THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT.
By M. W. Howard
Nothing can be more desirable to a real child of God than the answering Spirit from Heaven; what the apostle calls, “The Spirit of God, witnessing with our spirits, that we are the children of God.” This witnessing must be experienced, to be understood; for it is one of those things of which the Bible teaches, which is incomprehensible to the unrenewed heart, and discernible only by the spiritual exercises of the mind. Yet it is none the less real, nor incompatible with proper attention to our necessary worldly duties. Nevertheless, we too often suffer matters, innocent of themselves, so closely to occupy our faculties, that our hearts are in a state of bewildered tumult, and not only unfitted for worship, but almost for thought. In such a frame, can we expect the witness of the Spirit? Alas! we find it not. Neither the glad experiences of present grace nor of coming glory then move the heart, and sometimes even we scarcely realize enough to petition with the Psalmist, “O Lord, be not silent unto me; lest if thou be silent unto me, I be like unto them that go down to the pit.” Ps. xxviii, 1. It is sad that a Christian should ever feel, that he meets a silent God; for it is iniquity that raises the barrier that separates from God. Contrast, then, the unhappy condition of having God “silent” unto us, and the joy when the Spirit “witnesseth with our spirit,” and ever seek after God in such a way that he be not far from us at any time.