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us more faithfully and effectually. Grant us, therefore, new earnestness and courage, sweet Immanuel in the manger! Impress thy most beauteous image on our hearts, that we, as truly simple, affectionate children, as truly praying children, as children, who adhere and cleave to thee, in filial faith and confiding on thy strength, may pursue our course until we attain the crown of glory! We ask all from thy free grace and mercy, for the sake of thy precious merits and powerful intercession at the right hand of thy heavenly Father. Amen.

THE OUT-POURING OF THE HOLY GHOST.

Grace be with us, and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us, and gave himself for us! To whom be glory, now and for ever. Amen.

PRAYER.

O thou highly glorified Saviour, Jesus Christ, who now sittest at the right hand of thy heavenly Father, and, at thy ascension, didst give us the very certain assurance, that thou wouldst be with us, and abide with us, even to the end of the world: who wilt also be present in the midst, where two or three are gathered together in thy name-O manifest thy presence also amongst us on this occasion! Let the hearts of all of us believe in, honour, and adore thy present Majesty. O Lord Jesus! may we all be assembled here, with the same unanimity, and wait with the same ardent desire for the power on high, and the outpouring of thy precious Holy Spirit, which thou hast also promised to us, with which thy dear disciples and the first believers met

from

together on the day of Pentecost, and waited for the fulfilment of the promise thou didst give them. As thou hast here collected us together, as it respects the body, so do thou also collect and unite our minds, that we may mutually seek, desire, and sigh after thee in our spirits. Divest our hearts of all distraction and multiplicity, and of all that, which does not lead to thee, that we may meditate on thee alone, and like thy dear disciples, may celebrate a blessed Pentecostal day. O Lord Jesus! what are we without the fervour of thy spirit?—without the light and life of thy spirit in our hearts?-In reality, nothing but dead and formal Christians, who neither know thee, nor love thee, nor glorify thee. Come then, thou blessed Comforter! Descend upon this assembly! Enter into every heart! And though we may not all be filled with thee, let at least a few drops of thy grace flow unto us, on this occasion, that by this water of life, our hearts may be mutually refreshed and incited to devote and offer up ourselves to thee entirely, resign ourselves wholly to thy guidance and direction, faithfully to walk the way of self-denial and of continual mortification, and utterly forsake all that is not thee, that we may be made more and more truly spiritual people, who no longer follow the spirit of the world, and the spirit of darkness, but are led by thee, as the spirit of light, and truth, and life, and renewed more and more into thy divine image. O Lord Jesus! forgive us, if we have ever grieved thy Holy Spirit, resisted his influences, and withdrawn ourselves from them. O

let thy most sacred blood cover and atone for these and all other sins! Be thou in the midst of us, and manifest thyself graciously and mercifully to our souls, that like thy disciples, we may experience thy mighty acts and wonderful works, and may thus be in a state to publish and recommend them effectually to others. Do this, and hear and answer this our prayer, for the sake of thy precious blood and merits,!

Now, O Spirit of power and love

On my heart and soul flow down;
That I may thy influence prove,

And thy mighty acts make known. Amen!

Let us therefore read something respecting the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the primitive believers on the sacred day of Pentecost, from

ACTS, CHAP. II. VERSES 1-4.

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all, with one accord, in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house, where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance."

WHEN We look closely into the Holy Scriptures, we find that mention is made in them of three very

peculiar manifestations of the divine majesty and glory, in which God revealed himself in a more than ordinary manner. The first of these manifestations, which was made to the people of Israel, took place on the first Pentecostal day of the Old Testament, on the fiftieth day after the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt, when the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai, and revealed himself, in great majesty, to so many thousands of the children of men from the Mount, with the sound of a loud trumpet, with thunders and lightnings, and with earthquakes, in such a manner, that the whole mountain trembled and smoked; as we may read by reference to Exodus chap. xx.

The second majestic and glorious revelation of God took place, likewise, in a general manner, to many thousands of people on the Pentecostal day of the New Testament, precisely fifty days after the resurrection of Christ. There came, as we have just heard, a rushing mighty wind from heaven, and the glory of the Divine Majesty manifested itself upon the disciples, not only upon the twelve Apostles, but upon the whole multitude of believers, and that quite openly, and in the sight of many thousand Jews and other people, who were present from all parts and quarters of the globe; even as we find various nations mentioned in the following 9th, 10th, and 14th verses.

The third great and general majestic revelation of the glory of God, of which the Scripture speaks, will take place at the great judgment day, when the

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