clan, my party, my nation? If the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, are with us, the answer is, "No." There is no distinction in these between neighbour and enemy, no limitation by any earthly bounds. As I enter into them I feel drawn towards every partaker with me of the like precious promises. By whatever name he is called, he is one with me in the brotherly covenant: I overpass all human boundary lines, and expand to the unity of the Church. The Jew might style all other people "Gentiles," and the Greek "barbarians: but the Christian knows no such distinctions, for all men are actually or possibly -what he is himself.

When this unity has been realized, and we enquire into its ground and motive power, we receive answer that it is a "communion" or fellowship of the Holy Ghost. There is one Body, because there is one Spirit. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ came out of the love of God; and now the Spirit of Both has come to impart the grace and shed abroad the love. Necessarily He binds into fellowship all who receive Him, for they are fellows in a common blessing; and, in proportion as they receive the blessing, they enter into the fellowship. No man can truly be "made partaker of the Holy Ghost" who seeks It for himself, who does not realize that he is a "part-taker" therein with others. It is the flesh. which stands apart, and seeks its own things, and counts all outside to be rivals and enemies. But we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if the Spirit of God dwell in us and His indwelling knits us together in one communion and fellowship in the mystical Body of Christ.

So, as we learnt of Jesus Christ in His grace, and of God in His love, we learn of the Spirit in the fellowship

He effects. And this is the last of our lessons. No other Divine Name is revealed to us, however long our life may be. God, Christ, the Spirit-these Three interpret to us all action from heaven to earth. They stand apart and distinct from all other names that are named, whether in heaven or in earth. And as we think of Them, we remember that it is into this three-fold Name the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-that we were baptized. And now the question irresistibly arises who is this Son Jesus Christ? who is this Spirit? The Father is God: is Christ one of His creatures, and the Spirit only His influence? If so, how are the three names joined as they are, co-ordinate in benediction and consecration?

Not

To this the Church returns a two-fold answer. only is the Father God, she says, but the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost God. The whole Three are coeternal together, and co-equal. The Son is no creature, nor is He an offspring of Time: He is begotten by His Father before all worlds. The Spirit is no mere influence, but a conscious Person, eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son co-worshipped and co-glorified. That the Son is known by a human name does not hide from us His Divine glory, nor that the Holy Ghost has become, as it were, the soul of the Body of Christ, which is the Church. That They have thus condescended may make the name "God" still more peculiarly the Father's: but we do not the less acknowledge each of the Three Persons by Himself to be God and Lord.

But yet, the Church says, we do not the less believe in One God; and this God is the Father. If you consider the names "Son" and " Spirit," you observe that

they both imply derivation. A son is the son of some one: a spirit—that is, breath—is the spirit of some one. And this One, of Whom are the Son and the Spirit, is the Father,-He Himself being of none. And yet They are not of Him so as to become separate from Him, as a human son is separate from his father-"I in Thee, and Thou in Me" is the eternal expression of Their relation. So that there is One God, because one Source and Fountain of Godhead, Who communicates Himself without division, and contains within Himself the Son He begets and the Spirit He breathes forth.

I make no excuse for dwelling on this point; though excuse might seem to be needed. For indeed we Trinitarians are ever in danger of falling into Tritheism, that is, into the belief of three Gods. It is not enough to repeat" And yet not three Gods; but one God," unless we apprehend whence the oneness comes. If we are thinking of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as three independent possessors of Godhead, it matters not how entire the oneness we attribute to Them in mind and will, in power and glory: we are still acknowledging three Gods. Our only deliverance out of error into truth on this subject is the full appreciation of the names "Son" and "Spirit." Knowing the Son as begotten, and the Spirit as proceeding, we shall truly believe in One God, the Father Almighty, of Whom are Both, and with Whom Both subsist, One God, blessed for evermore.

The Church's profession of faith in this great mystery begins and ends in worship. "The Catholic Faith is this, that we worship One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity." "So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be wor

shipped." Not "is to be acknowledged," with the assent we give to a scientific fact or a logical argument; but “is to be worshipped." The knowledge of the true Godhead of the Son and the Spirit, and Their oneness therein with the Father, will only profit us, can only indeed be truly received, as we worship Them accordingly—as we serve the Son our Lord, and yield to the motions of the Spirit, and so do the will of the Father. To-day's Gospel has shown us the Blessed Three in the work of salvation; and the Reading for the Epistle has exhibited the result of this work, wher they who sing to the Lamb "Thou hast redeemed us "* render their thrice-holy to the One Lord God of Sabaoth. We stand at this day between the two, partakers of the grace, aspirants towards the glory. May the Lord deepen in us the sense of the wonderful revelation which has been made to us in the faith of His Church! So shall we be rehearsing now in heart and spirit that worship which shall be ours, when to us also the door shall be opened in heaven, and we behold the throne of God, and the Lamb in the midst of the throne, and the sevenfold Spirit burning before it, and cry out "Holy, Holy, Holy," and fall down before the One God who liveth for ever and ever.

* Rev. v. 8, 9.

SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.

The Seben Lamps of Fire.

Rev. iv. 5.

In that vision of the heavenly places which was granted to the beloved Apostle, and which is recorded in the fourth chapter of his Revelation, we are told that he saw "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God." That by the " seven Spirits of God" the Holy Spirit is meant appears from the opening salutation of the Book:-" Grace be to you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ."* Only the Holy Ghost could be joined as Source of grace and peace with the Eternal Father and with Jesus Christ His Son: for only He is with the Father and the Son together worshipped and glorified. Nor is it difficult to understand. why He should appear as "the seven Spirits." The number seven signifies divine completeness-not the unity of oneness, which is God's, but the unity of multiplicity, which is man's, but in which he can be the image of God. There is no sevenfoldness in the Father, who is God in absolute existence: there is no sevenfoldness in the Son, who is God in manifestation: but there is sevenfoldness in the Spirit, who is God in communica

* Rev. i. 4, 5.