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Madam, the text is plain, If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to"But I am not one of his children, sir."

"The text does not say, to his children; it says, them that ask him.'

• to

Ask, and it shall be given you.' madam, how long you have been

Allow me to ask you, in this state of mind?" "About three years. I was first brought to think of my salvation soon after the birth of my first child. My duty to my family led me to feel the need of religion. What troubled me was, I could not do my duty to it, for I was not a child of God."

"And have you been accustomed, for so long a time, to read your Bible carefully ?"

"Oh! I have read it all, again and again! I read it daily. I have prayed and wept over this subject for years, and have waited for the Spirit to renew my heart."

"And have you been waiting for the Holy Spirit for three years, in this state of mind ?"

"Indeed, sir, I have."

"Then for three years you have been waiting for what God gave you three years ago. It was the Holy Spirit which first led you to feel you were a sinner and needed Christ. The Holy Spirit has been striving with you all along, and you did not know it. He led you to the Bible. He led you to prayer. He strives with you now, to lead you to Christ for forgiveness and peace."

"Do you think so?" said she, with astonishment.

"I know so," said I. "God has been better to you than you have thought. He has done what you have never given him credit for. He has called, and you have refused. He has invited, and you have held back. You thought you must not come, and could not. You may, on the spot. The Holy Spirit has not left you yet. I wonder that he has not; but you have another call to-night. And now, madam, accept this invitation; repent; take Christ as your Saviour. Go home and give your heart to God, just as it is. You cannot make it better. The Holy Spirit is with you. Do not resist him any longer. You have stayed away from Christ because you supposed you must. wanted the Holy Spirit first, and thought you must not come to Christ till your heart was better. The dispensation of the Spirit is in his hands. Go to the fountain. The

You

Bible nowhere tells you to wait for the Holy Spirit; but, fleeing to Christ, to depend on his aid now."

"Pardon me, sir; I must ask you again, if you really think the Holy Spirit is striving with me?"

"Yes, my dear friend, I know he is. He has been for years. He offers you his aid. He calls you to Christ now. Go to Christ. Repent to-night. Accept and rest on Christ The Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.'

now.

"And is that all you have to tell me about the Spirit ?"

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Yes, that is all. The Holy Spirit this moment strives with you. God is willing to save you. Nothing but your own unbelief and impenitence can ruin you."

"Has the Spirit been striving with me-and I did not know it?" said she, meditatively, the tears streaming from her eyes. She left me and returned home.

Early the next morning, before the sun rose, as I looked from my window, I beheld her coming through the thick dew which lay upon the grass, with hasty steps ascending the hill on which the house stood. She asked for me at the door, and I immediately met her in the parlour.

“I thank you, my dear friend, I thank you a thousand times for telling me that" (said she, the moment she saw me; her eyes streaming with tears and her countenance beaming with joy). "It was all true. I have found it true. I can rejoice in Christ now. I am happy, sir, oh, I am happy. I thought I must come and thank you. I am afraid you will think me rude, in calling upon you at such an hour. But I was afraid you would be gone, if I delayed; and I could not let you leave town without telling you how happy I am, and how much I thank you. After I heard you preach, three months since, I thought you could tell me something about obtaining the gift of the Holy Spirit, and when I asked you about it last night, I was very much disappointed by what you said. I was amazed and confounded. You did not say what I expected. But I believed you. I spent the night over this subject. Happy night for me! And now, I know you told me the truth. You read my heart rightly. I bless God for what I have found. Pardon me, sir; I must ask you to tell other sinners, that Christ is waiting for them. They do not know it, I am sure, any more than I did, or they would go to him. The Holy Spirit calls us to do so. With all my

glad heart, I yield to him. I do not wait any longer. I bless you for telling me, I need not wait."

I have not seen her since. But I have learned that she publicly professed her faith, and lived for years as a reputable and happy believer.

Probably the influences of the Holy Spirit are more common with impenitent sinners than they suppose. Such persons greatly err when, instead of fleeing at once to Christ, they wait, and think they must wait, for some attainment first. Their waiting for it is but a deceptive excuse; and if they suppose they have gained any attainment, and on that ground Christ has accepted them, their religion is only self-righteousness and delusion. A broken heart is invited to the balm of Gilead. "Tell other sinners that Christ is waiting for them.”

The subtlety of the adversary is wonderful. The want of the Holy Spirit was this woman's obstacle. The devil had led her to believe, that she was forsaken of the Spirit; and if she was, she knew from the Bible that there was no other help for her. Instead of going to Christ, therefore, in faith, she miserably supposed that she must wait. She did not know that the very urgency and influence of the Holy Spirit consist in bringing sinners to embrace Jesus Christ as he is offered to us in the gospel. The very thing that God wanted her to do, was the very thing that she supposed she must not do; and thus she was compelled to wait in darkness and fear, by a subtle device of the adversary. It is important for convicted sinners to know, that the cause of their irreligion is not that Christ is not willing to receive them, but that they are not willing to trust in him.

"TOO HARD FOR ME."

MORRIS CLINTON was an only son, born to wealth and a proud position in society. He belonged to one of the best families in the district in which I resided-a family, however, in which there was no deep or spiritual religion. Blameless in all outward and social morality, few of its members displayed interest in vital godliness. His father was preeminently worldly, seeking mainly to increase his already large fortune, and looking to see his son, as he expressed it, "cut a handsome figure in the world." Mrs. Clinton, how

ever, was a Christian; and while Morris was a child, he was sufficiently under her influence to be gently led in the paths of Christian nurture.

But as he emerged from childhood, the more worldly views of his father and other friends drew him gradually into another course. Morris was easily influenced; he was gentle and yielding. So, while from habit and deference to his mother's wishes he spent his sabbaths in outward religious observances, he followed his gay comrades during the week to the racecourse, the ball-room, and the theatre; and he tolerated as friends some whom he knew to be familiar with haunts of vice. Yet the young man was himself free from all gross immoralities, and was warmly loved by his family and his acquaintances. Especially was he an object of deep interest to his minister, who saw his amiable natural traits, his danger of being led hopelessly astray, and he earnestly desired to see him a trophy to Christ.

When the young man was in his nineteenth year, not a few of his friends were led to give their hearts to the Redeemer. Morris became a subject of pious solicitude and prayer, and many were the invitations he received to join those who were seeking the Lord. He did not seem insensible to the appeals made to him, but still kept himself in the charmed circle of the world's gaieties, holding aloof, as much as his courteous nature would allow, from the tender persuasions of Christians.

At length his minister sought and found an opportunity for direct personal conversation with him upon the subject of his soul's salvation. "I cannot see you continue indifferent to your immortal interests," the good man said, "without a special entreaty to you to give instant heed to this great matter of obtaining peace with God. Surely you must think, must know, how important a thing it is for a sinner under sentence of eternal death to seek and to gain reconciliation with his God-to win through Jesus Christ pardon and life."

"I do," replied Morris, "I do acknowledge the duty of becoming a Christian. I have been too well instructed by yourself and by my mother not to know that I ought to repent of sin and give my heart to God. But it is too hard for me at present; I cannot see my way clear to lead a Christian life."

"Surely, my dear young friend, there are no obstacles on the part of God. He has made full provision for you, has

opened a clear way through the blood and intercession of his dear Son, and now calls to you, ‘All things are ready.' Why will you delay ?"

Morris was deeply moved, and his trembling lips could hardly speak his answer. "Dear sir," he said, "I feel the force of your appeal. I would be a Christian; I hope and mean to be some time."

"God's time is now, Morris: To day if ye will hear his voice; harden not your hearts.' Do you not believe this a present duty?"

"Yes," was the young man's honest answer.

"What hinders you then?" rejoined the pastor.

"Morris could not longer withstand the kind urgency of this best of friends. "I will tell you frankly," he said. "I cannot become a Christian without giving up those amusements in which I find my chief enjoyment. I cannot lead a religious life without abandoning the companions whose society is so pleasant. The sacrifice is too hard for

me."

Ah! had the deluded youth realized how sweet were the pleasures which religion yields; had he been willing to trust a Saviour's promise to recompense a hundred-fold those who for his sake give up friends who are dear to them, he might have had in this world the reward of longer life, and "in the world to come life everlasting."

The gay companions whom Morris Clinton could not give up, took him, a few days after his pastor's appeal, for a moonlight sail in the harbour; and one of them, while excited with wine, upset the boat, causing Morris and another to find a watery grave.

Dear young readers, be warned by the above true history, and do not feel that it is too hard to obey God. He knows how to reward every sacrifice made for him. Especially will he bestow sweeter pleasures in the ways of wisdom than sinful follies can yield, and he will give his followers not only the purest, but the most satisfying friendships. And who can tell that an ungodly companion, renounced for Jesus' sake, may not, by that very renunciation, be led himself to Christ, and thus the ties of earth merge in the fellowship of heaven..