“Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it.”
“What moved Thee to impart
Thy Spirit from above,
Therewith to fill our heart
With heavenly peace and love?
‘Twas love unbounded love to us
Led Thee to give Thy Spirit thus.”
“Praises for the Holy Ghost
Sent from heaven at Pentecost,
‘Tis through Him alone we live
And the precious truth receive.”
IN considering the activities of the Godhead for the blessing of men we cannot leave out those that lie in the hands of the Holy Spirit. We have seen that He is the Servant compelling needy men to come in to the great Supper, and now His work is portrayed again in the central story of this great three-fold parable. He has come into the world, sent by the Father and the Son, to be the Servant of their glory and to seek the lost for their joy, but He must also have His share in that joy, for the joy of the Godhead is one; and though He seeks no glory for Himself, it is right that we should honor Him and rejoice in His unwearied and never ceasing labors of love. The lost piece of silver was not easily found, the woman had to light a lamp and search diligently for it before she could say, “I have found that which was lost.” It was hidden in the dust of an out of the way corner and would have remained there but for the diligence of the woman.
It has been the way of sinners to hide from God from the very beginning; it was the first impulse in the hearts of guilty Adam and his wife in Eden. “They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the Garden.” Genesis 3. They had lost their God, but He had also lost them; they were lost souls and He came to seek them crying, “Adam, where art thou?” And it is thus that the Holy Spirit is seeking Adam’s sons today, He is searching diligently for them.
The reason why Adam hid from God was because he had become a disobedient man and he feared God’s just judgment; he did not know His mercy or His heart of love. Men hide from God to this day for the self-same reason; they do not know His thoughts and feelings towards them; they are ignorant, and ignorance of God is darkness; and darkness needs light. The woman lighted a lamp.
The Holy Spirit has lighted a wonderful and unquenchable lamp. He inspired the Holy Scriptures, He is the Author of them, “Thy word is a lamp,” is clearly said of the Word in the Word itself. The Holy Spirit uses the Word that He has inspired; He uses it to expose sinful men in their hiding places, and He uses it as the infallible record of what God has done for their redemption.
The presence of the Holy Spirit in the world for His great work is just as real as was the presence of the Lord Jesus when He came into it to save sinners. The difference is that the Lord became incarnate, He could be seen and handled by men, while the Holy Spirit is not incarnate and consequently not visible to mortal eyes, and because men cannot see Him they ignore Him, to them He is non-existent. But to those who have believed He is real, they have felt His power and they walk in the light which He has brought to them. The wind is unseen, but its presence is felt and the effect of it is seen. So it is with the Holy Spirit of God. He strives with men, this we learn from the Old Testament―Genesis 6―and men resist His strivings—this we are told in the New Testament―Acts 7. And when the history of souls is unfolded in the great day of judgment, multitudes will be compelled to confess that they have resisted His strivings and missed the blessing of God in consequence.
I have no doubt that all who have believed the gospel could give some account of the gracious way of the Holy Spirit with them. Mr. J. Wilson Smith of Berwickshire, a one-time officer in the Royal Scottish Regiment, was well known for his long and faithful labors in the gospel throughout the Cheviots. He was to hold an open-air meeting on a certain Sunday afternoon, not many miles from Wooler. A fine old Christian lady felt a great urge to invite a neighboring farmer’s wife to this meeting, but she got very small encouragement when she did so. “Open-air meetings are not for the likes of me. I go to church, not as often as I should like, but as often as I can. I don’t need these open-air meetings,” was the answer to the invitation. “Well, Mrs. Dunn,” said the Christian lady, “don’t forget, ‘Ye must be born again’.” “What do you mean by that?” came the sharp response. “Come to the meeting tomorrow afternoon and perhaps you will find out,” was the quiet and wise answer. I knew this Christian lady, and knew that she prayed for her neighbors, and I am sure that she asked that she might be guided by the Holy Spirit to invite this special one to that special meeting, and I am sure that the Spirit in His search for that religious but unregenerate soul gave her the words to speak to her. Anyhow, Mrs. Dunn could not forget them. As she went about her work she said over and over again to herself, “Ye must be born again! Ye must be born again! I wonder what she meant.” She continued to wonder to such purpose that at 3 o’clock on the following afternoon she was standing with many others waiting for the open-air meeting to commence.
I knew Mr. J. Wilson Smith intimately for many years, and I never met a servant of the Lord who prayed more about his service, or sought more sincerely and earnestly the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God for the messages that he had to deliver. On this particular afternoon he did what was unusual for him, without a preliminary hymn or even a prayer, he announced his text. “Ye must be born again.” And as his fine clarion voice repeated the text again and again, the effect upon Mrs. Dunn was deep and immediate. “Dear me,” she said, “the very same words, what can they mean?” She discovered that they meant something that had never taken place in her soul’s history. The Holy Spirit was shedding the light of the lamp upon her in her hiding place, and bringing her out of it. And she did come out of it, for she abandoned all her confidence in her religious observances, and it was my part in the matter and my joy to follow up the work and lead her actually to the Saviour’s feet.
I must add another incident in which the Holy Spirit showed His diligence and over-ruling hand in this search for souls. It is the case of a great friend of mine. As a young man, he began to realize that his endeavors to lead an upright life and his steady progress in his profession did not satisfy the deeper needs of his soul; he was unhappy, and he felt he was not right with God. It was the Spirit’s work within him awakening him to his need of Christ. He was a methodical man and caught a certain train to the City every morning, but one morning, to his great annoyance, he arrived at the Railway Station just in time to see his train disappearing Cityward. When the next train came in he stepped into the compartment nearest to where he was standing. Sitting in the opposite corner to the one he took was a man reading a New Testament who looked up, and as though he was an old acquaintance, asked him why he was so unhappy. He was amazed, for how did this stranger know that he was unhappy! But the whole truth came out, and before the train reached its terminus that morning, my friend had found peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And there was joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.
There are many dark corners in the house in which sinners hide from God. With one it may be religion, with another pleasure, another becomes engrossed in business and hides in his success, and the longer they are hidden from God, the more thickly do they become covered with the dust of their sins. But the Spirit of God continues His patient pursuit of them, searching diligently until first one and then another is found. Saved by the precious blood of Jesus, but brought to own their need of it and to rely wholly on it by the work of the Holy Spirit. The work done for them by the Lord Jesus and the work done in them by the Holy Ghost result in their being found for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.