Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

of the strongest gates of Doubting Castle, and let me free!" Let us arise and undo the door, and get outside of doubts. God's closed hand is stretched out over all the path of our future life, and will open and dispense all needed gifts, just as the need arises.

CHAPTER III.

“THE HOLY GHOST DESCENDED UPON HIM?

IN the preceding chapters we have seen the heavens opened. Now let us see the result of an open heaven: the Holy Ghost descending upon us-our sanctification.

We all know perfectly well that Jesus was human as well as Divine; nevertheless, we know that we shall have the Holy Spirit given to us if we take the same position Jesus did. We must not forget Jesus was God; He had no sin. We have; but it is our privilege to be obedient to God's will in some measure as He was, and to obtain the results of His obedience-the Holy Ghost for us. The finished work of Jesus is our justification; the work of the Holy Ghost is our sanctification. Sanctification is an act that goes on from day to day; whilst justification is an act done at once, in one moment of time.

Have all people the Spirit of God? What is meant by a new creature, by being begotten of

30

God? We must understand what this means before we can go one step farther. No one has the Spirit of God unless he be born again; the person who has not the Spirit of God is dead.

My readers may be divided into two parts: those who are begotten of God, and those who are not. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Ye must John iii. 7. be born again." Nicodemus was a very respectable man—a ruler of the Jews; one who attended to every rule of the Jewish law-a religious man. Yet Jesus said to him, "Even you, good as you are, must be born again." So with us. We have attended church; perhaps gone regularly to the communion table; taught, perhaps, in the Sunday school, or even taken services. It makes no difference: we must be born again. We see

Christ was quickened, or made alive by the Spirit. 1 Pet. iii. 18. And again, Jesus says, "It is the spirit that John vi. 63 quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words

that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

Some think that when they are baptized they are born again, the Spirit being given to them then; and all they have to do is to cultivate this

life, that it might grow, and by degrees they would become holy. But we find out this is not so: that they are born, have God's nature put into them, when they are converted from sin unto the living God. In an unsaved person there is but one nature; in a Christian there are two natures : the one is called the flesh, and the other the spirit Two natures, but one soul. Webster says the nature is the essence or essentials, qualities or attributes, of a thing which constitute it what it is. The nature which belongs to a man when born into the world continues with him to the end. When born again into eternal life, the essence, essential qualities, or attributes entire of a child of God are communicated to him, and are eternal. Of John iii. 8. the one nature it is written, "He that committeth sin is of the devil"; and the other, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Of the flesh-"The old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts" of the flesh. Of the Spirit" Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

Ver. 9.

Eph iv. 22.

Per. 24.

:

I re

Solomon says, in his own peculiar way, "A Eccles. ix. 4 living dog is better than a dead lion." member as a little fellow in the hall of a house. to which I was taken stood a large lion, at which I was very frightened. It was stuffed its glassy eyes staring at me, and its teeth shown by the snarl upon its lips. I thought it was alive. I can recall to this day the terror I felt. A few minutes afterwards I was playing with a little dog,-no fear, only pleasure, and yet the dog could have done me more harm than the lion. One was alive; the other dead. Why is it that so much work done under the name of Christian now-a-days is without result, so much labour without fruit? The answer is, There is no life in it. It is better to be a little dog alive, with power to bite, than a dead lion, with all its magnificent exterior stuffed with straw.

WHERE IS THE HOLY GHOST?

I

"Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in 1 John iv. 4. the world." " Know ye not that ye are the temple 1 Cor. iii. 16. of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" Again St. Paul asks, as if surprised at their ignorance, "What? know ye not that your body Cor. vi 19

I

« FöregåendeFortsätt »