1. Believers have
always found their satisfaction in that Divine utterance, which our
ears heard recited from the Gospel at the moment when that Power, which
is its attestation, was bestowed upon us:—Go now and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
command you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
world St. Matt. xxviii. 19, 20.. What element
in the mystery of man’s salvation is not included in those
words? What is forgotten, what left in darkness? All is
full, as from the Divine fulness; perfect, as from the Divine
perfection. The passage contains the exact words to be used, the
essential acts, the sequence of processes, an insight into the Divine
nature. He bade them baptize in the Name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that is with confession of the
Creator and of the Only-begotten, and of the Gift. For God the
Father is One, from Whom are all things; and our Lord Jesus Christ the
Only-begotten, through Whom are all things, is One; and the Spirit,
God’s Gift to us, Who pervades all things, is also One.
Thus all are ranged according to powers possessed and benefits
conferred;—the One Power from Whom all, the One Offspring through
Whom all, the One Gift Who gives us perfect hope. Nothing can be
found lacking in that supreme Union which embraces, in Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, infinity in the Eternal, His Likeness in His express
Image, our enjoyment of Him in the Gift.