The meaning of "The Communion of Saints" becomes clearer when we know that "Communion" is the same word as that which is more often translated "Fellowship." The Apostle S. John speaks with great clearness about this Communion or Fellowship. Referring to the good tidings delivered by himself and the other Apostles about the person and work of the Saviour, he saith, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us." In other words, he declares that the Gospel was preached that all might enjoy the Communion or Fellowship which the Apostles possessed. And then he goes on to explain with whom they enjoyed this Communion: "And truly our Fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ" (1 S. John i. 3). And this assertion of the Communion of the Christian with God agrees with the words of the prayer of our Lord for His people, recorded by the same Apostle; wherein He prayed, "That they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one" (S. John xvii. 22, 23). These thoughts of the Communion of the Christian with God--the Father and the Son--would be incomplete, did we not also think of our Communion with the Holy Ghost. For inasmuch as the whole spiritual life of the Christian is due to the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, this Communion with God, which the Christian enjoys, is in reality the work and gift of the Holy Ghost. And this is testified to us by the familiar words of blessing, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the Communion" (or Fellowship) "of the Holy Ghost, be with you all" (2 Cor. xiii. 14). Furthermore, "The Communion of Saints" describes the fellowship or tie of brotherhood which unites Christians together, one with another. For if all Saints have Communion with God, it follows that all have Communion one with another in Him. If Christians are really striving to be, what they are called to be, holy, they are all one family; united together by the common bond of sonship; "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. iii. 26). Their adoption into the one family of God is to them a real relationship. And this also is expressed very clearly by S. John: "If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie; but if we walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another" (1 S. John i. 6, 7). And inasmuch as death does not sever the union between the Saint and God, but rather intensifies it (seeing that S. Paul describes the result of death as the "being with Christ," Phil. i. 23), it follows that "The Communion of Saints" is not a fellowship with the living only, but with the departed also. "All are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. iii. 28); whether Jews or Gentiles, whether living or departed.