In his profound discourse concerning the "unction" and accompanying illumination, John was only expounding by the Spirit what Jesus had said before his departure: "Howbeit, when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all {92} truth; he shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you" (John 16: 13). "The Spirit of truth"--How much instruction and suggestion is conveyed by this term! As he is called "the Spirit of Christ," as revealing Christ in his suffering and glory, so he is called "the Spirit of truth," as manifesting the truth in all its depths and heights. As impossible as it is that we should know the person of Christ without the Spirit of Christ who reveals him, so impossible it is that we should know the truth as it is in Jesus without the Spirit of truth who is appointed to convey it. "The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive" (John 14: 17)--We must come to Christ before the Spirit can come to us. "The Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father" (John 15: 26)--He can only teach us in intelligent sonship to cry "Abba, Father." "The Spirit of truth . . . shall guide you into all truth" (John 16: 13). Divine knowledge is all and altogether in his power to communicate, and without his illumination it must be hidden from our understanding. Thus we have had the enduement of the Spirit presented to us under three aspects--sealing, filling, and anointing--all of which terms, so far as we can understand, signify the same thing--the gift of the Holy Ghost appropriated through faith. Each of these terms is connected with some special {93} Divine endowment--the seal with assurance and consecration; the filling with power; and the anointing with knowledge. All these gifts are wrapt up in the one gift in which they are included, and without whom we are excluded from their possession. While thus we conclude that it is a Christian's privilege and duty to claim a distinct anointing of the Spirit to qualify him for his work, we would be careful not to prescribe any stereotyped exercises through which one must necessarily pass in order to possess it. It is easy to cite cases of decisive, vivid, and clearly marked experience of the Spirit's enduement, as in the lives of Dr. Finney, James Brainard Taylor, and many others. And instead of discrediting these experiences--so definite as to time and so distinct as to accompanying credentials--we would ask the reader to study them, and observe the remarkable effects which followed in the ministry of those who enjoyed them. The lives of many of the co-laborers with Wesley and Whitefield give a striking confirmation of the doctrine which we are defending. Years of barren ministry, in which the gospel was preached with orthodox correctness and literary finish, followed, after the Holy Spirit had been recognized and appropriated, by evangelistic pastorates of the most fervent type, such is the history of not a few of these mighty men of God.