tlie day of Pentecost tlie Holy Ghost, tlie great Advocate of Me and my people, shall come into this world with such mighty power that He shall silence, convince, and stop the mouths of your enemies, and oblige them, however unwillingly, to think of Me and my cause very differently from what they think now. In particular. He shall convince them of their own sin, of my righteousness, and of the victory which I have won over Satan. He shall, in short, be a crushing Advocate whom the world shall not be able to resist or gainsay."
That this was one effect of the Holy Ghost coming down on the day of Pentecost, appears so frequently in the Acts of the Apostles that it is needless to quote texts. It is clear from the wliole narrative of the earlier portion of Acts, that after the day of Pentecost there was a peculiar, restraining, irresistible power accompanying the work of the Apostles, which the un- believing Jews, in spite of all their numbers and influence," were unable to withstand. Nor was this work of the Holy Ghost confined to the Jews. Wherever the Apostles and their fellow-laborers went, the same convincing power accompanied them, and obliged even the heathen to acknowledge Christian- ity as a great fact, even when they did not believe. Pliny's famous letter to Trajan about the Christians, is a remarkable illustration of this.
I prefer this interpretation to the one above mentioned, as held by Alford and most commentators, for two simple reasons. One is that it suits the language of the passage, and the other view does not. The other reason is that it harmonizes with the context. Our Lord is encouraging the disciples against the world by the presence of the Comforter, And one special part of the encouragement is, that the Comforter shall do for them the work of an advocate, by silencing, crushing, refuting, and convincing their enemies.
After all, the enormous change which took place in the state of " the world " within a few centuries after Pentecost, is a strong proof to my own mind of the correctness of the view I advocate. About sin, Christ, and judgment, the opinions of men were completely transformed, even though men were un- converted. And who did this ? The Holy Ghost. Nothing can account for the change but the miraculous interposition of the Holy Ghost. — I frankly confess that this view of the pas- sage before us is not that of the vast majority of commenta- tors. But in these matters I dare not call any man master, and must say what I think. Those who wish to see the view I maintain more fully argued out and supported, are advised to consult " Poole's Annotations," and Suicer's " Thesaurus " on the Greek word which we translate " reprove." Schleusner also seems to support the view.
Scott remarks here, " It is worthy of notice that an immense proportion of the human race, since the pouring oat of the