The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 69

THE HOST OF HEAVEN AND OF EARTH mind

29

" to

have the spirit of Jesus," which indiBut to distinguish the divine Being from a spirit of that Being is to conceive of the Godhead in a human way. The divine consciousness differs wholly from the human. While in us there is a difference between our persons and our consciousness, with reference to God such distinctions disappear, and the distinction of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit takes their place. Even in those passages where "the breath of His mouth" is added to explain " His Spirit," the same interpretation must be maintained. For all languages show that our breathing, even as the " breathing of the elements" in the wind which blows before God's face, corresponds to the being of spirit. Nearly all express the ideas of spirit, breath, and wind by cognate terms. Blowing or breathing is in all the Scripture the symbol of spirit-communication. Jesus breathed on them and said " Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John xx. 22). Thus the breath of His mouth must signify the Holy Spirit. the

of Christ," or

cates His disposition.

:

The ancient

interpretation of the Scripture should not be hastily

Accept the dictum of modern theology that the distinction of the three divine Persons is not found in the Old Testament, and allusions to the work of the Holy Spirit in Genesis, Job, abandoned.

Psalms, or Isaiah are out of the question.

Consequently nothing

is

more natural for the supporters of this modern theology than to deny the Holy Spirit altogether in the passages referred to. But if from inward conviction we still confess that the distinction of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is clearly seen in the Old Testament, then let us examine these passages concerning the Spirit of the Lord with discrimination, and gratefully maintain the traditional interpretation,

which

finds at least in

many

of these

statements references to the work of the Holy Spirit. These passages show that His peculiar work in creation was: ist, hovering over chaos; 2d, creation of the host of heaven and of earth; 3d, ordening the heavens; 4th, animating the brute creation,

and calling

man

every creature ing

is

into existence;

made

and

last,

the operation whereby

to exist according to God's counsel concern-

it.

Hence the material forces of the universe do not proceed from the Holy Spirit, nor did He deposit in matter the dormant seeds an4 germs of life. His special task begins only after the creation of matter with the germs of life in it.

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