very centre of our being, in our innermost hearts. God makes Himself known
to us as God, through our spiritual necessities.

The Presence of the Holy Spirit is a personal thing in each one who
receives Him. There is only one way by which we can receive the Holy
Spirit, and that is by faith. The Holy Ghost has been given. Will you ask
yourself, Have I received Him? If not, why not?

When God puts His Spirit into our hearts He abides with us for ever. He
never leaves us. Even when we grieve Him by our coldness of heart, He does
not leave us.

It is God who begins the work of grace in our hearts. The Book which
reveals to us what God is, opens with the words, "In the Beginning,
_God_." [Footnote: Gen. i. 1.] God is the Beginner of all things, not only
of the creation of the world, but of the new creation in our souls. This
Book unfolds to us how God begins and finishes the great work of
redemption and salvation.

We find another marvellous beginning which is also unfolded in this Book.
"The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." [Footnote: 1 Gen.
i. 2.] It is a remarkable word; it means the Spirit of God brooded on the
face of the waters. In Genesis we read, "The Spirit of God was brooding,"
and in the Gospels we find the Spirit of God compared to a dove. The word
"brooding" is a figure of the mother dove brooding over her nest and
cherishing her young. The first time the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the
Old Testament is in this verse, and the first emblem of the Holy Spirit in
the New Testament is in the 3rd chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, where it
says that, after our Lord had been baptized, "The heavens were opened unto
Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon