in the most intimate communion, of which man is capable; no longer
through Creation, no more as an authoritative Voice from without, but
as a Law within--as a Spirit mingling with a spirit. This is the
dispensation of which the prophet said of old, that the time should
come when they should no longer teach every man his brother and every
man his neighbour, saying, "Know the Lord"--that is, by a will
revealed by external authority from other human minds--"for they shall
all know him, from the least of them to the greatest." This is the
dispensation, too, of whose close the Apostle Paul speaks thus: "Then
shall the Son also be subject to Him that hath put all things under
Him, that God may be all in all."

The outward humanity is to disappear, that the inward union may be
complete. To the same effect, he speaks in another place, "Yea, though
we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we Him no
more." For this reason, the Ascension was necessary before Pentecost
could come: the Spirit was not given, we are told, because Jesus was
not yet glorified. It was necessary for the Son to disappear as an
outward authority, in order that he might re-appear as an inward
principle of life. Our salvation is no longer God manifested in a
Christ _without_ us, but as a Christ _within_ us, the hope of glory.
To-day is the selected anniversary of that memorable day when the
first proof was given to the senses, in the gift of Pentecost, that
that spiritual dispensation had begun.

There is a twofold way in which the operations of the Spirit on
mankind may be considered--His influence on the Church as a whole, and
His influence on individuals; both of these are brought together in
the text. It branches, therefore, into a twofold division.