The life and work of St. Paul

52 THE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAUL.
assembly came the sign that they had desired the inspiration of Christ's
promised Presence in their hearts the baptism with the Holy Ghost and with
fire the transforming impulse of a Spirit and a Power from on high the
eternal proof to them, and through them, in unbroken succession, to all who
accept their word, that He who had been taken from them into heaven was
still with them, and would be with them always to the end of the world.
It came from heaven with the sound as of a rushing mighty wind, filling
the whole house where they were sitting, and with a semblance as of infolded
flame, 1 which, parting itself in every direction, 8 played like a tongue of
lambent light over the head of every one of them. It was not wind, but " a
"
sound as of wind in its rushing violence it ; was not fire, but something
which seemed to them like quivering tongues of a flame which gleamed but
did not burn fit symbol of that Holy Spirit which, like the wind, bloweth
where it listeth, though we know not whence it cometh or whither it goeth ;
and, like the kindled fire of love, glowing on the holy altar of every faithful
heart, utters, not seldom, even from the stammering lips of ignorance, the
burning words of inspiration.
And that this first Pentecost marked an eternal moment in the destiny of
mankind, no reader of history will surely deny. Undoubtedly in every age
since then the sons of God have, to an extent unknown before, been taught by
the Spirit of God. Undoubtedly since then, to an extent unrealised before, we
may know that the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in us. Undoubtedly we may
enjoy a nearer sense of union with God in Christ than was accorded to the
saints of the Old Dispensation, and a thankful certainty that we see the days
which kings and prophets desired to see and did not see them, and hear the
truths which they desired to hear and did not hear them. And this New
Dispensation began henceforth in all its fulness. It was no exclusive
consecration to a separated priesthood, no isolated endowment of a narrow
Apostolate. It was the consecration of a whole Church its men, its women,
its children to be all of them " a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
"
it waa an endowment, of which the full free offer
nation, a peculiar people ;
was meant ultimately to be extended to all mankind. Each one of that
hundred and twenty was not the exceptional recipient of a blessing and
witness of a revelation, but the forerunner and representative of myriads
more. And this miracle was not merely transient, but is continuously renewed.
It is not a rushing sound and gleaming light, seen perhaps only for a
moment, but it is a living energy and an unceasing inspiration. It is not a
visible symbol to a gathered handful of human souls in the upper room of a
Jewish house, but a vivifying wind which shall henceforth breathe in all ages
of the world's history ; a tide of light which is rolling, and shall roll, from
1 Acts ii. 2, 3, wcrirep in/or)? . > *xr wvpbt. (Cf. Lake ill. 22, ua-el mpiOTtpav ', Ezek. i,
24; xliii. 2; 1 Kings six 11.)
2
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