Now the Lord's words seem plain to us. Because he ascends to the Father, to be seen no more until his second coming, the Spirit meantime comes down to attest his presence and approval with the Father as the perfectly righteous One. How clearly this comes out in Peter's defense before the Council: "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins; and we are witnesses of these things, _and so also is the Holy Ghost_, whom God hath given to them that obey him" (Acts 5: 30-32). Why this two-fold witness? The reason is obvious. The disciples could bear testimony to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, but not to his enthronement; that event was beyond the ken of human vision; and so the Holy Ghost, who had been cognizant of that fact in heaven, must be sent down as a joint-witness with the apostles, that thus the whole circle of redemption-truth might be attested. Therein was the promise of Jesus in his last discourse literally fulfilled: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which {195} proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me; and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning" (John 15: 26, 27). As we have said, it is not only the enthronement of Christ in righteous approval with the Father that must be certified, but the acceptance of his sacrificial work as a full and satisfying ground of our reconciliation with the Father. And the Spirit proceeding from God is alone competent to bear to us this assurance. Therefore in the Epistle to the Hebrews, after the reiterated statement of our Lord's exaltation at the right hand of God, it is added: "For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, _whereof the Holy Ghost is also a witness to us_" (Heb. 10: 14, 15). In a word, he whom we have known on the cross as "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world," must now be known to us on the throne as "_the Lord our righteousness_." But though the angels and the glorified in heaven see Jesus, once crucified, now "made both Lord and Christ," we see him not. Therefore it is written that "no man can say Jesus is Lord, _but in the Holy Spirit_" (1 Cor. 12: 3, R. V.). So also we are told that "if any man sin we have a _Paraclete_ with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2: 1); but we can only know Christ as such through that "other Paraclete" sent forth from the Father. It was promised that "when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall {196} not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak" (John 16: 13, R. V.). Hearing the ascriptions of worthiness lifted up to Christ in heaven, and beholding him who was made a little lower than the