which were heaved, intimated that, "God was among them of a truth." And why not so here? Because God's people do not beseige the throne of grace in prayer; "they have not," simply "because they ask not or because they ask amiss," or do not ask in faith for that great gift which God has promised to bestow. The church of God is divided into sects and parties, fragments and factions here and there scattered, having lost the unity of the church of Jesus. This should not be the case. That party is striving for its own little section, as if it alone were the church of Christ, and that section for the advancement of its peculiar interest, instead of seeking for the wide diffusion of the Holy Spirit, that all may be blended into one, that there may be ONE FOLD UNDER ONE SHEPHERD. Yes, the great thing the church of Christ needs at this present day, to heal all divisions and cause all to become one, in answer to the prayer of Christ, is a greater measure of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, the descent of the Spirit of God. This is what we want to fill the heart with love; this absorbing theme is the topic which should fill the minds and souls of all believers, and they should give God no rest day or night till He pour out that Spirit to make His spiritual "Jerusalem a praise and glory in the whole earth."

Our blessed Lord, when about to leave His disciples, gathered them together, and sorrow intense filled His soul. His mind was fixed upon the subject of which His disciples at that time knew but little. Yes Jesus could say to them, "Sorrow hath filled your hearts;" because they were in grief as they gazed on the countenence of the sorrowful Jesus, as they saw the indications of His troubled spirit in His very visage, when He said, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death." He knew the awful passage He was now about to pass through; it was to be to Him the dark dreary valley of the shadow of death. He knew that the instruments of torture were about to be prepared to put His body to an agonising and torturing death; He knew, too, that during "the hour of the power of darkness," even the Father whom He loved would withdraw His presence from Him; that all alone He, Jesus, might tread the wine-press of divine justice-of His Father's wrath against sin-that He would have no consolation in the absence of the presence of His Father, no mitigation of His anguish; He knew that He was to be left alone to pass through that scene of horror for the salvation of the souls of His people; therefore His soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death;" He could say, "I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished;" He knew He could not avoid the pain, the agony, the torture; He was not left in ignorance, as we are sometimes when we know not the trials through which we are to pass; we are left, as it were, in blissful ignorance of these afflictive circumstances through which we are to be led; the billows by which we are to be buffeted, we know not of them, and therefore we are saved from the pain of anticipation; but it was not so with thee, O Jesus! Thou didst know of them before the time; thou wast certain of the trials which awaited thee, and therefore, sorrow filled thy heart as thou wast preparing to go through that dreadful scene. But mark the love of the Lord Jesus! Although He knew of all this He would not shrink from the trial; although He knew He must pass through terrible scenes, yet, while without comfort Himself, He strove to console the hearts of His disciples, and He calls them together. He tells them to go and prepare the passover, and then, when He was approaching that table, where the paschal lamb is to be the type of Himself; on which they are now to feed, a typical representation of the strength and vigour which their souls should obtain by faith in Him-the true paschal Lamb— the Lord Jesus says, "With desire, I have desired to cat this passover with you before I suffer;" and then it is He tells them that He is about to be removed from them by death, and He says, "Sorrow hath filled your hearts because I said, a little while and I shall be with you, and again a little while and I shall not be with you, because I go to my Father." Oh! could we imagine the expression of the tenderness and kindness of our Lord Jesus when he uttered these words, what mingled emotions were evidenced in His visage? Behold Him looking intently to the agony which He was about to endure to the garden of Gethsemene, where during the dark hours of midnight, “in agony He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became as great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Yet, looking forward, He says to them in the language of consolation, I have provided for you when I shall be taken away-and as fathers or mothers, who are about to leave their children behind them as orphans in the world, wish to speak to their beloved ones some words of consolation before they go hence; as the parent calls to his bedside his children and commits to them his last words, and tries to console them; so our blessed Lord calls around Him those whom He loved and says to them, "I will not leave you comfortless" (as orphans) in this cold heart

I am less world. Sorrow fills your heart because I am about to be taken away from you, but "I will send you another Comforter who will abide with you for EVER." with gou now only for a little while, but I must be taken away, and "it is expedient "for if I go not for you that I go away;" it is necessary for your holiness, and your happiness, and your usefulness that I should be taken away from you-that I go away; away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." So God often deprives His dear and beloved people of the blessings they prize; blessings which are given to them by Himself; He often, I say, takes away these blessings, in order to prepare them for greater blessings; and thus sometimes He says to the husband, "the wife whom you love, who has been your helpmate for years, it is necessary that she should be taken away from you by death, because she keeps your heart from Me; it is expedient that this blessing should be removed, that I may have more of your affections, and that thus you may be prepared for greater blessings which I am ready and willing to bestow. Thus He speaks sometimes to Christian parents who delight in their beloved child; God says-that child whom you love I will take away by death; it may be that I will defer the time when he shall become a Christian, and your heart shall be afflicted at this trial, but it is necessary, it is expedient that these gifts be taken from you to make way for greater gifts, to make you more holy, spiritually minded and devoted; I will take from you your Isaac, that you may have Myself, as the source of the greatest delight and the highest joy, that you may find riches in myself. I will take from you health, that in retirement, you who have been too busy about the affairs of life, may be alone with Me in the silent chamber; that spiritual during the hours of the day you may be "alone with Jesus." It is necessary for you that this gift be taken away, that greater gifts may be given to you, even blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Thus God calls on His people even to pass through the dark valley of the shadow of death, and takes from them light and life and friends and property, but all in love; to prepare them for the reception of a greater blessing, and that greater blessing is Himself; to have God in the soul, to have the temple of our affections dedicated to Him, to have the soul the enshrinement of God's presence, "Christ in the heart, the hope of glory."

If we did not love these earthly things as we do, it would not be an affliction to leave them; if our hearts did not cling to earth and earthly objects, it would be no trial to part with them. The believer is called on to stand loose from the world, to hold all things with a light hold, not to grasp them; and therefore the Christian, if his heart was consecrated to God, and heavenly objects were the objects on which his soul's desires were fixed, even death would be no trial, and he would say in the language of Paul, "I am in a strait-having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better." Oh! did you love the Lord Jesus Christ as you ought, were He to you "the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely," would you not desire to leave this sublunary state of things-this world with all its comforts and all its friendship, even Christian friendship, to go to behold the full-orbed glory of Christ, to gaze on "the King in His beauty," to be introduced to the company of priests and prophets and kings, to see those glorified ones who have passed over before you-to be in their company and cast your crown before "Jesus who washed you from your sins in His own blood?" Oh yes, it is because our thoughts are too earthly, it is because our minds are fixed on earthly objects, that therefore we feel trial and affliction and sorrow when God takes them away from us, although the removal be a preparation for a greater blessing. Because He loves us, He chastens us, "Him whom He loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth," and this is to make us "partakers of His own holiness," to assimilate us to His own image, to sublimate our affections-to conform us to the likeness of the Lord Jesus-to make us more spiritual, more holy, more heavenly-minded.

Who could imagine, Now, our blessed Saviour says, in reference to the great gift of the Holy Ghost, it was necessary, that even HIS OWN PRESENCE should be removed. if the Lord were now present with us in this assembly, and if our eyes could be fixed on His presence, if we could hear the words of love from His lips, were our ears to be gladdened by the sound of His heavenly voice, and we heard the pure doctrines of the Gospel from the lips of God incarnate, who could imagine it would be better that He But our Lord said to His disciples when visibly present should be taken from us? among them, when they were gazing on Him, when they heard the words of Christ from Himself, when their hearts were cheered by His language, and stimulated by His holy example, yet Jesus says, it is better for you that I should be taken away. It is expedient for you that I go away," not that I should go away and be absent;

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but when I depart, the greater gift will be given to you-" for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send Him unto you."

There are two great works for which this great world was created, and for which this world continues, for which its continuance is perpetuated. God has, of course, designs to answer in the creation of the world, and the preservation of all things-the manifestation of His character, His moral and physical attributes-but this world is continued, that there may be a display of two great works, namely, the work of REDEMPTION, and the work of SANCTIFICATION. The work of redemption was finished by the Lord Jesus Christ; it was His especial work to redeem the soul from sin: the work of REDEMPTION was external, and completed when He expired on the Cross of Calvary, when He exclaimed, "It is finished." Then the work of Redemptson was complete, and it is impossible to add any thing whatever to that finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ-it is perfect in itself; and though all the angels of heaven were to come to earth and were to be crucified, the crucifixion of all the angels of glory could not add any thing to the work of Jesus Christ: it has been finished, it is perfect, it is complete and all the sufferings, even of God's people, all the tears of compassion they may shed over lost wandering souls, all the exertions they make in endeavouring to promote the glory of Christ, though they gave their bodies to be burned and all their goods to feed the poor-all could not add anything whatever to the work of redemption, IT IS FINISHED." This robs man of all glory, so that his bad works are as meritorious as his good works. Docs this expression startle you? Yes it may, but is it not true? Your bad works are as meritorious, that is, your good works have not more merit than your bad works. It is a strong expression, but it sets the idea before the mind clearly and distinctly, to rid you of the conception that your good works have the least degree of merit. They have none; though you should give your "first-born for the transgression, the fruit of your body for the sin of your soul," you could not add anything whatever to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ-the work of redemption. No! Thy work, blessed Saviour, is thine own work; Thou must have all the glory; therefore in heaven there shall be no boasting; for all redeemed by the Lord Jesus give up all hope of merit, and they cast their crowns at the feet of Christ, crying, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name be the glory;" "they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" alone; heaven therefore will be glorious and every heart filled with love and gratitude, because all who get admittance there shall know, that they have been saved solely by sovereign grace. The work of redemption is finished!

But, the work of the Holy Ghost is not finished. That is the work of sanctification: it is not external as the work of Christ was, it is internal in the soul. The spirit of man is to come in contact with the Spirit of God; therefore Jesus Christ says, "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." The worldly man has no conception of the Spirit of God; he does not comprehend you when you talk of the work of the Holy Ghost. "The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned;" it is impossible; because they are discerned by the Spirit Himself or by the aid of the Holy Ghost internally, consequently the carnal mind cannot comprehend or understand the things of the Spirit. "I will send you." says Christ, "another Comforter and He shall adide with you for ever."

The gift of the Holy Ghost is a perpetual gift, not given and then to be withdrawn. No, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost is the privilege of the child of God, is the privilege of the believer. The Spirit is not promised to come to the soul of the Christian as a visitor. A visitor is one that comes to the house of a friend for a short time and then goes away, but the inhabitant is one who lives there, who dwells there, who has his home in the house. So, the believer's soul is to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, and God says "I will dwell in them and walk in them;" I will reside with them, "and they shall be my people and I will be their God." The Spirit of God," saith Jesus, "dwelleth with you, and shall be in you;" because Jesus Christ had "the Holy Ghost given to Him without measure, and dwelling in Him;" for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. He was with the disciples but not as yet in them, as afterwards He would be; Jesus said unto them, "He dwelleth with you," not in them. The Holy Ghost abode in Jesus who stood in the midst of them; but "He that dwelleth with you," Christ graciously says, "shall also be in you."

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upon the day of Pentecost as they were all assembled in one place, sud

denly they heard the noise of a rushing mighty wind, (the Holy Ghost coming down) and it filled all the place where they were sitting, and sat upon them like flaming tongues of fire;" indicating the heat, the warmth by which their souls would be imbued by the Holy Ghost, and shewing, that He could loose the tongue of the stammerers, and enable them to speak to the Heathen of the wonderful works of God: and all those present heard in their own tongues of the things of Christ, the wonderful works of God; the Holy Ghost coming within them, inspiring their souls, and enabling their tongues to speak to the understanding of all. The day of miracles has passed, but the gift of the Spirit is a perpetual gift to the Church of Christ; and therefore we find the primitive Christians (they were Christians, that is like Christ, because they had conferred on them the Holy Spirit of God) were regenerate in their nature, renewed in the spirit of their minds by the Holy Ghost, made new creatures by the Spirit of God. Their souls were filled with the love of Christ, because the Holy Ghost was given to them," and the love of God was shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost," and they comprehended, in some degree, "the breadth, and depth and height of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge;" because they were "filled with all the fulness of God."

Oh, yes, this is the gift we require. We all hear Christ preached, Christ exalted; we all hear the Gospel-but we want something with the Gospel, in addition to the Gospel; for even the pure word of God itself is ineffectual to the conversion of the soul without the operation of the Holy Ghost; it is "a dead letter;" so that the inspired Apostle Paul and the eloquent Apollos might preach ineffectually, for it was God alone that could give the increase. "Not by might or by power," is the testimony of the eternal God Himself, "but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." And just as in nature we require the aid of the fructifying rain, the descent of the dew on the soil as well as the glowing heat and light of the sun, so we require, with the light of the Gospel of Christ, with God's Word itself, we require in addition, superadded, the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Ghost to come like the fertilising rain, to soften the soil of the heart and cause the seed of the Word to take root; for without the Holy Ghost, angels might preach the Gospel without effect; yea, Christ Himself did preach the Gospel, and many of His hearers remained unconverted, for without the Spirit of God,even the Divine Word will prove ineffectual.

This ought to convince us of the necessity of not depending on the means-of not relying on the fact of coming to God's house and hearing God's Word-coming like God's people, and sitting as God's people, and departing as God's people, and yet our hearts uninfluenced. Oh, we must look away from all means, and through all means up to God, and not be content with anything short of the Holy Spirit coming to the soul. Like as the water-pipes, which, in their ramifications, go to every house in the city, would be perfectly useless, were not the pure water to go through the channels, through those conduits to supply the inhabitants; so all the means of grace, even God's Word and the ordinances of God's house are but the channels, empty in themselves, unless the heavenly water, the life-giving streams, come down from God's throne into the cistern of the heart, to fill the heart with holy feelings and the mind withheavenly thoughts.

O Spirit of the eternal God, come down through these means and touch every heart and fill every soul with thy presence!

"It is expedient for you," said Jesus, "that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." He is called the COMFORTER, and why? Do not all present here know the meaning of the term comforter, in reference to your earthly pilgrimage in the trials and afflictions of this life. How pleasant, if an individual who has been deprived of property and seems to be friendless and forsaken, a person who once occupied an important position and had an abundance of every thing desirable, with friends around him, but who now, by the reverse of fortune, is plunged into poverty and distress; friends have forsaken him with his fortune, and now be treads his lowly path through difficulties, friendless and forsaken;-how pleasant I say to have one friend to come to him. Oh, how cheering to that individual to have one friend remaining, who clings to him amidst his trials and misfortunes, visits his humble cot and tries to cheer him in his solitude, to speak to him words of comfort, when laid on a bed of sorrow and sickness and poverty,-to have one not ashamed of him in poverty and distress, to sit beside his bed and wipe from his brow the cold dew of death, apply to his parched lips water to refresh him, and whisper into his car consolation amidst desolation and sorrow. That person is a comforter; because he comforts the heart broken by misfortune, and tries to cheer a spirit over.

whelmed with grief. And such is the promised gift of Christ to His disciples, when He says, "I will send you another Comforter." When Christ was with His disciples, He cheered and comforted them, but now that He was to be taken from them, and they left in this world amidst trials and difficulties and persecutions and the suffering from the loss of all things, He tells them, that that loss would be compensated to them, because they are to have greater than the gain of all earthly kingdoms;-and happier is the humble believer in his poverty, even in a dismal dungeon-who has Christ in his heart, than the prince with a crown on his brow, and swaying his sceptre over an empire, without Christ. The poor man in his poverty, and lying upon the couch of death, with Jesus in his soul and the Holy Ghost as his Comforter, is happier than the highest and mightiest potentate in this world, who has not Christ and the Holy Spirit; for happiness does not consist in things but in thoughts: happiness is not that which is external, it is internal; happiness is not outward, it is in the mind, and whatever, or whoever, produces happiness in the mind and consolation in the soul may well be called a comforter; and there is no happiness of which the soul is susceptible, or which it is possible for it to derive from earthly objects, that can be compared with the exquisite comfort imparted to the soul of the believer by the Holy Ghost. There is no joy of the same nature or of the same kind; none that can ever approach it in the least degree: for the joy imparted to the spirit of the Christian, to the soul of the believer by the operation of the Holy Ghost, as far transcends all the happiness that the world can give to man without Christ, as the blazing light of the sun transcends the twinkling light of the star of midnight. The soul is the image of God; it was created to enjoy God, it is of His nature, and that which suits the soul is God Himself; therefore, the spirit of man without God is restless in this world, and going about to seek happiness out of Him is always disappointed; because, having left God, "the fountain of living waters, it goes to cisterns, broken cisterns which can hold no water;" and the man who does so, however intelligent he may be in secular matters; however wise above his fellows, that man with all his intellectual endowments is foolish, and shews he does not possess common sense in spiritual things, who will not give up all for that happiness which the Spirit imparts, for that joy which satisfies and fills the immortal mind with intense and incomparable delight. But the carnal mind cannot conceive the exquisite joy of the child of God. It cannot comprehend it.

All, however, are panting for happiness of some sort; every individual is seeking happiness; that is inherent in our nature; one remnant of the fall; but the error is, that while the soul is thirsting for its element, it goes not to its proper source. Is it not foolish, not to give up all to obtain that joy which will satisfy it, fill it completely, to completion, and enable it to say, I am happy, satisfied; my soul is filled, it can hold no more ?

It is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the immortal God, which comes into the soul of man to fill that soul with joy and peace, which suits the soul, is consistent with its nature. For this end the soul was called into being, and endowed with the faculty of love, capable of exercising that emotion upon God; that God in Christ might be the object to fill the soul with joy, with the love that was in Christ Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit which produces this love and joy. He is therefore called the COMFORTER. And is it not so when the believer, tried and afflicted in this life, tempted in the furnace of affliction, or in the chamber of death, when the Holy Ghost comes to the soul and fills the soul with delight and joy, enabling it to say in the deepest trial, in the hottest furnace, "I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me." It was this which enabled the martyrs to stand unmoved amidst the flaming elements, and while the blaze was burning the flesh from off the bones, to rejoice, because their souls were filled with the comfort of the Holy Ghost. The Christian father, in the last hour of death, commits his children to God and dies in peace, because God the Holy Ghost applies the promise to his soul, "Leave thy fatherless children to Me, I will be the husband of the widow and the Father of the fatherless." It is this which cheers the heart of the dying mother, enabling her to give up all to Christ, and say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."

But the SPIRIT is called not only the Comforter; He is also named "THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH." On this we might expatiate, but time forbids. He is "the Spirit of Truth," because the great Teacher of the truth; because the WORD OF GOD is truth, having come from Him the fountain of truth. Other teachers may sometimes teach truth and then again teach error, their teaching may be mixed with error, but the Holy Ghost is the Teacher of the pure truth, unadulterated truth, nothing but the truth; and where