Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His
word, has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding
of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, the Spirit was promised by our
Saviour, to open the word to His servants, to illuminate and apply its
teachings. And since it was the Spirit of God that inspired the Bible, it
is impossible that the teaching of the Spirit should ever be contrary to
that of the word.
The Spirit was not given—nor can it ever be bestowed—to super-
sede the Bible; for the Scriptures explicitly state that the word of God
is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested.
Says the apostle John, “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits
whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out
into the world.”
1 John 4:1
. And Isaiah declares, “To the law and to
the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because
there is no light in them.”
Isaiah 8:20
.
Great reproach has been cast upon the work of the Holy Spirit
by the errors of a class that, claiming its enlightenment, profess to
have no further need of guidance from the word of God. They are
governed by impressions which they regard as the voice of God in the
soul. But the spirit that controls them is not the Spirit of God. This
following of impressions, to the neglect of the Scriptures, can lead
[viii]
only to confusion, to deception and ruin. It serves only to further the
designs of the evil one. Since the ministry of the Holy Spirit is of vital
importance to the church of Christ, it is one of the devices of Satan,
through the errors of extremists and fanatics, to cast contempt upon the
work of the Spirit and cause the people of God to neglect this source
of strength which our Lord Himself has provided.
In harmony with the word of God, His Spirit was to continue its
work throughout the period of the gospel dispensation. During the
ages while the Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testament were
being given, the Holy Spirit did not cease to communicate light to
individual minds, apart from the revelations to be embodied in the
Sacred Canon. The Bible itself relates how, through the Holy Spirit,
men received warning, reproof, counsel, and instruction, in matters in
no way relating to the giving of the Scriptures. And mention is made
of prophets in different ages, of whose utterances nothing is recorded.
In like manner, after the close of the canon of the Scripture, the Holy