The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 102

HOLY SCRIPTURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

62

We know

clear impressions.

heaven must be beautiful and en-

trancing, but a concrete conception of

Nor can we have

man

it is

out of the question.

clear ideas of the relation of the glorified

Son

of

His sitting at the right hand of God, the life of the redeemed, and their condition when, passing from the chambers of death, they enter the palace of the great King. Hence if the Holy Spirit had presented the world of divine thoughts concerning our salvation in writing directly from heaven, to the Trinity,

a clear conception of the subject would have been impossible. Our conception would have been vague and figurative as that concern-

Hence these thoughts were not

ing heaven.

directly written, but of this world, which gave 'Co.qvsx form and shape; and thus they came down to us in human language, in the pages of a book. Without this there could not even be a language to embody such sacred and glorious realities. St. Paul had visions, i.e., he was freed from the limitations of consciousness and enabled to contemplate heavenly things; but having returned to his limitations, could not speak of what he had seen, as he said " They are translated into the life

:

unspeakable."

And that the equally unspeakable things of salvation may be rendered expressible in hutnan words, it pleased God to bring to this which originated them to accustom our human conit to draw words for them, and thus to exhibit them to every man. God's thoughts are inseparable from His life; hence His life must enter the world before His thoughts, at least at first;. afterward the thoughts became the vehicle of the life. world the

life

;

sciousness to them, from

This appears in the creation of Adam.

him men are

At

human

The

first

man

is created;

appeared at once in full stature; from that life once introduced, new life will be born. First, new life originated by forming Eve from Adam's rib; then, by the union of man and woman. So also here. At first God after

introduced spiritual

born.

life into

first

life

the world, finished, perfect, by a mir-

acle; afterward differently, since the thought introduced as life into this

world

is

pictured to our view.

use the product of this

life to

Henceforth the Holy Spirit will

awaken new

life.

So redemption can not begin with the gift of Holy Scripture to the Church of the Old Covenant. Such Scripture could not be produced until its content is wrought out in life, and redemption is obiectively accomplished.

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