Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

138 THE SECOND MAN VERIFIED IN HISTOby incorporation into that Body which He hadcreated as the result of His becoming man. Thisit was for the individual to become a Christian.But Christianity itself was neither a mere systemof belief, nor an outward order representing thatbelief, but " the great and glorious Body ofChrist,"18 possessing and exhibiting the wholetruth of doctrine, possessing and distributing allthe means of grace, and presenting together toGod those whom it had reconciled with Him, andmade one, as the members of the Son by the indwellingof the Spirit.Let us now trace the exact correspondence ofthe historical fact with the dogmatic statementjust given.The Acts of the Apostles exhibit to us thecreation of the divine society by the descent ofthe Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. Whenthey were all together, the sound as of a rushingmighty wind was heard, which filled the wholehouse wherein they were sitting, and tongues asof fire were seen, the tongues apportioned severally,but the fire one,19 which rested upon each,to kindle in all that eternal flame of charity which18 S. Iren. iv. C. 33, 7. avatcpivei roils ra (r%io7x,ara epya£op.4vovs, KeVousovras TTJS TOV 0eoG 07^775, /cat rb tSiov AwnTeA.es OVCOTTOWTOS, aAAatvuaiv TTJS e/c/cArjcrias' Kal Sta jiu/cpas Kal TU.S ttyoucras amas T& ptya KalTOV XpiffTOv re/j-vovras Kal Siaipovvras, Kal ftaov rb CTT' avrois avaipowras,TOI/S tlTvrv \a\ovvras Kal rbv, KOI rltv Kap.T)\ov Karairivovras.19 Acts ii. 3. w