The worth of this gift is immeasurable. Jesus spoke of the Spirit as " the promise of the Father " ; the one promise in which God's Fatherhood revealed itself. The best gift a good and wise father can bestow on a child on earth is his own spirit. This is the great object of a father in education — to reproduce in his child his own disposition and character. If the child is to know and understand his father ; if, as he grows up, he is to enter into all his will and plans ; if he is to have his highest joy in the father, and the father in him, he must be of one mind and spirit with him. And so it is impossible to conceive of God bestowing any higher gift on His child than this, His own Spirit. God is what He is through His Spirit; the Spirit is the very life of God.
^ Every seventh day, if not oftener, the greater number of well-meaning persons in England thankfully receive from their teachers a benediction, couched in those terms : — " The grace of > W. Watson, Prayer, 102.
ST. LUKE XI. 13 243
our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you." Now I do not know precisely what sense is attached in the English public mind to those expressions. But what I have to tell you positively is that the three things do actually exist, and can be known if you care to know them, and possessed if you care to possess them ; and that another thing exists, besides these, of which we already know too much.
First, by simply obeying the orders of the Founder of your religion, all grace, graciousness, or beauty and favour of gentle life, will be given to you in mind and body, in work and in rest. The grace of Christ exists, and can be had if you will.
Secondly, as you know more and more of the created world, you will find that the true will of its Maker is that its creatures should be happy ; that He has made everything beautiful in its time and its place, and that it is chiefly by the fault of men, when they are allowed the liberty of thwarting His laws, that Creation groans or travails in pain. The love of God exists, and you may see it, and live in it if you will.
Lastly, a Spirit does actually exist which teaches the ant her path, the bird her building, and men, in an instinctive and marvellous way, whatever lovely arts and noble deeds are possible to them. Without it you can do no good thing. To the grief of it you can do many bad ones. In the possession of it is your peace and your power.^
^ Christ came to bring man's spirit into immediate contact with God's Spirit ; to sweep away everything intermediate. In lonely union, face to face, man's spirit and God's Spirit must come together. It is a grand thought ! Aspire to this ! Aspire to greatness, goodness ! So let your spirit mingle with the Spirit of the Everlasting.2
We know that men, corrupt and vain, Will grant their children's prayer.
And can we think Thou wilt not deign To make our wants Thy care ?
For Thou, 0 God, our Father art.
And Thou art wholly good, And every need of every heart
By Thee is understood.
* Ruskin, Lectures on Art, § 125 {Works, xx. 115).
* F. W. Robertson.
244 THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Not wealth, nor length of days our quest,
Not years untouched by pain; A purer gift, of gifts the best,
Thy children seek to gain.
More of Thy Spirit is our want;
That Spirit now instil; We know Thou wilt; for this to grant
Must be our Father's will.^
2. The Holy Spirit is indispensable. There is a sublime and unspeakable side to religion ; its superlative attainments are not the outcome of our native powers, but require an impulse, an initiative, originating in another sphere. Of course, knowledge, intellectual apprehension of its doctrines, duties and expectations, is a material element in it, but it does not exhaust the subject. There enter into it certain frames of feeling, a certain attitude of the will. It embodies the emotional and voluntary nature. There is considerable religious knowledge; the creeds of Christendom are well known, multitudes apprehend intellectually all that is important for them to know at present ; but does this do much perceptible good? Do our pious, orthodox, abstract convictions give spring, courage, enthusiasm ? What is wanted to make them vivid, dynamic, controlling, compelling? The truth, in this obscure matter, seems to be that the soul of man needs to be moved upon, illuminated, energized from above. In order to come into close and fruitful relation with religious truths and ideals, these should be made to pass before the imagination with such port and majesty, to commend themselves to the conscience with such convincing demonstration, to appeal to the affections as so intrinsically lovely, that the soul shall spontaneously espouse them. But our nature cannot develop such enthusiasm. We are swayed by other desires and ambitions. To get a sense of God as a perpetual presence, as a mighty inspiration, as an abounding joy — for such high achievement the natural man is not equal. The great mystics, the great religious natures in every age, have felt this to be true. They have agreed with St. Paul that they were " wretched men," and did not find it in themselves to be much better; could not overtake, or come abreast with, their