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The Holy Spirit

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 11, 1903

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 32.

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The Holy Spirit

(Concluded)
It was forty days after Christ was raised from the dead before the disciples were in condition to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. During this time the Saviour gave them a chance to study his life, and really to learn his relation to them. Then it was ten days after he ascended to heaven before the day of Pentecost. He left them to examine themselves, and when their hearts were cleansed so that he could come in, then the Holy Spirit came like a rushing wind, and sat on their heads as cloven tongues of fire, giving them a special commission to go to all the world and preach the gospel.
I expect we shall see something of that kind again, and somebody will experience it. When God does that to us, what will it do? There are many texts in the Bible showing what it will do. I love to read John 14:26 because I believe it, and because I have experienced it in my own heart: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.” Now do we believe that, my brethren? He will bring things to your remembrance; that is, he will strengthen your memory. The Holy Spirit will do it. Just as surely as God has spoken the word, he will do it. Why does he not do it, then, you say? I answer, Because you do not believe it. A few days ago I was looking over some old personal Testimonies that I have, and I came across one that was written to me when it was difficult for me to retain anything in my mind, because I became confused so easily. It was about the time that Sister White first went to Australia. I had forgotten all about that Testimony, but in it were these words: “The Holy Spirit will make your memory as strong as it ever has been in the past.” I praise God that he has done this very thing for me. He is willing to do it for you, and for all the sons and daughters of Adam who will consecrate their lives to him.
The best thing you can do is to study the Word until you have trained the mind to believe it. The mind needs to be educated in divine things, just as a child’s mind has to be trained to know the alphabet. Some of the world’s wisest philosophers at the present time do not know the first letter of the Christian religion. We want the mind trained to believe what God says, and when he tells us ten times over that he will give us the Holy Spirit, we want to believe it. If we do not believe it, there is trouble somewhere, and we should find where it is, then put it away, so that we may receive the Holy Spirit. God longs to give it to us.
Another thing that the Holy Spirit will do: in John 20:20, 22, we read, “And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. . . . And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Do you think they received it? When the Saviour said that to them, the Holy Spirit did come on them to a certain extent. “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.” Luke 24:45. You remember how the Saviour appeared to his disciples first, then to the two on their way to Emmaus; you know that he walked all the way, and opened to them the Scriptures, from Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, concerning his work, his death and resurrection, and then when they came to Emmaus, how they constrained him to come in and tarry with them overnight. You remember how they urged him, even after he made as if he would go farther. The Saviour never comes where he is not wanted. He holds out the blessings, and if they are not wanted, he does not come in. And, too, you remember that when their eyes were opened so that they knew him, and he had vanished from their sight, they said to each other, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?” That was receiving the Holy Ghost. He opened their understandings so that they could comprehend the old theory that they had ever believed concerning the mission of Christ, so that it was really a new truth to them. Their eyes were opened. So in these last days, when the Holy Spirit is poured out, those who receive it will say, “Did not our hearts burn within us?” Their understandings will be opened to know the truth for this time.
The Holy Spirit will do more. It will bring peace, and joy, and love. It will change the heart, and there is a greater miracle in the change of the heart than in a resurrection from the dead; for a changed heart means the bringing into subjection of the old man, and the creation of a new one: whereas, when a man is raised from the dead, God speaks the word, and it is done. There is a reality in the religion of Jesus Christ that is not in the world—something that the schools of the world can not give, because it comes from God himself. My dear friends; shall we have it? Shall we take it?
But so many say, “I have sinned.” What of it? Stop your sinning, and go to believing. If the truth you have believedis from heaven, begin to act on it. The very first word in the commission is, “Go”—go to every nation under heaven. Mark has the same commission, and in it we are told to whom to go,—to every creature in all the world. That means your next-door neighbor; that means the largest cities; that means the smallest hamlet; that means to darkest India, and all the foreign fields. Brethren, you have no business to have the name of Christian if you live for this world, for yourselves. It is too late—it is altogether too late in this day—to think of it. The Lord is coming, and we are to prepare for that event by uniting with Christ in giving the light to others. Let us be lights, and not be planning how to make ourselves a home, and all that, but rather plan how we can help to carry out God’s purposes in the earth. I am so thankful, my brethren, that I have a personal acquaintance with my Saviour, and this we all may have. When we walk in the light of the truth that he has given us, we become channels through which he can work.
I have kept the Sabbath for over fifty years, and I have seen many souls shipwrecked on the rocks of skepticism, and my soul is drawn out this morning in a longing desire to say something, or do something, that will help such ones; but where the heart is closed because of unbelief, the Lord can not come in to help. These are times when we need to be held by an anchor, and anchoring in Jesus Christ is anchoring in the truth of God. It is to see Christ in the truth and in the circumstances that surround us. Christian experience means to see Christ always in everything. The soul that can see Christ is the one that is anchored. The waves may lift the buoy up, and roll it around this way and that, but it always comes back to its original resting place; for it is anchored fast.
God has helped us in our work in the great city of New York. We have sought him for his Spirit, and have received it. Every opening of his providence that we see, and every success that crowns our efforts, makes us long for more. This morning my soul goes out after God. I desire that my life shall be a likeness of my Saviour; I want to see him as clearly as Moses did. The word that God spoke to Moses, Moses believed. When the children of Israel were hedged about by the high mountains and the Red Sea, God said to Moses: “Go forward!” Moses did not stop to say: “Lord, if you just divide these waters, we will gladly go through.” No, he did not say that, but he acted on God’s command, stretched out his rod over the waters, and right there in that warm climate, the waters froze. It was the coldest walk the children of Israel ever had in the wilderness. In the simplicity of his heart, Moses did not know anything better than to believe just what God said; and the people of God that have been hid in him in all ages have not known anything only to obey him, and when he said to go forward, they went.
One more text: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” How many?—“All flesh.” Does that mean the sinner? Then the sinner will get the Holy Spirit. How will the sinner get it? The Lord sends a message by his people to the sinner, and puts his Spirit upon the sinner to accept that message. Thus the sinner is not without the Spirit. Then since this is so, can you not expect that when you get the Holy Spirit, somebody will be saved. When the Lord sends a man out to preach, there are some who are to be saved. And thus the work will go forward until the end. But so many of us lack faith; we see the difficulties that are in the way. And there are great difficulties, and they will increase more and more. For as the prophet says: “If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?” Shall we not rather have our anchor so securely fastened that none of the storms of life will move us from our moorings? Another text: “Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.” Zech. 10:1.
Suppose I am laboring in New York, and you are laboring somewhere else, and we pray for rain; the Lord says he will send it. “Every one grass in the field.” Now what does that mean? Put one other text with it, and you will see what it means, without any comment of mine: “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty [not a little sprinkling now and then], and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.” Now notice the next verse: “And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.” If you have ever been in California, and have seen the irrigating ditches that run through the dry ground, and how green the grass is, and how the willows spring up along their banks, and how dry and parched everything is away from the watercourses, you can appreciate this. What we need is such a relation to God that he can pour upon us his Holy Spirit. And now the next verse: “One shall say, I am the Lord’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.”
Dr. Paulson wrote us from Chicago about a woman who had written to him regarding the temperance question. This woman came to my wife and said, “I would like to have you give me readings on temperance, but I am settled in my faith. I do not want to change my faith.” My wife told her that she would be glad to give her readings on temperance, and the woman was delighted with a reading given her on Bible temperance. She came another day, and my wife had another reading with her. And she kept coming; but during all this time not a word was said on any point that would unsettle her faith, but books were loaned her, giving the truth clearly. One day she said: “People say that you keep the seventh day as the Sabbath. I would like to know some of your reasons for doing so.” A few days later she came to us, and said, “I am so distressed about the Sabbath!” Then we began readings with her on one point and then another, till finally we came to the sanctuary question; and we found that from books which she had read, she was more intelligent on it than some were who had taken lessons for months. She became greatly exercised, and wanted us to pray for her, and the result was that in a little while she accepted the Sabbath, and now she is thoroughly grounded in all the truth.
When God says, “Go forward,” then in the name of God go forward; and if there are obstacles in the way, as there will be, just remember that we are dealing with our Saviour, who has promised ten times over that he will give us his Holy Spirit.
Another thing the Holy Spirit will do: it will give you wisdom and grace; it will give you every good thing; and do you want anything more than that? You will get everything that is good. In Matt. 7:11 we have a parallel scripture to this, where, instead of saying that he will give us the Holy Spirit, he says that he will give us all good things. Then all “good things” is equivalent to the Holy Spirit; so when you have the Holy Spirit, you have everything that is good. That is the kind of Saviour we have.
These are some of the promises to those whose souls are thirsty, like the dry ground that can not be satisfied without moisture; and that moisture must be the Spirit of the living God.
May the Lord add his blessing. O my brethren and sisters! who of us are going to stand? I ask, in the name of the Lord, who of us are going to stand? There are souls here that will shine in glory, and it is quite probable that there are souls that will suffer the plagues. It is quite probable that there are souls that will come up in the second resurrection, and some that will come up in the first resurrection. Where will you be? Where shall I be? May God help us to make our peace with him. Do not rest if there is a cloud that obscures your sky. Take hold of God by living faith. When God put his bow in the heavens, he said, “I will look upon it,” and therein is his glory. His presence is its silver lining. There is a rainbow to every cloud, but you may not always see it. Through the prophet Isaiah he says he will cast all sins behind his back. When this is done, can he see them?—No. One thing more about this whole matter, and that is, God forgets something. It is as much a mark of infinity for God to forget my sins as it is to forgive them; and I bless God for that. Brethren, look out! If you criticize your brethren, it may be that you will criticize some whose sins God has forgotten. The best way is not to criticize at all, but go forward, doing the work that he has given you to do, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.