Pitts Theology Library Emory University Atlanta, Georgia 30322 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY AN ESSAY IN THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION WILLIAM SAMUEL BISHOP, D.D. Author of 'The Development of Trinitarian Doctrine in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds'; sometime Professor of Dogmatic Theology and Metaphysics in the University of the South LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 55 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E. C. 4 TORONTO, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS 1923 Copyright, 1923, by William Samuel Bishop All rights reserved MADE IN THE UNITED STATES TO MY WIFE WISE COUNSELLOR • SYMPATHETIC CRITIC FOREWORD This book is an interesting and, I think, an im- portant contribution to theology. It represents the thought and study thro many years of a learned and devout priest of the Church. To Christians, who reverence Holy Scripture and its interpretation in the Catholic Creed, it will prove a real message of help; by those who are familiar with the inevitable controversies that grew out of the endeavor to relate the facts of the Incarnation and the Person and work of the Holy Spirit to the conclusions of philosophy — Eastern and Western — the chapters in this book will be read with deep interest and profit. It is a book for believers — more especially for Bible students and clergy — it carries us into deep waters: but, considering the rather abstruse nature of the subjects treated, it is clear and convincing — and it abounds in Scriptural and literary reference and illustration. Students of theology will be especially interested in Dr. Bishop's discussion of: (1) The relation of the Holy Spirit to the Glori- fied Christ, (2) The Humanity of our Lord, as Personal and Impersonal, vii viii FOREWORD (3) His historical and philosophical review of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and (4) His interpretation of St. Paul's doctrine of Justification. Throughout they cannot fail to be impressed with the subtle and careful reasoning and analysis, and the simple, profound reverence of a true scholar and a man who walks with God. Thomas F. Gailor Bishop of Tennessee PREFACE This little book is a study of personality in the light of the New Testament and of Christian thought, particularly as the latter finds its ex- pression in the historic Creeds. It is the author's conviction that in personality is to be recognized the supreme category of theology, as well as of its kindred sciences, psychology and ethics. Christian theology finds its point of departure nowhere else but in reverent Christian faith; it has its witness in Holy Scripture and in the historic Creeds of the Church. The endeavor in the present work has been first, to exhibit the Scriptural basis for the kindred conceptions of 'spirit' and of 'personality,' and then to examine the evidence of personal con- sciousness and of the thought of the Church. The New Testament is the point of departure in the opening chapters, which deal respectively with the personality of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. Of these it may be said that nearly all of Chapter I and the first section of Chapter II appeared in the form of articles contributed to "The Expositor"; the second section of Chapter II was originally given (in part) in the form of lectures to students in the General Theological Seminary, New York City, and in the University of the South. "Jus- tification by faith formed the subject of a course of lectures delivered in the Sewanee Summer School ix X PREFACE of Theology, and, later, in the General Seminary. In Chapter III the doctrine of the Trinity is re- viewed with special reference to its Nicene and Augustinian stages of development, while Chapter IV deals with the Incarnation. Both of these great dogmas — that of the Holy Trinity and that of the Incarnation — are interpreted through the application of the conception of personality. Doc- trine is traced back to its twofold source, — in the New Testament tradition on the one hand, and in philosophic thought and self-analysis on the other. Neither one of these elements may be over- looked if we are to have a right understanding of the theology of the Christian Church. Divine Revelation and human consciousness — the latter as enlightened by the Holy Spirit who inhabits and directs the Church — these are the bases of theological science; and of these Divine Revela- tion as contained in Holy Scripture supplies us with the ultimate norm and standard of authority. It is to that Revelation as interpreted by the reverent and earnest thought of successive gener- ations in the Christian Church that we are mainly indebted for our modern conception of spiritual personality. Belief in a God who reveals Himself as Three and yet as One, and who, in the Person of Jesus Christ has united our manhood with Himself, has raised human thinking to the spiritual level, and has given birth to the conception of personality as held in the Christian world to-day. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I The Exaltation and Heavenly Priest- hood of Christ 3 CHAPTER II The Theology of the Holy Spirit . . 27 CHAPTER III The Divine Trinity and Personality . 74 CHAPTER IV The Personality of the God-Man . . 115 CHAPTER V Human Personality and Justification by Faith 137 Summary of Contents 171 Index of Subjects 179 Index of Scripture Texts 187 xi SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY CHAPTER I The Exaltation and Heavenly Priesthood of Christ i. THE GLORIFICATION OF CHRIST; HIS RELATION TO THE HOLY SPIRIT During recent years emphasis has been laid upon the humanity of Jesus and the historic circumstances of His life here upon earth. In the view of the present writer the time has now come to lay fresh emphasis upon the fact of the Divine Christ, as not only a historic but also a super-historic Per- son, and upon His life not merely as enshrined in a historic record, but, even more, as a transcen- dent, present reality. It behooved the Christ not only to undergo such things as came to Him in His human experience, but also, after that, to "enter into his glory. Our point of departure, therefore, in this present theological study, is not the Incar- nation of the Redeemer, or even His atoning death upon the cross, but rather His exaltation or glori- fication; His entrance upon His present heavenly state of existence, and the life-giving relation which 3 4 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY He sustains to His Church and people, as the result not only of His death upon the cross, but of His resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven and His session at the right hand of God. The point of departure of what may be called historic Catholicism was in the doctrine of the Incarnation; Evangelicalism finds its pivotal centre and base in the atoning sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. Is not our theology to-day finding a fresh point of departure in the Resurrection and glorification of Christ, and in the closely associated doctrine of the Spirit? Such, at any rate, is the conviction of the writer of these pages. Our starting-point, then, is the Resurrection of Jesus; His ascension into heaven, and the Gift of the Spirit by which the Church was constituted the living Body of Christ. Our Lord's 'glorification' meant for Himself a new relation to the Holy Spirit. Further than this, it meant on His part a new relation to the world and to mankind. The message of St. Peter in the first Christian sermon preached to the assembled multitude in Jerusalem on that day of Pentecost was, — God hath made this same Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, (to be) Lord and Christ. In these words we find indicated the glorification of Jesus. In His relation to the world and to the Church Jesus has now become "Lord; all authority in heaven and on earth has been committed to Him; He has re- ceived "the Name which is above every name; THE GLORIFICATION OF CHRIST 5 that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. But besides this 'external' change (as it may be called) whereby Jesus is exalted to the right hand of power and dominion, there is a coincident inner change, which consists in a new relation hence- forward to be sustained by Him to the Divine Spirit. The name 'Christ' which He had already borne during His life upon earth is henceforward to be borne by Him in a new sense, which may be expressed by saying that the hitman Jesus is hence- forth to be recognized as the Divine Christ. The name 'Christ' in its original signification meant 'the Anointed One,' — the One upon whom the Divine Spirit rests and abides. This is witnessed to by our Saviour's Baptism, wherein the Spirit of God descended in the form of a dove, and abode upon Him. But now in His Resurrection and ex- altation to heaven, Christ, so to speak, receives and appropriates that Spirit of God as His own personal Spirit; the Spirit of God is from hence- forth recognized as also the Spirit of Christ, — a constituent element in the being of the Risen Lord. For, in the words of St. Paul, "the Lord is the Spirit."1 This glorification of Christ is, moreover, the condition and presupposition of the birth of the Church as a new creation. "Though we have (heretofore) known Christ after the flesh, says 1 IL Cor. iii. 17. 6 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY St. Paul, "yet now henceforth, know we him (so) no more. Therefore, as the Apostle continues, "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (or, as the words may be otherwise rendered, "there is a new creation"); old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (II. Cor. v. 16,17). The Divine Spirit, to whose motions and promptings Jesus had so perfectly responded throughout the days of His life here upon earth, is now recognized as the personal Spirit of Christ Himself. From henceforth the human spirit of Jesus shall enshrine and itself be ensphered by the Spirit of God. The effect of this union is the 'quickening'1 and en- largement of the human spirit of Jesus, so that it becomes all but infinite in its power and energy. He has ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. Henceforward He is to be "Head over all things to the Church, which is his Body. From the point of view of His personality, "Jesus Christ has now become "Christ Jesus; He who had been "born of the seed of David according to the flesh has now been "separated"2 (or "distinguished") as "Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resur- rection of the dead (Rom. i. 3, 4). From the standpoint, moreover, of His priestly and atoning work, as this is set forth in the Epistle to the He- brews, the human and mortal "Aaron is now recognized as the Divine and immortal "Melchize- 1 I. Pet. iii. 18. 2 SptaO&Tos, Rom. i. 4. THE GLORIFICATION OF CHRIST dek who ever liveth to make intercession for His people in the presence of God. Once more, the personality of the Divine Spirit is now realized in Him. True it is that that Spirit possesses and has ever possessed a personality of His own, distinct at once from the personality of Christ and from that of God the Father; yet at the same time the personality of the Spirit is not so clearly indicated or so strongly emphasized, even in the New Testa- ment, as is the personality of the Father or that of the Son. The glorification of Christ reveals the Holy Spirit as, in a sense, His "double, — His alter ego, — the same and not the Same. While from one point of view personally distinct from Christ, from another point of view the Spirit finds His personality in the Risen and glorified Lord Himself. A certain analogy to this may be traced in the relation which a wife sustains to her husband. From this point of view we can understand how it was that "the Spirit was not until Jesus was glorified;"1 even as the Ephesian disciples of John the Baptist had not heard whether the Holy Ghost was as yet a realized Presence,2 although of course they must have believed in His future manifestation. The same truth is expressed in symbolic form in the Revelation of St. John, where "the seven Spirits of God are envisaged as the "seven eyes of the Lamb; — i.e. as indicating the spiritual 1 St. John vii. 39, see the Greek. 2 'AXX' oihk el Hvedfia &yi6v 'eariv, quote anev. Acts xix. 2. 8 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY consciousness and all-penetrating vision of the exalted Redeemer. The eye has well been called "the window of the soul. It is through the eye that the personality reveals itself. Even so it is through the Holy Spirit that the Risen and glori- fied Christ reveals Himself. As a man's eyes are a part of himself, — "closer than hands or feet, — so the Holy Spirit is essential to the being of the Risen and glorified Lord. He who appeared to St. John in the vision on Patmos manifested Him- self in His messages to the "seven Churches in Asia by many names, but each message closes with the recurring refrain, — He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. It is the Spirit, together with the bride, who says, "Come. Although the 'Paraclete' whom Jesus promised to send to His disciples from the Father is spoken of as 'another Comforter,' yet at the same time His coming and presence is to be the coming and presence of Jesus Himself. "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me, because I live; and ye shall live also. While, therefore, from one point of view, the 'Spirit' and 'Christ' are two distinct Persons, from another and an equally valid point of view they are but one, and that One is Christ Himself; the Spirit is par excellence the constitutive element in His glorious Person. The human spirit of Christ, indeed, has not disappeared or been swallowed up, CHRIST AS OUR HIGH-PRIEST 9 but it henceforward exists in manifested personal union with the Divine Spirit. The words of St. Peter on the day of Pentecost may be further developed by way of interpretation as follows; — God hath made this same Jesus whom ye crucified to be both Lord and Christ, and Spiritfor, in the words of St. Peter's brother-apostle St. Paul, the Lord is the Spirit. 1 ii. OUR LORD AS HEAVENLY HIGH-PRIEST In the light of these facts, let us now proceed to the consideration of our Lord's priestly and atoning work; for it is in action that the true nature and character of a person find their manifestation. It is, of course, in the Epistle to the Hebrews that the doctrine of our Lord's heavenly priesthood is developed. According to the teaching of this epistle, our Lord's perfected priesthood dates not from His incarnation, but from His glorification. It is in the light of His Resurrection that the great words have their application, — "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee: "Thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. The Spirit is the Source of life to those who are in union with the Risen Christ. But this great fact, so central and so vital in the teaching of St. Paul, is not dwelt upon by the Writer to the Hebrews. Nevertheless, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as in the epistles of St. Paul, the earthly 1 6 6k TLbpLos rd livedpa. kartv. II. Cor. iii. 17. 10 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY Jesus has now become the heavenly Christ; yet it is only through the Blood of that human Jesus that atonement has been made; it is only through the veil of His human flesh that we may enter into the presence of God. According to the Writer to the Hebrews, the foundation of our Lord's per- fected heavenly priesthood is laid in the truth of His humanity no less than in the truth of His Divinity. On the human side His priesthood was typified by that of Aaron; — but with this radical difference, — that while Aaron was a sinful man, himself standing in need of redemption, our Lord, though "tempted in all points like as we are, was personally "without sin. On the Divine side, our Lord's priesthood was typified by that of Mel- chizedek, who is set before us as "without father, without mother, without (priestly) genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, and in that likeness "abideth a priest continually. While the Aaronic priesthood in its relation to humanity may be called 'immanent,' the priesthood of Melchizedek is Divine and transcendent. And yet, as they find their fulfilment and realization in our Lord, these are not two separate and distinct priesthoods; rather, they coalesce into one. While in the Per- son of the glorified Christ the human (Aaronic) priesthood is in a sense taken up or 'assumed' into the royal priesthood of Melchizedek, at the same time its own distinctively human character- CHRIST AS OUR HIGH-PRIEST IX istics are retained. The Blood of Jesus retains its cleansing, sanctifying power even in and from the heavenly sphere into which our High-priest has entered; at the same time it was only "through eternal spirit, — i.e. in the power of His Divine nature, — that the incarnate Son "offered himself without spot to God (ch. ix. 14). It was the eternal Son who "made purification of sins (i. 3) in that Manhood which He had assumed. More- over, as our true Aaron, our Lord not only bore our sins and the sins of all humanity in His representa- tive capacity; He even needed personally to make atonement by reason of that fleshly frailty of ours of which He had become partaker. Even though He was Himself "without sin in the midst of His own personal trial and temptation, even though His flesh with its frailty was exterior to His proper personality, yet by reason of that frailty of the flesh "he ought, as for the people, so also for him- self, to offer for sins (v. 1-3). And this our Lord did "once for all by that "perfect sacrifice, obla- tion and satisfaction of His death, whereby He passed definitely beyond this earthly sphere of temptation and weakness into the sphere of ' indis- soluble life.'1 Consequently, our Lord "needeth not daily (as those Aaronic high-priests) "to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people; for this he did once for all, when he offered up himself. 2 1 Zco^s &KaTa\vTov, vii. 16. 2 vii. 26, 27. 12 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY In so far as our Lord's priesthood is conceived of as having its point of departure in His exalta- tion and enthronement at the right hand of the Most High, it is contrasted (as the priesthood of ' Melchizedek') with the earthly priesthood of the sons of Aaron. Our Lord is a royal priest, — a priest-king; something that Aaron never was. And yet our Lord is expressly likened to Aaron (in ch. v. 1-6) — "For every high-priest, being taken from among men, is ordained for men in things pertaining to God . . . and no man taketh this honour upon himself, but when he is called of God, as was Aaron. So Christ also glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son; this day have I be- gotten thee. Our Lord as "Son is contrasted with "men having infirmity (vii. 28), but at the same time He was Himself "taken from among men, and was during "the days of his flesh partaker of human infirmity. These Aaronic char- acteristics qualify Him for that glorious priesthood in and from heaven; while the Aaronic priesthood as such is swallowed up and disappears in the more glorious priesthood of Melchizedek. We are now in a position to see how the glori- fication of our Lord as our heavenly High-priest takes up into itself, as it presupposes, the truths both of His incarnation and of His atoning death upon the Cross. Let us now proceed to consider some further points of contrast between the heav- CHRIST AS OUR HIGH-PRIEST 13 enly priesthood of Christ and the earthly priesthood of Aaron. In the first place, these two priesthoods are differentiated by the characteristic attitudes of those who bear them. The Aaronic priests stand during their ministration in the Holy Place; our royal High-priest, "having offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God (x. 11, 12). Again, the Aaronic priesthood and the priesthood of our Lord are contrasted in the respective places of their ministration; — the one Tabernacle is earthly and material; the other is heavenly and invisible. Our Lord hath "passed through the heavens, — i.e. the several spheres of "the cosmic sanctuary (to "ayloi> kooiukov, ix. 1), beginning with the outer court, which is this visible sphere in which we live. Yet this visible sphere is also 'heavenly,' inasmuch as it takes its name from the inmost shrine in which the worship culminates, in the immediate Presence of God. Even now and here we have "boldness for the "entrance (or 'introit') of "the holy places (irappqoiav eis rqv e'loodov t&v ay icav, x. 19), although we do not as yet personally come into the immediate Presence of God as our High-priest has done. The opening has been made through the rent veil of His flesh, not of our own. This mortal flesh of ours still screens from view that inner shrine; yet Christ has made an opening through which we glimpse 14 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY the inmost Holy Place itself.1 In the ancient Tabernacle the outer court was the place of the altar of burnt-offering. In like manner, under the New Covenant this visible, earthly sphere is the place where our Lord was crucified. As the altar of burnt-offering was the basis and foundation of the whole system of sacrificial worship offered in the ancient Tabernacle, so in the Cross of Christ and in the atoning sacrifice there offered is the basis and ground of all Christian worship and approach to God. As the altar of burnt-offering was "most holy ("holy of holies, Exod. xxix. 37) under the Old Covenant, so the Cross of Christ is "most holy under the New. Our High-priest is said to have "passed through the heavens (iv. 14; not "passed into the heavens, as in the King James Version) and to have "entered into heaven itself (clvtov tov ovpavov), ix. 24. These expressions cover the whole priestly work of Christ, which began with His atoning death upon the Cross and was completed by His entrance into the immediate Presence of God. Several verbs of action characterize the sacerdotal office and work; — to stand, to pass through, to enter in, and (in the case of our Lord's priesthood alone) to sit down. The act 1 This is the symbolism of the screen or 'iconostasis' in the worship of the Greek Church. The holy Mysteries, which repre- sent the atoning work of Christ upon the Cross, are celebrated behind the screen, hidden in part (though not entirely) from the view of the congregation, the doors being opened and shut at intervals. CHRIST AS OUR HIGH-PRIEST of 'sitting down' is not recorded of the Aaronic priests, inasmuch as their work was never really completed. This act is peculiar to the priesthood of Christ, whose work has been finally completed by the offering of His one Sacrifice "once for all. There is one further act which is specified in con- nection with our Lord's work as our High-priest, — that of 'coming forth' or of 'appearing' from the Holy Place. In chapter ix. verse 28 it is said that "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and that "he shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation (Rev. Ver. transl.). To appreciate the full meaning and force of the expression "apart from sin in this connection, we must bear in mind the reference to the ritual of the Day of Atonement. The word 'sin' here, — as in the ceremonial Law of Moses (and also in Ezekiel) means 'a sin-offering.' This is the force of the Hebrew (chattath), to which corresponds the Greek apaprta, 'sin.' In the ritual of the Day of Atonement (see Lev. xvi.) the high priest, after presenting himself in the Holy of Holies through the blood of the sin-offering (or 'sin'), and having offered the incense before the sacred Ark of the Testimony, returned, and made atonement for the altar of burnt-offering in the outer court; and then, confessing the sins of the people over the (second) goat of sin-offering, sent it away into the wilderness "unto Azazel (see R. V. transl., the word being rendered in the A. V. by "scape-goat"). This 16 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY latter phase of sacrificial and atoning work in the ritual of the Old Covenant, however, finds no parallel in the priestly action of Christ. There shall be no more work in connection with "sin-offering when He shall appear from out the Holy Place into which He has entered, for His atoning work has been finished "once for all (a7ra£, €<£a7ra£, words of frequent repe- tition in the Epistle to the Hebrews). When our Lord shall appear again, it shall not be as "Sin-offering (cp. II. Cor. v. 21) or as Maker of Atonement, but as King and as Saviour, — "unto salvation. He shall appear as our Deliverer from mortality and from all fleshly imperfection into the glory of that "indissoluble life which He has Himself already achieved.1 Inasmuch as our High-priest has already "entered into heaven itself, we, on our part, have "boldness for this "entry, even though we do 1 This glorious appearance of our Redeemer was foreshadowed by the appearance of the high-priest of old, and by his blessing of "the congregation of the sons of Israel. This, — which was the culmination of the whole worship of God's ancient people, — is eloquently described by the Son of Sirach (Ecclus. 1.) in speaking of Simon the high-priest, the son of Onias: — "How was he honoured in the midst of the people in his coming out of the sanctuary! He was as the morning star in the midst of a cloud, and as the moon at the full; As the sun shining upon the temple of the Most High, and as the rainbow giving light in the bright clouds . . . and as a fair olive- tree budding forth fruit, and as a cypress-tree which groweth up to the clouds. When he put on the robe of honour, and was clothed with the perfection of glory, when he went up to the holy altar, he made the garment of holiness honourable .... Then he went down, and lifted up his hands over the whole congregation of the children of Israel, to give the blessing of the Lord with his lips, and to rejoice in his Name (vss. 5-11,20). CHRIST AS OUR HIGH-PRIEST 17 not ourselves as yet personally set foot within the Holy Place. Yet in effect we even now do this, in the Person of our Representative. When we shall ourselves personally, i.e. in the body stand in God's immediate Presence, there will be no more temple or sanctuary; for temple and altar shall then have been superseded by that Presence of God Himself and of the Lamb (see Rev. xxi. 22). To "stand, to "pass through, to "enter in, to "sit down and, finally, to come forth or "ap- pear, — these are the characteristic acts and atti- tudes which sum up and represent our Lord's priestly work on our behalf. And this brings us finally to the consideration of "heaven or "the heavenly places (ra ewovpavia) as the sphere of our Lord's priestly ministration. The "heavenly places (a frequent phrase in the writings of St. Paul) are so called not in opposition to or as exclusive of the places of earth, — i.e. of this visible sphere of our present existence, — although this is a very common misapprehension. In order to understand the Epistle to the Hebrews we must grasp the idea that the "heavenly places include the earth, even as the Tabernacle of old included its outer court. All are called 'heavenly' places inasmuch as they are denominated from their centre and 'fulcrum' — so to speak — the place of God's immediate Presence. That is the "Most Holy Place. But it is such not because it is "heaven, but because of God's presence there. i8 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY It is upon God's all-sanctifying Presence, not upon any special place as such, that the emphasis must always be laid. And that Presence can be ap- proached only through the removal of sin; com- pare ch. xii. 14, — "follow after . . . the sanctifi- cation without which no man shall see the Lord, with vss. 28, 29, — "Let us have grace whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God, with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a con- suming fire. God's Throne, moreover, is not tied to any one locality. It is represented in the visions of Ezekiel as movable; borne by the living, swift- flying cherubim; resting upon wheels which them- selves were moved from within by the "spirit of the living creature (Ezek. i. 20, 21). Heaven it- self shall in due time pass away, even as this time- worn earth; but the Throne of God shall never pass away; it shall be established forever in "the city that hath the foundations (tv\v tovs dene- \Lous 'exovaav tt6\lv) — that City for which holy men of old looked and longed (xi. 10, 13-16). That City is now called 'heavenly' (TepoucaXiyjU eirovpavio), xii. 22), in so far as its present locus is in heaven; but in St. John's vision of the hereafter it is spoken of simply as the "new or "holy Jerusalem, and is represented as "coming down out of heaven to the new earth (cp. Rev. iii. 12 with xxi. 10) .x It is not that heaven as such is an 1 St. Paul's use of the expression rd kirovp&via is perfectly in accord with the usage in the Epistle to the Hebrews; comp. also THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSON OF CHRIST 19 eternal sphere; for we find it expressly declared, "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this 'Yet once more' signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that the things that are not shaken may remain. Wherefore we, as the Writer goes on in his exhortation, — "receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God, with reverence and godly fear (xii. 26-28). This is to the same effect with our Lord's declaration, — "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. iii. THE PERSONALITY OF OUR HIGH-PRIEST AS DIVINE AND AS HUMAN The twofold aspect of our Lord's Person as the Divine 'Son' and as the human 'Jesus' is illustrated by the typology of the Old Testament Tabernacle, and is also witnessed by the Creeds of the Christian Church. Let us briefly consider the evidence in both these directions. As has already been stated, it was not only the Old Testament high-priest the following statements: — "If our earthly house of this taber- nacle were dissolved, we have a building (oixoSo/j^v) from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens . . . our habitation (oIktit^piov) which is from heaven (II. Cor. v. 1, 2). St. Paul represents our "citizenship as even now "in heaven, from whence also we expect a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. iii. 20). 20 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY (whether Melchizedek or Aaron) who foreshadowed our Lord in His mediatorial Person and offices. The sacred Tabernacle as well (including the Court in which it stood) typifies the Person of Christ both in His Divinity and in His human nature. Just as in the Mosaic Tabernacle (and afterwards in the Temple) there was the inner shrine and also the outer court, and as even within the Tent itself the part within the veil was separated from the part without, and was thus declared "most holy, so, in the unity of our Lord's Person it is the Godhead which is the inner shrine, so to speak, whereof the Manhood is the appanage or adjunct. At the same time, just as the outer court of the Tabernacle constituted an essential part of the Holy Place, so the human element, — the Man- hood, — is essential to the completeness of our Lord's personality as the God-man. It was in the court of the Tabernacle that the brazen altar stood, — the primary locus of all atonement and sacrifice, — and also the brazen laver of purification. The outer court of the Tabernacle, then, typifies the human aspect of our Lord's office and Person; cp. the words of St. John (I. Ep. v. 6), "This is he that came by water (the laver, symbolizing Christian Baptism) "and blood (pointing forward to Christ's atonement for our sins). Again; the brass of which the altar of burnt-offering, the laver and the accompanying instruments of service were composed is the emblem of our Lord's hu- THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSON OF CHRIST 21 manity; of His Divine nature, gold is the type. Gold was used in the inner shrine as the material for all its sacred instruments of worship and of service, — the candlestick, the table of shew-bread, the altar of incense, — as also of the censer and the Ark of the Covenant itself. The entire Tab- ernacle and the Tabernacle as a whole is the type of Christ, in whom, as in the sacred Tent of old, God Himself dwells and manifests His Presence. The personality of the eternal Son is in itself Divine, not human, — and yet within His Person a human element is included. The humanity — the "flesh — is a vesture which He has assumed; which, indeed, He has assumed forever, — for that mortal flesh of His was by His Resurrection transformed and glorified and made immortal. Our Lord's humanity is never to be laid aside; He is "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and to-day and forever (xiii. 8). And yet His flesh is, so to speak, exterior to His Divine Personality itself. In the words of the 'Athanasian' Creed, — "For, as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ. And as the 'flesh' is external to the proper Divine nature as such, so the death of the body, as a physical crisis, is a fact in some sort exterior to the consciousness of the Divine Son. Death, when it occurred, occurred as a thing outside of His inmost, Divine nature. It was not as pure Godhead but as the "God-man that He "vanquished death by dying. 22 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY From one point of view, indeed, it is true that "the flesh is exterior even to our human person- ality. We, too, sometimes sing the hymn, "It is not death to die; — It is not death to fling Aside this sinful dust And rise, on strong, exulting wing, To live among the just. The flesh is the tabernacle of the spirit. Ac- cordingly, St. Peter says, — "I think it meet, so long as I am in this tabernacle... knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me (II. Pet. i. 13, 14). Now it is a noteworthy fact that in the Nicene Creed (which embodies the theology of the Eternal Son) our Lord is neither said to have been 'born' nor to have 'died.' This is, of course, in striking contrast with the language of the Apostles' Creed. The Nicene Creed declares our Lord to have 'come down' (from heaven) and to have 'become incarnate' (aapKudevra), and to have 'put on man' {kvavdpwir^aavTa), i.e. to have "manned Himself, so to speak. But His Personality remained even after this act of condescension just what it was before, — the Personality of the Divine Son, — of Him who has "neither beginning of days nor end of life (Hebr. vii. 3). This is the standpoint THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSON OF CHRIST 23 of the Nicene Creed. Again, according to the statement of this Creed, our Lord "suffered and was buried. There is here no direct statement of His death. So, in the magnificent characteriza- tion of the Divine Son in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, our Lord is simply said to have "made purification of sins, and, after that, to have "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. As the Nicene Creed more especially interprets the eternal nature and personality of Christ as the Divine Son, so the Apostles' Creed is the creed of His humanity. The standpoint of the Nicene Creed remains to this day the standpoint of the Orthodox Church of Greece and of Russia; it is as the Divine Son rather than as the human Jesus that our Lord is chiefly envisaged and contem- plated. Returning now to the Epistle to the Hebrews, the unity of our Lord's priesthood is there seen in His 'perfecting' or 'consecration,' and rests ulti- mately upon the unity of His Person. In ch. iv. vs. 14 "Jesus is identified with "the Son of God. In ch. v. vs. 6 the "Son is solemnly addressed as "priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. Again, we are told (vi. 20 and vii. 20-22) that Jesus hath become "a high priest forever after the same transcendent order. Our Melchizedek is therefore Man, while at the same time He is more than man. While "the Law appointeth men high- 24 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY priests, which have infirmity, the word of the oath (in contrast thereto) "appointeth a Son, perfected forevermore (vii. 28). There is a sense in which our Lord possesses human personality, as well as human nature. He has had a human life-experience, and He still pos- sesses a human consciousness as the Son of Man. In chapter ii. of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which exhibits our Lord in His humanity (as chapter i. had exhibited Him in His Divine nature as Son), it is assumed to start with that Jesus is a member of our race. It is not (as Nestorius mistakenly imagined) that Christ existed first as a separate human person, who was afterward united with the Son of God; but it is that He is as truly Man from His birth as though He were not at the same time (as He is) the Son of God. As Jesus Christ, He has His ' genesis,' — His ' beginning,'1 — as other men have theirs, even though His inmost Person- ality is uncreated and eternal, and although the manner of His coming into the world was different from our own, and such as befitted a Divine Person. This difference in similarity in the manner of our Lord's birth is clearly implied by the language of vs. 14 of chap. ii. (TapaxX^o'icos). Christ is a human Person just as truly as He is a Divine Person, "yet not therefore two persons in one, as Hooker so wisely says, echoing the language of the Third * Cp. St. i. i, — Bt/?Xos yeveo-ecos 'Itjitov XptoroD, vlov Aa.vidy vlov 'Afipaap.', also vs. 18, — rod Si 'Itjaov Xptarov r) ytreats outojs fjv. THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSON OF CHRIST 25 General Council (a. d. 431). While from the point of view of the eternal 'Son' humanity in Him is but a 'vesture,' — a 'tabernacle,' — from the point of view of the human 'Jesus' the humanity is something more; it constitutes the circle of His conscious Self as Man. And is there not something analogous to this even in our own experience? Rise as we may above the flesh in our higher moments, nevertheless there are times when the body claims us again, and we realize that we not only have flesh but that we are flesh. May we not say that the consciousness of our Lord has its higher and its lower levels, — the higher level of Divinity and the lower level of humanity. And yet these two 'consciousnesses' are not separate,— they do not constitute two distinct Persons, — since they are linked by the unity of one and the same 'Ego.' He it is who knows Himself at once as human and as Divine. All this seems clearly to be implied in the exposition of our Lord's per- sonality which is given in the Epistle to the Hebrews. To the question, therefore, whether our Lord's Manhood is to be regarded as 'personal' or as 'impersonal' the language of the Epistle to the Hebrews appears to warrant the answer that both phrases are equally valid, according to the point of view. The manhood is impersonal if our Lord be regarded as the Divine Son; it is personal if He — the same Individual — be regarded as the human 26 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY Jesus.1 And as the former is the standpoint of the Nicene Creed, the latter is the standpoint of the Apostles' Creed. As the Nicene Creed is the creed of our Lord's Divinity, so the Apostles' Creed is the creed of His real and actual Manhood. The Apostles' Creed is the Church's historic bulwark against Gnostic and Docetic error, — against all theories and philosophies which would undermine the true and genuine Manhood of Jesus Christ as "come in the flesh (cp. I. John iv. 2, 3). The Nicene Creed, on the other hand, is the bulwark against Arianism and Humanitarianism, — the er- rors which deny our Lord's Divinity. It is preemi- nently human to be born and to die; and it is upon just these human facts that the Apostles' Creed lays special emphasis: — "Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell... He it is who, like ourselves, "made a little lower than the angels fii. 7-9), was, in that lowly estate of mortality, "crowned with glory and honour, that he, by the grace of God, should taste of death for every man."2 1 For a fuller treatment of the subject of our Lord's 'personality' see below in Chapter IV, which deals with the theology of the Person of Christ (esp. pp. 128-130). 2 virhp iravros, — for the human race in its solidarity; for the 'whole lump' of humanity. CHAPTER II The Theology oe the Holy Spirit i. THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A PERSON While the doctrine concerning God and the theology of the Incarnation have been developed through the labors of successive generations, to a certain degree of fulness, that region of Christian thought which has to do with the Person of the Holy Ghost and with His relation to the Risen and glorified Christ has thus far remained less thoroughly surveyed and charted than have other regions. And it is an unfortunate fact that while comparatively little has been set forth by way of official, dogmatic statement concerning the per- sonality and nature of the Divine Spirit, that little should reveal the existence of a serious divergence of views as between two great sections of the Church, — namely, the Greek Orthodox and Latin or Western Catholicism. It is a notorious fact that one primary cause which led to the great schism between East and West in the ninth and following centuries was the dispute concerning the 'single' or 'double procession' of the Holy Spirit; — the Greeks confining themselves to the statement 27 28 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY that the Holy Spirit "proceedeth from the Father, the Latins, on the other hand, affirming that He "proceedeth from the Fattier and the Son. Is it not possible that this doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit, — this original "apple of discord, — may, when studied and interpreted afresh in the light of advancing spiritual knowledge, even come to lend effective aid not only toward a better un- derstanding as between those two great communions which were parties to the original controversy, but may in general become a means of setting forward the wished-for unity of Christendom? That were indeed a "consummation devoutly to be wished"; nay, more, one to be most earnestly hoped and prayed for. The New Testament teaching concerning the Person of the Holy Spirit is especially to be found in the Gospel according to St. John, together with certain passages in St. Paul's Epistles, among which the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is of primary importance. It is in the words of our Lord as reported in St. John's Gospel that the foundation is laid for all right conceptions con- cerning the Person and work of the Holy Ghost. So true is this, that, while the Fourth Gospel is generally recognized as par excellence the Gospel of the Incarnation, it would1 be equally true to regard those chapters which record the closing dis- course of Christ to His disciples and His great high-priestly prayer (chapters xiii.-xvii.) as in a THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A PERSON 29 special and preeminent sense the Gospel of the Holy Ghost. Our Lord is of right the authoritative Teacher concerning the personality and work of Him whom He was about to send to take His own place in the hearts and souls of His disciples. What, then, does our Lord teach us in that closing discourse which He uttered on the last night which He spent with His disciples upon earth? In view of His own departure into heaven, our Lord tells of One who is to take His place as another "Com- forter or Paraclete, and, in the same breath, He speaks of His own speedy return to His disciples. The advent of this "Comforter is conditioned upon Christ's own return to the Father. It is the Father who is to send this Paraclete, but the Paraclete is to be sent and is to come in Christ's Name. This expression "in my Name is highly significant. As Christ had come in the Father's Name (Jno. v. 43) so the Spirit is to come in the Name of Christ. The phrase points to an essential unity as between the Father and the Son, on the one hand, and, on the other, as between Christ and the promised Paraclete. So perfect is this unity that Christ can say, on the one hand, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and, on the other, can speak of the coming of the Comforter as His own advent in invisible, spiritual form. "Yet a little while and the world beholdeth me no more, but ye behold me; because I live, and ye shall live also (xiv. 19, R.V.marg.). And again; —"A little 3° SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY while and ye shall not behold me (oi> deoipeire pe) and again a little while and ye shall see me (6\l/e, to Kbpiov, to Zcaoirotov. . . THE LIFE OF THE RISEN CHRIST 41 ii. THE HOLY SPIRIT AS THE LIFE OF THE RISEN CHRIST There is in her (Wisdom) a spirit quick of understanding, holy, alone in kind, manifold . . . all-powerful, all-surveying and penetrating through all spirits that are quick of under- standing. . . . "For she is a breath of the power of God and a clear effluence of the glory of the Almighty . . . and from gener- ation to generation passing into holy souls, she maketh them friends of God and prophets. WISDOM, vii. 22-27. These words of the ancient Hebrew sage antici- pate the personal manifestation of the Divine Spirit whose presence and power are attested by so many a page of Old Testament history and prophecy. That personal manifestation of the Holy Spirit waited upon the glorification of the Risen and ascended Jesus. In the light of Christ's words to His disciples there can be no doubt that the Holy Ghost is something more than a mere impersonal Force or influence; He is spoken of in terms which plainly imply His personal being and agency. Such statements of our Lord as "He, the Spirit of Truth, shall not speak from himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak ... or again, "He shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine and shall declare it unto you can only be spoken of a person, — i.e. of a self-conscious intelligence and will. It is the Spirit's personal relation to us that our Lord's words emphasize, and especially His employment 42 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY of that most expressive title "the Paraclete. This term "Paraclete by which our Lord named the Holy Spirit in promising that Spirit's presence with the disciples, is a most comprehensive title. Perhaps its most adequate English equivalent is the word 'representative,' when this term is under- stood as carrying with it the idea of 'interpreter.' Christ is Himself the original 'Paraclete,' — the Representative of God to man and of man to God. But the Holy Spirit is the second 'Paraclete' as our Lord is the first. As Jesus Christ is "the one Mediator between God and men, (Himself) being man, so the Holy Spirit mediates between the absent Lord Jesus and His Church, at the same time convicting the world, through the Church, — i.e. through the testimony of Christian men, — "of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. The Holy Spirit, while essentially one with Christ, is the personal Representative and Interpreter of Christ to His Church. And He is at the same time our Representative with God, — interceding on our behalf from within our hearts and souls, even as Christ acts as our Intercessor at the right hand of God in heaven. The term 'Paraclete,' therefore, sums up all those activities and functions which the Holy Spirit fulfils as Christ's Representative in and to His Church, and through His Church to the world; and at the same time all those activities which He carries on as our Representative with God. As THE LIFE OF THE RISEN CHRIST 43 Paraclete the Holy Ghost fulfills the functions of Advocate, Teacher and Admonisher as well as 'Comforter' or Strengthener; — for all these gra- cious activities are summed up in that pregnant title. But there is another sense in which the term 'Holy Spirit' (Holy Ghost) is employed in the New Testament, and a sense which we may not overlook if we are to realize the full wealth of meaning which the Name 'Holy Spirit' contains for us. In the New Testament 'Spirit' or 'Holy Spirit' not infrequently seems to indicate an 'essence' or an essential influence rather than a 'person.' The Spirit is indeed a Person; but His personality is, so to speak, ever emerging from its impersonal background. When our Lord first makes mention to His disciples of the promised Paraclete, the pronouns used are in the neuter gender (o, avro, Jno. xiv. 17); but when reference is made more specifically to the Comforter as such, — i.e. in His personal aspect and work, — the mascu- line pronouns (avros, knelvos) are employed (Jno. xv. 26; xvi. 7, 8, 13, 14). Does not this indicate that 'the Spirit' may be regarded as 'per- sonal' or as 'impersonal' according to the point of view? And is not this true, moreover, not only of the Spirit of God but also of the spirit of man who is made in the image and likeness of God? And here let me say by way of anticipation that one great debt which we, as thinking men, 44 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY owe to the Church theology of the Holy Trinity is the distinction there drawn, — for the first time (be it marked) in the history of human thought, — between 'substance' (or 'essence') and 'person.' For this is no other than the distinction between the 'personal' and the 'impersonal'; a distinction of such fundamental importance for psychology and philosophy, as well as for theology and religion. An illustration of this distinction is supplied by the field of musical art. In the music of the or- chestra, wherein a number of separate instruments minister to the total effect, there is the expression of the impersonal spirit of music; while the voice of the singer, conveying as it does a message to the conscious understanding, is music in its personal aspect. As the orchestra gives body and fulness to the total musical effect, so the voice of the singer makes articulate that which would other- wise be simply a combination of harmonious sounds. Even so ' personality' is that which makes ' spirit' ar- ticulate, gives to it definite form and character; while 'spirit' supplies substance and content to 'personality.' Now in dealing with the great subject of the Holy Spirit both His personal and His impersonal aspects are to be recognized. Thus far we have been considering the Holy Spirit mainly from the personal point of view, — in His Person and office as Paraclete. We are now to consider the same Holy Spirit as the Life of the Risen Christ, imparted THE LIFE OF THE RISEN CHRIST 45 to His Church, — to those who are in union with Him as living members in His one Body. From this point of view the Holy Ghost is regarded as the Principle of the new life which is in Christ, the second Adam, and is communicated to us through our union with Him. The 'Spirit' of Christ is equivalent to the 'Mind' of Christ (I Cor. ii. 16); to the 'Life' of Christ (Rom. v. 10). "In one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, and were all made to drink of one Spirit (I Cor. xii. 13). That is, we were all made partakers of the one life, — the life of the Risen Christ. The same thought is expressed in I Cor. vi. 17,— "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit; — not one 'person' but one essential life. And here the question arises: May it not be that our union with Christ reaches beyond the plane of conscious, per- sonal life even into that region which lies beneath the threshold of consciousness? — in other words, that what is called the 'subliminal self' is also the sphere of operation of the Divine Spirit? Must this not be the case, if indeed this subliminal self is a reality? for surely no part of our human nature or human life is beyond the reach of the Spirit's influence. Let us remind ourselves of what happened on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost in its own way marks just as real and important a point of de- parture in the spiritual history of mankind as does either the day of our Lord's Incarnation (Christmas 46 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY Day) or the Easter day of His Resurrection. For as without Easter Day the promise of our Lord's nativity would not have been fulfilled, so without Pentecost the promise of Christ's resurrection to a new and heavenly life would so jar as we are con- cerned have failed of its accomplishment. That first Pentecost was to the disciples something more than a mere figurative 'birth' or 'resurrection'; it was the beginning of a new Divine dispensation; it marked a new chapter in the spiritual life-history of man. Whitsunday, as has been so often said, is the natal day of the Christian Church. It was a birth of Christ, not in the stable at Bethlehem, but in the hearts and minds of His believing fol- lowers; it was the fulfilment of His own gracious promise, — "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. What, then, was the experience of the day of Pentecost? The disciples who shared in the Divine 'gift of tongues' found themselves suddenly transported beyond the limits of their ordinary, conscious life. They were, so to speak, lifted out of themselves. "Filled with the Holy Ghost, they immediately began to speak with other tongues "as the Spirit gave them utterance. It was a development from within, as well as an afflatus from without. The experience seems to have been analogous to that of prophetism, wherein the Divine afflatus or 'inspiration,' coming upon the seer, exalts his mental and spiritual powers beyond their ordinary capacity in vision, trance THE LIFE OF THE RISEN CHRIST 47 or dream. Some of those who stood by and heard the apostles speaking said, "These men are full of new wine. But it was the 'new wine' of the Spirit, uplifting and enlarging the ordinary human consciousness so as to develop latent powers of thought and expression. This, then, appears to be what was implied in the 'gift of tongues.' This brings to the front the question, What is "inspiration in its relation to "revelation"? Inspiration is the characteristic activity of the Holy Spirit, even as revelation is the characteristic work of Christ. Christ is the Revealer, the Holy Spirit is the Inspirer, — yes, He is the Inspiration itself. Christ is the Manifestation of God in the form of a human Personality who is at the same time Divine; — "the Child's name shall be called Emmanuel, — God with us. Now as our Lord is the personal Manifestation of the presence, power and glory of the Father, so the Holy Spirit is the vital communication of that same Divine presence, power and glory. Christ is called "the Word of God. It is the 'word,' the articulate utterance, that conveys the mind of him who speaks, and impresses it upon others. But it is the 'spirit,' — the warm, vital breath which ac- companies and bears along that 'word' that com- pletes the self-communication of one personality to another. Accordingly, while it is the Divine function of Christ as Word (or Logos) to reveal, it is the no less Divine function and office of the Spirit 48 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY to inspire. As the Spirit is not given apart from the Word, — for in the order of thought the Word must ever come first, — so the Divine office and work of the Word (the Revealer) is completed and carried on to its consummation by the cooperating and accompanying activity of the Holy Ghost. We must remember that while clear-cut, distinct consciousness is no doubt the highest form of that experience which we call 'personal,' yet there is at the same time a philosophy and a theology of 'the unconscious' as well. We know how much the psychology of the present day has to say about the 'subliminal self.' If this 'subliminal self' exists, — as, indeed, we must acknowledge that it does, — must it not be true that our Maker takes this particular region of our nature under His care; that He makes special provision for it in the plan of His gracious and redemptive dealings with mankind? And do we not find evidence of this provision for our need in the fact that God has come to us not only in the person of Jesus Christ His Son, but that He has also come to us in the form of "a rushing, mighty Wind and of Tongues of Fire? Not only does He speak with us face to face in the person of His Son, but in and by the Holy Ghost God enters into union with our ele- mental spiritual nature. It is not now as Word, or Voice (which divides even while it unites those who hold converse with each other) but it is as Breath, or Blast or Fire, which fuses and melts and THE LIFE OF THE RISEN CHRIST 49 blends into one our finite spirits with the great Father of spirits Himself. Is it not true that in the Holy Ghost God chooses to act and operate in an indirect and impersonal manner, while in the Word, or Logos, He addresses us (as He did Job of old) saying, "Gird up thy loins like a man; I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. To say this is not by any means to deny or weaken faith in the Divine personality of the Holy Ghost, but it is to recognize the manifoldness and variety of the Divine manifestations, and the richness of that Divine mercy which finds its way to us by every means available or suited to our many-sided nature, made as we are in the image and likeness of God. We have referred to the phenomena of prophetism as finding illustration and exemplification in the events of the day of Pentecost. We may also see in that Divine Baptism the evidence for the bestowal of 'spiritual grace' in the Sacraments of the Church. For sacramental grace, if it be a reality, does unmistakably imply the transcending of the limitations of our strictly conscious experi- ence. Dr. Pusey in his massive Tract on Baptism calls attention to the unperceived methods by which God is graciously pleased to act upon the human soul; and it must certainly be admitted that if a sacrament be something more than a bare symbol, then its effect will transcend the bounds of strictly conscious experience. Again, and in an entirely different direction,— SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY the phenomena of religious emotionalism as evi- denced in evangelistic campaigns and "revival services bear a direct and unmistakable relation to the Pentecostal Gift of the Spirit; we see in them a real analogy to those experiences in the early Church which were connected with the exercise of "charismatic gifts, and were the imme- diate result of the bestowment of the Holy Ghost. Speaking generally, the presence of the Holy Ghost is witnessed not so much directly as through its effects. We recall those words spoken to Nico- demus in which our Lord set forth once for all the fundamental character of the life spiritual: — "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hear- est the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit (St. John iii. 8). The "law of the Spirit is another and a higher law than the law of "nature. The "world cannot discern this law, since it is the law of that Spirit which the world as such "cannot receive (Jno. xiv. 17). The view-point of the 'spiritual' man is neither grasped nor comprehended by him who occupies the stand- point of the purely 'natural' world; yet the realm of 'nature' is embraced, even while it is trans- cended, by the higher realm of the Spirit. The 'spiritual' includes and embraces the 'natural,' while at the same time its fulness is not exhausted by the latter. "All things are yours, says St. Paul, — "whether the world, or life or death, or THE LIFE OF THE RISEN CHRIST 51 things present, or things to come, — all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's (I Cor. iii. 21-23). Our Lord's words to Nicodemus appear to convey the truth that to us, in so far as we occupy the stand-point of this present life, "the way of the Spirit, like the path of the wind, is unknown; but that we are assured of the presence of the one, as of the other, by its effects. Indirectly (for the most part) the Holy Spirit is perceived, as indirectly for the most part He is worshipped; yet this recognition, this consciousness, although indirect is none the less real. It is true that in the New Testament we do find direct, personal manifestations of the Holy Spirit recorded; as, for example, when the Holy Ghost said to the prophets and teachers at Antioch, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them (Acts xiii. 2); but at the same time such personal manifestations or communications would seem to have been com- paratively infrequent, — like an intermittently- flashing light. It is an outstanding fact in the New Testament record that the presence of the Spirit is a 'multiple' as well as a 'unitary' presence; in other words, it is social as well as individual. While the "rushing mighty wind is one, the "tongues of fire are divided; the "one and self-same Spirit appears as seven "lamps of fire burning before the throne of the Eternal, and also as the "seven eyes of the Lamb "sent forth into all 52 SPIRIT AND PERSONALITY the earth (Rev. iv. 5; v. 6). It is true that the presence of the Holy Spirit with our Lord in and after His Baptism was in unitary and individual form; — "the Holy Ghost descended in bodily shape like a dove upon him. But the presence of the same Holy Ghost with the disciples at Pentecost was in social form, — a form in which all could equally share, — in the dividing and self-distributing Tongues of flame. God indeed "fulfills Himself in many ways; He communi- cates Himself to men not only by His personal Word, but also by His essential Spirit. He "com- passeth us behind as well as "before, and "lays his hand upon us. Shining upon us from above in the Sun of righteousness, at the same time He sustains us from beneath by the heavenly support of the Spirit of His grace. Apart from the creative power of the Holy Ghost, there is no such thing as /wZy-spiritual personality on the part of man. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. The spirit, the life, the power of the Risen and ascended Jesus being communicated to us becomes our own life. The result of this communication is that we are "in Christ, — made essentially and vitally one with our Head. The analogy of the body holds good here. In the living body each and every biological cell may be said to have a life of its own; at the same time its individual life ministers to and is merged in the general life of the organism. THE LIFE OF THE RISEN CHRIST 53 Even so, in the sphere of the life spiritual, each and every one who lives "in Christ possesses his own individual spirit; while at the same time each one shares in the spirit of the Risen Jesus, being made partaker of His fulness. Our own 'spirit' is the immediate, individual life possessed by each one severally; the Holy Ghost is the universal Life of the Body. The spirit, the life of the Risen and glorified Christ has become multipersonal; the "Corn of wheat (Jno. xii. 24) has multiplied it- self into an infinite number of grains; at the same time this Life ever finds its personal centre, — its 'Ego of egos,' —in Christ who is the Head. "Ye are all one (man) in Christ Jesus (iravres . . . v/jiels els core ev Xpi 'Ir]