Incarnation and Passion fail to affect us if we have not our share in
the Spirit's sanctification. There is a sense in which the Holy Ghost
comes nearer to us, if we may so speak, than the other Persons of the
Godhead. If we are true believers, the Holy Ghost is enthroned in our
hearts. "He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."[176] Our bodies
become the temples of the Holy Ghost.[177] It is through Him that the
Father and the Son come and make their abode in the faithful.[178] We
are made "an habitation of God through the Spirit."[179] "If any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."[180] When we consider
the work He carries on in convicting men of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment, and in converting, guiding, and comforting those whom He
influences, we can understand that it was expedient for us that Christ
should go away, in order that the Comforter might come.[181] If we are
receiving and resting on Jesus as our Saviour, then His Spirit is within
us as the earnest of our inheritance.[182] His presence imparts power
such as no spiritual enemy can resist. How different were the Apostles
before and after they had received the gift of the Spirit! One of them
who, before, denied Christ when challenged by a maid, afterwards
proclaimed boldly in the presence of the hostile Jewish council, "We
ought to obey God rather than men."[183] Those who, when He was
apprehended, had forsaken Him and fled, gathered courage to brave kings
and rulers as they preached salvation through Him. The disciples, who,
in accordance with Christ's injunction, awaited the descent of the
Spirit, were on the day of Pentecost clothed with power before which
bigotry and selfishness passed into faith and charity and
self-surrender; and there was won on that day for the Church a triumph
such as the might of God alone could have secured--a triumph which the
ministry of the Spirit, whenever it is recognised and accepted, is
always powerful to repeat and to surpass.