Cause of endless exultation
To His ransomed worshippers;
With what rapture

Gaze we on those glorious scars!"

When, on the evening of the Resurrection-day, as the disciples were gathered listening to the story of His appearing to two of their number on the way to Emmaus, suddenly, without opening of door or window, "Jesus Himself stood in the midst," they naturally were affrighted, supposing it to be His Spirit. "And He said unto them, Why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts ? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when He had thus spoken, He showed them His hands and His feet."

"He took again his body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature." The wording of the Article follows our Saviour's expression, "flesh and bones." There is no allusion to the blood. "Flesh and blood" is the common term for the natural body. But He poured out His blood once and for ever when He hung on the Cross, making a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice and atonement for the sins of the world; "for without shedding of blood there is no remission;" and that act He never can repeat. "The blood is the life" of this earthly body, but He who exists in "the power of the endless life" no longer needs the common elements of living. His sacred

C

body itself, with all the essentials of humanity, He has raised to the highest heaven, where "He is set down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." This expression is significant: He sitteth at the right hand of God. It assures us of the fulness our salvation. Our Saviour

and completeness of never would sit down to rest while there remained a single thing to be added to His work. "It is finished." Nothing even by Him can be added to it; nothing will ever be taken from it. Nothing is there for us to do but accept it.

"The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." "Till He return to judge all men at the last day." "When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. . . . Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. . . . And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal."

ARTICLE V.-" Of the Holy Ghost."

"I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life;" and it is by His inspiration that we speak these words, which set forth the nature of the work of the Third Person of the Trinity in the plan of salvation.

This Article follows closely the language of the Creeds in expressing the main points of the great doctrine which we investigated in its entirety under Article I. We will notice the office of the Holy Ghost with regard to man's redemption, which must be further proof of His Divine nature.

In the opening words of that inspired record of events which took place when there was no man to see and chronicle them, we read that “in the beginning" of this material creation, when "the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is," were called into being and perfect order from nothingness and chaos by the all-powerful word of God, when "He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast," even then "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," bringing light to the darkness, life to the inanimate, Divine order and peace where confusion and chaos existed. This was the office of the Holy Spirit in the old creation; this is His office in the new. then He moved on the waters, so now does He descend upon the waters of baptism in order to

bring the new resurrection-life to those who come to bury their old earthly nature there; to shine upon their hearts, that the works of darkness being put away, and the armour of light put on, "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding," may dwell there through Jesus Christ.

But He does not thus come to all; "the world cannot receive" Him, "because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." It is only those who know and believe on Christ who can receive His Spirit in their hearts. As " no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost," so no one who knows not the Saviour as Lord and ruler of their heart can receive and be led by the Spirit of God.

who spake by the pro

spake as they were We ever read that He

"When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, whom I will send unto you from the Father, He shall testify of me." "He proceedeth from the Father and the Son, . . phets." Holy men of old moved by the Holy Ghost." "moves." This is another aspect of His sevenfold work. He does not command, or compel, but "moves" according to His will all who lay open their souls to his influence. He "draws them with the cords of a man," with the "living bands of love."

He "testifies: " He testified to and inspired

patriarch, prophet, apostle, and martyr for the edification and sanctification of His Church. But the Jewish Church refused His witness, calling forth the denunciation of the protomartyr in his defence before the Council, to which he had been delivered by those who could not resist his wisdom and power, he "being full of the Holy Ghost:"-" Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers." It was ever thus in their nation's history; when the "prophets prophesied falsely," the "people loved to have it so;" but on a true prophet appearing, inspired by the Spirit of truth, and charged with a message from God, he was resisted, persecuted, if not murdered. Our Lord Himself had, they declared, "an unclean spirit," because He performed a miracle "by the Spirit of God;" calling forth those words, "The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come."

men.

The Jews, God's chosen people, would never listen to His word or abide His counsel, therefore His kingdom was taken from them and given to the Gentiles, but only on the same conditions of