fore man receives the Spirit, the Holy Spirit prepares, in a way we do not understand, the mind for his reception; and it is only then that the mind receives him. This plain fact, stated clearly in Scripture entirely accordant with experience, is in no way, however, inconsistent with the other fact, that the not receiving the Spirit is the effect of immoral causes, and therefore criminal. The world does not receive the Spirit of truth, "because it does not see him, nor know him.", The Spirit cannot be seen, in the strict sense of the word. To see the Spirit, is to perceive his true character-to recognize him in his word and in his work. He is in his word, but the worldly man sees nothing divine there; he is in his work, but he is equally blind to this. "Neither does

he know him." This, as contrasted with seeing, seems to designate personal experience of his influence and operation. It is the same general truth announced by the apostle, when he says, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."""

It was once so with the apostles; it was so no longer. "Ye," says our Lord, "know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." The apostles, with the exception of the traitor, seem to have been converted men previously to their call to the discipleship. They were among those emblematized by the good ground. They were prepared to receive the good seed, and it readily took root and grew in their honest minds. They were to receive the Spirit in a much larger measure of his influence; but they were already under his influence. They probably knew comparatively little of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as an object of intellectual contemplation; but they experimentally knew him. It was he who had brought them to Jesus-disposed them to believe in him-to take on them his easy yoke and light burden. It was he who had excited in their minds and hearts an apprehension and desire of a spiritual salvation, and led them to Jesus as the Saviour. The Holy Spirit dwelt with them-habitually influenced them; and should remain with them, and be in them should permanently and more thoroughly influence them.

There is a very striking resemblance between these words of our Lord, and the statements of the apostle Paul, in the second chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. The apostle's statements show how our Lord's promise had been fulfilled: "We have received the Spirit which is of God-the Spirit which searcheth all things, even the deep things of God—and he has revealed to us what eye hath not seen, what ear hath not heard, and what could not have entered into the heart of man; so that we know the things that are freely given us of God, and speak the wisdom of God in a mystery-not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit-wisdom which, to the world, is foolishness, but to the called ones-to

17 Cor. ii. 14.

18 John xiv. 17.

those who are spiritual-perfect-wisdom indeed. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

§ 3. How his coming to, and permanent residence with, the disciples, were to be secured.

It only remains that I should turn your attention for a little to our Lord's statement as to the manner in which the permanent residence of the Paraclete the Holy Spirit-with them, and in them, was to be secured: "I will pray the Father, and he will send you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for

ever.'

7719

The economy of grace-the great plan of saving man,-in its leading features, is here brought strikingly before the mind. In the new creation, "all things are of God"-God the Father, who in that economy sustains the majesty of Divinity: "To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things." In the exercise of His sovereign mercy, He sends the Son to be a paraclete-the powerful, active, influential patron and advocate of the heirs of salvation: "To us there is one Lord, Jesus, and all things by him." He is the "one Mediator between God and man.' Blessings come to us only as we are connected with him, and are bestowed on us for his sake, in consequence of his atonement and intercession. The Father sends another paraclete the Holy Spirit, but He sends him in consequence of the Son having finished the work He gave him to do on the earth, and, on the ground of that finished work, asking Him to do so. To borrow the thoughts, and many of the words, of an accomplished writer,20 "As the only foundation on which depraved and guilty men can receive any spiritual blessing, is the obedience and atonement of the Son of God, accomplished in our nature and in our room, it has seemed good to God, in his sovereign wisdom, in order to make this connection conspicuous and palpable, to inform us that Jesus ever lives to make intercession, and that, through this intercession, the great ultimate objects of his atonement are accom plished." This intercession is addressed by him, as the High Priest within the vail, to the Father, seated on the blood-sprinkled throne of justice and mercy. The Father says, "Ask of me, and I will give thee." He calls on the Father, and He answers him. He can ask nothing but what is in accordance with the will of the Father, for he and the Father are of one mind. The counsel of peace is between them both. He can ask nothing which can exceed the merits of his sacrifice; and, therefore, "him the Father heareth always." The mission of the Spirit as a paraclete is, equally with the mission of the Son, the act of the sovereign Father; but the first is the act of sovereign self-moved benignity -no being asked for this,-the other is the manifestation of the 19 2 Cor. v. 18. 1 Cor. viii. 6. 1 Tim. ii. 5.

20 Brown Patterson.

PART VII.]

THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE.

Father's infinite satisfaction with the work of the Son, by which a way for the mission of the saving Spirit to men has been made consistent with-illustrative of all the perfections of his character-all the principles of his government; and it is every way meet that the communication of the gift should be through his hands, who had accomplished this high and holy object.

This Paraclete, whom the Father, in answer to the prayer of the Son, was to bestow, was to "abide with the apostles for ever." He was to continue to influence and guide them as long as they lived; and in their writings, and by that holy influence whereby men are made to understand and believe their writings, he is to continue in the church till the end of all things.

These words, while they have a direct and primary reference to the apostles, to whom they were spoken, are full of instruction and consolation to all christian ministers, and all christian men, in all countries and ages of the world. We are prosecuting the same great cause as the apostles. He who was their patron and guide, is ours also. We have him in his word; but if we are christian ministers, christian men, deserving the name, we have him too in our hearts, enabling us to turn to account his word, in the management of the great controversy we are maintaining with the world and its prince, with error and sin, in all their of our prayer endless forms. To him, given us in answer to the exalted Lord, we are to look for all that is necessary to enable us rightly to acquit ourselves in the station he has assigned us, If we live as Chrisin the sacramental host of his chosen ones. tians, we "live in the Spirit." If we would walk as Christians, we must "walk in the Spirit." It is only through the Spirit that we can overcome the flesh, either in ourselves, or in others. But in him-by him-we are invincible: "Greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world." His anointing teaches us "His strength is made perfect in our all necessary wisdom. weakness." "Let us be strong in the Lord, the Spirit, and in the power of his might." He will never leave us, never forsake "He will abide with us for ever."

us.

"He will live in us while we live." He will not leave us when we die. He will be the life of our souls in paradise: and even our mortal bodies shall, in due time, be quickened, "because of that Spirit who dwelt in them," as well as because of that Saviour who died for them. Let all who have the Spirit yield more and more to his influence. Let them not disregard him speaking in his word; let them not counteract him working in their minds and hearts; let them not "quench the Spirit;" let them not "grieve the Spirit;" but ever seek growing, evidence that "the promised Spirit" is indeed to them "the earnest of the inheritance, till the redemption of the purchased possession," that they are indeed "sealed" by him to that day of complete deliverance." And let them pity and pray for those who are still what they themselves once were "sensual, not having the Spirit."

21

Let

21 Eph. i. 13, 14.

them present to these men his pleadings with them in his word; and plead with the Father to send him forth in his invincible influence, and plead with the Son to ask the Father to give the Spirit for the conversion of the world; and while, by bringing the message of warning and salvation, as far as is possible, to every unconverted mind, they "prophesy to the dry bones," and in God's name bid them live, let them also "prophesy unto the wind"-the Spirit,-and say to the wind, "Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.""

What abundant encouragement have we to these exertions! Jesus is glorified-the Spirit has been given--is being givenwill be yet more abundantly given. The first paraclete is gone, the second has come, and will not depart. He is here. Let us employ him; he loves to be employed. He is a generous, a "free Spirit"-the Spirit of him who is love,-of him who died "the just in the room of the unjust." The Son is not backward to ask the powerful putting forth of his influence; nor is the Father backward to answer the prayers of his Son, or of his believing people. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." "If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him ?"23

VIII.

THE DISCIPLES NOT TO BE LEFT ORPHANS

JOHN XIV. 18, 19.—“I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me.'

THE valedictory discourse of our Lord to his disciples, is equally remarkable for the depth, the delicacy, the tenderness of the sympathy which it breathes, and for the appropriateness, the abundance, and the satisfying nature of the consolations which it im parts. The two characteristics are closely connected. The second is the natural, the necessary, result of the first. It is the friend who can thoroughly sympathize, that alone can effectually console. In proportion to his sympathy, he has at once the knowl edge and the disposition, which are equally necessary to make an accomplished comforter.

Our Lord knew all the sources of the anxiety and sorrow of his disciples. He knew them far more intimately than they them

22 Ezek. xxxvii. 1-10.

23 Luke xi. 9-13.

selves did; and his infinite wisdom enabled him-his tender compassion induced him-to employ the means best fitted to stop these fountains of bitterness, or sweeten their waters.

He did the disciples the justice to believe that their anxieties and sorrows were not all selfish, and that they feared and grieved for him, as well as for themselves. He therefore tells them, first of all, that on leaving them he was going home to his Father's magnificent palace, in the numerous and ample mansions of which there was room enough for all his friends. However dark and stormy might be the journey, however rough and thorny the road, there was no reason to fear or grieve for him; nay, if they knew all, they would be constrained to rejoice that he was going -that he was gone-to the Father.

But, while he knew that they were anxious about him, he knew, too, that they were anxious about themselves. He therefore goes on to inform them, that the great object of his return to his Father's house, was to make arrangements for their reception there; and that, when these were completed, he would return and conduct them all safely to those everlasting habitations in which, along with him, they were to spend their happy eternity; and assures them that he would open up for them a way, make them acquainted with it, and enable them to walk in it; being to them the way, the truth, and the life, so that not one of them should fail of reaching these celestial abodes.

But how are they to spend the intervening period amid the snares and terrors, the seductions and persecutions of the present evil world? To meet this question, he informs them, that the power of working miracles, which he had conferred on them, was not to be withdrawn from them; and that not only should they be enabled, as heretofore, to do wonderful works in his name, but should, in the establishment of his kingdom among men, accomplish a work far greater than any miracle; and that whatever they needed and asked for, the accomplishment of that work would most assuredly be granted them by his Father. But who is to teach them what to do, and how? what to pray for, and how? He had guided them in the use of the powers he had given them. He had taught them what to pray for as they ought. But when he is gone, who is to be their guide and keeper, their instructor and guard, their sun and shield? To meet this question, he assures them that he would pray the Father for them, and He would give them another paraclete, an instructor, a guide,--a monitor, a helper,-who should do for them what he had himself been accustomed to do for them,-the Spirit of truth, who could and would supply all their need,-one who was no stranger to them, and of whose operations, though to a great extent unconsciously, they were already the subjects, and who would never abandon them, but remain with them for ever.

Surely he has now said enough to dry all their tears-to still all their anxieties-to soothe all their sorrows. The compassionate High Priest, who cannot but be touched with a feeling of the