utmost energy always. These are interests which never fail. This is an energy which is required the more imperatively as we approach our homes, as we return to our settled mode of life, as we look backward to all that we there have left undone hitherto, as we look forward to all that there remains to be done in the time to come. We are not indolent Asiatics, but active Englishmen; we are not Mussulmans, who place their chief duty in passive resignation, but Christians, who know that the chief duty of men is the active service of God and mankind; we have for our example, not the repose of heathen philosophers, but the untiring devotion and exertion of the Christian Apostle. In his name, and in his Master's name, let us gird ourselves up to be worthy of our high calling -'always abounding1 in the work,' whatever it be, the constant, unfailing work which God has given us to do, 'knowing that our labour,' however toilsome, however irksome, however thankless, on earth, shall not be in vain,' and is not 'in 'vain' in the sight of Christ our Lord. 11 Cor. xv. 58. SERMON XIII. THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT. PREACHED ON BOARD H.M.S. OSBORNE,' ON WHITSUNDAY, JUNE 8, BETWEEN MALTA AND MARSEILLES. John xiv. 26, 27. The Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, he shall teach you all things. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. HIS is the great Festival of Whitsunday. It is THIS the Festival of the Holy Spirit. It tells us of the last and parting gift of our Lord to His apostles, to all generations of mankind for ever. What is this gift? What do we learn from the way in which it is spoken of in the Bible and in the services of this day? I will confine myself to what the word itself suggests. This is a very useful and easy mode of studying the depths of the wisdom of the Bible. The words, the names which it uses to describe the great truths which it has to teach, are so full of meaning, that we need but draw out that meaning, and we shall find what we want. 1. The Spirit of Christ.—This is what we have to ask and to imitate; not the letter, not the mere out I |