away as unworthy of its care, but that it may inhale from the purer atmosphere in which it dwells, all the wisdom, energy, and courage which may enable it to act the most effectually with and for that world. That spirit which is fruitful in all holy cogitations and majestic purposes; which views all things round us with serenity and hopefulness, because it views them in God; and which works on all things round us with patience and efficacy, because it works in God. That far-seeing glance into futurity, that calm anticipation of success, that quiet consciousness of heavenly strength, which makes us ever earnest, but never anxious; ever diligent, but never bustling; ever vigorous, but never violent; ever bold, but never rash; ever strenuous for God, but never exhausted and convulsed by overstrained endeavour. O for this quiet, yet all-powerful life within our souls! O for the breath of God diffused through every faculty, and his "saving health" reanimating every power, that we may live in the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, be strengthened with all might by the Spirit in the inner man!

But if we go on now to the New Testament, we find John the Baptist promising this Spirit, farther, as the source of Peace and Joy in God. The penitents who came to him confessing their sins, he cheers with the assurance of a blessing far superior

to anything that he could convey to them. "I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." Where, observe the contrast which the Baptist intimates between the baptism of Repentance, which he administered, and the baptism of the Spirit which it was the prerogative of the Christ alone to vouchsafe. Repentance is negative. The Holy Ghost is positive. The one is the renunciation of evil; the other the attainment of good. The one breaks off friendship and communion with the world; the other realizes friendship and communion with God. The one is a spirit of sorrow, and self-reproach; the other is a spirit of confidence, and peace. The one struggles up towards God; the other walks along with God. The one is as the crisis of our spiritual disease, an anxious moment of revulsion and of effort; the other is the restoration to spiritual health, when the blessed air of heaven plays upon the soul, and life begins to dance again through every vein, and the glow of recovered vigour breathes through every pore, and there is felt a buoyancy, a lightness, a balanced harmony of conscious blessedness which none can understand but those who feel it, and none can tell or can convey to others even when they feel. Then does the inward spirit begin to

breathe. Then do the shackles of the sense relax themselves, and the iron band which had so long repressed the aspirations of the soul towards God is burst asunder, and a stream of hopeful heavenly affections sweeps joyously along, and the light of heaven plays upon it, and it sparkles under the approving glance of God, and it spreads through every thought, and refreshes into gladness and beauty every region of the soul. "He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him," says our Lord, "shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." "He that believeth on me," he says again," from his belly,"— i. e. from within himself, not from outward sources which may be soon dried up, but from the living spring which shall be unlocked within his soul, (as Solomon means when he declares, 'the good man shall be satisfied from himself,')—" from his inmost being, there shall flow out rivers of living water." "And this," says St. John, "spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive."-Have we this Spirit, Christian readers? Is this the characteristic of our Piety? Have we got beyond the fitful alternations, the painful struggles, the remorseful anguish, the "fear which hath torment" of an always renewing but never perfected Repentance, of a conscience too enlight

ened to slumber, yet too irresolute to spring up for God, into that "righteousness, and peace, and joy, in the Holy Ghost," which Christ came into the world, and died, and rose again, and ascended up to heaven, to procure and to communicate to miserable man? Are we still groping amidst the chilling mists which brood over the valley of humiliation, which truly is the valley of the shadow of death; or have we reached the open heights of faith, and emerged into the light and life of the Divine favour as it shines forth in the face of Jesus Christ? These are no unimportant questions. They affect not our comfort merely. They affect the very essence of our piety; our growth in holiness; our usefulness among our fellow men; our power to glorify our Father, and to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. Religion without this baptism of the Holy Ghost is but the terrific gloom of superstition. It is at best but the trembling awe of Judaism. It is but the tempest and the whirlwind, and the blackness and the flame :we need the calm outbursting of the sun upon the desolated scene, illuminating all things with a tranquil radiance. It is but the strong wind, and the earthquake, and the fire, which awake and make attent the awe-struck spirit: :- we need the still small voice of friendly communing with God. O God, grant us to derive from Christianity all that it

can convey! To receive from Jesus all that he was exalted to bestow! Grant that we may be "filled with thy Spirit, speaking to ourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts unto the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!"

For thus shall we experience this same Spirit of devotedness to God-and intercourse with Godand peace with God-to be moreover a Spirit of power for God. "He shall baptize you," says the Baptist, "with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Which image, I need scarcely remind you, has ever been a favourite one in every language to express that inward ardour of mind which cannot be restrained, but bursts forth into fervent words and deeds. Thus we find it used in one author to denote the fire of genius: "He was all spirit, all fire;"-in another, that of poetic impulse-"Thou canst not be idle if thou wouldst; thy noble qualities are like a fire burning within, and compel thee to pour thyself out in music and in song." And in Scripture, both generally, for any strong emotion; "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way and opened to us the Scriptures?"*"My heart was hot within me; while I

* Luke, xxiv. 32.