2 COR. XIII. 14 323
unity, membership or fellowship, which it is the peculiar work of the Holy Spirit to preserve in the Christian Church.^
1. What is Communion? It is partnership, the having some- thing in common with another. It may be chiefly an outward thing, the sharing of a common business, or a common position, or a common home. But it may be chiefly an inward thing, the sharing of common tastes and sympathies, common joys and sorrows, common aims and aspirations, common feelings and hopes of any kind. In both cases there is the idea of a perfect oneness between two, so that what the one has the other has ; what the one is the other is ; what the one feels the other feels. It is not one giving and the other receiving; it is both giving and both receiving. It is not one speaking and the other listening ; it is both speaking and both listening. It is not one loving and the other loved ; it is both equally loving and both equally beloved. It is standing face to face, walking hand in hand, feeling that heart answers heart, seeing eye to eye.
One of the deepest facts of human life is man's perpetual need of intercourse and fellowship. A life of solitude is never satis- factory to a truly healthy man. He needs some fellowship. And for his whole satisfaction he needs various fellowship — with those above him, on whom he depends; with those beside him, who are his equals; and with those below him, whom he helps. All three of these relationships furnish the life of a completely furnished man. And the essence of all these fellowships is something internal; it is not external. It is in spirit and sympathy, not in outward occupations. It is communion and not merely contact. This goes so far that where communion is perfect, where men are in real sympathy with one another, contact or outward intercourse may sometimes be absent.
^ Only goodness can see goodness, only spiritual minds can read spiritual, only faith can detect faith. Barnabas saw himself mirrored in Saul: only — and this is the sign and sacrament of friendship — it was himself with " self " lost sight of. So long as we fear another, or so long as we look askance on him, we can have no communion with him. That only comes to friendliness, to love.2
^ J. Armitage Robinson, in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, i, 460, « E. W. Barbour, Thoughts, 41.
324 THE APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION
2. In partaking, then, of the Communion of the Holy Ghost, we share a common life bestowed upon us by the supreme Giver ; we have fellowship one with another in love, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and the Son in their mutual love. God, through Christ, breathes into us His Spirit ; this we receive, not alone, but conjointly one with another. God, through Christ, begins by imparting to our heart faith in His grace, and hope through His grace in all His goodness : and knowing and hoping in that, we abide in His love; together keep ourselves by the " communion of the spirit " in the love of God.
3. To those who seek so to walk there comes a constant fresh revelation of self, for the light is ever becoming brighter, and the clearer light of to-day shows up the small spots which yesterday were not discernible. Thus the communion of the Spirit leads inevitably to an increased self-loathing and distrust, and a more emphatic meaning each day in the testimony " that in me dwelleth no good thing." But not only does the clearer light bring clearer self-knowledge. While it shows the sin, it also shines upon the blood, and in this blessed life of communion the light is not more powerful to reveal sin than the Blood is to cleanse it. Hence we must lay this fact to heart, that " the communion of the Spirit" is maintained only by our continual appropriation of the cleansing power of the precious blood. If we would walk with God, it must be in white raiment cleansed and kept clean by the Blood of the Lamb.
11 We cannot escape the dangers which abound in life, without the actual and continual help of God ; let us then pray to Him for it continually. How can we pray to Him, without being with Him ? How can we be with Him, but in thinking of Him often ? And how can we have Him often in our thoughts, unless by a holy habit of thought which we should form ? You will tell me that I am always saying the same thing : it is true, for this is the best and easiest method that I know : and as I use no other, I advise the whole world to it. We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him ; and when we come to love Him we shall also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure ! Ponder over this often, ponder it well.i
* Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, 67.
2 COR. XIII. 14 325
4. Moreover, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be hid. The fellowship of the Divine Spirit is a sharing in His Divine activity, in an unresting and untiring life, always moving, because motion and not rest is the essence of His nature — always moving with a blessing.