Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE FIRST AND THE SECOND MAN.83He is sent; and this Spirit of the Truth is Hisown Spirit, whom He Himself will send as thetoken of His ascension and session ; the Spirit whodwelt in the Body which He had assumed, and inwhich He spoke before Pilate, should be sent byHim when that Body had taken its place at theright £ hand of God, / should invest with His ownpower those to whom He was sent, and shouldnever cease to be with them in His character of theSpirit of Truth. Here, then, is that power in thekingdom of the Truth which enables it to bear atrue and a perpetual witness. It is the power ofthe King, for it is His Spirit : it is the power ofthe kingdom, for it remains in it, is throned in it,and makes it to be whatit is.But to create a kingdom of the truth, and tobear perpetual witness in that kingdom to thetruth, is not only to state what is true. Theseexpressions mark out an organisation in and bymeans of which truth is perpetuated. And further,the spirit in man is both reason and will;and that man may act, the intellect which hastruth for its object must work on the will whichhas good for its object. And so the witness whichour Lord speaks of is that action of the truthupon the will which produces a life in accordance*with it: it is truth not left to itself, but supportedby grace. This power of the Spirit of Truth istherefore double, as intended to work on the twopowers of the soul, the reason and the will : it is