them in the light which we get by comparing Scripture with Scripture. Did the risen Christ breathe on his disciples and say to them: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost"?[4] "It is enough, Lord, that we have received the Spirit from thee," they might well have said. Yet it was not enough for him to give; for looking on to the day of his enthronement, he says: "But when the Paraclete is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me" (John 15: 26). When Jesus hath ascended "on high," then can the {45} Holy Ghost communicate "the power from on high." Therefore it is expedient that he go away. As with the power which Christ was to impart to his church through the Paraclete, so with the righteousness which he was both to impute and to impart; its highest source must be found in heaven: "And when he, the Comforter, is come, he will convince the world of righteousness; . . . of righteousness _because I go to my father_, and ye see me no more" (John 16: 8-10). We may say truly that the righteousness of Christ was not completely finished and authenticated till he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. By his death he perfectly satisfied the claims of a violated law, but this fact was not attested until the grave gave back the certificate of discharge in his released and risen body. By his resurrection he was "declared to be the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness" (Rom. 1: 4). But the fact was not fully verified till God had "set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named" (Eph. 1: 20, 2l). Now in his consummated glory he is prepared to be "made wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" to his people. He who had been "manifest in the flesh" that he might be made sin for us, was now "justified in the Spirit" and "received up into glory," that he might be made {46} righteousness to us, and that "we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Christ's coronation, in a word, is the indispensable condition to our justification. Till he who was made a curse for us is crowned with glory and honor we cannot be assured of our acceptance with the Father.[5] How deep the current of thought which flows through this narrow channel--"Because I go to the Father."