Be Filled With the Spirit.
By Jos. Clarke
“BE not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” Eph. 5:18. The human heart is so darkened by sin, and so taken up with the love of the present world, that it is a hopeless, fruitless attempt to serve God without his special aid, which is given mostly by the influences of the Holy Spirit attending the word and providence of God. It appears from the above quotation that as wine, by its stimulating properties, fills the human frame, so may the influence of the good Spirit, but with this great difference: The wine degrades and lowers man in the scale of being, while the Spirit elevates, enlarges, strengthens, all that is good. Christianity, without the Spirit of God, is an empty, dry theory, and the mind, which is taken up with knowledge without the good influence of God's Spirit, is like an observatory without a telescope, or a lantern without oil. The Spirit of God is a reality. It is as really a living reality as God himself, and is the great moving agent of God in the establishment and continuation of Christianity in the world: “I send the Comforter,” says Jesus, and how futile would have been the efforts of the apostles without the special, powerful aid of the Spirit, and how powerless are the efforts of many even now for the want of this aid. From the above quotation, we certainly infer that we may be filled with the Spirit. Oh! how cheering this influence is to our hearts; and how good will be the fruits. The absence of the Spirit has caused all our present indifference; and its presence will cause all our hardness and indifference to melt away. When, by the foolishness of preaching, the hearts of men are melted into contrition, and we see old and young all weeping and lamenting their sins, and turning to God, and we see the powerful influence of the Spirit, then we feel that we need such manifestations to soften our own hearts. Moses and the prophets, and all holy men, became useful and eminently holy because they were filled with the Spirit.