SPIRIT OF GOD, BIBLICAL VIEW OF: According to the final Old-Testament presentation, the Spirit of God is the divine power which proceeds from God in creation and preservation in nature and in human historical life, especially in Israel. This power of God is active at the precise point where energy is manifested, i.e., the Spirit of God is the immediate cause of all kinds of change; it comes and goes, it is given or withdrawn wholly according to the divine will. Special attention is directed to unusual forms of human action which are attributed to this Spirit-heroism, genius, prophetic utterance, singular personal consecration, in a word, all rare individual physical and religious phenomena. In their suddenness, strangeness, involuntariness, irresistibleness, and in their results they seem to reveal a more than human power. Religious psychology had not yet distinguished the form from the ultimate source of these experiences. The obverse of thin conception appears in the belief in the influence and possession of men by evil spirits, and later by Satan as the prince of demons. For the history of this belief one would need to trace the development of the notion of the power of discarnate good and evil spirits over men in its varied stages of unfolding from animism through polytheism up to ethical monotheism (see COMPARATIVE RELIGION, VI.). The conception of the good Spirit of God influencing men differs from the Greek and other national ideas of divine possession, (1) in the concentration 6f the entire divine activity in one personal source, and (2) in the aim to which the activity is directed -furtherance of the theocratic ideals.. Distinctive redemptive functions are rarely attributed to the Spirit of God in the Old Testament.

The New Testament has no elaborated doctrine of the Spirit of God. There is material for the personal and trinitarian aspect of the Spirit, but the time was not ripe for the theological construction of the Gonstantinopolitan Greed (q.v.). On the other hand, many allusions imply that the Spirit is an influence or a form of the action of God or of Christ (see HOLY SPIRIT, L). In the New Testament, how-

ever, one discovers several lines of development in the idea of the Spirit. (1) The tendency to hypostatize the divine power of action appears already in the Old Testament (of. Isa. xliv. 3, xlviii. 16, lxi. 1; Gen. i. 2; Ps. li. 11), and is part of that movement of thought which was accelerated by Aryan influences, in which God becomes metaphysically elevated above the world, while his withdrawal and isolation are compensated for by the introduction of intermediary beings and forces by which his will was effected. Moreover, before the close of the apostolic age the Spirit has begun to be differentiated from the Father and the Son. (2) "Whereas in the, entire Old Testament and in many portions of the New Testament the Spirit is conceived of as transcendent, intermittent, and frequently miraculous in action, yet side by side with this earlier and common notion, in the later writings of Paul and John -not in the Synoptics-the Spirit is presented as an immanent and abiding personal power. For this change no other occasion need be sought than that which springs from the, permanent necessities of Christian experience-a continuous inner redemptive influence by which the follower of Christ is quickened and empowered for every good work. (3) This idea of the immanence of the Spirit of God completes itself in the removal of the divine activity from the region of nature whether of the physical world or of the human soul, and in the entire reference of it to the ethical and spiritual life.

Ci. A. BECICWITA.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The reader should consult the works on Biblical theology given in the article on that subject, especially the works of H. Schultz, Duff, and Bennett on the Old Testament, and of Beyschlag, Holtzmann, Adeney, Stevens, and Could on the New; the subject is treated also, more or less fully, in the literature given under HOLY SPIRIT (q.v.). Consult further: C. A. Beckwith, Realities of Christian Theology, pp. 277-286, Boston, 1908; H. H. Wendt, Die Begrifl'e Fleiach and Geist im biblischer Sprachgebrauch, Goths, 1878; H. Gunkel, Die Wirkungen dc! hell%pen Geistea reach der . . . Anachauting der apnstolischer Zeit and der Lehre des Paulus, Gdttingen, 1888; K. von Lechler, Die bibliache Lehre vom heiligen Geiste, Leipsie, 1899; I. W. Wood; The Spirit of God it Biblical Literature, New York, 1904. Further discussions will be found in the various works on systematic theology (see Doable, DOGMATICS).

SPIRITUAL CONTENTMENT: The harmony of ,personal feeling with outer conditions; selfsatiafaction being the harmony of personal feeling with inward conditions. Contentment presupposes that the means for the satisfaction of the necessities of life are inadequate (Prov. xvii. 1), and signifies a willingness not to suffer the inner equanimity to be disturbed by the scantiness of outward means '(Phil. iv. 11-12; I Tim. vi. 6). While such contentment may be natural; and conditioned by climate, social order, racial instinct, or national circumstances, it may also be acquired as a cultured relig ious and ethical state of life, and as such it is a requirement of Christian religiousness (Matt. vi. 25-34; I Tim. vi. 8; Heb. xiii. 5). Discontent is unworthy of the Christian, who must remember that, though all is his (I Cor. iii. 21-22), he can not lose his soul to the world since he belongs to Christ. Religiously it is the inner result of the piety produced by the theistic contemplation of God, which obtains quietude and peace of soul through its conviction of the

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9purgeon THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 58 8taehelin

tive Methodists in Colchester, on which occasion he was deeply stirred and greatly relieved by a sermon preached by a layman on Tsa. xlv. 22. However, the study of the Scriptures brought further mis givings and he was not content until he was im mersed. This took place in the Lark at Isleham May 3, 1851, and he then united with the Baptist communion. In 1851 he became usher in a school at Cambridge, and entered the lay preachers' asso ciation in connection with the Baptist church meet ing in St. Andrews Street, Cambridge. Forced by circumstance he preached unprepared his first ser mon in a cottage at Teversham near Cambridge, at the age of sixteen. His gifts were recognized at once and his fame spread. He preached in chapels, cottages, or in the open air in as many as thirteen stations in the villages surrounding Cambridge, and this after his school duties for the day were past. In 1852 he became pastor of the small Baptist church at Waterbeach, and in 1854, after preach ing, three months on probation, he was called to the pastorate of the New Park Street Church, South wark, London. Only 100 persons attended his first service; but before the end of the year the chapel had to be enlarged, and he preached in Exeter Hall during the alterations. When the enlarged chapel was opened it proved at once too small, and a great tabernacle was projected. Meanwhile, in 1856, Spurgeon preached at the Surrey Gardens music hall to congregations which numbered 10,000 peo ple; and at twenty-two he was the most popular preacher of his day. In 1861 the Metropolitan Tem ple, seating 6,000, was opened and there he min istered until his death, retaining his popularity and power as a preacher to the end.

Beside preaching, other enterprises made their demand upon his energy. In 1855 he accepted his first student for the ministry; soon a class assem bled in his house every week for instruction in the ology, pastoral duties, and other practical matters. This work was assigned mainly to a tutor. Out of it grew the Pastors' College, located first in his house; under the Tabernacle, 1861-74; and, after 1874, in the New College buildings. The local mission work of these students in the slums formed the nuclei of new Sunday-schools and churches, a circle of which banded around the central church. Its internal needs were provided by a number of auxiliary asso ciations. Spurgeon was president of a society for the dissemination of Bibles and tracts employing the service of ninety colporteurs. The Stockwell Orphanage was incorporated in 1867 with an en dowment of £20,000 given by Mrs. Hillyard. It grew to a group of twelve houses and accommodated 500 children.

The figure of Spurgeon was a composite one'. Methodist by conversion, Baptist by profession, he was fundamentally Calvinistic by descent and is sometimes called " the last of the Puritans." He was minded to carry his obduracy even to the ex tent of disunion among the churches. In 1864 he invited a controversy with the Evangelical party in the Church of England by a powerful sermon, Bap> tismal Regeneration, a doctrine which he opposed; 300,000 copies were sold, and numerous pamphlets written in reply, the most important was by a Bap-

tist, B. W. Noel, Evangelical Clergy Defended (1864), in which Spurgeon was censured for introducing needless divisions among men of like faith. He, however, ended by withdrawing from the Evangelical Alliance. He also watched with misgivings the growth among Baptists of what seemed to him indifference to orthodoxy, deploring that not enough stress was laid on Christ's divine nature. He opposed what he called the " down-grade " movement of Biblical criticism; and, not being able to win the Baptist Union to his view, he withdrew in 1887, remaining independent until the end of his life, although still a stanch Baptist. Personally unambitious and unselfish, industrious in his exacting parish service and incessant Biblical study, human in sympathy and sane on social questions, democratic in temperament, he was ever zealous in the gospel of grace and redemption, and fearless in denouncing evil and upholding what he deemed true and right. As a preacher his early success was due to the sensation of his youth, his spontaneous humor, the fervor of his appeals to the conscience, but mostly to his natural gift of oratory. With a clear sympathetic voice and easy gesture, he knew how most effectively to present his appeal for salvation, projected from a shrewd comment on contemporary life and sustained upon his characteristic expository treatment of Scripture derived from the old Puritan divines. He was in later life a great sufferer from gout, and frequently was obliged to leave his pulpit.

The results of Spurgeon's literary labors had an enormous circulation. He conducted The Sword and the Trowel, a monthly church magazine; and published more than 1,900 sermons, including, from 1855, a sermon every week, contained in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, continued after his death (49 vols., London, 1856-1904). Other works were, The Saint and his Savior (London, 1857); Morning by Morning; or Daily Readings for the Family or the Closet (1866); Evening by Evening (1868); John Ploughman's Talk (1869); and John Ploughman's Pictures (1880). Famous also is Our Own Hymn Book, with paraphrases of Psalms (1866). His most important work was The Treasury of David, an exposition of the book of Psalms (7 vols., 18701885). In view of his own lack of higher training, he was dependent in Biblical work upon the research of his assistants for scientifical material and on the Puritan divines for method and point of view; and his commentaries are practical - and homiletical rather than scientific. Shortly before his death he completed The Gospel of the Kingdom, a popular exposition of Matthew (1893).

BIBLIOGRAPHY. Besides Spurgeon's Autobiography, Compiled from his Diary, Letters. Records, by his Wife and his Secretary, 4 vols., London, 1897-1900, there are biographies by: G. H. Pike, new ed., London, 1887, R. H. Conwell, Philadelphia, 1892; J. D. Fulton, Chicago, 1892; G. C. Lorimer, Boston, 1892; R. Shindler, From the Usher's Desk to the Tabernacle Pulpit, New York, 1892, H. L. Wayland, Philadelphia, 1892, J. J. Ellis, new ed., London, 1902; C, Ray, ib. 1903, cf. the same author's A Marvelous Ministry, ib. 1905. Consult further J. Fernandez, Nonconformity in Southwark, London, 1882; W. Williams, Personal Reminiscences of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, New York, 1895; W. M. Higgs, The Spurgeon Family, London, 1908.

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though his sermons betray the exaggerated rhetoric of his time.

(FERDINAND COHRS.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A selection of the Opera was published by C. du Molinet, Paris, 1679, whence, with a supplement, it was reproduced in MPL, ccxi. 295-562. His " Letters " were first published by J. B. Masson, Paris, 1611; then were taken into the MPL, ut sup.; forty of them are in Bouquet, Recueil, xix. 282-306; and a new ed. was issued by J. Desilve, Lettres d'Etienne de Tournai, Valenciennes, 1893. Consult: F. Maassen, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der juristischen LitEeratur des Mittelaltera, Vienna, 1857; J. F. Von Schulte, Gesehichte der Quellen uud LitteraEur des kanoniachen Rechta, i. 133 aqq., Stuttgart, 1875; L. Bourgain, La Chairs frangaise au xii. sitParis, 1879; H. Denifle, Chartulariuvr universitatis Parisiensis, i.12 et passim, Paris, 1889; Archiv fur katkolisches Kirehenrecht, lxvi (1891), 460; Deutsche ZeitsehriJt Jvr Kirchenrecht, III., i (1892), 252 sqq.; KL, xi. 770-771.