SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 May 1922, Page 9

SUNDAY READING.

“I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST." *T will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you always—l mean the Spirit of Truth.” —Saint John, XIV. 16. (“The 20th Century N.T.”) (By Rev. A. H. Collins, New Plymouth.) “I believe in the Holy Ghost.” This clause of the Creed has been the occasion of endless strife. It has rent the Church in twain from the beginning. The Greek Church has always held that the spirit proceeded from the Father alone, whilst the Latin Church has held that the Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son. lam afraid many of us have no definite conception what we mean when we make the great affirmation. “The Apostles’ Creed” does not specifically name the doctrine of the Trinity, but that doctrine is implicit throughout the twelve clauses —“I believe in God the Father,” “and in Jesus Christ His unique Son,” “I believe in the Holy Ghost/’ I am not going to enter on a discus- ‘ sion on that high doctrine and abstruse /subject, further than to say that it I seems to me that some devout Cliris- ; tians come perilously near to worship- ■ p?ng a plurality of gods. They speak of I God the Father, God the Son, and God ! the Holy Ghost as of three separate '•Deities, instead of a Trinity in Unity. A friend confessed to me only last ’ ‘ week that the Trinity was his greatest J [difficulty. I kpow it is said that “fools ‘ rush in where angels fear to tread.” I [hope I am not a fool, and I know I am i • not an angel, but I should be thankful j | to relieve my friend’s perplexity, if only I a little. Yonder electric bulb is an illustration I of trinity in unity, for it is light, heat I *nd force. Man himself is a trinity—body, soul, spirit. Does not the difficulty arise, in part, from the failure to dis- : tinguish between the words “individual” and “person.” The word person comes from the Latin “persona,” a mask. On the Greek stage one individual actor played several parts by means of a change of masks. We retain the idea and speak of “personating” such and such a character. If I dare use the illustration in such connection, Sir Henry Irving appeared on the stage as “Charles 1.,” as “Richard 11., and as “Hamlet,” hut behind these appearances was one living soul. When we sing “God in Three Persons, blsessed Trinity,” we mean that God, who is one God, has manifested Himself as “The Father,” the First Great Cause of all things; as “the Son,” who was the Expre- Image of His Person, “God Manifest in the Flesh.” and as “the Spirit,” the invisible presence in the world, Companion, Counsellor. and Helper of All —a Trinity in Unity, a threefold revelation of God as Creator,” Redeemer, Strengthen er. “I belive in the Holy Ghost” means that the Spirit of God is in the world to-day, and in contact with the inner life of man. It means that the Divine Spirit who brooded over t‘he world and brought cosmos out of chaos, light out of darkness, and life out of death, is still overshadowing our wayward race. THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. The religious instinct in man. which prompts to worship and prayer and service, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Search the world over and you will find evidence that those we roughly call “pagan” ar6 not utterly devoid of the hunger of the soul for the Eternal. As Longfellow puts it:

“Tn all ages, Every human heart is human: In even savage bosoms There are longings, yearnings, striv- ; ings For the good they comprehend not. The feeble hands and helpless. Groping blindly in the darkness, Touch God’s right hand in that darkness. And are lifted up and strengthened.” God the Eternal Spirit is the life that quickens all things, the source of all illumination of the world’s mind, the Feeder of the poet’s fancy, the Creative I Power that blossoms in invention and discovery, the Spirit of Beauty in I music and art, the Divine Prompter in social servica and reform, the Sustainer, Teacher, Redeemer. And every virtue we possess, And every victory won, And every thought of holiness Are His alone.” THINGS INVISIBLE. Nor should the invisibility of God stumble us. Al] the mighty forces of the universe are invisible. You are carried to and from the city by invisible electric ’energy- The stone which the boy flings 'into space is pulled to earth by the invisible force of gravitation. In the striking words of Sir Isaac Newton: “There is not a particle of salt in the salt-cellars, or of the most remote star in the Milky Way, that is not pull, pull, pulling every particle of salt in the saltcellars of our earth—aye, the pepperboxes, too.” Turn where you will, you see effects produced by impalpable powers that work in silence and mystery, for this world is a spiritual world and the materialist is out of date. He is a eave dweller, back in the stone age. The atheist is a human freak. Jesus was speaking to the Disciples on the eve of His departure out of the world that had treated Him so ill. They were depressed at the withdrawal of His visible fi.rm. and He speaks to their rising fears. He assures them that His other Self will still be near and available. He says: “My Spirit will come to you, to prolong My life in the world, to continue and complete My work. The form of My presence will be changed, but not the reality.”

But if what T have said so imperfectly land even crudely he true, it is a truth fraught with tremendous significance. Some of our hymns and prayers seem to be addressed to an absentee God, and we even speak of .Jesus Christ’s return! You remember the child’s hymn: “I think when I road that sweet story of old. When Jesus was here among men. How He called little children, as lambs to His fold. I should like to have been with Him then.” There is a wistful, backward look as to One who was once here, but has gone ■away. Other hymns, not written for lchildren, breathe the same spirit-

“Father, glorify Thy Son, Answer His all-powerful prayer, Send that Intercessor down. Send that other Comforter..” And this: “Descend with all Thy gracious power, O come, Great Spirit, come.” GOD IS HERE. But God is not an absentee. The Holy Ghost is here. He has never left the world. If there is one thing we believe it is that God is all-present and everpresent. There is no reason Why we should envy the Apostles their experience. We are as near to Christ the Lord a-s Saint John when he leaned on Christ’s bosom in the Upper Road, and any return of Jesus Christ which meant a physical and corporal return would mean less, and not more, than we now ‘have. Our world is not a God-forsaken world; it is a sun-lit, spirit-breathed, spiritfilled, and spirit-guided world. The Spirit of Gcal is here now, as near as the air that inflates your lungs. He waits to be our Companion, Counsellor, Friend and Guide. That is what we affirm in the words “I believe in the Holy Ghost.” Never mind puzzling ourselves, and others, about metaphysical subtleties, as to the personality of the Holy Spirit, and the doctrine of the Trinity, questions that jumble our. judgment and confound our sense. Grasp this bottom fact to which the Creed commits us, the belief that God abides with man and is in man. We have the incarnate Christ in fleshly shape no longer.

A SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE. We have something better. We have God the Eternal Spirit, source of light and purity and power, and to realise that would change our outlook on life. This is a Spiritual universe. We are Spiritual beings. Our business here is not chiefly the development of muscle and mind, still less the mean art of outdressing and out-shining our neighbors; our chief business is the cultivation of our Spiritual powers and faculties. But while it is true that God the Holy Ghost is present in the life of the race and was present in the pre-Christian days and in non-Christian men; present in Gautama in India, and Confucius in China, in Socrates and in Plato in Greece; present in the outstanding thinkers and leaders of the race, through all lands and ages, it is of His presence in “the Church which is His Body,” that the Creed speaks, and of His ministry in the Church, I remind you of two things, lie is the Illuminator. He enlightens. He convicts us of sin. A bar of sunlight shining through a room reveals particles of dust not seen before, and the Spirit of God coming into the heart makes known the hidden evils and shames. For it is the office of the Spirit to testify of Jesus, and just as a ■white handkerchief laid on virgin snow looks discolored by the contrast, so_ standing beside Jesus Christ makes manifest our imperfection, and prompts the prayer: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” We may shine in other company, but not in His. We shall cry: “Oh! for a man to rise in me That the man I am may cease to be.” WHITHER IT LEADS. Tn the same way the Holy Spirit leads to fuller knowledge. Under His illumination the Apostles shed old errors and prejudices as the snake sheds . its skin. They became broader, freer, kindlier, bigger men. They interpreted the Gospel in a larger way. Their■ minds dilated, their hearts grew roomier, their sympathies more expansive.

That has been the history of the Church and the Creeds all down the centuries. That is what is going on today. We have moved away from positions and 1 liefs held by our fathers, land we shall move further yet, not be- | cause wp are unfaithful to the Chris[tion verities, but because the Spirit of iGod is the Spirit of life and growth. He (not only regenerates. the heart. He regenerates the thoughts of men. He gave I tiie world a new sense of human values land slavery dropped stone dead. He is stirring the minds of men on the subject of social duty, and the time will come when men will look back on competitive trade, on the present land laws, and on the drink traffic, with the same sense of horror that we now regard chattel slavery. One day there will come a flash of moral illumination on the subject of war. and the bells will chime a New Day of peace and goodwill.

THE FORTIFIER. And the Spirit of God is the Fortifier. The word “Comforter” meant that at the first, but it is too soft a word now. It suggests soothing, calming, quieting. But the “Paraclete” is the “Advocate.” “the Helper.” His w r ork is to reinforce outworn strength, to renew faded. ideals, to embolden timid souls. “Piety without pluck is poor piety.” says Gladden. The Spirit of God is energetic, forceful, combative. He leads not into the quiet room and the cosy corner, but to the battlefield in the wars of truth. He made the prophets iconoclasts, reforaiers. judges, heroes. He made the Apostles thinkers, pioneers, heralds; and He will shake us out of sloth, obscurantism, and wicked content with things as they are. “I believe in the Holy Ghost,” “the Clean Ghost.” May we say it with new confidence and fuller knowledge, meanling nothing dreamy and gaseous, but meaning. I believe in God Himself, our Holy Judge. Teacher and Fortifier, rebuking our sins, illuminating our minds, and making us ready to greatly dare and nobly strive. “Spirit of purity and grace, Our weakness pitying see. Oh! make our hearts thy dwellingplace. And worthier Thee.” i “I believe in the Holy Ghost.” and may ,He haunt us night and day.”