“‘Lo! He is with us always!’ (Matthew 28:20) So may the King’ be ‘held in the galleries‘ (Song of Songs 7: 5). And such are some of the glorious and living transactions which are evermore transpiring there.
In short, the Lord’s revelation of Himself in the days of His flesh, in all its essential features and details, is, by the gospel history which lives and abides for ever, projected on the plane of every generation as it passes.
And when the Spirit is given to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us, the projection starts forth, to the eye of faith, with the stereoscopic, statuesque fullness and solidity of actual reality.
More than that, Jesus— by His Spirit adjoining Himself to His own representation of Himself in His biography, looking out from that true-to-life picture, with His own living countenance of majesty and love, and speaking with His own never-dying word— is truly with us.
Moreover, it is in this light most clearly expedient for us that He should have gone away?
His presence by the Spirit is better than His presence in the body; as in many respects, so in this, evidently; that, present in the body, He could manifest Himself, as in the Galleries, one by one only; successively; His presence in one causing His absence in all the others.
Present by His Spirit, He can manifest Himself simultaneously in them all.
So that, perplexed with guilt, you shall find Him on the cross.
Perplexed with temptation, you shall find Him in the wilderness.
Seeking a testimony of your union with Him and your sonship, you shall find Him at the stream of Jordan.
Longing to hear His gracious words, you shall find Him in the synagogue of Nazareth.
On the day of melancholy, you shall find Him weeping at the grave of Lazarus— weeping also with you.
On the blessed Sabbath-day of high communion, you shall find Him in the large upper chamber— His banqueting house, where His banner over you is love.
The ivory palaces are all open to you, O son and daughter of the King. And you may see the goings of the King in them all (Ps. 45:8; Ps. 68:24).”
—Hugh Martin, The Abiding Presence (Geanies House, Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Heritage, 1860/2009), 59-60.
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