HOLY SPIRIT
HOLY SPIRIT
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in contacl, a. they had never been before, with the |io\vuis of ih.' wurUl to come (He 6=), the Divine iiisi.ii:iliiin oi iliu Messianic age. This power with which thr J;isL'ii Saviour is invested He bids the ilisrijih',-. ihiiiiNC'lves expect within a few days (P). U is 111,' |.r..iiiisc of tlie Father: 'Ye shall receive power \\ hrii (li.; Holy Spirit is come upon you, and ye shall lu^ my witnesses' (1^). This promise was made good at Pentecost, when ' all were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance' (S-*). The representation of the tongues in Ac 2 as foreign languages has to be controlled by St. Paul's de- scription in 1 Co 14. The miracle of Pentecost is not that the disciples spoke in foreign languages, which, in spite of the narrator, is meaningless and incredible, but that they spoke at all, that they spoke with tongues of fire, and that their speech was a testimony to Jesus, delivered with over- whelming Divine power. The whole Pentecostal phenomenon, including the emotional .li-im Innce which suggested drunkenness (2' i, jnl i\|in-^ed itself in joyful if inarticulate tli.ink-jiMii;;- {:i", cf. 1 Co 14i«), has the character of a tesiiiuoiiy to Jesus. The central thought of the whole is that of 2^ 'Having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath poured forth this which ye both see and hear.' Pentecost, or the gift and' possession of the Spirit, is the proof to the world of the exaltation of Jesus. It is His Divine power which is behind this incalculable elevation and reinforcement of the natural life. This is the NT point of view throughout. There is such a thing as a spirit which is not of God, but the Spirit which Christians have and of which they speak is never anything else than the Spirit of Jesus. It is never an undefined impulse or stimulus — a vague excitement originating anyhow and tending any whither : it is always refen'ed specifi- cally to Jesus, and it is fundamentally a token that He is there in power (5^-). That there is an abnormal or pathological side to speaking lyith tongues need not be questioned ; the equilibrium of a weak and sinful nature may easily be dis- turbed by the sudden irruption into it of such in- calculable realities as the resurrection of Jesus, the redeeming love ami tlie coming judgment of God ; but any ile-ice of ilisturbance is better than in- dilt'ereii<i- ami inseiisiliility. The only question is how the ilisturliaiice is to settle— whether men are to rise out of it into the balance of a renewed nature at a higher level, or to sink out of it into the old torpor again. The disturbance itself is the work of God tlirough His Spirit — the Spirit of the Risen Saviour — whatever (he issue be. For other refer- ences in Acts to speiikiii- with tongues as the most conspicuous sij,'Ti of lia\inu the Spirit, see 10'"' 19": probably this is what is iii(>ant when we read of the Spirit /aWimr/ on {ein-n-iwTeii>) people as in 8">'-.
More important than speaking >vith tongues, even in Acts, is prophecy. St. Peter's sermon in Ac 2 is a specimen of Christian prophecy ; the Spirit enables him to read the OT (Joel and the Psalms) in a Christian sense, and to find in it Jesus and the Messianic age. It is similarly inspired men — ' by the irapdK\Tj<ns of the Holy Spirit' (9^') — under whose ministry the Church is multiplied. Five such men are mentioned by name as working in the Church at Antiooh (13"-). The seven at Jerusalem (6^) are chosen as men fnll of the Spirit and faith. The dau'^liler-; of riiili|i, who pro- phesied, were women who sli:ire,l in this gift (21°). Sometimes the prophecy had the rharaeter of pre- diction: e.ij. Agabus (11--) si.<;niile(l 'through the Spirit' an impending fandne, just as at a later date (21") he foretold what awaited Paul at Jeru- salem : 'thus saith the Holy Spirit.' It is no doubt the utterances of such ' inspired ' men that VOL. I.— 47
are in view when St. Paul himself says (20--') : ' The Holy Spirit testifieth unto me in every city, saying that bonds and atilictions abide me' (cf. 21''). It is important to note that St. Paul did not find it necessary to obey when Christian men said to him ' througli tlie Spirit that he should not set foot in Jerusalem.' In some way he could urge the Spirit within him against this spirit without : ' I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem' (20*'', cf. 19-'). He felt a Christian obligation to go at all hazards, and went against all omens. Akin to these warn- ings is the general guidance of the Church and the Apostles by the Spirit, especially at important crises. For example, in chs. 8 and 10, where it is important to represent that the extension of the Church beyond the Jews was Divinely authorized, the whole story is told at the supernatural level, and the Spirit appears at every turn : ' the Spirit said to Philip ' (8», cf . S^) ; ' the Si^irit of the Lord snatched Philip away' (8^") ; 'while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said, Behold two men seek thee . . . I have sent them' (lO™-) ; 'the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting' (11'-). How the Spirit made such communications we need not inquire : but it is important to notice that they are not about inditterent things. There is nothing of the pagan oracle which tleals with any question proposed to it : tlie Spirit i;i\-es direc- tion only in the concerns of the Kingdom of the Messiah! For other and strikinu illustrations connected with this guidance of the Cimreii in the preaching of the gospel see 13- (where, no doubt, the Spirit spoke through an inspired man), 13* 15^ jgo. 7. 10 J•\^Q last verse probably shows that too hard and fast a line is not to be drawn between the voice of the Spirit and inferences drawn from facts by Christian intelligence.