The Spirit of God, as the author of administrative ability, whether in peace or in war, would naturally, it seems, find a place in the history of the kings of all Israel. Saul, indeed, appears to have been occasionally, and not habitually, the subject of His influence. No sooner had he been anointed to be " captain" of "the Lord's inheritance," than on his way to Gilgal he met the company of prophets; and “the spirit of God came mightily upon him, and he prophesied among them.” 1 Nor was it long afterwards that, in his indignation at the shameful terms offered by Nahash the Ammonite to the men of Jabesh-Gilead, "the spirit of God came mightily upon him," and he took his savage measure for collecting an army "throughout all the coasts of Israel." 3 It may well be thought that the fitfulness of the Spirit's action in Saul's life corresponds to his inconstant and immoderate character, and all the more as in him the Spirit of God was checked and thwarted, and at last expelled, by a spirit of evil: "The spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.” For if the Spirit of God is the author of wisdom in government, the departure of the Spirit is the natural sign that that wisdom is lost. The administrative decline of Saul, which characterises his life in its last days, was signalised, and in some degree occasioned, by the loss of the Spirit, who might have guarded and guided him in all his ways. 1 1 Sam. x. 10. I Sam. xi. 6, 7. 3 I Sam. xvi. 14. And as the impotence of Saul, so too the faithfulness of David, his successor, is in Holy Scripture expressed by the language used regarding the Spirit of God. anointed For it is related that when Samuel David, as many years before he had anointed Saul, "the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward." 1 The association of David's name with the Psalter is not now, as once it was, or is not to the same extent, an accepted tradition of Jewish history; but I am one of those who think that modern criticism of the Old Testament, and perhaps especially of the Psalter, in regard to the authorship and date of particular writings, has often exhibited more ingenuity than conclusiveness. I do not believe that the Psalter is wholly post-Davidical, and therefore it is natural to place here such expressions as in various Psalms, some of earlier and some no doubt of later composition, evince a consciousness of the Holy Spirit's operation: "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me." "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" 3 "Teach » 2 " 4 me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me (or, perhaps, "let thy good spirit lead me") into the land of uprightness." These, and others such as these, are passages expressive of belief in the Spirit of God as a present power, controlling and elevating the hearts of all upon whom the weight of personal or official responsibility lies. 1 1 Sam. xvi. 13. 3 Psalm cxxxix. 7. 2 Psalm li. II. It can hardly be wrong to speak of King Solomon as inspired, according to the Old Testament, with the administrative ability of which the Spirit of God is the author, when it is found to be written of him, after his famous judgment concerning the dead and the living children, that "all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.” " 2 And in this connection the thought of wisdom as the prominent feature in the literature of the Proverbs, to which the name of Solomon has been traditionally assigned, as that of David to the literature of the Psalms, cannot but occur to every student of the Old Testament. "Wisdom crieth aloud in the street; she uttereth her voice in the broad places. . . . Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words. unto you." But the Wisdom which can say, I will pour out my spirit unto you," is not the Holy Spirit Himself, but rather the Divine Logos; or it may be that there is here a witness to the intimacy of the Holy Spirit with the Logos in some of their various aspects and relations. And, if so, the passage is an anticipation of the book of Wisdom, which, in its suggestive teaching upon the relation of Wisdom and the Holy Spirit, may be taken to elucidate that relation as it is foreshadowed in the Proverbs. In strict truth, however, the record of the Spirit of God dwelling, whether occasionally or habitually, in the heart of any Jewish administrator, be he judge 1 1 1 Kings iii. 28. 2 Prov. i. 20-23. or warrior or king, comes to an end with King Solomon. It is not found in the history of any king after the disruption of the kingdom. Yet there are prophetic passages, as in Isaiah, which still bear testimony to the consciousness of judicial or administrative inspiration: "There shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. . . . With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins." 1 "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth: I have put my spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." With the broadening political and moral view of the prophets, the action of the Spirit is no longer, as it seems, confined to kings or judges, but it passes to the people at large. Inspiration is no longer select only, but democratic. It is so, for instance, in the thirtieth chapter of Isaiah's prophecy, where the complaint is made, "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me ; that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin." 1 Isaiah xi. 5. and The consideration of administrative ability as the gift of the Spirit of God has found its final sanction in the words of the prophets; but the Spirit is equally the author of an ability which is neither administrative nor strictly intellectual, but stands by itself, having a moral character of high and signal value, viz. the ability of the prophets themselves. C. The Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God, is the author of the prophetical gift. 1 It is said of Him in the Nicene Creed that He "spake by," or, more properly, "through the prophets." His energy is habitually linked, in the Old Testament as in the New, with prophetical utterance. Thus in the book of Numbers it is told that when "the spirit rested upon" the seventy elders, "they prophesied." It is told also that "the spirit rested upor" Eldad and Medad, who remained in the camp instead of going to the tabernacle," and they prophesied in the camp." The story of Balaam is remarkable in that, while it is related in the book of Numbers that "the spirit of God came upon him," he is not called a prophet; in the book of Joshua he is called a soothsayer" or or "diviner" (not but opp). For although the natural tendency of the Jewish mind to see the working of God in all things, both good and evil, led to the conception that Balaam, weak and wicked man as he was, was yet the subject of the Holy Spirit's action, the sacred writer shrank from classing him with God's true servants under the general head of the "prophets." In the life of Saul, as has been already indicated, the access ་ 1 Numb. xi. 25, 26. 2 2 xxiv. 2. 3 xiii. 22. |