continue until the Lord Jesus returns from heaven, when another order
will be ushered in and another dispensational ministry succeed.

In the well-known work of Moberly, on "The Administration of the Holy
Spirit in the Body of Christ," the author divides the course of
redemption thus far accomplished into these three stages: The first
age, God the Father; the second age, God the Son; and the third age,
God the Holy Ghost. This distribution seems to be correct, and so does
his remark upon the inauguration of the last of these periods on the
day of Pentecost. "At that moment," he says, "the third stage of the
development [manifestation] of God for the restoration of the world
finally began, never to come to an end or to be superseded on earth
till the restitution of all things, when the Son of Man shall come
again in the clouds of heaven, in like manner as his disciples saw him
go into heaven." And what shall be the next period, "the age to come,"
whose powers they have already tasted who have been "made partakers of
the Holy Ghost"? This question need not be answered, as we have done
all that is required, defined the age of the Spirit which constitutes
the field in which our entire discussion lies.

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II

THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT

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"Therefore the Holy Ghost on this day--Pentecost--descended into the
temple of his apostles, which he had prepared for himself, as a shower of
sanctification, appearing no more as a transient visitor, but as a
perpetual Comforter and as an eternal inhabitant. He came therefore on
this day to his disciples, no longer by the grace of visitation and
operation, but by the very presence of his majesty."--_Augustine_.

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II

THE ADVENT OF THE SPIRIT

"For _the Holy Ghost was not yet_," is the more than surprising saying of
Jesus when speaking of "the Spirit which they that believe on him should
receive." Had not the Spirit been seen descending upon Jesus like a dove
at his baptism, and remaining on him? Had he not been the divine agent
in creation, and in the illumination and inspiration of the patriarchs
and prophets and seers of the old dispensation? How then could Jesus say
that he "was not yet given," as the words read in our Common version?
The answer to this question furnishes our best point of departure for an
intelligent study of the doctrine of the Spirit. Augustine calls the day
of Pentecost the "_dies natalis_" of the Holy Ghost; and