of the truth, exercises towards me appropriate affections of mind and heart, shall derive from me, in such rich abundance, the blessings of salvation, as that he shall not only be a holy, happy, man himself, but he shall become the means of diffusing holiness and happiness among his fellow-men." Let us look at this im portant and delightful truth a little more closely. "He that believeth in me," is a phrase plainly descriptive of the same person as the phrase, "He that cometh to me and drinketh." But though the phrases describe the same person, they do not, as we have seen, mean the same thing. Every one who believes in Christ comes to him. No man can come to him who does not believe in him. They are not, however, the same thing: the one is the cause, the other the effect; the one the means, the other the end. He that believes in Christ, is either he that believes that Christ is a divine teacher, and therefore credits his testimony, or, which comes materially to the same thing, he who credits the truth about Christ. He who believes in Christ, is he who, apprehending the meaning of the testimony given in the Scriptures about Christ, is fully persuaded of its truth-knows, and is sure of it-counts it a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation-sets to his seal that God is true. Such a person cannot but come to Christ as the fountain, or great reservoir, of saving blessings, and drink. He cannot but exercise, in the measure of his faith, appropriate affections of mind and heart towards the Saviour; and, in doing so, he cannot but, according to the measure of his faith, and its effects, participate in the heavenly and spiritual blessings of his salvation: according to the ancient oracle, "Out of his belly flow rivers of living,' life-giving, salutary, "water." § 1. He who accepts the invitation obtains abundant permanent happiness. The first idea suggested here is, 'He who accepts the invita tion, obtains large, continued draughts from Jesus Christ, as the fountain of blessings.' There is no setting bounds to the measure of holy happiness any man may obtain from Jesus Christ-" According to his faith it shall be to him." If he continues to have any spiritual wants, it is not because the fountain is not full and flowing; nor is it because continued access to it is denied him; it is simply because, not believing, he does not come and drink. In a persevering, ever-growing faith, the believer may obtain a 16 This is, as to substance, Luther's exegesis: "Out of him rivers shall flow, waters that give life.' Whoso comes to me, I will so fashion him, that he shall not only be cheered and refreshed in his own person, so that he may quench his thirst nd become free from thirst; but I will make him into a strong stone vesBel, will give him the Holy Ghost and his gifts, so that he shall flow forth upon others, shall give them to drink, shall comfort and strengthen them, and shall help many as he hath been helped by me; as Paul saith in 2 Cor. i. 4. Thus our Lord Christ will make another man of him who comes to him than Moses could make.”—Exposition of the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Chapters of St. John. steady, ever-increasing, holy happiness. If he is straitened, it is in himself, not in his Saviour. But this is not all. § 2. He who accepts the invitation manifests his happiness. The second idea is,' He who accepts the invitation shall not only obtain a constant, abundant, supply of holy happiness, but his holy happiness shall be manifest.' He shall be full to an overflow. The stream proves the reality of the spring, and the abundance of its waters the strength of the spring. The holy happiness, dwelling in the heart, will manifest itself in cheerful obedience. Nor is even this all. § 3. He who accepts the invitation becomes the means of communicating happiness to others. 9718 There is a third idea suggested by the words,' He who accepts the invitation shall be the means of communicating holy happiness to others.' He shall become a secondary fountain. The same general truth is brought before the mind, in various ways, in the Holy Scriptures. When Zion is enlightened, she shines." "Ye are," says our Lord, the "light of the world." When Christians are shone upon by the Sun of Righteousness, the true light of the world, they, though naturally dark bodies, become luminous, and, shining as lihts in the world, show forth. to men around them the glories of Him who called them. What they have received they communicate. Acting as mirrors, in reference to God in Christ, who is holy love, they are changed into the same image, by that which is glorious, into that which is glorious. God shines in and on them; and they thus become fit for imparting to others the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of his Son." To use another figure, they are saved themselves, through Christ, from that state of moral putrefaction, which is the natural state of all men; and not only so, but saturated, as it were, with the moral antiseptic, they become "the salt of the earth."20 Christians become the means of communicating to others the knowledge, the holiness, the peace, the hope, the joy, they have obtained from the Saviour: "Freely they have received, freely" they "give." So it should be. So, to a certain extent, wherever there is true Christianity, it actually is. A useless Christian is a contradiction in terms. He who has got good from the Saviour cannot help doing good to his fellow-men; and the degree of the desire to communicate, is the measure of the degree in which good has been received. This is as natural as for the stream to flow from the fountain-head, when it is surcharged with waters. He, from whom flow out no streams of living, life-giving waters, has reason to fear he has never yet come to the Fountain of life, and drunk. 17 Isa lx. 1. 19 2 Cor. iii. 18; iv. 6. 18 M. v. 15. 66 come and How illustriously was this declaration fulfilled in the case of the apostles and primitive Christians! Andrew brings Peter, and Philip Nathanael, to Jesus." The woman of Samaria, having tasted the living waters, invites her townsmen to drink." And what a deep, broad, rapid, river of life proceeded out of Jerusalem, carrying fertility and beauty throughout the heathen world! Indeed, in every case of genuine conversion, the saying is verified,-Every one who, believing, comes to Christ and drinks, "out of his belly proceed rivers of living waters." There is one great important practical truth, which this subject brings strongly out, and which I desire to press on your attention in the close of this discourse. If we would be savingly useful to others, we must receive saving blessings for ourselves. If we would have rivers of waters flow out of us to refresh and cleanse others, we must believingly come to Jesus, the fountain of life, and drink. If we would give freely, we must receive freely. If we would be instrumental in obtaining for other men the Holy Spirit, we must be primarily desirous and diligent in obtaining the Holy Spirit for ourselves. If we be, as I trust we are, really desirous of succeeding in the good work of endeavor ing to make others, both at home and abroad, holy and happy in the enjoyment of "heavenly and spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus," let us seek for ourselves a larger measure of Divine influence, and of that holy happiness which it produces. This will secure purity in our aims, constancy and perseverance in our exertions. This, too, will draw down the blessing of God on our exertions, for then they will be indeed, not only exertions for what is generally agreeable to his will, but exertions rising from the principles, and directed and regulated in the manner, which he approves. It would be rash to say, that an unconverted man cannot be made the instrument of producing in others a blessed change, to which he himself is a stranger. Such an event is not impossible, and may actually have taken place; but the reason of the thing, the history of the church, and the declaration of Scripture, unite in support of the principle, that it is converted men who are to convert unconverted men,-that it is religious men who are to make other men religious,-that it is the possess ors of holy happiness, who are to be the diffusers of holy happiness, that it is those who have drunk deep of the fountain of saving blessings, "out of whose hearts are to flow rivers of living waters." And admitting that an unconverted christian pro fessor, or an unconverted christian minister,-what an incongruous combination of terms! though, alas, the still more monstrous reality they designate has, we are afraid, been no rarity in any age of the church,-may become the instrument of conversion to others, he surely is among the sons of perdition, the most utterly lost,-who perishes of thirst while leading others to the Fountain of living waters; who, after conducting others to the regions of eternal light, when "the door is shut," finds his lot 21 John i. 42, 46. 22 John iv. 39. assigned him among the hypocrites "in outer darkness,"—" the blackness of darkness for ever." "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." APPENDIX TO EXPOSITION IX. EXPOSITORY NOTE OF THE EVANGELIST. CONNECTION BETWEEN THE GIVING OF THE SPIRIT, AND THE GLORIFICATION OF CHRIST. JOHN VIL. 39. The evangelist subjoins an expository note on this statement of our Lord, which now calls for consideration. "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified."" This saying about "rivers of living water," had a reference to that dispensation of Divine influence, which was to commence on our Lord's return to his Father, to be "glorified with the glory he had with Him, before the foundation of the world." It has been made a question whether, in this declaration, our Lord refers to the extraordinary, or to the ordinary, influences and gifts of the Holy Spirit; and whether the declaration in the 38th verse refers exclusively to the apostles and Christians of the primitive age, or to Christians in every age. We are not called, by anything in the words, or their connection, to narrow their reference; and, therefore, we hold that there is a reference to the Spirit's influence and gifts, of whatever kind, which were to be given after Christ was glorified. It was not the kind, but the measure, of divine influence and gifts, which was to distinguish the New Testament. There were extraordinary spiritual gifts under the Old Testament-for example, the gift of prophecy. There were ordinary spiritual gifts also. How else were men sanctified? But under the New Testament dispensation, both the ordinary and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were to be more extensively and more abundantly communicated. There were, probably, more inspired men during the last half of the first century, than during the whole period of the old economy. Certainly, far more clear information respecting the character of God, and the way of salvation, was communicated in the course of these fifty or sixty years, than had been from the beginning of the world. The extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit were intended for the benefit of the church in all ages. We derive, and so will the latest generation of Christians, important advantages from the revelations made under the inspiring influences of the Holy Ghost in the primitive age, and the miraculous confirmations given of these revelations by his mighty energy. It is through that truth, revealed and confirmed by this miraculous agency, as well as by ra, in relation to. Robinson, L. c. 24 John vii. 39. an influence over every individual mind, opening it to apprehend the meaning and evidence of that truth, that men are made holy and happy, and are made the instruments of making others holy and happy; that they are induced to come to Jesus, the Fountain of living waters, and drink; and that out of their bellies are made to flow rivers of living water. The statement is a general one, and holds true of every one believing under the New Testament dispensation. When these words were uttered, that dispensation had not com menced,-Jesus was yet on the earth. It is under divine influence that men are led to believe in Jesus; and it is the Holy Spirit, who by means of the truth believed, puts men in possession of holy happiness, and qualifies and disposes them to be useful to others in making them holy and happy. Under the former economy, men were partakers of divine influence but in a limited meas ure, corresponding with the limited and obscure character of the revelation then given." In the degree in which that divine influence was enjoyed, it made those who possessed it holy and happy, and disposed them to make others holy and happy. This is very evident from the words of the psalmist, "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit: then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sin. ners shall be converted unto thee." But our Lord's words refer to that more abundant communication of divine influence which was to characterize the new economy; a communication corre sponding in its abundance to the extensive and clear revelation given under it. 1126 When a man, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, was led to believe the complete revelation of God in the person and word of his incarnate Son, as found in the apostolic testimony, and by divine influence operating through that truth understood and believed, was put in possession of the heavenly and spiritual blessings of the christian salvation, and made at once capable, and disposed, to become the instrument of conveying these bless ings to others,-then were the words of our Lord fulfilled-that man, believing, had come to him and drunk, and out of his belly were flowing rivers of living water. Under the new dispensa tion, the people of God were thus to be blessed, and made bless ings, in a measure far exceeding that in which they were blessed, and made blessings, under the former dispensation. The fuller, clearer revelation, understood and believed, accompanied with a correspondingly enlarged measure of divine influence, fills the 25"As the Son operated in mankind long before his incarnation, so also the Spirit was manifested long before the outpouring. But as the fulness of lifa belonging to the Son was not revealed until his incarnation, so also the Spirit was not displayed in his full power till the outpouring at Pentecost. The outpouring of the Spirit, therefore, is the same circumstance in his development as the incarnation is in the development of the Son. It might be said that, until the glorification of Christ, the vεuua üytov operated as ivdiúterov, and after this al προφορικόν.”OLSHAUSEN. 26 Psal. li. 11-13. |