THE GOSPEL. "And 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: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."-JOHN xiv. 16, 17. "WHITHER shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence ?" said the Psalmist; for, flee where we will, we cannot avoid His universal presence. This presence the world shares equally with the sons of God. But this is not the presence of which Christ speaks, as we surely would not say that a fly were in the royal presence, if it happened to be in the chamber of a king. The ungodly have no sense of God. "He is not in all their thoughts." They know Him not, and "He knoweth them afar off." But the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, and they are sensitively alive to the knowledge of Him. They have set Him alway before them; therefore shall they not be moved. A converted man feels and sees everything through Christ. His soul is a transparent surface, through which the Spirit shines, and upon which he reflects the image and perfections of the blessed God, which constitute his enjoyment. Hence the sayings of Christ are precious to his remembrance, and the words of Christ recur with power to his mind. But to the children of this world the language of the Comforter is unintelligible. His light will not pass through so gross a medium, nor will it admit His subtle rays. They hear Him not-they feel Him not, though He be not far from every one of them, but like the sun shining through the dead cold stones. He shines around them, and they are unconscious of His warmest beams. Thou who of our redemption art the Author and First Cause-by whom the work was undertaken, and, being undertaken, was carried to an end-deny us not this, we pray, Thy last and most essential gift-the link which binds the rest to us-lest haply, when the tree of life is placed within our reach, our palsied hand should fail to help us to pluck the fruit ! Come, Holy Spirit, come! And on this poor benighted soul With beams of mercy shine. From the celestial hills, Life, light, and joy dispense; Melt, melt this frozen heart, My drooping faith revive, My doubts and fears remove, And kindle in my heart the flame Of never-dying love. Convince my soul of sin, Then lead to Jesu's blood, And to my broken heart reveal The mercies of my God. Mine will the profit be, But Thine shall be the praise; And unto Thee I will devote The remnant of my days. Monday in Whitsun-week. THE COLLECT. GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of Thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of Thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen. THE EPISTLE. "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word."- ACTS x. 44. "WHILE What HILE Peter yet spake these words." words? No skilful disquisition concerning the nature of virtue, or artful discourse concerning its beauty; no master-piece of eloquence-no fervid declamation-but the simple "word which God sent preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all." If the same blessed instrument be in the hands of the meanest among us, let not the most humble plead his inability to use it, nor the most gifted suppose his ministry can be useful without it. The principal inquiry is, whether the Word has been applied? It is secondary and subordinate, with what skill and efficiency? "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell upon all those who heard the Word" —and only, so far as we know, upon those who heard; for "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Are there not numbers of our fellowcreatures perishing in sin around us, "serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another?' Is it certain that the message of Divine truth is familiar to them all? Or rather is it not much more certain that many are almost as much strangers to the promises, as ignorant of their purport, and plunged in a darkness at least nearly as deep as the heathens themselves? We must not excuse ourselves by an hypocritical charity which hopes for the best, and, without further care, leaves men to the mercies of Providence. True, we should not limit the workings of the Spirit of grace, for "He divideth to every one severally as He will;" but yet let us remember that outside the circle of the Word there is no pledge of His blessing. Our God is a N |