ONE of the most striking statements in the Bible is the angel's declaration to Mary, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." In the Gospels we have the first mention of the Holy Ghost, although some of the New Testament writers refer to this divine manifestation as having influenced those of an earlier day. In Peter's epistle we read, "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." It is, however, safe to infer that Jesus was the first in human history to understand fully the divine influence thus characterized, for while John the Baptist was declared by him to be one of the greatest of prophets, yet the Master said, "He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." John himself said, "I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, ... he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." John's spiritual vision enabled him to be a witness to the coming of the Holy Ghost, but he then seemed to lose sight of the path which must be followed in order to escape from mortality and to reach the full realization of spiritual being, and because of this he even questioned Jesus' right to the Messiahship. "'Art thou he that should come?" was his message to the one of whom he had borne record, "This is the Son of God."
Concerning Christ Jesus himself we read that after the Holy Ghost descended upon him he was led into the wilderness "to be tempted of the devil." There he proved by the severest ordeal that man does not live by matter, but by Spirit, and in his vigil of forty days and forty nights he registered his undivided allegiance to the one Mind, one God. Immediately after this experience we find him inaugurating that mighty work of the world's redemption, which must go on until all mortal belief — sin, disease, and death — shall have disappeared in the depths of the bottomless pit whence it sprang.
Matthew's account of Jesus' earlier ministry shows what must follow, in some measure, wherever and whenever the influence of the Holy Ghost is felt. He says, "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." All through the Gospels, as we follow the footsteps of the Master, we find him constantly healing the sufferers of their diseases and the sinful of their sins, and in the closing chapters of the fourth Gospel we find him providing for the perpetuity of this redemptive work. He declared in unmistakable terms that it must be done, and he also declared that it would be done through the Holy Ghost, otherwise spoken of as "the Comforter," and "the Spirit of truth."
