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are, however, not to understand the abiding and sanctifying Presence of the Holy
Ghost dwelling in the heart as His temple. The Holy Ghost was peculiarly "the gift
of the Father" and "of the Son," and only granted to the Church in connection with,
and after the Resurrection of our Blessed Lord.
Under the Old Testament, only the manifold influences of the Spirit were
experienced, not His indwelling as the Paraclete. This appears not only from the
history of those so influenced, and from the character of that influence, but even
from the language in which it is described. Thus we read that the Spirit of Elohim
"seized upon" Saul, suddenly and mightily laid hold on him, - the same expression
being used in Judges 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1 Samuel 16:13; 18:10. But although they
were only "influences" of the Spirit of Elohim, it need scarcely be said that such
could not have been experienced without deep moral and religious effect. The inner
springs of the life, thoughts, feelings, and purposes must necessarily have been
mightily affected. It was so in the case of Saul, and the contrast was so great that his
fellow-townsmen made a proverb of it. In the language of Holy Scripture, his
"heart," that is, in Old Testament language, the spring of his feeling, purposing, and
willing, was "turned into another" from what it had been, and he was "turned into
another man," with quite other thoughts, aims, and desires than before. The
difference between this and what in the New Testament is designated as "the new
man," is too obvious to require detailed explanation. But we may notice these two as
important points: as in the one case it was only an overpowering influence of the
Spirit of Elohim, not the abiding Presence of the Paraclete, so the moral effects
produced through that influence were not primary, but secondary, and, so to speak,
reflex, while those of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of God's people are direct,
primary, and permanent.^101
The application of these principles to "the spiritual gifts" in the early Church will
readily occur to us. But perhaps it is more important to remember that we are always
- and now more than ever - prone to confound the influences of the Spirit of God
with His abiding Presence in us, and to mistake the undoubted moral and religious
effects, which for a time may result from the former, for the entire inward change,
when "all old things have passed away," and, "all things have become new," and are
"of Christ." Yet the one is only the reflex influence of the spirit of man, powerfully
influenced by the Spirit of Elohim; the other the direct work of the Holy Ghost on
the heart.
One of the effects of the new spiritual influence which had come upon Saul was, that
when his uncle, Ner, met him upon the Bamah, or high place (ver. 14), probably
joining him in his worship there to find out the real meaning of a change which he
must have seen more clearly than any other, and which it would readily occur to him
(^)