The Holy Spirit

ANOTHER fact which has a strong bearing upon this question is that the word spirit, Greek, pneuma, is always neuter, that is neither masculine nor feminine. All the pronouns referring to the Holy Ghost are neuter, except when the Holy Ghost is personified, as the Comforter, Greek, Parakletos. John 14:16, 26. Here of course, it would have to be masculine. If the Holy Spirit is a person, the pronouns referring to it should be in the masculine, which they never are. It is said that Christ, was anointed with the Holy Ghost. Acts 10:38. Was one person of the trinity anointed with another person of the trinity? How could you anoint one person with another? But we can readily conceive how God could put his Spirit, and power, upon Jesus.

Again, of Jesus it is said, "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." John 3:34. What sense would there be in talking of measuring out a person? giving a person by measure? Furthermore the Spirit of God is said to be everywhere, omnipresent, all-pervading. Ps. 139:7. But if the Spirit of God were a person, it certainly could not be everywhere personally present, without absolutely filling the universe to the exclusion of everything else.

Again, it is said that the Holy Spirit fell upon the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius. Acts 10:44. How could this be true if the Holy Ghost were a person? How would it sound to talk of the Father's falling upon them, or of the Son's doing the same? The very idea is absurd. But if the Holy Ghost is a person like the other two, then it would be just as absurd to say that the Holy Ghost fell upon them. Moreover it is said that the Father "hath given us of his Spirit," (1 John 4:13), and that he will send the Holy Spirit. This is frequently said in the Bible. Every such declaration shows that the Holy Spirit is not equal with the Father. If the Holy Spirit is equal with the Father why don't we read somewhere of the Holy Spirit sending the Father, giving the Father, or something like that. We are to ask the Father for the Holy Spirit, and he will send it. Luke 11:13. If the Spirit of God is a person, equal with the Father, why not pray directly to the Holy Spirit? Why not ask it to come, instead of asking the Father to send it?

Jesus breathed the Holy Ghost upon his apostles. John 20:22. Paul admonishes us not to quench the Spirit. 1 Thess. 5:19. How could you quench a person? The Spirit of God can also be divided. To Moses the Lord said, "I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and I will put it upon them." Num.11:17. And the Lord did so. Did the Lord take his Spirit away from Moses and give to them? No, but a part of the same influence that rested upon Moses he put upon the other men.

I think we could properly illustrate the Spirit of God by the rays of the sun. Up there in the heavens hangs this great orb of light. We know that it is a material globe. From this are constantly being shed forth innumerable rays of light, lighting and warming all parts of the earth. We see this light every day, and we feel its warmth. Without it we could not live. The earth could not exist. Yet no one can explain what these rays of light are, or how they come. But we know that they are not a person, neither are they the sun itself, nor yet a body like the sun. The best we can say is, that light is a powerful influence constantly proceeding from the sun.

Just so with the Holy Spirit. It is an influence which proceeds from the Father. For thus Jesus says, "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me," John 15:26. It is mighty and powerful. It is shed forth everywhere throughout the entire universe. As the sun lights and warms the whole solar system by its rays, just so God controls and influences the whole universe by his Holy Spirit. God is a person, in a local habitation, the same as the sun is a body occupying a definite position. But the Spirit of God, like the rays of the sun, is everywhere diffusive, but is not a person, has no shape or body any more than has the light of the sun.

We might illustrate it again by the rays of heat from a fire. Here is a very hot fire. The rays of the heat are felt for rods around. The fire is a local body. We can see it, can handle it, can measure it; but who can see or handle, or weigh the rays of heat that proceed from it? So of the Spirit of God. Its influence is felt, but it has no body, it is not a person.

We might further illustrate the Spirit of God by the influence which one man often has over another. It is a familiar and undeniable fact, that one person with strong nerves and will power can often mesmerize another person with weaker nerves. He can do this without touching him at all. We see it done; we know the effect; we see the result. The two men stand twenty feet apart; and yet there is an influence extending from the one and reaching to the other, which controls him. We call it mesmerism, but we know nothing about it. We cannot tell how it is, nor why it is; but there is an influence, a spirit in man, which reaches out far beyond his actual bodily presence, his physical touch, and exercises a mighty influence over others. Just so the spirit of God is an almighty, potent influence flowing forth from God, which effects everything where it goes.

In another but more limited sense, the Spirit of God sometimes means something as we mean when we say, "The spirit of Washington," "the spirit of Elijah," "the spirit of the age," "the spirit of the party," etc. It means the disposition, feeling, which is in harmony with God. In the Bible we read of the "spirit of Egypt " (Isa. 19:3), of the "spirit of sleep" (Isa. 29:10), of the "spirit of heaviness" (Isa. 61:3), and many like expressions; yet no one supposes that Egypt, or sleep or heaviness, actually have a living, intelligent, personal spirit. In speaking this way we simply mean the influence of Egypt, of sleep, etc., which is here personified as an intelligent being. And this is what is frequently meant by the Spirit of God, though of course in a stronger sense.

It is personified, and thus spoken of in a manner that might convey the impression that it was a real person. And it is observable that the spirit of man is also personified in the Bible, and spoken of as though it were distinct from the man, or as though man and his spirit were two persons. Instances of this are perhaps nearly as numerous as the instances in which the Spirit of God is personified. But it ought to be distinctly noted, that when we have become habituated to the idea that by the Holy Spirit is intended a person, the idea of a person will immediately arise in our minds upon seeing or hearing the words Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. So if we had been taught from our infancy that the natural sun is a person, then we should think of it as such whenever it should come into view. This may account for its having been supposed that there is much in the Scriptures in favor of a distinct personality of the Holy Spirit. In general, throughout the Bible, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as the spirit of a person, just as we speak of the spirit of man as the spirit of a person. And in the same manner have the sacred writers spoken of the attributes of God, not as distinct persons, but as something of the person, in a person, or belonging to a person. The inspired writers speak of the spirit of man, the Spirit of God, the spirit of the world, the wisdom of God, the power of God, the goodness of God, and the will of God. We may also observe that when God speaks of the spirit he says, "My spirit," just as he says, "My power," "My goodness," etc. These and similar forms of speech respecting the Holy Spirit are very numerous in the Bible. They naturally convey the idea that the Spirit of God is not a distinct person, but the spirit of a person, as naturally as the forms of speech respecting wisdom, power, and goodness, convey the idea that they are attributes of a person, and not so many distinct persons.

It may be also observed in the Bible that the term, Spirit of God, is often used as synonomous with the breath of God, the hand of God, the finger of God, etc. The wicked are represented as consumed by the breath of the Lord, and also by the Spirit of the Lord, both meaning the same. Again, speaking of the creation of the heavens, it says, "By his Spirit he garnished the heavens;" also, "The heavens are the work of thy hands." Here hand and spirit evidently mean the same. So Jesus says, "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God." And again, "If I with the finger of God cast out devils," etc. The Spirit of God, then, we understand to represent the power of God.