The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 170

THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY

I30

SPIRIT

ning and peals of thunder were seen and heard. And when the multitude were startled and terrified, then the desired condition for receiving the Holy Spirit prevailed and the outpouring took place.

Such extravagances only hurt the tender sense of the children of God while it is almost sacrilege to compare the signs of Pentecost ;

to the report of a pistol.

Hence there remains only one other explanation,

i.e.,

to consider

the Pentecost signs as actual and real constituents of the event

;

in-

dispensable links in the chain of occurrences. When a ship enters the harbor we see the foaming spray under

bow and hear

the

the waters dashing against the sides.

horse runs through the street

we hear

When

a

the noise of his hoofs against

pavement and see the clouds of dust. But who will say that these things seen and heard are symbolic? They necessarily belong to those actions and are parts of them, impossible without them. Therefore we do not believe that the Pentecost signs were symbolic, the

or intended to create a sensation, but that they belonged insep-

arably to the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, and were caused by

The outpouring could not take place without creating these When the mountain-stream dashes down the steep sides of signs. the rocks we must hear the sound of rushing waters, we must see the flying spray; so when the Holy Spirit flows down from the it.

mountains of God's holiness, the sound of a rushing, mighty wind must be heard, and glorious brightness must be seen, and a speaking with foreign tongues must follow. This will sufficiently explain our meaning. Not that we deny that these signs had also a significance for the multitude. The noise of the horse's hoofs warns travelers on the road. And we concede that the purpose of the signs was realized in the perplexity and consternation which they caused in the hearts of those present. But this we maintain, that even in the absence of the multitude and their consternation the sound of a rushing, mighty wind would have been heard and the fiery tongues would have been seen. As the horse's hoofs cause the ground to vibrate tho there be no traveler in sight, so the Holy Spirit could not come down without* that sound and that brightness, even tho not a single Jew were to be found in all

Jerusalem.

The outpouring of

the Holy Spirit was real, not apparent.

ing found His temple in the glorified Head, flow

down

into the

He must

body and descend from heaven.

Hav-

necessarily

And

this

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen