THE

THE BELIEF (continued).

HE Name of God into which we are baptized, is the
Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Creed which we profess at our baptism treats mainly of this Name, and tells what we are to believe about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

We have already dwelt upon what it tells us about the Father and the Son, we must to-day devote a few minutes to what it teaches about the Holy Ghost.

I believe in the Holy Ghost. I learn to believe in the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me and all the elect people of God. In the Nicene Creed we say :

I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the Prophets.

It was not until our Lord ascended into Heaven and sat at the right hand of God, that the Holy Spirit was manifested. "The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (S. John vii. 39).

As the Holy Spirit had come down upon Jesus, so also He came down upon the Apostles of Jesus. As the anointing oil poured upon the high priest's head flowed down to the skirts of his clothing, so the Holy Spirit who had been poured forth on the Head was afterwards poured out on the Body.

Whom do I mean by the Head? What do I mean by the Body?

But now, what did the Holy Spirit come to do? Well, as the Son came to reveal the Father, so the Holy Spirit came to reveal the Son and the Father.

What did He come to do? To reveal the Son to us, and to reveal the Father to us. Now, I think, you can understand the meaning of what S. Paul says-" No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, except by the Holy Ghost (I Cor. xii. 3). And also why it is said that by the Holy Ghost we cry, Abba, Father (Rom. viii. 15).

Christ reveals the Father to us from without; the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us from within.

C

This is the difference between a real Christian and merely a professing Christian. A real Christian has an inner knowledge of Christ, the mere professing Christian has only an outside knowledge of Christ.

Did you ever pass by a church, which has stained glass windows, in the daytime? Well, you can see that there are figures and patterns upon the glass, but that is all. But go inside the church, and you will see the figures and patterns in all their splendour and glory.

So it is with the mere outside knowledge of Christ, which in a professedly Christian country almost everybody has, as compared with the knowledge of Christ which the Holy Ghost can give us.

The Holy Spirit testifies of Christ, leads us to Christ, takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to us.

Did you ever see a potter making his wares on the potter's wheel?

He has the clay in front of him, and before him, or else in his mind's eye; he has the pattern of the thing which he is going to make.

Well, the Holy Spirit is the potter, we are the clay, and Christ is the Pattern. He moulds us, if we will let Him, into the likeness of Christ.

This is how He sanctifies us, and all God's chosen people. He sanctified us once for all at our baptism, that is, He set us apart for God, He dedicated us to God's service.

And He sanctifies us day by day, by moulding us into Christ's likeness; by taking the things of Christ—the love of Christ, the gentleness of Christ, the patience of Christ, the courage of Christ, and showing them to us, making us see how beautiful, how desirable they are. He breathes into us the breath of Christ, He clothes us with the righteousness of Christ, in fact, makes us "put on Christ." This is the work of the Holy Spirit.

THE

THE BELIEF (continued).

HE Holy Name into which we have been baptized, is the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And accordingly, as I have already shown you in the last few lessons, the Creed which we profess at our baptism, speaks of the Person and Work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I believe in God the Father Almighty, in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost.

But the Creed does not stop here. It goes on to speak of the sphere of the Spirit's work, and the results of the Spirit's working.

Now let me hear you repeat that part of the Creed which follows the words, I believe in the Holy Ghost.

The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of Sins; The Resurrection of the Body; And the Life Everlasting.

Now see if you can tell me why these articles immediately follow the article that speaks of the Holy Ghost.

Because they tell us what is the sphere of the Spirit's work, and what are the issues or results of His working.

I suppose you know what is meant by "a sphere of work?" A kingdom is the sphere of a king's work. A diocese is the sphere of a bishop's work.

If we ask, then, what is the proper and fit sphere for the Holy Spirit's work; the reply will be, the Holy Catholic Church, that is the Church visible; and the Communion of Saints, that is the Church invisible.

If we ask further, what are the results of the Holy Spirit's working; the answer will be, The Forgiveness of Sins, and the Resurrection of the Body.

If we ask lastly, what is the final issue of the Spirit's work; the answer will be, The Life Eternal.

Now we must go back to the words The Holy Catholic Church.

The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church, as the soul dwells in the body.

You remember the terrible punishment of Ananias and Sapphira. They tried to deceive the Apostles, because they

looked upon the Church as merely a human society. They thought they were only deceiving man; they were really attempting to deceive God. And that because the Holy Ghost dwelt in the Church.

We must keep this in mind, or else we can never understand what is taught us about the Church.

How can the Church be one, it may be asked, when it is plainly divided, and not only divided but arrayed in opposite camps; church against church; church against sect; sect against sect? How can the Church be holy, when the pages of its history, and the lives of its members have been stained by so many crimes? How can the Church be Catholic, when its members are so narrow, so exclusive?

It is only belief in the Holy Ghost that can enable us to answer these questions.

The Church is " one," because it is dwelt in by the Holy Ghost. The Church is "holy," because the spirit who dwells in it is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of holiness. The Church is "Catholic," because the Spirit who dwells in it is infinite, and cannot be restricted to narrower limits.

"The Church is Catholic, not only because it spreads everywhere, but because it embraces the whole truth.'

But the Holy Catholic Church is not the only sphere of the Holy Spirit's work. We believe also in the Communion of Saints.

It is only through the Holy Ghost that the saints can have "communion" with each other.

For what do we mean by the words Communion of Saints? We mean, first of all, that all good Christian people have a fellow-feeling for one another; then we mean that the departed saints have fellowship with all other departed saints. And, what is still more wonderful, that the living have fellowship with the departed, and the departed with the living.

How, then, can we best enter into this communion? By keeping very near our Lord-our Lord and theirs. By being filled with the Holy Spirit, who is the ground of that Communion. This is the meaning of the "Grace" with which we end our prayers-" The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore."

THE BELIEF (continued).

NO-DAY we will take the remaining Articles of the

TO-DAY

Creed.

I believe in

the Forgiveness of Sins, The Resurrec

tion of the Body, and the Life Everlasting.

In our last Lesson I tried to explain that the Holy Catholic Church, and the Communion of Saints, represent the proper sphere of the Holy Spirit's work in the seen, and in the unseen.

The next two articles relate to the work of the Holy Spirit on the individual soul, in freeing man from sin and death.

Sin and death go together; they came in together, and they will go out together. Sin affects the soul; death, i.e. natural death, affects the body. And over both God will triumph. He will triumph over sin-I believe in the Forgiveness of Sins. He will triumph over death-I believe in the Resurrection of the Body.

You will notice that the words are not-I believe in the remission of the punishment of sin; but in the remission of sins. Punishment might be remitted, but what would that avail while the sin remained?

The triumph of God's grace is to do away with the sin itself. Not merely to excuse it, to pass it over, to forget it; but to destroy it, to do away with it altogether.

And is not this indeed a triumph!

In the natural order of things forgiveness is impossible. "The deed done remains while the world lasts; the deed undone is a blank for ever."

You may sometimes hear people talk as though, if only Christianity could be got rid of, you would do away with the punishment of sin.

This is totally untrue. If Christianity were got rid of, what would be really done away with would be the forgiveness of sin.

The distinctive doctrine of Christianity is not the punishment of sin; but the forgiveness of sin.