The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

to be absent, is He affirmed to be present: “Where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt.
xviii. 20.) "Lo, I am with you alway,--all the days,--even unto the end of
the world." (Matt. xxviii. 20.) "If a man love me, he will keep my words:
and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our
abode with him." (John xiv. 23.) The light of His presence shone around
Saul, and the words of His voice fell upon Saul's ear. (Acts ix. 4-7; xxii. 6-
11.) "The night following" Paul's appearing before the council, "the Lord
stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of
me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." (Acts xxiii. 11.)
Christ “filleth all in all." (Eph. i. 23.) He is "in the midst of the seven
candlesticks; walketh in the midst of them; holdeth the seven stars in His
right hand; and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches, and the
seven stars are the angels of the seven churches." (Rev. i. 13; ii. 20; iii. 1.)
The glory of Christ ruling without vicars had been seen even by the Old
Testament saints, and Jehovah had said to David's son, who was David's
Lord, "Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies." (Psalm cx. 2.)
If, then, it be logical to say the Scripture declares He is gone,
therefore He is not here, it is equally logical to say the Scripture affirms
that He is here, therefore He is not gone. Both are meant, relatively, and
both are true, relatively. Both are equally true in the sense, and with the
limitation which Scripture gives to both; both are untrue in the sense which
a perverse reason forces upon them. It is true both that Christ is gone, and
that He is here; he is gone, phenomenally, He is here, substantially. It is
false that Christ is either gone or here, as the carnal mind defines His
presence or His absence. Absent in one sense, or respect, He is present in
another; both senses being equally real, though belonging to different
spheres of reality. The one belongs to the reality of the natural, in the
sphere of the senses; the other belongs to the reality of the supernatural in
the sphere of faith.
Fourthly. If it be urged that Christ "ascended into heaven," therefore
He is not on earth, we reply, He not only has ascended