the Holy
Spirit not many days hence" (Acts 1:5).

2. When the Spirit baptized these apostles with divine guidance he began
his work of convicting the world through them.

(1) _To convict the world of sin_. Not of sin in general. It is a
mistaken idea that the Spirit is sent to personally convict a man of the
sin of lying, stealing or defrauding his neighbor. When I was a boy in
old Kentucky the colored people used to hold great revivals; they
generally selected corn-planting-time or harvest-time for these
meetings. Many of them would lie for days in a cataleptic condition,
which, they said, was a "conviction of the Spirit." A man would go
groaning and moping to his task because he was "under conviction of the
Holy Ghost." The above passage teaches nothing of the kind, nor does any
other passage in the New Testament teach it. There is not a case in the
New Testament where the Holy Spirit ever made an issue with a man to
personally convict him of sin. All men are convicted of sin by the
Spirit, but it is the Spirit working through the preaching of
Spirit-filled men. "And he, when he is come, will convict the world [the
Jewish world or age] in respect of sin, because they _believe not on
me_." They called him a blasphemer, they rejected him, they took him
with wicked hands and crucified and slew him; and the first thrust of
the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was at this sinful act of the world:
"This same Jesus whom ye took with wicked hands and crucified and slew,
God hath raised him up and made him both Lord and Christ."

(2) "_Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold me no
more_." If this passage teaches that men are individually convicted of
sin, it also teaches that they are individually convicted of
righteousness, and this would be a most herculean task, even for the
Spirit, to perform. It is a contradiction of terms to say that the
Spirit convicts a man of sin, then, in the next breath, that he convicts
the same man of righteousness. And yet, the Spirit was to convict men
"of righteousness"; but whose righteousness? _The righteousness of Jesus
Christ_. "Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold me
no more." When Jesus was on earth he claimed to be the Son of God; he
claimed to come down from heaven; he claimed to be God manifest in the
flesh; but, at the same time, he was a "man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief." "There was no beauty that we should desire him." On this
ac