, at the same time, just as a thought which
we embody in speech and send forth from the mind, yet remains in the mind
as really and distinctly as before it was expressed. Why should this
saying concerning our divine Lord seem incredible? And as with the Son,
so with the Spirit. The Holy Ghost is here, abiding perpetually in the
church; and he is likewise there, in communion with the Father and the
Son from whom he proceeds, and from whom, as co-equal partner in the
Godhead, he can never be separated any more than the sunbeam can be
dissociated from the sun in which it has its source.

2. Again: The Holy Spirit, in a mystical but very real sense, became
embodied in the church on the day of Pentecost. Not that we would by any
{22} means put this embodiment on the same plane with the incarnation of
the Second Person of the Trinity. When "the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us," it was God entering into union with sinless humanity;
here it is the Holy Spirit uniting himself with the church in its
imperfect and militant condition. Nevertheless, it is according to
literal Scripture that the body of the faithful is indwelt by the divine
Spirit. In this fact we have the distinguishing peculiarity of the
present dispensation. "For he dwelleth with you and _shall be in you_!"
said Jesus, speaking anticipatively of the coming of the Comforter; and
so truly was this prediction fulfilled that ever after the day of
Pentecost the Holy Spirit is spoken of as being in the church. "_If so
be that the Spirit of God dwell in you_" is the inspired assumption on
which the deep teaching in Romans eighth proceeds. All the recognition
and deference which the disciples paid to their Lord they now pay to the
Holy Spirit, his true vicar, his invisible self, present in the body of
believers. How artlessly and naturally this comes out in the findings of
the first council at Jerusalem: "It seemed good _to the Holy Ghost and to
us_" runs the record; as though it had been said: "Peter and James and
Barnabas and Saul and the rest were present, and also just as truly was
the Holy Ghost."

And when the first capital sin was committed in the church, in the
conspiracy and falsehood {23} of Ananias and Sapphira, Peter's question
is: "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?" "How
is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Holy Ghost?" Not only is
the personal presence of the Spirit in the body of believers thus
dist