The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 9.

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

Two important lessons are to be learned from this brief view of the person and work of the divine Spirit.

The more we know of the greatness of God in Himself, the more wonderful seems His condescension. What are we that the Three Persons of the Godhead should so occupy themselves with our salvation? The creature is low enough by nature in comparison with his Creator. What is he, then, before the eyes of the infinite Majesty, when by sin he has degraded his nature and made it impure; when the gifts of Providence have been trailed in the mire of corruption? If the unfallen angels are not clean in the sight of the AU-Holy, what is man, fallen and corrupted by transgression? Yet upon him seems to stoop the whole mercy of the Creator. Passing by fallen angels for whom no redemption was offered, the outer life of the eternal Three seems to be spent upon our recovery. The Father plans in His great heart the scheme of salvation ; the Son comes joyfully to the Virgin's womb and the cross; and the Holy Spirit refuses not to move with pitying love and unwonted energy upon the waste, where a greater than primeval darkness rests upon the face of the deep. Let us value our souls by their price in the eyes of God, by the labors of the Three infinite Persons. What a loss will it be if we, made by the will of the Father, bought by the Blood of the Son, and sanctified by the power of the Holy Ghost, fail to realize our dignity, and fall eternally from the arms of the Trinity into the rayless darkness where the light of grace can never be rekindled! The divine Mind alone can estimate our value and measure our ruin.

And, lastly, while we rejoice in the presence and comfort of the Paraclete, and know that He is our all-abiding strength, how should we fear before Him and tremble lest we . grieve Him ! He is a consuming fire, to burn away our dross and to lighten our darkness with the searching beams of divinity. He is ours in thought and will, in word and deed, according to our wish. As much as we ask He will give, and even beyond all our hopes he will respond to our desires. We can drink of purity itself; bathe at our will in the precious Blood of Christ; and even before the days of exile are ended taste of the fruit of the tree of life. Yet do we realize that it is God who is within us, that we are His temples, that it is He who speaks to us in times of trial, sorrow, or joy? How happy are we to bear our Paraclete within us, and how sacred is the heart where He dwells! Lifted up above the storms of earth, far from its confusing strife, is the home where the Spirit of the Father and the Son abides! This is the Love of the Holy Trinity, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in Him. We cannot dwell in love unless our souls, in will and affection, are one with God, for God is one. Let us cry earnestly to the quickening Spirit by whose life we live. He will help us to realize our consecration to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He will enlighten our understanding, chase away sin and sorrow from our memory, and give supernal vigor to our will. By God we shall take hold of God, and by divine power ascend where our weakness shall be made strength. On the wings of the Spirit we are borne to the bosom of the Son, and in His human arms we are presented to the Father. God bears us to God. "The Spirit helpeth our infirmity ; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what the Spirit desireth, because He asketh for the saints according to God. And we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as according to His purpose are called to be saints."

"Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one Spirit: as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all."— Ephesians iv. 8-6.

Order is the necessary mark of all the works of God. To this order unity-is essential. In things created this unity appears, as far as is possible to finite existences. There cannot be the supreme oneness of God, but there is the unity of design, of end and operation. We cannot conceive of the divine Being working in confusion, which would be disorder and seeming contradiction. In things inanimate there is perfect harmony throughout the whole realm of creation. If there be disorder among intelligent beings it is owing to the perversity of their wills, which have the power to resist the plan of God and rebel against Him. The Deity has no share in this work of disunion from Himself. The separation from unity is essential disorder.

If, then, order and unity mark the works of the first creation, when from nothing the universe sprang into being; much more, and in a truer sense, shall be seen these signs of the divine action in the new creation, which is a work of a higher nature and in a plane nearer to the Deity itself. There is no need to develop here the argument which from the unity of the visible creation demonstrates the unity of the great First Cause. We pass to the necessary conclusion that the essential attributes of the Deity must be more manifest in the redemption. By sin the intelligent race of man fell from order, and by the interposition of God, who is one, they mnst by unity be restored to unity. This human erring wills may be brought brought back to harmony with the one all-perfect will of the Creator. If God is to work a salvation for the children of Adam, He must act in accordance with His nature. The subject of this lecture concerns, then, the sphere of the divine operation in redemption, and consequently the work of the Holy Ghost upon earth. That work is in a visible body, of which the eternal Spirit becomes the living principle, and through which He operates to the sanctification of men. 

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 8.

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

The Holy Trinity hath another work, undertaken of His free mercy and to show the riches of His grace. When our race fell from God by the prevarication of its will, and in our father, Adam, lost Eden and the graces of paradise, the same power which magnified itself in creation glorified itself more mightily in redemption. "God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son." The Second Person took upon Himself the work of expiation and redemption. To this end He became man and made Himself the second Adam, that through a divine humanity He might pay our debt and heal the wounds of sin, which had corrupted and enfeebled our nature. In this work the Three Persons of the Trinity co operate, and here the Holy Ghost has His peculiar office.

Directly does He concur to the incarnation of God the Word. By His power the immaculate Virgin conceived. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee," said the archangel Gabriel to her, "and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; therefore the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." The Word was, then, " conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary." By His touch her pure substance was formed into the spotless body of Jesus Christ; and by His breath the soul of God Incarnate was created. Upon that humanity, the greatest and most beautiful work of God, the energies of the divine Spirit, with all His gifts, were put forth. His all-perfecting fingers were ever upon that humanity to fashion and mould its features, as the Man-God "grew in wisdom and age, and grace with God and men."  Through all the steps of His earthly work the Redeemer was "led by the Spirit" from height to height of oblation. The Paraclete watched with protecting wings over the humanity conceived by His energy. He filled the womb of St. Elizabeth and caused the unborn forerunner to exult with joy. "John gave testimony, saying, I saw the Spirit coming down as a dove from heaven, and He remained upon Him."

So at the baptism in Jordan "heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape as a dove upon Him."  "Evidently great," says the apostle, " is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh and justified in the Spirit." This work of the Spirit in and over the humanity of Christ was carried on through all the bitterness .of the Passion, in the sharpness of death, until the resurrection dawned in a new light, and the Man-God was "taken up into glory."

And when the Word made flesh had finished His earthly work, had paid the penalty due to our sins, and had ascended on high, it was the office of the Spirit to carry on and complete that work. "It is expedient for you that I go," said our Lord to His sorrowing disciples: "for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go, I will send Him to you." "He, the Spirit of truth, shall teach you all things. He shall glorify me, because He shall receive of mine, and shall show it to you." "When He cometh, He shall give testimony of me," and " you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you." "I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, who will never leave you, who will abide with you for ever." "He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you." So in the quickening energy of His nature, and the love of which He is the expression, the Paraclete takes up the work of the ascended Christ, brings all His teaching into fruitful light, and by His mighty operations applies the precious Blood of Calvary, and completes the redemption. " Jesus Christ came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifieth that Christ is the truth."

The same energy which fashioned the humanity of the second Adam, fashions also ours by the touch of "the quickening Spirit." "The Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be made conformable to the image of His Son."

If the work of the Third Person of the holy Trinity was glorious in the first creation, much more wonderful is His operation in the new, where the world of grace opens before us with all its treasures. He unites us to the humanity of our Redeemer, and consoles us with the knowledge of all He did and taught. He is the Comforter under whose reign of mercy we live. He that rejects Him shall find no comfort. He who grieves Him away shall be eternally lost. "The blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven." "He that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come." 

The Person and Office Of The Holy Ghost. 7.

By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,

Who can venture to speak of that love which in . its immense tide inundates the bosom of the Trinity ? Yet may we reverently think of that unspeakable bliss where we behold our God in the boundless reach of His attributes, a unity and yet a Trinity; alone and yet not alone; in solitude and yet in glad communion with Himself; one in essence, and so alone in His immeasurable distance from things created; three in person, and so not alone in that inner life where Father, Son, and Holy Ghost embrace each other, and know each other, and are lost in felicity at this knowledge of the Divine perfections. Here is all knowledge, all speech, and all love. Here are the Unbegotten, the begotten Word, the prolific Spirit. Love divine gushes in its eternal fountain, and the light of Deity burns everlastingly in its source. So, following the steps of the Fathers, we may think of the Holy Spirit as the active and passive affection of the Godhead, the spring of peace, the tranquillity of order, the harmony of the Infinite in the ~ grandeur of His being. Oh! how it adds to our adoring wonder of the Divinity thus to contemplate the eternal Three in the distinctness of personality and the perfection of unity. Thus they give testimony in heaven, each in His place, and where the "Sanctus" of angels resounds, God, in three persons, knows, enjoys, and glorifies Himself. There the Word speaks the language which Divine ears alone can hear; there the Spirit " searches out the deep things of God."

2. The office of the Holy Ghost .in and towards created things is called His work outwards, though, strictly speaking, there is nothing without the Trinity.

There was an eternity when there was nothing but God; and Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were alone in their supreme and unapproachable rest. When it pleased the infinite will to create; things possible became existences, and in the order and sphere eternally appointed. Light dawned upon material worlds. The spheres rolled in their orbits, and the beauty of the visible creation bloomed beneath the divine touch. The voice of things made broke the silence of eternity, and the morning stars sang in joyful chorus. Angels assembled around the throne, and cherubim and seraphim knelt in mute adoration before the consuming fire. So towards creatures the Holy Spirit hath a special office, and, in harmony with His work within the bosom of Deity, He comes forth to complete, beautify and sanctify the whole creation. "Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created ; and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth."
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"In the beginning God created heaven and earth: and the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved over the waters." * When God spoke, the Word went forth, and "all things were made by Him." f Yet it was the office of the Spirit to brood upon the shapeless mass of chaos, that from His fecundating energy, order and beauty might come forth. When, in the new earth created for our use, the race of man was to take its place, the Three Persons communed together. "Let us make man to our image and likeness." Then was man made with the royal mark upon him, with an intelligent soul, with memory, will, and understanding, in the image of the eternal Three who formed him. Upon our first father, Adam, the Holy Ghost descended, and so was "he made into a living soul." Reason ruled within him, and, by the power of the sanctifying Spirit, there was harmony between soul and body. There was peace, which is "the tranquillity of order," and no war was known between the rational and irrational natures. We attribute to the Third Person of the Trinity the special office in creation of establishing order, of harmonizing elements that might be in conflict, of causing life and beauty to bloom where, without His celestial touch, all would be dead and shapeless. He is the uncreated beauty shining in the things He touches; the divine order leading created intelligences up to the living Unity, which is God. He is "the living spring, the living fire, sweet unction and true love."

So, gazing over the face of the material universe, where there are wonders far above our comprehension and beauties above our capacity of appreciation, we see everywhere "the finger of God's right hand." In every ray that illumines the earth; in the glory of the forests; in the grandeur of the mountains ; in the order of the firmament with its myriad spheres; in the flowers that exhale their sweet odor; in the human face and form, that speak of a world unknown; in all we behold the finishing touch of the eternal Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son; in creatures, as in the bosom of Deity, showing forth the beauty of God, and telling, as human ears may be able to hear, of His perfections. "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night" showeth knowledge."