Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

128 THE SECOND MAN VERIFIED IN HISTORY.a vitality that many a heresy will live for ageson that fragment which it has detached fromthe mass ; unity and charity have such force thateven their shadow, that is, the joint possession offragmentary truth, and the good-will thenceproceeding, will prolong for a time a sortcorporate existence. Holiness has so attractivea power, that zeal and self-denial, which presentthe seeming of it, will make the fortune of a sectfor a time. But in the union and the completenessof these four gifts, the great Body of Christstands out through all the ages inimitable andunapproachable. Alone it dares to claim themthus united and complete, for alone it can presenttheirrealisation.These four gifts, then, dwell in the Body in ahigher degree than that in which they adorn themembers of the Body, as in it, by force of theSpirit's indwelling, they ever exist together. Letus now see the qualities which the Spirit impartto the members of the Body, by virtue of theirincorporation into it.First of all is the forgiveness of sins. The Spirittakes them out of that state of alienation in whichthey are born, and unites them to His Body; andin so doing He effaces both the birth-sin and everyactual sin which they may have committed. Thisis that plenary forgiveness of sins, the pure gift ofGod unpreceded by any merit on man's part, whichgreets the new-comer out of Adam's body of sin