By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,
THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST TO THE CHURCH.
"And there are three that give testimony on earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three are one."—1 St. John v. 8.
We have already anticipated the subject on which we now propose to dwell. In speaking of the visible church as the temple of the divine Spirit we have of necessity implied the gracious fruits of His indwelling. Yet so great are these fruits, and so wholly supernatural does the church become by reason of the presence of God, which vitalises her, as the soul informs the body, that it is necessary, even in this brief series of discourses, to draw out and make manifest these wonderful endowments of the body of Christ. They are wonderful because all that comes from God is admirable beyond our powers of appreciation; but they are the direct consequences of the actual presence of the life-giving Spirit, who, wherever He is, must quicken all He touches with divine energy. In the text the apostle draws a parallel between the witnesses of Jesus Christ on earth and in heaven. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost give their testimony in heaven, and proclaim the Incarnate Son to all intelligences. On earth the Holy Ghost gives testimony of Christ and reveals the truth as it is in Jesus. In Him as the God-Man are our regeneration and redemption. With His humanity He came to bear our burdens, by His flesh to heal our disorders, and by His Blood to expiate and wash away our offences. "This is He that 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."
Thus the Holy Ghost really takes "the things of Christ," all the precious gifts of His Passion, and applies them to man. He not only writes upon his mind the truths revealed in Christ, but He brings the whole person of Christ, with all His saving power, to the believer. The humanity is the victim for our sins. The body is broken and the blood is poured out. The sacred Heart is pierced, and the stream of water and blood gushes forth plenteously. These streams which spring from the Man-God on the cross are filled with the unction of the Spirit; and by them He works to glorify Christ and bring back the erring world to peace. The water and the blood are in the hands of the Spirit, and by them He completes the work of the glorified Son. Mystically, by the Spirit, the water, and the blood are signified the three which concur to our justification. So they as one, because in the hands of one Spirit, give their united testimony to the Lamb of God, by whom alone all sin is taken away. The blood signifies the merit of the Passion and death of Christ, which is applied in our reconciliation to God; the water signifies the washing away of our sins; and the Spirit infuses the gifts of grace and charity, by which we are made just. Thus St. Ambrose says that "we are renewed in our minds by the Spirit, and purified by water, and that the blood is the price of our redemption." "These three," in the language of St. Leo, "are the Spirit of sanctification, the blood of redemption, and the water of baptism." These three are one in end, as they are one in operation. They represent the mystical power of the Trinity in the body of Jesus Christ on earth.
In this discourse, and in the one which follows, we are to behold the testimony of these three witnesses, and adore the wonders which the Holy Ghost works in the church and in the individual believer. The Spirit, all-divine as He is, could not work without the water and the blood, could not have descended to a substantial union with man, if the atonement had not prepared His way; could not dwell on earth where the humanity of the Word did not call Him, and open the place for His sanctifying repose.
The earthly testimony of the Holy Ghost in the visible temple which He hallows, may be seen in the gifts His presence bestows upon the church. They are principally that of supernatural life; that of knowledge in the understanding and teaching of the truth; and that of holiness, by which the whole body is quickened as by a central principle of sanctification. In this brief view of the endowments of the bride of Christ may be seen the whole mystery of grace.
