The Gifts of the Holy Spirit by C R Vaughan and published by Classics.
Claims about the 'gifts of the Spirit' continue to receive a good deal of attention.
While firmly rejecting the idea of a return of the miraculous gifts of the apostolic era, C. R. Vaughan recognized the low spiritual condition of the Christian Church. He claimed that the remedy for this lies in coming to see that the Holy Spirit
himself is given to the Church. The first half of the book - the Gifts of the spirit to Unbelievers - begins with a striking chapter on the restraining influence of the Spirit on the unbelieving world. The author then proceeds to unfold the Spirit's work in awakening, convicting and regenerating.
The body of the book is taken up with the gifts of the Spirit to believers. Vaughan considers the sanctifying work of the Spirit in its distinct activities, particularly in sealing, anointing, comforting and in public worship. He shows that true Christian experience is the result of the Spirit's application of revealed truth upon the mind, with its effects upon the conscience, the emotions and the will.
C. R. Vaughan, a life-long friend of Robert Dabney, and later his biographer, was one of a group of Southern Presbyterian ministers and theologians whose writings are coming to be increasingly valued. After serving pastorates in Virginia, and though dogged by ill-health, he succeeded Dabney as Professor of Theology at Union Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, in 1893. He died in 1911.
