T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S In our lesson He Is called th e “Spirit of tru th .” He will drive out all erro r and reveal and make clear the tru th . He uses the Bible to instill tru th in us. He will make it plain to us. He will make Jesus real to us. The world cannot see or know Him (v. 17). The world did not know Jesus, and afte r the resurrection the world did not see Him. The world cannot receive Jesus for it will not re ceive th e Holy Spirit, His messenger (v. 17). It cannot receive th e Holy Spirit because it does not see Him. If the world cannot know the Holy Spirit, how can it know God?
651 keep th rough t th ine own nam e” and so forth. Loving H im and keeping His commandments, pu ts us in position for receiving blessings from th e Spirit of T ruth, who will abide w ith us, comfort us, teach us all things, bring all things to our remembrance, and give us th e peace, “ not as the world giveth.’’ The apostolic Christians were com manded to ta rry for th e Holy Spirit. Now th a t th e Holy Spirit is here in per son more emphasis should be placed on tru stin g th an tarry ing . Our only hope of spiritual power is in the Holy Spirit. On a hu rried trip one day, th e street car stopped. The conductor explained, “ Something wrong a t the power-house.” Now suppose th e company had sent out a wagon load of men, and they had busied themselves sweeping out the car, cleaning the windows, and polish ing th e brass. The car would still be th ere motionless. W hat we needed was not polish, bu t power. So it is w ith our churches. Never shall I forget my first electric street-car ride. A fterward, while walk ing w ith my friend one day, when the w eather was damp, we saw fire flash from th e trolley wire. I sa id ,. “Isn ’t th a t powerful?” He laughed at me and said, “That is not the power a t all; the electricity you see is not running the car.” I was impressed as never before, w ith th e need of FORCÉ and not FLASH. If all our churches cared less for flash and more for force, I am sure they would be more powerful. The old text is ju st as tru e as ever, “Not by m ight nor by power, bu t by my Spirit, saith th e Lord.” Loving Him and keeping His commandments, we may expect th is power and this peace, because the promise came from Him who is the “P rince of Peace,” and who will some day be in charge here. Our only hope for world peace is in Him. At th e close of one of the great peace conferences, these sad words
Note th a t everywhere God is hedged up in Jesus Christ, and th e Holy Spirit must reveal Christ. How solemn is this lesson! How im portant th a t these simple, yet profound, tru th s should be known and understood by all our stu dents! Those who deny Christ as God can never know God as F ath er, and out of Christ God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12 :29 ). “ Fo r o u r G o d i s a con su mi ng f i r e .”
SUGGESTIVE COMMENT Rev. Benjamin Cox, Pastor Central Baptist Church, Memphis, Tennessee This portion of Scripture sta rts off in a very strik ing fashion. “ If ye love me (ye w ill) keep my command ments.” There seems to be a close connection between keeping His com mandments and the prayer of Jesus for th e Com forter and His coming. One of His very im portant commands is, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded.” (Matt. 28 :20 ). The word tran slated here, “ observe,” is more correctly translated, “ keep,” and it is so tran slated in most of the four-score times it occurs. I t is th e same word used in th e Lord’s prayer (John 1 7 :11 ), “Holy F ath er,
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