and which makes that going a gain.

'If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I
depart I will send Him unto you.' Now we have already, in former
sermons, touched upon many of the themes which would naturally be
suggested by these words, and therefore I do not propose to dwell
upon them at any length. There is only one point to which I desire to
refer briefly here, and that is the necessity which here seems to be
laid down by our Lord for His departure, in order that that divine
Spirit may come and dwell with men. That necessity goes down deeper
into the mysteries of the divinity and of the processes and order of
divine revelation than it is given to us to follow. But though we can
only speak superficially and fragmentarily about such a matter, let
me just remind you, in the briefest possible words, of what Scripture
plainly declares to us with regard to this high and, in its fullness,
ineffable matter. It tells us that the complete work of Jesus Christ
--not merely His coming upon earth, or His life amongst men, but also
His sacrificial death upon the Cross--was the necessary preliminary,
and in some sense procuring cause, of the gift of that divine Spirit.
It tells us--and there we are upon ground on which we can more fully
verify the statement--that His work must be completed ere that Spirit
can be sent, because the word is the Spirit's weapon for the world,
and the revelation of God in Jesus must be ended, ere the application
of that revelation, which is the Spirit's work, can be begun in its
full energy.

It tells us, further, (and there our eyesight fails, and we have to
accept what we are told), that Jesus Christ must ascend on high and
be at the right hand of God, ere He can pour down upon men the
fullness of the Spirit which dwelt uncommunicated in Him in the time