Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

120 THE SECOND MAN VERIFIED IN HISTORY.of a friend are the dearest, and these are the lastwords of the Bridegroom, and they are concerningHis Bride. When He was Himself quitting Hisdisciples He dwells upon the Power which wasto create and maintain His Church, upon the giftof His Spirit, His other self, in which gift lay theformation of His kingdom. It is thus He expressesto us the point with which we started,that the Giving of His Spirit is the fulfilment ofall that Dispensation wherein the eternal Wordtook human flesh.It is not only then the unanimous voice of theFathers which sets the Giving of the Spirit overagainst the Incarnation of the Son. They are butcarrying on that which our Lord so markedlytaught; their tradition was but the echo of Hisvoice, as their life was the fulfilment of it.But it was a double malady in man which Godthe Word became man to cure. It was the wholenature which was affected with a taint, and thesoul through the whole race touched in both itspowers jof the intellect4 and the will. That falseworship which we have seen spreading throughthe earth, and that deep corruption of mannerswhich was interlaced with it, were the symptomsof this malady. The perversion of the truth concerningthe being of God, and all the duties ofman which grow out of this being, was inextricablyblended with the disregard of these duties4 This word is used as the equivalent of \oyos, ratio, Vermin ft ^ in man.