s shall prophesy;
your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see
visions._"

The communication of the Spirit of God was the constant prerogative of
the Covenant-people. Indeed, the very idea of such a people necessarily
requires it. For the Spirit of God is the only inward bond betwixt Him
and that which is created; a Covenant-people, therefore, without such
an inward connection, is an impossibility. As a constant possession of
the Covenant-people, the Spirit of God appears in Isaiah lxiii. 11,
where the people, in the condition of the deepest abandonment, say, in
the remembrance of the divine mercies, "Where is He that put His Holy
Spirit within him?" But it was peculiar to the nature of the Old
Testament dispensation, that the effusion of the Spirit of God was less
rich. His effects less powerful, and a participation in them less
general. It was only after God's relation to the world had been
changed by the death of Christ that the Spirit of _Christ_ could be
bestowed,--a higher power of the Spirit of God, standing to Him in the
same relation as the Angel of the Lord to the incarnate Word. The
conditions of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit were, under the Old
Testament, far more difficult to obtain. The view of Christ in His
historical personality, in His life, suffering, and death, was wanting.
God, although infinitely nearer to the Jews than to the Gentiles, yet
ever remained a God relatively [Pg 332] distant. Since the procuring
cause of the mercy of God--the merit of Christ--was not yet so clearly
seen, it was far more difficult to lay hold of it, and the by-path of
legalism was far nearer. It was thus only upon a few--especially upon
the prophets--that the direct possession of the Spirit of God was
concentrated; while the greater number, even among those of a better
disposition, enjoyed a spiritual life derived only from a union with
them, and hence it was less strong. It arose from the nature of the
case that, at some future time, there must take place a richer and more
powerful effusion of the Spirit of God; and it was just for this reason
that it was the desire of Moses, that such might take place, and that
the whole people might prophesy. Num. xi. 29, besides expressing such a
desire, is, at the same time, a prophecy. He wished nothing else than
that the people of God might attain to such a degree as to realize the
idea of a people of God; and this must come to pass at some future
time, because