SERMON VII.

The Spirit of God, and His Gifts,
in Man.

ST. JOHN vii, 37-39.

"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)"

AMONG other customs in connexion with the

Feast of Tabernacles this was one each day that the feast lasted a golden vessel full of water from the pool of Siloam was brought in solemn and festive procession to the Temple, and was there poured out by a priest on or near to the altar, while certain psalms were sung by the ministering Levites, and prayers were offered for rain, that the seed might germinate. Various

meanings have been assigned to this custom. Some refer it to a passage in Isaiah—" With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation;" others think that it commemorated the smiting of the rock in the wilderness, when the people needed water; others attribute to it a spiritual signification, as referring to blessings which the Jews expected to have poured upon them at the establishment, of Messiah's kingdom. And this latter seems to be the true view. For it was, no doubt, during the performance of the ceremony in question that our Blessed Saviour uttered those remarkable words recorded in our text: "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." And here He was not merely taking His cue, so to speak, from the rite that was being celebrated, and using it as a casual illustration of what He wished to teach; He rather meant to say this: "This ancient custom, which is now being fulfilled, is indeed a mystical type of blessings which I am about to bestow, is on the point of receiving its accomplishment in gifts which I am about to shed forth abundantly, gifts never so bestowed before.' For you will observe that it is to some new and special blessings, to be

obtained through Him, that our Lord refers: "This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive." This living water is a peculiar gift of the new dispensation-of the Christian covenant.

And what this gift is, the Evangelist himself explains," This spake He of the Spirit." The Son of God, we know, had operated among men long before His incarnation, even from the very beginning. By Him the Father "made the worlds;" through Him, the Apostle tells us, came all along that inward voice of conscience by which man, even in the darkest ages, was not left wholly without a guide. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." But when the Son of God became incarnate, He began to operate among men with a fulness and richness of grace and blessing heretofore unknown. And like this it was, we may also say, with the Holy Spirit. There never was a period in which He was not, in some degree, working in men's hearts and on the world. He had His part in the work of creation: "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters;" His were the gifts of prophecy, of teaching, of wisdom, with which patriarchs and seers were endowed: " 'Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Every

instance of patience, of nobleness, of faith, of purity that the unfolding history of the world has developed, was due to His blessed inspiration and assistance. In one sense, all who were faithful to the light and knowledge they possessed had been all along receiving of His fulness, but not in such a degree as that opened to us through Jesus Christ. For in comparison of that the sacred writer does not hesitate to say that the Spirit had not as yet been poured out at all. "The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." All former gifts of the Spirit fade into nothing in comparison of the measure in which He is now present with Christians. For not only have the virtues of our Lord's sacrifice merited for us a far more abundant outpouring of this unspeakable gift; we must consider also the marvellous results of His incarnation. The Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son from all eternity. But when the Son of God became Man the Holy Spirit was made one also with our nature-dwelt in all Its

fulness in a man. And now through Him It is able to flow on to other men; the manhood of Christ becomes a channel, a connecting link, between us and the blessed Spirit of God, whereby It can be poured out on us in a degree which other

wise had not been possible. And therefore it was that as soon as our Lord was glorified, as soon as He had completed His victory over every form of temptation, and carried our nature to the right hand of God to place it there in glory, the Holy Spirit flowed forth through Him on us His brethren, and began on the day of Pentecost that marvellous effusion, which will never cease until the end of time. This, then, is the special blessing which we have in our Lord Jesus Christ-the very inflowing into us and presence with us of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Quickener. "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost that is in you?" St. Paul speaks of this as the blessing brought by Christ's incarnation; as the distinguishing end of His work. "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit." Adam and Christ, the first father of our race and its new Head, are contrasted here; from the first, says the Apostle, we derive the gift of natural existencea living soul; but from the last the presence of the Holy Ghost to quicken us to a life above And you cannot read the New Testament without observing how it throughout contemplates this great privilege as the possession of Christians. We read of "fruits of the Spirit;"

nature.