(1) " It beholdeth him not." — This is the real secret of men's laughter at the idea of the existence of the Holy Ghost — they see Him not. Tell the worldling, " I have the Holy Ghost within me." He says, " I cannot see it." He wants it to be something tangible : a thing he can recognize with his senses.
*R. M. Benson, The Final Passover, ii. (pt. i.) 368. • H. "Wilkes, The Bright and Morning Star, 125.
ST. JOHN XIV. 15-17 139
^ Have you ever heard the argument used by a good old ( Christian against an infidel doctor ? The doctor said there was no soul, and he asked, " Did you ever see a soul ? " " No," said 1 the Christian. " Did you ever hear a soul ? " " No." " Did you ever smell a soul ? " " No." " Did you ever taste a soul ? " " No." " Did you ever feel a soul ? " " Yes," said the man — " 1 1 feel I have one within me." " Well," said the doctor, " there are ( four senses against one : you have only one on your side." " Very well," said the Christian, " Did you ever see a pain ? " " No." \ " Did you ever hear a pain ? " " No." " Did you ever smell a pain?" "No." "Did you ever taste a pain?" "No." "Didj you ever feel a pain ? " " Yes." " And that is quite enough, I j suppose, to prove there is a pain?" "Yes." So the worldling | says there is no Holy Ghost because he cannot see Him. Well, j but we feel Him. You say that is fanaticism, and that we never 1 felt Him. Suppose you tell me that honey is bitter, I reply,] "No, I am sure you cannot have tasted it; taste it, and try."- So with the Holy Ghost ; if you did but feel His influence, you would no longer say there is no Holy Spirit, because you cannot 1 see Him. Are there not many things, even in nature, which we; cannot see ? Did you ever see the wind ? No ; but you know | there is wind, when you behold the hurricane tossing the waves i about and rending down the habitations of men ; or when in the I soft evening zephyr it kisses the flowers, and makes dewdrops ' hang in pearly coronets around the rose. Did you ever see electricity ? No ; but you know there is such a thing, for it travels along the wires for thousands of miles, and carries our ; messages. So you must believe there is a Holy Ghost working ■. in us, both to will and to do, even though He is beyond our senses.^ ]
(2) The other reason why worldly men do not receive the Holy Spirit is because they do not know Him. If they knew Him by heart-felt experience, and if they recognized His agency in the soul ; if they had ever been touched by Him ; if they had been made to tremble under a sense of sin ; if they had had their hearts melted ; they would never have doubted the existence of the Holy Ghost.
^ No explanation is of any value in matters which do not grow out of experience. Until a deaf man hears music, it is wasted breath to describe it, and there is no proof of colour to the blind. When Jesus spoke to the disciples the words recorded in the fourteenth chapter of John, He offered them truth for
* C. H. Spurgeon.
I40 THE GIVING OF THE COMFORTER
experience without explanation. He promised them manifesta- tion of Himself. He knew that the one who should enter into this experience would never be perplexed by Divine reticence in explanation, or by the imperfection of human philosophy .^
n.
For what Purposes the Comfoeteb is given.
The first purpose is to comfort. But as He is spoken of as the Spirit of truth, a special form of the comfort is the leading of the disciples into the truth. A third purpose is that He may abide for ever.
i. The Comforter.
The true Christian has three Comforters, and each of them is Divine. God the Father is styled by St. Paul, in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, "the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation." God the Son, in the words of the text, speaks of Himself as one Comforter; and St. Paul tells us that " our consolation " or comfort " aboundeth by Christ." God the Holy Ghost is specifically named by Jesus Christ in several instances as " the Comforter," and His peculiar office as such is fully unfolded in the last discourse of our Lord to His disciples before His crucifixion. Thus each person of the ever- blessed Trinity is a Comforter, Divine in character, infinite in fulness, eternal in duration. There is, then, no true comfort or consolation that the heart can desire which may not be found in God the Father as the God of all comfort ; in God the Son as the Paraclete with the Father ; and in God the Holy Ghost as " the Comforter " who proceedeth from the Father and the Son.