentences to assure us with deep and restful certainty that to the mind of the Saviour that night the Spirit was indeed present as a Person. In this central and decisive passage then we have the Holy Ghost revealed to us in so many was the contrast between masculine and neuter conveyed? we reply that the question, most interesting and important in itself, is not in point in our enquiry. For us as believers in the divine character of the Written Word the discourses of the New Testament, and of the Old Testament too, are before us as reports corrected and edited by the Author. 1 For a vindication of the rendering Advocate for Paracletus see Lightfoot, On a Fresh Revision of the N.T., pp. 50-56 Meantime the dear familiar word Comforter, Confortator, remains as a true paraphrase of Paraclete. De Virginibus Velandis, c. 1. ITS BEARING ON OTHER SCRIPTURES. 9 I words as HIM, not only as It; as the living and conscious Exerciser of true personal will and love, as truly and fully as the First 1 John ii. 1. "Paraclete," the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And now this central passage radiates out its glory upon the whole system and circle of Scripture truth about the Spirit. From Gen. i. 2 to Rev. xxii. 17 it sheds the warmth of divine personal life into every mention of the blessed Power.1 With the Paschal Discourse in our heart and mind, we know that it was He, not It, who "brooded" over the primeval deep. He, not It, "strove with man," or Gen. i. 2. "ruled in man," of old. He, not Gen. vi. 3. It, was in Joseph in Egypt, and Gen. xli. 38. upon Moses in the wilderness of Numb. xi. 17. wandering, and upon judges and kings of I well know that it is maintained that in the Greek New Testament, as a rule, тò ПIveûμa denotes the Personal Paraclete, and πveûμa without the article not the Person but the influence. With some exceptions I believe this rule holds good. But it leaves quite untouched the line of reasoning in the text here. When we have ascertained that Tò IIveûμa is indeed a Person we know that veûμa is a personal influence. And in the general light of Scripture teaching on divine Influences we are abundantly secure in saying that this means nothing less than the divine Person at work. Judges vi. 34. 1 Sam. xxii. 2. 1 Chron. xxviii. 12. Ezek. ii. 2. Luke 1. 35. Luke ii. 22. Acts ii. 4. Acts viii. 39. after-days. He, not It, "spake by the prophets," moving those "holy men of God." He, not It, drew the plan of the ancient Tabernacle and of the first Temple. He, not It, lifted Ezekiel to his feet in the hour of vision. He, not It, came upon the Virgin, and anointed her Son at Jordan and led Him to the desert of temptation, and gave utterance to the saints at Pentecost, and caught Philip away from the road to Gaza, and guided Paul through Asia Minor Acts xvi. 6, 7. to the nearest port for Europe. He, not It, effects the new birth of regenerate John iii. 5, 6, 8. man, and is the Breath of his new life, and the Earnest of his coming glory. By Him, not by It, the believer walks, and mortifies the deeds of the body, filled not with It, but Him. He, not It, is the Spirit of faith, by whom it is "given unto us to believe on Christ." He, not It, Gal. v. 25. Gal. v. 25. Rom. viii. 13. 2 Cor. iv. 13. Phil. i. 29. iii. 6, 13, 22 speaks to the Churches. He, not It, says from heaven that they who die in the RESERVE OF SCRIPTURE; ITS REASON. 11 Lord are blessed, and calls in this Rev. xiv. 13. life upon the wandering soul of man to come to the living water. Rev. xxii. 17. And let us not wonder, by the way, that the exhibition of His Personality is comparatively so reserved in Scripture; that we have need, as in the case of the Personality of the Father and of the Son we have not at all, to place Scripture by Scripture and make an induction on the subject. The reason lies in the nature of the case. The Holy Spirit is the true Author of the Written Word; and Heb. x. 15. His authorship there is occupied with the main and absorbing theme not of Himself but of another Person, the Son of God. cidentally, like some of His human agents in the production of the Scriptures-like Moses, and Jeremiah, and Paul, and John-He discloses enough of His blessed Self to give us full apprehension of His personal reality; but His theme, His burthen, is JESUS CHRIST. And again in the unfolding and application of Redemption His work is above all things secret, internal, subjective. It is to take of the things of Christ, to deal with the blessed In objectivity of the finished work and inexhaustible riches of Christ, and with inmost touches and new-creating whispers to manifest them to the spirit of man. It is to bring man, by a divine but inscrutable operation, to believe in Christ and to possess Him, with a spontaneity truly man's own while yet Another is in it. As to His saving operations, the Spirit lies hidden as it were behind Christ Jesus and in our own inner man. So it is also in measure in His revelations of Himself in His holy Word. However this is by the way. The point before us now, in the matter of the Personality of the Spirit, is just this: that we have the central and open revelation of that personality given us in Scripture in a place and under circumstances charged with indescribable tenderness and sacredness. The truth thus appears not only as a demand on the obedience of faith -though this it is indeed—but as a gift to the believing soul of heavenly love, of love deep and warm as the heart of the Redeemer. There seems to be a drift and set at the present day, in many quarters where what are called liberalizing tendencies in theology prevail, |