tands in relations which belong
only to a person, e. g.: _He speaks_ (Acts 1: 16); _he works miracles_
(Acts 2: 4; 8: 39); _he sets ministers over churches_ (Acts 20: 28);
_he commands and forbids_ (Acts 8: 29; 11: 12; 13: 2; 16: 6, 7); _he
prays for us_ (Rom. 8: 26); _he witnesses_ (Rom. 8: 16); _he can be
grieved_ (Eph. 4: 30); _he can be blasphemed_ (Mark 3: 29); _he can be
resisted_ (Acts 7: 51, etc).

[3] If the Holy Spirit may not speak of himself as preacher, how canst
thou draw thy preaching out of thyself--out of thine head or even out
of thine heart.--_Pastor Gossner_.

[4] Let it be observed that in this communication of the risen Christ
it is not said, "Receive ye _the_ Holy Ghost"--the article being
significantly omitted--_Labete Pneuma agion_ (John 20: 22).

[5] How righteous must he be, who will go to the Father from the cross
and the grave! Thus will the Holy Spirit convince the world that he is
a righteous man, and truly righteous for man.--_Roos_.

[6] "Neither the Son": "It is more than _neither_; it is _not yet the
Son_," says Morrison the commentator.

{51}

IV

THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT

{52}

"But now the Holy Ghost is given more perfectly, for he is no longer
present by his operation as of old, but is present with us so to speak,
and converses with us in a substantial manner. For it was fitting
that, as the Son had conversed with us in the body, the spirit should
also come among us in a bodily manner."--_Gregory Nazianzen_.

{53}

IV

THE EMBODYING OF THE SPIRIT

"The church, which is his body," began its history and development at
Pentecost. Believers had been saved, and the influences of the Spirit
had been manifested to men in all previous dispensations from Adam to
Christ. But now an _ecclesia_, an outgathering, was to be made to
constitute the mystical body of Christ, incorporated into him the Head
and indwelt by him through the Holy Ghost. The definition which we
sometimes hear, that a church is "a voluntary association of believers,
united together for the purposes of worship and edification" is most
inadequate, not to say incorrect. It is no more true than that hands
and feet and eyes and ears are voluntarily united in the human body for
the purposes of locomotion and work. The church is formed from within;
Christ present by the Holy Ghost, regenerating men by the sovereign
action of the Spirit, and organizing them into himself as the living
c