III.

_Preached Whitsunday, May 19, 1850._

THE DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT.


"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit."--1
Corinthians xii, 4.

According to a view which contains in it a profound truth, the ages of
the world are divisible into three dispensations, presided over by the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

In the dispensation of the Father, God was known as a Creator;
creation manifested His eternal power and Godhead, and the religion of
mankind was the religion of Nature.

In the dispensation of the Son, God manifested Himself to Humanity
through man; the Eternal Word spoke, through the inspired and gifted
of the human race, to those that were uninspired and ungifted. This
was the dispensation of the prophets--its climax was the advent of the
Redeemer; it was completed when _perfect_ Humanity manifested God to
man. The characteristic of this dispensation was, that God revealed
Himself by an authoritative Voice, speaking from without, and the
highest manifestation of God whereof man was capable, was a Divine
Humanity.

The age in which we at present live is the dispensation of the Spirit,
in which God has communicated Himself by the highest revelation, and