The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 588

—

XXV. The Communion

of Saints.

" There

is

one body and one

Spirit;

even

as ye are called in one hope of your Ephes.

calling."

iv. 4.

To classify Love among the works of the Holy Spirit is not a new invention. In this connection, to assign Love such a conspicuous place may be new, but the doctrine itself is as old as the Apostolic Creed,

which confesses:

" I

believe in the Holy Ghost ; in the

Holy, Apostolic, Christian Church, in the conununion of saints." For what is the communion of saints otherwise than Love in noblest and richest manifestation?

but as the very is

fruit of the

Holy

And how

Spirit?

is it

its

here presented

The work

of the

Father

confessed yfrj/y that of the Son in the IncsLxnaXxon second ; and

coming

to the

work

munion

Holy

of the

this is not in the creation,

of saints, which,

Spirit, the

Church confesses that

nor in the Incarnation, but in the com-

among men,

is

Love's tenderest and most

glorious expression.

"Communion selfish,

of saints,"

the half-hearted, or

i.e.,

still

the rule of Love, not

untried,

the initiated children of God, whose

new

among the among communion

beginners, but

life is from God; a enjoyed on earth, the full enjoyment of which can be found only in heaven; a communion sweet and blessed, because it is unalloyed, and proceeds only from holy impressions; not springing from man's heart, but shed abroad in him from above when from a sinner he became a saint, and developing

the foretaste of which

is

him more warmly and tenderly as in his person the new man becomes more pronounced; a communion found among saints, not by chance, but because it is bom from the fact that they are saints, rooted in their being saints, and derived from Him who sanctified them to be saints. Hence it is a love which death can not destroy; in

which, stronger than death, shall continue as long as there are saints,

unquenched, forevermore.

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