For it is upon this question of _faith_ that the whole issue turns. Hearing is much, when one hears the word of truth and news of salvation. But faith is the point at which salvation becomes ours--no longer a possibility, an opportunity, but a fact: "in whom indeed, _when you believed_, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit." So characteristic is this act of the new life to which it admits, that St Paul is in the habit of calling Christians, without further qualification, simply _believers_ ("those who believe," or "who believed"). Faith and the gift of the Holy Spirit are associated in his thoughts, as closely as Faith and Justification. "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" was the question he put to the Baptist's disciples whom he found at Ephesus on first arriving there (Acts xix. 2). This was the test of the adequacy of their faith. He reminds the Galatians that they "received the Spirit from the hearing of faith," and tells them that in this way the blessing and the promise of Abraham were theirs already (Gal. iii. 2, 7, 14). Faith in the word of Christ admits the Spirit of Christ, who is in the word waiting to enter. Faith is the trustful surrender and expectancy of the soul towards God; it sets the heart's door open for Christ's incoming through the Spirit This was the order of things from the beginning of the new dispensation. "God gave to them," says St Peter of the first baptized Gentiles, "the like gift as He did also unto us, when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning" (Acts xi. 15-18). Upon our faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit enters the soul and announces Himself by His message of adoption, crying in us to God, _Abba, Father_ (Gal. iv. 6, 7).
In the chamber of our spirit, while we abide in faith, the Spirit of the Father and the Son dwells with us, witnessing to us of the love of God and leading us into all truth and duty and divine joy, instilling a deep and restful peace, breathing an energy that is a fire and fountain of life within the breast, which pours out itself in prayer and labour for the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit is no mere gift to receive, or comfort to enjoy; He is an almighty Force in the believing soul and the faithful Church.