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The Christian dispensation is remarkable for two unspeakable gifts — God's gift of His Son and God's gift of His Spirit. And it were hard to say which gift is of the greater practical value; for without the gift of the Spirit we perish under the very shadow of the cross, while with it we possess all that the Cross promises. Consider —

I. IN WHAT THIS GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST CONSISTS.

1. Not in an empty sound, but in a veritable and substantial gift. When God says "I will pour out My Spirit upon you," He does not mock us with a sound of words; for the gift is larger than the word that speaks it.

2. Not in the gift of a number of good things figuratively represented as a gift of the Holy Ghost. If there is a literal expression anywhere in God's Word, then the gift of the Holy Ghost is the gift of the Holy Ghost; and to suppose it to be anything else is to reduce the Scriptures to a shadowy phantasm of figures with no fixed meaning.

3. Not in the gift of the Spirit on our behalf, merely to prepare the economy of saving grace. The Spirit was given not only to inspire the Word, to anoint Christ, to qualify the apostles, and to fill all the organisation of Christianity with light and life; but is also given as a direct and immediate gift to the believer, blot only as a gift of germinating and fructifying efficiency to the soil and atmosphere in which the seed-corn is placed, but also as a gift of life and growth-power to the seed-corn itself. "The Spirit of God dwelleth in you."

4. It consists in the grant of His abiding presence. There is a necessary presence of the Spirit, by reason of His nature — "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?" But this is a presence in which He is caringly, lovingly, helpingly, savingly with us. God was always in the world; but when He came m Christ, He was "God with us" in a very special manner. So with His Spirit in this gift.

5. It consists in a gracious affluence and influence of the Spirit upon our spirits. A patriot orator addresses his countrymen. Like a subtle, invisible fire, the fervour of his spirit flows out in his words, gestures, and looks, and flows in upon the spirits of the crowd, till all are moved and roused to action. And shall not the spirit of God — by the words of God, the wounds of Christ — move us to grief or joy, to hope or zeal? Believe in the life and energy of the Spirit.

6. It consists in the production of "fruits of the Spirit." The Spirit's movings would be a small gift without their effects; as the warmth and refreshing of sun and rain would be without the following harvest, or as the sound of David's harp on Saul's troubled spirit without the ejection of the evil spirit. And we are liable to be deceived by false, or human and merely natural emotions. Trust no emotion that does not hallow the heart; but do not distrust the Spirit's influence because "many false spirits are gone out."

II. THIS GIFT IS A GIFT FOR ALL BELIEVERS IN COMMON. For the ordinary work of a common salvation. Not only to enable men to speak with tongues, but to enable men of blasphemous tongues to speak the praises of God; not for "gifts of healing" only, but to heal the sin-sick souls of penitents to all time; not for "prophecies" merely, but to enable glad-hearted believers to foretell and foretaste the joys of heaven. Is a man to be born again — to belong to Christ, to be assured of adoption, to be sanctified? For all these, and all the gracious round of gospel purposes the Spirit worketh. And the promise is to "as many as the Lord our God shall call."

III. THE STANDING NECESSITY FOR THIS GIFT. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." Men can read the Bible, but cannot make it as a hammer, or as a fire; can build sanctuaries, but cannot make them temples of God; can organize churches, but cannot make them "habitations of God" except "through the Spirit;" can make sermons, but cannot convert souls; can arrange and marshall attacks upon vice and sin, but cannot make them "mighty to the pulling down of strongholds." Even the Lord Jesus Himself was "anointed with the Holy Ghost, to go about doing good;" while not a captain was ever sent against the Philistines, or an Aholiah or a Bezaleel employed upon the tabernacle without a measure of God's Spirit. "Receive ye the Holy Ghost."

IV. HOW IS THE GIFT TO BE OBTAINED?

1. Believe in the Holy Ghost. All baptized into His name; part of the Christian benediction from above is His communion. Believe in His power and gift.

2. Confess your dependence on this gift. This blessed shower will slide away from the mountain side of self-sufficiency, to rest richly in the valleys beneath. The Spirit is promised when "the city shall be low in a low place."

3. Be ready to receive the gift. The Spirit comes to work a holy work. If you reject His work you reject Him. Submit to all His working, and He will come.

4. Ask the gift of the Father in Christ's name. While Christ prayed the heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended upon Him. While the apostles prayed the place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.

5. Rely upon the gift, and venture on God's work in expectation of it. Stretch forth the withered hand. Like the priest who bore the ark, put your foot into the waters of your swelling Jordan; sound your trumpet against your frowning Jericho, and expect the help you need.

(Lay Preacher.)

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KJV: Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

WEB: Jesus therefore said to them again, "Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."