f it had not been for the love of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in
answer to the prayer of the Son (John xiv. 16) leading Him to seek me out
in my utter blindness and ruin and to follow me day after day, week after
week, and year after year, when I persistently turned a deaf ear to His
pleadings, following me through paths of sin where it must have been agony
for that holy One to go, until at last I listened and He opened my eyes to
see my utter ruin and then revealed Jesus to me as just the Saviour that
would meet my every need and then enabled me to receive this Jesus as my
own Saviour; if it had not been for this patient, long-suffering,
never-tiring, infinitely-tender love of the Holy Spirit, I would have been
in hell to-day. Oh, the Holy Spirit is not merely an influence or a power
or an illumination but is a Person just as real as God the Father or Jesus
Christ His Son.

The personality of the Holy Spirit comes out in the Old Testament as truly
as in the New, for we read in Neh. ix. 20, "Thou gavest also Thy good
Spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not Thy manna from their mouth,
and gavest them water for their thirst." Here both intelligence and
goodness are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. There are some who tell us that
while it is true the personality of the Holy Spirit is found in the New
Testament, it is not found in the Old. But it is certainly found in this
passage. As a matter of course, the doctrine of the personality of the
Holy Spirit is not as fully developed in the Old Testament as in the New.
But the doctrine is there.

There is perhaps no passage in the entire Bible in which the personality
of the Holy Spirit comes out more tenderly and touchingly than in Eph. iv.
30, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the
day of redemption." Here grief is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is not a blind, impersonal influence or power that comes into our
lives to illuminate, sanctify and empower them. No, He is immeasurably
more than that, He is a holy Person who comes to dwell in our hearts, One
who sees clearly every act we perform, every word we speak, every thought
we entertain, even the most fleeting fancy that is allowed to pass through
our minds; and if there is anything in act, or word or deed that is
impure, unholy, unkind, selfish, mean, petty or untrue, this infinitely
holy One is deeply grieved by it. I know of no thought that will help one
more than thi