Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 277, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1913 — Fitted With the Spirit [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Fitted With the Spirit

By REV. JAMES M. GRAY. D. a

Dean of Moody Bible ImOtuto aiOicM*

TEXT—Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 6:18.

The Holy Spirit is not a thing or an Influence, but a divine person, because in the holy scriptures there are ascribed to him the works, attributes and names of a person. This divine person dwells in true believers on Jesus Chrißt. He acts upon them not as a power from without, but as a living reality with-

in. “What, knew ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, which is in you?” It is also true that when he comes to dwell in the believer, as he does at his regeneration and conversion, he comes to dwell in. him forever - —_ But it seemß to be one thing to be Indwelt by the Spirit, and another to be infilled by him, a distinction met with again and again in the New Testament. Filled With the Spirit. The strong figure used in this chapter gives an idea, of what is meant by being filled with the Spirit. A man intoxicatetd with wine is under control of that which haß entered Into him. His countenance, his walk, his breath, his conversation, his thought, give evidence of it. So are Christians to be filled with the Holy Spirit that their very faces may declare that they “have seen the face of God.” Their conduct should be governed by him, their steps directed, their thoughts controlled by his influence and gracious power. This brings us to the apostle’s practical application of this truth, telling us that when so filled we will manifest the spirit of submissiveness one to another in the fear of God. Wives will be submissive to their husbands as unto the Lord, and husbands will lOve their wives as their own bodies and as Christ loved the church. Let the right - spirit take possession of husband and wife and ‘domestic inis at an end, but the right spirit is only and always God’s Holy Spirit. Children and parents Are next addressed. The child who knows the Lord, and in whom his spirit dwells, will obey his parents because it is Eight to do so. And parents in such a case will not provoke their children to wrath, but “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Solution of Industrial Wars.

Employers and employes come next. The employe who knows Jesus Christ will serve his employer faithfully because he will be serving Christ. There will be no more eye-service there. He will not be looking at the clock for quitting time, nor loafing when the foreman’s back is turned. He is aware that another is keeping the record whose eye is everywhere, and that of him h$ shall receive the reward. But the employer who knows Jesus Christ will act toward his employe correspondingly. He will not be a hard, unappreciative master, knowing that he himself has a master In heaven who is no respecter of persons. Here is the solution of industrial wars. The gospel can do wbat unions and amalgamations and strikes and lockouts can never do. The truest patriots and philanthropists are the men and women in our pulpits, our mission halls, and on the street corners testifying to the saving and keeping power of the Son of God. In other words it is not ‘‘social service” that the world so much needs today as it is salvation. “social service” movement Is good, and has a large constituency and large financial support. Several wellknown millionaires have each given a larger sum Within a few years, for educational and philanthropic enterprises than all which is spent annually for the support of the whole number of Christian churches in the United States. Organizations and agencies for social betterment are multiplying today to “ a bewildering extent. There is an agency to meet almost every kind of distress of man, woman or child, we are glad of it, but as a careful and wide observer has affirmed, “the more closely the facts are examined the more apparent the Inadequacy' 1 and ineffectiveness of the measure thus employed.” And he goes on to ask, “As the limitations of social effort thus become more sharply defined, is it out of place to suggest that there may be a factor in the problem of great significance which has been hi most entirely neglected?" That factor, we believe, is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Bring men to Christ, and let his Spirit fill them, and all our problems are solved. A man and a nation deteriorate when they lower their standard of right and wrong, when they sacrifice their principles to expediency.— Derek Vane.