y for not discerning the truth than
the intellectual preacher is for {91} expecting him to do so. When,
for example, one attempts with the utmost learning to convince an
unbeliever of the deity of Christ and fails, the word of Scripture to
him is: "No man is able to say 'Lord Jesus' save in the Holy Ghost" (1
Cor. 12: 3).

The Spirit of Jesus can alone reveal to men the lordship of Jesus, and
this key of knowledge the Holy Ghost will never put into the hand of
any man however learned. As it is written that Christ is the "raying
forth" of the Father's glory, and "the express image of his person"
(Heb. 1: 3), thus by a beautiful figure reminding us that as we can
only see the sun in the rays of the sun, so we can only know God in
Jesus Christ, who is the manifestation of God. It is so likewise
between the second and third Persons of the Trinity. Christ is the
image of the invisible God; the Holy Ghost is the invisible image of
Christ. As Jesus manifested the Father outwardly, the Spirit manifests
Jesus inwardly, forming him within us as the hidden man of the heart,
imaging him to the spirit by an interior impression which no
intellectual instruction, however diligent, can effect.

In his profound discourse concerning the "unction" and accompanying
illumination, John was only expounding by the Spirit what Jesus had
said before his departure: "Howbeit, when he the Spirit of truth is
come, he will guide you into all {92} truth; he shall glorify me; for
he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you" (John 16: 13).
"The Spirit of truth"--How much instruction and suggestion is conveyed
by this term! As he is called "the Spirit of Christ," as revealing
Christ in his suffering and glory, so he is called "the Spirit of
truth," as manifesting the truth in all its depths and heights. As
impossible as it is that we should know the person of Christ without
the Spirit of Christ who reveals him, so impossible it is that we
should know the truth as it is in Jesus without the Spirit of truth who
is appointed to convey it. "The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot
receive" (John 14: 17)--We must come to Christ before the Spirit can
come to us. "The Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father"
(John 15: 26)--He can only teach us in intelligent sonship to cry
"Abba, Father." "The Spirit of truth . . . shall guide you into all
truth" (John 16: 13). Divine knowledge is all and altogether in his
power to communicate, an