The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 105

XIV.

The

Revelation

Which

to

Testament Owes "

the Scripture of the Old Its Existence.

O

Lord,

.

.

.

Thou

art stronger than

and hast prevailed."—y^r.

The understanding

of

Holy

the

Spirit's

work

xx.

I,

7.

in Scripture

requires us to distinguish the preparatmi, and the formation that

was the outcome

of the preparation.

We

will discuss these

two

separately.

The Holy Spirit prepared for Scripture by the operations which from Paradise to Patmos supernaturally apprehended the sinful life of this world, and thus raised up believing men who formed the developing Church.

This will seem very foolish

if

we

consider the Scripture a mere

if we hear God speaking Severed from the divine life, the

paper-book, a lifeless object, but not therein directly to the soul.

Scripture

is

But when we realGod's love and mercy in such form as to transand address our consciousness, we see that the super-

unprofitable, a letter that killeth.

ize that it radiates

form our

life

natural revelation of the

life of

God must precede the radiation.

revelation of God's tender mercies in the

human

consciousness.

must precede

The

their scintillation

mystery and thence

First, the revelation of the

of Godliness; then, its radiation in the Sacred Scripture,

into the heart of God's Church, is the natural

and ordained way. For this purpose the Holy Spirit first chose individuals, then a few families, and lastly a whole nation, to be the sphere of His activities and in each stage He began His work with the Word, always following the Word of Salvation with the Facts of Salvation. ;

He began this work in Paradise. After the fall, death and condemnation reigned over the first pair, and in them entombed the Had the Spirit left them to themselves, with the germ of death ever developing in them, no star of hope would ever have

race.

arisen for the 5

human

race.

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