THE KING’S BUSINESS
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dicate a violent wind, but a word closely related to the one used in the passage now before us. It is true the Holy Spirit often comes as “a still small voice” (1 Kings, 19:12, note context), but it is also true that He sometimes comes as the sweeping, irresistible cyclone (Acts 2 :2-4; 6:10). The real reason why this particular word for wind is here used is, that there might be no mistaking Jesus’ meaning, viz., that the wind was an emblem of the Spirit; and herein lies much of the rich significance of the verse. This brings-us to the vital question in the whole matter, Why is “the Spirit,” or “the Wind,” so named? This question is very fully answered in the verse we are now studying. There are seven reasons: (1). Because the Spirit like the wind is Invisible, but none the less Perceptible; though none of us have ever seen the wind, we have all “heard the sound thereof.” We have also felt the wind as it blew upon our faces or upon our .bodies,/ and we have seen the great effects thereof. Just so is it with the Holy Spirit; no one has ever seen Him, but He is none the less real and perceptible. We have heard His “voice” as certainly as we have heard the voice of any man we ever saw with our eyes. We have as distinctly felt His presence and His touch as we ever felt the presence’and the touch of any person whom we at the same time saw with our eyes. And we have also seen His mighty effects both in ourselves and others. There are no effects of any kind visible in human society to-day more evident and visible, or nearly so beneficent, as those of the Holy Spirit’s unquestionable working. Nothing is more foolish than for men to say that they do not believe that the Holy Spirit is, or that God is, because they never saw Him. Did they ever see
the wind? Have they not heard the sound thereof? ' Have they not felt the wind? Have they not seen the mighty effects of the wind? Do they not believe that the wind is ? Do they not know that the wind is? So we also know that the Holy Spirit is: “we have heard the voice of Him.” It is quite likely that just as Jesus spoke these words He and Nicodemus heard a sudden gust of wind, sweeping through the till then silent night streets of Jerusalem. Probably Jesus pointed toward the door, as much as to say, “Nicodemus, listen. Do you hear that wind? Isn’t that taysteri- ous ? You don’t know where it comes from, or whither it goes, but you believe in it just the same, don’t you? You hear the sound thereof, don’t you? Well, just so believe in the Spirit, and the birth out of the Spirit, and hear His voice.” (2 ); Because the Holy Spirit like the wind is Inscrutable and Mysterious : “thou knowest not whence He (or it) cometh, and whither He (or it) goeth.” The doctrine that our Lord was trying to teach Nicodemus seemed to him too mysterious to be believed (see vs. 4 and 9), but Jesus said to him, in effect, is it any more mysterious than the wind which you hear outside there? Many in our day say, “I will not believe in mystery, I will not believe anything I can’t understand.” But we live in a world that is full of _mystery that we are bound to believe in and do believe in. Who understands how the apparently dying seed fives again and multiplies through its very death (ch. 12:24) ? Yet all intelligent persons believe and know that it does. So is it with the Spirit: He is indeed Inscrutable and Mysterious in His workings, but they are none the less sure and they are beneficent. Our Lord must have had Ecclesiastes 11:5 (see R. V.) in mind when He spoke the words, “knowest
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