Church discipline

The love of the Spirit is unquenchable. He is unwilling to depart. He
despises not the day of small things; but He bids us look beyond and above them.
Formalism, routine, and external religion, the excitements of mysticism,-these are
poor substitutes for the life, and glow, and energy of the Holy Spirit. Nothing but His
own presence can avail to lift us out of the unreal religiousness into which we have
fallen; to transform creeds into realities, and the bodily bowing of the head, or
bending of the knee, into spiritual worship; turning the "dim religious light" into the
sunshine of a heavenly noon; drawing out of our hymnals the deep heart-music of
divine and blessed song; delivering us alike from Rationalism and Ritualism, from a
hollow externalism, and from an impulsive and unreasoning fanaticism. It is His
presence only that can vitalize ordinances; clothe ministry with power; unite the
broken Church; fill the void of aching hearts; impart to service, liberty and
gladness; ward off error; and make truth mighty,-filling our sanctuaries with living
worshipers, and sending forth men of might to preach the everlasting gospel; and
to proclaim, as in primitive days, the Christ that has come, and the Christ that is to
come again.

He has come, in His love, to quicken the dead in sin; and He is daily moving
upon the face of the waters,-bringing life out of death. Nor is His arm shortened,
that it cannot save.

He has come, in His love, to give light for darkness. Nor is there any human
heart too dark for Him to illumine. He lights up souls. He lights up Churches. He
lights up lands, making them that sit in darkness to see a great light.

He has come, in His love, to gather in the wanderers, far and near. No
strayed one has gone too far into the wilderness for Him to follow and to bring back.
The "ends of the earth" form the vast region into which His love has gone forth to
seek, and find, and save.

He has come, in His love, to guide the doubting heart. He takes lovingly and
gently the hand of the perplexed and inquiring, and leads them into the way of
peace. He knows all their troubles and fears, so that they need not fear being
misunderstood. He teaches their ignorance and shows them their mistakes, and
points their eye to the cross.

He has come, in His love, to bind up the broken-hearted. His name is the
Comforter, and His consolations are as abundant as they are everlasting. "Comfort
you, comfort you my Persons," are the words which he has written down for every
sorrowful one (Isa 40:1). In all trial, bereavement, pain, sorrow, let us realize the
love of the Spirit. That love comes out most brightly and most tenderly in the day of
mourning. In the chamber of sickness or of death, let us find strength and peace in
the presence, companionship, and sympathy of the gracious Spirit.

He has come down, in His love, to seek after the backslider. From a heart
that once owned Him, He has been driven out, and He has retired sorrowfully. But
He has not ceased to desire a return to His old abode. He still pities, and yearns,
and beseeches. "Turn, you backsliding children, for I am married unto you," are His
words of longing and pity.

He has come, in His love, even to the mis-believing and the deluded,
seeking to remove the mists with which a rebellious intellect has compassed itself
about; and to lead them out into life, and love, and day. They are groping for an
idea; and He brings them into contact with a Person, even God Himself. They are
crying vaguely for knowledge; and He presents to them the wisdom deposited in the
Person of the Word made flesh. They are in search of sympathy for their wounded
hearts; and He places Himself before them in the fulness of His all-sympathizing
love. They are asking for a creed of certainty and perfection, on which their faith
may rest; He offers Himself to them as a living and unerring Teacher,-the Author of
an infallible Book, all whose pages sparkle with the love of its loving Author. They
crave beauty in worship, something to please the eye,-aesthetic beauty, as they call
it! He draws the eye to Him who is "the chief among ten thousand, and
altogether lovely."

He has come, in His love, to build up His own. He seeks to fill, with His holy
presence, the soul into which He has come. He wants, not a part of the man, but
the whole,-body, soul, and spirit,-the entire being, that it may be altogether
conformed to Himself. He has come to His temples, and His purpose is to make
them in reality, what they are in name, the "habitation of God, the temples of the
Holy Spirit."