Daily Devotionals

Music For the Soul

Devotional: May 31st

THE PROMISE OF THE PENTECOST

Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? - Micah 2:7

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. - Acts 2:4

WHAT did the Pentecost declare and hold forth for the faith of the Church? I need not dwell at any length upon this thought. The facts are familiar to you, and the inferences drawn from them are commonplace and known to us all. But let me just enumerate them as briefly as may be. " Suddenly there came a sound, as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting." And there came " cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." What lay in that? First, the promise of a Divine Spirit whose symbols express some, at all events, of the characteristics and wonderfulness of His work. The "rushing of a mighty wind " spoke of a power which varied in its manifestations from the gentlest breath that scarce moves the leaves on the summer trees to the wildest blast that casts down all which stands in its way. The natural symbolism of the wind, the least material to the popular apprehension of all material forces, and of which the connection with the immaterial part of a man’s personality has been expressed in all languages, point to a Divine, to an immaterial, to a mighty, to a life-giving power which is free to blow whither it listeth, and of which men can mark the effects, though they are all ignorant of the force itself. The twin symbol, the fiery tongues which parted and sat upon each of them, speak in like manner of the Divine influences, not as destructive, but full of quick rejoicing energy and life, the power to transform and to purify. Whither soever the fire comes, it changes all things into its own substance. Whither soever the fire comes, there the ruddy spires shoot upwards towards the heavens. Whither soever the fire comes, there all bonds and fetters are melted and consumed. And so this fire transforms, purifies, ennobles, quickens, sets free; and where the fiery spirit is, there is energy, swift life, rejoicing activity, transforming and transmuting power which changes the recipient of the flame into flame himself.

In the fact of Pentecost there is the promise of a Divine Spirit which is to influence all the moral side of humanity. This is the great and glorious distinction between the Christian doctrine of inspiration and all others which have, in heathen lands, partially reached similar conceptions, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has laid emphasis upon the Holy Spirit, and has declared that holiness of heart is the touchstone and test of all claims of Divine inspiration. Gifts are much, graces are more; an inspiration which makes wise is to be coveted, an inspiration which makes good is transcendentally better. And there we find the safeguard against all the fanaticism’s which have sometimes invaded the Christian Church, that the Spirit which dwells in men, and makes them free from the obligations of outward law and cold morality, is a Spirit that works a deeper holiness than law dreamed, and a more spontaneous and glad conformity to all things that are fair and good than any legislation and outward commandment can ever enforce.