Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-15


theme, Have ye received the Holy
Ghost Since ye believed? ?" Jesus
Christ he defined as a distinct be.
ing, born, crucified, dead and bur.
led, assembled into glory, a rea,
personality.
Continuing, he said:
In the 18th chapter of Acts, the
second verse, we find these words
Have ye received the Holy Ghost
since ye believed?"
The personality and the divinity
and the attributes of the Holy
Spirit afford one of the most inter
esting, inspiring, instructive, and
at the same time mysterious stud
les in all the scriptures.
When the Holy Spirit came at
Pentecost, He came as a rushing,
mighty wind, and He lowered over
each Of the expectant Pentecostal
worshippers When Jesus was bap-
tized of John in the River Jordan,
out from the blue expanse of
heaven came what looked like a
snowflake. AS it came nearer the
earth it assumed the form of a
dove, and we are told that the
whirring Of wings was heard and
that the Holy Spirit in the form
of a dove lowered over the drip
ping locks of the Son of God as He
stood on the banks of the Jordan.
There have been but two such
visible manifestations of the Spirit,
and the probabilities are that this
side of the grave neither youreyes
nor mine shall ever behold such
scenes; neither shall our ears ever
be privileged to hear such a sound
again.
You cannot dissect. you cannot
weigh, you cannot analyZe the Holy
Spirit as a chemist would some
substance in his laboratory, but
we can all feel His power and we
can all enjoy the orchard fruits of
His planting, for l read that the
fruits of the Spirit are love, joy,
long suffering. gentleness, brother
" love; against such there is no
law.
Jesus Christ was a distinct be-
ing. He was born. crucified. dead,
buried, assembled into glory. The
Holy Spirit is personalities
much of a personality as God,
Christ, you, I, anything or any
body.
'rHowbeit. He shall not speak of
Himself, but whatsoever He shall
hear, that shall He speak and He
shall show you things to come"
Speaking of the Holy Spirit as
personality. not an influence, there
fore we are born of the Spirit; He
is our advocate. Jesus always
thinks of the Spirit in the future
tense. He said, cit is a good thing
for you that 1 go away. If l go
not away. the Comforter will not
come" - the future tense - but
when 1 am gone. 1 will send Him
unto you from the Father" and l
read, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God" as if men and women can
and do grieve the Spirit of God by
the wrong atmosphere in their
lives, by the wrong atmosphere in
their homes, by the crowd they
keep company with Why, an angel
from heaven couldn't come down
and stay here two weeks and train
with the crowd that some of you
go with and call good and then
get back to heaven without having
a bath in lysol and carbolic acid
and formaldehyde.
Therefore. we grieve the Spirit
by the wrong use of our lips; we
grieve the Spirit by the things we
stoop to do. Oh. there are multi
tudes of men and women who will
do things in private that they
wouldn't do in public-it would
mean their disgrace! There is
many a man who wouldn't keep
somebody on the side. who wouldn't
stagger and reel home into the
arms of his wife, but he will stoop
to do the mean, contemplate, dirty,
scurrilous, derogatory, uEderhand-
ed. vilIifying little things tina,
show he is led by the flesh and not
by the Spirit. although he may
have been baptized. sprinkled and !
immersed every Is minutes, knows
the catechism from A to 2. and has
been confirmed every half hour! |
There are multitudes of themi
The fact that you can grieve the |
Holy Spirit proves, from inference
at least. His personality. You |
can't grieve an influence, so the |
Holy Spirit is more than an infu |
ence~or the bible would not tell me !
to be careful and not grieve the |
Spirit. I cant grieve an influence, |
so the Holy Spirit is a personality, |
and that proves His constituencies, |
too. SO the Holy Spirit must be !
capable of being grieved by the |
something you do. and the places
YOU go. and the things you say. or !
the bible would not warn us to be |
careful.
/ have been told that dove has
been known to tremble when the |
single feather of a vulture's wing
has been held in front of it. l
don't know whether that is true or
not, but 1 know that the Spirit of
God is so sensitive to the slightest
evidence of sin in your life that it
trembles when He sees you stop
ping to do the things that He
knows there is but one inevitable
outcome for. and that is eternal
damnation in he'll for the impeni-
tent.
There is no fog or mist over the
eyes and the mind of the Holy
Spirit, my friends, about eternal
for the impenitent if he
naes not turn from his sin and
yield to Jesus Christ. And this
constituencies presents to me the
Father and His love. too. Where
there is no love you cannot grieve.
1t is analogous to the feelings OF
a mother whose heart breaks be-
cause her boy, by some act. has
put stain upon the family
that nothing can ever
that girl. by her
rnod-fOr-nothing couuettiSh WAYS,