Editorial 1: “The Fruit of the Spirit”
A. T. Jones
“THE fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.”
In order that there may be fruit, there must be a root. It is impossible to have fruit without first having a root.
In order, therefore, to have the fruit of the Spirit to appear in the life, the Holy Spirit Himself must be the root of the life. In order that the fruit of the Spirit may appear on the tree, the Holy Spirit Himself must be the life of the tree.
It is impossible to have genuine love, or joy, or peace, or long-suffering, or gentleness, or goodness, or faith, or meekness, or temperance, to appear in the life, without having the Holy Spirit to be the root, the spring, of the life—yes, even the very life itself.
It is not genuine love that loves only them that love you, but that which loves all, even enemies. It is not genuine goodness that does good only to them that do good to you, but that which does good to all, even the unthankful and the evil. (Luke 6:32-35).
Genuine love, or joy, or peace, or long-suffering, or gentleness, or goodness, or faith, or meekness, or temperance, comes not from ourselves, it comes not from this world; it comes only from God, it is the fruit only of the Spirit of God.
All may have the fruit of the Spirit, because all may have the Spirit.
“Ask, and it will be given to you.” “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, March 22, 1898
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Editorial 2: “Righteousness, Peace, and Joy”
A. T. Jones
“THE kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
The kingdom being the kingdom of God, the righteousness is only the righteousness of God, the peace is only the peace of God, and the joy is only the joy of God—joy in the Holy Spirit; it is found only in the Holy Spirit.
And “verily, verily, I say to you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Except a man be born again, he cannot see righteousness, he cannot see peace, he cannot see joy in the Holy Spirit.
To be born again is to be born from above. It is to be born into the things of God. It is to be born of water and the Spirit.
The things of the kingdom of God—righteousness, and peace, and joy—can be known only through the Spirit of God; for “the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.”
And “the kingdom of God is within you.” Is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, within you? If not, why not?
Do you profess to be a Christian,—a citizen of the kingdom of God,—and have not the essential elements—indeed, the kingdom itself—within you?
If this be so, it can be only because you are not born of the Spirit. And “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”
O, the Heavenly Father is more willing to give you the Holy Spirit than you are to give good gifts to your own children! “Ask, and it will be given to you.” “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, April 5, 1898
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Editorial 3: “The Pledge of Our Inheritance”
A. T. Jones
THE “Holy Spirit of promise” “is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.”
An “earnest” is “a part paid beforehand on a contract, as security for the whole.”
God in Christ has contracted to give us an eternal inheritance in “a better country” than this, “that is, an heavenly,” having for its capital a glorious city, “whose builder and maker is God.”
This inheritance is all bought and all paid for, for us. But the time has not yet fully come for the full redemption of the purchased possession.
But He who has contracted to give it to us when it shall have been fully redeemed, pays us a part beforehand, gives us an earnest, as security for the whole eternal possession.
The earnest, that part paid beforehand on the contract, is the Holy Spirit. That security for the eternal possession is the eternal Spirit.
If you have that Spirit, and as long as you have Him, you are sure of that eternal inheritance. If you have not that Spirit, you have no surety at all of the inheritance.
But the inheritance is a free gift to all; and so is the earnest, the surety, for it, a free gift to all. And that security is “that Holy Spirit of promise.”
“Ask, and it will be given to you.” “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, May 3, 1898
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