good word of God"; "Spirit of prophecy," "word of prophecy"; "The Comforter," "comfort one another with these words."

2. In the use of emblems common to the Spirit and Word.

(1) Dew. In Hosea xiv. 5, we find the promise, “I will be as the dew unto Israel," a favorite and appropriate emblem of the Spirit. In Deut. xxxii. 2, Jehovah declares, "My speech shall distil as the dew."

(2) Rain. Ps. lxxii. 6: "He shall come down as showers upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth" (comp. Isaiah xliv. 3). Deut. xxxii. 2: "My doctrine shall drop as the rain . . . . as the small rain upon the tender grass, and as the showers upon the earth."

(3) Water. John vii. 37: "He that believeth on me, out of his belly (heart or inward parts) shall flow rivers of living water. This spake He of the Spirit that they which believe in Him should receive." Eph. v. 25: "Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word."

(4) Light. 2 Sam. xxiii. 4: "He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth." Ps. cxix. 105: "Thy word. . . . is a light." Prov. vi. 23: "The law

is light."

(5) Fire. When the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost, "there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire . . . and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts ii. 3, 4). Jer. xxiii. 29: "Is not my word like as fire? saith the Lord."

3. Proof of co-ordinate ministry of the Spirit and the Word by the effects produced.

(1) In regeneration. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of

the Holy Ghost" (Titus iii. 4-6). Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is a foundation creed in all evangelical churches. It is a primal Bible doctrine. For "except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." This is also the office of the Word. "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever" (1 Pet. i. 23). The Holy Spirit begets the soul anew through the word. The Spirit regenerates, and the word regenerates; hence the necessity of preaching the word in order to give the Spirit the opportunity He seeks to make men wise unto salvation. While human speculation, natural philosophy, culture, politics, or science, form the substance of so many sermons, we are not surprised that regeneration is practically ignored, and its deep need forgotten. The Spirit's injunction to the ministry of every age is, "Preach the word."

(2) In sanctification. The Holy Spirit enters the believing heart as the sanctifier (1 Pet. i. 2). But also in the Lord's prayer we note the petition, "Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy word is truth"; i. e., the whole of truth (John xvii. 17). There are various aspects of sanctification which cannot now be discussed, such as sanctification through the blood of Christ, sanctification by faith, etc. Our present work is to call attention to the fact that the Spirit of God sanctifies the regenerated man, making use of the word of God for his cleansing and purification. "Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you" (John xv. 3).

(3) The Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus. "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 xv. 26). But it is co-ordinate testimony. "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they

which testify of me" (John v. 39). The Scriptures our Lord refers to, are those of the Old Testament. Moses in the Law, David in the Psalms, and all the Prophets testified of Him. Jesus Himself rebukes every reviler of Moses. "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. . . . . And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.”

(4) The Spirit and the Word work unitedly in the edification of the Church. The Holy Spirit is builder. He hews out the living stones from the quarry, fitting them into the spiritual temple, which groweth up as the habitation of God (Eph. ii. 22). Yet Paul, in his farewell address to the Ephesian elders, commended them to the word of God's grace, "which is able to build you up" (Acts xx. 32). Through the Holy Spirit's gracious ministry of the divine word is the Church, whether viewed as a structure, or as the mystical body of Christ, truly edified.

(5) The work of revival is the work of the Spirit. When the promised dew descends, revival begins (Hosea xiv. 5). No intelligent Christian will designate the most effective preacher a "revivalist "; and no man taught of the Spirit will arrogate to himself this distinguishing title. Revivals may be simulated, but the work when real is the product of the quickening Spirit. The Word. however, has also its place in every genuine revival. In Neh. viii. 1-9, we have an example of the reviving power of the preached Word. The Levites read out of the law distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused the people to understand the

reading. And the word was applied in power by the Spirit. So also in Ezek. xxxvii. 1-10, we discover the co-operation of these two in the revival of the dry bones, who stood upon their feet an exceeding great army. And thus, as the prophecy foretells, shall Israel be revived in the next age of millennial blessedness, when the Spirit is poured forth upon them, and they are found hearing the words of the Lord.

(6) Guidance. The promise of Jesus is, "He will guide you into all the truth." Thus does our Lord comfort His disciples, in assuring them that after His departure, the Holy Spirit would come and be their guide. Also in Prov. vi. 22, guidance is attributed to the word; "When thou goest, it shall lead thee." Here, then, is provision for our journey; an infallible guide flashing on our pathway this unfailing light. No feeble light of nature nor flickering light of consciousness can illumine the path from earth to heaven. Only the Holy Spirit's clear, steady, noonday light of Scripture will prove sufficient.

(7) Co-operation in producing pure and spontaneous worship. "Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourelves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. v. 18, 19). Thus the highest expression of worship is the product of the divine Spirit in the soul. And herein does the Word also fulfill its mission. "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Col. iii. 16). Such are the divine effects of the indwelling word when received in the Holy Ghost. It is the true basis of spiritual experience and the strongest incentive to spiritual worship.

Thus have we traced the unity of both. The Word is

the Spirit's word and the Spirit's instrument. Therefore, their action is one and the same in regeneration, sanctification, testimony, edification, revival, guidance, worship, and every experience of that new creation in Christ Jesus-the true Christian believer. Sadducean sceptics denied the supernatural element in the Scriptures and brought upon themselves the deserved rebuke of Jesus, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." In that declaration does our Lord affirm that divine, superhuman, omnipotent power is linked with the written word of God.

Is it not our privilege, then, to receive that word in its totality and in its tittles; to bow with becoming reverence before its divine claims; to recognize that every type, prophecy, history, parable, doctrine, is given of God; that every word of God is pure; that it has been tried and not found wanting, and that He from whom it came will abide with it forever?

III. Third proposition: THE HOLY SPIRIT ALONE CAN GIVE US A RIGHT UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD.

The natural man may by the power of unaided intellect throw side-lights upon the human element of Scripture. We are deeply indebted to the geologist, botanist, historian, grammarian, archæologist, to compilers, and to critics. But to none of them, as merely intellectual men, not having the Spirit themselves, do we owe aught in the matter of spiritual interpretation, "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. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" (1 Cor. ii. 11, 12). There are, of course, men of intellect, who, thank God, have also the Spirit of God, to whom the Church is deeply indebted for spiritual