Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

96 THE FIRST AND THE SECOND MAN.the Second Adam, of which in the body of thefirst Adam He had Himself deposited the germ.When the ansrel described to the Blessed Virginherself that miracle of miracles which was to takeplace in her, the assumption of human flesh bythe Son of God, he used these terms : " The HolyGhost shall come upon thee, and the power of theMost High shall overshadow thee." When the Sonof God, at the moment of His Ascension, declaredto His Apostles the creation of His mystical body,by using similar words He referred them back toHis own conception : " You shall receive power,the Holy Ghost coming upon you:" having alreadyon the day of His Resurrection told them, " I sendthe promise of my Father upon you ; but wait youin the city until you be indued with power fromon high."27 Our Lord Himself thus suggests to usthe remarkable parallel between the formation ofHis natural and His mystical body. He who framedthe one and the other is the same, the Holy Ghost:the Head precedes, the Body follows ; because ofthe first descent, that Holy Thing which was to beborn should be called the Son of God; becauseof the second, "you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem,and in all Judea, and Samaria, and tothe farthest part of the earth;" and this is said inanswer to their question whether He would then27 Luke i. 35. n^eC/xa aryiov eTreTuiWrat tiri (re, Ka\ 8vvau.is vfyicrov eVi-crei croi. Acts i. 8. XrjiJ/ecrfle Swcuur, cVeA0