od
gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give
_the Holy Spirit_ to them that ask Him?" This name emphasizes the
essential moral character of the Spirit. He is _holy_ in Himself. We are
so familiar with the name that we neglect to weigh its significance. Oh,
if we only realized more deeply and constantly that He is the _Holy_
Spirit. We would do well if we, as the seraphim in Isaiah's vision, would
bow in His presence and cry, "Holy, holy, holy." Yet how thoughtlessly
oftentimes we talk about Him and pray for Him. We pray for Him to come
into our churches and into our hearts but what would He find if He should
come there? Would He not find much that would be painful and agonizing to
Him? What would we think if vile women from the lowest den of iniquity in
a great city should go to the purest woman in the city and invite her to
come and live with them in their disgusting vileness with no intention of
changing their evil ways. But that would not be as shocking as for you and
me to ask the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in our hearts when we have no
thought of giving up our impurity, or our selfishness, or our worldliness,
or our sin. It would not be as shocking as it is for us to invite the Holy
Spirit to come into our churches when they are full of worldliness and
selfishness and contention and envy and pride, and all that is unholy. But
if the denizens of the lowest and vilest den of infamy should go to the
purest and most Christlike woman asking her to go and dwell with them with
the intention of putting away everything that was vile and evil and giving
to this holy and Christlike woman the entire control of the place, she
would go. And as sinful and selfish and imperfect as we may be, the
infinitely Holy Spirit is ready to come and take His dwelling in our heart
if we will surrender to Him the absolute control of our lives, and allow
Him to bring everything in thought and fancy and feeling and purpose and
imagination and action into conformity with His will. The infinitely Holy
Spirit is ready to come into our churches, however imperfect and worldly
they may be now, if we are willing to put the absolute control of
everything in His hands. But let us never forget that He is _the Holy_
Spirit, and when we pray for Him let us pray for Him as such.

XI. _The Holy Spirit of Promise._

The Holy Spirit is called _the Holy Spirit of promise_ in Eph. i. 13, R.
V., "In whom ye also, having heard the W