hand, and far more adequate and satisfactory, and that is that the
Hebrew inspired writers use a plural name for God in spite of their
intense monotheism, because there is a plurality of persons in the one
Godhead.
(6) Now turn to Eph. 4:30. +"And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."+ Here grief is
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is not a
mere blind impersonal influence or power that comes to dwell in your
heart and mine, but a person, a person who loves us, a person who is
holy and intensely sensitive against sin, a person who recoils from sin
in what we call its slightest forms as the holiest woman of earth never
recoiled from sin in its grossest and most repulsive forms. And He sees
whatever we do, He hears whatever we say, He sees our very thoughts,
not a vagrant fancy is allowed a moment's lodgment in our mind but what
He sees it. And if there is anything impure, unholy, immodest, untrue,
false, censorious, or unChristlike in any way, He is grieved beyond
expression. This is a wonderful thought and it is to me the mightiest
incentive that I know to a Christian walk. How many a young man is kept
back from doing things that he would otherwise do, by the thought that,
if he did do that, his mother might hear of it and it would grieve her
beyond expression. How many a young man has come to the great city
and in some hour of temptation has been about to go into a place that
no self-respecting man ought ever to enter, but just as his hand is on
the doorknob and he is about to open the door, the thought comes to
him, "If I should enter there mother might hear of it, and if she did,
it would nearly kill her," and he has turned away without entering;
but there is One holier than the holiest mother that any of us ever
knew, One who loves us with a tenderer love than our own mother loves
us, and Who sees everything we do, not only in the daylight but under
the cover of night; Who hears every word we utter, every careless word
that escapes our lips; Who sees every thought we entertain, yes, Who
sees every fleeting fancy that we allow a moment's lodgment in our
mind; and if there is anything unholy, impure, immodest, indecorous,
unkind, harsh, censorious or unchristlike in any way in act or word or
thought, He sees it and is grieved beyond expression. Oh, how often
there has come into my mind some thought or imagination, I know not
from what source, but that I ought not to entertain, and just as I was
about to give it lodgment, the thought has come, "The Holy Spirit sees
that and will be grieved by it," and the thought has gone. Bearing
this thought of the Holy Spirit in our mind will help us to solve all
the questions that perplex the young believer to-day. For example, the
question, "Ought I as a Christian go to the theatre or the movies?"
Well, if you go the Holy Spirit will go; for He dwells in the heart of
every believer and goes wherever the believer goes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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