No theory of the Holy Spirit's work in human redemption that eliminates the truth of God as revealed in the Old and New Testaments, either from the standpoint of the sinner's deliverance from past sins, or the Christian's eternal deliverance, can be true.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Holy Spirit and Christian Growth.

I lay down three fundamental propositions and call special attention to them:

First, before there can be growth there must be life; Second, before there can be life there must be begetting and birth;

Third, before there can be begetting and birth there must be an agent.

These things are true in the natural realm and in the spiritual realm, and they have always been true.

Good intentions count for much, but revealed truth, God's truth, counts beyond every earthly consideration.

It is profoundly important to think correctly, for the thinking governs the life. We are sanctified set apart, cleansed by the word of God, by the truth; hear Jesus: Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth; as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world (Jno., 17: 17, 18)." Again: "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you (Jno., 15:3)." Hear Paul: "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth (II. Thess,. 2: 13)." Hear Peter: "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied (I. Pet., 1: 2)." We are quickened by the truth; hear Jesus: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life (Jno., 6:63)." We are saved by the truth; hear

the testimony of Jesus: "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin; and the servant abideth not in the house forever; but the Son abideth ever; if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (Jno., 8: 31-36)." Hear the testimony of James: "Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls (Jas., 1: 21)." Hear the testimony of Peter again: "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you (I. Pet., 1: 24, 25).”

No theory of the Holy Spirit and Christian growth that eliminates the word of God can be true.

The belief of a lie, however sincere, leads to damnation. Paul is my witness: "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved; and for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness (II. Thess., 2: 10-12)."

How important, how infinitely important, therefore, it is, to know the truth of God as He has revealed and recorded it by the Holy Spirit! How important, yea, how supremely important it is to be set right, right mentally, right spiritually, right practically!

There are many grievous and fatal errors relative to the Holy Spirit and His work. Let me discuss them with you in detail:

First, many look upon the Holy Spirit as "a power," an influence." He is all of this, but He is infinitely more. Out of this mistake has grown many dangerous errors in thinking, in faith, and in practice. If the Holy Spirit is just a resistless power, a subtle influence, subject, in His acts to no known law, the whole subject is invested with the habiliments of profound mysticism and impenetrable darkness. If he comes and enters our souls through our bodies, through the pores of the skin; if He disregards the laws created with us "in the beginning" for our government, it follows as certainly as night follows the day that we are left in ignorance as to His identity and work, out of which there is no way of deliverance. The Holy Spirit is a person the First Great Cause, the Almighty God, the Self-existent One. He made us in His own likeness and image: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them (Gen., 1: 26, 27)."

No theory of the Holy Spirit's work in conversion to Christ or growth in Him that eliminates the fact that God made us in His own likeness that the laws which govern the Divine Mind must therefore of necessity govern the Human Mind, and that God can only maintain His dignity as God, and reveal Himself, His thoughts, His will, to us in harmony with His nature and ours can be true.

Second, many religious teachers make the fatal and fundamental mistake of confounding Inspiration and Conversion. Mark time here! They fail to see the difference between the Holy Spirit's work in inspiring, endowing, enlightening, educating the apostles, and the Holy Spirit's work through the apostles in converting men to Christ the Lord. I fail to find words to adequately express and emphasize the importance of this truth. Let the reader pause,

reflect, and pray. Remove this error from the thought, preaching, and practice of Christendom and the way would be open for the world-wide proclamation of the gospel as recorded, as a real, an abiding, an inspired revelation of God. Mark this well: Only the apostles of Jesus - called of Him, endowed of Him, sent of Him -- and a small company of people at the house of Cornelius, and a few on whom these apostles laid their hands, and their endowment was limited both as to degree and time were supernaturally en

dowed or educated. I emphasize, educated! for the work of the Lord. This was not conversion; it was imparting. John the Baptist, addressing a mixed multitude - the good and bad said: "And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire; whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matt., 3: 10-12)." Mark the dividing line! But mark also that the Savior never did, in a single instance, promise a baptism in His Spirit to any save the twelve; neither did He ever confound this baptism with conversion or make it necessary to conversion, or any part of conversion save as it through the apostles furnished the means by which men are converted the facts and commands of the gospel. But let the record speak. Jesus, in giving His last and only world-embracing and age-lasting Commission, said to the eleven apostles, and He did not on this occasion, and He never did on any other occasion, say it to any one else: "And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem; and ye are witnesses of these things; and, behold, I send the promise of my Father