doctor? The doctor said there was no soul, and he asked, “Did you ever see a soul?” “No,” said the Christian. “Did you ever hear a soul?” “No.” “Did you ever smell a soul?” “No.” “Did you ever taste a soul?” “No.” “Did you ever feel a soul?” “Yes,” said the man — “I feel I have one within me.” “Well,” said the doctor, “there are four senses against one: you have only one on our side.” “Very well,” said the Christian, “Did you ever see a pain?” “No.” “Did you ever hear a pain?” “No.” “Did you ever smell a pain?” “No.” “Did you ever taste a pain?” “No.” “Did you ever feel a pain?” “Yes,” “And that is quite enough, I suppose, to prove there is a pain?” “Yes.” So the worldling says there is no Holy Spirit, because he cannot see it. Well, but we feel it. You say that is fanaticism, and that we never felt it. Suppose you tell me that honey is bitter, I reply, “No, I am sure you cannot have tasted it; taste it, and try.” So with the Holy Spirit, if you only felt his influence, you would no longer say there is no Holy Spirit, because you cannot see it. Are there not many things, even in nature, which we cannot see? Did you ever see the wind? No; but you know there is wind, when you behold the hurricane tossing the waves about and rending down the habitations of men; or when in the soft evening zephyr it kisses the flowers, and makes dewdrops hang in pearly coronets around the rose. Did you ever see electricity? No; but you know there is such a thing, for it travels along the wires for thousands of miles, and carries our messages; though you cannot see the thing itself, you know there is such a thing. So you must believe there is a Holy Spirit working in us, both to will and to do, even though it is beyond our senses.
21. But the last reason why worldly men laugh at the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, is because they do not know it. If they knew it by heartfelt experience, and if they recognised its agency in the soul; if they had ever been touched by it; if they had been made to tremble under a sense of sin; if they had had their hearts melted; they would never have doubted the existence of the Holy Spirit.
22. And now, beloved, it says, “He dwells with you, and shall be in you.” We will close up with that sweet recollection — the Holy Spirit dwells in all believers, and shall be with them.
23. One word of comment and advice to the saints of God, and to sinners, and I am finished. Saints of the Lord! you have this morning heard that God the Holy Spirit is a person; you have had it proven to your souls. What follows from this? Why, it follows how earnest you should be in prayer to the Holy Spirit, as well as for the Holy Spirit. Let me say that this is an inference that you should lift up your prayers to the Holy Spirit, that you should cry earnestly to him; for he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all you can ask or think. See this mass of people; what is to convert it? See this crowd; who is to make my influence permeate through the mass? You know this place has now a mighty influence, and God blessing us, it will have an influence, not only upon this city, but upon England at large; for we now enjoy the press as well as the pulpit, and certainly, I would say before the close of the year, more than two hundred thousand of my productions will be scattered through the land — words uttered by my lips, or written by my pen. But how can this influence be rendered for good? How shall God’s glory be promoted by it? Only by incessant prayer for the Holy Spirit; by constantly calling down the influence of the Holy Spirit upon us; we want him to rest upon every page that is printed, and upon every word that is uttered. Let us then be doubly earnest in pleading with the Holy Spirit, that he would come and own our labours, that the whole church at large may be revived by it, and not ourselves only, but the whole world share in the benefit.
24. Then to the ungodly, I have this one closing word to say. Always be careful how you speak about the Holy Spirit. I do not know what the unpardonable sin is, and I do not think any man understands it; but it is something like this: “He who speaks a word against the Holy Spirit, it shall never be forgiven him.” I do not know what that means: but tread carefully! There is danger; there is a pit which our ignorance has covered by sand; tread carefully! you may be in it before the next hour. If there is any strife in your heart today, perhaps you will go to the ale house and forget it. Perhaps there is some voice speaking in your soul, and you will put it away. I do not tell you that you will be resisting the Holy Spirit and committing the unpardonable sin; but it is somewhere there. Be very careful. Oh! there is no crime on earth so black as the crime against the Holy Spirit. You may blaspheme the Father, and you shall be damned for it, unless you repent; you may blaspheme the Son, and hell shall be your portion, unless you are forgiven; but blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and thus says the Lord, “There is no forgiveness, neither in this world, nor in the world which is to come.” I cannot tell you what it is, I do not profess to understand it; but there it is. It is the danger signal; stop! man, stop! If you have despised the Holy Spirit, if you have laughed at his revelations, and scorned what Christians call his influence, I beseech you, stop! this morning seriously deliberate. Perhaps some of you have actually committed the unpardonable sin; stop! Let fear stop you; sit down. Do not drive on so rashly as you have done, Jehu! Oh! slacken your reins! You who are such a profligate in sin, you who have uttered such hard words against the Trinity; stop! Ah, it makes us all stop. It makes us all draw up and say, “Have I not perhaps done so?” Let us think of this; and let us not at any time trifle either with the words, or the acts, of God the Holy Spirit.
The Comforter
No. 5-1:33. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Evening, January 21, 1855, By C. H. Spurgeon, At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
But the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you. {John 14:26}
1. Good old Simeon called Jesus the consolation of Israel; and so he was. Before his actual appearance, his name was the Daystar; cheering the darkness, and prophetic of the rising sun. To him they looked with the same hope which cheers the nightly watcher, when from the lonely castle top he sees the fairest of the stars, and hails her as the usher of the morn. When he was on earth, he must have been the consolation of all those who were privileged to be his companions. We can imagine how readily the disciples would run to Christ to tell him of their griefs, and how sweetly with that matchless intonation of his voice, he would speak to them and bid their fears be gone. Like children, they would consider him as their Father; and to him every want, every groan, every sorrow, every agony, would at once be carried; and he, like a wise physician, had a balm for every wound; he had mingled a cordial for their every care; and readily he dispensed some mighty remedy to allay all the fever of their troubles. Oh! it must have been sweet to have lived with Christ. Surely sorrows then were only joys in masks, because they gave an opportunity to go to Jesus to have them removed. Oh! would to God, some of us may say, that we could have lain our weary heads upon the bosom of Jesus, and that our birth had been in that happy era, when we might have heard his kind voice, and seen his kind look, when he said “Let the weary ones come to me.”
2. But now he was about to die. Great prophecies were to be fulfilled, and great purposes were to be answered, and therefore Jesus must go. It behoved him to suffer, that he might be made a propitiation for our sins. It behoved him to slumber in the dust awhile, that he might perfume the chamber of the grave to make it —
No more a charnel house to fence
The relics of lost innocence.
It behoved him to have a resurrection, that we who shall one day be the dead in Christ, might rise first, and in glorious bodies stand upon earth. And it behoved him that he should ascend up on high, that he might lead captivity captive; that he might chain the fiends of hell; that he might lash them to his chariot wheels and drag them up high heaven’s hill, to make them feel a second overthrow from his right arm when he would dash them from the pinnacles of heaven down to deeper depths beneath. “It is right I should go away from you,” said Jesus, “for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come.” Jesus must go. Weep oh disciples. Jesus must be gone. Mourn oh poor ones who are to be left
