my text may mean to draw between the work of Christ in the past and
that in the present and the future, it does not mean to imply that
when He 'ascended up on high' He had not completed the task for which
He came, or that the world had to wait for anything more, either from
Him or from others, to eke out the imperfections of His doctrine or
the insufficiencies of His work.

Let us ever remember that the initial work of Christ on earth is
complete in so far as the revelation of God to men is concerned.
There will be no other. There is needed no other. Nothing more is
possible than what He, by His words and by His life, by His
gentleness and His grace, by His patience and His Passion, has
unveiled to all men, of the heart and character of God. The
revelation is complete, and he that professes to add anything to, or
to substitute anything for, the finished teaching of Jesus Christ
concerning God, and man's relation to God, and man's duty, destiny,
and hopes, is a false teacher, and to follow him is fatal. All that
ever come after Him and say, 'Here is something that Christ has not
told you,' are thieves and robbers, 'and the sheep will not hear
them.'

In like manner that work of Christ, which in some sense is initial,
is complete as Redemption. 'This Man has offered up one sacrifice for
sins for ever.' And nothing more can He do than He has done; and
nothing more can any man or all men do than was accomplished on the
Cross of Calvary as giving a revelation, as effecting a redemption,
as lodging in the heart of humanity, and in the midst of the stream
of human history, a purifying energy, sufficient to cleanse the whole
black stream. The past work which culminated on the Cross, and was
sealed as adequate and accepted of God in the Resurrection and