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of that Spirit, by whose grace the soul must be "born of God?" "The wind," saith he, "bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Hence, when we seek the conversion of others, or spiritual comfort and edification for ourselves, we are not to be disappointed because the effect comes not suddenly or perceptibly. The work is often begun, ere you are conscious of it. The earnestness of prayer, the deep mourning for sin, the sorrowful sighing of the contrite heart-painful as these things may be-are the harbingers of the sacred Dew. It is when men are repenting and turning to the Lord, that the "times of refreshing are not far off. And well does the true Israelite know, how often he has discovered, by the effects, the actual presence of that Spirit, whom he just before conceived to be at a distance. Like the disciples going to Emmaus, he has felt his "heart burn within him: like the Psalmist-" While I was musing, the fire kindled," "4 and I could doubt no more.'-Lastly,

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5. DEW comes only in the night, when human labour is exhausted, and can do no more for the fertility of the ground. Thus doth the Spirit of Christ wait, till we have done our best, and find how weak and ineffectual that best is. When at length it appears, that we cannot do-speak-think one good thing, we may imagine that all is lost; but comfort is then the nearest. Only open thy hot and fainting bosom to the God of Israel, and he will then be to thee " as the dew." He comes not till he is wanted-till he is desired; then he will "revive the spirit of the humble, and revive the heart of the contrite ones."

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1 John iii. 8. 2 See Acts iii. 19. 4 Psalm xxxix. 3.

3 Luke xxiv. 32.

5 Isaiah lvii. 15.

SERMON XXXII.

LUKE Xi. 13.—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?

ONE great impediment, by which multitudes are hindered from becoming truly and decidedly religious, is a secret disbelief of the promises of God.

This is strikingly the case, with regard to those promises which refer to the gift of the Holy Spirit. Few will deny, that every thing good in us must come from him you also know and admit, that his divine influence must be sought by continual prayer. But do you then pray for it? do you hope and expect to obtain it? May it not be doubted whether you really believe, after all, that a blessing so unspeakably valuable is within your reach?

Our Lord well knew, that even in Christian hearts there is much of this secret unacknowledged Infidelity; and thus he replies to it. "If ye, 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?"-Now let us consider

I. THE FACT HERE TAKEN FOR GRANTED-that earthly Parents, though evil, know how to give good gifts unto their children.

It is not said, that parents know how to choose

always what is best for their children. In this respect indeed it is notorious, that a lamentable defect of wisdom often prevails. Parental affection frequently blinds the judgment; and leads to the choice, not of that which is wholesome and really good, but of that which will yield present gratification-to the children, to the parents, or to both.

Neither would our Lord assert, that parental affection is never overpowered by other principles. Long misbehaviour has sometimes induced a father to disinherit his son. The pressure of hunger has constrained delicate mothers even to kill and eat their infants. 1 Or the parent has been so brutalized, by intemperance and other vices, as to forget the wants of his helpless family.

Yet, after all these drawbacks, our Lord's statement (as a general one) is remarkably borne out by facts. No parent is easily induced to hate or neglect his any of you that

children." If a son shall ask bread of

is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?" Were it possible for a parent to act thus, he would be regarded as a monster in society.

And this is the more remarkable, on account of the circumstance added by our Lord; that human parents are naturally" evil," that is, corrupt and depraved creatures-beings that have forsaken God, and set at nought his commandments. In all other respects, how completely are men under the dominion of selfishness! Every body-every thing-- must give way to them! must minister to their gratification, be the consequences what they may! Not so, however, in the case of their children's wants. Here, for the moment, selfishness seems extinguished. The father will rather 1 See 2 Kings vi. 28, 29.

keep the "stone" or the "serpent" for himself, than refuse his child the "bread" or the " fish," that is needful for his support.

Such, and so strong, is natural affection: a principle, necessary indeed for the preservation of the species; and so deeply implanted by our all-wise Creator, that it still survives the wreck of everything else, that once was good in Man. Many waters cannot quench it." Let us now attend to

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II. THE DOCTRINE, FOR THE ILLUSTRATION OF WHICH THIS FACT IS ALLUDED TO.-The doctrine is, that your Heavenly Father is much more likely to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.

It is evidently not the power of working miracles, that is here promised in answer to prayer. That spiritual influence was never given to Christians generally-but only according to God's sovereign will. But here is no limitation; this promise is to all-to all that ask: it must needs refer, therefore, to those ordinary gifts and graces of the Spirit of God, without which we can neither think those things that be good,' nor bring the same to good effect.'

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Now by following up the comparison which our Lord makes in the text, we shall see abundant reason for concluding, that God is not only as affectionate, but infinitely more so, than any human benefactor.For I may ask, in the first place, with Moses,

1. "Is not he thy Father, that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee and established thee?"1 Has not Creation made you his children? and did he make you to destroy you? • But you think of your sins! but think also of the unfathomable which those sins have brought to

You do well;

mines of love,

1 Deut. xxxii. 6.

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light! Has not the Redemption of Christ Jesus made you his children anew? At the least, you cannot deny that it has suspended his wrath and, in the meantime, it sets before you the means of becoming children indeed; for," as many as receive" Christ, 'to them giveth he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Now can you suppose, that, while a mere instinct (and in many it is nothing more) causes sinful men to love the children to whom they have given birth-can you suppose, I say, that God will disregard the work of his own hands, and the purchase of his own blood? Would not such a supposition place him even below his irrational creatures? Ah! brethren; the fact of God's affection for us is infinitely more certain, than human parental affection itself could have been, if we had never witnessed its effects, or felt its constraining influence. I may ask, again,

2. What can this heavenly Father bestow on his children, more worthy the name of a "good gift," than his Holy Spirit? He has given his Son; yet even that gift avails us not, till the Spirit be added.

It is evident, from the change in our Lord's language, that the gift of the Holy Spirit was that good thing on which his thoughts were at present fixed. You would naturally have expected him to say-" If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good gifts to them that ask him." In fact, it is in this form that St. Matthew has recorded the promise. Probably, Jesus spoke it both ways; thus indirectly testifying, that, of all good gifts, the gift of the Holy Spirit is the best.

And is it not? See what we are without it! Dead 2 Matt. vii. 11.

1 Johni. 12.

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