Ghost." We cannot go beyond the word of the Lord, to say less or more. We cannot sunder what he has joined together. We also must insist on true repentance, a change of mind, a new heart, godly sorrow, an unfeigned confession of sin, and trusting faith in Jesus Christ. And no less must we insist upon the open confession of Christ before men, sincere participation in his appointed sacraments, and upon visible union with his Church. Serious and awful is their responsibility who give different counsel to inquiring souls, from that given in the day of Pentecost by inspired Apostles, whose heads were yet radiant with the mystic flames, and who spake as the Spirit gave them utterance.

We have said, brethren, that the Holy Ghost is still present to bless the word of reconciliation. When the truth, as it is in Jesus, is presented to you as it was in Peter's sermon, simply and intelligibly, scripturally, faithfully and earnestly, then are the same agencies brought to bear on you, which led such multitudes at Pentecost to the Saviour's feet. Have you ever been pricked to the heart by the sense of your own sin, your ingratitude to Jesus crucified, your soul's worth, preciousness and danger? Have you ever gone to the ministers of the Lord below, and to the Lord himself on his mercy-seat above, with the question that burst from so many lips, on that memo

rable day? It is not to be supposed that God will do more for you than this, and if still unmoved and impenitent, what must be the issue? "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead."

THE MIRACLE AND SERMON IN

THE TEMPLE.

ACTS III. 1.

"Now Peter and John went up together into the temple, at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour."

After the offering up of the true Paschal Lamb upon the cross, the temple worship and Jewish ritual had fulfilled their object. The shadows of good things must now pass away, the substance being come. The Almighty now no longer regarded the temple on Mount Moriah as his house. The victims might bleed, the incense might burn, the priests might go through the prescribed offices, but the Lord was not in his holy temple. Soon would that venerable and costly pile, deserted already by its divine guardian, be razed to the foundation, and not one stone left upon another.

But there intervened a space of about forty years between the pronouncing and execution of the sentence, upon city and temple. And many disciples of Christ, Jews by birthright, and strongly attached, like their countrymen, to the worship and usages of their fathers, continued during this

period, devoutly to observe the duties of their national religion. While they had their own assemblies for prayer and praise, and preaching of the riches of Christ; they also took part in the solemnities of the temple service. They loved the gates of Zion. Their new discovery of the Messiah by no means made them indifferent to the appointed holy rites and times. They united in their observance with increased interest, as well as augmented knowledge. Amid the crowd of their formal and bigoted countrymen, they worshipped God in spirit and in truth. While the multitude looked not beyond the outward and visible, they discovered the hidden meaning and beauty of these types and emblems. The bleeding sacrifice presented to their faith the Lamb of God and the incense-burning priest; exhibited their great High Priest and Intercessor above. The gospel's radiance illumined the darkness and obscurity of the ancient ritual, and Christ was apparent in every holy form and act. It is the same spirit of faith, the same looking unto Jesus, brethren, that must give life, interest, and enjoyment to the simpler worship of the Christian sanctuary. When we really seek the favor and blessing of our God and Father, when his word and promise are sweet to our taste, when we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen, when we hunger for the bread

of life, and thirst for the living water, then will a day in the Lord's courts be better to us than a thousand. Where there is no interest and no pleasure in the solemn worship of God's temple, there is great reason to fear that the spirit of grace and supplication is wanting. Immediately after the Pentecostal effusion of the Holy Ghost, we read of Apostles going up to the temple at the hour of prayer.

Peter and John went up together to the temple. We find them often together. And hence we may infer that they were bosom friends. Their united attendance upon Jesus had bound them to each other in a holy and disinterested affection. And yet there would seem in their dispositions a marked contrast-the one gentle and mild, the other decided, energetic and ardent. Yet these peculiarities, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, made them, perhaps, the more to delight in each others society. The true basis of enduring and profitable friendship, is a common interest in our Lord Jesus Christ. They who truly love the Saviour, love that Saviour's image reflected by his genuine disciples. If we are Christ's, Christ will be dear to us in his people. Such friendship will be proof against those jealousies, suspicions, and evil surmisings, that so oft and so fatally interrupt mere earthly attachments. Unsanctified love easily cools into indifference, or changes into aver