Spirit of God from the Night
Watches by John McDuff. Don't take your Holy Spirit from
me. Psalm 51 verse 11. But it is actually best for you
that I go away, because if I don't, the Comforter won't come. If
I do go away, He will come because I will send Him to you. How momentous
must be the agency of the Holy Spirit! when the adorable Redeemer
represented the Church as being more than compensated for the
blank of His own departure, the loss of His own presence, by
the gift of this divine paraclete. It is the Spirit who quicken. It is He who is the agent in
the new birth. Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.
It is He who enables a sinner by faith to lay hold on Jesus
and embrace His salvation. No man can say that Jesus is
the Lord but by the Holy Spirit. It is He who carries on the progressive
work of holiness. We are saved through the sanctification
of the Spirit. It is He who creates anew the
lost image of the Godhead and presses on the soul delineaments
of the Savior's character. We are changed into the same
image from glory to glory by the Lord the Spirit. It is He
who illumines the divine record, acting like a telescope to the
moral vision, disclosing in the firmament of inspiration wondrous
things contained in the law, which the natural eye cannot
see. It is He who unfolds the glories
of the Redeemer's work, the beauties of His person, the completeness
of His sacrifice, the riches of His grace. He shall glorify
me, for He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. More,
the soul of the believer becomes itself a temple of the Holy Spirit. Oh, with what holy jealousy would
the child of God guard every avenue to temptation if this
amazing truth exercised its habitual and solemnizing power over him?
The Spirit of God dwells within me. How would he avoid anything
and everything by which he would be likely to grieve this blessed
agent, whereby he is sealed until the day of redemption? Behold,
he seems to say, I make all things new. The initial operation is
his. He broods over the face of the
spiritual chaos saying, let there be light. The closing and consummating
grace is his. He conducts a soul through the
swellings of Jordan. until it joins with the ransomed
multitude before the throne in ascribing to Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit the glories of a completed salvation. Take not then, O God,
your Holy Spirit from me. In vain are the word, ordinances,
sacraments, sermons, prayers without Him. All are in themselves
passive instruments. His is the omnipotent arm which
wields and vanquishes. Our adorable Redeemer, the Great
High Priest, was himself anointed with the Holy Spirit. That anointing
oil, poured upon the Church's living head, runs down to the
skirts of His garment, anointing as it flows all His members. And those that are the lowest
and humblest, nearest the skirts, receive the most. Creator, if
this be your position at the feet of Jesus, the blessed influences
of the Holy Spirit streaming down upon you in copious effusion,
sanctifying you more and more and making you more fit for glory,
then you may well say, night after night, Until the dayspring
of that glory burst upon you, I will lie down and sleep in
peace. For you alone, O Lord, make me
dwell in safety. Psalm 4 verse 8.