does not refer to _the Holy Spirit_ at all. It represents God's
willingness to give _a holy disposition_. Matthew explains it in the
words "good gifts to them that ask him." In John 7:38, 39 we have
recorded another promise: "He that believeth on me, as the scripture
hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. But this
spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive:
for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified."
This is evidently a supernatural gift, as he represents the recipient of
it as a fountain from which flows rivers of living water. This is
obviously not true of us to-day. Our Saviour also dates the bestowal as
following his glorification, or on the day of Pentecost. In Mark
16:16-18: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
disbelieveth shall be condemned. And these signs shall accompany them
that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak
with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any
deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the
sick, and they shall recover." These five things that accompanied the
believers are all supernatural. Of the three promises of Jesus--which
are all that are recorded in the New Testament--only two refer to the
Holy Spirit, and both of these to its _supernatural manifestation_.

If we go back of the Saviour to the Old Testament, we find a distinct
promise of the gift of the Spirit: "And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young
men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the
hand-maids in those days will I pour out my Spirit" (Joel 2:28, 29).
This promise is the one quoted by Peter to explain the manifestations on
the day of Pentecost to the people drawn together by that wonderful
event. From it he delivers by the Spirit a sermon on the claims of our