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think them, to become as we are. For that blessed Spirit, which our Lord so promised to be His own successor on the earth, remains lowers till the end of the world. Pentecost, when the disciples were with one accord in one place, until this day, and from this day until the judgment, that Holy Spirit is the life and the light of the Church. Imparted to us in baptism, increased to us in every due participation of the blessed sacrament of His body and blood, nourished by prayer and holy exercises, ever ready to suggest holy thoughts and pure desires, ever strengthening and awakening the voice of conscience to keep us from unrighteousness and sin, that blessed Spirit is the life and the light of every individual Christian. "Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost that is in you?" How then shall we envy the lot even of those who were the personal companions of our holy Saviour himself, when we are thus highly favoured? How shall we be discontented, and compare our own lot with that of others in a complaining and peevish spirit, when God himself, in the person of the Comforter, vouchsafes to be our continual guide and support? Alas! my brethren, the spirit which suggests such complaints is one of unbelief and hardness of heart. We would fain persuade ourselves that we are unfavourably situated-we would fain take comfort to our souls, when we feel that we do not obey God's will so perfectly as we ought to do, by thinking

that if we had seen Christ, or if we had witnessed a miracle, or if we had lived at some other time, we should have done better. Idle-worse than idle thoughts! They make us neglect our duty-they make us undervalue our privileges-they dishonour God-they do grievous mischief to ourselves. Let us rather be satisfied, on the assured word of Holy Scripture, that we are indeed most abundantly blessed, so much blessed, that our condemnation will only be the more severe, if, after all, we be found to have hid our talent in a napkin, to have made no use or improvement of the spiritual grace which has been given to us. "For if he who despised Moses' law died without mercy at the word of two or three witnesses, of how much sorer punishment, think you, will he be thought worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, has counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has done despite unto the Spirit of grace ?"

On this day especially, when the Church of Christ calls us to celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit of God upon the earth, it is right for us to turn our thoughts expressly to this subject, and to consider how deeply we are interested in it. I would, therefore, suggest one or two points for your meditation, trusting, that by the aid of that Holy Spirit you may be enabled to think of them with profit to your souls.

And, first, consider how impossible it ought to be for a Christian to commit wilful sins, when he

believes that the Holy Spirit of God resides in his soul. Consider how deeply that Holy Spirit must be grieved and offended, when His motions of good are slighted, and a man who has been dedicated to God in his baptism, deliberately sins. He who has not the Spirit of Christ is none of His; and he who commits wilful sin certainly has not the Spirit of Christ. Consider therefore, my brethren, that to commit wilful sin, is to forego being a Christian; it is to prefer death to life-it is to prefer the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God-it is to prefer being inhabited by evil spirits, to the Spirit of Christ and remember also, that ye are of the number of those who have known Christ, or rather have been known of Him, and that when the evil spirit, who has once been cast out, returns to his house, which has for a while been swept and garnished, he brings with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Indeed there are many sins which must be considered, when committed by a Christian, to be express insults against the Holy Spirit. Sins of impurity or drunkenness, for instance, are plainly inconsistent with spiritual grace. How terrible then must be the case of a man who calls himself a Christian, and is an impure man or a drunkard! Surely seven more wicked spirits must have possession of his soul, and his state must be worse than if he had never heard of Christ or of salvation. And the case is the same with sins less gross

but more common. How must the blessed Spirit be grieved, and His influence quenched in a heart immersed in pleasure, or heedful of gain alone, or distracted by care, or swelling with pride or hate or envy? How must His motions be growing stiller and stiller in the bosom which cherishes the unexpressed and undiscovered thoughts of lust or malevolence, or indifference to God? How can we think that the Spirit of Christ is really present in him whose lips utter nothing but rude and noisy and overbearing argument, or ill-natured scandal and detraction, or filthy and foolish jesting? Oh! let us not be misled by any idle excuses or unreal palliations of sin; as though, because we are young, or because we mean to do better some other time, or because such things are common, or because the world calls them by easy names, we are not endangering our Christian hopes,-not endangering our being deserted by the Holy Spirit of God when we give way to them. Remember how holy and how divine that Spirit is against whom it is so fearfully dangerous to sin, and consider whether any sin can displease Him more than such as is committed in defiance of His warnings, and in contempt of His presence.

Let me next urge you to remember and reflect how necessary it is for us, as Christians, whose bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, to be most anxious and exact in endeavouring to perform God's holy will. Why is it that God has so mys

teriously and wonderfully condescended to make His temple in the hearts of Christians? In order to “purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Shall we, then, so greatly, so astonishingly blessed, sit still and idle, and wait for the grace of God to purify our hearts, without effort to obey, or care to please Him on our own part? Shall we trust that He will save us, while we follow our pleasure, our business, or our gain? No; let us learn that the assistance we receive from God is the strongest reason for our own active obedience. Let us learn to feel that the only way of becoming able to please Him, is to labour to please Him as much as if we could do it of our own unassisted strength; that because He worketh in us both to will, and to do, therefore, for that very reason we ought, with fear and trembling indeed, but with diligence and zeal, to work out our own salvation. We ought not to think that in any part of our lives we can be free from the necessity of striving to please God. It is well, indeed, that we devote this holy day to His service, that we attend His worship, and offer Him the direct dedication of our prayer and praise, on the day which he has consecrated to our use and to His glory but it is of little use for us to pray and come to Church on the Sunday, if our hearts and lives are not the better for it during the remainder of the week. And consider too, how small must the value be of that obedience, which can allow a man to forget God's honour and service so