going away "not having the Spirit." This blame were really powerless, and the curse causeless, except on the truth of the doctrine that the means are never without the grace of the Spirit, and that his influences are truly accessible to all who come to use the means. A sinner cannot neglect a salvation that is inaccessible to him. Salvation becomes accessible as any other healing or deliverance is accessible, only as it is brought into connexion with him by the arrangement of means; and if his salvation be unapproachable by any means within his reach, or else be only in capricious and uncertain connexion with means, it is impossible to demonstrate that his neglect of the means is blame-worthy. You never experienced in your own history, you never knew a person that bore witness, that a man might make the trial, might make a right use of the means of grace, and might seek in them carefully and with tears for the influences of the Holy Spirit, and yet find none. Alas! indeed, few there be that find them. If any have attended the means, and could not obtain the grace, it is not because the grace was really absent from the means, but, "they had not, because they asked not; or, they asked, and received not, because they asked amiss." On this subject God has given us strong consolation by a direct appeal to our sympathies and consciousness as parents. "If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" The Father of mercies would never have held out such encouragements to an orphan world, or an orphan church, if the influences of the Holy Spirit were not every moment truly attainable. He does not limit this assurance to his children, but extends it to any one who will at any time "ask him." He has tenderly made a provision that our 66 being evil" shall in nowise discourage or prevent our "asking." He has much more abounded, for, though we are evil, he has made our "asking" to be the ground and warrant for our expecting to receive his Spirit. On other topics we are expressly instructed to limit our requests, and to calculate upon delay or disappointment; but on the influences of the Holy Spirit we are animated, and even roused, to enlarge our desires, to press them with importunity, to rest neither day nor night, to plead boldly at the throne of grace "until the Spirit be poured from on high," and until he " pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Influences thus proffered, exhibited, and pressed on us, must continue ever present in the church, and, to all applicants, certainly attainable. V. The distinct and separate class of duties, which the church owes to the Holy Spirit personally, springs from the doctrine that his influences are permanently present. If the influences of the Holy Spirit are not now really present in the church, our duties towards him are become as nugatory, as those of the present race of Jews towards the angel that once led the church in the wilderness. Take a few specimens of our duties. "Be ye filled with the Spirit." Would our Father, the God of all comfort, say unto us "be ye filled," notwithstanding he gives us not those things which are needful to supply us? Is the cup of salvation, only the cup of Tantalus? When God commands he supplies the means of duty, for he has never extended the labor of duty beyond the range of the means already supplied. Were we to meet with a command "be ye filled with Divine inspiration" when the inspiring influences were not present, the requisition would fall on the conscience as powerless as this must if the Spirit be not present. This command is not given to the apostles, but to the Christians of Ephesus, and it continues obligatory as long as the Epistle to the Ephesians is "the mind of the Spirit." The command of God to fill an homer with manna supposes the manna present; and when the manna ceased, the obligation of the command ceased. The perpetuity of the command to be "filled with the Spirit" is therefore a proof of the permanency of his gracious influences. "Walk in the Spirit." The command to walk in the light supposes that the light is actually present. It were mockery to command the poor to walk in wealth if "the true riches" were not really attainable; or the sick to walk in health, when there was no health for them; or captives to walk in fresh air, when it was utterly excluded from the dungeon to which their chains were riveted. The Holy Spirit "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." is kind and gentle, and has at this moment, friendly dispositions and designs towards us; we grieve him when we act contrary to his nature and character, and when we oppose him in his present works and offices, and thwart the tendencies of his operations. This standing duty supposes his friendship permanent, and his operations constant. "Quench not the spirit." The obligations of this duty are binding, only as they are linked to the immovable truth, that the hallowed fire of Divine influences is in the church permanently present. These duties and admonitions did not relate to the early Christians alone; they are also "things which belong to our peace." We have not the shadow of any intimation that their obligations have been either revoked or rescinded. The self-same Spirit who imposed these duties at first, enforces them to-day; and he urges them only on the ground, that "he abides with us for ever." VI. It is distinctly and determinately promised, that the Holy Spirit shall continue to be through all time present in the church. "As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; my Spirit that is upon thee, and my words, which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever." (Isa. lix. 21.) In this "exceeding great and precious promise," God marshals around him all the hosts of his people, calls their fixed attention to what he is promising, what he engages to do, and what may be expected from his pledged character. This promise is universal in its aspect, and uninterrupted in its continuance. In harmony with this early assurance, one of the last of the prophets is commissioned to say, "My spirit remaineth among you, fear not." "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." (John xiv. 16.) This promise is not limited to the apostles, but extended to all that believe, and to all the churches that shall ever be collected by the ministry of the gospel. As the apostles were not appointed to continue their personal ministry, from the time of Christ's ascension to the period of his second coming, the abiding of the Spirit cannot be restricted to the duration of their office. Our Saviour knew that the work of convincing of sin, guiding into all truth, comforting orphan churches, was not to cease at the death of his early disciples. Nor is this promise to be restricted to a succession of men endowed with miraculous gifts; for the Holy Spirit saith expressly, that "they shall cease." As long, therefore, as it shall continue to be the duty of the church to teach all nations, to preach the gospel to every creature, and to be a witness for Christ, so long may it calculate on the Holy Spirit to be permanently active in convincing the world, glorifying Christ, and comforting all believers. VII. The New Testament teaches the church to expect particular seasons, in which the influences of the Holy Spirit will manifest themselves in the production of eminent holiness and piety. The entire scriptures, and all the inductions of observation and experience in religion, confirm the doctrine, that there are seasons when the spirits of good and holy men realize, more than others, the existence, the character, and the agency of this supreme Comforter. At these seasons, whether they be times of devotional meditation and study, of pressing and intense religious exercises, of difficult and laborious duty; or whether they be times of bitter and overwhelming persecution, Christians perceive more clearly, than usual, the loveliness of moral beauty, they see more of the glory of holiness and truth, they feel warmer and stronger attachment to the character of the Saviour, they feel more sensibly their real dependence on the Holy Spirit, and they become more fully absorbed in the designs which He is accomplishing. At such seasons the holy soul is in direct communion of disposition and interest with the Parent Spirit; it is brought into a more proximate connexion, a closer intimacy, and a nearer action, than ever, with his all-pervading agency and influences. Still, such communions and fruitions are not miraculous; they are not formed by the immediate presence and agency of the Holy Spirit; they are only the near, the very near and appropriate effects of his presence; they are the "particular providence" of that Christian individual, or Christian community. It is not by transitory miracles that "the secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him:" it is by an abiding influence, a strength that always developes itself "according to the day," and as long as "the day" continues. The spirits of good men often realize such union of heart with the blessed God as to feel and to become one character and one spirit with him. In their most painful anguish, He can make himself so present to them, as to fill their hearts with calm and peaceful rapture, or to delight them with joyful and transporting emotions, till they rejoice in tribulations, and triumph over death and the grave. As the Christian church was engrafted in the old olive of the Jewish church, all the splendid promises, which sparkle in the general predictions concerning the holy stock, belong now to all the branches. From them alone the church is authorized to expect days of joy and full of glory. Accordingly, when the influences of the Holy Spirit were manifested, at the day of Pentecost, on the infant church, Peter said, "This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel." Jesus Christ had taught his disciples to expect and to wait for such a season, and they regarded the revival of Pentecost as "the promise of the Father." In a short time after the day of Pentecost, and after an interval of opposition and persecution, the apostles were favored with another revival: for, "When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness, and great grace was upon them all." (Acts iv. 31, 33.) Paul excites the attention of the church in Rome to expect such refreshing seasons, when the conversion of the Jews would be a powerful revival, like "life from the dead" —and after that, there would be a subsequent revival, when the fulness of the Gentiles should come upon the church, with the teeming influence of a Spring from heaven. If these promises abide valid, and if these scriptures cannot be broken, it is not enthusiasm to expect such seasons; it is no phrensy to long for them, and to share in them is no fanaticism. In these delightful seasons conversions will become general, and the church will always expect them to take place. In the present day the church, as a church, does not appear to EXPECT men to be converted. When conversions actually occur, they occur confessedly as exceptions to the general rule. The general rule of the expectation of the church is non-conversion. When an instance of conversion transpires, it is made a matter of astonishment, it is reported as something strange, and talked of as a wonderful and unlooked-for event. Were the church in her right frame and tone, her wonder would have been excited at any instances of non-conversion; and the fact, that any had failed of the grace of God, would thrill her with emotions of astonishment and sadness. What would we think of the officers of a hospital who trumpeted forth the wonderful event that one patient had been cured? In such institutions the "incurables" are the exception, but, in the history of the church, they seem to be the rule. The wonder expressed by Christians at instances of conversion astonishes and paralyzes the world. The wicked hear this, and are glad; for they say, "these believers, |