"THOU holy Spirite, we pray to the "Thou worthy lyght, that art so cleare, Kirieleyson. "Thou swete love, graunt us altogether To be unfayned in charite; That we may all love one another, And of one mynde alwaye to be. Kirieleyson. "Be thou our comfortoure in all nede; That Sathan put us not to blame. Kirieleyson." BISHOP COVERDALE, 1488-1569. PREFACE. THE subject of the following chapters needs no prefatory introduction to the Christian. reader. In itself eternally and divinely important, it has become in the mercy of God a special subject of our own time. Far and wide in the Christian Church, amidst too many phenomena of peril and perplexity, we hail as a phenomenon of good and glorious omen an ever-deepening attention to the divine promises which gather round the truth of the Holy Ghost. More and ever more it is recognized by those who name the Name of the SON that, alike for individual blessing and for the work and witness of the Community, we depend with an absolute need upon the presence and power of the SPIRIT. May these pages, for all their fragmentary character, be used in some measure by HIM of whom they speak to stir up His saints so always to lay hold on Him that He evermore may lay hold on them, and graciously fill them with Himself. CAMBRIDGE, March 28th, 1890. CONTENTS. Purpose of the Book-Owen's theory of successive tests PAGE (1) "The Dual Procession"-Here to be studied spirit- ually-What the phrase imports-Light thrown by it on the words, God is Love-And on the connexion between the works of the Spirit and of Christ— Scriptural basis for the belief-Redeeming work of the divine Persons correspondent to Their inner Relations(2) Work of the Spirit in relation to -The Epistles to the Churches-The Spirit produced PAGE · 24 (1) Union with Christ by the Spirit-Bearing of previous enquiry on this truth--Its spiritual comfort and power-The Spirit's work in material creation- Noticed only in passing—(2) The Spirit's work in relation to the Scriptures-Not an easy subject to treat at the present day-Prevalence of humanitarian views of Scripture-Its main cause in a certain mental bias-Unification of phenomena-Inspira- tion, a term vaguely used-Authority of Scripture- Scripture as literature bears witness to Scripture as oracle—“Consciousness” of the Scripture writers not known in most cases-But the writings inspired -So viewed and used by our Lord-The Holy Spirit the ultimate and ruling Author-Testimonies to this (1) The Holy Spirit as the Interpreter of Scripture- |