The Holy Spirit, or Power from on High

It is A. B. Simpson's study of how the Holy Spirit is gradually unfolded across the Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi. The Preface says it grew out of Bible Readings on the Holy Spirit at the Old Orchard Convention of 1894, which the Convention asked him to publish. He later amplified and repeated them in New York, claiming no "literary style or profound scholarship" but a line of truth he calls "new."

Simpson begins with the emblems of the Spirit in Genesis and Exodus: the Dove, the breath of life, the flaming sword at Eden's gate, the pillar of cloud and fire, water, the anointing oil and fire. He then follows the Spirit through the judges, Job, Saul and David, Solomon's Proverbs, Elijah and Elisha, and the prophets Joel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, before closing with the Restoration prophets and Malachi's promise of the refiner's fire.

Simpson reads Genesis 1:2 as the Spirit brooding like a mother dove over chaos, and Noah's three flights of the dove as three dispensations. First the dove finds no rest; then she returns with the olive leaf, as in the ministry of Christ; finally she returns no more, as the Spirit now makes this world His home. From the figure he draws lessons of motherhood, peace, purity, gentleness and a love that is grieved rather than angered.

He treats each wilderness scene as a stage of Christian experience. The pillar of cloud goes before Israel, stands behind them at the Red Sea, then enters the finished tabernacle: "That was Calvary. This is Pentecost." The rock struck at Horeb pictures the Spirit given through Christ's redemption, while the rock Moses was told only to speak to at Kadesh teaches quiet faith: "Speak to the Rock, do not strike it."

Simpson notes that the holy oil of Exodus 30 was specially compounded, could not be counterfeited and was not to be poured on "man's flesh," so the Spirit comes only to a separated heart and there is no power without holiness. In the cleansing of the leper the oil is placed on the blood upon ear, thumb and toe, and then the remnant is poured on the head, a picture of the Spirit's fullness following Christ's cross.

At Horeb the Lord is not in the wind, the earthquake or the fire but in "a still, small voice," which Simpson says has almost become a name of the Holy Spirit. He reads the scene as law giving way to grace and as the pattern of each soul's search for God. He also recalls how a little book called "True Peace" taught him that God waits in the depths of the heart to speak to anyone who grows still enough to hear.

Simpson calls Joel 2:28 the text of "the whole doctrine of the Spirit" and the keynote of Pentecost. After a call to repentance comes a personal, abundant outpouring on all flesh, young and old, even servants and handmaids. In Ezekiel 36 he sees two stages, a new heart first and then God's own Spirit put within, and Ezekiel's temple river pictures that Spirit flowing out from a consecrated heart to bless others.

Simpson writes for believers who long for more of God, hoping the readings will be "living bread" to hungry hearts. Most chapters end with a direct appeal to receive the Spirit as an indwelling Guest, reflecting his teaching of a definite fullness after conversion. Readers who enjoy devotional typology will find the whole Old Testament read as preparation for Pentecost, ahead of the New Testament study he promises next.