Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE SECOND MAN VERIFIED IN HISTORY.123Two differential marks distinguish this givingfrom any which preceded the coming of our Lord.First, the Spirit should come upon them, butshould never depart from them. " He shall giveyou another Comforter, to abide with you for ever,the Spirit of Truth." This giving was not an intermittentoperation, whether extraordinary, suchas had shown itself in Moses and the Prophets, fortheir inspiration in writing, or their guidance inicular trials, nor that ordinary one wherebyfrom the beginning He had enabled all the goodand just to lead a life acceptable to Him. It wasa far higher gift,6 wherein, as S. Augustine says,by the very presence of His majesty no longer themere odour of the balsam, but the substance iof the sacred unguent was poured into those vessels,making them His temple, and conveying thatadoption in virtue of which they should not be leftorphans, but have their Father invisibly with themfor ever. No intermittent operation, and no presenceless than that of His substance, would reachthe force of the words used by our Lord, " I willask the Father, and He shall send you another Paraclete,the Spirit of Truth, to abide with you forever ;" for that word " other" conveys a comparisonwith Himself, from whom they had never beenseparated since He had called them, in whose continuance"with them alone was their strength, O / their5 See Petavius de Trin. vii, 7, where he states it to be the generalbelief of the ancient writers that a new and substantial presence of theHoly Ghost began at the day of Pentecost.