CHAPTER XX.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
"LIFE FROM LIFE"—SPIRITUAL LIFE FROM SPIRIT.
ANALYSIS | REFERENCES |
I. The Gospel Regarded as the Power of God. | Natural Law in the Spiritual World, Henry Drummond; and the Scripture passages cited in the body of the lesson. |
II. Spiritual Life from Spiritual Life--"Ye Must Be Born Again." | |
III. Parallel between the Organic and Inorganic Worlds. | |
IV. Parallel between the Spiritual and Natural Worlds. | |
V. The Difference Between the Spiritual and the Natural Man. |
SPECIAL TEXT: "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (I Cor. ii:14.)
DISCUSSION.
1. The Gospel the Power of God Unto Salvation: We have now reached the place in the development of our theme where it takes on a strong personal interest. The gospel is the "power of God unto salvation."[A] It is so for us—for all men. "Ye must be born again; * * * except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."[B] Is this new birth possible to all? We must needs think so if the Gospel is available to all; and that is a fact so patent to both justice and revelation that it requires no discussion. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life." This alone sufficiently proclaims the universal right of men to the hopes and to the saving powers of the Gospel. "Ye must be born again!" "Born of the water and of the Spirit." Then with that new birth will there come new life? And what will that life be? "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit,"[C] said the Christ. Spirit birth then is the aim of the Christian baptism—baptism of water and of the Spirit being the two parts of the one thing, the first being preparatory for and leading up to the second, its complement. And with this there draws tremendous consequences.
[Footnote A: Rom. i:16.]
[Footnote B: St. John iii:5.]
[Footnote C: St. John iii:6.]
2. Spiritual Biogenesis: Spirit Life from Spirit Life: Henry Drummond in his "Natural Law in the Spiritual World" has a chapter entitled "Biogenesis"—meaning thereby that life comes from life, and he holds that life can come in no other way than from life, and contravenes the theory that life comes of spontaneous generation. "So far as science can settle anything," he observes, "this question is settled. The attempt to get the living out of the dead has failed. Spontaneous generation has had to be given up. And it is now recognized on every hand that Life can only come from the touch of Life. Huxley categorically announces that the doctrines of Biogenesis, or life only from life, is "victorious along the whole line at the present day."[A] And even whilst confessing that he wishes the evidence were the other way, Tyndall is compelled to say, "I affirm that no shred of trustworthy experimental testimony exists to prove that life i our day has ever appeared independently of antecedent life."[B]
[Footnote A: "Critiques and Addresses." T. H. Huxley, F. R. S., p. 239.]
[Footnote B: Nineteenth Century Review, 1878, p. 507.]
Our author parallels this fact of "life from life" in the spiritual world, and holds it to be as rigidly true in the one world as in the other. "The Spiritual Life," he holds to be "the gift of the Living Spirit."
The theory opposed to this is "that a man may become gradually better and better until in the course of the process he reaches that quality of religious nature known as 'Spiritual Life.' This Life is not something added as extra to the natural man; it is the normal and appropriate development of the natural man." This theory parallels the theory of spontaneous generation in natural life. To this Drummond opposes "Biogenesis"—the law of life from life in the spiritual world. "The spiritual man is no mere development of the natural man. He is a New Creation born from above. As well expect a hay infusion to become gradually more and more living until in course of the process it reached vitality, as expect a man by becoming better and better to attain the Eternal Life."
Our author then draws a strong parallel between the natural and spiritual kingdoms on this subject of biogenesis—"life from life."
3. The Law of Biogenesis in the Natural World: "Let us first place vividly in our imagination the picture of the two great kingdoms of nature, the inorganic and organic, as these now stand in the light of the Law of Biogenesis. What essentially is involved in saying that there is no Spontaneous Generation of Life? It is meant that the passage from the mineral world to the plant or animal world is hermetically sealed on the mineral side. This inorganic world is staked off from the living world by barriers which have never yet been crossed from within. No change of substance, no modification of environment, no chemistry, no electricity, nor any form of energy, nor any evolution can endow any single atom of the mineral world with the attribute of Life. Only by the bending down into this dead world of some living form can these dead atoms be gifted with the properties of vitality, without this preliminary contact with Life they remain fixed in the inorganic sphere for ever. It is a very mysterious Law which guards in this way the portals of the living world. And if there is one thing in Nature more worth pondering for its strangeness it is the spectacle of this vast helpless world of the dead cut off from the living by the Law of Biogenesis and denied for ever the possibility of resurrection within itself. So very strange a thing, indeed, is this broad line in Nature that Science has long and urgently sought to obliterate it. Biogenesis stands in the way of some forms of Evolution with such stern persistency that the assaults upon this Law for number and thoroughness have been unparalleled. But, as we have seen, it has stood the test. Nature, to the modern eye, stands broken in two. The physical Laws may explain the inorganic world: the biological Laws may account for the development of the organic. But of the point where they meet, of that strange borderland between the dead and the living. Science is silent. It is as if God had placed everything in earth and heaven in the hands of Nature, but reserved a point at the genesis of Life for His direct appearing.
"The power of the analogy, for which we are laying the foundations, to seize and impress the mind, will largely depend on the vividness with which one realizes the gulf which Nature places between the living and the dead. But those who, in contemplating Nature, have found their attention arrested by this extraordinary dividing-line severing the visible universe eternally into two: those who in watching the progress of science have seen barrier after barrier disappear—barrier between plant and plant, between animal and animal, and even between animal and plant—but this gulf yawning more hopelessly wide with every advance of knowledge, will be prepared to attach a significance to the Law of Biogenesis and its analogies more profound perhaps than to any other fact or law in Nature. If, as Pascal says, Nature is an image of grace; if the things that are seen are in any sense the images of the unseen, there must lie in this great gulf fixed, this most unique and startling of all natural phenomena, a meaning of peculiar moment."
4. The Law of Biogenesis in the Spiritual World: "Where now in the Spiritual spheres shall we meet a companion phenomenon to this? What in the Unseen shall be likened to this deep dividing-line, or where in human experience is another barrier which never can be crossed?
"There is such a barrier. In the dim but not inadequate vision of the Spiritual World presented in the Word of God, the first thing that strikes the eye is a great gulf fixed. The passage from the Natural World to the Spiritual World is hermetically sealed on the natural side. The door from the inorganic to the organic is shut, no mineral can open it; so the door from the natural to the spiritual is shut, and no man can open it. This world of natural men is staked off from the Spiritual World by barriers which have never yet been crossed from within. No organic change, no modification of environment, no mental energy, no moral effort, no evolution of character, no progress of civilization can endow any single human soul with the attribute of spiritual life. The spiritual world is guarded from the world next in order beneath it by a law of Biogenesis—except a man be born again * * * except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
"It is not said, in this enunciation of the Law, that if the condition be not fulfilled the natural man will not enter the Kingdom of God. The word is cannot. For the exclusion of the spiritually inorganic from the kingdom of the spiritually organic is not arbitrary. Nor is the natural man refused admission on unexplained grounds. His admission is a scientific impossibility. Except a mineral be born "from above"—from the kingdom just above it—it cannot enter the kingdom just above it And except a man be born "from above," by the same law, he cannot enter the kingdom just above him. There being no passage from one kingdom to another, whether from inorganic to organic, or from organic [natural] to spiritual, the intervention of Life is a scientific necessity if a stone or a plant or an animal or a man is to pass from a lower to a higher sphere. The plant stretches down to the dead world beneath it, touches its minerals and gases with its mystery of life, and brings them up ennobled and transformed to the living sphere. The breath of God, blowing where it listeth, touches with its mystery of Life the dead souls of men, bears them across the bridgeless gulf between the natural and the spiritual, between the spiritually inorganic and the spiritually organic, endows them with its own high qualities, and develops within them these new and secret faculties, by which those who are born again are said to see the Kingdom of God.
5. Distinction Between the Natural and the Spiritual Man: "Our author next proceeds with the application of his principle by drawing the distinction between the Christian and the non-Christian man—between one "born of the Spirit," and one not "born of the Spirit."
"What now, let us ask specifically, distinguishes a Christian man from a non-Christian man? Is it that he has certain mental characteristics not possessed by the other? Is it that certain faculties have been trained in him, that morality assumes special and higher manifestations, and character a nobler form? Is the Christian merely an ordinary man who happens from birth to have been surrounded with a peculiar set of ideas? Is his religion merely that peculiar quality of the moral life defined by Mr. Matthew Arnold as "morality touched by emotion?" And does the possession of a high ideal, benevolent sympathies, a reverent spirit, and a favorable environment account for what men call his Spiritual Life?
"The distinction between them is the same as that between the organic and the inorganic, the living and the dead. What is the difference between a crystal and an organism, a stone and a plant. They have much in common. Both are made of the same atoms. Both display the same properties of matter. Both are subject to the physical laws. Both may be very beautiful. But besides possessing all that the crystal has, the plant possesses something more—a mysterious something called life. This life is not something which existed in the crystal only in a less developed form. There is nothing at all like it in the crystal. There is nothing like the first beginning of it in the crystal, not a trace or symptom of it. This plant is tenanted by something new, an original and unique possession added over and above all the properties common to both. When from vegetable life we rise to animal life, here again we find something original and unique—unique at least as compared with the mineral. From animal life we ascend again to spiritual life. And here also is something new, something still more unique. He who lives the spiritual life has a distinct kind of life added to all the other phases of life which he manifests—a kind of life infinitely more distinct than is the active life of a plant from the inertia of a stone. The spiritual man is more distinct in point of fact than is the plant from the stone. This is the one possible comparison in nature, for it is the widest distinction in nature; but compared with the difference between the natural and the spiritual the gulf which divides the organic from the inorganic is a hair's breadth. The natural man belongs essentially to this present order of things. He is endowed simply with a high quality of the natural animal life. But it is life of so poor a quality that it is not life at all. He that hath not the Son hath not life; but he that hath the Son hath life—a new and distinct and supernatural endowment. He is not of this world. He is of the timeless state, of eternity. It doth not yet appear what he shall be.
"The difference then between the spiritual man and the natural man is not a difference of development, but of generation. It is a distinction of quality, not of quantity. A man cannot rise by any natural development from "morality touched by emotion," to "morality touched by life." Were we to construct a scientific classification, science would compel us to arrange all natural men, moral or immoral, educated or vulgar, as one family. One might be high in the family group, another low; yet, practically, they are marked by the same set of characteristics—they eat, sleep, work, think, live, die. But the spiritual man is removed from this family so utterly by the possession of an additional characteristic that a biologist, fully informed of the whole circumstances, would not hesitate a moment to classify him elsewhere. And if he really entered into these circumstances it would not be in another family but in another kingdom. It is an old fashioned theology which divides the world in this way—which speaks of men as Living and Dead, lost and saved—a stern theology all but fallen into disuse. This difference between the living and the dead in souls is so unproved by casual observation, so impalpable in itself, so startling as a doctrine, that schools of culture have ridiculed or denied the grim distinction. Nevertheless the grim distinction must be retained. It is a scientific distinction. "He that hath not the Son hath not Life."[A]
[Footnote A: He that has not spiritually been born is not spiritually alive.]
"Now it is this great law which finally distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. It places the religion of Christ upon a footing altogether unique. There is no analogy between the Christian religion and, say, Buddhism or the Mohammedan religion. There is no true sense in which a man can say. He that hath Buddha hath life. Buddha has nothing to do with life. He may have something to do with morality. He may stimulate, impress, teach, guide, but there is no distinct new thing added to the souls of those who profess Buddhism. These religions may be developments of the natural, mental, or moral man. But Christianity professes to be more. It is the mental or moral man plus something else or some One else. It is the infusion into the spiritual man of a new life, of a quality unlike anything else in nature. This constitutes the separate Kingdom of Christ, and gives to Christianity alone of all the religions of mankind the strange mark of divinity.
CHAPTER XXI.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
"LIFE FROM LIFE"—SPIRITUAL LIFE FROM SPIRIT (Continued).
ANALYSIS. | REFERENCES. |
VI. Fundamental Elements in the Spiritual Man that are Absent in the Natural Man. | The works and Scripture cited in the body of this lesson. |
VII. Terms Used to Express Elements in Spiritual Man. | |
VIII. Process of Regeneration in the Individual Man. | |
IX. Insignificance of the Time Element. |
SPECIAL TEXT: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall he: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (I John iii:2, 3.)
DISCUSSION.
1. The Spiritual Man Contrasted with the Natural: If it shall be asked what it is that constitutes the difference between the natural man and the spiritual man, the answer, though necessarily brief, can take on various forms; but in the last analysis it will be found to consist in one thing: One has been "born again"—"born of the Spirit;" the other has not. One has received the Holy Ghost; the other has not.
One has the power to "know that Jesus is the Christ," the other has no such power.[A]
[Footnote A: "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost." I Cor. xii:3.]
The body of one is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in him, which he has of God, and he is God's, in body and in Spirit;[A] the other is in no such relationship to God.
[Footnote A: I Cor. vi:19, 20.]
One through aceptance of the atonement of the Christ has "access by one Spirit unto the Father,"[A] the other has not.
[Footnote A: Ephesians ii:18, and context.]
One is "strengthened with might by his [God's] spirit in the inner man,"[A] the other is not.
[Footnote A: Ibid iii:16.]
One has received the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth;[A] the other has not.
[Footnote A: II Thess. ii:13.]
One knows that he dwells in God and God in him, because God hath given him of his Spirit;[A] the other has no such witness.
[Footnote A: I John iv:13.]
One is under "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus," is made "free from the law of sin and death;" the other is not; "for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit; for to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."
Paul runs the parallel between the spiritual man and the carnal or natural man much further and beautifully: "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."[A]
[Footnote A: Romans viii:1-17.]
2. The Terms Used to Express the Contrast: I have chosen to put the distinction between the natural man and the spiritual man—the man unbaptized of the Spirit and the one born of the Spirit—in terms that include direct reference to the Holy Ghost. It may be put into terms that refer directly to the Christ, such, for example, as "know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" This said to those who had received the Gospel.[A] "Your bodies are members of Christ."[B] "At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you."[C] "I am the vine, ye are the branches."[D] "I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."[E]
[Footnote A: II Cor. xii:5.]
[Footnote B: I Cor. vi:15.]
[Footnote C: St. John xiv:10.]
[Footnote D: St. John xv:4.]
[Footnote E: Gal. ii:20.]
All which, however, amounts to the same thing; viz.,—those born of the spirit live in God, and God in them. They have received something that the spiritually unborn have not received; and though they may carry that precious thing in earthen vessels, yet is it there. There has come down into such spirit-baptized men a spirit-life which has touched their souls, and left there a spirit life that is deathless, and will grow until it conforms the man receiving it to its own image, and likeness, and quality, unless sinned against to the point of blasphemy. Of which more later.
3. The Process of Regeneration: "What can be gathered on the surface as to the process of regeneration in the individual soul," asks Henry Drummond. "From the analogies of biology," he continues, "we should expect three things: First, that the new life should dawn suddenly; second, that it should come "without observation;" third, that it should develop gradually. On two of these points there can be little controversy. The gradualness of growth is a characteristic which strikes the simplest observer. Long before the word Evolution was coined Christ applied it in this very connection—"First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." It is well known also to those who study the parables of nature that there is an ascending scale of slowness as we rise in the scale of life. Growth is most gradual in the highest forms. Man attains his maturity after a score of years; the monad completes its humble cycle in a day. What wonder if development be tardy in the Creature of Eternity? A Christian's sun has sometimes set, and a critical world has seen as yet no corn in the ear. As yet? "As yet," in this long life, has not begun. Grant him the years proportionate to his place in the scale of life. 'The time of harvest is not yet!'"
"Again, in addition to being slow, the phenomena of growth are secret. Life is invisible. When the New Life manifests itself it is a surprise. Thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. When the plant lives whence has the life come? When it dies whither has it gone? Thou canst not tell; * * * so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
"Yet once more—and this is a point of strange and frivolous dispute —this life comes suddenly. This is the only way in which life can come. Life cannot come gradually—health can, structure can, but not life. A new theology has laughed at the doctrine of conversion. Sudden conversion especially has been ridiculed as untrue to philosophy and impossible to human nature. We may not be concerned in buttressing any theology because it is old. But we find that this old theology is scientific. There may be cases—they are probably in the majority—where the moment of contact with the living spirit, though sudden, has been obscure. But the real moment and the conscious moment are two different things. Science pronounces nothing as to the conscious moment. If it did it would probably say that that was seldom the real moment—just as in the natural life the conscious moment is not the real moment. The moment of birth in the natural world is not a conscious moment—we do not know we are born till long afterward. Yet there are men to whom the origin of the new life in time has been no difficulty. To Paul, for instance, Christ seems to have come at a definite period of time, the exact moment and second of which could have been known. And this is certainly, in theory at least, the normal origin of life, according to the principles of biology. The line between the living and the dead is a sharp line. When the dead atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, are seized upon by life, the organism at first is very lowly. It possesses few functions. It has little beauty. Growth is the work of time. But life is not. That comes in a moment. At one moment it was dead; the next it lived. This is conversion, the "passing," as the Bible calls it, "from death unto life." Those who have stood by another's side at the solemn hour of this dread possession have been conscious sometimes of an experience which words are not allowed to utter—a something like the sudden snapping of a chain, the waking from a dream."[A] And as it is in death, so it is in life—life comes suddenly; as at the last moment it departs suddenly.
[Footnote A: "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," pp. 91-94.]
4. Conformity to Type: The Spiritual life of God once established in man—what then? What is to come of it? "Beloved," said one of old, "now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man who has this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."[A] "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."[B] "And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. * * * For whom he did fore know, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son." All which means that man receiving into his soul spirit-life from God, that spirit-life will conform and transform the man receiving it to itself, until man is brought into perfect union with God.[C] If it were expressed in terms of biology one would say that the spirit life imparted to man would conform to its type, making man's spirit conform to God's spirit, to the type of the Christ.
[Footnote A: I John iii:2, 3.]
[Footnote B: II Cor. iii:18.]
[Footnote C: On this head the Prophet of the New Dispensation of the Gospel, Joseph Smith, has a fine passage: "If you wish to go where God is, you must be like God, or possess the principles which God possesses, for it we are not drawing towards God in principle, we are going from Him, and drawing towards the devil. . . . A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge, for if he does not get knowledge, he will be brought into captivity by some evil power in the other world, as evil spirits will have more knowledge, and consequently more power than many men who are on the earth. Hence it needs revelation to assist us, and give us knowledge of the things of God." (Minutes of April Conference, 1842. History of the Church, Vol. IV, p. 588.)]
5. The Analogy in Natural Life: Speaking of this analogy between the natural and spiritual worlds, in the matter of different kinds of life conforming to the type, Mr. Drummond says: (But before quoting let me call attention to what I have before said of using a variant phraseology on the part of Christian writers whose ideas, in part at least, we can accept, and the phraseology we of the new dispensation would use. I have said in subdivision 2 of this Lesson, that the idea of being born of the spirit may be put in various terms, in terms that have direct reference to the Holy Ghost, or terms may be used that refer to the Christ, or the Christ-life, it is in this last form that Mr. Drummond expresses the idea of the spirit-life in man):
"What goes on then in the animal kingdom is this—the bird-life seizes upon the bird-germ and builds it up into a bird, the image of itself. The reptile-life seizes upon another germinal speck, assimilates surrounding matter, and fashions it into a reptile. The reptile-life thus simply makes an incarnation of itself. The visible bird is simply an incarnation of the invisible bird-life.
"Now we are nearing the point where the spiritual analogy appears. It is a very wonderful analogy, so wonderful that one almost hesitates to put it into words. Yet Nature is reverent; and it is her voice to which we listen. These lower phenomena of life, she says, are but an allegory. There is another kind of life of which science as yet has taken little cognizance. It obeys the same laws. It builds up an organism into its own form. It is the Christ-life. As the bird-life builds up a bird, the image of itself, so the Christ-Life builds up a Christ, the image of Himself, in the inward nature of man. When a man becomes a Christian the natural process is this: The living Christ enters into his soul. Development begins. The quickening life seizes upon the soul, assimilates surrounding elements, and begins to fashion it. According to the great law of conformity to type this fashioning takes a specific form. It is that of the Artist who fashions. And all through life this wonderful, mystical, glorious, yet perfectly definite process, goes on "until Christ be formed" in it.
"The Christian life is not a vague effort after righteousness—an ill-defined pointless struggle for an ill-defined pointless end. Religion is no disheveled mass of aspiration, prayer, and faith. There is no more mystery in Religion as to its processes than in Biology. There is much mystery in Biology. We know all but nothing of life yet, nothing of development. There is the same mystery in the spiritual life. But the great lines are the same, as decided, as luminous; and the laws of natural and spiritual are the same as unerring, as simple. Will everything else in the natural world unfold its order, and yield to science more and more a vision of harmony, and religion, which should complement and perfect all, remain a chaos? From the standpoint of revelation no truth is more obscure than conformity to type. If science can furnish a companion phenomenon from an every-day process of the natural life, it may at least throw this most mystical doctrine of Christianity into thinkable form. Is there any fallacy in speaking of the embryology of the new life? Is the analogy invalid? Are there not vital processes in the spiritual as well as in the natural world? The bird being an incarnation of the bird-life, may not the Christian be a spiritual incarnation of the Christ-life? And is there not a real justification in the processes of the new birth for such a parallel?
"Let us appeal to the record of these processes.
"In what terms does the New Testament describe them? The answer is sufficiently striking. It uses everywhere the language of biology. It is impossible that the New Testament writers should have been familiar with these biological facts. It is impossible that their views of this great truth should have been as clear as science can make them now. But they had no alternative. There was no other way of expressing this truth. It was a biological question. So they struck out unhesitatingly into the new field of words, and, with an originality which commands both reverence and surprise, stated their truth with such light, or darkness, as they had. They did not mean to be scientific, only to be accurate, and their fearless accuracy has made them scientific.
"What could be more original, for instance, than the Apostle's reiteration that the Christian was a new creature, a new man, a babe? Or that this new man was "begotten of God," God's workmanship? And what could be a more accurate expression of the law of conformity to type than this: 'Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him?' Or this, 'we are changed into the same image from glory to glory?' And elsewhere we are expressly told by the same writer that this conformity is the end and goal of the Christian life. To work this type in us is the whole purpose of God for man. 'Whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.'"[A]
[Footnote A: "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," pp. 293-6.]
6. The End of the Matter—We Shall Be Like Him—Conformed to the Divine Image: That is the end then, for the spiritually born man—he will be conformed into the image of God—conformed to the type of the Spirit-life that has taken up his abode in him. How long shall it take? Who knows? And what shall it matter? The important thing is that it shall be done. The important thing for us men is that the spirit-birth takes place; that union with God be formed; the ages may wait upon the growth, and full fruitage of that event. It may take aeons of time to make a man, longer to make Super-man; but the eternal years are his who is born of the Spirit; and again I say the important thing for us men is to have that Spirit-birth, and then are we sons of God; and while it doth hot appear what we shall be, for the height and glory of that is beyond our human vision, ultimately we shall be like him, and see him as he is, and be conformed to the Christ image, that is to say, to the Divine nature—unless one shall sin against the Holy Ghost.
LESSON XXII.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.
ANALYSIS. | REFERENCES. |
I. Possibility and Enormity of the Sin. | The works and Scriptures cited in the body of the lesson. |
II. The Word of the Christ on the Sin—"Hath Never Forgiveness." | |
III. "The Sin unto Death"—St. John. | |
IV. Nature of the Offense—Sin Against Truth and Light—St. Paul. | |
V. All Sin Dangerous Since it Leads Towards Spiritual Death. | |
VI. The Punishment and the Sin—High Treason Against God—Spirit-Murder. |
SPECIAL TEXT: "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, * * * if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance." (Hebrews v:4, 6.)
DISCUSSION.
1. Possibility and Enormity of the Sin: It is possible to so sin against the Holy Ghost as to forfeit the spiritual life which his presence in the human soul gives, and that conformation to the Divine type which his effectual working would otherwise bring to pass. That being true, the sin against the Holy Ghost must be the most appalling act that can enter into human experience. Perhaps the most heinous crime known to human law is the crime of murder, wherein innocent blood is shed. But that sin which effectually kills spirit-life, which has for its victim not a human being but a divine being—that overtops in atrocity any possible physical murder. In this concluding chapter of our treatise let us contemplate this awful sin—this master crime. And first let us be sure from the word of God that there is such a sin.
2. The Teaching of the Christ Upon the Subject: According to St. Matthew Jesus said:
"Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world neither in the world to come."[A]
[Footnote A: St. Matt, xii:31, 32.]
St. Mark puts it in this form: "Verily I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation."[A] St. Luke's version is—"Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven."[B]
[Footnote A: St. Mark iii:28, 29.]
[Footnote B: St. Luke xii:10.]
3. St. John on the Sin Unto Death: This represents practical unanimity in the testimony of these three evangelists upon the subject. And although St. John has nothing directly upon the subject in his Gospel, yet in his epistle he has a passage which brings him into harmony with the others upon the subject: "If a man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death:[A] I do not say that he shall pray for that. All unrighteousness is sin [transgression of the law, ch. iii:4] and there is a sin not unto death;"[B] but also, as above stated, there is a sin unto death.
[Footnote A: That is, doubtless, a sin which kills the spiritual life in man; that breaks this union with God—the sin against the Holy Ghost which men have of God, and they become spiritually dead—and it is impossible to revive them to life again. (See Heb. vi:6.)]
[Footnote B: John v:16, 17.]
4. Nature of the Sin—St. Paul: Paul in his exposition of this doctrine, throws some light on the nature of this sin: "Let us go on unto perfection," is the Apostle's admonition. "Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptism and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this will we do if God permit. For," glancing back upon some whe had received these fundamental principles and ordinances, sinned against them and would fain be repeating them—"it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receive the blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned."[A]
[Footnote A: Hebrews vi:1-8.]
From this it appears that the sin against the Holy Ghost is sin against that enlightenment to the human soul which possession of the Holy Ghost brings. Sin against knowledge of truth which knowledge was produced in the very soul of man by witness of the Holy Ghost—is a sin against light and truth. And "if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."[A]
[Footnote A: Heb. x:26, 31.]
5. The Path of Danger: The "wilful sin" here condemned is, of course, the "sin unto death," not every sin that one might commit, though every sin that man commits, small as well as great, is along the path of danger, and in the direction of, and may lead to, the sin unto death. The path of safety from the sin unto death lies in the other direction; not in the way of sinful dalliance, but in a stern battle for righteousness and against sin. Headed that way, there is no danger of the "sin unto death;" but every transgression of the law of righteousness—which is sin[A]—though not a sin unto death, leads towards the death of the spirit life planted in the soul by the Holy Ghost—hence to be avoided, shunned. Man must not, even as God does not, look upon sin with the least degree of allowance in himself, always it must be abhorred and resisted. In that course and in that course alone lies safety.
[Footnote A: I John iii:4.]
6. Joseph Smith on the Sin Against the Holy Ghost: The Prophet Joseph in a discourse at the General Conference of the Church, held at Nauvoo in 1844, upon this subject of sinning against the Holy Ghost, said:
"What has Jesus said? All sins, and all blasphemies, and every transgression, except one, that man can be guilty of, may be forgiven; and there is a salvation for all men, either in this world or the world to come, who have not committed the unpardonable sin, there being a provision either in this world or the world of spirits. Hence God hath made a provision that every spirit in the eternal world can be ferreted out and saved unless he has committed that unpardonable sin which cannot be remitted to him either in this world or the world of spirits. * * * I said, no man can commit the unpardonable sin after the dissolution of the body, nor in this life, until he receives the Holy Ghost; but they must do it in this world. * * * All sins shall be forgiven, except the sin against the Holy Ghost; for Jesus will save all except the sons of perdition. What must a man do to commit the unpardonable sin? He must receive the Holy Ghost, have the heavens opened unto him, and know God, and then sin against him. After a man has sinned against the Holy Ghost, there is no repentance for him. He has got to say that the sun does not shine while he sees it; he has got to deny Jesus Christ when the heavens have been opened unto him, and to deny the plan of salvation with his eyes open to the truth of it; and from that time he begins to be an enemy. This is the case with many apostates of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."[A]
[Footnote A: Improvement Era, Vol. XII, 1909, pp. 185-7.]
7. The Punishment and the Sin: This is in strict harmony with one of the revelations of the New Dispensation, portraying the future estates of man in the varying degrees of glory in the Kingdom of God. Elsewhere[A] I have presented the following digest:[B]
[Footnote A: Outlines of Ecclesiastical History, pp. 419-421, 3rd edition.]
[Footnote B: The Revelation is in Doc. and Cov., Sec. lxxvi:25-49.]
There is a class of souls with whom the justice of God must deal, which will not and cannot be classified in the celestial, terrestrial, or telestial glories. They are the sons of perdition. But though they will not be assigned a place in either of these grand divisions of glory, the revelation from which we draw our information respecting man's future state, describes the condition of these sons of perdition so far as it is made known unto the children of men. It also informs us as to the nature of the crime which calls for such grievous punishment.
The sons of perdition are they of whom God hath said that it had been better for them never to have been born; for they are vessels of wrath, doomed to suffer the wrath of God, with the devil and his angels in eternity. Concerning whom he hath said there is no forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come. These are they who shall go away into everlasting punishment, with the devil and his angels, and the only ones on whom the second death shall have any power; the only ones who will not be redeemed in the due time of the Lord, after the sufferings of his wrath. He saves all the works of his hands except these sons of perdition; but they go away to reign with the devil and his angels in eternity, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, which is their torment. The end thereof, the place thereof no man knoweth. It has not been revealed, nor will it be revealed unto man, except to them who are made partakers thereof. It has been partially shown to some in vision, and may be shown again in the same partial manner to others; but the end, the height, the depth, and the misery thereof, they understand not, nor will anyone but those who receive the terrible condemnation.
Such the punishment, now as to the crime that merits it. It is the crime of high treason to God, which pulls down on men this fearful doom. It falls upon men who know the power of God and who have been made partakers of it, and then permit themselves to be so far overcome of the devil that they deny the truth that has been revealed to them and defy the power of God. They deny the Holy Ghost after having received him. They deny the Only Begotten Son of the Father after the Father hath revealed him, and in this crucify him unto themselves anew, and put him to an open shame. They commit the same act of high treason that Lucifer in the rebellion of heaven did, and hence are worthy of the same punishment with him.
They have crucified not the body of the Lord Jesus, but a spirit which united with man's spirit which unhindered in its work, would have conformed man to the Divine image—now, after the sin against the Holy Ghost, impossible. Spirit murder has been committed—a divinity slain and the guilty one hath no forgiveness. Thank God the number who commit that fearful crime is but few. It is only those who attain to a very great knowledge of the things of God that are capable of committing it, and the number among such are few indeed who become so recklessly wicked as to rebel against and defy the power of God. But when such characters do fall, they fall like Lucifer, never to rise again; they get beyond the power of repentance or the hope of forgiveness.
APPENDIX.
The next two Lessons I place under the head of "Appendix," because they open up anew many things treated in the body of the work; and which I would not again refer to only because of the associations given to them in the discourses of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, and the greater Apostle of the New Dispensation. I throw the "Appendix" into the form of lessons, in the hope that the topics of the respective discourses will be all the more emphasized and appreciated.
LESSON XXIII.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
PAUL, THE APOSTLE, ON SPIRITUAL GIFTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
ANALYSIS | REFERENCES. |
I. Unity of Spirit, but Diversity of Gifts. | These three chapters in Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (Chapters xii, xiii, xiv), and the New Testament, passim, for what others have said on Spiritual Gifts. |
II. The Church as an Organism Entitled to the Manifestation of All the Gifts. | |
III. Pre-eminence of Charity Over All Other Gifts. | |
IV. The Gift of Prophecy Preferable to the Gift of Tongues. | |
V. Decency and Order to Be Observed in All Things. |
SPECIAL TEXT: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." (I Cor. viii:1.)
DISCUSSION.
1. The Holy Ghost, the Source of Knowledge of the Christ: "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
2. Diversity of Manifestation, but One Spirit: "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will."
3. The Oneness of the Church, Though Made Up of Many Members: "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way."
4. The Vanity of Gifts Without Charity: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be turned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."
5. The Excellence and Qualities of Charity: "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."
6. The Gift of Prophecy More Excellent than the Gift of Tongues: "Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church."
7. The Uncertainty of Tongues: "I would that ye all spake with tongues but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying. Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine? And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?"
8. Paul's Choice of Gifts: "So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."
9. Confusion Likely to Come of the Gift of Tongues: "Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth."
10. The Things that Make for Edification: "How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God. Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace..."
11. Decency and Order Enjoined: "If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order."
LESSON XXIV.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH ON THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST.[A]
ANALYSIS. | REFERENCES. |
I. Conflicting Opinions of Men on the Subject, Due to the Absence of Revelation. | The citations of Scripture in the body of this lesson. |
II. Extravagant Expectations Reproved. | |
III. All the Gifts Distributed Within the Church. | |
IV. Manifestation of Spiritual Gifts Not Always Outwardly Discernable. | |
V. Admonition as to Seeking Spiritual Gifts. |
[Footnote A: The matter used in the "Discussion" is an editorial from the Times and Seasons of the 15th of June, 1842; and if not written by the Prophet was at least published with his sanction and approval. In his Journal History, the Prophet introduces the article as follows: "Issued an editorial on the 'Gift of the Holy Ghost,' as follows." (History of the Church, Vol. V, p. 26, et seq.) The side headings are not part of the original editorial.]
SPECIAL TEXT: "Follow after charity, desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye prophesy." (Paul—I Cor. xiv:1.)
DISCUSSION.
1. Not Every Supernatural Manifestation of God: "Various and conflicting are the opinions of men in regard to the gift of the Holy Ghost. Some people have been in the habit of calling every supernatural manifestation the effects of the Spirit of God, whilst there are others that think there is no manifestation [i. e., of God] connected with it at all; and that it is nothing but a mere impulse of the mind, or an inward feeling, impression, or secret testimony or evidence, which men possess, and that there is no such a thing as an outward manifestation.
"It is not to be wondered at that men should be ignorant, in a great measure, of the principles of salvation, and more especially of the nature, office, power, influence, gifts, and blessings of the gift of the Holy Ghost; when we consider that the human family have been enveloped in gross darkness and ignorance for many centuries past, without revelation, or any just criterion [by which] to arrive at a knowledge of the things of God, which can only be known by the Spirit of God. Hence it not infrequently occurs, that when the Elders of this Church preach to the inhabitants of the world, that if they obey the Gospel they shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, that the people expect to see some wonderful manifestation, some great display of power, or some extraordinary miracle performed; and it is often the case that young members of this Church for want of better information, carry along with them their old notions of things, and sometimes fall into egregious errors. We have lately had some information concerning a few members that are in this dilemma, and for their information make a few remarks upon the subject.
2. Priesthood and Church Organization Ineffective without the Holy Ghost: "We believe in the gift of the Holy Ghost being enjoyed now, as much as it was in the Apostles' days; we believe that it [the gift of the Holy Ghost] is necessary to make and to organize the Priesthood, that no man can be called to fill any office in the ministry without it;[A] we also believe in prophecy, in tongues, in visions, and in revelations, in gifts, and in healings; and that these things cannot be enjoyed without the gift of the Holy Ghost. We believe that the holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and that holy men in these days speak by the same principle; we believe in its being a comforter and a witness bearer, that it brings things past to our remembrance, leads us into all truth, and shows us of things to come; we believe that 'no man can know that Jesus is the Christ, but by the Holy Ghost.' We believe in it [this gift of the Holy Ghost] in all its fullness, and power, and greatness, and glory; but whilst we do this, we believe in it rationally, consistently, and scripturally, and not according to the wild vagaries, foolish notions and traditions of men.
[Footnote A: See Book of Moroni chapter iii. "And after this manner did they ordain priests and teachers, according to the gifts and callings of God unto men; and they ordained them by the power of the Holy Ghost which was in them."]
3. Man's Inclination to Run to Extremes: "The human family are very apt to run to extremes, especially in religious matters, and hence people in general, either want some miraculous display, or they will not believe in the gift of the Holy Ghost at all. If an Elder lays his hands upon a person, it is thought by many that the person must immediately rise and speak in tongues and prophesy; this idea is gathered from the circumstance of Paul laying his hands upon certain individuals who had been previously [as they stated] baptized unto John's baptism; which when he had done, they 'spake in tongues and prophesied.' Philip also, when he had preached the Gospel to the inhabitants of the city of Samaria, sent for Peter and John, who when they came laid their hands upon them for the gift of the Holy Ghost; for as yet he was fallen upon none of them; and when Simon Magus saw that through the laying on of the Apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money that he might possess the same power. [Acts viii.] These passages are considered by many as affording sufficient evidence for some miraculous, visible manifestation, whenever hands are laid on for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
4. Diversity of Gifts: "We believe that the Holy Ghost is imparted by the laying on of hands of those in authority, and that the gift of tongues, and also the gift of prophesy are gifts of the Spirit, and are obtained through that medium; but then to say that men always prophesied and spoke in tongues when they had the imposition of hands, would be to state that which is untrue, contrary to the practice of the Apostles, and at variance with holy writ; for Paul says, 'To one is given the gift of tongues, to another the gift of prophecy, and to another the gift of healing;" and again: 'Do all prophesy? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?' evidently showing that all did not possess these several gifts; but that one received one gift, and another received another gift—all did not prophesy, all did not speak in tongues, all did not work miracles; but all did receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; sometimes they spake in tongues and prophesied in the Apostles' days, and sometimes they did not. The same is the case with us also in our administrations, while more frequently there is no manifestation at all; that is visible to the surrounding multitude; this will appear plain when we consult the writings of the apostles, and notice their proceedings in relation to this matter. Paul, in I Cor. xii, says, 'Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant;' it is evident from this, that some of them were ignorant in relation to these matters, or they would not need instruction.
5. Spiritual Gifts to be Sought After: "Again, in chapter xiv, he says, 'Follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.' It is very evident from these Scriptures that many of them had not spiritual gifts, for if they had spiritual gifts where was the necessity of Paul telling them to follow after them, and it is as evident that they did not all receive those gifts by the imposition of the hands; for they as a Church had been baptized and confirmed by the laying on of hands—and yet to a Church of this kind, under the immediate inspection and superintendency of the Apostles, it was necessary for Paul to say, 'Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy,' evidently showing that those gifts were in the Church, but not enjoyed by all in their outward manifestations.
"But suppose the gifts of the Spirit were immediately, upon the imposition of hands, enjoyed by all, in all their fullness and power; the skeptic would still be as far from receiving any testimony except upon a mere casualty as before, for all the gifts of the Spirit are not visible to the natural vision, or understanding of man: indeed very few of them are. We read that 'Christ ascended into heaven and gave gifts unto men; and Me gave some Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some Pastors and Teachers.' [Eph. iv.]
6. Diversity of Spiritual Gifts: "The Church is a compact body composed of different members, and is strictly analogous to the human system, and Paul, after speaking of the different gifts, says, 'Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular; and God hath set some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, thirdly Teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all Teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?' It is evident that they do not; yet are they all members of one body. All members of the natural body are not the eye, the ear, the head or the hand—yet the eye cannot say to the ear I have no need of thee, nor the head to the foot, I have no need of thee; they are all so many component parts in the perfect machine—the one body; and if one member suffer, the whole of the members suffer with it: and if one member rejoice, all the rest are honored with it.
"These, then, are all gifts; they come from God; they are of God; they are all the gifts of the Holy Ghost; they are what Christ ascended into heaven to impart; and yet how few of them could be known by the generality of men. Peter and John were Apostles, yet the Jewish court scourged them as imposters. Paul was both an Apostle and Prophet, yet they stoned him and put him into prison. The people knew nothing about it, although he had in his possession the gift of the Holy Ghost Our Savior was 'anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows,' yet so far from the people knowing Him, they said He was Beelzebub, and crucified Him as an imposter. Who could point out a Pastor, a Teacher, or an Evangelist by their appearance, yet had they the gift of the Holy Ghost?
7. Spiritual Gifts Not Always Outwardly Discernible: "But to come to the other members of the Church, and examine the gifts as spoken of by Paul, and we shall find that the world can in general know nothing about them, and that there is but one or two that could be immediately known, if they were all poured out immediately upon the imposition of hands. In I Cor. xii, Paul says, 'There are diversities of gifts yet the same spirit, and there are differences of administrations but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestations of the Spirit is given unto every man to profit withal. For to one is given, by the Spirit, the word of wisdom, to another, the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith, by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing, by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another the discerning of spirits; to another divers kind of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the self same spirit, dividing to each man severally as he will.'
"There are several gifts mentioned here, yet which of them all could be known by an observer at the imposition of hands? The word of wisdom, and the word of knowledge, are as much gifts as any other, yet if a person possessed both of these gifts, or received them by the imposition of hands, who would know it? Another might receive the gift of faith, and they would be as ignorant of it. Or suppose a man had the gift of healing or power to work miracles, that would not then be known; it would require time and circumstances to call these gifts into operation. Suppose a man had the discerning of spirits, who would be the wiser for it? Or if he had the interpretation of tongues, unless someone spoke in an unknown tongue, he of course would have to be silent; there are only two gifts that could be made visible—the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecy. These are things that are the most talked about, and yet if a person spoke in an unknown tongue, according to Paul's testimony, he would be a barbarian to those present. They would say that it was gibberish; and if he prophesied they would call it nonsense. The gift of tongues is the smallest gift perhaps of the whole, and yet it is one that is the most sought after.
"So that according to the testimony of Scripture and the manifestations of the Spirit in ancient days, very little could be known about it by the surrounding multitude, except on some extraordinary occasion, as on the day of Pentecost.
"The greatest, the best, and the most useful gifts would be known nothing about by an observer. It is true that a man might prophesy, which is a great gift, and one that Paul told the people—the Church—to seek after and to covet, rather than to speak in tongues; but what does the world know about prophesying? Paul says that it 'serveth only to those that believe.' But does not the Scriptures say that they spake in tongues and prophesied? Yes; but who is it that writes these Scriptures? Not the men of the world or mere casual observers, but the Apostles—men who knew one gift from another, and of course were capable of writing about it; if we had the testimony of the Scribes and Pharisees concerning the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they would have told us that it was no gift, but that the people were 'drunken with new wine,' and we shall finally have to come to the same conclusion that Paul did—'No man knows the things of God but by the Spirit of God;' for with the great revelations of Paul when he was caught up into the third heaven and saw things that were not lawful to utter, no man was apprised of it until he mentioned it himself fourteen years after: and when John had the curtains of heaven withdrawn, and by vision looked through the dark vista of future ages, and contemplated events that should transpire throughout every subsequent period of time, until the final winding up scene—while he gazed upon the glories of the eternal world, saw an innumerable company of angels and heard the voice of God—it was in the Spirit, on the Lord's day, unnoticed and unobserved by the world.
"The manifestations of the gift of the Holy Ghost, the ministering of angels, or the development of the power, majesty or glory of God were very seldom manifested publicly, and that generally to the people of God, as to the Israelites; but most generally when angels have come, or God has revealed Himself, it has been to individuals in private, in their chamber; in the wilderness or fields, and that generally without noise or tumult. The angel delivered Peter out of prison in the dead of night; came to Paul unobserved by the rest of the crew; appeared to Mary and Elizabeth without the knowledge of others; spoke to John the Baptist whilst the people around were ignorant of it.
"When Elisha saw the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof, it was unknown to others. When the Lord appeared to Abraham it was at his tent door; when the angels went to Lot, no person knew them but himself, which was the case probably with Abraham and his wife; when the Lord appeared to Moses, it was in the burning bush, in the tabernacle, or in the mountain top; when Elijah was taken in a chariot of fire, it was unobserved by the world; and when he was in a cleft of rock, there was loud thunder, but the Lord was not in the thunder; there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and then there was a still small voice, which was the voice of the Lord, saying, 'What doest thou hear, Elijah?'
8. An Admonition to Righteousness: "The Lord cannot always be known by the thunder of His voice, by the display of His glory or by the manifestation of His power; and those that are the most anxious to see these things, are the least prepared to meet them, and were the Lord to manifest His power as He did to the children of Israel, such characters would be the first to say, 'Let not the Lord speak any more, lest we His people die.'