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p218 [P Gibbs] MY DEAR BROTHER, - The unity of the Spirit is what occupied us at Croydon, and though I think I have it clear in my mind, I have some difficulty in making it so to others. The grand fact is, there is one Spirit as there is one body; not only abstractedly, but actually one, forming the body, putting each member in its place in the body; and He is the source of every proper thought and act in the church, now the fact is there. No doubt the end of Ephesians 2 is the great example of two made one, but then that was brought about by death and resurrection putting all on a new footing, bringing in a new state of things founded on it. It is of the unity of this new state of things that the Spirit is the power and characteristic. Now the Holy Ghost brings all these things into harmonious detail, and gives fellowship in them in that harmony; there then is the unity of the Spirit, and this may be of course in a thousand details, wherever the Spirit works. I do not think we can bring in verses 4-6; not that the Spirit has not to do with them, but that they are collateral subjects formed by the same Spirit.

Affectionately yours in the Lord.

London, February 18th, 1882.

[53179E]

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