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with Unrelated Content
Holy Spirit?" Theoretically we all do, every time we sing the long
metre Doxology,

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts,
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost."

Theoretically we all do every time we sing the Gloria Patri: "Glory be

to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen." But
it is one thing to do a thing theoretically and quite another thing to
actually do it. It is one thing to sing words, quite another thing to
realise the meaning and the force of the words that you sing. I had
a striking illustration of this some years ago. I was going to a Bible
Conference in New York State. I had to pass through a city four
miles from the grounds where the Conference was held. I had a
relative living in that city and on the way to the Conference stopped
to call upon my relative, who went with me to the Conference. This
relative was a Christian, she was much older than I, had been a
Christian much longer than I, a member of the Presbyterian Church,
brought up on the Shorter Catechism, and thoroughly orthodox. I
spoke that morning at the Conference on the Personality of the Holy
Spirit. When the address was over, we were waiting on the veranda
of the hotel for the trolley to take us back to the city. My relative
turned to me and said, "Archie, I never thought of it before as a
person." Well, I had never thought of it as a person, but thank God I
had come to know Him as a person.
2. In the second place, it is of the highest importance from a
practical standpoint that we know the Holy Spirit as a person. If you
think of the Holy Spirit, as so many even among Christian people do,
as a mere influence or power, then your thought will be, "How can I
get hold of the Holy Spirit and use it." But if you think of Him in the
Biblical way as a Divine person, your thought will be, "How can the
Holy Spirit get hold of me and use me?" Is there no difference
between the thought of man, the worm, using God to thresh the
mountain, or God using man, the worm, to thresh the mountain?
The former conception is heathenish, it does not differ essentially
from the conception of the African fetich worshipper who uses his
god. The latter conception, of God the Holy Ghost getting hold of
and using us, is lofty and Christian. If you think of the Holy Spirit
merely as an influence or power, your thought will be, "How can I
get more of the Holy Spirit?" But if you think of Him in the Biblical
way as a person, your thought will be, "How can the Holy Spirit get
more of me?" The former conception, the conception of the Holy
Spirit as a mere influence or power, inevitably leads to self-
confidence, to self-exaltation, to the parade of self. If you think of
the Holy Spirit as an influence or power and then fancy that you
have received the Holy Spirit, the inevitable result will be that you
will strut around as if you belonged to a superior order of Christians.
I remember a woman who came to me one afternoon at the
Northfield Bible Conference at the close of an address and said to
me, "Brother Torrey, I want to ask you a question; but before I do, I
want you to understand that I am a Holy Ghost woman." It made
me shudder. It did not sound like it. But on the other hand, if you
think of the Holy Spirit in the Biblical way as a Divine Person of
infinite majesty, who comes to dwell in our hearts and take
possession of us and use us, it leads to self-renunciation, self-
abnegation, self-humiliation. I know of no thought that is more
calculated to put one in the dust and keep one in the dust than this
great Biblical truth of the Holy Ghost as a Divine Person coming to
take up His dwelling in our hearts, and to take possession of our
lives and to use us.
3. The doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit is of the
highest importance from the standpoint of experience. Thousands
and tens of thousands of Christian men and women can testify to an
entire transformation of their experience through coming to know
the Holy Spirit as a person. In fact, this address upon the Personality
of the Holy Spirit which, for substance, I have given in almost every
city in which I have ever held a series of meetings, is in some
respects apparently the most abstruse and technical subject that I
ever attempted to handle before a popular audience, and yet,
notwithstanding that fact, more men and women have come to me
at the close of the address and more have written to me, testifying
of personal blessing received, than of any other address which God
has permitted me to give.

II. FOUR LINES OF PROOF OF THE PERSONALITY OF THE

HOLY SPIRIT

There are four separate and distinct lines of proof of the

Personality of the Holy Spirit.
1. The first line of proof of the Personality of the Holy Spirit is that
all the distinctive marks or characteristics of personality are ascribed
to the Holy Spirit in the Bible. What are the distinctive characteristics
of personality? Knowledge, feeling and will. Any being who knows
and feels and wills is a person. Oftentimes when you say that the
Holy Spirit is a person, people understand you to mean that the Holy
Spirit has hands and feet and fingers and toes and eyes and ears
and nose and mouth, and so on. But these are not the marks of
personality, these are the marks of corporeity. Any being who knows,
thinks and wills is a person whether he have a body or not. Now all
these characteristics of personality are ascribed to the Holy Spirit in
the Bible.
(1) Turn in your Bibles to 1 Cor. 2:11. "For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?
Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of
God." Here knowledge is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
in other words, is not a mere illumination that comes to your mind
and mine whereby our minds are cleared and strengthened to see
truth that they would not otherwise discover. The Holy Spirit is a
Person who Himself knows the things of God and reveals to us what
He Himself knows.
 (2) Now turn to 1 Cor. 12:11: "But all these worketh that one
and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as
He will." Here will is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The thought clearly
is that the Holy Spirit is not a divine power that we get hold of and
use according to our will, but that the Holy Spirit is a person who
gets hold of us and uses us according to His will. This is one of the
most fundamental facts in regard to the Holy Spirit that we must
bear in mind if we are to get into right relations to Him. More people
are going astray at this point than almost any other. They are trying
to get hold of some divine power which they can use according to
their will. I do thank God that there is no divine power that I can get
hold of and use according to my will. What could I, in my foolishness
and ignorance, do with a divine power, what evil I might work! But
on the other hand, I am still more glad that while there is no divine
power that I can get hold of and use according to my foolish will,
there is a Divine Person who can get hold of me and use me
according to His infinitely wise and loving will.
(3) Turn now to Rom. 8:27. "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." What I wish you to notice here is expression, "the mind of
the Spirit." The Greek word here translated "mind" is a
comprehensive word that has in it the ideas of both thought and
purpose. It is the same word which is used in the 7th verse of the
chapter where we read, "The mind of the flesh is enmity
against God," where the thought is that not merely the thought of
the flesh is against God, but the whole moral and intellectual life of
the flesh is enmity against God.
(4) We now turn to a most remarkable passage—Rom. 15:30.
"Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's
sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together
with me in your prayers to God for me." What I wish you to
notice in this verse are the words "The love of the Spirit." It is a
wonderful thought. It teaches us that the Holy Spirit is not a mere
blind influence or power, no matter how beneficent, that comes into
our hearts and lives, but that He is a Divine Person, loving us with
the tenderest love. I wonder how many of us have ever thought
much regarding "the love of the Spirit." I wonder how many of us
ministers who are here to-day have ever preached a sermon on the
love of the Spirit. I wonder how many of you have ever heard a
sermon on the love of the Spirit. Every day of your life you kneel
down before God the Father, at least I hope you do, and say,
"Heavenly Father, I thank thee for thy great love that led thee to
give thy Son to come down to this world and die upon the cross of
Calvary in my place." Every day of your life you kneel down and look
up into the face of Jesus Christ the Son and say, "Thou blessed Son
of God, I thank thee for that great love of thine that led thee to
come down to this world in obedience to the Father and die in my
place upon the cross of Calvary." But did you ever kneel down and
look up to the Holy Spirit and say to him, "Holy Spirit, I thank thee
for that great love of thine"? And yet we owe our salvation as truly
to the love of the Holy Spirit as we do to the love of the Father and
the love of the Son. If it had not been for the love of God the Father
to me, looking down upon me in my lost estate, yes, anticipating my
fall and ruin and sending His Son down to this world to die upon the
cross, to die in my place, I would have been in hell to-day. If it had
not been for the love of Jesus Christ, the Son, coming down to this
world in obedience to the Father to lay down His life, a perfect
atoning sacrifice on the cross of Cavalry in my stead, I would have
been in hell to-day. But if it had not been for the love of the Holy
Spirit to me, coming down to this world in obedience to the Father
and the Son, seeking me out in my lost condition, following me day
after day, and week after week, and month after month, and year
after year, when I would not listen to Him, when I deliberately
turned my back upon Him, when I insulted Him, following me into
places where it must have been agony for One so holy to go,
following me day after day, week after week, month after month,
year after year, until at last He succeeded in bringing me to my
senses and bringing me to realise my utterly lost condition and
revealed the Lord Jesus to me as just the Saviour I needed and
induced me and enabled me to receive the Lord Jesus as my Saviour
and my Lord; if it had not been for this patient, long-suffering,
never-wearying love of the Spirit of God to me, I would have been in
hell to-day.
(5) Turn now to a passage in the Old Testament. Neh. 9:20.
"Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them, and
withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest
them water for their thirst." Here both intelligence and goodness
are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. This passage does not add anything
to the thought that we have already had: I brought it in simply
because it is from the Old Testament. There are those who say that
the doctrine of the Personality of the Holy Spirit is in the New
Testament, but is not in the Old Testament; but here we find it as
clearly in the Old Testament as in the New. Of course, we do not find
it as frequently in the Old Testament as in the New, for this is the
dispensation of the Holy Spirit: but the doctrine of the Personality of
the Holy Spirit is there in the Old Testament. There are many who
say that the doctrine of the Trinity is not in the Old Testament, that
while it is in the New, it is not in the Old. But it is in the Old, in the
very first chapter of the Bible. In Gen. 1:26 we read, "And God
said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Here
the plurality of the persons in the Godhead comes out clearly. God
did not say, "I will" or "Let me make man in my image." He said,
"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." The three
persons of the Trinity are found in the first three verses of the Bible:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
There you have God the Father. "And the earth was without
form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
There you have the Holy Spirit. "And God said," there you have
the Word, "Let there be light: and there was light." Here we
have the three persons of the Trinity in the first three verses of the
Bible. In fact the doctrine of the Trinity is found hundreds of times in
the Old Testament. In the Hebrew Bible it occurs in every place
where you find the word God in your English Bible, for the Hebrew
word for God is a plural noun. Literally translated, it would be "Gods"
and not God. In the very passage to which the Unitarians and the
Jews, who reject the Deity of Christ, refer so often as proving
conclusively that the Deity of Christ cannot be true, namely Deut.
6:4, the very doctrine that they are seeking to disprove is found; for
Deut. 6:4 literally translated would read "Hear, O Israel: Jehovah
our Gods is one Jehovah." Why did the Hebrews with their
intense monotheism, use a plural name for God? This was the
question that puzzled the Hebrew grammarians and lexicographers,
and the best explanation they could arrive at was that the plural for
God here used was the pluralis majestatis, the plural of majesty. The
explanation is entirely inadequate, to say nothing of the fact that the
pluralis majestatis in the Old Testament is a figure of very doubtful
validity. There is another explanation far nearer at 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. Were you ever at a theatre or
at a moving picture show in your life where you thought the
atmosphere of the place would be congenial to the Holy Spirit? If
not, don't go. Ought I as a Christian go to the dance? Well, here
again, if you go, the Holy Spirit will surely go. Were you ever at a
dance in your life where you believed the atmosphere of the place
would be congenial to the Holy Spirit? Shall I as a Christian play
cards? Were you ever at a card party in all your life, even the most
select little neighbourhood gathering, or even a home gathering to
play cards, where you thought the atmosphere of the place would be
congenial to the Holy Spirit? If not, don't play. So with all the
questions that come up and that some of us find so hard to settle,
this thought of the Holy Spirit will help you to settle them all, and to
settle them right, if you really desire to settle them right and not
merely to do the thing that pleases yourself.
2. The second line of proof of the personality of the Holy Spirit is
that, many actions are ascribed to the Holy Spirit that only a person
can perform. There are many illustrations of this in the Bible; but I
will limit our consideration this morning to three instances.
(1) Turn again to the 2nd chapter of 1 Corinthians. In the 10th
verse, we read, "But unto us, God revealed them through the
Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep
things of God." Here the Holy Spirit is represented as searching
the deep things of God. In other words, as we said under our
previous heading, the Holy Spirit is not a mere illumination whereby
our minds are made clear and strong to apprehend truth that they
would not otherwise discover, but the Holy Spirit is a person Who
Himself searches into the deep things of God and reveals to us the
things which He discovers. Such words could only be spoken of a
person.
(2) Now turn to Rom. 8:26 "And in like manner the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as
we ought but the spirit himself maketh intercession for us
with groanings that cannot be uttered." Here the Holy Spirit is
represented as doing what only a person can do, praying. The Holy
Spirit is not a mere influence that comes to impel us to prayer, and
not a mere guidance to us in offering our prayers. He is a person
who Himself prays. Every believer in Christ has two Divine Persons
praying for Him. First, the Son, our Advocate with the Father, who
ever liveth to make intercession for us up yonder at the right hand of
God in the place of power (John 2:1 and Heb. 7:25). Second, the
Holy Spirit who prays through us down here. Oh, what a wonderful
thought, that we have these two divine persons praying for us every
day. What a sense it gives us of our security.
(3) Now turn to two other closely related passages. John 14:26.
"But the comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and
bring to your remembrance all that I have said unto you."
Here the Holy Spirit is represented as doing what only a person
could do, namely, teaching. We have the same thought in John
16:12-14. "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye
cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of
Truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth: for He
shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He
shall hear, these shall He speak: and He shall declare unto
you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me; for He
shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you." Here again
the Holy Spirit is represented as a living personal teacher. It is our
privilege to have the Holy Spirit as a living person to-day as our
teacher. Every time we study our Bibles, it is possible for us to have
this Divine Person the author of the Book, to interpret it to us and to
teach us its meaning. It is a precious thought. How many of us have
often thought when we heard some great human teacher whom God
has especially blessed to us, "Oh, if I could only hear that man every
day, then I might make some progress in my Christian life," but we
can have a teacher more competent by far than the greatest human
teacher that ever spoke for our teacher every day, the Holy Spirit.
3. The third line of proof of the personality of the Holy Spirit is
that an office is predicated of the Holy Spirit that could only be
predicated of a person. Look for example at John 14:16, 17. Here we
read, "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you
another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for
it seeth him not. Neither knoweth him: ye know him; for He
abideth with you, and shall be in you." Here the Holy Spirit is
represented as another Comforter who is coming to take the place of
our Lord Jesus. Up to this time our Lord Jesus had been the friend
always at hand to help them in every emergency that arose. But
now He was going and their hearts were filled with consternation,
and He tells them that while He is going, another is coming to take
His place. Can you imagine our Lord Jesus saying this if the other
that was coming to take His place was a mere impersonal influence
or power? Can you imagine our Lord Jesus saying what He says in
John 16:7, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient
for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto
you," if that which was coming to take His place was not another
person but a mere influence or power. In that case, is it for a
moment conceivable that our Lord could say that it was expedient
for Him, a Divine Person, to go and a mere influence or power, no
matter how divine, come to take His place? No! No! What our Lord
said was that He, one Divine Person, was going, but that another
Person, just as Divine, was coming to take His place. This promise is
to me one of the most precious promises in the whole Word of God
for this present dispensation, the thought that during the absence of
my Lord, until that glad day when He shall come back again, another
Person, just as divine as He, is by my side, yes, dwells in my heart
every moment to commune with me and to help me in every
emergency that can possibly arise. I suppose you know that the
Greek word translated Comforter in these verses means more than
Comforter. It means Comforter plus a whole lot beside. The Greek
word so translated is parakletos. This word is a compound word,
compounded of the word para which means alongside, and kletos,
one called, "One called to stand alongside another" to take his part
and help him in every emergency that arises. It is the same word
that is translated "advocate" in 1 John 2:1, "If any man sin, we
have an advocate (parakleton) with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous." But the word "Advocate" does not give the full
force of the word. Etymologically it means about the same. Advocate
is a Latin word transliterated into the English. The word is
compounded of two words, ad, meaning to, and vocatus, one called,
that is to say, one called to another to take his part, or to help him.
But in our English usage it has obtained a restricted sense. The
Greek word, as already said, means "one called alongside another,"
and the thought is of a helper always at hand with his counsel and
his strength and any form of help needed. Up to this time the Lord
Jesus Himself had been their Paraclete, or friend always at hand to
help. Whenever they got into any trouble they simply turned to Him.
For example, on one occasion they were perplexed on the subject of
prayer and they said to the Lord, "Lord teach us to pray." And He
taught them to pray. On another occasion when Jesus was coming
to them walking on the water, when their first fear was over and He
had said, "It is I, be not afraid," then Peter said to Him, "Lord, if it
be thou, bid me come unto thee upon the water." And the Lord said,
"Come." Then Peter clambered over the side of the fishing smack
and commenced to go to Jesus walking on the water. Seemingly he
turned around, took his eyes off the Lord and looked at the fishing
smack to see if the other disciples, John and James, and the rest,
were noticing how well he was getting on, but no sooner had he got
his eyes off the Lord than he began to sink, and he cried out saying,
"Lord, save me," and Jesus reached out His hand and held him up.
Just so, when they got into any other emergency they turned to the
Lord and He delivered them. But now He was going, and
consternation filled their hearts, and the Lord said to them, "Yes, I
am going but another just as divine, just as able to help, is coming
to take my place," and this other Paraclete is with us wherever we
go, every hour of the day or night. He is always by our side. If this
thought gets into your heart and stays there, you will never have
another moment of fear no matter how long you live. How can we
fear in any circumstances, if He is by our side? You may be
surrounded by a howling mob. But what of it if He walks between
you and the mob? That thought will banish all fear. I had a striking
illustration of this in my own experience some years ago. I was
speaking at a Bible Conference on Lake Kenka in New York State. I
had a cousin who had a cottage four miles up the lake and I went up
there and spent my rest day with him. The next day he brought me
down in his steam launch to the pier where the Conference was
held. As I stepped off the launch onto the pier he said to me, "Come
back again to-night and spend the night with us," and I promised
him that I would; but I did not realise what I was promising. That
night, when the address was over as I went out of the hotel and
started on my walk, I found that I had undertaken a large contract.
The cottage was four miles away, but a four mile walk or an eight
mile walk was nothing under ordinary circumstances, but a storm
was coming up, the whole heaven was overcast. The path led along
a bluff bordering the lake, the path was near the edge of the bluff.
Sometimes the lake was perhaps not more than ten or twelve feet
below, at other times some thirty or forty feet below. I had never
gone over the path before and as there was no starlight, I couldn't
see the path at all. Furthermore, there had already been a storm
that had gulleyed out deep ditches across the path into which one
might fall and break his leg. I couldn't see these ditches except
when there would be a sudden flash of lightning, and then I would
see one and then it would be darker and I blinder than ever. As I
walked along this path, so near the edge of the bluff with all the
furrows cut through it, I felt it was perilous to take the walk and
thought of going back; and then the thought came to me, "You
promised that you would come to-night and they may be sitting up
waiting for you." So I felt that I must go on. But it seemed creepy
and uncanny to walk along the edge of that bluff on such an
uncertain path that I couldn't see, and could only hear the sobbing
and wailing and the moaning of the lake at the foot of the bluff as it
rose in the fast approaching storm. Then the thought came to me,
what was it you told the people there at the conference about the
Holy Spirit being a Person always by our side? And I at once realised
that the Holy Spirit walked between me and the edge of the bluff;
and that four miles through the dark was four miles without a fear, a
gladsome instead of a fearsome walk. I once threw this thought out
in the Royal Albert Hall in London, one dark dismal February
afternoon. There was a young lady in the audience who was very
much afraid of the dark. It simply seemed impossible for her to go
into a dark room alone. After the meeting was over she hurried
home and rushed in to the room where her mother was sitting and
cried, "O mother, I have heard the most wonderful address this
afternoon about the Holy Spirit always being by our side as our ever-
present helper and protector. I shall never be afraid of the dark
again." Her mother was a practical English woman and said to her,
"Well, let us see how real that is. Now go upstairs to the top floor,
into the dark room, and shut the door and stay in there alone in the
dark." The daughter went bounding up the stairs, went into the dark
room, closed the door and it was pitch dark, and "Oh," she wrote me
the next day, "it was dark, utterly dark, but that room was bright
and glorious with the presence of the Holy Spirit."
In this thought is also the cure for insomnia. Did any of you ever
have insomnia? I did. For two dark, awful years. Night after night, I
would go to bed, almost dead, as it seemed to me, for sleep, and I
thought I would certainly sleep as I could scarcely keep awake; but
scarcely had my head touched the pillow when I knew I wouldn't
sleep and I would hear the clock strike twelve, one, two, three, four,
five, six, and then it was time to get up. It seemed as though I
didn't sleep at all, though I have no doubt I did: for I believe that
people who suffer from insomnia sleep more than they think they
do, else we would die: but it seemed as if I didn't sleep at all, and
this went on for two whole years, until I thought that if I couldn't get
sleep I would lose my mind. And then I got deliverance. For years I
would retire and fall asleep about as soon as my head touched the
pillow. But one night I went to bed in the Bible Institute in Chicago
where I was then stopping. I expected to fall asleep almost
immediately, as had become my custom, but scarcely had my head
touched the pillow when I knew I was not going to sleep. Insomnia
was back. If you have ever had him you will always recognise him. It
seemed as if Insomnia was sitting on the footboard looking like an
imp, grinning at me and saying "I am back for two more years."
"Oh," I thought, "two more years of this awful insomnia." But that
very morning I had been teaching the students in the lecture room
on the floor below on the Personality of the Holy Spirit, and the
thought came to me almost immediately, "What was that you were
telling the students down stairs this morning about the Holy Spirit
being always with us?" And I said, "Why don't you practice what you
preach?" And I looked up and said, "O thou blessed Holy Spirit of
God, thou art here, if thou hast anything to say to me, I will listen."
And He opened to me some of the sweet and precious things about
Jesus Christ, filling my soul with calm and peace and joy, and the
next thing I knew I was asleep and the next thing I knew it was to-
morrow morning; and whenever Insomnia has come around since
and sat on my footboard, I have done the same thing and it has
never failed.
In this thought also is a cure for all loneliness. If the thought of
the Holy Spirit as an Ever-present Friend always at hand, once
enters your heart and stays there, you will never have another lonely
moment as long as you live. My life for the larger part of the last
sixteen years has been a lonely life. I have often been separated
from all my family for months at a time. I have not seen my wife
sometimes for two or three months at a time and for eighteen
months I did not see any member of my family but my wife. One
night I was walking the deck of a steamer in the South Seas
between New Zealand and Tasmania. It was a stormy night. Most of
the other passengers were below sick, none of the officers nor
sailors could walk with me for they had their hands full looking after
the boat. I had to walk the deck alone. Four of the five other
members of my family were on the other side of the globe,
seventeen thousand miles away by the nearest route that I could get
to them, and the one member of my family who was nearer was not
with me that night. As I walked the deck alone I got to thinking of
the four children seventeen thousand miles away and was about to
get lonesome, when the thought came to me of the Holy Spirit by
my side, and that as I walked He took every step with me, and all
loneliness was gone. I gave expression to this thought some years
ago in the city of St. Paul, and at the close of the address a
physician came to me and said, "I wish to thank you for that
thought. I am often called at night to go out alone through darkness
and storm far into the country, and I have been very lonely, but I will
never be lonely again, for I will know that every step of the way the
Holy Spirit is beside me in my doctor's gig."
In this same precious truth there is a cure for a broken heart. Oh,
how many broken-hearted people there are in the world to-day,
especially in these days of war and bloodshed and death! Many of us
here have lost loved ones. Many more of us in all probability will
during the months that are just ahead of us. But we need not have a
moment's heartache if we only know the communion of the Holy
Ghost. There is perhaps here to-day some woman who a year ago,
or a few months ago, or a few weeks ago, or a few days ago, had by
her side a man whom she dearly loved, a man so strong and wise
that she was freed from all sense of responsibility and care; for all
the burdens were upon him, and how bright and happy life was in
his companionship! But the dark day came when that loved one was
taken away, and how lonely and empty and barren, and full of
burden and care, life is to-day! Listen! There is One who walks right
by your side, wiser and stronger and more loving than the wisest
and strongest and most loving husband that ever lived, ready to
bear all the burdens and responsibilities of life, yes, ready to do far
more: to come in and dwell in your heart and fill every nook and
corner of your empty, aching heart, and thus banish all loneliness
and heartache forever. I said this one afternoon in Saint Andrews
Hall in Glasgow. At the close of the address, when I passed out into
the reception room, a lady who had hurried along to meet me,
approached me. She wore a widow's bonnet, her face bore the
marks of deep sorrow, but now there was a happy look in her face.
She hurried to me and said, "Doctor Torrey, this is the anniversary of
my dear husband's death" (her husband was one of the most highly
esteemed Christian men in Glasgow) "and I came to Saint Andrews
Hall to-day saying to myself, 'Doctor Torrey will have something to
say that will help me.' Oh," she continued, "you have said just the
right word! I will never be lonesome again, never have a heartache
again. I will let the Holy Spirit come in and fill every aching corner of
my heart." Eighteen months passed; I was in Scotland again, taking
a short vacation on the lochs of the Clyde on the private yacht of a
friend. One day we stopped off a point, a little boat put off from the
point and came alongside the steam yacht. The first one who
clambered up the side of the yacht and onto the deck was this
widow. Seeing me standing on the deck, she hurried across and took
my hand in both of hers and with a radiant smile on her face she
said, "Oh, Doctor Torrey, the thought you gave me in Saint Andrews
Hall that afternoon stays with me still and I have not had a lonely or
sad hour from that day to this."
 But it is in our Christian work that the thought comes to us with
greatest power and helpfulness. Take my own experience. I became
a minister simply because I had to, or be forever lost. I do not mean
that I am saved by preaching the Gospel; I am saved simply on the
ground of Christ's atoning blood and that alone; but my becoming a
Christian and accepting Him as my Saviour turned upon my
preaching the Gospel. For six years I refused to come out as a
Christian because I was unwilling to preach, and I felt that if I
became a Christian I must preach. The night that I was converted I
did not say, "I will accept Christ" or "I will give up my sins"; I said, "I
will preach." But if there was ever a man who by natural
temperament was unfitted to preach, it was I. I was one of these
abnormally bashful boys. A stranger could scarcely speak to me
without my blushing to the roots of my hair. Of all the tortures I
endured at school there was none so great as that of reciting a
piece. To stand up on the platform and have all the scholars looking
at me, I could scarcely endure it, and when I had to recite and my
own mother and father asked me to recite the piece before I went to
school, I simply could not recite it before my own father and mother.
Think of a man like that going into the ministry. Even after I was in
Yale College, when I would go home on a vacation and my mother
would have callers and send for me to come in and meet them, I
couldn't say a word. After they were gone my mother would say to
me, "Archie, why didn't you say something to Mrs. S. or Mrs. D.?"
and I would say, "Why, mother, I did!" and she would reply, "You
didn't utter a sound." I thought I did, but it would come no further
than my throat and there be smothered. I was so bashful that I
never even spoke in a church prayer meeting until after I entered
the theological seminary. Then I thought, if I was to be a preacher I
must at least be able to speak in my own church prayer meeting. I
made up my mind I would. I learned a piece by heart. I remember
some of it now. I think I forgot some of it when I got up to speak
that night. As soon as the meeting was thrown open I grasped the
back of the settee in front of me and pulled myself up to my feet
and held on to it lest I should fall. One Niagara went rushing up one
side and another down the other, and I tremblingly repeated as
much of my little piece as I could remember and then dropped back
into the seat. At the close of the meeting a dear old maid, a lovely
Christian woman, came to me and cheeringly said, "Oh, Mr. Torrey, I
want to thank you for what you said to-night. It did me so much
good. You spoke with so much feeling." Feeling! The only feeling I
had was that I was scared nearly to death. Think of a man like that
going into the ministry. My first years in the ministry were torture. I
preached three times a day. I committed my sermons to memory
and then I stood up and twisted the top button of my coat until I
had twisted the sermon out and then when the third sermon was
preached and finished, I dropped back into the haircloth settee back
of the pulpit with a great sense of relief that that was over for
another week. And then the thought would take possession of me,
Well you have to begin to-morrow morning to get ready for next
Sunday! But a glad day came when the thought I am trying to teach
you this morning took possession of me, viz., that when I stood up
to preach, that, though people saw me, that there was Another who
stood by my side whom they did not see, but upon whom was all
the responsibility for the meeting, and all that I had to do was to get
as far back out of sight as possible and let Him do the preaching.
From that day preaching has been the joy of my life. I would rather
preach than eat. Sometimes when I rise to preach, before I have
uttered a word, the thought of Him, standing beside me, able and
willing to take charge of the whole meeting and do whatever needs
to be done, has so filled my heart with exultant joy that I have felt
like shouting. Just so in your Sunday School teaching. Some of you
worry about your Sunday School classes for fear that you will say
something that ought not to be said, or leave unsaid something that
ought to be said, and the thought of the burden and responsibility
almost crushes you. Listen! Always remember this as you sit there
teaching your class: there is One right beside you Who knows just
what ought to be said and just what ought to be done. Instead of
carrying the responsibility of the class, let Him carry it, let Him do
the teaching. One Monday morning I met one of the most faithful
laymen I ever knew and a very gifted Bible teacher. He was deep in
the blues, over his failure with his class the day before—at least,
what he regarded as failure. He unburdened his heart to me. I said
to him, "Mr. Dyer, did you not ask God to give you wisdom as you
went before that class?" He said, "I did." I said, "Did you not expect
Him to give it?" He said, "I did." Then I said, "What right have you
to doubt that He did?" He replied, "I never thought of that before. I
will never worry about my class again." Just so in personal work.
When I or some one else urges you at the close of the meeting to
go and speak to some one else, oh, how many of you want to go,
but you don't stir. You think to yourself, "I might say the wrong
thing." You will, if you say it. You will certainly say the wrong thing;
but trust the Holy Spirit, He will say the right thing. Let Him have
your lips to speak through. It may not appear the right thing at the
time, but some time you will find out that it was just the right thing.
One night in Launceston, Tasmania, as Mrs. Torrey and I came away
from the meeting, my wife said to me, "Archie, I wasted my whole
evening. I have been talking to the most frivolous girl. I don't think
that she has a serious thought in her head." I replied, "Clara, how
do you know? Did you not trust God to guide you?" "Yes." "Well,
leave it with Him." The very next night at the close of the meeting
the same seemingly utterly frivolous young woman came up to Mrs.
Torrey, leading her mother by the hand, and said, "Mrs. Torrey, won't
you speak to my mother? You led me to Christ last night, now please
lead my mother to Christ."
4. But I must close. There is another line of proof of the
personality of the Holy Spirit, but we have no time to dwell upon it.
This line of proof is that a treatment is predicated of the Holy Spirit
that could only be predicated of a person. In Isa. 63:10 we are
taught that the Holy Spirit is rebelled against and grieved. You
cannot rebel against or grieve a mere influence or power. Only a
person can be rebelled against and grieved. In Heb. 10:29 we are
taught that the Holy Spirit is "done despite unto," or "treated with
contumely," insulted. You cannot treat an influence or power with
contumely; only a person. In Acts 5:3 we are taught that the Holy
Spirit is lied to. You can only lie to a person. In Matt. 12:31 we are
taught that the Holy Spirit is blasphemed against. We are told that
the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is more serious than the
blasphemy against the Lord Jesus, and this certainly could only be
said of a person and a Divine Person.
To sum it all up, the Holy Spirit is a Person. Theoretically we
probably all believed this before, but do we in our real thought of
Him, in our practical attitude toward Him, treat Him as a person? Do
we really regard Him as real a person as Jesus Christ is, as loving, as
wise, as strong, as worthy of our confidence and love, and surrender
as He? A Divine Person always by our side? The Holy Spirit came
into this world to be to the disciples of our Lord after our Lord's own
departure, and to be to us, what Jesus Christ had been to them
during the days of His personal companionship with them. Is He that
to you to-day? Do you know the "communion of the Holy Spirit?" the
companionship of the Holy Spirit, the partnership of the Holy Spirit,
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the comradeship of the Holy Spirit?
To put it into a single word, the whole object of this address this
morning, I say it reverently, is to introduce you to my Friend, the
Holy Spirit.
 VII
The Deity of the Holy Spirit and the Distinction Between the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit

I spoke in a previous chapter on the personality of the Holy Spirit.

We saw clearly that the Holy Spirit was a person. Incidentally I
referred to His Deity in passing, but did not dwell upon it, so the
question remains, Is the Holy Spirit a Divine person? and still
another question, If the Holy Spirit is a Divine person, is He a
separate and distinct personality from the Father and the Son? We
shall consider this morning what the Bible teaches upon these
points.

I. THE DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

We take up first the question of the Deity of the Holy Spirit. The
fact that the Holy Spirit is a person does not prove that He is divine.
There are spirits who are persons but who are not God. There are
five distinct lines of proof of the Deity of the Holy Spirit, that the
Holy Spirit is God.
1. The first line of proof of the Deity of the Holy Spirit is that each
of the four distinctively Divine attributes are ascribed to the Holy
Spirit in the Bible. There are four distinctively divine attributes; that
is to say, there are four attributes which God alone possesses, and
any person who has these attributes must therefore be God. The
four distinctively divine attributes are omnipotence, omniscience,
omnipresence and eternity.
(1) First of all, omnipotence is ascribed to the Holy Spirit, for
example, in Luke 1:35: "And the angel answered and said unto
her, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of
the most high shall overshadow thee: wherefore also that
which is to be born shall be called holy, the Son of God." This
passage plainly declares that the Holy Spirit has the power of the
Most High, that He is omnipotent.
(2) In the next place, omniscience is ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
This is done, for example, in I Corinthians 2:10, 11: "But unto us
God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For who
among men knoweth the things of a man, save the Spirit of
the man, which is in him? Even so the things of God none
knoweth, save the Spirit of God." Here we are distinctly told that
the Holy Spirit searcheth all things and knoweth all things, even the
deep things of God. We find the same thought again in John 14:26:
"But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and
bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you." Here we
are distinctly told that the Holy Spirit teaches all things, and
therefore must know all things. This is stated even more explicitly in
John 16:12-13: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but
ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of
Truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth." In all
these passages it is either directly declared or unmistakably implied
that the Holy Spirit knows all things, that He is omniscient.
(3) In the third place, omnipresence is ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
We find this in Psalms 139:7-10: "Whither shall I go from thy
Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend
up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in Sheol,
behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning,
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall
thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Here we
are told in the most explicit and unmistakable way that the Spirit of
God, the Holy Spirit, is everywhere; that there is no place in heaven,
earth or hades whither we can go from His presence.
 (4) Eternity is also ascribed to the Holy Spirit. This we find in
Hebrews 9:14, where we read: "How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself
without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God?" Here we find the words
"the Eternal Spirit" just as elsewhere we find the words "the Eternal
God" (e.g., Deut. 33:27): Putting these different passages together,
we see clearly that each of the four distinctively divine attributes, the
four attributes that no one but God possesses, are ascribed to the
Holy Spirit.
2. The second line of proof of the true Deity of the Holy Spirit is
found in the fact that three distinctively divine works are ascribed to
the Holy Spirit—that is to say, the Holy Spirit is said to do three
things which God alone can do.
(1) The first of these distinctively divine works that are ascribed
to the Holy Spirit is the work which we always think of first when we
think of God and His work—that is to say, the work of creation. We
find creation ascribed to the Holy Spirit in Job 33:4: "The Spirit of
God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty giveth
me life." We find the same thing implied in Psalms 104:30: "Thou
sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou
renewest the face of the ground." In these two passages
creation, the most distinctively divine of all works, is ascribed to the
Holy Spirit.
(2) The impartation of life is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. This we
find, for example, in John 6:63: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth;
the flesh profiteth nothing." We find the same thing again in
Romans 8:11: "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." In this passage we have not merely
impartation of life to the spirit of man, but the impartation of life to
the body in the resurrection of the body ascribed to the Holy Spirit.
Man's creation and the impartation of life to man are ascribed to the
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