We shall devote this chapter to the influence of the Spirit upon the
unbelieving world.
In the very nature of things, the work of the Spirit is to make
believers out of unbelievers, and convert the perverted. We all believe
this. We believe that all believers are made by the power of the Spirit.
We differ about whether he exercises that power directly from himself to
the individual soul, or whether he exercises that power through the
gospel, through the apostles and through Christ's word of truth. Reason,
philosophy and experience exhausted themselves in discovering but two
methods by which one spirit can exercise an influence over another.
First, a direct mechanical, immediate influence taking possession of the
will and influencing the mind of and controlling the speech and actions
of the subject. This takes place in hypnotism and is supposed to take
place in clairvoyance and clairaudience.
Second, a rational moral influence exerted by ideas impressed upon the
mind by teaching and words that represent ideas.
There is, there can be, no third way by which one spirit can influence
another. You may study till you are gray-headed or bald-headed, for
that matter, and you will discover no other way.
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