Who is this man ? Have we not seen him before ? Is it possible that it can be Peter ? We know him of old : he has a good deal of zeal, but little steadiness; he means well, and, when matters are smooth, can serve well; but when difficulties and adversaries rise before him, his moral courage fails. How short a time is it ago since we saw him tried ! He had been resolving that, come what might, he would stand by his Master to the last. Others might flinch, he would stand. Soon the Master was in the hands of enemies. Yet His case was by no means lost. The Governor was on His side ; many of the people were secretly for Him ; nothing could be proved against Him ; and, above all, He who had saved others could save Himself. Yet, as Peter saw scowling faces, his courage failed. A servant-maid looked into his eye, and his eye fell. She said she thought he belonged to Jesus of Nazareth : his heart sank, and he said, " No." Then another looked in his face, and repeated the same suspicion. Now, of course, he was more cowardly, and repeated his " No." A third looked upon him, and insisted that he belonged to the accused Prophet. Now his poor heart was all fluttering ; and, to make it plain that he had nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth, he began to curse and swear.
Is it within the same breast where this pale and tremulous heart quaked that we see glowing a brave heart which dreads neither the power of the authorities nor the violence of the populace; which faces every prejudice and every vice of Jerusalem, every bitter Pharisee and every street brawler, as if they were no more than straying and troublesome sheep ? Is the Peter of Pilate's hall the Peter of Pentecost, with the same natural powers, the same natural force of character, the same training, and the same resolutions ? If so, what a difference is
ACTS ii. 4 41
made in a man by the one circumstance of being filled with the Holy Ghost!1
ii. The Permanent Results.
1. The descent of the Holy Ghost was preceded by " a rushing mighty wind" which "filled all the house where they were sitting." It bespeaks the irresistible force of the Spirit, and the fact that it filled the whole chamber would seem to be emblematical of the universality of its influence. Apart, then, from its immediate effect upon the assemblage there gathered together, it was the first-fruits of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the whole mystical Body of Christ's Church in all places and through all time. It is this that marks off the Dispensa- tion of the Spirit from those Dispensations which had preceded it. God had deigned to be present with special people, and at special times; He had even caused an embodiment of His presence to be manifested in a special place, resting like a cloud of glory above the mercy-seat. And again, God had been present in the Person of His Incarnate Son among the inhabitants of Palestine, but in both cases the Divine Presence had been circum- scribed and local only; but from that first Whitsuntide and onwards God has enabled men, through the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, to realise His Presence everywhere, and what before seemed to men to be local only has become universal.
2. To the Jews in the wilderness and to the people in Palestine, the Presence of God was wholly external, outside of them- selves, but now it is within ; " Know ye not," says St. Paul, " that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? " He meant to remind us of the inspiring thought that as the indwelling Spirit is felt to be ever prompting us to do what is right, so it should act as a deterrent from doing what is wrong. He meant us to realize that every time we yield to temptation, we sin not only against a God above and about us, but also against a God within us.
3. The life so filled is transformed. There may be some who will ask, Does the Holy Spirit still fill the hearts of men and transform their lives, as we read that He did in the days of the
1 W. Arthur, The Tongue of Fire, 63.
42 WHITSUN DAY
Apostles ? The answer to the question is one which rests on experience ; it is not a matter of correct interpretation of symbols. We may easily go astray in interpreting symbols, and we need the valuable reminder which Dr. Swete gives us that when we have translated the words of the Bible into the terms of modern philosophy we have only substituted one set of symbols for another. The modern symbols may be more intelligible and less likely to be misunderstood than the old ones ; but the ultimate truths will not be reached until we have passed, in the words which Cardinal Newman chose for his own epitaph, ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem.1 Let us quote the words of Dr. Swete in answer to this question : " Communion with God through Christ in the Holy Spirit is not a theory or a dogma, but a fact of personal knowledge to which tens of thousands of living Christians can testify as the most certain of actualities." 2