John 14:26

The Comforter; The Teaching of the Holy Ghost

The Comforter

January 21, 1855

by

C. H. SPURGEON

(1834-1892)

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom

the Father will send in my name, he shall teach

you all things and bring all things to your

remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto

you."- John 14:26 .

Good old Simeon called Jesus the consolation of Israel;

and so he was. Before his actual appearance, his name

was the day-star; cheering the darkness, and prophetic

of the rising sun. To him they looked with the same

hope which cheers the nightly watcher, when from the

lonely castle-top he sees the fairest of the stars, and

hails her as the usher of the morn. When he was on

earth, he must have been the consolation of all those

who were privileged to be his companions. We can

imagine how readily the disciples would run to Christ

to tell him of their griefs, and how sweetly, with that

matchless intonation of his voice, he would speak to

them, and bid their fears be gone. Like children, they

would consider him as their Father; and to him every

want, every groan, every sorrow, every agony, would at

once be carried; and he, like a wise physician, had a

balm for every wound; he had mingled a cordial for

their every care; and readily did he dispense some

mighty remedy to allay all the fever of their troubles.

Oh! it must have been sweet to have lived with Christ.

Surely, sorrows were then but joys in masks, because

they gave an opportunity to go to Jesus to have them

removed. Oh! would to God, some of us may say, that we

could have lain our weary heads upon the bosom of

Jesus, and that our birth had been in that happy era,

when we might have heard his kind voice, and seen his

kind look, when he said, "Let the weary ones come unto

me."

But now he was about to die. Great prophecies were to

be fulfilled; and great purposes were to be answered;

therefore, Jesus must go. It behoved him to suffer,

that he might be made a propitiation for our sins. It

behoved him to slumber in the dust awhile, that he

might perfume the chamber of the grave to make it-

"No more a charnel house to fence

The relics of lost innocence."

It behoved him to have a resurrection, that we, who

shall one day be the dead in Christ, might rise first,

and in glorious bodies stand upon earth. And if behoved

him that he should ascend up on high, that he might

lead captivity captive; that he might chain the fiends

of hell; that he might lash them to his chariot-wheels,

and drag them up high heaven's hill, to make them feel

a second overthrow from his right arm, when he should

dash them from the pinnacles of heaven down to the

deeper depths beneath. "It is right I should go away

from you," said Jesus, "for if I go not away, the

Comforter will not come." Jesus must go. Weep, ye

disciples; Jesus must be gone. Mourn, ye poor ones, who

are to be left without a Comforter. But hear how kindly

Jesus speaks: "I will not leave you comfortless, I will

pray the Father, and he shall send you another

Comforter, who shall be with you, and shall dwell in

you forever." He would not leave those few poor sheep

alone in the wilderness; he would not desert his

children, and leave them fatherless. Albeit that he had

a mighty mission which did fill his heart and hand;

albeit he had so much to perform, that we might have

thought that even his gigantic intellect would be

overburdened; albeit he had so much to suffer, that we

might suppose his whole soul to be concentrated upon

the thought of the sufferings to be endured. Yet it was

not so; before he left, he gave soothing words of

comfort; like the good Samaritan, he poured in oil and

wine, and we see what he promised: "I will send you

another Comforter-one who shall be just what I have

been, yea, even more; who shall console you in your

sorrows, remove your doubts, comfort you in your

afflictions, and stand as my vicar on earth, to do that

which I would have done had I tarried with you."

Before I discourse of the Holy Ghost as the Comforter,

I must make one or two remarks on the different

translations of the word rendered "Comforter." The

Rhenish translation, which you are aware is adopted by

Roman Catholics, has left the word untranslated, and

gives it "Paraclete." "But the Paraclete, which is the

Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he

shall teach you all things." This is the original Greek

word, and it has some other meanings besides

"Comforter." Sometimes it means the monitor or

instructor: "I will send you another monitor, another

teacher." Frequently it means "Advocate;" but the most

common meaning of the word is that which we have here:

"I will send you another Comforter." However, we cannot

pass over those other two interpretations without

saying something upon them.

"I will send you another teacher." Jesus Christ had

been the official teacher of his saints whilst on

earth. They called no man Rabbi except Christ. They sat

at no men's feet to learn their doctrines; but they had

them direct from the lips of him who "spake as never

man spake." "And now," says he, "when I am gone, where

shall you find the great infallible teacher? Shall I

set you up a pope at Rome, to whom you shall go, and

who shall be your infallible oracle? Shall I give you

the councils of the church to be held to decide all

knotty points?" Christ said no such thing. "I am the

infallible paraclete, or teacher, and when I am gone, I

will send you another teacher, and he shall be the

person who is to explain Scripture; he shall be the

authoritative oracle of God, who shall make all dark

things light, who shall unravel mysteries, who shall

untwist all knots of revelation, and shall make you

understand what you could not discover, had it not been

for his influence." And, beloved, no man ever learns

anything aright, unless he is taught of the Spirit. You

may learn election, and you may know it so that you

shall be damned by it, if you are not taught of the

Holy Ghost; for I have known some who have learned

election to their soul's destruction; they have learned

it so that they said they were of the elect, whereas,

they had no marks, no evidences, and no works of the

Holy Ghost in their souls. There is a way of learning

truth in Satan's college, and holding it in

licentiousness; but if so, it shall be to your souls as

poison to your veins and prove your everlasting ruin.

No man can know Jesus Christ unless he is taught of

God. There is no doctrine of the Bible which can be

safely, thoroughly, and truly learned, except by the

agency of the one authoritative teacher. Ah! tell me

not of systems of divinity; tell me not of schemes of

theology; tell me not of infallible commentators, or

most learned and most arrogant doctors; but tell me of

the Great Teacher, who shall instruct us, the sons of

God, and shall make us wise to understand all things.

He is the Teacher; it matters not what this man or that

man says; I rest on no man's boasting authority, nor

will you. Ye are not to be carried away with the

craftiness of men, nor sleight of words; this is the

authoritative oracle-the Holy Ghost resting in the

hearts of his children.

The other translation is advocate. Have you ever

thought how the Holy Ghost can be said to be an

advocate? You know Jesus Christ is called the

wonderful, the counsellor, the mighty God; but how can

the Holy Ghost be said to be an advocate? I suppose it

is thus; he is an advocate on earth to plead against

the enemies of the cross. How was it that Paul could so

ably plead before Felix and Agrippa? How was it that

the Apostles stood unawed before the magistrates, and

confessed their Lord? How has it come to pass, that in

all times God's ministers have been made fearless as

lions, and their brows have been firmer than brass;

their hearts sterner than steel, and their words like

the language of God? Why, it was simply for this

reason; that it was not the man who pleaded, but it was

God the Holy Ghost pleading through him. Have you never

seen an earnest minister, with hands uplifted and eyes

dropping tears, pleading with the sons of men? Have you

never admired that portrait from the hand of old John

Bunyan?-a grave person with eyes lifted up to heaven,

the best of books in his hand, the law of truth written

on his lips, the world behind his back, standing as if

he pleaded with men, and a crown of gold hanging over

his head. Who gave that minister so blessed a manner,

and such goodly matter? Whence came his skill? Did he

acquire it in the college? Did he learn it in the

seminary? Ah, no. He learned it of the God of Jacob; he

learned it of the Holy Ghost; for the Holy Ghost is the

great counsellor who teaches us how to advocate his

cause aright.

But, beside this, the Holy Ghost is the advocate in

men's hearts. Ah! I have known men reject a doctrine

until the Holy Ghost began to illuminate them. We, who

are the advocates of the truth, are often very poor

pleaders; we spoil our cause by the words we use; but

it is a mercy that the brief is in the hand of a

special pleader, who will advocate successfully, and

overcome the sinner's opposition. Did you ever know him

fail once? Brethren, I speak to your souls; has not God

in old times convinced you of sin? Did not the Holy

Ghost come and prove that you were guilty, although no

minister could ever get you out of your self-

righteousness? Did he not advocate Christ's

righteousness? Did he not stand and tell you that your

works were filthy rags? And when you had well-nigh

still refused to listen to his voice, did he not fetch

hell's drum and make it sound about your ears; bidding

you look through the vista of future years, and see the

throne set, and the books open, and the sword

brandished, and hell burning, and fiends howling, and

the damned shrieking forever? And did he not convince

you of the judgment to come? He is a mighty advocate

when he pleads in the soul-of sin, of righteousness,

and of the judgment to come. Blessed advocate! Plead in

my heart; plead with my conscience. When I sin, make

conscience bold to tell me of it; when I err, make

conscience speak at once; and when I turn aside to

crooked ways, then advocate the cause of righteousness,

and bid me sit down in confusion, knowing by guiltiness

in the sight of God.

But there is yet another sense in which the Holy Ghost

advocates, and that is, he advocates our cause with

Jesus Christ, with groanings that cannot be uttered. O

my soul! thou art ready to burst within me. O my heart!

thou art swelled with grief. The hot tide of my emotion

would well-nigh overflood the channels of my veins. I

long to speak, but the very desire chains my tongue. I

wish to pray, but the fervency of my felling curbs my

language. There is a groaning within that cannot be

uttered. Do you know who can utter that groaning? who

can understand it, and who can put it into heavenly

language, and utter it in a celestial tongue, so that

Christ can hear it? O yes; it is God the Holy spirit;

he advocates our cause with Christ, and then Christ

advocates it with his Father. He is the advocate who

maketh intercession for us, with groanings that cannot

be uttered.

Having thus explained the Spirit's office as a teacher

and advocate, we now come to the translation of our

version-the Comforter; and here I shall have three

divisions: first, the comforter; secondly, the comfort;

and thirdly, the comforted.

I. First, then, the COMFORTER. Briefly let me run over

in my mind, and in your minds too, the characteristics

of this glorious Comforter. Let me tell you some of the

attributes of his comfort, so that you may understand

how well adapted he is to your case.

And first, we will remark, that God the Holy Ghost is a

very loving Comforter. I am in distress, and I want

consolation. Some passer-by hears of my sorrow, and he

steps within, sits down, and essays to cheer me; he

speaks soothing words, but he loves me not; he is a

stranger; he knows me not at all; he has only come in

to try his skill. And what is the consequence? His

words run o'er me like oil upon a slab of marble-they

are like the pattering rain upon the rock; they do not

break my grief; it stands unmoved as adamant, because

he has no love for me. But let some one who loves me

dear as his own life, come and plead with me, then

truly his words are music; they taste like honey; he

knows the password of the doors of my heart, and my ear

is attentive to every word; I catch the intonation of

each syllable as it falls, for it is like the harmony

of the harps of heaven. Oh! there is a voice in love,

it speaks a language which is its own; it has an idiom

and a brogue which none can mimic; wisdom cannot

imitate it; oratory cannot attain unto it; it is love

alone which can reach the mourning heart; love is the

only handkerchief which can wipe the mourner's tears

away. And is not the Holy Ghost a loving comforter?

Dost thou know, O saint, how much the Holy Spirit loves

thee? Canst thou measure the love of the Spirit? Dost

thou know how great is the affection of his soul

towards thee? Go measure heaven with thy span; go weigh

the mountains in the scales; go take the ocean's water,

and tell each drop; go count the sand upon the sea's

wide shore; and when thou hast accomplished this, thou

canst tell how much he loveth thee. He has loved thee

long, he has loved thee well, he loved thee ever, and

he still shall love thee; surely he is the person to

comfort thee, because he loves. Admit him, then, to

your heart, O Christian, that he may comfort you in

your distress.

But next, he is a faithful Comforter. Love sometimes

proveth unfaithful. "Oh! sharper than a serpent's

tooth" is an unfaithful friend! Oh! far more bitter

than the gall of bitterness, to have a friend turn from

me in my distress! Oh! woe of woes, to have one who

loves me in my prosperity, forsake me in the dark day

of my trouble. Sad indeed; but such is not God's

Spirit. He ever loves, and loves even to the end-a

faithful Comforter. Child of God, you are in trouble. A

little while ago, you found him a sweet and loving

Comforter; you obtained relief from him when others

were but broken cisterns; he sheltered you in his

bosom, and carried you in his arms. Oh, wherefore dost

thou distrust him now? Away with thy fears; for he is a

faithful Comforter. "Ah!, but," thou sayest, "I fear I

shall be sick, and shall be deprived of his

ordinances." Nevertheless he shall visit thee on thy

sick bed, and sit by thy side, to give thee

consolation. "Ah! but I have distresses greater than

you can conceive of; wave upon wave rolleth over me;

deep calleth unto deep, at the noise of the Eternal's

waterspouts." Nevertheless, he will be faithful to his

promise. "Ah! but I have sinned." So thou hast, but sin

cannot sever thee from his love; he loves thee still.

Think not, O poor downcast child of God, because the

scars of thine old sins have marred thy beauty, that he

loves thee less because of that blemish. O no! He loved

thee when he foreknew thy sin; he loved thee with the

knowledge of what the aggregate of thy wickedness would

be; and he does not love thee less now. Come to him in

all boldness of faith; tell him thou hast grieved him,

and he will forget thy wandering, and will receive thee

again; the kisses of his love shall be bestowed upon

thee, and the arms of his grace shall embrace thee. He

is faithful; trust him, he will never deceive you;

trust him, he will never leave you.

Again, he is an unwearied Comforter. I have sometimes

tried to comfort persons, and have been tired. You, now

and then, meet with a case of a nervous person. You

ask, "What is your trouble?" You are told; and you

essay, if possible, to remove it; but while you are

preparing your artillery to battle the trouble, you

find that it has shifted its quarters, and is occupying

quite a different position. You change your argument

and begin again; but lo, it is again gone, and you are

bewildered. You feel like Hurcules, cutting off the

evergrowing heads of the Hydra, and you give up your

task in despair. You meet with persons whom it is

impossible to comfort, reminding one of the man who

locked himself up in fetters, and threw the key away,

so that nobody could unlock him. I have found some in

the fetters of despair. "O, I am the man," say they,

"that has seen affliction; pity me, pity me, O, my

friends;" and the more you try to comfort such people,

the worse they get; and, therefore, out of all heart,

we leave them to wander alone among the tombs of their

former joys. But the Holy Ghost is never out of heart

with those whom he wishes to comfort. He attempts to

comfort us, and we run away from the sweet cordial; he

gives us some sweet draught to cure us, and we will not

drink it; he gives some wondrous potion to charm away

all our troubles, and we put it away from us. Still be

pursues us; and though we say that we will not be

comforted, he says we shall be, and when he has said,

he does it; he is not to be wearied by all our sins,

nor by all our murmurings.

And oh, how wise a Comforter is the Holy Ghost. Job had

comforters, and I think he spoke the truth when he

said, "Miserable comforters are ye all." But I dare say

they esteemed themselves wise; and when the young man

Elihu rose to speak, they thought he had a world of

impudence. Were they not "grave and reverend

seigniors?" Did not they comprehend his grief and

sorrow? If they could not comfort him, who could? But

they did not find out the cause. They thought he was

not really a child of God, that he was self-righteous,

and they gave him the wrong physic. It is a bad case

when the doctor mistakes a disease and gives a wrong

prescription, and so perhaps kills the patient.

Sometimes, when we go and visit people, we mistake

their disease; we want to comfort them on this point,

whereas they do not require any such comfort at all,

and they would be better left alone, than spoiled by

such unwise comforters as we are. But oh, how wise the

Holy Spirit is! He takes the soul, lays it on the

table, and dissects it in a moment; he finds out the

root of the matter, he sees where the complaint is, and

then he applies the knife where something is required

to be taken away, or puts a plaster where the sore is;

and he never mistakes. O how wise is the blessed Holy

Ghost; from ever comforter I turn, and leave them all,

for thou art he who alone givest the wisest

consolation.

Then mark, how safe a Comforter the Holy Ghost is. All

comfort is not safe, mark that. There is a young man

over there very melancholy. You know how he became so.

He stepped into the house of God and heard a powerful

preacher, and the word was blessed, and convinced him

of sin. When he went home, his father and the rest

found there was something different about him, "Oh,"

they said, "John is mad, he is crazy;" and what said

his mother? "Send him into the country for a week; let

him go to the ball or the theatre." John, did you find

any comfort there? "Ah no; they made me worse, for

while I was there I thought hell might open and swallow

me up." Did you find any relief in the gayeties of the

world? "No," say you, "I thought it was idle waste of

time." Alas! this is miserable comfort, but it is the

comfort of the worldling; and, when a Christian gets

into distress, how many will recommend him this remedy

and the other. "Go and hear Mr. So-and-so preach;"

"have a few friends at you house;" "Read such-and-such

a consoling volume;" and very likely it is the most

unsafe advice in the world. The devil will sometimes

come to men's souls as a false comforter; and he will

say to the soul, "What need is there to make all this

ado about repentance? you are no worse than other

people;" and he will try to make the soul believe, that

what is presumption, is the real assurance of the Holy

Ghost; thus he deceives many by false comfort. Ah!

there have been many, like infants, destroyed by

elixirs, given to lull them to sleep; many have been

ruined by the cry of "peace, peace," when there is no

peace; hearing gentle things, when they ought to be

stirred to the quick. Cleopatra's asp was brought in a

basket of flowers; and men's ruin often lurks in fair

and sweet speeches. But the Holy Ghost's comfort is

safe, and you may rest on it. Let him speak the word,

and there is a reality about it; let him give the cup

of consolation, and you may drink it to the bottom; for

in its depths there are no dregs, nothing to intoxicate

or ruin, it is all safe.

Moreover, the Holy Ghost is an active Comforter; he

does not comfort by words, but by deeds. Some comfort

by, "Be ye warmed, and be ye filled, giving nothing."

But the Holy Ghost gives, he intercedes with Jesus; he

gives us promises, he gives us grace, and so he

comforts us. Mark again, he is always a successful

Comforter; he never attempts what he cannot accomplish.

Then, to close up, he is an ever-present Comforter, so

that you never have to send for him. Your God is always

near you; and when you need comfort in your distress,

behold the word is nigh thee; it is in thy mouth, and

in thy heart. He is an ever-present help in time of

trouble. I wish I had time to expand these thoughts,

but I cannot.

II. The second thing is the COMFORT. Now there are some

persons who make a great mistake about the influence of

the Holy Spirit. A foolish man, who had a fancy to

preach in a certain pulpit, though in truth he was

quite incapable of the duty, called upon the minister,

and assured him solemnly, that it had been revealed to

him by the Holy Ghost that he was to preach in his

pulpit. "Very well," said the minister, "I suppose I

must not doubt your assertion, but as it has not been

revealed to me that I am to let you preach, you must go

your way, until it is." I have heard many fanatical

persons say the Holy Spirit revealed this and that to

them. Now, that is very generally revealed nonsense.

The Holy Ghost does not reveal anything fresh now. He

brings old things to our remembrance. "He shall teach

you all things, and bring all things to your

remembrance, whatsoever I have told you." The canon of

revelation is closed, there is no more to be added; God

does not give a fresh revelation, but he rivets the old

one. When it has been forgotten, and laid in the dusty

chamber of our memory, he fetches it out and cleans the

picture, but does not paint a new one. There are no new

doctrines, but the old ones are often revived. It is

not, I say, by any new revelation that the Spirit

comforts. He does so by telling us old things over

again; he brings a fresh lamp to manifest the treasures

hidden in Scripture; he unlocks the strong chests in

which the truth has long lain, and he points to secret

chamber filled with untold riches; but he coins no

more, for enough is done. Believer! there is enough in

the Bible for thee to live upon forever. If thou

shouldst outnumber the years of Methuselah, there would

be no need for a fresh revelation; if thou shouldst

live till Christ should come upon the earth, there

would be no need for the addition of a single word; if

thou shouldst go down as deep as Jonah, or even descend

as David said he did into the belly of hell, still

there would be enough in the Bible to comfort thee

without a supplementary sentence. But Christ says, "He

shall take of mine, and show it unto you." Now, let me

just tell you briefly what it is the Holy Ghost tells

us.

Ah! does he not whisper to the heart, "Saint, be of

good cheer; there is one who died for thee; look to

Calvary, behold his wounds, see the torrent gushing

from his side-there is thy purchaser, and thou art

secure. He loves thee with an everlasting love, and

this chastisement is meant for thy good; each stroke is

working thy healing; by the blueness of the wound thy

soul is made better." "Whom he loveth he chasteneth,

and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Doubt not

his grace, because of thy tribulation; but believe that

he loveth thee as much in seasons of trouble, as in

times of happiness. And then, moreover, he says, "What

is all thy suffering compared with that of thy Lord's?

or what, when weighed in the scales of Jesus' agonies,

is all thy distress? And especially at times does the

Holy Ghost take back the veil of heaven, and lets the

soul behold the glory of the upperworld! Then it is

that the saint can say, "O thou art a Comforter to me!"

"Let cares like a wild deluge come,

And storms of sorrow fall;

May I but safely reach my home,

My God, my heaven, my all."

Some of you could follow, were I to tell of

manifestations of heaven. You, too, have left sun,

moon, and stars at your feet, while, in you flight,

outstripping the tardy lightning, you have seemed to

enter the gates of pearl, and tread the golden streets,

borne aloft on wings of the Spirit. But here we must

not trust ourselves; lest, lost in reverie, we forget

our theme.

III. And now, thirdly, who are the comforted persons? I

like, you know, at the end of my sermon to cry out,

"Divide! divide!" There are two parties here-some who

are comforted, and others who are the comfortless

ones-some who have received the consolations of the

Holy Ghost, and some who have not. Now let us try and

sift you, and see which is the chaff and which is the

wheat; and may God grant that some of the chaff may,

this night, be transformed into his wheat!

You may say, "How am I to know whether I am a recipient

of the comfort of the Holy Ghost?" You may know it by

one rule. If you have received one blessing from God,

you will receive all other blessings too. Let me

explain myself. If I could come here as an auctioneer,

and sell the gospel off in lots, I should dispose of it

all. If I could say, here is justification through the

blood of Christ-free; giving away, gratis; many a one

would say, "I will have justification; give it to me; I

wish to be justified; I wish to be pardoned." Suppose I

took sanctification, the giving up of all sin, a

thorough change of heart, leaving off drunkenness and

swearing; many would say, "I don't want that; I should

like to go to heaven, but I do not want that holiness;

I should like to be saved at last, but I should like to

have my drink still; I should like to enter glory, but

then I must have an oath or two on the road." Nay, but,

sinner, if thou hast one blessing, thou shalt have all.

God will never divide the gospel. He will not give

justification to that man, and sanctification to

another-pardon to one, and holiness to another. No, it

all goes together. Whom he call, them he justifies;

whom he justifies, them he sanctifies; and whom he

sanctifies, them he also glorifies. Oh; if I could lay

down nothing but the comforts of the gospel, ye would

fly to them as flies do to honey. When ye come to be

ill, ye send for the clergyman. Ah! you all want your

minister then to come and give you consoling words.

But, if he be an honest man, he will not give some of

you a particle of consolation. He will not commence

pouring oil, when the knife would be better. I want to

make a man feel his sins before I dare tell him

anything about Christ. I want to probe into his soul

and make him feel that he is lost before I tell him

anything about the purchased blessing. It is the ruin

of many to tell them, "Now just believe on Christ, and

that is all you have to do." If, instead of dying, they

get better, they rise up white-washed hypocrites-that

is all. I have heard of a city missionary who kept a

record of two thousand persons who were supposed to be

on their death-bed, but recovered, and whom he should

have put down as converted persons had they died; and

how many do you think lived a Christian life afterwards

out of the two thousand? Not two. Positively he could

only find one who was found to live afterwards in the

fear of God. Is it not horrible that when men and women

come to die, they should cry, "Comfort, comfort?" and

that hence their friends conclude that they are

children of God, while, after all, they have no right

to consolation, but are intruders upon the enclosed

grounds of the blessed God. O God, may these people

ever be kept from having comfort when they have no

right to it! Have you the other blessings? Have you had

the conviction of sin? Have you ever felt your guilt

before God? Have your souls been humbled at Jesus'

feet? And have you been made to look to Calvary alone

for your refuge? If not, you have no right to

consolation. Do not take an atom of it. The Spirit is a

convincer before he is a Comforter; and you must have

the other operations of the Holy Spirit, before you can

derive anything from this.

And now I have done. You have heard what this babbler

hath said once more. What has it been? Something about

the Comforter. But let me ask you, before you go, what

do you know about the Comforter? Each one of you,

before descending the steps of this chapel, let this

solemn question thrill through your souls-What do you

know of the Comforter? O! poor souls, if ye know not

the Comforter, I will tell you what you shall know-You

shall know the Judge! If ye know not the Comforter on

earth, ye shall know the Condemner in the next world,

who shall cry, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting

fire in hell." Well might Whitefield call out, "O

earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord!" If ye

were to live here forever, ye might slight the gospel;

if ye had a lease of your lives, ye might despise the

Comforter. But, sirs, ye must die. Since last we met

together, probably some have gone to their long last

home; and ere we meet again in this sanctuary, some

here will be amongst the glorified above, or amongst

the damned below. Which will it be? Let you soul

answer. If to-night you fell down dead in your pews, or

where you are standing in the gallery, where would you

be? in heaven or in hell? Ah! deceive not yourselves;

let conscience have its perfect work; and if in the

sight of God, you are obliged to say, "I tremble and

fear lest my portion should be with unbelievers,"

listen one moment, and then I have done with thee. "He

that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he

that believeth not shall be damned." Weary sinner,

hellish sinner, thou who art the devil's castaway,

reprobate, profligate, harlot, robber, thief,

adulterer, fornicator, drunkard, swearer, Sabbath-

breaker-list! I speak to thee as well as to the rest. I

exempt no man. God hath said there is no exemption

here. "Whosoever believeth on the name of Jesus Christ

shall be saved." Sin is no barrier; thy guilt is no

obstacle. Whosoever-though he were as black as Satan,

though he were filthy as a fiend-whosoever this night

believes, shall have every sin forgiven, shall have

every crime effaced; shall have ever iniquity blotted

out; shall be saved in the Lord Jesus Christ, and shall

stand in heaven safe and secure. That is the glorious

gospel. God apply it to your hearts, and give you faith

in Jesus!

"We have listened to the preacher-

Truth by him has now been shown;

But we want a GREATER TEACHER,

From the everlasting throne;

APPLICATION

Is the work of God alone."

The Teaching of the Holy Ghost

May 13, 1860 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, Whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14:26 .

There are many choice gifts comprehended in the Covenant of Grace, but the first and richest of them are these twain the gift of Jesus Christ for us and the gift of the Holy Ghost to us. The first of these I trust we are not likely to undervalue. We delight to hear of that "unspeakable gift" the Son of God, who bare our sine, and carried our sorrows, and endured our punishment in his own body on the tree. There is something so tangible in the cross, the nails, the vinegar, the spear, that we are not able to forget the Master, especially when so often we enjoy the delightful privilege of assembling round his table, and breaking bread in remembrance of him. But the second great gift, by no means inferior to the first the gift of the Holy Spirit to us is so spiritual and we are so carnal, is so mysterious and we are so material, that we are very apt to forget its value, ay, and even to forget the gift altogether. And yet, my brethren, let us ever remember that Christ on the cross is of no value to us apart from the Holy Spirit in us. In vain that blood is flowing, unless the finger of the Spirit applies the blood to our conscience; in vain is that garment of righteousness wrought out, a garment without seam, woven from the top throughout, unless the Holy Spirit wraps it around us, and arrays us in its costly folds. The river of the water of life cannot quench our thirst till the Spirit presents the goblet and lifts it to our lip. All the things that are in the paradise of God itself could never be blissful to us so long as we are dead souls, and dead souls we are until that heavenly wind comes from the four corners of the earth and breathes upon us slain, that we may live. We do not hesitate to say, that we owe as much to God the Holy Ghost as we do to God the Son. Indeed, it were a high sin and misdemeanor to attempt to put one person of the Divine Trinity before another. Thou, O Father, art the source of all grace, all love and mercy towards us. Thou, O Son, art the channel of thy Father's mercy, and without thee thy Father's love could never flow to us. And thou, O Spirit thou art he who enables us to receive that divine virtue which flows from the fountainhead, the Father, through Christ the channel, and by thy means enters into our spirit, and there abides and brings forth its glorious fruit. Magnify, then, the Spirit, ye who are partakers of it; "praise, laud, and love his name always, for it is seemly so to do." My work this morning is to set forth the work of the Holy Spirit, not as a Comforter, or as a Quickener, or as a Sanctifier, but principally as a Teacher, although we shall have to touch upon these other points in passing. The Holy Ghost is the great Teacher of the Father's children. The Father begets us by his own will through the word of truth. Jesus Christ takes us into union with himself, so that we become in a second sense the children of God. Then God the Holy Spirit breathes into us the "spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Having given us that spirit of adoption, he trains us, becomes our great Educator, cleanses away our ignorance, and reveals one truth after another, until at last we comprehend with all saints what are the heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and then the Spirit introduces the educated ones to the general assembly and church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. Concerning this Teacher, these three things first, what he teaches; secondly, his methods of teaching; and thirdly, the nature and characteristics of that teaching. I. First, then, WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT TEACHES US. And here indeed we have a wide field spread before us, for he teaches to God's people all that they do that is acceptable to the Father, and all that they know that is profitable to themselves. 1. I say that he teaches them all that they do. Now, there are some things which you and I can do naturally, when we are but children without any teaching. Who ever taught a child to cry? It is natural to it. The first sign of its life is its shrill feeble cry of pain. Ever afterwards you need never send it to school to teach it to utter the cry of its grief, the well known expression of its little sorrows. Ah, my brethren, but you and I as spiritual infants, had to be taught to cry; for we could not even cry of ourselves, till we had received "the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abbe, Father." There are cryings and groanings which cannot be uttered in words and speech, simple as this language of the new nature seems to be. But even these feeblest groanings, sighings, cryings, tears, are marks of education. We must be taught to do this, or else we are not sufficient to do even these little things in and of ourselves. Children, as we know, have to be taught to speak, and it is by degrees that they-are able to pronounce first the shorter, and afterwards the longer words. We, too, are taught to speak. We have none of us learned, as yet, the whole vocabulary of Canaan. I trust we are able to say some of the words; but we shall never be able to pronounce them all till we come into that land where we shall see Christ, and "shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." The sayings of the saints, when they are good and true, are the teachings of the Spirit. Marked ye not that passage "No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost?" He may say as much in dead words, but the spirit's saying, the saying of the soul, he can never attain to, except as he is taught by the Holy Ghost. Those first words which we ever used as Christians "God be merciful to me a sinner," were taught us by the Holy Spirit; and that song which we shall sing before the throne "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever," shall but be the ripe fruit of that same tree of knowledge of good and evil, which the Holy Spirit hath planted in the soil of our hearts. Further, as we are taught to cry, and taught to speak by the Holy Spirit, so are all God's people taught to walk and act by Him. "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." We may take the best heed to our life, but we shah stumble or go astray unless he who first set us in the path shall guide us in it. "I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms." "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters." To stray is natural; to keep the path of right is spiritual. To err is human; to be holy is divine. To fall is the natural effect of evil; but to stand is the glorious effect of the Holy Spirit working in us, both to will and to do of his own good pleasure. There was never yet a heavenly thought, never yet a hallowed deed, never yet a consecrated act acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, which was not worked in us by the Holy Ghost. Thou hast worked all our works in us. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Now as it is with the simple deeds of the Christian, his crying, his speaking, his walking, his acting-all these are teachings of the Holy Ghost so is it with the higher efforts of his nature. The preaching of the gospel, when it be done aright, is only accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit. That sermon which is based upon human genius is worthless, that sermon which has been obtained through human knowledge, and which has no other force in it than the force of logic or of oratory, is spent in vain. God worketh not by such tools as these. He cleanseth not spirits by the water from broken cisterns, neither doth he save souls by thoughts which come from men's brains, apart from the divine influence which goeth with them. We might have all the learning of the sages of Greece, nay, better still, all the knowledge of the twelve apostles put together, and then we might have the tongue of a seraph, and the eyes and heart of a Savior, but apart from the Spirit of the living God, our preaching would yet be vain, and our hearers and ourselves would still abide in our sins. To preach aright can only be accomplished of the Holy Spirit. There may be a thing called preaching that is of human energy, but God's ministers are taught of the Holy One; and when their word is blessed, either to saint or sinner, the blessing cometh not of them, but of the Holy Ghost, and unto Him be all the glory, for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. So is it with sacred song. Whose are the wings with which I mount towards the skies in sacred harmony and joy? They are thy wings, O Holy Dove! Whose is the fire with which my spirit flames at times of hallowed consecration? Thine is the flame, O fiery Spirit! thine. Whose is the tongue of fire which rested on the apostolic lip? Thine was that cleft tongue, thou Holy One of Israel! Whose is that dew which falls upon the withered blade, and makes it smile and fire? Thine are those holy drops thou Dew of God; thou aft that womb of the morning from whence these beauties of holiness proceed. Thou hast worked an in us, and unto thee would we give well-deserved thanks. So, then, all the doings of the Christian, both the little and the major doings, are all the teachings of the Holy Ghost. 2. But now, farther; all that the believer truly know that is profitable to himself is taught him by the Holy Spirit. We may learn very much from the Word of God morally and mentally, but the Christian philosopher understands that there is a distinction between soul and spirit; that the mere natural soul or intellect of man may instruct itself well enough out of the Word of God, but that spiritual things are only to be spiritually discerned, and that until that third, higher principle the spirit is infused into us in regeneration, we have not even the capability or the possibility of knowing spiritual things. Now it is this third, higher principle, of which the apostle speaks when he speaks of "body, soul, and spirit." Mental philosophers declare there is no such thing as the third part spirit. They can find a body and a soul, but no spirit. They are quite right there is no such thing in natural men. That third principle the spirit is an infusion of the Holy Ghost at regeneration, and is not to be detected by mental philosophy; it is altogether a subtler thing; a thing too rare, too heavenly, to be described by Dugald Stewart, or Reid, or Brown, or any of those mighty men who could dissect the mind, but who could not understand the spirit Now, the Spirit of God first gives us a spirit, and then afterwards educates that spirit; and all that that spirit knows is taught it by the Holy Ghost. Perhaps the first thing that we learn is sin: he reproves us of sin. No man knows the exceeding sinfulness of sin, but by the Holy Ghost. You may punish a man, you may tell him of the wrath of God, and of hen, but you cannot make him know what an evil and a bitter thing sin is till the Holy Ghost hath taught it to him. 'Tis an awful lesson indeed to learn, and when the Holy Spirit makes us sit down upon the stool of penitence, and begins to drill this great truth into us, that sin is damnation in the bud, that sin is hell in the germ: then when we begin to perceive it, we cry out, "Now I know how vile I am, my soul abhorreth itself in dust and ashes." No man, I repeat it, will ever know the sinfulness of sin by argument, by punishment, by moral discipline, or by any means apart from the education of the Holy Ghost. It is a truth beyond the reach of human intellect to know how base a thing sin is. The spirit alone, engrafted and given by the Holy Spirit, that spirit alone can learn the lesson, and only the Holy Ghost can teach it. The next lesson the Spirit teaches us, is the total ruin, depravity, and helplessness of self. Men pretend to know this by nature, but they do not know it; they can only speak the words of experience as parrots speak like men. But to know myself utterly lost and ruined; to know myself so lost, "that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing," is a knowledge so distasteful, so hateful, so abominable to the carnal intellect, that man would not learn it if he could, and if he hath learnt it, it is a clear proof that God the Holy Spirit has made him willing to see the truth, and willing to receive it. When we sometimes hear great preachers telling us that there is something grand left in man yet, that when Adam fell he might have broken his little finger, but did not ruin himself entirely, that man is a grand being, in fact a noble creature and that we are all wrong in telling men they are depraved, and thundering out the law of God at them am I astonished that they should speak thus? Nay, my brethren, it is the language of the carnal mind the whole world over, and in every age. No wonder that a man is eloquent upon this point, every man needs to be eloquent when he has to defend a lie. No wonder that glorious sentences have been uttered, and flowery periods poured forth from a cornucopia of eloquence upon this subject. A man need exhaust all logic and all rhetoric to defend a-falsehood; and it is not a wonder that he seeks to do it, for man believes himself to be rich, and increased in goods, and to have need of nothing, till the Holy Ghost teaches him that he is naked, and poor, and miserable. These lessons being learned, the Spirit proceeds to teach us further the nature and character of God. God is to be heard in every wind, and seen in every cloud, but not all of God. God's goodness, and God's omnipotence, the world clearly manifesteth to us in the works of creation, but where do I read of his grace, where do I read of his mercy, or of his justice? There are lines which I cannot read in creation. Those must have ears indeed who can hear the notes of mercy or of grace whispering in the evening gale. No, brethren, these parts of God's attributes are only revealed to us in this precious Book, and there they are so revealed that we cannot know them until the Spirit opens our eyes to perceive them. To know the inflexibility of Divine justice, and to see how God exacts punishment for every jot and little of sin, and yet to know that that full-justice does not eclipse his equally full-mercy, but that the two move around each other, without for a single instant coming into contact, or conflict, or casting the slighest shallow one or the other; to see how God is just and yet the justifier of the ungodly, and so to know God that my spirit loves his nature, appreciates his attributes, and desires to be like him this is a knowledge which astronomy cannot teach, which all the researches of the sciences can never give to us. We must be taught God, if we ever learn of him we must be taught God, by God the Holy Ghost. Oh that we may learn this lesson well, that we may be able to sing of his faithfulness, of his covenant love, of his immutability, of his boundless mercy, of his inflexible justice, that we may be able to talk to one another concerning that incomprehensible One, and may see him even as a man seeth his friend; and may come to walk with him as Enoch did all the days of our life I This, indeed, must be an education given to us by the Holy Ghost. But not to tarry on these points, though they are prolific of thought, let us observe that the Holy Spirit specially teaches to us Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Ghost who manifests the Savior to us in the glory of his person; the complex character of his manhood and of his deity; it is he who tells us of the love of his heart, of the power of his arm, of the clearness of his eye, the preciousness of his blood, and of the prevalence of his plea. To know that Christ is my Redeemer, is to know more than Plato could have taught me. To know that I am a member of his body, of his flesh and of his bones; that my name is on his breast, and engraver on the palms of his hands, is to know more than the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge could teach to all their scholars, learn they never so well. Not at the feet of Gamaliel did Paul learn to say-"He loved me, and gave himself for me." Not in the midst of the Rabbis, or at the feet of the members of the Sanhedrim, did Paul learn to cry "Those things which I counted gain, I now count loss for Christ's sake." "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." No, this must have been taught as he himself confesseth "not of flesh and blood, but of the Holy Ghost." I need only hint that it is also the Spirit who teaches us our adoption. Indeed, an the privileges of the new covenant, beginning from regeneration, running through redemption, justification pardon, sanctification, adoption, preservation, continual safety, even unto au abundant enhance into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all is the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and especially that last point, for "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." He leads us into the truth of joys to come, carries our spirit upwards, and gives us

"That inward calm within the breast, The surest pledge of glorious rest, Which for the Church of God remains, The end of cares, the end of pains."

II. And now I come to the second point, which was this THE METHODS BY WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT TEACHES GOD'S CHILDREN THESE PRECIOUS THINGS. Here we must remark that we know nothing of the precise way of operation, because the Spirit is mysterious; we know not whence he cometh nor whither he goeth. But still let us describe what we can perceive. And first, in teaching God's people, one of the first things the Spirit does is to excite interest in their minds. I frequently find that when men are being educated for the ministry, the hardest thing is to set them going. They are like bats on the ground; if once a bat gets on the earth he cannot fly until he creeps to the top of a stone and gets a little above the earth, and then he gets wing and can fly well enough. So there are many who have not got their energies aroused, they have talent but it is asleep, and we want a kind of railway-whistle to blow in their ears to make them start up and rub away the film from their eyes so that they may see. Now it is just so with men, when the Spirit of God begins to teach them. He excites their interest in the things which he wishes them to learn he shows them that these things here a personal bearing upon their soul's present and eternal welfare. He so brings precious truth home, that what the man thought was utterly indifferent yesterday, he now begins to esteem inestimably precious "Oh!" said he, "theology I of what use can it be to me?" But now the knowledge of Christ and him crucified has become to him the most desirable and excellent of all the sciences. The Holy Spirit awakens his interest. That done, he gives to the man a teachable spirit. There be men who will not learn. They profess that they want to know, but you never found the right way of teaching them. Teach them by little and little, and they easy "Do you think I am a child?" Tell them a great deal at once, and they say "You have not the power to make me comprehend!" will I have been competed sometimes to say to a man, when I have been trying to make him understand, and he has said "I cannot understand you," "Well, sir, I am thankful it is not my duty to give you an understanding if you have none." Now, the Holy Spirit makes a man willing to learn in any shape. The disciple sits down at the feet of Christ; and let Christ speak as he may, and teach him as he will, whether with the rod, or with a smile, he is quite willing to learn. Distasteful the lessons are, but the regenerated pupil loves to learn best the very things he once hated. Cutting to his pride the doctrines of the gospel each one of them may be, but for this very reason he loves them; for he cries, "Lord, humble me; Lord, bring me down; teach me those things that will make me cover my head with dust and ashes; show me my nothingness; teach me my emptiness; reveal to me my filthiness." So that the Holy Spirit thus proceeds with his work awaking interest, and enkindling a teachable spirit. This done, the Holy Ghost in the next place sets truth in a clear light, How bard it is sometimes to state a fact which you perfectly understand yourself, in such a way that another man may see it. It is like the telescope; there are many persons who are disappointed with a telescope, because whenever they walk into an observatory and put their eye to the glass, expecting to see the rings of Saturn, and the belts of Jupiter, they have said, "I can see nothing at all; a piece of glass, and a grain or two of dust is all I can see!" "But," says the astronomer, when he comes, "I can see Saturn in all her glory." Why cannot you? Because the focus does not suit the stranger's eye. By a little skill, the focus can be altered so that the observer may be able to see what he could not see before. So is it with language; it is a sort of telescope by which I enable another to see my thoughts, but I cannot always give him the right focus. Now the Holy Spirit always gives the right focus to every truth. He sheds a light so strong and forcible upon the Word, that the spirit says. "Now I see it, now I understand it." For even here, in this precious Book, there are words which I have looked at a hundred times, but I could not understand them, till at some favored hour, the key-word seemed as if it leaped up from the midst of the verse and said to me, "Look at the verse in my light," and at once I perceived not always from a word in the verse itself, but sometimes in the context I perceived the meaning which I could not see before. This, too, is a part of the Spirit's training to steed a light upon truth. But the Spirit not only enlightens the truth, but he enlightens the understanding. 'Tis marvellous, too, how the Holy Ghost does teach men who seemed as if they never could learn. I would not wish to say anything which my brother might be grieved at; but I do know some brethren, I won't say they are here today, but they are not out of the place come brethren whose opinion I would not take in anything worldly on any account. If h were anything to do with pounds, shillings, and pence anything where human judgment was concerned, I should not consult them; but those men have a deeper,. truer, and more experimental knowledge of the Word of God, than many who preach it, because the Holy Spirit never tried to teach them grammar, and never meant to. teach-them business never wanted to teach them astronomy, but he has taught them the Word of God, and they understand it. Other teachers have labored to beat the elements. of science into them but without success, for they are as thick and addled in they brains as they can well be; but the Holy Spirit teas taught them the Word of God, and. they are clear enough there. I come in close contact with some young men. When. we are taking our lessens for illustration out of the sciences, they seem to be all profound, and when I ask them a question to see if they have understood; they are lost; but, mark you, when we come to read: a chapter out of some old Puritanic book come to theology those brethren give-me the smartest and sharpest answers of the whole class. When we once some to deal with things experimental and controversial, I find those men are able to double up their opponents, and vanquish them at once, because they are deeply read in the Word of God. The Spirit has taught them the things of Christ, but he has not taught them anything else. I have perceived, also, that when the Spirit of God: has enlarged the understanding to receive the Bible truth that understanding becomes more capable receiving other truth. I heard, some time ago, from a brother minister, when we were comparing notes, the story of a man who had been the dullest creature that was known. He was not more than one grade above an idiot, but when he was converted to God, one of the first things he wanted to do, was to read the Bible. They had a long, long teak to teach him a verse, but he would learn it, he would master it. He stuck at it as hard as ever he could, till he was able to read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." That man was by-and-bye asked to engage in prayer. At first he hardly put a sentence together. By-and-bye he arrived at a considerable degree of fluency, because he would do it. He would not stand still, he said, in the prayer-meeting, and not have a word to say for his Master. He began to read his Bible much, and to pray with a great deal of profit and acceptableness to those that heard, and after awhile, he actuary began to speak in the villages, and became sometime after an honored and acceptable pastor of one of our Baptist Churches. Had it not been for the Spirit of God first expanding the understanding to receive religious truth, that understanding might have been cramped, and fettered, and fast bolted to this very day, and the man might have been ever after an idiot, and so have gone down to his grave, while now he stands up to tell to sinners round, in burning language, the story of the cross of Christ. The Spirit teaches us by enlightening the understanding. Lest I weary you, let me hurry on through the other points. He teaches us also by refreshing the memory. "He shall bring all things to your remembrance." He puts all those old treasures into the ark of our soul, and when the time comes, he opens it, and brings out these precious things in right good order, and shows them to us again and again. He refreshes the memory, and when this is done, he does better, he teaches us the Word, by making us feel its effect, and that, after all, is the best way of learning. You may try to teach a child the meaning of the term "sweetness;" but words will not avail, give him some honey and he win never forget it. You might seek to tell him of the glorious mountains, and the Alps, that pierce the clouds and send their snows peaks, like white-robed ambassadors up to the courts of heaven: take him there, let him see them, and he will never forget them. You might seek to paint to him the grandeur of the American continent, with its hills, and lakes, and rivers, such as the world saw not before: let him go and view it, and he will know more of the land than he could know by all your teaching, when he site at home. So the Holy Spirit does not only tell us of Christ's love; he sheds it abroad in the heart. He does not merely tell us of the sweetness of pardon; but he gives us a sense of no condemnation, and then we know an about it, better than we could have done by any teaching of words and thoughts. He takes us into the banqueting house and waves the banner of love over us. He bids us visit the garden of nets, and makes us lie among the lilies. He gives us that bundle of camphire, even our beloved, and bids us place it all night betwixt our breasts. He takes us to the cross of Christ, and he bids us put our finger into the print of the nails, and our hands into his side, and tells us not come "faithless, but believing," and so in the highest and most effectual manner he teacheth us to profit. III. But now I shall come to my third point, although I feel so if I wished my subject were somewhat less comprehensive, but indeed it is a fault which does not often happen to have too much rather than too little to speak of, except when we come upon a topic where God is to be glorified, and here indeed our tongue must be like the pen of a ready writer, when we speak of the things that we have made touching the king. I am now to speak to you about the CHARACTERISTICS AND NATURE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT'S TEACHING. And first I would remark that the Holy Ghost teaches sovereignty. He teaches whom he pleases. He takes the fool and makes him know the wonders of the dying love of Christ, to bring aspiring wisdom low and make the pride of man humble and abase itself. And as the Spirit teaches whom he wills, so he teaches when he wills. He has his own hours of instruction, and he will not be limited and bound by us. And then again he teaches as he wills same by affliction, some by. communion; some he teaches by the Word read, some by the Word spoken, some by neither, but directly by his own agency. And so also the Holy Spirit is a sovereign in that he teaches in whatever degree he pleases. He will make one man learn much, while another comprehends but little. Some Christiana wear their beards early they come to a rapid and high degree of maturity, and that on a sudden, while others creep but slowly to the goal, sad are very long in reaching it. Some Christians in early years understand more than others whose hairs have turned grey. The Holy Ghost is a sovereign. He doe not have all his pupils in one class, and them all the same lesson by simultaneous instruction; but each man is in a separate class, each man learning a separate lesson. Some beginning at the end of the book, some at the beginning, and some in the middle some learning one doctrine and some another, some going backwards and some forwards. The Holy Spirit teacheth sovereignly, and giveth to every man according as he wills, but then, wherever he teaches at all, he teaches effectually. He never failed to make us learn yet. No scholar was ever turned out of the Spirit's school incorrigible. He teaches all his children, not some of them "All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children," the last sentence being a proof that they have been effectually taught. Never once did the Spirit bring home the truth to the heart and yet that heart fail to receive it. He hath modes of touching the secret springs of life, and putting the truth into the very core of the being. He casts his healing mixtures into the fountain itself, and not into the streams. We instruct the ear, and the ear is far removed from the heart; he teaches the heart itself, and therefore his every word falleth upon good soil, and bringeth forth good and abundant fruit he teaches effectually. Dear brother, do you feel yourself to be a great fool sometimes? Your great Schoolmaster will make a good scholar of you yet. He will so teach you, that you shall be able to enter the kingdom of heaven knowing as much as the brightest saints. Teaching thus sovereignly and effectually, I may add, he teaches infallibly. We teach you errors through want of caution, sometimes through over zeal, and again through the weakness of our own mind. In the greatest preacher or teacher that ever lived there was some degree of error, and hence our hearers should always bring what we say to the law and the testimony; but the Holy Ghost never teaches error, if thou hast learned anything by the Spirit of God, it is pure, unadulterated, undiluted truth. Put thyself daily under his teaching, and thou shalt never learn a word amiss, nor a thought awry, but become infallibly taught, well taught in the whole truth as it is in Jesus. Further, where the Spirit thus teaches infallibly he teaches continually. Whom once he teaches, he never leaves till he has completed their education. On, and on, and on, however dull the scholar, however frail the memory, however vitiated the mind, he still continues with his gracious work, till he has trained us up and made us "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Nor does he leave us till he has taught us completely; for as our text says, "He shall teach you all things." There is not a truth so high that it shall not yet be mastered, nor a doctrine so hard that it shall not yet be received. High up, high up, tower the heights of the hill of knowledge, but there, when there, thy feet shall stand. Weary may be the way and weak thy knees, but up thither thou shalt climb, and one day with thy forehead bathed in the sunlight of heaven, thy soul shall stand and look down on tempests, mists, and all earth's clouds and smoke, and see the Master face to face, and be like him, and know him as he is. This is the joy of the Christian, that he shall be completely taught, and that the Holy Spirit will never give him up till; he has taught him all truth. I fear, however, that this morning I weary you. Such a theme as this will not be likely to be suitable to all minds. As I have already said, the spiritual mind alone receiveth spiritual things, and the doctrine of the Spirit's agency will never be very interesting to those who are entire strangers to it. I could not make another man understand the force of an electric shock unless he has felt it. It would not be likely at all that he would believe in those secret energies which move the world, unless he had some means of testing for himself. And those of you that never felt the Spirit's energy, are as much strangers to it as a stone would be. You are out of your element when you hear of the Spirit. You know nothing of his divine power; you have never been taught of him, and therefore how should you be careful to know what truths he teaches? I close, therefore, with this sorrowful reflection. Alas, alas, a thousand times alas, that there should be so many who know not their danger, who feel not their load, and in whose heart the light of the Holy Ghost hath never shone! Is it your case my dear hearer, this morning? I do not ask you whether you have been ever educated in the school of learning; that you may be, and you may have taken your degree and been first-class in honors, but you may still be as the wild ass's colt that knows nothing about these things. Religion, and the truth of it, is not to be learnt by the head. Years of reading, hours of assiduous study, will never make a man a Christian. "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." Oh! art thou destitute of the Spirit of the living God? For oh! I charge thee to remember this my hearer: if in thy soul mysterious and supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit has never been shed abroad, thou art an utter stranger to all the things of God. The promises are not thine; heaven is not thine, thou art on thy road to the land of the dead, to the region of the corpse, where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched. Oh that the Spirit of God may rest upon you now! Bethink you, you are absolutely dependent upon his influence. You are in God's hand today to be saved or to be lost not in your own hands, but in his. You are dead in sins; unless he quickens you, you must remain so. The moth beneath your finger is not more absolutely at your mercy than you are now at the mercy of God. Let him but will to leave you as you are, and you are lost; but oh! if mercy speaks and says, "Let that man live," you are saved. I would that you could feel the weight of this tremendous doctrine of sovereignty. It is like the hammer of Thor, it may shake your heart however stout it be, and make your rocky soul tremble to its base.

"Life, death, and hell, and worlds unknown, Hang on his firm decree."

Your destiny hangs there now; and will you rebel against the God in whose hand your sours eternal fate now rests? Will you lift the puny hand of your rebellion against him who alone can quicken you without whose gracious energy you are dead, and must be destroyed? Will you go this day and sin against light and against knowledge t Will you go to day and reject mercy which is proclaimed to you in Christ Jesus? If so, no fool was ever so mad as you are, to reject him without whom you are dead, and lost, and ruined. O that instead thereof there may be the sweet whisper of the Spirit saying, "Obey the divine command, believe on Christ and live I" Hear thou the voice of Jehovah, who cries, "This is the commandment, that ye believe in Jesus Christ whom he hath sent?" Thus obedient, God saith within himself, "I have set my love upon him, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he hath known my name;" and you shall yet live to sing in heaven of that sovereignty which, when your soul trembled in the balances, decided for your salvation, and gave you light and joy unspeakable. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on Calvary's cross, "and whosoever believeth on him shall be saved." "Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." Believe that record truer cast down your weapons; yield to the sovereignly of the Holy Ghost; and he shall assuredly prove to you that, in that very yielding, there was a proof that he had loved you; for he made you yield; he made you willing to bow before him in the day of his power. May the Holy Spirit now rest on the word I have spoken, for Jesu's sake!