1. So far it has been taken for granted that this indwelling is
proper to the Holy Spirit, but it must now be added that indeed it
is really an indwelling of the Blessed Trinity. It is true that
very seldom does Scripture speak of the Three Persons as dwelling
in the soul, still less of Their being given or sent. But every
reason for which we attribute this to the Holy Ghost would hold
equally well of the other Two Persons. By grace we are made
partakers of God's Divine nature; He comes to us as the object of
our knowledge and our love. Why should we suppose that this Divine
Presence applies directly only to the Spirit of God? The only
reason, of course, is the impressive wording of the New Testament.
But even here there are equally strong indications that more than
the Holy Ghost is implied: "If any man will love Me he will keep
My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and
will make Our abode with him. . . . But the Paraclete, the Holy
Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all
things and bring all things to your mind whatsoever I shall have
said to you." Here, then, it is clearly stated that after Our Lord
has died His teaching will be upheld by the Spirit, but that this
indwelling will include also the abiding presence of Father and
Son.
2. Why, then, is it repeated so often that the Holy Ghost is to be
sent into our hearts, is to be given to us, is to dwell in our
midst? It is for the same reason precisely that we allocate or
attribute certain definite acts to the Blessed Persons of the
Trinity so as the more easily to discern and appreciate the
distinction between Them. In the Creed itself we attribute
creation to God, the Father Almighty, though we know that Son and
Spirit, also with the Father, called the world out of nothingness.
Eternity is often, too, looked upon as peculiarly of the Father,
though naturally it is common to the Trinity. Note how frequently
in the liturgical prayers of the Church comes the expression, "O,
Eternal Father." So again to the Son we attribute Wisdom and
Beauty, turning in our imagination to Him as the Word of God, the
Figure of His substance, the brightness of His glory, and to the
Holy Spirit we more often attribute God's love and God's joy. All
these attributions are attempts to make that high mystery and the
Three Persons of It alive and distinctive to the human spirit. It
is not indeed wholly fancy, but it is the ever active reason
endeavoring, for its own better understanding of sacred truths, to
give some hint, or find some loophole, whence it shall not be
overwhelmed with the greatness of its faith.
3. Consequently, it must be noted that this indwelling of the
Spirit of God is not so absolutely and distinctly proper to God,
the Holy Ghost, as the Incarnation is proper to God, the Son.
There the Son, and He alone, became man. It was His personality
alone to which was joined, in a substantial union, human nature.
But in this present case there is no such unique connection
between the soul and the Spirit of God, but it is rather the Ever
Blessed Trinity itself that enters into occupation, and dwells in
the heart. Of course that makes the wonder not less, but greater.
To think that within the borders of my being is conducted the
whole life of the Ever Blessed Three in One; that the Father is
for ever knowing Himself in the Son, and that Father and Son are
forever loving Themselves in the Spirit; that the power and
eternity of the Father, whereby creation was called into being,
and by whose fiat the visible world will one day break up and fall
to pieces; that the wisdom and beauty of the Son, which catch the
soul of man as in the meshes of a net, and drove generations of
men to a wandering pilgrimage, at the peril of life, to rescue an
empty tomb in the wild fury of a crusade; that the love of the
Holy Spirit which completes the life of God, and was typified in
the tongues of fire and the rush of a great wind at Pentecost;
that the power and eternity of the Father, the wisdom and beauty
of the Son, the love and joy of the Spirit, are for all time in my
heart. O, what reverence for my human home of God, reverence alike
for soul and body!