e shores
of all natures in which the life of God is found.
Be still, therefore, and listen carefully to the voice of the Spirit of
God speaking in thine heart, as thou turnest from all other sounds
toward His still small whisper, and He will tell thee all. Coming, as
He does, from the heart of Jesus, He will tell thee His latest thought.
In Him we have the mind of Christ. Then, sure that we are one with
Him, and therefore with the Father, we shall ask what is according to
His will to give. Prayer goes in an eternal circle. It begins in the
heart of God, comes to us through the Saviour and by the Spirit, and
returns through us again to its source. It is the teaching of the
raindrops, of the tides, of the procession of the year; but wrought out
and exemplified in the practice of holy hearts.
IX
The Other Paraclete
"He shall give you another Comforter."--JOHN xiv. 16.
There was no doubt in our Lord's mind that His asking would be at once
followed by the Father's giving. Indeed, the two actions seemed, in
His judgment, indissolubly connected--"I will ask, and He shall give."
From which we learn that prayer is a necessary link in the order of the
Divine government. Though we are assured that what we ask is in God's
purpose to communicate--that it lies in the heart of a promise, or in
the line of the Divine procedure, yet we must nevertheless make
request. "Ye have not," said the Apostle James, "because ye ask not."
"Ask," said the Master, His eye being open to the laws of the spiritual
world, "and it shall be given you."
The prayer of the Head of the Church was heard, and He received the
Holy Spirit to bestow Him again. "Having received of the Father the
promise of the Holy Spirit," said the Apostle Peter, "He hath shed
forth this, which ye now see and hear." Thus the Holy Spirit is the
gift of the Father, through the Son, though He is equal with each of
the blessed Persons in the Trinity, and is with them to be worshipped
and glorified.
I. THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST.--That word, "another"--"He shall
give you _another_ Comforter"--is in itself sufficient to prove the
Divinity and Personality of the Holy Ghost. If a man promises to send
another as his substitute, we naturally expect to see a man like
himself, occupying his place, and doing his work. And when Jesus
foreannounced another Comforter, He must have intended a Person as
distinct and helpful as He had been. A breath, an a
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