One Spirit

"And have been all made to drink into one Spirit." -I Corinthians 12:13 [KJV]

What a most lovely and endearing representation is here given of the several members of Christ's mystical body, as all united to their one glorious and common Head, and, like so many branches of the vine, deriving every thing of life, and grace, and fruitfulness, from Him! "They have been all made to drink into one Spirit." Yes; the Lord the Spirit, the Holy Ghost the Comforter, whose gracious influence first unites them to Jesus, unites them also, in Him, to one another. Hence, though distant and remote from each other; divided and separated by distant climes, and countries, and languages; though unknown by face to each other, yea, in language, and manners, and customs wholly dissimilar; and of different degrees of knowledge, and apprehension, and attainment in the divine life; yet, from being one with Christ, they are also one with each other, and "are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones;" part of the universal church, and constituting one complete whole, of which Christ is the head: "whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it: or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it."  

My soul, couldest thou ask the native of any country or climate, who is a real member of Christ's body, what are his feelings of sin, and what his views of Jesus, thou wouldest find a complete correspondence with thine own. He hath groaned for sin, as thou hast groaned; and he hath found Jesus precious, as thou hast found Him. And whence all this, but because one and the same almighty Teacher hath been the instructor of both? "We have been all made to drink into one Spirit!" He is the source and fountain of spiritual life, and sustenance, and strength in all! And as the first quickenings of grace arise from His divine influences, so is it from His blessed impressions that believers are sealed and secured unto the day of eternal redemption. Hail! Thou holy and almighty Lord! cause the whole church of Jesus to be for ever living at the fountain-head of mercies, "who have been all made to drink into one Spirit!" 

-Robert Hawker (1753-1827 A.D.)  

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