THE WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT by Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 23, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 12.

THE WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

By Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D.

BY THEODORE L. CUYLER, D.D.

SOME very visionary ideas are current in regard to the doctrine of the witness of the Holy Spirit. There are certain emotional people who take the language of Scripture so literally that they claim that this "witness" came to them in a sudden and startling manner; it was revealed to them in a wonderful vision or in a dream, or even in some cases by an imagined voice from heaven. On this extraordinary and transient experience they are inclined to base their hope that they are the accepted "children of God." Does the great apostle, when he affirms in the magnificent eighth chapter of his epistle to the Romans that "the Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God," place his main reliance on any such fitful and visionary experiences?—Nay, verily; it was not upon what might prove a shining and shifting fog bank that he rested his everlasting hope, but upon the Rock of Ages. What he did we should do. The less that we make our daily religious life depend on transient emotions, and the more we make it a solid, intelligent principle of faith in Christ and the practice of Bible godliness, the better for us. A sensible Christian will seek for the evidence of his being an accepted child of God in the same way that he seeks for evidence in any other great vital problem.

Here is one method of discovering the true meaning and realizing the happy assurance of this "witness of the Spirit." Our Bible is God’s book, inspired by the Holy Spirit; and this book is the charter of Christianity. It not only reveals Jesus Christ, but describes the nature of the religion which he came to teach. It defines his commandments, and tells us just what it is to be a follower of Christ. It photographs the Christian character. The Holy Spirit, in this holy book, describes what regeneration is, and how it is produced, and what are the evidences and fruits of it. Now if I find that my character and conduct correspond in any good degree with this Bible portraiture of a true child of God, then I have a witness of the Spirit in my favor. The Spirit’s description of Christianity agrees with that divine Spirit’s work on my heart and life. Each one testifies to the other.

Suppose we take a silver dollar to the United States Mint and compare it with the die in that mint. We discover that they correspond to each other. There is the eagle and there are the stars on the die, and the same eagle and stars are stamped on the dollar. We feel sure therefore that that dollar came out of that mint and from that die. So a child of God opens the Bible which the Holy Spirit inspired and gave to him. He reads in it the requisites of the Christian character—repentance of sin, faith in Christ and obedience to Christ’s commandments. He is conscious that he has repented, that he does trust Christ, and, though very imperfectly, is endeavoring to order his life in conformity with Christ’s teachings. "My peace I give unto you," is Christ’s promise; and such peace he has actually found. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are faith, love, joy, meekness, and other similar graces. If he finds these graces existing—in any good degree—in his own heart and daily life, then he has a strong assurance that he is an accepted child of God. There is a certain agreement between the religion which the Holy Spirit has written on the Bible page and the religion which that same Spirit has inscribed on his own heart and character. Thus the Spirit witnesseth to his soul that he is a child of God, and this witness gives him the strength of a solid assurance. Instead of resting on a transient emotion, or a devout rapture, he founds his everlasting hope on what Jesus Christ has done in him and promises to do for him in this world and in the next.

The great apostle tells us that he had the witness of the Spirit that he was an adopted and accepted child of God. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus had delivered him from the dominion of sin and death. There was an inward conviction and an outward conduct; the two corresponded with each other. They both corresponded to the Spirit’s description of true Christianity. Paul never could have written this magnificent eighth chapter if he had not actually known that Jesus Christ lived in him.

When a tree produces the leaves of the peach and the fruit of the peach, we are sure that it is a peach tree. When a man feels the

love of Jesus in his soul and strives to obey the commandments of Jesus in his daily life, he has the divine witness that he is in Christ. While in Christ he is safe, safe for time and all eternity. There is no condemnation to him; for to such as he the Lord Jesus Christ has said: "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand." A true Christian has a right to claim the witness of the Holy Spirit. But when a shallow dissembler who practices secret frauds and impurities, who cheats his creditors, and for a pretense makes long prayers—when such as he prates glibly about his attainments in holiness, he only unmasks his own hypocrisy.

It is the right and the privilege of the genuine child of God to possess the assurance of Christ’s perfect love and perpetual protection. Old Latimer used to say that when he had this steadfast trust in his Master he could face a lion; when he lost it, he was ready to run into a mouse hole. Why should a redeemed follower of Christ ever worry himself sick with wretched doubts and insulting fears? If I have put my everlasting all in Christ’s hands, he is responsible for the trust—as long as I leave it wholly with him. If I check my trunk to Philadelphia, it belongs to the baggage master until I get there. Surely I ought to have as strong a faith that my blood-bought soul is forever safe in the keeping of the omnipotent Son of God. His Spirit beareth witness with my spirit; and I am persuaded that neither death nor life, principalities or powers, things present or things to come, shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!—Abridged from the Independent.