HOLY SPIRIT

potentialities of this new life. The Epistles set before us, not systematically, but as occasion serves, the principles of the Spirit's action in this progressive experience, corporate and individual.

(4) Spiritual gifts. The NT teaching with regard to spiritual gifts (wh. see) springs out of the conception of the Church as the mystical body of Christ (Eph 1" 218-20 416, 1 Co 12'2). The Holy Spirit is the living principle distributed throughout the body (1 Co 12", Eph 2" 4<). The point of supreme importance to the Christian is to have the inward response of the Spirit to the Lordship of Christ (1 Co 123). This life is universally manifested in love (ch. 13), to strive after which is ever the 'more excellent way' (12"). But, though bestowed on all Christians alike, it is dis-tributed to each 'according to the measure of the gift of Christ' (Eph 4'). The principle of proportion is observed by Him who has ' tempered the body together ' (1 Co 12"). The same gifts or manifestations of the Spirit are not, therefore, to be expected in all believers or in all ages. They are given that the whole body may profit (12'). They are correlative to the part which each has to fulfil in the organic structure of the whole (1211-20, Eph 4"). The desire for them, though not discouraged (1 Co 12" 14i), must be regulated by con-sideration of the needs of the Church (14") and the opportunities of service (Ro 12i-6, cf. 1 P 5'). 'Each "gifted" Individual becomes himself a gift' (Gore).

Nowhere do we find any attempt to make a complete enumeration of spiritual gifts. In Eph 4", where the com-pletion of the structure of Chriat's body is the main thought (v.i2), four classes of ministerial function are named. In Ro 128-8, ^here a just estimate of the individual's capacity for service is prominent, the list is promiscuous, exceptional gifts like prophecy, ministerial functions like teacliing, and ordinary graces lilce liberality, being mentioned indifferently. Local circumstances confine the lists of 1 Co 128-io- 28 to the •greater gifts' (v.8i), those granted for more conspicuous service, most of which are tokens of God's exceptional activity. The object of the Apostle in this catalogue is to show that tongues are by no means iirst in importance. ' Faith ' in v.* is not to be confused with the primary virtue of 13'8, but is interpreted by 13^ (of. Mt 17™).

(5) Inspiration. It is in this connexion that inspira-tion as appUed to the Bible must be brought into relation with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. No theory, as applying to the whole Canon, is in the nature of the case to be expected in the NT itself. But prophecy is one of the gifts of the Spirit (1 Co 12"'' ^8), and it is clear that the prophets were recognized as a distinct order in the ApostoHc Church (Ac 11" 13i 21'"; ct.

1 Ti 118 4"), though there was nothing professional in this ministry (Ac 19= 21"). The type was undoubtedly that of the OT prophets (see above), and a distinct Unk with the ancient Une is found in St. Peter's reference to the words of Joel as fulfilled at Pentecost (Ac 2i«- 1'- is). Agabus prophesies by the Spirit (11=8). He adopts the method of signs (21") and the phrase 'Thus saith the Holy Spirit' (cf. OT 'Thus saith the Lord'). Here, then, we have a gift that was conceived as perpetuating the mouthpiece whereby the will of God was revealed to the fathers (H li). The inspiration of the OT Scriptures as understood in the 1st cent, of the Christian era was undoubtedly regarded as an extension of the pro-phetic gift. They were the oracles of God (Ac 7»\ Ro 3^, He6'2), and as such ' the sacred writings ' (2 Ti 3i8), prof-itable because inbreathed by God for spiritual ends (v."). The connexion with prophecy is explicitly drawn out in

2 P V- 21, the same Epistle showing the process by which the writings of Apostles were already beginning to take similar rank (3"- ", cf. Eph 3'). That the Bible is either verbally accurate or inerrant is no more a legitimate deduction from this principle than is ecclesi-astical infallibility from that of the Abiding Presence in the Church. In either case the method of the Spirit's activity must be judged by experience. Nor, in face of the express declaration of St. Paul, that 'the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets' (1 Co 14^2),

HONEY

may we tolerate any theory which Impairs the freedom of human personality.

(6) The laying on of hands in the ministration of the Spirit seems to have been adopted by a spontaneous impulse in the primitive community, and to have become immediately an established ordinance. The place accorded to the practice in He 6', as belonging to the alphabet of gospel knowledge, attests the importance attached to it. Like baptism, its roots are in the OT, where it is found as an act of dedication (Nu 8'- '»■ " 2718-23. see Schultz, OT Theol. i. 391) or benediction (Gn 48"- "). Christ uses it in blessing the children (Mk 10"). The Apostles adopt it as the sign, joined with prayer, for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, by which they effected consecration to an office or function (Ac 6»; cf. 1 Ti 4" 522 (? see below), 2 Ti 1"), or conferred blessing on the baptized (Ac 8"-2i 19'- «). The offer of money to Peter at Samaria (8'8) shows that the rite might be, and in this ease was, followed by exceptional manifestations, like those which appeared at Pentecost; and that the fallacy which awakened Simon's covetousness was the identification of the gift with these effects. Though associated with the bestowal of the Spirit, the laying on of hands has not yet been reduced to a technical rite in a crystalUzed ecclesiastical system. Ananias uses it in the recovery of Saul's sight (Ac 9'2- i'); the Antiochene Church, not probably in ordaining Barnabas and Saul, but in sending them forth to a particular mission (Ac 13'). In Mk 16'8 and Ac 288 it is a symbol of heal-ing (cf. Mk 1" 523 68 828, Rev 1", also Ja 5»- "); in 1 Ti 522 not improbably of absolution (see Hort, Bcdesia, p. 214). According to 2 Ti 1«, it was used by St. Paul in conveying spiritual authority to his representative at Ephesus; or, if the reference be the same as in 1 Ti 4", in the ordination of Timothy to a ministerial function. The symbolism is natural and expressive, and its employment by the Christian Church was im-mediately justified in experience (.e.g. Ac. 198). Its connexion with the bestowal of specific gifts, Uke healing, or of official authority, like that of the Seven (Ac 6'), is easily recognized.

A more difficult question to determine is its precise relation to baptism, where the purpose! of the ministration is general. The Holy Spirit is offered by St. Peter to such as repent and are baptized (Ac 288, cf. 1 Co 12^8); while of those whom Philip had baptized at Samaria (Ac 8") it is expressly asserted that He had 'fallen upon none of them' (v.^8), jt may have been that the experience of the Apostles, as em-powered first by the risen Christ (Jn 2022), and then by the Pentecostal descent ( Ac 2'') , led them to distinguish stages in the reception of theSpirit, and that the apparent discrepancy would be removed by a fuller knowledge of the facts. But this uncertainty does not invalidate the positive evidence which connects the ministration of the Spirit with either ordinance. See also LAYiNa on ov Hands.

J. G. Simpson.

HOMAH.— See Hemam.

HOSIER. — See Weights and Meabubes.

HOMICIDE. — See Crimes, § 7. Refuge [Cities or].

HONEST, HONESTY,— In 2 Es 16" 'honest' has the meaning of 'chaste.' Elsewhere it means either ' honourable ' or ' becoming.' For the meaning ' honour-able' compare Ru 122 Cov. 'There was a kinsman also . . . whose name was Boos, which was an honest man'; and, for 'becoming,' Is 52' Cov. 'Put on thine honest rayment, O Jerusalem, thou citie of the holy one.'

' Honesty 'inlTi22,itsonly occurrence, means ' seem-liness' (RV 'gravity').

HONEY . — The appreciation of honey by the Hebrews from the earUest times, and its abundance in Canaan, are evident from the oft-recurring description of that country as a 'land flowing with milk and honey' (Ex 38- " onwards). In the absence of any mention of bee-keeping in OT, it is almost certain that this proverbial expression has reference to the honey of the wild bee (see Bee). The latter had its nest in the

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