T is from the point of view afforded by the supernatural powers and revelations imparted under the personal ministry of Christ and the apostles, that we may best contemplate the manifestations of the Spirit recorded in the Old Testament. When thus regarded, they appear to be evidently of the same nature. The Old Testament saints, Christ's personal followers and the spiritually gifted individuals of the primitive church, as such, seem to have occupied precisely the same position in relation to the Paraclete of the New Institution, however great or different in other respects their privileges and blessings. That is to say, none of them can be considered as having, by virtue of their special gifts, received the promised Comforter, though all alike possessed supernatural powers, or received direct Divine communications.

      The common view, I am aware, is, that the patriarchs and eminent men who feared God in ancient times, were similarly situated with those who live [151] under the gospel dispensation, as to all essential religious blessings. It is supposed that they enjoyed, by anticipation, the indwelling presence of the Spirit, since, apart from the circumstances and institutions under which they lived, they had attained to faith in God; "walked with God;" were obedient to his commandments, and received manifold tokens of the Divine favor in special communications and deliverances. As the presence of the Comforter is admitted to be essential now to the assurance and enjoyment of the favor of God, it is taken for granted that it was essential in all ages, and that, hence, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Elijah and all the ancient saints, possessed the Spirit of God, or Holy Spirit, in the same sense as Christians after Pentecost. The promise of the Spirit, it is indeed admitted, did not belong to the dispensations under which the patriarchs lived, but irrespective of these institutions, and, as it were, in advance of them, it is supposed that the ancient saints had attained to that sincere and perfect faith and preparation of heart which, under the New Institution, is the only prerequisite to the reception of the Holy Spirit, and that they, consequently, enjoyed its blessings. It must be acknowledged that this view is one easily gathered from a cursory survey of the subject, and that it is not devoid of plausibility and apparent consistency. It is, hence, very generally entertained. It seems, nevertheless, to the writer, to be incompatible with the teachings of Scripture, and to have been adopted by way of relief from a perplexing and difficult question, rather than from careful inquiry and due [152] reflection upon the state of mankind at different periods and under different religious systems. It will, therefore, be expedient to give to this question a candid and somewhat full consideration.

      As said before, the term "Spirit," where the reference is to the "Spirit of God," occurs comparatively but seldom in the Old Testament. "Holy Spirit" is found but twice (Ps. li: 11, and Isa. lxiii: 10). The whole of the Old Testament shows that the idea of the Spirit, as revealed in the New Testament, was but dimly apprehended under former dispensations. Nevertheless, the divine nature of the Spirit, and his unity with God, are clearly shown. The Spirit is revealed as incubating the waters from which the earth proceeded. It appears, if the common interpretation be correct, as striving with men in their apostasy (Gen. vi: 3); as endowing with prophetic power God's chosen ministers of warning and deliverance, and as confirming often their mission by miraculous powers. He gave signs and wonders to be performed by Moses; he imparted unwonted mechanical skill to Bezaleel, Aholiab, and others (Ex. xxviii: 3; xxxi: 2-6; xxxv: 31); physical strength to Sampson; wisdom to Solomon; inspiration and power to Elijah and the prophets, down to the close of the Old Testament canon--through a period much longer than that in which such gifts continued in the Christian Church. It is to be remarked, however, that, in all these cases in which the Spirit is declared, or may be regarded, as the agent, the effects attributed are supernatural and quite aside from the ordinary [153] course of things, and that, in none of them, is there any indication of the impartation of the Spirit, as the spirit of adoption and of love, to control the moral and religious nature. David, indeed, says, "Quicken me with thy free Spirit," and again, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me;" but David was an inspired prophet and and poet, and might well employ such expressions in reference to the enrapturing visions and divine illuminations which he enjoyed as a prophet, without the slightest allusion, unless a merely typical one, to the Holy Spirit of the New Institution. Throughout the ancient. biblical records, indeed, the manifestations of the Spirit are constantly for the accomplishment of purposes of a special, extraordinary, and generally temporary nature--as in the deliverance of Israel from bondage, and in the establishment and occasional restoration of the Jewish theocracy.

      When these manifestations are compared with those signs and wonders which attended the introduction and development of the gospel, they appear to be plainly of the same nature. They were all equally direct operations of the Spirit, supernatural, special, and transient. The possession or exercise of these powers neither required holiness on the part of the agent, nor did it appear to have any tendency to produce it, as may be seen as well in the case of Balaam as in that of Judas Iscariot, or even in that of other disciples, who, upon their return from the performance of miracles, needed the admonitions of their Master to repress their pride. Luke x: 20. These [154] powers, like all the charisms of the Christian church, were thus quite independent of that indwelling of the Spirit which was the peculiar feature of the New Institution, and the earnest of an eternal inheritance. They were temporary; this was to abide forever. They were endowments imparted to the physical or intellectual natures; this was a gift bestowed upon the heart. They were fragmentary, partial, and fitful; but this, complete, universal, and permanent. The miraculous powers, indeed, seem to have had no particular connection with the proper "gift of the Spirit," except that on Pentecost and some subsequent occasions, they were occasionally conferred at the same time, and were in themselves immediate manifestations of the Divine power and presence, for the special purpose of confirming the gospel. They were, undoubtedly, communicated by the Spirit of God, just as from the beginning, such powers had been communicated; but they did not establish, any more than in former times, those relations between the person of the believer and the Holy Spirit, which were to distinguish the gospel dispensation from every other. Those who possessed merely these powers could not be said to have received the Holy Spirit in the New Testament sense. They had received certain powers only, as Christ gave to his disciples 'power over unclean spirits, and to heal diseases.' In a certain sense, it could be said that the Spirit was "in" them, or "upon" them since, for the time, it exalted or superseded natural ability and worked through or by them in accomplishing its purposes, whether of [155] illumination or of confirmation, but it could not be said that they had received the Holy Spirit or the Paraclete, as that special manifestation or impartation which was peculiar to the Gospel Institution.

      This distinction between the indwelling of the Spirit himself, and the particular miraculous powers which he was pleased to confer upon individuals for certain purposes, is one of no little moment, however difficult of comprehension it may be, from the mystery which naturally appertains to the entire subject, as well as from the difficulty of expressing, in human speech, "those things of the Spirit" which may, nevertheless, be realized in human experience. The Spirit of God employs human language in order to reveal himself to us objectively, and he never becomes otherwise than objectively known to those who rest content with a superficial knowledge of words, and mistake mere ideas and definitions for realities.

      In religious matters, it may be remarked, that men are prone to two different extremes or species of error, viz., speculation and sensuism--a vain and deceitful philosophy, or a gross materialism which would subject every thing to the judgment of the senses. In ancient times, the Greeks sought after "wisdom," and, in the middle ages, the schoolmen were captivated by the intellectual pleasure connected with a philosophy which still lingers in the so-called "Divinity" of modern days; but, in all ages, the errors of sensuism have been far more common with the mass of mankind. As the Jews sought after a sign, so it has been usual for men to exalt or [156] exaggerate sensible demonstrations, so that the outward manifestations of the Spirit in supernatural works, have, hence, absorbed their attention and occupied their thoughts, as if these were primary or chief matters and the true and only evidences of the presence of the Spirit. Down even to modern times, the tendency is to seek in some feeling, some fancied unusual sight, or sound or vision, a sensible evidence, where the word of God alone should be heard, and faith only should be followed. Men, evermore, desire something that addresses itself to the physical rather than to the moral nature, and which, by reducing religion to some external form, or some momentary flash of superstitious wonderment, may serve them as a substitute for a self-denying obedience, and a renovation of the heart and life.

      The state of the Jewish people, during our Lord's ministry, affords a clear illustration of this continual earthward tendency of human nature. So filled were they with worldly and selfish anticipations in regard to the Messiah's kingdom, that they were unable to recognize in the meek and lowly Saviour the Hope of Israel. Their hearts had become gross, their eyes were closed against the light, their ears were unable to hear the still small voice of truth. They came to Jesus not to receive instruction, but "desiring him that he would show them a sign from heaven." Giving no heed to the evidences before them, they could not discern "the signs of the times," though alert in material things to discern "the signs of the sky." The Great Teacher hence declared: [157] "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonas." It was not by external marvels, by might, or physical power, that men's souls were to be saved; but by the love of God displayed in the redemptive work of Christ. His death for sin, his burial and his resurrection on the third day, typified in the deliverance of Jonah, were to constitute a "sign" which should be to the saved, the wisdom and the power of God in the soul. The gospel facts in their sublime simplicity, their immovable permanency, their far-reaching relations, were to be such a revelation of the love of God to the human heart, as to disarm its enmity, purify its affections, and establish therein, through the Holy Spirit, the righteousness, peace, and joy of the kingdom of heaven.

      The Scribes and Pharisees, however, had neither eyes to see the spiritual realities of Christ's true kingdom, nor hearts to comprehend them. Hence it was, that the glowing oriental imagery of the prophets, no less than the parables of Jesus, served to blind and mislead them. Nor are there wanting to this hour, multitudes who, from a similar condition of mind, are unable to discriminate between the gift of the Paraclete on Pentecost and "those wonders in heaven above," those "signs on the earth beneath," the "blood and fire and vapor of smoke," by which, in prophetic imagery or in reality, this gift was heralded or accompanied. Confounding its accidents and concomitants with the gift itself, or regarding these as [158] inseparable and essential, they occupy themselves with those transient and external manifestations, which were specially appropriate when the apostles first stood up to preach the gospel to the world, and when a vision of separated fiery tongues was an apt and striking emblem of their mission, and a visible exhibition of their credentials. Modern enthusiasts ignorantly and presumptuously still pray, but always in vain, for "fire;" for visible tokens; for audible voices from the unseen; they still "seek after a sign," they still strive to bring Christ from above, or from beneath, in some tangible or sensible form, while, at the same time, they turn a deaf ear to the word that is "nigh" them, even to "the word of faith" preached by the apostles, which, to the believing heart, reveals, in all its spiritual power, the sign of Jonas the prophet.

      It will be admitted, that the miracles wrought by the Spirit of God, in the time of the Jewish Institution, were decisive, stupendous, and wonderful. Those which were performed by the Saviour are declared to be greater still--more immediate and striking acts of Divine power. These miracles, performed during Christ's personal ministry, were certainly not inferior to those which occurred under the ministry of the apostles. Now, if the impartation of these powers is not to be distinguished from the gift of the Holy Spirit, then the day of Pentecost could no longer be that "great and notable day of the Lord," as declared by Joel and by Peter, upon which the outpouring of the Spirit was to take place. Things [159] as great and notable had been done before, so far as miracles were concerned. These had been common to all dispensations and ages. They had been especially and wonderfully displayed, during Christ's personal ministry, in the period immediately preceding the day of Pentecost, yet this was to be a "great and notable day;" distinguished from all others, foretold with special fervor by an ancient prophet, particularly indicated by Christ himself, and anxiously waited for by the apostles at Jerusalem. They were, then, not waiting merely for miraculous powers. These had been as fully displayed before. They had themselves previously possessed and exercised these. The "power" with which they were now to be endowed "from on high," was of a different nature; and hence it was, that while they could work no greater miracles than before, they were themselves transformed into different men, and became to the world living miracles, so to speak, of moral and spiritual power; of patient suffering; of faith; of knowledge; of purity; of humility and love.

      In determining that miraculous power was a matter quite distinct from the bestowment of the "earnest of the Spirit" upon believers under the new covenant, we are not, however, left to reason from the general facts of Scripture. There are many direct and unequivocal evidences of this truth. For example: Christ, in his personal ministry, sent the twelve, by two and two, to preach the kingdom of God, and "gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases," (Luke ix: 1,) or as Matthew (x: 1, 8,) expresses it, [160] "gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease." Again, on a subsequent occasion, he sent forth the seventy on a similar mission, and with similar powers, and so successful were they, that they exclaimed with joy, upon their return, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." On this occasion, Jesus, before whose eyes the secrets of the spiritual world were constantly unvailed, assures them that he had himself seen "Satan as lightning fall from heaven," that this "Prince of the power of the air" had, indeed, been vanquished and dispossessed of the empire he had usurped over the bodies and souls of men. "Behold," says he, "I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you." At the same time, he warns them, not to rejoice that the spirits were subject to them, but that their names were "written in heaven." He turns away their attention from manifestations of power, to a higher blessedness, and, rejoicing himself in spirit, in that revelation of the Father which he was empowered to make, he exclaims, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes." "All things," he adds, "are delivered to me of my Father, and no man knoweth, who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." The time, indeed, for the fullness of this peculiar revelation had [161] not yet arrived. Its preliminary facts and truths and evidences, were only in process of development. The redemptive work must first be accomplished, and that knowledge of the Father and of the Son, here spoken of, was of necessity reserved to a later period. Even at the near approach of this appointed time, he says to the disciples: "If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also." But he announces to them that he would send them another Comforter, and that, after the world for a little while should see him no more, he would come to them. "At that day," said he, "you shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." And when the disciples asked how he would manifest himself to them and not unto the world, the reply was: "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." John xiv: 23. An experimental knowledge of the Divine life, a participation in that mysterious spiritual unity which the gospel was to establish, could be effected only through the impartation of the Spirit, and God was to give his Holy Spirit, at the appointed time, only to those who would "obey him." Acts v: 32.

      It is not, indeed, to be denied that the privileges and blessings enjoyed by the disciples during Christ's personal ministry were transcendently great. In respect to every thing that had preceded in the Divine communications with men, their opportunities and advantages were great beyond comparison. "Blessed," said Jesus to them, "are the eyes which see the things [162] that ye see, for I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them." They enjoyed the precious privilege of seeing and hearing God manifest in the flesh, of beholding, with their natural eyes, the glory of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and of hearing, with mortal human ears, the gracious words which fell from his lips. They were, moreover, the constant objects of his personal care and solicitude, his spiritual watchfulness and guidance. He was their first "Comforter," supporter, and loving Divine keeper and instructor. It is impossible to describe the charm of that mysterious attachment, which grew up in their simple natures, for one whom others rejected and despised, but who was to them more than father or mother, wife or children, houses or lands--for whom, indeed, they had forsaken all things, and in whom alone they had placed their hope and trust. No terms can portray the sweet enchantment of that affectionate intimacy; of that unreserved and unaffected candor; that guileless, yet wondering and not unquestioning reliance on the part of the disciples; much less can it depict that ineffable tenderness, sympathy and love, ever manifested by the Redeemer, for those whom he himself had chosen and ordained; for those whom the Father had given him out of the world. "Fear not," said he, "little flock; it is the Father's good pleasure to [163] continued with me in my tribulations." "The Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God." He extenuated their faults, he enlightened their ignorance, he touchingly apprized them of his approaching sufferings and of his necessary departure, he soothed their apprehensions, he anticipated their dangers. He gathered them around him, at a final interview, and oh, wondrous example of humility and love! "poureth water into a basin and began to wash their feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded." And, finally, in anticipation of the unspeakable culmination of redeeming love, he administered to them the symbols of his own body and blood, soon to be given for them upon the cross of Calvary!

      It is not, however, by the intimacy and the extent of those moral and spiritual relations which subsisted between Christ and his disciples, that the superficial and sensuous would estimate the privileges which the latter enjoyed, so much as by the striking fact that he shared with them his Divine power, and imparted to them authority over demons, and ability to cure by a touch all manner of diseases. Such outward proofs, appealing to the senses, demanding no spiritual discernment, enforcing no lessons of humility, but displaying the majesty and power of Deity before the world, have, as we have before observed, in all ages captivated the minds of men, and filled them with wonder and superstitious fear. These things, they are ready to say, are surely of God. These [164] powers demonstrate that those who exercise them possess the Spirit of God. Whatever may be said about an internal "witness," a "change of heart," a 'strengthening of the inner man,' here, at least, is something visible and tangible; here, at least, we may rest assured, is "the gift of the Holy Spirit."

      It is dangerous, however, for poor fallible man,

to depend upon his own reasonings, especially in regard to the "things of the Spirit," since he is wholly dependent for his knowledge of these upon the revelations of the Spirit himself. It is nowhere said in Scripture that the disciples received the Holy Spirit in the time of Christ's personal ministry. It matters not, then, how highly we may estimate their privileges, or those mighty miraculous powers which were specially imparted to them; it is immaterial how we may accumulate them all in evidence; they do not, singly or collectively, afford any proof, in the absence of a Scripture declaration, that the Holy Spirit had been given to the disciples, or received by them. On the contrary, this is constantly spoken of as something yet future; as something that could not possibly occur until Christ himself should go away (John xvi: 7), and until that eventful day should arrive for which they waited at Jerusalem, in hope and prayer. Nay, this event is not only thus constantly referred to the period succeeding Christ's ministry, but it is most plainly and pointedly announced, in the very midst of all the powers and blessings which the disciples [165] enjoyed as personal followers of Christ, that THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS NOT YET GIVEN, BECAUSE THAT JESUS WAS NOT YET GLORIFIED. John vii: 39.

      It was on the last day, that great day of the feast, that Jesus stood and revealed the far richer and nobler provision which God had furnished, in the spiritual Zion, for his believing people. He cried: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." "This," adds an infallible interpreter, writing near the close of the first century, "spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive." This gift was to be in the believer, as the Great Teacher elsewhere expresses it, "a well of water springing up unto everlasting life"--a perennial source of blessedness not only to the possessor, but copious streams--yea, rivers of living water--of spiritual blessedness flowing forth from him to others. The Spirit was to constitute, in the heart of the believer, an interior and unfailing source of that moral and spiritual power which was to overflow the nations and pervade the world, and purify, refresh, and renovate mankind down to the latest generations. This consisted not in any miraculous signs or prodigies, past, present, or to come. It was wholly independent and apart from all local, transient, and provisional circumstances and conditions. It stood forth alone, as the grand consummation of Christ's redemptive work on earth, the crowning joy of faith, the assurance of hope, the ever-abiding earnest of eternal glory. It [166] is announced here as a fact yet future, and the reason why it was necessarily yet future, is also given. "The Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified." It was necessary that the sacrifice should be offered, and that the "High Priest of our profession" should ascend into the most holy place of the true tabernacle, to appear in the presence of God and receive "gifts for men." "Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted," says Peter, on the day of Pentecost, "and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear"--viz., the outward tokens, and then appropriate accompaniments of that inward baptism which the disciples had just received in being "filled with the Spirit." For the apostle, here addressing unbelievers, very properly refers them to those exterior evidences of the presence and power of the Spirit, which were at that time displayed and addressed to them for the very purpose of confirming the word of the apostles and producing faith, the miraculous gift of tongues being designed both as a "sign" or evidence to unbelievers of the Divine presence and power, and also as the means of communicating to foreigners in their own languages "the wonderful works of God"--the redemption that was in Christ. Tongues were thus, like the inscription upon the cross in the three chief languages then spoken, not only an indication of the truth, not yet recognized by the apostles themselves, that the Gentiles were among those whom the Lord would call, but, at the same time, the instrument [167] through which that call was to be made known. These miraculous accompaniments, therefore, of the gift of the Spirit, which were for special and temporary ends, distinctly stated, and having particular relation to unbelievers, should not be confounded, either as necessary means or causes or consequences, with that "gift of the Spirit" which was promised to every obedient believer. The case was simply this: Christ was now glorified, and, the time having come, he sent his Spirit to animate his body, the Church, with spiritual life and to abide in it forever. That it was necessary, for a time to confirm the gospel by signs and wonders wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit, as in former ages, does not in the slightest degree affect the concurrent, permanent and essential fact that, on the day of Pentecost, and not before, God bestowed upon men the gift of the Holy Spirit--the Paraclete, the Comforter even the Spirit of Truth, to abide forever in the hearts of believers, and to convince the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.

      It is the more important to dwell upon the distinction here made, since it is precisely at this point that men, in their blind exaggeration of signs and sensible demonstrations, lose their way, and run into either the extravagance of fanaticism, on the one hand, or the skeptical frigidity of rationalism upon the other. The vain and ignorant enthusiast who prays for a baptism in fire, and hopes for dreams and visions, and sensible signs and wonders, as attendant upon the impartation of the Spirit, is not a whit farther from the truth than the errorist who affirms that miracles were [168] a necessary and invariable accompaniment of the Spirit's presence, and that, because such demonstrations are not now given, therefore no Holy Spirit whatever is now received, and Christ's promise to be with his people to the end of the world has totally failed. In opposition to these most dangerous extremes, it is here designed to show that miraculous powers, whether exercised as charisms for the edification of the Church, or as evidences to convince the world, are entirely distinguishable and separable from that gift of the Holy Spirit which was to be the grand culminating fact in the obedience of the gospel and the perfection of the Church on earth. Such miraculous powers and demonstrations, we repeat, appertained to all dispensations and ages, but the gift of the Holy Spirit to Christianity alone. Those powers were temporary, but the Spirit permanent; the unity it establishes, and the precious fruits it bears in the Christian life, so incomparably greater than supernatural gifts, being required throughout the ages as the very substance and design of the gospel. It has been seen how subordinate the place which Christ himself assigned to miracles, in which weak mortals are so disposed to glory; and it is evident that, notwithstanding all the wondrous powers and privileges enjoyed by the disciples during the Saviour's ministry, they had not, at that period, received the Holy Spirit at all, but were instructed to await his coming in the future, at the glorification of Christ. Here, then, is a complete separation between miracles and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Miracles can exist--and that, too, of the [169] mot stupendous character--apart from "the gift of the Holy Spirit." They constitute a manifestation quite different from that promised in the Paraclete. This was a special and peculiar manifestation of the Spirit--an interior presence, a Divine indwelling, appropriate to the gospel institution alone.

      It may be asked, in regard to the position occupied by the people of God, anterior to the coming of Christ: How could they be called the "Sons of God," or regarded as "walking with God," unless they are supposed to have had the Holy Spirit, as Christians now possess it? In reply, it may be asserted that we may greatly err, in taking the case and condition on one under the Christian Institution and making this a model for preceding ages. God has his own methods and plans of working, and these are adapted to the varying conditions and circumstances of the human race. Hence, while it may be admitted that the great essential features of true religion, viz., faith and obedience, have been the same in all ages, and that these have always secured the Divine favor, it is to be remembered that the modes in which this favor manifested itself, have greatly varied at different times. There was a period, when a few simple types and symbols, dimly comprehended; a few brief instructions and promises, veiled in figure; a few fearful judgments and mighty deliverances, seem to have constituted the entire superstructure of man's knowledge of God. Again, there was a period, when a peculiar people was selected, and when a multiform system of types and shadows; a complicated ritual; [170] a worldly sanctuary; a symbolical presence, revealed to men still more the majesty, the purity, justice, and truth of the Divine character, and, in its wondrous lessons of mercy and of judgment; its prophetic visions and its triumphant hopes, prepared the human mind for that final glorious development of the Divine scheme of redemption presented in the gospel. During all these centuries, there is no evidence to show that any one received the Holy Spirit in the New Testament sense, or that such a gift would have been all consonant with the circumstances and conditions of the times. That, in every nation, those who feared God and wrought righteousness, were accepted of him is true. That he revealed himself to them in various ways, in dreams and visions, by angels and by chosen agents, and special, direct ministries, is undoubted. Still, there is no evidence that the Holy Spirit took up his abode in any heart, or that this special gift of God was any part of the plan or purposes of those institutions which preceded Christianity. We have, indeed, the prophetic type of the Spirit in the guiding pillar of fire or cloud that led the Israelites, or dwelt in repose as the Shekinah between the cherubims in the most holy place in the tabernacle, and filled the temple of Solomon with its Divine glory after sacrifice and prayer. This was, indeed, an appropriate and magnificent emblem, but it was an exterior and visible emblem only, adapted to men's religious immaturity, and in harmony with the "carnal ordinances" which were designed to lead him to spiritual truth. The very presence of the [171] type is a proof of the absence of the antitype,--of that actual Divine presence, which, in the Christian church, the living temple of God, was to be the joy and light of the soul. "The temple of God is holy," says Paul to the Corinthians; "which temple ye are." "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which ye have of God?" Again, "Ye are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit." Eph. ii: 22. The New Institution was to be a spiritual one--the very kingdom of the heavens established upon the earth. It was the fulfillment of all preceding types and promises, in the realities which they but prefigured. "The patterns of things in the heavens," gave place in it to "the heavenly things themselves," and the Christian has come, not to a "mount that might be touched," nor to flaming fire that might be seen, nor to thunderings and the piercing voice of the trump of God which might be heard, but to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the spiritual--the "heavenly Jerusalem."

      The question here is not one of the acceptance and salvation of the ancient saints who trusted in God. All these "obtained a good report through faith," though "they received not the promise." They served God in harmony with the institutions under which they lived, and their names were written in heaven, where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will receive their children to the celestial feast, and from whence Moses and Elijah appeared in glory with Jesus on the Mount, communing together with him [172] in regard to that true sin-offering by which believers of all dispensations were to be forever perfected. The question before us could have nothing to do with that of the salvation of any under former institutions, unless it could be shown that under these, as under Christianity, the indwelling of the Spirit was made a necessary condition of that salvation. Each dispensation, each period of progress, indeed, had its own method of expression, its own appropriate intermediation. The fire from heaven which consumed the accepted sacrifice, the nocturnal vision, the angelic visitant, as well as other direct means of communication, gave, at one time, the necessary assurance of faith. At a later period, more signal, visible, and audible manifestations of the Divine presence confirmed the ministration of the Law; while special oracles were given by "Urim and Thummin," the Light and the Perfection, which rested in symbols upon the breast-plate of the High Priest; or, at a still later time, through the prophet, whose soul was brought into consonance with the fervors of inspiration by the strains of a minstrel. 1 Sam. x: 5, xix: 20-24; 2 Kings iii: 15. But, under Christianity, the signs of the Divine power and presence no longer thus appear. The "angel of the covenant" comes not to deliver personal revelations; no ephod furnishes a response to the anxious inquirer; no prophet announces a Divine vision; no seer reveals the unknown secrets of the future. The internal administration of the kingdom of heaven is entirely different from that of previous institutions. Like them, [173] it required external and miraculous evidences for its introduction, but in its own nature, and in its proper and permanent establishment, it rests upon the power of an inward faith and an indwelling Spirit. In contrast with all other systems, it is, indeed, "the dispensation of the Spirit," in the true and literal sense.

      It is thus, in Christianity, that a higher plane of spiritual fellowship is reached, and the believer has access to the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus. It is now, that men shall worship God neither in Mount Gerizim, nor yet at Jerusalem, but when "the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." On Pentecost, there was introduced an era when God was to pour out his Spirit upon as many as he would call, and when true discipleship, Christ's epistle to the world, could be "manifestly declared" only in being written, "with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart." 2 Cor. iii: 3; Heb. viii: 10. It is in this very respect that Christianity is superior to all preceding institutions; and if the views of those who deny any spiritual presence were true, and the power of the gospel now consisted merely in the logic of ethical precepts or of a heroic example, it would at once be deprived of this claim, and be justly regarded as quite inferior to preceding dispensations in its assurances of Divine acceptance, and as having itself lost the efficacy and completeness which it possessed in the beginning.

      The confusion of thought which has prevailed in [174] the religious world, in respect to the "Holy Spirit of Promise," has doubtless arisen largely from the failure to make proper distinctions between the various Divine dispensations of religion. It would seem, however, to be still more largely due to those false theories of conversion by special spiritual operations, which have, of late years especially, been so diligently propagated. The mysticism which makes true religion to consist, not in faith and obedience, but in a special and supernatural ecstasy of feeling, independent of the gospel, and wrought in the heart by the immediate power of the Spirit, must, as a matter of course, take it for granted that the saved of all ages have been subjects of the same "operation," and have had a similar "Christian experience." This unscriptural and most erroneous notion of the regeneration which enables the believer to enter into the kingdom of heaven, has sadly beclouded the minds of a large portion of the religious world, and perverted the understandings of men, as well as the teachings of the Bible, in regard to the whole subject of that Holy Spirit "which God gives to them that obey him." So complete, indeed, is the hallucination which prevails in regard to this matter, that the plainest facts and declarations of the New Testament are utterly disregarded; and a mere theological theory, aided by the prevailing passion for sensuous impressions, has, in a large measure, replaced the faith and practice of primitive Christianity.

      To conclude, however, what may be remarked [175] upon the condition of the people of God prior to the Day of Pentecost, it may be further added, that Christ himself most unequivocally represents it as very different, and as inferior in regard to religious privileges. Speaking of John the Baptist, he awards to him the high honor of being a prophet, and more than a prophet. He applies to him a scripture which presents him as the messenger (angel) who was to prepare the way of the Lord; and after declaring that among those born of women, there had not arisen a greater than John the Baptist, he announces emphatically that, notwithstanding all his high dignities, honors, and privileges, "the least in the kingdom of heaven" was "greater than he." Matt. xi: 11.¹ Now John from his birth, as we are informed, had been "filled with the Holy Spirit;" that is, he had been fully supplied with that inspiration and supernatural spiritual insight required for the discharge of his prophetic office, and for the manifestation of Christ to Israel, but he had not received that "Spirit of adoption," by which the humblest believer from Pentecost might be constituted a son of God; and hence, so far as dignity of title was concerned, John occupied an inferior [176] position, as the title of prophet, or even that of angel, was inferior to that of SON. Heb. i: 1-4.

      We have, furthermore, in the case of Cornelius and his household, another clear illustration of the difference of the position of the people of God, before and after the propagation of the gospel. Here was a Jewish proselyte, a godly man, who was assured, by a special angelic messenger, that his prayers and his alms had come up as a memorial before God, and who had thus indubitable evidence that he was accepted of God. Yet he is, at the same time, commanded of God to send for Peter, who, says the angel, "shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved." Acts xi: 14. "And as I began to speak," adds Peter, "the Holy Spirit fell on them, as on us at the beginning." Cornelius and his household were thus, prior to this occasion, accepted worshipers of God, enjoying communion with God through faith and prayer, and the appointed oblations, just as did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, or David; yet they were not possessed of the Holy Spirit of the New Covenant. Just as it would have been necessary for the patriarchs, if on earth; just as it was necessary for the disciples of Moses and of John the Baptist, so was it necessary that Cornelius and his household should hear the gospel and enjoy its blessed promises in order to salvation. A new era had now dawned upon the world. The kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man had now appeared in all its fullness, as never before announced on earth, and he [177] had now appointed to save men, according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, "which," adds the apostle, "he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that, being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." [178]

[OHS 151-178]