from a widely known book by L.B.  Dunn, entitled “The Mission of the Spirit”:  “Even where the light of the gospel does not shine, and the institutions of the gospel are not enjoyed, there the Spirit acts directly upon man’s heart and conscience, writes the law of God upon his mind, gives him the sense of sin and the need of forgiveness.  Hence, wherever man is, there the Comforter is at work upon his heart and mind.  The divine influence is imparted unconditionally and irresistibly.  The Holy Spirit is ever employed to bring man back to God; and whether he desires it or not, whether he is willing or unwilling, still the Comforter comes to him with his heavenly illumination, his divine influence, convincing him of sin, and his consequent need of the mercy of God.  May I not truly say that man really has no choice in the matter as to whether he will or will not have this divine influence upon his soul? He is, he must be, enlightened and convinced, whether he will hear or forbear, whether he will be saved or damned.  He can not prevent the entrance of the Spirit into his heart.”

In connection with the above we quote also from a sermon in “The Baptist Pulpit,” by Rev. J.W.  Hayhurst:  “God has given us no means by which the conversion of sinners, or the general revival of religion, can be effected, irrespective of the direct agency of the Spirit.  The gospel itself will not do it.”

These quotations give us a pretty clear and explicit statement of the theory of the direct mechanical and immediate operation of the Holy Spirit upon the human spirit.

The second method is aptly stated by an editorial which appeared in the Sunday School Times during the year 1908:  “It is a strange fact that, notwithstanding the explicitness and uniformity of the New Testament teachings on this subject, there is a widespread popular opinion that the Holy Spirit’s work is directly and immediately on or in the heart of the unbeliever, without the intervention or agency of the Christian whatever.  To hear what is said in the sermons, or sung in the hymns, or prayed in the prayers of many Christians, one might believe that the Holy Spirit is sent directly to the unbelieving sinner, to strive with him, to show him his sin, and to point him to, the Saviour; and that therefore the Christian preacher or teacher has rather to wait the results of this work of the Spirit, than to be the instrument or the avenue of this work.  Many a Christian seems to think that the Holy Spirit’s work is that of a revival preacher, in moving sinners to repentance by a direct appeal to their consciences and understandings, instead of stirring up Christians to appeal, in the power of the Spirit, to unbelievers to believe and turn to God.  It is true that, in this present dispensation of the Spirit, all power in the evangelizing of the world, and in the swaying of the hearts of men toward Christ