The Holy Spirit

It gathers classic teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit — his baptism, indwelling and empowering — as the promised power for the Christian life. Its keynote is Zechariah 4:6, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts": that the Christian life and service are lived out in the Spirit's strength rather than by human effort.

The shelf holds R. A. Torrey's "The Baptism with the Holy Spirit" and "The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit," Andrew Murray's "The Master's Indwelling," and "Jesus Himself" — works that together treat who the Spirit is, what he does, and how the believer enters into his fullness for daily life and for service.

It is the promised enduing of the believer with power, especially for witness and service, which these authors distinguish from the new birth. R. A. Torrey in particular sets out the Spirit's baptism as a definite experience to be sought and received by faith — power not for display but for effective testimony to Christ, in keeping with Zechariah 4:6.

He is the third person of the Trinity — not an impersonal force but a person to be known, grieved, obeyed and depended upon. R. A. Torrey's "The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit" is the shelf's fullest treatment, insisting that clarity about who the Spirit is must come before any right understanding of what he does in and through the believer.

It is the reality of Christ living in the believer by his Spirit, so that the Christian life is not imitation from without but Christ's own life lived from within. Andrew Murray's "The Master's Indwelling" and "Jesus Himself" dwell on this — that the secret of holiness and rest is the indwelling presence of the Lord himself, received and yielded to by faith.

R. A. Torrey's "The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit" gives the doctrinal foundation — who the Spirit is and what he does — and is a clear place to begin. Andrew Murray's "The Master's Indwelling" then turns from doctrine to the experience of the indwelling life, so the two together move the reader from understanding to appropriation.

These authors distinguish the Spirit's work in the new birth — regenerating and indwelling every believer at conversion — from a subsequent enduing with power for service. The distinction is pastoral, not divisive: they urge Christians who are already born of the Spirit to go on to seek his fullness, so that the promised power for witness is not left unclaimed.

Because they keep the focus where Scripture puts it — on power for holiness and witness rather than on novelty — and they were written by men whose ministries visibly depended on the Spirit. Torrey and Murray write to lead the reader into an actual experience of the Spirit's fullness, testing every claim against Scripture and against the fruit of a changed life.