1 J. Baldwin Brown. * E. H. Archer-Shepherd.
432 THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY
doubts, no attempts to be wise above that which is written, move you from this solid certainty, that, when your time comes to die, and that tired body which, perhaps, now contains in it the seed of the disease which shall one day lay it low, lies still in death, then the Holy Spirit who has disciplined you and taught you and confirmed you and led you all your life long unto that day, has yet one more loving office to discharge for that body which has been His temple for so long — He will raise it from the dead. It was an old prophecy which expressed well the undying instinct of immortality : " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption"; and if that was proved true in the case of Christ, it will also be proved true in the case of a Christian.1
Never weather-beaten sail more willing bent to shore,
Never tired pilgrim's limbs affected slumber more,
Than my wearied sprite now longs to fly out of my troubled
breast. 0 come quickly, sweetest Lord, and take my soul to rest!
Ever blooming are the joys of heaven's high Paradise,
Cold age deafs not there our ears nor vapour dims our eyes:
Glory there the sun outshines; whose beams the Blessed only
see. O come quickly, glorious Lord, and raise my sprite to Thee ! 2
^[ And if the dying are to lift up their heads, then lift up your heads, ye mourners. What has happened to your dead ? you ask this morning; they were here with you last Easter, you say, joining in the Easter hymns and looking with you at the Easter flowers. What has happened to them ? A beautiful thing : " The loving Spirit has led them forth into the land of righteous- ness." It was just what they had prayed for in the Psalms time after time : " May thy loving Spirit lead me forth into the land of righteousness " ; and He took them at their word, and escorted them forth to be with Christ for ever —
Children, in My gracious keeping Leave ye now your dear ones sleeping.
I'd a dream to-night As I fell asleep, Oh ! the touching sight Makes me still to weep:
1 A. F. Winnington Ingram. 2 Thomas Campion.
ROMANS viii. ii 433
Of my little lad, Gone to leave me sad, Aye, the child I had, But was not to keep.
As in heaven high, I my child did seek, There, in train, came by Children fair and meek, Each in lily-white, With a lamp alight; Each was clear to sight, But they did not speak.
Then, a little sad, Came my child in turn, But the lamp he had, Oh ! it did not burn ; He, to clear my doubt, Said, half turn'd about, "Your tears put it out: Mother, never mourn."1
1 "W. Barnes.
ACTS & ROM. — 28
The Leading of the Spirit.
435
Literature.
Alford (H.), Quebec Chapel Sermons, iii. 309. Atkin (J. W.), The Paraklete, 42. Baillie (D), The Love of God, 49.
Butcher (C. H.), The Sound of a Voice that is Still, 141. Gibbons (J. C), Discourses and Sermons, 363. Grimley (H. N.), Tremadoc Sermons, 183. Hare (A. W.), Sermons to a Country Congregation, i. 77. Harper (F.), A Year with Christ, 126. Hodge (C), Princeton Sermons, 81.
Huntington (F. D.), Christ and the Christian Year, i. 384. Hutchings (W. H.), Sermon-Sketches, i. 150. Ingram (A. F. W.), A Mission of the Spirit, 72. Johnstone (V. L.), Sonship, 71. Manning (H. E.), Sermons, iv. 27. Mortimer (A. G.), Studies in Holy Scripture, 135. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, x. 393. Kees (J. S.), Sermons from a Little Known Pulpit, 67. Selby (T. G.), The Holy Spirit and Christian Privilege, 125. Smellie (A.), In the Secret Place, 46.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxi. (1875), No. 1220. Tholuck (A.), Hours of Christian Devotion, 260. Warfield (B. B.), The Power of God unto Salvation, 151. Christian World Pulpit, x. 65 (Hubbard), xliv. 72 (Sinclair). CImrchman's Pulpit, (Whit-Sunday) ix. 105 (Grimley) ; (Eighth Sunday after Trinity) xi. 31 (Edmunds).
436
The Leading of the Spirit.
As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.— Rom. viii. 14.
1. These words constitute the classical passage in the New Testament on the great subject of the "leading of the Holy Spirit." They stand, indeed, almost without strict parallel in the New Testament. "We read, no doubt, in that great discourse of our Lord's which John has preserved for us, in which, as He was about to leave His disciples, He comforts their hearts with the promise of the Spirit, that " when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth." But this " guidance into truth " by the Holy Spirit is something very different from the " leading of the Spirit " spoken of in our present text ; and it is appropriately expressed by a different term. We read also in Luke's account of our Lord's temptation that He was " led by the Spirit in the wilderness during forty days, being tempted of the devil," where our own term is used. But though undoubtedly this passage throws light upon the mode of the Spirit's operation described in our text, it can scarcely be looked upon as a parallel passage to it. The only other passage, indeed, which speaks distinctly of the " leading of the Spirit " in the sense of our text is Gal. v. 18, where in a context very closely similar Paul again employs the phrase : " But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law." It is from these two passages primarily that we must obtain our conception of what the Scriptures mean by " the leading of the Holy Spirit."