The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 589

THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS

549

it is evident that the fathers had a thorough grasp thought that the Spirit's real, characteristic, and magnificent of the the shedding abroad of love j and they have exwork is perpetual

From which

The Holy Spirit was whom they looked Godhead, to to up in holy wonder, but God the Holy Ghost working with omnipoHence they followed the content power within and around them. fession of the Holy Spirit by that of His creation, i.e., the Holy, Catholic, Christian Church, which is the body of Christ and that pressed

it

in a beautiful

and

them not a mystic Person

artistic form.

in the

;

by the confession of the communion

of saints,

wrought by the Holy

Spirit in the Church.

The Church and the communion of saints are two things. The former originated and existed before there was the slightest sign The Church exists and continues, tho in unfavorable of the latter. times the communion of saints suffers

The new-born

loss.

unconscious of his relation to the family.

He

lives,

child is

but without

bond of union for the family. upon him, and cares for him, but does not yet live in and through him. Hence there is no communion between him and the other members of the family. And the same is true of the Church. She can exist, live, and increase before there is any conscious communion of saints. For which rea-

any attachment, inclination,

Love does indeed exert

its

love, or

influence

son the communion of saints may languish, apparently disappear, yea, even be turned into bitterness. Hence the Church and the communion of saints are two things.

Church which is the body, then the communion of saints, which is its support and nourishment. Wherefore it reads, not, I see or taste, but, I believe the comFirst the

munion

of saints.

Communion

of

saints belongs to the things

and unknown, which on earth are part of the tenor of the faith, and which in the New Jerusalem shall be turned into a rich For this article of faith speaks, not of and blessed experience.

invisible

a

communion

of a feiv saints,

members

of the

same small

circle,

but of "the communion of saints"; and this rich and comprehensive confession may not be belittled by a narrow conception of it. Communion of a few saints is not a thing unknown on earth there is scarcely a spot where some of God's dear children do not live :

But such a little circle is by no means the body of Christ; and such sweet fellowship would be injurious if the fact were overlooked, that it must be a communtogether in sweet fellowship.

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