"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." (John 14:16-20)

The succession that is indicated by the words Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is neither nominal nor accidental. It is a meaningful progression and culmination of thought. Any changing of this order would be self-destructive. When we think back to the origin of things, we are conscious of the deep dissatisfaction with all the mere terms that get no farther than the approval of the strictly critical faculty. We want something more, something for which the heart aches.

With the suggestion of the word, Father, comes at least the promise of satisfaction; it is felt to be the true starting point. The Fatherhood is not emotional, but causative and sovereign paternity. Logic can do little towards its explanation. The mind must accept the idea of Fatherhood as the mind accepts itself; a mystery, but not greater (except in degree) than the invisible spiritual life that is in every man. Fatherhood is a plural and inclusive term. Father suggests the idea of childhood, and childhood is realized in the Sonship of Jesus Christ. Sonship such as this, which involves manifestation or visible expression, is filled with risks, as we have shown. The particular manifestation and withdrawal of Jesus Christ were exclusively characteristic of Jesus. He was here long enough to remove all doubt as to his personal identity. Immediately after securing, by his personality, an unquestioned place in human history, he withdrew himself. Nothing more was to be gained by his visible continuance on earth. His bodily mission had been fulfilled; therefore, he vanished out of sight of men.

What about the future of His work? Now was to come manifestation without visibility. Instead of bodily presence, there was to be a new experience of life spirituality, insight, sensibility, and sympathy, and almost an infallibility in Holy instinct. In one word, the Holy Man was to be followed by the Holy Ghost. A philosophical rather than a merely arbitrary succession is strictly consistent with the fact that the whole movement of history, in all that is vital and permanent, is a movement from the outward and visible towards the inward and spiritual. This is true of civilization in all of its enduring elements. A brief indication of facts will make this clear.

The order of creation, as detailed in the account given in Genesis, is a movement towards the spiritual. The succession runs as follows: light, firmament, dry land, seas, the fruit-yielding tree, sun, moon, stars, the living creature, the fowl flying in the open firmament of heaven, cattle, creeping things, and the beast of the earth. If we stop here we will be dissatisfied due to a sense of incompleteness. There has been an onward movement up to this point, but expectation will be disappointed if we stop here. In the rest of the story God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:..." that was the highest point of spirituality attainable within the first idea of creation, yet it was but a promise. The biblical order of human recovery, apart from any theological construction of it, is a movement towards spirituality. Man, however, when he does not see this, creates a movement towards the flesh.

Beginning with the Levitical ritual, what could be more objective or more thoroughly penetrated with all the elements of the most violent tragedy? Exaction follows exaction, as if nothing could mitigate, or make less severe, the divine demand. The sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering, the peace offering, the baptisms, the incense, the eternal flow of blood, all represented the sensuous and exhausting system of mediation. Every day-fire and blood; every evening- dark altars of consecration in quiet and solemn hours; every Sabbath a double sacrifice; every new moon with its sacrifice of bullocks and rams. Could anything be farther from the point of spirituality? Finally it was plain that in God's estimate of sin, nothing of earth was sufficient for a burnt offering.

In moving forward, to the incarnation, we take a giant step along the path whose final point is spirituality, but we are still distinctly upon the carnal line. How do we escape it? How do we pass to the highest place? The answer is as full of pathos as it is of truth. The final representative of sensuous worship must himself be the Revealer of spiritual life. Jesus Christ did not pass away as a figure complete in itself. He ascended that he might conduct his work from a higher level. He has been with you, but he shall be in you. Henceforth we do not know him after the flesh, for the fleshly Christ has himself placed mankind under the tuition of a spiritual monitor.

The order of written testimony, though in some respects apparently accidentally, moves in the same direction from the outward to the inward. From picture and symbol we pass to spiritual meaning. Through the noise and fury of war we pass into the quietness and security of moral civilization. Through the door of miracles and mighty signs and wonders we enter the holy place of truth and love. From the violent and startling course of Matthew's genealogical table we pass into John's gospel where the Word meets us without the stain of earth upon its robe of white.

The quality of John's gospel requires being in the very place assigned to it in the New Testament. It is better that it should be preceded by the synoptic gospels, in which the attention of the world is boldly challenged by activity, spectacle, and a quickly moving scene of diverse and strange things such as had never been seen in Israel. In John's gospel, spiritual teaching, promise, devotion, comfort, and sanctification are dominant, although publicity of mighty deeds is certainly not wanted. John both interprets and completes the work of his predecessors. He seems to say, "you have heard what the evangelists have had to tell you. You have heard the wonderful things which they remember of their Master's ministry. Now let me explain to you the deep meaning of it all." Thus, John's gospel seems to be placed in its proper place in the Word.

From Malachi to Matthew there is but one step. However, to get from Malachi to John, you have to cross the universe! John's gospel seems to be waiting until the church becomes mature enough to understand it. It waits without perturbation. There is no lack of interest in Matthew, Mark, and Luke; yet, they are but the genesis of something for which the fourth gospel is the apocalypse. Matthew shows the facts; John reveals the truths. Matthew portrays the canvas; John puts the Word into the heart. This is relatively speaking, however, as in Matthew there is the mystery of godliness, and in John there is a panorama of activity.

The whole law is a movement towards spirituality. From the minuteness of microscopic by-laws, men have passed to a spiritual sense of moral distinctions. Every moment of the Jew's time and every act of the Jew's life were guarded by regulation. Amidst our spiritual light, such regulations could not be re-established without awakening the keenest resentment. The tables of by-laws have been taken down because the Spirit of order and of Truth has been given.

Probably these illustrations of the doctrine that the whole movement of history has gone persistently in the direction of spirituality will be accepted or rejected according to the theological prejudices of the hearer. However, their practical value will be determined by the fact that precisely the same movement takes place in the consciousness and experience of every progressive life. Every man can test this doctrine for himself, namely that the growth of manhood is a growth towards spirituality.

In approaching the mystery of the Holy Ghost, we are approaching the highest expression of a mystery that is continually ruling the whole economy of human progress. Whatever we may believe about the personality of the Holy Ghost, we cannot get away from the fact of spirituality in our own consciousness. The spiritual world of the wise man increases every day. Strangely enough, in point of coincidence, that very increase becomes to him what the Holy Ghost becomes to the church- namely, a Comforter. This is so much so, that the wise man is never desolate, nor can any fool trouble the depths of his peace. This is the first testament between man and God. Is it not meant to introduce a higher covenant?

To the intellectual man, the Christian appeal is this. You have a spiritual consciousness to which Jesus would add a spiritual personality. You have an interpretation to which you may add the spirit of sanctification. You have also the preliminary baptism to which you may add the Holy Ghost. This all adds up to the fact that the Holy Ghost is the reasonable conclusion of theological revelation. As such, his ministry is an impregnable proof of the reasonableness of Christianity.

In the person of Jesus Christ, truth was outward, visible, and most beautiful. In the person of the Holy Ghost, truth is inward, spiritual, all transfiguring. By the very necessity of the case, the bodily Christ could only be a passing figure. It is claimed then, on behalf of Christianity, that there is a Holy Ghost and he is the final theological revelation of God.