XXVII. "NOW THERE ARE DIVERSITIES OF GIFTS, BUT THE SAME SPIRIT. AND THERE ARE DIFFERENCES OF ADMINISTRATIONS, BUT THE SAME LORD. AND THERE ARE DIVERSITIES OF OPERATIONS, BUT IT IS THE SAME GOD WHICH WORKETH ALL IN ALL." Ghost. O you see what plain and distinct mention we have here of the Blessed Three in One? There is the same Spirit-God, the Holy There is the same Lord-Jesus Christ, God the Son. There is the same God-God the Father of Heaven. And from the Godhead of the Father, the Spirit and the Son are not excluded. It is the same God which worketh all in all, and (look at the eleventh verse) all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit; and the Son Himself saith of Himself (look at the fifth chapter of St. John and the seventeenth verse): "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." But it is not with the doctrine of the Trinity that I wish to deal this afternoon; but I want to speak of what we may call the functions of the Blessed Three in the government of the Church as they are described in this passage. Perhaps we may find this plainer and easier if we change the wording without altering the meaning of the text, thus Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Giver, and there are differences of orders but the same Ordainer, and there are diversities of workings but it is the same Worker that worketh all in all. So we may call God the Father, the Promoter; God the Son, the Director; and God the Holy Ghost, the Enricher of the Church. But while we speak thus distinctly of the Three, we must beware of separating the One. We have already seen that the working does not belong exclusively to the Father; we may go on to show that the ordaining is not the function only of the Son; and that |