John 14:23-26

O taste and see.

Psalms 34:8

It was Canon Holmes, of India, who more than twenty-five years ago called attention to the inferential character of the average man's faith in God. To most people God is an inference, not a reality. He is a deduction from evidence which they consider adequate; but He remains personally unknown to the individual. `He must be,' they say, `therefore we believe He is.' Others do not go even so far as this;...

The primary work of the Holy Spirit is to restore the lost soul to intimate fellowship with God through the washing of regeneration. To accomplish this He first reveals Christ to the penitent heart (1 Corinthians 12:3). He then goes on to illumine the newborn soul with brighter rays from the face of Christ (John 14:26; 16:13-15) and leads the willing heart into depths and heights of divine knowledge...

The Christian cannot be certain of the reality and depth of his love until he comes face-to-face with the commandments of Christ and is forced to decide what to do about them. Then he will know. "He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings" (John 14:24), said our Lord. "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me" (John 14:21). So the final test of love is obedience. Not...

The absence of the concept of discipleship from present-day Christianity leaves a vacuum which we instinctively try to fill with one or another substitute. I name a few.

Pietism.By this I mean an enjoyable feeling of affection for the person of our Lord which is valued for itself and is wholly unrelated to cross-bearing or the keeping of the commandments of Christ.

It is entirely possible to feel for Jesus an ardent love which is not of the Holy Spirit. Witness the love...

The doctrine of the divine indwelling is one of the most important in the New Testament, and its meaning for the individual Christian is precious beyond all description. To neglect it is to suffer serious loss. The apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesian Christians that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith. Surely it takes faith of a more than average vitality to grasp the full implications of this great truth. Two facts join to make the doctrine difficult to accept: the supreme...

For Reading and Meditation:     Mark 1:1-13

Those who accept Scripture's teaching concerning God must be prepared to say that He is not only personal, but that He is a plurality of Persons also - a Trinity. The next aspect of God's character we must examine is His triune nature. The doctrine of the Trinity, that God is One yet three separate Persons, is not easy to...

For Reading and Meditation:     2 Corinthians 1:1-11

We continue meditating on our Lord's second Beatitude: "Blessed [or happy] are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." The word "mourn" has reference to more than just sorrowing over the death of a loved one; it includes all those experiences in life where we may feel crushed, broken or sorrowful. I feel...

This age is peculiarly the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, in which Jesus cheers us, not by his personal presence, as he shall do by-and-by, but by the indwelling and constant abiding of the Holy Ghost, who is evermore the Comforter of the church. It is his office to console the hearts of God's people. He convinces of sin; he illuminates and instructs; but still the main part of his work lies in making glad the hearts of the renewed, in confirming the weak, and lifting up all those that be...

Jude wanted to know how the manifestation of Christ unto his people exclusively, was to be effected. Christ in reply, says, that the believer has something and God something to do; it does not concern the believer to know how God will do his part; all that concerns him is to know how he is to do his part. Let him then keep the words of Christ, and the manifestation will be brought about; the Godhead shall take up its abode with him; let him keep the words of Christ, and he will keep Christ...

John 14:15-27

Everything in Christian life is love. "The fruit of the Spirit is love." There are other things that are mentioned as fruit - but love is named first, and all the others are only parts or qualities of love. The one white ray of light is resolved into the seven colors of the rainbow. Just so does love, the white ray that shines from the face of God, separate itself into all the heavenly graces. "The fruit of the Spirit is...