Vallings (J. F.), The Holy Spirit of Promise, 154.
Vaughan (C. J.), The Presence of God in His Temple, 228.
„ (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), iv. No. 493 ; ix. No. 790. Christian World Pulpit, xii. 74 (Beecher).
Churchman's Pulpit, Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, xii. 488 (Moberly) Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., 219 (Burrows). Literary Gh\irchman, xx. (1874) 237 ; xxiv. (1878) 420. Preacher's Magazine, vi, (1895) 217 (Gordon).
Grieving the Spirit.
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.— Eph. iv. 30.
St. Paul is charging the Ephesians to be careful not to forget or to despise some of the common duties of everyday life. He is telling them to speak the truth, to beware of foolish talking, to be industrious and honest, kind and charitable, to put away bitterness and evil- speaking, to be slow to take offence, and ready to forgive. And in the midst of these separate exhortations we find words of a very different kind, the words of the text, words which are so placed as to be the very centre and kernel of the whole, summing up in themselves the substance of all that has gone before and of all that comes after. For he speaks in them, not of any one particular duty, but of a rule of life from which all duties must most surely spring. He gives no new commandment, but he tells of a glorious guide. He speaks of a tender love which is watching us anxiously as we go up and down in the business or the pleasures of the day, of a Friend who has marked us out for the " day of redemption," and is disappointed in us, grieved, distressed when we turn our backs upon Him and treat Him lightly. For such seems to be the meaning of the text — " Do not give pain to One who so loves you. He has come to your rescue, He has sealed you for a blessing ; therefore, I beseech you, grieve Him not."
^ Milton wrote his great poem, actuated by the strong desire that men might remember him and think of him long after he was dead : you remember the touching words in which he himself tells us so. And the little boy at the village school works his hardest to gain his prize, because he thinks how it will please his mother. You would not care much for any distinction you might get, or any success, if there were no one but yourself to know of it or to care for it. And you know whether, coming next after God's grace, there
214 GRIEVING THE SPIRIT
be anything that does more to keep a youth, cast alone amid the temptations of a groat city, in the right path, than the keeping up of the old home-feeling ; and whether there be a safeguard more effectual than the ready suggestion of the great motive that grows out of it. What greater stimulus to duty than this ? — " Now, you will be industrious, and honest, and good ; and make them all happy at home ! " And what healthier consideration in an hour of temptation to do wrong than that which comes first and most natural: "Oh, you will not do that, and break your mother's heart ! " It hath pleased God, in the words of the text, to appeal to us with just that homely consideration. "Grieve not" — the words are spoken to all of us — " the Holy Spirit of God." ^
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The Personality of the Holy Spirit.
1, This is a classical passage in proof of the personality of the Spirit of God. The very fact that we may grieve Him implies His personality. He is more than an abstraction. Our mental attitude towards an attribute, an emanation, an influence, or an abstraction of any kind, would be very different from that which we instinctively assume towards the third Person of the blessed Trinity. Scripture does not shrink from speaking of God as being capable of feelings which for us can be represented only under human forms of emotion ; God is represented as " being pleased," as "joying," as "delighting" in the love and obedience of His people, and He is also represented as "grieved," "offended," " angry," " alienated," by their sin ; and we need not hesitate to follow where the Bible leads us. Indeed, it may be questioned whether God would be all that He is in His adorable and infinite nature if He were incapable of feeling both pleasure and pain; perfect love must mean the possibility of both. An old writer has said of the nature of God, " In the outer chambers may be sadness, but in the inner ones is unmixed joy."
^ There is a gap, not only in our Christian creed, but also in our Christian experiences and joys and power, unless we have risen to this thought, that the Divine Spirit is not only an influence, a wind, a fire, an oil, a dove, a dew, but a Divine Person.
' A. K. H. Boyd, The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, 2nd Ser., 55.
EPHESIANS IV. 30 215
We have to go back to the old creed — " I believe in God the Father Almighty . . . and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord ... I believe in the Holy Ghost." ^