Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE SECOND MAN VERIFIED IN HISTORY.129into the Body of Christ. It is imparted by andfrom the Body, and to its members alone.The second quality is that illumination of themind, irradiated by the truth, the whole compassof which exists in the Body. This illumination isthe root of the virtue of faith, by means of whichthe individual mind appropriates the divine truthpresented to it. The force of the virtue differs inthe individual as the keenness of sight in the naturalman, but the visual power is the same inquality in all. By it the mind of the believer layshold in ever varying degree, one more and oneless, of that great harmony of truth which is heldin its completeness, its manifold applications, andall but infinite relations, only by the Body. For thetruth with which we deal is not unlocalised and scattered,the prey, as it were, of the individualwhich can hunt it down and take it as a spoil, bar .it is a divine gift, orbed in the sphere which wascreated for it, the Body of that Word who is theTruth. Hence the first question to the applicantfor baptism : What askest thou of the Church ofGod ? and the answer is, Faith.The third quality is the adoption of Sonship,which flows directly from incorporation into- theBody of Christ, and to which man has no sorttitle in himself or from his own nature, but ^comes to him only by kindred with Him who, onthe morning of His resurrection, greeted that exeatt who bore the figure