HE necessity of a loving obedience, in order to the reception of the Holy Spirit, is constantly maintained in Scripture. Peter said to the Jews: "We are witnesses of these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit which God gives to them who obey him." It was in harmony with this principle that Christ said to his disciples, Jno. xiv: 15-17, "If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can not receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." The "world"--that is, the unbelieving, and, consequently, disobedient, world--could not receive the Spirit. This blessedness was exclusively restricted to those who believed, who recognized God in Christ, and who followed and obeyed him. Hence it was made a specific condition that the disciples should manifest their love for Christ by obedience, in order [29] that, in answer to the prayer which he promised to offer, the Father should send to them another Comforter, who was to continue with them permanently. This prayer, accordingly, which Christ, at the close of his discourse, offered to the Father, in the presence of his disciples, is, we affirm, his promised prayer for the Holy Spirit, embracing all the specified conditions and all the designed and needed results. I am not aware that it has ever been by any one properly regarded in this point of view, in which alone, as I trust to make it evident, it can be rightly comprehended. It is not a prayer for Christian Union, in behalf of which it is constantly misquoted. It is not "The Intercessory Prayer," as theologists term it--darkening counsel by words without knowledge. Intercession implies parties at variance. Nothing of this kind appears in the prayer, or in the circumstances under which it was offered. There is no interceding for offenders in it. It is not intercessory in any sense in which all prayer for others may not be so termed. It consists simply of a statement of facts, and of those petitions which these facts warrant. The facts were not that the disciples had disobeyed, and that they needed intercession, but the very reverse of this, as Christ declares of them: "Thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word." "They have believed that thou didst send me." "I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine." "I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them because they are not of [30] the world, even as I am not of the world," etc. There is not a word in the prayer which could be properly termed intercessory, but, on the contrary, the attitude in which the disciples are placed in it throughout, shows clearly that they were regarded as entirely prepared to receive the great blessing, the burden of the whole prayer--that Divine unity which it is the office of the Holy Spirit to impart, and a prayer for which is equivalent to a direct petition for the Spirit himself.

      In order, however, that the questions relating to this most remarkable prayer of Christ may be properly approached, we may remark that we might justly expect to find on record that prayer for the Comforter which he had promised to offer. This we should expect from--

      1. The importance of such a Prayer. The simple fact that Christ thought it necessary to inform his disciples beforehand of this intended special petition to the Father, implies that it was one of no ordinary moment. It was near the time of his own departure from them, and the promise was evidently given to comfort and sustain them, in view of the trial they were soon to experience in losing that personal watch-care which had heretofore guarded and preserved them. In announcing to his disciples, whom he affectionately terms "little children," that he could be with them but a little while; that they would vainly seek him, and could not then follow him, he says: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God; believe also in me;" and, after informing them that [31] he was going to prepare a place for them, and declaring to them the unity which existed between him and the Father, assuring them that whatsoever they should ask in his name he would do, "that the Father might be glorified in the Son," he goes on to say that if they loved him and kept his commandments, he would himself pray the Father, "and he shall send you," said he, "another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever." Wonderful and mysterious as was to their partially enlightened minds that Word made flesh, whose glory had entranced, and whose power had kept them, they are informed that they are to have the comfort and support of "another Paraclete," whose presence was not to be withdrawn, but of whose nature, work, and office they could, as yet, have no adequate conception or anticipation. How important, then, to them at this moment was such a communication, and especially the promise that their beloved Lord would himself pray for and send to them this unhoped-for blessing! How hard to suppose that the fulfillment of a promise so important to the Church in all ages would fail to be noted by the apostle by whom the promise itself is recorded!

      2. The Usage of the Scriptures. It is a very obvious and striking fact that when the fulfillment of a prediction falls within the period embraced by the Scripture narrative it is carefully recorded. Thus the accomplishment of the Old Testament prophecies in relation to Christ and his kingdom is carefully detailed in the New Testament. We find that, [32] in like manner, similar predictions given by Christ himself, or by Christian prophets, have their fulfillment carefully noted. Thus, on one occasion, Christ told the disciples that there were some standing among them who should, before their death, see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom; and in the next chapter we have the accomplishment of this in the transfiguration, when Peter, James, and John were permitted to witness, by anticipation, the glory of the exalted Redeemer. Again, when it is foretold to Peter that he would deny his Master, the actual occurrence of the denial is minutely recorded. So, also, we have the promise of the calling of the Gentiles, Jno. x: 16; Matt. xii: 21, etc., and the fulfillment, Acts x; the prediction of the betrayal, John xiii: 21, and its accomplishment, Jno. xviii; and many other cases which will occur to the Bible reader, both in the Old and the New Testament. From the latter we may adduce another example not generally recognized.

      Christ said to Peter, xxi: 22, concerning John, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" Now we have, in the first chapter of the Apocalypse, the evident fulfillment of this intimation in the coming of Christ to the aged apostle in the Isle of Patmos, when he thus announced himself: "I am he that liveth and was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death." In answer to Peter's perhaps jealous inquiry respecting John, "And what shall this man do?" Christ seems to have desired [33] to intimate to him that there should be accorded to the beloved apostle the privilege of surviving until he should come as he did to him in person, with special communications to the churches. But it is unnecessary to dwell upon a feature in the Scriptures so well known, and so necessary, indeed to their credibility, since it is the fulfillment of a prediction that exhibits the Divine authority and the truthfulness of the prophet who delivered it; and the accomplishment of a promise--the faithfulness of him who gave it. There is, therefore, a strong antecedent probability that John, who records Christ's promise to pray for the Comforter, would also be careful to record its fulfillment. Coming, however, to Christ's prayer itself, as presented to us, we find, both in it and in the attending circumstances, abundant evidence that we have here the fulfillment of Christ's promise. We notice, 1, the singular fact that

      This prayer was offered up in the presence and audience of the disciples. Private prayer is made in solitude, and, for the purpose of such prayer, Christ often secluded himself from his disciples. Here, however, he prays in their presence, yet not with them, but for them. He uses the first person, and the address is directly from him to the Father in behalf of the "little flock" which surrounded him, and for their successors in the faith. The most probable explanation of this singular fact seems to be that he wished the disciples to know that he fulfilled the promise given, and not only so, but also to learn, from the very manner of its fulfillment, more fully [34] and impressively, not only the nature of the blessing sought, but the relation which he sustained to the Father, as well as to the disciples themselves. It would be difficult to conceive how they could so well receive in any other way those practical assurances and touching consolations which they so much needed, as in the simple utterances of this wondrous prayer, so comprehensive in its scope, and so far-reaching in its application; so full of gentle affection, filial confidence, and unswerving truth. There is nothing like it anywhere, nor have we in any other portion of Scripture such a revelation of the relation subsisting between the Father and the Son, Christ and his people. But that this prayer is truly and substantially the prayer for the Holy Spirit, may be further shown by the fact that--

      2. It is Offered Exclusively for the Disciples. It is a very remarkable feature in this prayer that Christ says in it, in express terms, "I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me out of the world." At first view it might appear strange that the Savior, at this supreme moment, when about to offer himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the world, should thus except the world from his petitions in this solemn and comprehensive prayer; that he should say, distinctly and publicly, to his Father, "I pray not for the world." But this becomes entirely comprehensible and appropriate when the only explanation the case admits is given, to wit: that the particular blessing for which he then prayed could not be received or enjoyed by the world. Now this blessing could be no other than [35] the gift of "the Holy Spirit which God gives to them who obey him," and which Christ, just before, had declared the world could not receive. "I will pray the Father," said he, "and he will give you another Comforter . . .; even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him not neither knoweth him. But ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you." Heretofore he had been with them in the person of Christ, in whom he dwelt, but the time was at hand when the Holy Spirit should dwell in the disciples also. Heretofore to them the manifestation had been God in the flesh--Christ with them; this was soon to be changed into a manifestation of Christ in them, by his Spirit. "I will not leave you comfortless,"¹ he adds, " I will come to you. . . . At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you." Heretofore, "anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power," Christ had "manifested forth his glory" in miracles, wonders, and signs; in precious instructions; in divine revelations both to his disciples and to the world. The time approached when he was to manifest himself differently and exclusively to the disciples. When the question is asked by one of them, "Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto the world?" [36] he replies, "If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him." The meaning of this promise is clearly seen from the declaration of Christ--John vii: 38, "He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." "But this," adds an inspired commentator, "spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Believers, then, only were to receive the Spirit. The unbelieving world (cosmoV) could not participate in this blessing which was to be bestowed only on those whose hearts, 'purified by faith,' (Acts xv: 9) were thus prepared to receive it. It was such individuals as "after believing" were "sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" that were to be "builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit," Eph. i: 13; ii: 22. It is here, moreover, explained why the Holy Spirit was not given at the time of Christ's ministry on earth. The reason was that Christ had not yet been "glorified." As he said, "It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter will not come to you, but if I depart I will send him unto you." It was necessary that Christ should "die for our sins," that he should be "raised again for our justification," and be "exalted to the throne of his glory, having obtained eternal redemption for us"--in a word, it was necessary that the work of Christ should thus be finished, before the redeemed could receive that [37] final manifestation of God in the gift of the Holy Spirit, which was to abide with them forever, and which is not to be mistaken for the "charisms," or special powers which this Spirit communicated to the church for temporary purposes and for a limited time. "The gift of the Holy Spirit" is here the Spirit himself, the Paraclete, promised by Christ to all believers and first sent down on the day of Pentecost, after the glorification of Christ. "Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted," says Peter, "and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear." (Compare Acts ii: 33, 38; x: 44; xi: 15, 16.) The world could see and hear the miraculous power which the Spirit displayed in the confirmation of the testimony both of Christ and his followers, but this "world" could neither "see" nor "know" the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete, the attesting "seal" of true discipleship, the assuring "earnest" of an eternal inheritance. The Spirit of God bore testimony to the messiahship of Jesus in the miracles and mighty works which he and his apostles performed before the world, and the apostles themselves added their own individual testimony. "When the Comforter is come," said Jesus, "whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning," John xv: 26, 27. Hence Peter says (Acts v: 32), "We are his witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Spirit [38] which God hath given to them that obey him." Thus the world could receive the testimony of the Holy Spirit, and the testimony of those who were the witnesses of Christ's life, death, resurrection, and ascension, but not "until after that they believed," could any receive that Holy Spirit as an indwelling presence and an abiding earnest of future blessedness. The world could receive "the word," "the gospel," "the truth," and hence the apostles were directed to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," to "make disciples, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit"--the promise being assured to all who would obey the gospel that they should receive the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, "for," said Peter to the Jews, "the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."² [39]

      It is easy to perceive, then, from these most explicit and unmistakable declarations of Holy Writ, how it was that Christ, in praying according to his promise that the Father would send the Comforter, could not entreat this blessing for the world or cosmoV. It is easy to see why he made an express statement that he prayed, not for the world, but for those that God had given him "out of the world." "I have given them thy word," said Jesus, "and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." His prayer, [40] accordingly, was for that Holy Spirit which the children of God alone were to receive, in harmony with the Divine will, as well as with the nature of that spiritual kingdom now to be established among men, and which was "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit."

      It may be objected here, that in this prayer the word Comforter does not occur; that Christ does not in express terms, pray the Father to send the Holy Spirit to the disciples. He says merely "Holy Father keep through throe own name those whom thou hast given me, that the array be one as we are." It is granted that the Holy Spirit is not directly mentioned, and that the petition here is simply and expressly for ONENESS, such as existed between Christ himself and the Father. It is to be remembered, however, that prayer for an end is, in effect, prayer for the means by which that end is to be attained. The oneness here spoken of could be effected in no other way than by the presence of the Spirit in believers, and hence a petition for this oneness is a prayer for the Holy Spirit, which, as we have seen, had not yet been given, and which alone was now wanting to complete the blessings which the Gospel was designed to impart.

      Furthermore, in view of the mysterious unity of the Godhead, it might have been incongruous for Christ in a direct address to the Father, to employ terms and maintain distinctions adapted especially to men's capacities, and to pray, in express terms for the Comforter or Paraclete, especially since the Spirit [41] could be such only as in the disciples and to them alone. He could, nevertheless, appropriately pray for the consummation of that spiritual "oneness" which it was the office of the Holy Spirit to establish between the Redeemer and the redeemed. Similarly, even in regard to those manifestations of the Divine nature itself, involved in the plan of redemption, and, by the Saviour, for the first time clearly made known, it is through the pervading presence and oneness of the Spirit that the unity of God reveals itself to human conception. It was not until Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit, or formally constituted the Christ, that the heavens were opened and he was publicly announced as "the Son of God." It was then that he entered upon his ministry, and in "the power of the Spirit" fulfilled his mission. In all his teaching, while affirming his own Divine character and Sonship, and that "all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father," he is, at the same time, careful to declare the Divine unity, and that he and the Father are "one." "Believe the works," said he, "that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him," John x: 38. When Philip urges, "Show us the Father and it sufficeth us," the reply is, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in [42] me, he doeth the works," John xiv: 9, 10. Not only then, in virtue of his birth through the Spirit, but by the indwelling of that Spirit, did Jesus show forth his glory as the "Word made flesh," dwelling among men "full of grace and truth," and exhibiting in himself that unity with God of which he now prays that his disciples may be made partakers: "Keep through thine own name," he entreats of the Father, "those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are." That it is this unity which constitutes the principal feature in this remarkable prayer, so far as it relates to the disciples, will be evident upon a careful examination or analysis of the prayer itself, to which the attention of the reader is now invited.

      Declaring that the appointed hour had now arrived, he prays in the first instance for his own glorification, in order that he might then, in the further execution of the Divine purposes committed to him, impart to those whom the Father had given him, eternal life. Having thus petitioned for his own exaltation, in view of his having "finished the work" which the Father had given him to do, [an exaltation which was also a necessary preliminary to the sending of the Holy Spirit], he proceeds at once to speak of the disciples, who, he says, had received and kept the words which the Father had given him, and had believed in his Divine mission. Formally excluding the world, he now prays expressly for these alone, entreating that as he himself by whom they had been "kept" was about to leave them in the world, the Father would now keep them through his own name, [43] "that," says he, "they may be ONE as we are." As he was now coming to the Father, he speaks these things while yet "in the world"--while yet with them, in order that the Divine Presence, and that blessed unity which constituted his own joy, might be theirs also. For this he now urges their need, as well as their preparedness. They had received the word of God; they were no longer of "the world," and were hence exposed to the hatred of the world and the enmity of the Evil One. He does not desire that they should be removed from these trials and dangers, but that they should be "kept" or protected from the Evil One while in the world, in the fulfillment of the mission to which he had appointed them. To this end he prays that they may be sanctified through the truth, the word of God, the gospel, through which the Divine Spirit would enable them to maintain that separation from the world exemplified in Christ himself, who now sent them as his embassadors to the world, as he had himself been sent of God, and for their sakes had sanctified himself, as a consecrated High Priest, having been "without sin," holy, harmless, undefiled, and separated from sinners.

      Passing now, by an easy transition, to those who should believe on him through the word of these apostles, and anticipating the success of their labors in making converts from the world, he offers for these future disciples precisely the same petition for unity--"that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." The believers of the present, as well as of all future [44] time, were thus to partake alike of this "oneness" in Christ, and he had, accordingly, already assigned or given to them, in the promise "I will send you another Comforter who shall abide with you forever" [with the church through all successive ages], that "glory" [that Holy Spirit which God had bestowed on him], in order, says he, "that they may be one as we are one," that they may be made perfect in one [in unity], the great end or purpose to be thereby accomplished, on behalf of the world being "that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." He then closes this most wondrous prayer, which covers all time and reaches into an eternity both past and future, by entreating that all those whom God had given him, should finally be admitted to behold that glorious exaltation which he was to receive in the heavens, "for thou," said he, "lovedst me before the foundation of the world," and though the world knew not God and had rejected Christ, yet these disciples had acknowledged his Divine mission, and to them he had declared and would still declare the name of the Father, in order that his love might be extended to them also "that the love wherewith thou hast loved me," said he, "may be in them, and" closing with the keynote, he adds, "I in them," that Christ himself might be in his people by his indwelling Spirit, constituting one glorious spiritual body, participating alike in all its members of that everlasting life and blessedness which proceeds through him alone.

      It will be evident now, that the leading and [45] engrossing thought in this prayer is unity; and that it distinctly indicates the means by which this unity was to be attained. It was not to be a "unity," much less a union, of disciples alone, in the false sense usually attached to it. It was a unity proceeding from and embracing Christ and the Father. It was to be effected by the presence of Christ in his people, as the Father was present in Christ--"I in them and thou in me, that they may be one in us--that they may be made perfect in (eiV) one"--in becoming one, for "he that is joined unto the Lord," says Paul, "is one Spirit," 1 Cor. vi: 17. The nature and the source of this unity, then, is plain--Christ dwells in his people by his word and his Spirit. "Ye are not under the flesh, but under the Spirit," says the apostle, "if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his," Rom. viii: 9. "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father," Gal. iv: 6. Thus was realized, during the Apostolic ministry, the declaration of Christ to his disciples, John xiv: 20: "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." For the "day" to which he here refers is the period when he promised to send them "another Paraclete." He had himself, thus far, been their Paraclete, their Helper, their Advocate, their Comforter, but in a little while the world should see him no more. He would not, however, leave the disciples desolate in the world. He would send them another Paraclete--he would even himself come to [46] them, by his Spirit, to abide with them forever. They should then realize that Divine unity of which he had spoken, as well as the full meaning of his promise, "If a man love me he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our abode with him," John xiv: 23. "Hereby know we," says John, "that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit," 1 John iv: 13. It was hence "expedient" that Christ's personal presence in the flesh should be withdrawn--that the disciples should know him no more "after the flesh," in order that upon the completion of his redemptive work, there might be consummated by the Paraclete that Divine, spiritual, and glorious unity which was the ultimate purpose of the gospel dispensation. [47]

[OHS 29-47]