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new centre, for the eternal glory was embodied in a Person they knew; prayer had a new meaning, for it was through a Name they uttered with familiar affection; faith had received a new basis, for it was in the Christ they had loved and proved. For ten days they waited with their eyes set upon the heavens where they had seen Him disappear from their sight. With Pentecost came the fulfilment of His word, and the gift in which they found the complete realization of all that He had said.
1. Let us first see how the disciples were prepared to receive the Gift.
The coming of the Holy Spirit involved the preparation of a people to receive Him. There was an extended and an immediate preparation. The extended 'preparation of the disciples covered the whole course of Christ's ministry and fellowship. Uncon- sciously, they had come to know the Spirit in Christ. Everything in the life, teaching, and work of Jesus was a manifestation of the power and method of the Spirit. As the end approached, He prepared their minds for His coming by definite instruction and promise. He talked with a glow and enthusiasm of the Spirit calculated to kindle their desire and expectation. They were told of His wisdom and power, and the wonders He would do for them, exceeding all they had seen in their Lord. Faith cometh by hearing; after the Eesurrection they seem to have heard of little else but the wonders of the Coming One; and the last words of the ascending Lord were words of promise concerning Him. "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence." " Ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you." If they had not heard they would not have expected, and could not have received.
The final stage of their preparation was in united and believ- ing prayer. The baptism came to the prepared. For ten consecutive days they remained in prayer. They were of one accord and in one place. A common object drew them together, a common expectation focused their faith, and focused faith always prevails. The fact that they continued for ten days proves both their earnestness and their faith. They waited earnestly for God, pleaded the promise of Christ, and had faith in His word.
ACTS ii. 4 31
2. The coming of the Holy Spirit is symbolized in the elements of wind and fire. Let us then consider the meaning which under- lies these symbols.
Wind.
What a gentle thing wind is ! What a powerful thing wind is ! You hear of an evening the gentle breeze whispering so sweetly through the trees ; you turn your face to it, and the wind falls so softly on your opened eye, that even that eye, which the smallest speck of dust can injure, is unhurt by it. The bubble which a touch of your finger will destroy floats unharmed in it ; the thistledown is borne unbroken for miles by it ; and, even in winter, the snowflakes, so fragile that your touch is destruction to them, are whirled round and round uninjured in their purity and beauty. How gentle the wind is, but how strong! Those great trees of the forest that have stood for ages, and clutched the earth far and wide with their spreading roots, fall before the storm; and the mighty ships, that seem so majestic in their power, are driven to destruction before the tempest, and cast in splintered wreckage on our shores. Even so is the Spirit of God : speaking so tenderly to the heart of some little child ; filling young souls with every true, and beautiful, and loving thought that they have, and moving the strongest men to penitence and faith. The Spirit of God is gentle as the breeze, strong as the storm.
^[ The wind is a favourite Biblical image for the movements and goings of God's Spirit. Prophet and psalmist alike speak of the wind as symbolizing God's power. "Come from the four winds, 0 breath," cried Ezekiel, in the vision of the dry bones. " The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet," says the prophet Nahum. In the Book of Job the poet represents God as speaking in the wind. And so, too, Jesus, who came to fulfil the sayings of the prophets, said : " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."1
(1) One of the psalmists speaks about God bringing the wind out of His treasuries. That must be the wind that Mows healthily
1 D. L. Ritchie.
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to heal our sicknesses; whose every kiss is tonic, whose rude and wild embrace is strength. Whether it comes rushing over the mountains, or tearing down the gullies, or skipping over the summer sea as a gentle breeze to cool the fevered brow, it comes as a cleanser, as life-giver, as health-bringer. Its very buffetings are health. Now that is what God's Spirit is to the spirit of a man. It is life and health and peace. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about birth by the Spirit and compared it to the wind, the reference was to the evening breeze just whispering among the olive groves. A ripple and a rustle and it is gone, and thou canst not tell whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit.