The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 601

THE COMMUNION OF GIFTS from the

Even as Body possesses the Head, so Head and Body belong to each

this sacred partnership flows

Head

561

every other blessing.

possesses the Body, and the

also a mutual possession. even tho the Head has this advantage over the Body, that it commands it at will, while the Body must follow the Head wherever it leads. " To follow the Lamb wherever He goeth " is the is this

other,

peculiar

mark

of this

mutual

relation.

But, with the reservation of this essential mark, the possession is

absolute.

The

saints belong to Jesus, just as

much because

the

Father has given and brought them to Him, as that He has bought them, not with gold or silver, but with His own precious blood.

And, on the contrary, He belongs to His saints, not because by their own labor they have obtained Him, but as a gift of free grace. The Triune God has ordained the Mediator for His people, to whom He has given and brought Him and the Mediator having come in the flesh, has given Himself to His people. Every child of God knows from his own experience that Christ When Mary Magdalen cries out, " They have is all his treasure. taken away my Lord," she has lost all the wealth of her soul. The saints stand in the faith and have peace only when, in so far, and He is their One and All. As as long as they possess Immanuel. soon as they find Him, a,ll their poverty is turned into wealth. Without Him they are blind and naked; with Him want and misery make place for riches and abundance. With Him they are set in heaven. And when they depart from this life their hope and lot for eternity depend upon this, whether they possess Him as their souls' Savior, glorious and altogether lovely. Hence this is the most important the great treasure of the saints This comprehended all. Every other in Jerusalem was their Lord. treasure was theirs only through Him. To possess Him was to possess all that He had obtained for them, even justification and ;

:

sanctification; all the

sistance

and protection

power given Him of the Father for their asall the wisdom and light, and all the charis;

mata, gifts of grace, received of the Father for distribution

among

His people.

However, they could not make this partnership available, foi beyond their reach was not in earth, but in heaven. Actually they remained poor and perplexed rich for the future, but now needy and helpless. their treasure lay

;

;

36

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