PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit
Torrey, R. A. (Reuben Archer), 1856-1928 · 73,614 words · 102 reading sections
Part 1
The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit As Revealed in the Scriptures And in Personal Experience By R. A. Torrey Fleming H. Revell Company New York, Chicago, Toronto, London and Edinburgh Copyright 1910, by R. A. Torrey…
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Chapter I. The Personality of the Holy Spirit. Chapter II. The Deity of the Holy Spirit. Chapter III. The Distinction of the Holy Spirit from the Father and from His Son, Jesus Christ. Chapter IV. The Subordination of the Spirit to the Father and to the Son. Chapter V. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit as Revealed…
251 wordsSECTION 3CHAPTER I. THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Before one can correctly understand the work of the Holy Spirit, he must first of all know the Spirit Himself. A frequent source of error and fanaticism about the work of the Holy Spirit is the attempt to study and understand His work without first of all coming to know Him as a Person. It is of the highest importance…
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In 1 Cor. xii. 11, we read, “But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as _He will_.” Here will is ascribed to the Spirit and we are taught that the Holy Spirit is not a power that we get hold of and use according to our will but a Person of sovereign majesty, who uses us a…
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We find the personality of the Holy Spirit brought out in a most touching and suggestive way in Rom. xv. 30, “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the _love of the Spirit_, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” Here we have “_love_” ascribed to the Holy Spirit…
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There is perhaps no passage in the entire Bible in which the personality of the Holy Spirit comes out more tenderly and touchingly than in Eph. iv. 30, “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Here grief is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a blind, im…
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The Holy Spirit is also represented in the Scripture as one who prays. We read in Rom. viii. 26, R. V., “And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity; for we know not how to pray as we ought; but _the Spirit Himself maketh intercession_ for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” It is plain from this p…
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From all the passages here quoted, it is evident that many acts that only a person can perform are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. III. _An office is predicated of the Holy Spirit that can only be predicated of a person._ Our Saviour says in John xiv. 16, 17, “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Co…
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Doubtless she had often sung: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, World without end, Amen.” But it is one thing to sing words; it is quite another thing to realize the meaning of what we sing. If this Christian woman had been questione…
421 wordsSECTION 10CHAPTER II. THE DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
In the preceding chapter we have seen clearly that the Holy Spirit is a Person. But what sort of a Person is He? Is He a finite person or an infinite person? Is He God? This question also is plainly answered in the Bible. There are in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments five distinct and decisive lines of proo…
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III. _Statements which in the Old Testament distinctly name the __LORD__ or Jehovah as their subject are applied to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, i. e., the Holy Spirit occupies the position of Deity in New Testament thought._ A striking illustration of this is found in Isa. vi. 8-10, “Also I heard the voice o…
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We have an illustration of this in 1 Cor. xii. 4-6, “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the _same Spirit_. And there are differences of administrations, but the _same Lord_. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the _same God_ which worketh all in all.” Here we find God, and the Lord and the Spirit as…
515 wordsSECTION 13CHAPTER III. THE DISTINCTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM THE FATHER AND FROM HIS SON, JESUS CHRIST.
We have seen thus far that the Holy Spirit is a Person and a Divine Person. And now another question arises, Is He as a Person separate and distinct from the Father and from the Son? One who carefully studies the New Testament statements cannot but discover that beyond a question He is. We read in Luke iii. 21, 22, “No…
578 wordsSECTION 14CHAPTER IV. THE SUBORDINATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE FATHER AND TO THE SON.
From the fact that the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, it does not follow that the Holy Spirit is in every sense equal to the Father. While the Scriptures teach that in Jesus Christ dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead in a bodily form (Col. ii. 9) and that He was so truly and _fully _ Divine that He could say, “I and…
657 wordsSECTION 15CHAPTER V. THE PERSON AND WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AS REVEALED IN HIS NAMES.
At least twenty-five different names are used in the Old and New Testaments in speaking of the Holy Spirit. There is the deepest significance in these names. By the careful study of them, we find a wonderful revelation of the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. I. _The Spirit._ The simplest name by which the Holy Spi…
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(2) The Spirit like the wind is _invisible but none the less perceptible and real and mighty_. You hear the sound of the wind (John iii. 8) but the wind itself you never see. You hear the voice of the Spirit but He Himself is ever invisible. (The word translated “sound” in John iii. 8 is the word which elsewhere is tra…
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(5) Closely related to the foregoing thought, like the wind the Holy Spirit is _life giving_. This thought comes out again and again in the Scriptures. For example, we read in John vi. 63, A. R. V., “It is the Spirit that giveth life,” and in 2 Cor. iii. 6, we read, “The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.” Per…
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(6) Like the wind, the Holy Spirit is _irresistible_. We read in Acts i. 8, “But _ye shall receive power_, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” When this promise of our Lord was fulf…
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The Holy Spirit is called “_The Spirit of the living God_” in 2 Cor. iii. 3, “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with _the Spirit of the living God_; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” What is the significance of this …
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(1) _Because He is Christ’s gift._ The Holy Spirit is not merely the gift of the Father, but the gift of the Son as well. We read in John xx. 22 that Jesus “breathed on them and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” The Holy Spirit is therefore the breath of Christ, as well as the breath of God the Father. It is…
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The Holy Spirit is called _the Spirit of His Son_ in Gal. iv. 6, “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth _the Spirit of His Son_ into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” We see from the context (vs. 4, 5) that this name is given to the Holy Spirit in special connection with His testifying to the sonship of the be…
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The Holy Spirit is called _the Spirit of holiness_ in Rom. i. 4, “And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to _the Spirit of holiness_, by the resurrection from the dead.” At the first glance it may seem as if there were no essential difference between the two names the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of holi…
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The Holy Spirit is called _the Spirit of life_ in Rom. viii. 2, “For the law of _the Spirit of life_ in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of life because it is His work to impart life (cf. John vi. 63, R. V.; Ezek. xxxvii. 1-10). In the context in which …
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The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of grace and of supplication” in Zech. xii. 10, R. V., “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, _the Spirit of grace and of supplication_; and they shall look unto Me whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for h…
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The Holy Spirit is called “the Comforter” over and over again in the Scriptures. For example in John xiv. 26, we read, “But _the Comforter_ which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” And in Joh…
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If this thought of the Holy Spirit as the ever-present Paraclete once gets into your heart and abides there, it will banish all fear forever. How can we be afraid in the face of any peril, if this Divine One is by our side to counsel us and to take our part? There may be a howling mob about us, or a lowering storm, it …
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In the thought of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete there is a cure for a breaking heart. How many aching, breaking hearts there are in this world of ours, so full of death and separation from those we most dearly love. How many a woman there is, who a few years ago, or a few months or a few weeks ago, had no care, no w…
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But it is in our work for our Master that the thought of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete comes with greatest helpfulness. I think it may be permissible to illustrate it from my own experience. I entered the ministry because I was literally forced to. For years I refused to be a Christian, because I was determined that…
839 wordsSECTION 29CHAPTER VI. THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE.
There are many who think of the work of the Holy Spirit as limited to man. But God reveals to us in His Word that the Holy Spirit’s work has a far wider scope than this. We are taught in the Bible that the Holy Spirit has a threefold work in the material universe. I. The creation of the material universe and of man is…
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We read in Gen, i. 2, 3, “And the earth was (or became) without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And _the Spirit of God moved_ upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” We may take this account to refer either to the original creation of the universe,…
376 wordsSECTION 31CHAPTER VII. THE HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTING THE WORLD OF SIN, OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND OF JUDGMENT.
Our salvation begins experimentally with our being brought to a profound sense that we need a Saviour. The Holy Spirit is the One who brings us to this realization of our need. We read in John xvi. 8-11, R. V., “And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of…
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But while we cannot convince men of sin, there is One who can, the Holy Spirit. He can convince the most hardened and blinded man of sin. He can change men and women from utter carelessness and indifference to a place where they are overwhelmed with a sense of their need of a Saviour. How often we have seen this illust…
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Not long after, one Sunday night I saw another man sitting in the gallery almost exactly above where this man had sat. A diamond flashed also from this man’s shirt front. I said to myself, “There is another sporting man.” He turned out to be a travelling man who was also a sporting man. As I preached, he leaned further…
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Notice of which sin it is that the Holy Spirit convinces men—the sin of unbelief in Jesus Christ, “Of sin because they believe not on Me,” says Jesus. Not the sin of stealing, not the sin of drunkenness, not the sin of adultery, not the sin of murder, but the sin of unbelief in Jesus Christ. The one thing that the eter…
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The ground upon which the Holy Spirit convinces men of judgment is upon the ground of the fact that “the Prince of this world hath been judged” (John xvi. 11). When Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, it seemed as if He were judged there, but in reality it was the Prince of this world who was judged at the cross, and…
393 wordsSECTION 36CHAPTER VIII. THE HOLY SPIRIT BEARING WITNESS TO JESUS CHRIST.
When our Lord was talking to His disciples on the night before His crucifixion of the Comforter who after His departure was to come to take His place, He said, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of…
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If you wish men to see the truth about Christ, do not depend upon your own powers of expression and persuasion, but cast yourself upon the Holy Spirit and seek for them His testimony and see to it that they put themselves in the place where the Holy Spirit can testify. This is the cure for both skepticism and ignorance…
376 wordsSECTION 38CHAPTER IX. THE REGENERATING WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The Apostle Paul in Titus iii. 5, R. V., writes, “Not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and _renewing of the Holy Ghost_.” In these words we are taught that _the Holy Spirit renews men, or makes men new_, and that through …
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To put the matter of regeneration in another way; _regeneration is the impartation of a new nature, God’s own nature to the one who is born again_ (2 Pet. i. 4). Every human being is born into this world with a perverted nature; his whole intellectual, affectional and volitional nature perverted by sin. No matter how e…
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The Holy Spirit does regenerate men. He has power to raise the dead. He has power to impart life to those who are morally both dead and putrefying. He has power to impart an entirely new nature to those whose nature now is so corrupt that to men they appear to be beyond hope. How often I have seen it proven. How often …
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The doctrine of the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit is a glorious doctrine. It sweeps away false hopes. It comes to the one who is trusting in education and culture and says, “Education and culture are not enough. You must be born again.” It comes to the one who is trusting in mere external morality, and says, “E…
241 wordsSECTION 42CHAPTER X. THE INDWELLING SPIRIT FULLY AND FOREVER SATISFYING.
The Holy Spirit takes up His abode in the one who is born of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul says to the believers in Corinth in 1 Cor. iii. 16, R. V., “Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” This passage refers, not so much to the individual believer, as to the whole body of…
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This indwelling Spirit is a source of full and everlasting satisfaction and life. Jesus says in John iv. 14, R. V., “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto (better ‘into’ as in A. V.) eternal lif…
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A lady once came to Mr. Moody and said, “Mr. Moody, I do not like you.” He asked, “Why not?” She said, “Because you are too narrow.” “Narrow! I did not know that I was narrow.” “Yes, you are too narrow. You don’t believe in the theatre; you don’t believe in cards; you don’t believe in dancing.” “How do you know I don’t…
347 wordsSECTION 45CHAPTER XI. THE HOLY SPIRIT SETTING THE BELIEVER FREE FROM THE POWER OF INDWELLING SIN.
In Rom. viii. 2 the Apostle Paul writes, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” What the law of sin and death is we learn from the preceding chapter, the ninth to the twenty-fourth verses. Paul tells us that there was a time in his life when he was “alive apart …
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There are many professed Christians to-day living in the experience that Paul described in Rom. vii. 9-24. Each day is a day of defeat and if at the close of the day, they review their lives they must cry, “Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” There are some who even go so fa…
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In John viii. 32 we read, “Ye shall know the truth and _the truth shall set you free_.” In this verse it is the truth, or the Word of God, that sets us free from the power of sin and gives us victory. And in Ps. cxix. 11 we read, “_Thy Word_ have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” Here again it is t…
159 wordsSECTION 48CHAPTER XII. THE HOLY SPIRIT FORMING CHRIST WITHIN US.
It is a wonderful and deeply significant prayer that Paul offers in Eph. iii. 16-19 for the believers in Ephesus and for all believers who read the Epistle. Paul writes, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the rich…
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III. _In our being made strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge._ It is not enough that we love, we must know the love of Christ, but that love passeth knowledge. It is so broad, so long, so high, so deep, that n…
611 wordsSECTION 50CHAPTER XIII. THE HOLY SPIRIT BRINGING FORTH IN THE BELIEVER CHRISTLIKE GRACES OF CHARACTER.
There is a singular charm, a charm that one can scarcely explain, in the words of Paul in Gal. v. 22, 23, R. V., “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance.” What a catalogue we have here of lovely moral characteristics. Paul tells us that they ar…
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We hear a great deal in these days about “Ethical Culture,” which usually means the cultivation of the flesh until it bears the fruit of the Spirit. It cannot be done; no more than thorns can be made to bear figs and the bramble bush grapes (Luke vi. 44; Matt. xii. 33). We hear also a great deal about “character buildi…
274 wordsSECTION 52CHAPTER XIV. THE HOLY SPIRIT GUIDING THE BELIEVER INTO A LIFE AS A SON.
The Apostle Paul writes in Rom. viii. 14, R. V., “For as many as are _led by the Spirit of God_, these are the sons of God.” In this passage we see the Holy Spirit taking the conduct of the believer’s life. A true Christian life is a personally conducted life, conducted at every turn by a Divine Person. It is the belie…
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A man who made great professions of piety once came to me and said that the Holy Spirit was leading him and “a sweet Christian woman,” whom he had met, to contemplate marriage. “Why,” I said, in astonishment, “you already have one wife.” “Yes,” he said, “but you know we are not congenial, and we have not lived together…
597 wordsSECTION 54CHAPTER XV. THE HOLY SPIRIT BEARING WITNESS TO OUR SONSHIP.
One of the most precious passages in the Bible regarding the work of the Holy Spirit is found in Rom. viii. 15, 16, R. V., “For ye received not the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the ch…
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Some years ago there was a father in the state of Illinois, who had a child who had been deaf and dumb from her birth. It was a sad day in that home when they came to realize that that little child was deaf and would never hear and, as they thought, would never speak. The father heard of an institution in Jacksonville,…
279 wordsSECTION 56CHAPTER XVI. THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A TEACHER.
Our Lord Jesus in His last conversation with His disciples before His crucifixion said, “But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John xiv. 26). Here we have a twofold work…
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We shall never truly know the truth until we are thus taught directly by the Holy Spirit. No amount of mere human teaching, no matter who our teachers may be, will ever give us a correct and exact and full apprehension of the truth. Not even a diligent study of the Word either in the English or in the original language…
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In the next verse to those just quoted we read, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. iii. 14). Not only is the Holy Spirit the Author of revelation, the written Word of God: He is …
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We must daily be taught by the Spirit to understand the Word. We cannot depend to-day on the fact that the Spirit taught us yesterday. Each new time that we come in contact with the Word, it must be in the power of the Spirit for that specific occasion. That the Holy Spirit once illumined our mind to grasp a certain tr…
632 wordsSECTION 60CHAPTER XVII. PRAYING, RETURNING THANKS, WORSHIPPING IN THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Two of the most deeply significant passages in the Bible on the subject of the Holy Spirit and on the subject of prayer are found in Jude 20 and Eph. vi. 18. In Jude 20 we read, “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, _praying in the Holy Ghost_,” and in Eph. vi. 18, “_Praying_ always with all…
888 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.