NO SPIRIT by E. Goodrich

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 28, 1862

NO SPIRIT.

By E. Goodrich

Is it possible for words to express the shivering horror that I feel for such a sentiment! Indeed, we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous; no, not one but what needs to be cleansed by the atoning blood of Christ. And there is no church that is perfect and free from all error. Yet while there are some errors that are comparatively harmless (because they do not affect our vital piety, or hinder us from coming to God), there are others, the breath of which is death without cure.

The honest deacon who believes the world flat and immovable may be just as good a christian, as devotional in all his exercises, and as godly in his walk, as one that believes otherwise. Such a faith, or such an error, has little or nothing to do with religion or practical godliness, because it neither denies the necessity nor worth of the atonement.

But not so with the error that says, "No Spirit." This error strikes at the very root of the matter, and with one fell stroke it crushes down everything before it, leaving man utterly destitute of all goodness. I do not contend against forms, neither do I deny the worth of doctrine; yet I do say that when we take out the Spirit of God from the religion of the Bible, the rest that remains is not worth speaking about.

How my heart has been pained within me at hearing men (teachers, even) who profess to be looking for Christ, and expecting to be changed when he comes, preach a gospel virtually leaving out the Spirit of God and its office work upon the hearts of men. The tendency and result of such teaching is utter darkness and death. Of course it is necessary to read the Scriptures, and the Bible is of priceless value to us; yet its value and importance consists in the relation that it sustains to the Spirit as being a record of what the Spirit has said or done, or promised to do. It is the sword of the Spirit, and as such is a mighty weapon in the hands of every living christian. The Bible, when corroborated by a living ministry and church, is evidence that the living and true God communicates with the children of men; but when the church which is the pillar and ground of the truth fails to live religion, the Bible is of but very little weight in convincing men of sin. And it is living, more than argumentative sermons, that is needed in removing skepticism.

The infidel has his way of denying or doubting almost every truth revealed; but when the drunkard quits his cup, the debauchee becomes chaste, when the unholy man becomes godly, and the tricky man honest; in a word, when the chief of sinners becomes genuinely converted, and lives soberly and honestly, here is a fact that infidels can neither explain away, gainsay, or resist.

And it is with pain and much concern of heart that for twelve or fifteen years I have observed the downward tendency of modern christianity upon these things. The Bible has been preached and praised quite to the neglect of what it really enjoins upon us. It requires (its Author does) faith, repentance, and holiness. It teaches that we must be converted and worship God (who is a Spirit) in spirit and in truth; and yet the sentiment that ignores the operations of the Spirit of God, denies in reality all these.

No Spirit! What a monster! How it looms up with its dark and hideous proportions! And can it be possible that men of intelligence believe it, who believe the Bible, and who frequently read scores of such passages of scripture as the following? "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you." John xvi, 7. Please read eight verses more. Again, "If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him." Luke xi, 13. "This I say then, [as though he would sum up the whole matter] Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh; for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye can not do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit ye are not under the law (undoubtedly the law of sin and death reigning in our members). Gal. v, 16-18. And here follows a striking

contrast in which are enumerated the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit.

Again, in 1 Cor. xii we have a full and glorious representation of the gifts of the Spirit to the church of the living God. And again: 'And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.' Eph. iv, 30. Believe that and then say, if you can, that the Bible is the only rule and comforter that the christian has by which to determine his relations to God, and his claims to an incorruptible inheritance.

But it is replied by some that they do believe in the existence of the Spirit of God, that holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and that the gospel was preached by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; but then these things are not for us; they belong to that age, the apostolic church. Here is certainly a mistake. The conclusions arising from such a position are altogether too wide-sweeping. They leave us without any model church after which to pattern. They leave us without the gifts, and graces, and fruits of the Spirit of God. Also they leave us without any living promises upon which to rest our hopes. What! Was not the commission to preach the gospel, and the promise in connection with the same, to be extended through all coming time? Was not the promise of the Comforter made to the entire church until the last member should be redeemed?

Again: For whom were the gospels and epistles written? Were they written only for the church then living? These are important questions, admitting of being answered in only one of two ways: either the primitive church was to be a model church, patterned after by all that should follow, and the promises made to her were alike made to all, or else the promises were made to her only. If the former be true, then it is our duty to contend for the graces of the Spirit, and thereby exalt the standard of holiness and revive primitive Christianity; but if the latter be true, then are we utterly destitute, God-forsaken; and where is our hope?

'No Spirit.' 'Bible conversion.' Yes, I have heard such a gospel preached. Yes, I have seen men converted under such preaching; yet if fruits are any sign, they were not half converted. The old man of the flesh as much alive as ever, and all the change made was only from sin to selfishness: yea, and I have even learned about as much in my own experience. I have tried to live on good resolves, and serving God out of principle, until I have been made to exclaim, O God, save or I perish. I have learned, as did the apostle Paul, that there is no confidence to be put in the flesh.

'Good resolves!' Why a man can live physically as well as religiously upon good resolves. And we might as well resolve that we would neither get hungry nor thirsty, and accomplish our purpose, as to resolve that we would in our own strength, love divine instead of earthly things. What would a good resolve do in keeping a man from getting hungry? and what has simply a good resolve to do in hindering us from lusting after the things of the world?

What we need is strength within. The flesh lusteth, and it is only by having divine strength imparted by the Spirit of the living God, that we are enabled to overcome the world. The doctrine that man may be cleansed, and delivered from the dominion of sin here, is as much a divine proposition, requiring divine interposition, as the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. But why enumerate. The plan of redemption in all its specifications and workings is divine, and the Spirit of the living God, the Holy Ghost, is the living and acting agent by which men are prepared to enjoy the glories of that God and the immortal age revealed in the Scriptures.

E. GOODRICH. Edinboro, Pa.