When the Holy Ghost is Come | Page 4

preach the word in Asia"; and when they would have gone into
Bithynia, "the Spirit suffered them not" (Acts xvi. 6, 7).
Again, when the messengers of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, were
seeking Peter, "the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.
Arise, therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting
nothing: for I have sent them" (Acts x. 19, 20).
These are but a few of the passages of Scripture that might be quoted to
establish the fact of His personality--His power to think, to will, to act,
to speak; and if His personality is not made plain in these Scriptures,
then it is impossible for human language to make it so.
Indeed, I am persuaded that if an intelligent heathen, who had never
seen the Bible, should for the first time read the four Gospels and the
Acts of the Apostles, he would say that the personality of the Holy
Spirit is as clearly revealed in the Acts as is the personality of Jesus

Christ in the Gospels. In truth, the Acts of the Apostles are in a large
measure the acts of the Holy Spirit, and the disciples were not more
certainly under the immediate direction of Jesus during the three years
of His earthly ministry than they were under the direct leadership of the
Spirit after Pentecost.
But, while there are those that admit His personality, yet in their loyalty
to the Divine Unity they deny the Trinity, and maintain that the Holy
Spirit is only the Father manifesting Himself as Spirit, without any
distinction in personality. But this view cannot be harmonised with
certain Scriptures. While the Bible and reason plainly declare that there
is but one God, yet the Scriptures as clearly reveal that there are three
Persons in the Godhead--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
The form of Paul's benediction to the Corinthians proves the doctrine:--
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen" (2 Cor. xiii. 14).
Again, it is taught in the promise of Jesus, already quoted, "And I will
pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter... the Spirit of
Truth" (John xiv. 16, 17). Here the three Persons of the Godhead are
clearly revealed. The Son prays; the Father answers; the Spirit comes.
The Holy Spirit is "another Comforter," a second Comforter succeeding
the first, who was Jesus, and both were given by the Father.
Do you say, "I cannot understand it"? Neither do I. Who can
understand it? God does not expect us to understand it. Nor would He
have us puzzle our heads and trouble our hearts in attempting to
understand it or harmonise it with our knowledge of arithmetic.
Note this: it is only the fact that is revealed; how there can be three
Persons in one Godhead is not revealed.
The how is a mystery, and is not a matter of faith at all; but the fact is a
matter of revelation, and therefore a matter of faith. I myself am a
mysterious trinity of body, mind, and spirit. The fact I believe, but the
how is not a thing to believe. It is at this point that many puzzle and
perplex themselves needlessly.
In the ordinary affairs of life we grasp facts, and hold them fast,
without puzzling ourselves over the how of things. Who can explain
how food sustains life; how light reveals material objects, how sound
conveys ideas to our minds? It is the fact we know and believe, but the
how we pass by as a mystery unrevealed. What God has revealed, we

believe. We cannot understand how Jesus turned water into wine; how
He multiplied a few loaves and fishes and fed thousands; how He
stilled the stormy sea; how He opened blind eyes, healed lepers, and
raised the dead by a word. But the facts we believe. Wireless
telegraphic messages are sent over the vast wastes of ocean. That is a
fact, and we believe it. But how they go we do not know. That is not
something to believe. It is a matter of pure speculation, and is
unexplained.
An old servant of God has pointed out that it is the fact of the Trinity,
and not the manner of it, which God has revealed, and made a subject
for our faith.
But while the Scriptures reveal to us the fact of the personality of the
Holy Spirit, and it is a subject for our faith, to those in whom He dwells
this fact may become a matter of sacred knowledge, of blessed
experience.
How else can we account for the positive and assured way in which the
Apostles and disciples spoke of the Holy Ghost on and after