belief in the work of the Spirit. Every member of the society has his own gift and his own function, but all are organically united in the Church which is the body of Christ, 'the fullness of him who is being fulfilled, all things in all[1].' All are brought, however far they may have come, to be fellow citizens with the saints, and are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
The Church does not exist to be in opposition, or even in contrast to the world, which already is half with her; she is the core of the world, or to use the better because dynamic image of our Lord, the leaven. She exists not only to realize brotherhood within her own borders, which she has yet to do; but to promote the brotherhood of all mankind, which she has done from the beginning, and is still doing—till to-day we dream, and hardly dare to dream, that the first stage of her task is being accomplished. So the Spirit of God, with sighs that cannot be uttered, will not rest till the World is the Church, and all the kingdoms of the world are become the kingdom of Christ, and the whole world is mighty and wise, and tender with charity.
We used to be much exercised with little Scripture proofs about the personality of the Holy Spirit.
- ↑ Eph. 1 23 τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσι πληρουμένου. The next sentence is from the second chapter, but the whole Epistle, of course, is full of the thought.
