became strong, and the foolish wise, and the blind enlightened, and
they began to understand--though it needed all their lives to perfect
the teaching,--what it was that their ignorant hands had grasped and
their dim perceptions had seen, when they touched the hands and
looked upon the face of Jesus Christ. The witness of the Spirit of
God working within them, working upon what they knew of the
historical facts of Christ's life, and interpreting these to them,
was the explanation of their change and growth. And the New Testament
is the product of that change. Christ's life was the truth which the
Spirit used, and a product of His teaching was these Epistles which
we have, and which for us step into the place which the historical
facts held for them, and become the instrument with which the Spirit
of God will deepen our understanding of Christ and enlarge our
knowledge of what He is to us.

So, dear friends, whilst here we have a promise which specially
applies, no doubt, to these twelve Apostles, and the result of which
in them was different from its result in us, inasmuch as the Spirit's
teaching, recorded in the New Testament, becomes for us the
authoritative rule of faith and practice, the promise still applies
to each of us in a secondary and modified sense. For there is nothing
in these great valedictory words of our Lord's which has not a
universal bearing, and is not the revelation of a permanent truth in
regard to the Christian Church. And, therefore, here we have the
promise of a universal gift to all Christian men and women, of an
actual divine Spirit to dwell with each of us, to speak in our
hearts.

And what will He speak there? He will teach us a deeper knowledge of
Jesus Christ. He will help us to understand better what He is. He