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The
Holy Spirit
`'He will guide you into all
truth." "He shall
teach you all things, and bring all things
to your remembrance, whatsoever I
have said unto you."—JESUS.
The Holy Spirit is the third person
in the Trinity; the representative of the Godhead on
earth. His entity is as real as that of the Father or of
His Son Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is coexistent with
the Father and the Son. This is clearly proven from the
fact that He is called the eternal Spirit. "How much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the ETERNAL
SPIRIT offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God."
Heb. 9:14. This text clearly proves that the Holy Spirit
is coexistent with the Father, and the Bible abounds in
proof that the Son is eternal; hence, God has ever been
one composed of three.
Under the Mosaic economy the
doctrine of the Trinity was not recognized, as Moses and
the prophets all sounded the trumpet long and loud to the
truth of one God, in contradistinction to the multiplicity
of heathen gods by which they were continually surrounded.
And in their zeal for Jehovah, the one and only true God,
they failed to comprehend, to any great extent at least,
that the one God was composed of three persons—Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. While the doctrine of the Trinity
has only been brought to light through the gospel, that it
has ever been a fact is undeniable. The Son was with the
Father before the world was. John 17:5. Holy men of old
spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Spirit. 2 Pet.
1:21; Acts 1:16. From this we see that God has ever been a
Trinity, of which Trinity the Holy Spirit is the third
person.
The Holy Spirit being a person is
invested with all the at. tributes of God—omnipotence,
omniscience, omnipresence, infallibility, immutability,
holiness, and eternity. It is certainly inspiring and
encouraging to know that the Holy Spirit is everywhere
present, with all wisdom, unmistakable, unchanging, holy,
and almighty power, to protect, defend, comfort, and
uphold every child of God.
The Holy Spirit is the key, by
which all the great storehouse of God's knowledge and
wisdom is unlocked to the souls of men. Without Him we
grope in ignorance and superstition, void of divine
guidance. Men, for lack of the Holy Spirit, dive into many
hurtful errors, exposing not only their own souls, but
also the souls of others, to the mists of darkness and
destruction forever. Many things concerning God, or the
Trinity, lie beyond the reach of the finite mind, and so
in many instances we adore that which we are unable to
comprehend. If we could comprehend God in every sense we
would then be equal with Him, and He would cease to be the
object of our reverence and admiration. Concerning this
deep question of the Trinity, Melanchthon once said:
"These mysteries are better reverenced than inquired
into."
This much, however, we know,
whether we can altogether explain it or not, that God is
one composed of three. The sweet music of three harmonious
sounds falls upon our ears, and while we may know that it
proceeds from three distinct tones, yet it comes to us so
perfectly blend in one harmonious whole that we only
conceive of it as one. So it is with God: the words,
operations, and sweet influences of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, come to us completely united and in such
perfect harmony that we only conceive of God as one.
Great, indeed, is the mystery of godliness.
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