The Medical Missionary, vol. 16
March 27, 1907
“Christian Loyalty.—I” The Medical Missionary, 16, 13, p. 98.
ALONZO T. JONES
CHRISTIANITY in all that in itself it is, contemplates only a Person. It has its origin only in a Person. It comes to men only from a Person. It is given to men only by a Person. It is sustained and maintained in believers only by a Person. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.1
Christian loyalty, therefore, is and can be only loyalty to that Person. The loyalty of Christians can never be to anybody, and much less to any thing, other than just that one Person. And that Person is God—God, in Christ, through and by the Holy Spirit. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.2
God is a person—a living, intelligent, person: a person who thinks, who loves, who pities, who speaks, who is good, who is true, who is faithful, who enters into covenant with men, and who keeps covenant and mercy with men forever. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.3
And Christ Jesus is a person. In this personal Christ the personal God is manifested to the world and made personally known to believing men. Christ, was a person before he came into the world; yea, he was a person before ever the world was. He was of the person of God before ever the world was; and as of the person of God, he “was the Word,” and he spoke the word that made the world and all the worlds. This same Person who was before the world, and who made the world and made man, came into the world and to man. He was a person in the world and with mankind. In this same person he left the world and ascended to heaven and to the personal God of heaven. In this same Person, and as this same Person glorified, he is at the right hand of the throne of the personal God in Heaven. And in this same Person, and as this same Person glorified, he is soon corning again in all the glory to glorify and take to himself and to the personal God of glory, all who are his by a personal faith upon their own personal choice. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.4
And the Holy Spirit is a person. This great truth is not recognized, indeed it is not believed, by more than a very few even of Christians. For everybody knows that almost invariably, with very, very few exceptions, the Holy Spirit is referred to and spoken of by Christians as “it.” MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.5
But the word “it” never applies to a person. The word “it,” in the very genius of our language, refers and applies only to things, never to persons; to things of inanimate substance, as a stone, a horse, a tree; or to things of concept, or experience, as space, height, breadth, peace, joy, grief, an impression, an influence. But the Holy Spirit is none of these: the Holy Spirit is not an influence; nor an impression, nor peace, nor joy, nor any thing. The Holy Spirit gives peace, and gives joy, assuages in grief, makes an impression, exerts an influence; but the Holy Spirit is none of these things, nor any other thing. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.6
No, eternally no! The Holy Spirit is a Person, eternally a divine Person. And he must be always recognized and spoken of as a Person, or he is not truly recognized or spoken of at all. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.7
See how plain and emphatic the Scriptures set forth this truth that the Holy Spirit is only a Person: and to aid the reader to see this truth, we will print in capital letters Italic, the words that designate the Holy Spirit:— MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.8
John 14:16, 17: “I will pray the Father, and he shall give, you another comforter that HE may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; WHOM the world cannot receive because it (the world) seeth HIM not, neither knoweth HIM; but ye know HIM; for HE dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.9
John 14:26: “The Comforter, the Holy Ghost, WHOM the Father will send in my name, HE shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.10
John 15:26: “When the Comforter is come, WHOM I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which (WHO, Revised Version and others) proceedeth from the Father, HE shall testify of me.” MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.11
John 6:7-15: “If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you; And when HE is come, HE will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.) ... I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now. Howbeit, when HE, the Spirit of Truth is come, HE will guide you into all truth; for HE shall not speak for HIMSELF; but whatsoever HE shall hear, that shall HE speak; and HE will shew you things to come. HE shall glorify me; for HE shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore, said I, that HE shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.” MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.12
Thus in the short space of a few lines the Lord Jesus speaks twenty-four times of the Holy Spirit as a person; and speaks of him in no other term than that which signifies in Greek, literally, “that person there.” MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.13
Yet this is not peculiar to the New Testament. David said, “The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and HIS word was in my tongue.” [sic.] 2 Samuel 23:2. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.14
Note that this latter word introduces another element of personality—“the Spirit of the Lord spake.” This is also stated of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Read it:— MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.15
“Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.” Acts 8:29. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.16
“The Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Acts 13:2. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.17
“As the Holy Ghost saith.” Hebrews 3:7. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.18
“Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet.” Acts 28:25. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.19
Thus the Scriptures make perfectly plain the truth that the Holy Spirit is, none other than a living, speaking, divine, and eternal person. Exactly as Christ is a person and as God is a person. Indeed Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father, just as he speaks of himself as proceeding from the Father. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.20
Of himself Jesus says: “I proceeded forth and came from God.” John 8:4 Of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says that he “proceedeth from the Father.” John 15:26. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.21
Therefore to be consistent those people who persist in speaking of the Holy Spirit as “it,” should also speak of Christ as “it,” and of God as “it.” But as certainly as any one speaks of God as HE and of Christ as HE, he must also speak of the Holy Spirit as HE. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 98.22
“How to Be Faithful” The Medical Missionary, 16, 13, p. 101.
ALONZO T. JONES
THE faithfulness of Christ is the source of all faithfulness in men. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 101.1
Therefore this is the basis of the divine exhortation to faithfulness: “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers, of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was FAITHFUL to him that appointed him.” MEDM March 27, 1907, page 101.2
“It behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and FAITHFUL high priest in things pertaining to God. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succor them that are tempted.” “For we have no an high priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” MEDM March 27, 1907, page 101.3
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” MEDM March 27, 1907, page 101.4
Do you lack faithfulness? Then consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, who was faithful. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 101.5
Are you weak, so that you think it hard to be faithful?—Then consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, who was so weak that he declared, “I can of mine own self do nothing,” and yet “was faithful to him that appointed him.” MEDM March 27, 1907, page 101.6
Are you compassed with infirmity, so that you are inclined to think it hard to be faithful? Then consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, who was also “compassed with infirmity;” who “hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows;” who “himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses,” and so was really “touched with the feelings of our infirmities,” and yet was faithful to him that appointed him. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 101.7
Are you surrounded with the wicked, and sinners, and despisers of our profession, so that it seems to you difficult to be faithful? Then consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, who “endured such contradiction of sinners against himself,” and yet was faithful to him that appointed him. Consider him who resisted unto blood, striving against sin, “lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” Consider him who was faithful, and so be ye faithful. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 101.8
Let now, as of old, the whole multitude seek to touch him, with the touch of faith; for as then “there went virtue out of him, and healed them all,” even so it is now. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 101.9
Knowing your great need of faithfulness, let your faith touch him for the virtue of faithfulness, and you can be faithful to him that has appointed you. MEDM March 27, 1907, page 101.10