We understand that the work of the Spirit was first of all the work of interpreting the experience of the last three years.  During these years they had been with Jesus, and the result was an experience which, however wonderful, or rather, just because it was wonderful, was in their consciousness at present little more than a chaotic mass of impressions and memories.  It was the work of the Spirit to enkindle and illuminate their understanding so that they could put the experiences of the last three years in order, if one may put it in that way.  He enabled them to draw out the meaning of what they had gone through.  We are at once impressed with the reality of the work of the Spirit when we listen to the sermon of S. Peter to those who have witnessed the miracle of Pentecost.  Here is another miracle of which we have, perhaps, missed something of the wonder.  This man who in answer to the mockeries of the crowd—­“these men are full of new wine”—­stands forth to deliver this exposition of Jesus is the same man who but a few days before had denied his Lord through fear; he is the same man who even after the Resurrection was filled with such discouragement that he could think of nothing to do but to return to the old life of a fisherman, who had said on a day, “I go a-fishing.”  If we wish to understand the meaning of the coming of the Spirit, let us forget for the moment the tongues of fire, which are the symbol, and read over the words of S. Peter which are the true miracle of Pentecost.

And this action of the Spirit is not sporadic or temporary.  We follow the annals of the Church and we find the constant evidence of the Spirit’s power and action in the Christian propaganda.  The courage with which the Christians meet the opposition of Jews and Romans, in their resourcefulness in dealing with the utterly unprecedented problems they are called on to face, in the intellectual grip of the Apologists who have to meet the criticism of very diverse sets of opponents, in their rapidly growing comprehension of what the Incarnation means, and of all in the way of action that our Lord’s directions involve,—­all these, when we recall the antecedents of these men, lead us to a clearer apprehension of the nature of the Spirit’s work in the Church.  As our Lord had promised, He is bringing “all things to their remembrance” and “leading them into all the truth.”  If we need proof of the constant supernatural action of God in the Church, we get all we can ask in the preaching of Jesus by His followers in these opening years of their ministry.

I said that our Lord’s work in the time of His ministry was intensive, the preparing of instruments for the founding of the Kingdom.  With Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit it passes into a new stage; it becomes extensive in that it now reaches out to gather all men into the Kingdom.  To this end there is now a vast development of the machinery (so to call it) of the Gospel, a calling into existence