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THE HOLY GHOST

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 25, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 39.

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THE HOLY GHOST.

Jesus was a great comforter. He was ever ready to comfort his disciples in their temptations, sorrows, disappointments, and hardships in life.
He knew what it means to be surrounded with dark clouds, to be buffeted with fierce temptations, to be foot-sore and weary on the journey of life.
He knew how lonely and discouraged they would be when he left them, and how utterly powerless human flesh would be to stand the awful attacks of the combined hosts of the world and the devil, and he resolved to make preparation for their comfort and safety by having an all-powerful One take his place. Hence he said, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.”
This glorious Comforter is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father sends in the name of Jesus.
That prayer has been offered and answered; and the Holy Ghost has come. Glory to God!
This suggests—
1. His presence. Jesus declared to his disciples, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.”
There are many professed Christians who have no conscious knowledge of the presence of the Holy Ghost. They live without him. Their lives are gloomy and barren and joyless. They are living under the old dispensation instead of the new. Their great need is to have some one tell them in a practical and impressive manner that the Holy Ghost has come. “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?”
2. His teaching. “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.”
How desirable and important that we should have the teaching of the Holy Spirit. There are errors to be guarded against, truths to be revealed, and intricate pathways in life to be opened up; what an utter failure we shall make of it if we go forth blindly, led by mere human wisdom. This accounts for the sad choice of companionships, which bring heart-sorrow and sadness through life; of opportunities and privileges of usefulness neglected and blasted; and of utter darkness in regard to spiritual vision. But when the Holy Ghost has right of way in you, “he shall teach you all things.”The all things is modified by the words whatsoever I have said unto you. Hence his teaching relates to truth: the Holy Ghost does not teach anything additional to, or out of harmony with, the words of Jesus. This does not mean that we shall not have, or any more require, pastors, teachers, or evangelists, whom God has set in the churches to spread the knowledge of his will; but in those inner and spiritual experiences, which are wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, we shall not require any man to teach us. It necessarily follows that “the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”
3. His abiding. “He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” He comes not to dwell near us as a neighbor or a friend, but to enter the same household, to be one of the family, to share its prosperity or adversity, its successes or reverses. He not only comes to dwell in the household, but to dwell in the heart.
Yea, abide in the heart forever. But to have his permanent abiding, you must let him furnish and manage the heart-home to suit himself. He will purify it until no stain or dross of sin can be found within its sacred precincts. He will beautify it until it becomes a thing of admiration to saints and angels. He will comfort it until no reverses, adversities, temptation, or sorrow can disturb or destroy its peace. He will keep it so that no enemy can destroy its eternal safety, and with his own presence. He will be its glory and its eternal delight forever and ever. O friend, let the Holy Comforter come in and take up his abode as an abiding guest.
4. His working. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
The disciples did all the works that Jesus did. They healed the sick, they cast out devils, they raised the dead. Christ’s statements were literally fulfilled in their works, but these healings, the demon dethroning, and life from the dead were not greater works than those of Jesus, neither was their aggregate greater. The greater works are put in contrast with those, and are not literal, but spiritual. The saving of souls on the day of Pentecost, and subsequent spiritual results, are evidences of this. These greater works were wrought through believers by the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost came because Jesus went to the right hand of the Father.
The same spiritual results are possible to-day through the anointing of the same Holy Ghost, which Jesus has promised to those who believe on him. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”—Selected.