then he goes on to explain with whom they enjoyed this Communion: "And
truly our Fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus
Christ" (1 S. John i. 3). And this assertion of the Communion of the
Christian with God agrees with the words of the prayer of our Lord for
His people, recorded by the same Apostle; wherein He prayed, "That
they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that
they may be made perfect in one" (S. John xvii. 22, 23).

These thoughts of the Communion of the Christian with God--the Father
and the Son--would be incomplete, did we not also think of our
Communion with the Holy Ghost. For inasmuch as the whole spiritual
life of the Christian is due to the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, this
Communion with God, which the Christian enjoys, is in reality the work
and gift of the Holy Ghost. And this is testified to us by the
familiar words of blessing, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the love of God, and the Communion" (or Fellowship) "of the Holy
Ghost, be with you all" (2 Cor. xiii. 14).

Furthermore, "The Communion of Saints" describes the fellowship or tie
of brotherhood which unites Christians together, one with another. For
if all Saints have Communion with God, it follows that all have
Communion one with another in Him. If Christians are really striving
to be, what they are called to be, holy, they are all one family;
united together by the common bond of sonship; "For ye are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. iii. 26). Their
adoption into the one family of God is to them a real relationship.
And this also is expressed very clearly by S. John: "If we say we have
fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie; but if we walk in
the light, we have fellowship one with another" (1 S. John i. 6, 7).
And inasmuch as death does not sever the union between the Saint and
God, but rather intensifies it (seeing that S. Paul describes the
result of death as the "being with Christ," Phil. i. 23), it follows
that "The Communion of Saints" is not a fellowship with the living
only, but with the departed also. "All are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal.
iii. 28); whether Jews or Gentiles, whether living or departed.

Having now concluded, from the teaching of Holy Scripture, that "The
Communion of Saints" is that fellowship which Christians enjoy,
through being made one with God, and with one another; we shall do
well to consider more carefully about the means by w