The Holy Ghost

I remember once when I was first converted I spoke in a Sabbath school, and there seemed to be a great deal of interest and quite a number rose for prayer, and I remember I went out quite rejoiced; but an old man followed me out—I have never seen him since. I never had seen him before, and don’t even know his name—but he caught hold of my hand and gave me a little bit of advice. I didn’t know what he meant at the time, but he said, “Young man, when you speak again, honor the Holy Ghost.” I was hastening off to another church to speak, and all the way over it kept ringing in my ears—“Honor the Holy Ghost,” and I said to myself, “I wonder what the old man means.” I have found out since what he meant, and I think that all that have been to work in the vineyard of the Lord have learnt that lesson that, if we honor Him in our efforts to do good, He will honor us and work through us; but if we don’t honor Him, we will surely break down. The only work that is going to stand to eternity is the work done by the Holy Ghost, and not by any one of us. We may be used as His instruments, but the work that will stand to eternity is that done by the Holy Ghost; and every conversation in these meetings, that is not by the power of the Holy Ghost will not stand. They may be impressions that may last for a few weeks or months, but then they will pass away like the morning cloud; and I firmly believe that if a man or woman be not converted by the Holy Ghost, we will not see them in Heaven.

But I want now to call your attention to the Holy Ghost as a person. He has been in the world ever since man has been in it. We are told here in the second Epistle of Peter, first chapter and twenty-first verse : “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Every holy man that has ever spoken in this world has been inspired and prompted by the Holy Ghost, and has been moved by the Holy Ghost to speak, and if he has not been so moved the words are just like the clouds, they will soon be gone and be of no permanent effect. They won’t last; but the words that abide and live forever are the words prompted by the Holy Ghost, or accompanied by the Holy Ghost. Now I want to call your attention to an important truth, because I really believe I was a Christian ten years before I believed it. I went into a church once and heard an old minister say that the Holy Ghost was a person. I thought the old man was wrong, and could not believe that the Holy Ghost was a person. I did not know my Bible then as well as I do now, but I went home and got my Bible and went to work to study it out, and have been thoroughly convinced ever since that the Holy Ghost is a person as much as God the Father is, and as much as Jesus Christ the Son is. Some may say that it is a mystery, and there are a good many things that are mysterious on their face. Now turn to the 14th Chapter of John, 16th and 17th verses : “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 cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you.”

Now, if the Holy Ghost were not a person, Christ would not have said, “Who.” To be sure He is a spirit, but at the same time He is a person, the same as God the Father is. God is a spirit, and yet He is a person. Three times in this last verse it says “Him,” and once “Who.” Then in the 26th verse of the same chapter: “But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you,” He shall do it. Then there are a good many other verses, and I want to call your attention to one or two more, just to show this fact, that He is a person. Whenever Christ spoke of the Holy Ghost He always spoke of Him as “He” or “Him,” and we won’t honor the Holy Ghost unless we make Him a person, and one of the persons of the Trinity—the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

When Christ got ready to go away He taught His disciples to baptize the people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Now, not only that, but we get life through Him. It is through the Holy Ghost that we get life. We would in reality not know Christ but for the Holy Ghost. It is the Holy Ghost that imparts life. We must be born of the Spirit — that is, love. Not only that, but if we turn over to Peter, First Epistle, 3d chapter and 18th verse , we will find that Christ was raised by the power of the Holy Ghost: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit;” and every dead soul that has been brought to life has been brought to life by the power of the Holy Ghost. They are dead in sin until the Holy Ghost brings them to life, until the Spirit of God moves upon the waters. There is no life or power for a man to serve God until he is first born of the Spirit, until he has been quickened by the Holy Ghost, until he has been raised as Christ’s dead body was raised. So dead souls must be raised, and when they have been raised by that power then they can serve God.

Now the work of the Holy Ghost is also to impart love. Just turn to Romans, v., 5 : “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.” The real fruit that we look for in a young convert is love; and I think it is one of the strongest proofs that this religion of Jesus Christ is divine, that it is the same all the world over. Even in the heart of China you will find if a man is converted he will love his enemies. The love of God is in that man’s heart. What do we as Christians feel and want to-day ? What is the great lack of the church? Why are so many complaining about the coldness of the church? It is because we have not got this love. If the Holy Ghost is a power in the church, shedding abroad love in our hearts, there won’t be any complaint. Go into a society of young converts. If you could have been in our meetings last night you would have seen love and joy in every face except a few inquiring ones. They all tell the same story. They were of different nationalities perhaps, but they had only one story to relate. They loved every one, and told how much love and pity they felt for all. And if a man gets up and talks bitterly against any one, and pro- fesses to be a young convert, you may believe it is a spurious conversion. It is a counterfeit. It has not got the ring of Heaven in it because a man when he is converted will love every one. Not only that, but I have noticed this, that when a man is full of the Holy Ghost he is the very last man to be complaining of other people. He loves every body too tenderly. He loves even a cold church, and is anxious to lift them up and bring them to a kinder feeling and sympathy. And I want to say here that I think a good many people have gotten into this habit of coldness. A man told me the other day that he felt it to be his duty to go up to a certain church and open on them when he got a chance for their lukewarmness, and I thought if he could just get a look at these young converts here he would feel differently. For when a man is himself cold, he looks upon everybody else as cold too. When a man is himself warm, he will talk about everybody else in the same view as of himself; he will talk about the love of God that is in our hearts, and that is what we want. If we only just felt filled with love, how easy it would be to reach man! All these barriers between us would be broken down. If you can only convince the greatest blasphemer and infidel in New York that you really love him you can reach him. What we want, therefore, is this love, and that is the work of the Holy Ghost to impart; and let us pray to-day that the love of God may be shed abroad in all our hearts.

The Holy Ghost not only imparts love, too, but hope. That is another thing the church wants — more hope. When a church is hopeful, then the work advances; when it is discouraged and disheartened, the work does not advance; and I have learned this, that the hopeful Christians that are all the time looking on the bright side are the very ones that God delights to honor by using as His instruments, while He never employs for His best work those who are always looking on the dark side. Let the Holy Ghost come into a church and convert a few, impart- ing the hope that it does impart, and see how the work of the church will suddenly go on. If you will only let Jesus Christ come into the church, He will do the work well. The trouble is we want our own way. We want the Holy Ghost to work in our way, and if he doesn’t come in that way we think sometimes it is not the work of God because it has not come in the usual way. My grandfather told me in his day there was a great revival and every one came to the anxious bench, “but now they don’t do so,” said he, “and I don’t believe it is the work of God.” That is the way a great many talk. God never repeats Himself. Because God did a certain thing through one instrument at one time, it is no sign that he will do it the same way all the time. What we want to do is to let the Holy Ghost work in his own way and He will impart hope, and the Holy Ghost is very hopeful the moment He gets in.

Another thing we want in the church is liberty. If you had been to that young converts’ meeting last night you would have seen perfect liberty—three or four trying to get the floor at once.” There was no trouble in speaking there. But go into some of our churches, and where is that essential liberty? A great many Christians are like Lazarus when he came forth—he was bound hand and foot; but Christ said , “Loose him and let him go.” And so Christians want to feel that liberty they should feel when Christ calls them to be His disciples. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. Many think to themselves before they get up to speak: “Now, what will Mrs. B say when I get up if I don’t talk as well as the minister?” and “Oh, if I could speak as well as Brother A, wouldn’t I give my testimony quickly! but I haven’t got any eloquence, and cannot speak like, an orator.” Don’t you know my friend, it is not the most fluent man that has the greatest effect with a jury? It is the man who tells the truth. And in speaking of your experience God will help you if you trust in Him, and you will find after a simple trial that you have perfect liberty. The trouble is we have a great many Christians who have only got as far as the 3d chapter of John , and so far as liberty to come out and speak up for God is concerned, they don’t know anything about it. We want this spirit of liberty so as to be qualified for God’s work. A friend of mine told me once that when he went to a boarding-house he could always tell who the boarders were, for they never alluded to family matters, but sat down to the table and talked of outside matters, but when the son came in he would go into the sitting-room to see if there were any letters and inquire after the family, and show in many ways his interest in the household. It doesn’t take five minutes to tell that he is not a boarder and that the others are. And so it is with the Church of God. You see these boarders in church every Sunday morning, but they don’t take any interest. They come to criticise, and that is about all that constitutes a Christian now-a-days. They are boarders in the house of God, and we have got too many boarders. What we want is liberty. A friend of mine said he was down in Natchez before the war, and he and a friend of his went out riding one Saturday—they were teaching school through the week—and they drove out back from Natchez. It was a beautiful day, and they saw an old slave coming up, and they thought they would have a little fun. They had just come to a place where there was a fork in the roads, and there was a sign-post which read, “40 miles to Liberty.” One of the young men said to the old darkey driver, “Sambo, how old are you?” “I don’t know, massa. I guess I’se about eighty.” “Can you read?” “No, sah; we don’t read in this country. It’s agin the law.” “Can you tell what is on that sign-post?” “Yes, Sah; it says '40 miles to Liberty.'” “Well, now,” said my friend, “why don’t you follow that road and get your liberty. It says there, 'Only 40 miles to Liberty.’ Now, why don’t you take that road and go there? “The old man’s countenance changed, and he said, “Oh! young massa, that is all a sham. If that post pointed out the road to the liberty that God gives, we might try it. There could be no sham in that.” My friend said he had never heard anything more eloquent from the lips of any preacher. God wants all his sons to have liberty. He does not want us bound, as so many of us are bound, by a sort of fear. The Holy Ghost casts out fear. It is the Spirit of Love and Liberty. There ought to be perfect liberty in all our religious meetings, in all our social meetings. If there were, how long would it be before there would be a wonderful reformation in this country if these all had this spirit of liberty? A friend of mine asked a judge in his church to go out to a school-house in the country with him one day, where he was going to preach. He said to the judge that he would like to have him go, and the judge said he would like to go along. He told the judge he would like to have him speak to the people. The judge said, “Oh, I could not do that.” “Why can’t you? You can speak in your court well enough, without any trouble. Why cannot you speak here? Suppose you just try it.” When they got out there the judge refused to do it, but the minister said, “I want to put the judge into the witness box and question him.” And the judge got his lips open at last and told how he was converted, and how the Spirit of God came down upon him. And there was a mighty power in what he said, and the result was that many were converted; and the judge has been a working Christian ever since. I think there are hundreds bound, as he was, by station. A man who had been a professing Christian for three years I met at a meeting, and I knew he had been a professing Christian, and I supposed of course he had prayed in public. I noticed that he hesitated when I asked him, but he rose, and as soon as he had opened his lips the words came easily. I heard him tell a friend afterward that that night he felt as if he had been converted a second time. How many there are in the church that are bound to silence by long habit and that have not yet got their liberty! And one reason is because you do not ask God for it. Oh, open your lips and the Spirit of God will come upon you, and you will have liberty.

There are so many people who are just between the two beliefs, or between belief and unbelief. I pity that class of people. What God wants is for us to have perfect liberty. Where the Spirit of the Lord is you will have this liberty. I want to call your attention to this fact. What is the work of the Holy Ghost? Why is it that when the Holy Ghost wakes up some men they get so angry? Because the Holy Ghost testifies against the world. That is what he has come to do—to convince men of their sins. It is a good sign sometimes to see a man get mad and storm out of the house. A man went out of this building so a few days ago, but he did not rest in it; he found Christ soon after. When the spirit of God wakes some men up they wake up in anger. I want to read the 7th verse of the 16th chapter of John : “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart I will send Him unto you. And when He is come He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” I do not believe a man was ever convicted of sin by any preacher in the world. It is the work of the Holy Ghost. If He does not do it they won’t be converted.

It would be very easy for the Holy Ghost to convict every man here of sin. Then shall we not ask Him to do it? All that He has to do is to open a man’s eyes and he will see at once that he is a sinner. When the Holy Ghost opens a man’s eyes he will soon find out what a miserable sinner he is. The work of the Holy Ghost is to testify of Christ; He comes for that purpose. I believe the world would have forgotten Christ’s death as soon as they forgot His birth, if it had not been for the Holy Ghost. It had only been thirty years since His birth and all those wonderful scenes had happened in Bethlehem, and it was well known in Jerusalem; yet it seems to have been forgotten until Christ came. And they would have forgotten His death if it had not been for the Holy Ghost. He came to testify for Jesus Christ that He had risen. He saw Him in heaven, and He came to tell us He was there at the right hand of God. He convinced men on the day of Pentecost, three thousand of them. He does not talk of Himself, but of Christ. In the 15th chapter of John, the 26th verse , it says: “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the p Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me.” If a man preaches Christ faithfully the Holy Ghost will bless his preaching, because he will testify and carry home the truth. He knows that Christ has risen and is sitting at the right hand of God, and has been raised for our justification. Do you believe, my friends, that He who died outside of the walls of Jerusalem the death of a common prisoner, the cruel death of the cross, do you believe that the preaching of that man after it had taken place would have had any power over this audience, except for the Holy Ghost?

Some people do not believe in the supernatural working of the Holy Ghost and the supernatural power of His influence. Every man and every woman has felt the power of the Holy Ghost. When the Holy Ghost first opened my eyes, I thought how blind I had been! That is the way with the world now; it is blind, but does not know it. He came into the world that the blind might see and recover. And the world is deaf, but does not know it- And so the world turns around and says people go mad on the subject of religion. When people are mad they think every one else is. I think it would take but a few minutes to prove that the world had gone clean crazy. The Holy Ghost is our teacher. He will teach us and show us things to come. He comes to speak of Christ, not of Himself. A man came to me the other day and said he was going down to Florida, where my wife and family are, and wanted to know if I had any message to send. Well, I sent them a message; but suppose when that man went down there he should go and see my wife and should begin and talk about himself, and not say a word about me. That would not cheer their hearts; they would want to hear about me. That would make their hearts warm. The Holy Ghost teaches us this lesson of self-forgetfulness. Every one of us Christians wants more of the Holy Ghost. Let us all give ourselves up to the influence of His spirit, who will lead us on to liberty and life and peace and joy