s the language of
inspiration--Not the mutual union of believers, but their divine
co-uniting with Christ; not voluntary association of Christians, but
their sovereign incorporation into the Head and this incorporation
effected by the Head through the Holy Ghost.

If we ask concerning the way of admission into this divine _ecclesia_,
the teaching of Scripture is explicit: "For in one Spirit were we all
baptized into one body" (1 Cor. 12: 13). The baptism in water marks
the formal introduction of the believer into the church; but this is
the symbol, not the substance. For observe the identity of form
between the ritual {56} and the spiritual. "I indeed baptize you in
water," . . . said John, "but he that cometh after me . . . shall
baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire" (Matt. 3: 11). As in the
one instance the disciple was submerged in the element of water, so in
the other he was to be submerged in the element of the Spirit. And
thus it was in actual historic fact. The upper room became the
Spirit's baptistery, if we may use the figure. His presence "filled
all the house where they were sitting," and "they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost." The baptistery would never need to be re-filled, for
Pentecost was once and for all, and the Spirit then came to abide in
the church perpetually. But each believer throughout the age would
need to be infilled with that Spirit which dwells in the body of
Christ. In other words, it seems clear that the baptism of the Spirit
was given once for the whole church, extending from Pentecost to
Parousia. "There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Eph. 4: 5). As
there is one body reaching through the entire dispensation, so there is
"one baptism" for that body given on the day of Pentecost. Thus if we
rightly understand the meaning of Scripture it is true, both as to time
and as to fact, that "in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free."

The typical foreshadowing, as seen in the church in the wilderness, is
very suggestive at this point: "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye
should be {57} ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud
and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the
cloud and in the sea" (1 Cor. 10: 1). Baptized _into_ Moses by their
passage through the sea, identified with him as their leader, and
committed to him in corporate fellowship; even so were they also
ba