St. John takes no interest in purely speculative or dogmatic questions, and therefore he does not trouble himself about sxich questions as the office of the Holy Spirit, as distinguished from that of the Logos,' before tlie Incarnation. From the practical point of view it is possible to say, as he does, that ' there was as yet no Sjiirit ' before Jesus was glorified. After this gloriheation, although the action of the Holy Spirit is often represented as that of Christ Himself returning to His own, there is a difference between the mode of action of the Incarnate Christ and that of the Holy Spirit. Not only is the former external, the latter internal ; but the Incarnate Christ addressed Himself to all who came into contact with Him, and was obliged to adapt His teaching to the limited intelligence of His auditors. The Paraclete is a principle of spiritual life in the hearts of believers, on whom He acts directly and without intermediary. His work consists in glorifying Christ, bearing witness to Him and continuing His work of revelation. It is quite useless to ask whether, for St. John, the Paraclete is a distinct hypostasis in the Godhead. The category of personality is quite foreign to the Evangelist, as to his whole school, and no answer to such a question can be drawn from liis words. The Evangelist does not speculate about the rela- tion of the Spirit to the Father, who ' sends ' Him. The expression 'God is Spirit' (not 'the Spirit') expresses, so to speak, the quality of the Divine nature ; it does not assert the identity of the Father and the Holy Ghost, any more than Bths fjn 6 \dyos in the Prologue asserts such an identity between the First and Second Persons. The Evangelist is much more concerned with the relation of the Paraclete to Christ. This indeed is one of the dominating thoughts of the Fourth Gospel. Jesus 'baptizes with the Holy Ghost' (1») ; that is to say, the gift of the Holy Ghost is an end of the ministry of Jesus. A very important passage is 14", in which Jesus says that the world cannot receive the Paraclete ' because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him : but ye know liim ; because he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.' Tl words 'dwelleth 'with yuu' must refer to tl presence of Jesus Himself, who has received tl Spirit in absolutely full measure, in the nddst of His disciples : after His departure the Spirit 'shall be in you,' a condition which did not yet exist at the time when the words were spoken. This gift was, in a manner, communicated when, after the Resurrection, Jesus breatlied on the disciples and said, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost.' But it would be quite foreign to the thought of the Gospel to attach importance to tlie physical ' insufflation ' as the vehicle of the gift of the Holy Ghost. The gift would follow in response to the prayer of Christ (14'*). He would be sent in Christ's name (14»). Jesus Himself will send Him (15=«). After the gift has come, when the disciples have entei-ed into the sphere of the Spirit, they will still look to Christ as the principle of their life. He will still be the true Vine, of which they are the liramhes. It is even possible for Him to pronii.se, '1 will scr you again' — certainly not with reference lu th.^ appearances after the Resurrection, but !(■ ihc spiritual vision Avhich has nothing to do willi luiilily presence (16'*'^). So when He says, ' I have de- clared unto them thy name, and will declare it' (17®"), the intention does not refer to any future discourses with the disciples on earth, before or
after His Passion, but to the relations which will exist between Him and them under the dispensa- tion of the Spirit. The expressions ' we will come unto him, and make our abode with him' (14-'^) ; and ' I will come again and receive you unto myself (14^), have the same meaning, though in the latter passage there may be a special reference to the ' coming ' of Christ at the death of each believer. There is no reference in St. John to such a picture as that drawn by St. Paul in 1 Co 15. In Jn 16''"- there is a remarkable statement about the Paraclete, that ' he shall not speak of himself ... he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you.' The relation of the Paraclete to Christ is thus exactly the same as that between Christ and the Father (cf. S"' 6=» etc.).
But the special office of the Spirit in the world begins with Christ's departure from earth. The death of Christ, in St. John, has not the same significance as in the Pauline theology. St. John even shrinks from the idea of death in connexion with the incarnate Logos. ' The death of Christ,' says Reuss, 'in the Johannine theology, is an exaltation, not an abasement.' 'The end of the ministry of Christ,' says Reville, 'is not, properly speaking. His death. His death is in reality a deliverance.' The redemptive element in the death of Christ is not His suttering, but His gloriheation. And yet we must not forget that the idea of sacri- fice, and of Christ as the true Paschal Lamb, is frequently in the mind of the Evangelist. It appears not only in tlic ' tpstiiiiony ' of John the Baptist (P»-36), but in the Hi-h T'lii'stly prayer, where the words 'for thiir >:ikis I consecrate myself (17"), haveaddinitcly suriilicial meaning. This doctrine was part of the Christian tradition, which St. John accepts heartily without attempting to bring it into line with his own dominant ideas. It is, however, true to say that it is by His life, and not by His death, that the Johannine Christ gives life to the world. ' Because I live, ye shall live also' (14''). The i^rinciple of life within them w ill be the Holy Spirit. As Paraclete, He will be their defender and helper against all adversaries, ghostly and bodily. He will also be their Com- forter (we cannot wonder that some have defended this meaning of Paraclete) ; He will change their sorrow into joy, as a grain of wheat dies only to live again, or as a woman, when she is in travail, exchanges her pain for joy that a man is born into the world ; He will guide them into all truth— a word which in St. John has a predominantly moral significance. His action on the unbelieving ' world ' is one of ' conviction ' ( Ae^x"", 16*), a Philonic expression, of somewhat obscure meaning. St. John does not seem to contemplate any direct action of the Holy Spirit, except in the hearts of the faithful : the office assigned to Him in the Anglican Catechism, as the ' sanctiher of all the elect