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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘And when the day of Pentecost was fully come.’
Act_2:1
I. There is renewed recognition in the world to-day of the well-nigh forgotten truth of the personality of the Holy Ghost—‘the Holy Ghost, Almighty,’ ‘the Holy Ghost, God,’ ‘the Holy Ghost, Lord,’ ‘co-eternal and co-equal in the Trinity with the Father and the Son.’ We have thought of Him so much under our modern idea of the Comforter, when really He is the Paraclete, ‘the other advocate with the Father,’ that we have come to think of Him as only a minister of what we call consolation, the giver of relief in sorrow or of easement in pain; a sort of spiritual sedative; a sort of spiritual anæsthetic to help us endure, by not feeling, the griefs and losses of life. But that is a degradation alike of His personality and of our nature. He is the Comforter, but in the true meaning of that word, the strengthener, the giver of life and of power. And till we come, more and more, to turn to Him and pray to Him, and lean on Him and look to Him for refreshment and invigoration, we cannot hope to grow into the fullness of spiritual force and vigour.
II. Facing, each one of us, from day to day the puzzles and problems of life, doubtful often what to decide and what to do, here is our resort for guidance into all truth, not only, but into all duty as well. There is no little wandering child; there is no struggling man; there is no one anywhere, halting between two opinions, but can find here, in prayer to and independence upon the Holy Spirit of God, guidance to know and grace to do God’s Holy Will, as in that inspired category which defines and describes the manifold gifts of grace, the two gifts that are coupled together, are ‘counsel and ghostly strength.’ Nor do I think that this is a descending climax. By all means let us recall and realise all the mighty and marvellous signs of this first Pentecost, and its instant and immediate results and effects; of conquered cowardice, of utterance, of courageous speech, of other tongues, of this small and feeble body of believers leaping into the growth of the hundred and twenty to the three thousand in a single day. But all these were only means toward the gaining of the great end, of individual lives reached and roused into the forming of character, such as will fit men here to be the faithful followers of the dear and Divine Lord, judging rightly in all things to avoid the evil choices of our blind wills, and ‘evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort’; His grace and strength given to make us and keep us clean and pure and holy in our lives; ‘to support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations,’ that growing like unto Him ‘we may die unto sin and rise again unto righteousness, continually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living.’
—
Bishop W. C. Doane.
Illustration‘It was said by one who had a right to speak from experience, and who has now gone to his rest, “If you make it a rule to say with sincerity the first verse of the Ordination Hymn (in the Prayer Book) every morning without failing, it will, in time, do more for you than any other prayer I know, except the Lord’s Prayer:—
“Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,
And lighten with celestial fire.
Thou the anointing Spirit art,
Who dost Thy sevenfold gifts impart.
Thy blessed unction from above,
Is comfort, life, and fire of love.” ’