abiding among men.

129

person you would have been! Even if you had lived in a distant part of the world and had never seen Him, but had only heard that Almighty GoD was on earth, in the form of a Man, that He had really become Man (as well as being GOD) and was living among men, what a strange and awful feeling you would have had! What a thrill would have passed through you when you first heard of it! How you would have wondered at the unbelief of the Jews, who rejected Him because He did not come to them according to the way in which they misunderstood their Bible! Think then of this: GoD is now on earth; not indeed CHRIST in His Man's Body, (for in That He is at the Right Hand of the FATHER,) but GOD the HOLY GHOST. For so our LORD JESUS said, "If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send Him unto you" and again, "I will pray the FATHER, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever." The Comforter, that is, the HOLY GHOST, was not given for a while only, to remain no longer than the Apostles lived, or to depart as soon as the Gospel had been widely preached: no: He is as much

9 S. John xiv. 16; xvi. 7.

K

130 The HOLY GHOST is now in the Church.

among men now as He was then. On the Day of Pentecost He came to dwell unseen in the Family of GoD, that is, the Church; and when did He leave it? But of this I will proceed to speak in the next Sermon.

Promise of the HOLY GHOST.

131

SERMON IX.

THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY GHOST IN

THE CHURCH.

I will

pray

S. JOHN xiv. 16, 17.

the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of Truth; Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

We may compare this passage with another in the same discourse of our LORD, spoken, we should remember, to His Apostles only; and not to one of them more than to another, not merely to each by himself, but to all together as a body. He says, "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart I will send Him unto you." From these two passages one

• S. John xvi. 7.

132

The HOLY GHOST is among men.

conclusion is plain, to mention no others: it is plain, that as surely as our LORD in His Human Body remains in Heaven, so surely does the HOLY GHOST remain on earth; for His most true promise was fulfilled; on the Day of Pentecost the Comforter was sent. Where then is He, that we may be near Him and under His influence? It is written in the Psalmsa that our LORD is ascended up on high, and has given gifts to men, "that the LORD GOD," i.e. the HOLY GHOST, "might dwell among them." Where then does He dwell? Can it really be true that GOD the HOLY GHOST is in very deed now among us, as much as GOD the SON was among men eighteen hundred years ago? Indeed it can be true, for nothing is too great for His Power: and indeed it is true, for nothing is too insignificant for His Love. But the answer to such questions lies as it were like a city on the top of a steep hill: it will be better to approach it by a winding path.

Our LORD CHRIST came into this world in order to give to mankind what they needed to make them fit to be with GOD. He came to teach them Divine Truth in the largest and fullest measure that man can receive on this Ps. lxviii. 18.

Our LORD's saving gifts while on earth 133

side of the grave, and to give them eternal life. If He had not come we should have had neither the Truth by which we know how to live, nor the heavenly gifts by which we are able so to live as not to be afraid to die,-the gifts by which we never truly die. Consider then what He had done to provide for the salvation of mankind, up to the time when He ascended into Heaven. Three and thirty years He lived on earth for thirty years of that time He lived "subject to His parents:" not preaching, not doing miracles; working with His own hands at a humble trade; living in a way (so far as Holy Scripture implies) not distinguished from the usual life of other children, boys, youths, grown men round Him, except by one thing only-He was perfectly without sin. When the time was come, and He was visibly called and marked out at His Baptism (John the Baptist bearing witness to Him) He preached and did miracles, but only in one very small country of the earth, in Palestine. He had come "to save sinners," "to take away the sins of the world:" but we read of only two or three penitents to whom He said with His own lips, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." The gift which every child of Adam needs to make him fit to