The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-05-24
Pleasant Fields
of Holy Writ
CoPYGIGHr, DAVIS ". CLARK.
SAVE for my daily range

Shakespeare and the Bible: And he
shall be as the light CT the morning J
when the sun riseth, even a morning
without clouds.
2 Samuel XIII.
But look, the Morn in russell mantle
clad,
Walks Ger The dew of yon high eastern
bill.
Hamlet l.
Second Quarter. Lesson TX. John Nv.
&c, y; XVI, IA. May p, 1917.
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS WORK.
1t was the crisis hour for Jesus. The
shadow of the cross was already on his
path His thoughts. however, were
not upon himself, but upon his disciples.
He loved them up to the very end of
his career and his chief concern was
that they should be thoroughly furnish
ed for the ordeal that awaited them on
his departure. His first step was to
apprize them fully of its nature and
severity. Their enemies were like
wolves in their cunning and ferocity.
They themselves were as defenseless
as sheep. EXcommunication would be
their first and bitter experience. They
would be deprived of name and lot in
the synagogue. Even their own blood
relations would deny them recognition.
None would come nearer to them than
four cubits. the place allotted to
corpse. This social and ecclesiastical
death would soon be followed by pain
full and disgraceful physical death.
Their executioners would feel certain
they were doing a religious act. ser
wee for God. Revelation of impending
tate could not have been more faith
full. But now comes the
assurance that will nerve them for the
ordeal. 1t is the revelation of one who
will take his place and fill it as per-
fectly as he could himself should he
remain, nay even more perfectly be-
cause of the limitations of the flesh to
which he was subject. The word Com
forter describes the effect of the Office
rather than the nature of it. The word
literally signifies lone who is called to
ones side" in a legal emergency, an
attorney, councillor or pleader, one
who gives confidence and assurance to
the accused and consequently and cor
respondingly, strength and comfort.
They would not need to puzzle their
brains to prepare defense. The Par
aclete the divine Attorney, would give
them the argument, nay even the
phrase in which it should be uttered.
The promised Comforter
changes quickly from mere defender
of the apostles into a determined and
rresistable prosecutor of the plaintiff.
The tables are turned. There are three
counts in the indictment of the world
Sin, Righteousness, Judgment. The
heart of the world sin will be shown
to be unbelief in its Savior (of sin be-
cause they believe not IN me). The re-
turn of Jesus to his Father is evidenced
of how he fulfilled all righteousness and
the persistence of unbelief in spite of
this augments the cupability of it.
Finally the collective and concentrated
worldliness, whose greatest achieve
ment was the cruclfixion of Jesus, by
that very deed condemns itself. World
illness is the greatest of all lost
causes" But to be a
pleader is only one of the several Of
fees of the Paraclete. The advocate is
also the Teacher. He has all time at
his disposal as the Master himself had
not. He can supply truth as the minds
of the disciples and their successors en-
large for its reception. He can help
the evolution. If the Master should at
once reveal the whole of truth it would
be golden content, true, but it would
crush the undeveloped powers of the
recipients. There is an
advent" of the Spirit of Truth, also.
There are two advents, that of the Son
of God and that of the Spirit of God.
The first, in his person and work, forms
the inexhaustible deposit upon which
the Spirit will continue to make drafts
according to the disciples needs and
capacities to the end of time.
THE TEACHERS LANTERN.
The cooperation of man with God is
nowhere asserted more specifically than
here. The Paraclete testifies of Jesus.
So does the disciple. Great is the
privilege, high the honor!
Here are no terms Elusive in their gen.
eralness. All is specific and definite.
"I' (emphatic) "send the Spirit of
TRUTH Not truth in general, but
specifically that which relates to Jesus
Christ. Here is the rock
on which the Greek church split with
the Roman. The latter added to the
text in framing the Nicean Greed SO
that 1t reads THE Spirit which pro-
ceedeth from the Father and the Son."
To this the Eastern church refused to
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