As there is a threefold work of Christ, as prophet, priest, and king, so there is a threefold conviction of the Spirit answering thereto: "And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin and of righteousness and of judgment; of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father and ye behold me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged" (John 16: 8-12, R. V.). It is concerning the testimony of Christ as he spake to men in the days of his flesh; and concerning the work of Christ now carried on in his intercession at God's right hand; and concerning the sentence of Christ when he shall come again to be our judge, that this witness of the Spirit has to do. "_He shall convince the world of sin._" Why is he {189} needed for this conviction since conscience is present in every human breast, and is doing his work so faithfully? We reply: Conscience is the witness to the law; the Spirit is the witness to grace. Conscience brings legal conviction; the Spirit brings evangelical conviction; the one begets a conviction unto despair, the other a conviction unto hope. "_Of sin, because they believe not on me,_" describes the ground of the Holy Spirit's conviction. The entrance of Christ into the world rendered possible a sin hitherto unknown: "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin" (John 15: 22). Evil seems to have required the presence of incarnate goodness, in order to its fullest manifestation. Hence the deep significance of the prophecy spoken over the cradle of Jesus: "Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against, _that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed_" (Luke 2: 34, 35). All the most hideous sins of human nature came out during the betrayal and trial and passion of our Lord. In that "hour and power of darkness" these sins seem indeed to have been but imperfectly recognized. But when the day of Pentecost had come, with its awful revealing light of the Spirit of truth, then there was great contrition in Jerusalem--a contrition the sting of {190} which we find in the charge of Peter: "Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Was not that deep conviction, following the gift of the Spirit, in which three thousand were brought to repentance in a single day, a conviction of sin because they had not believed on Christ?