and they who have done evil into everlasting fire." Can we hear this, and live, and think, and breathe, and pay no attention to it? Is it possible that men can be so dull to their everlasting welfare as to sacrifice their eternal life for a little present pleasure? At all events, whether they do so or not, as sure as the Scriptures are true, so surely will Christ come at the last day to judgment; and what the issue then will be to each, let the same Scriptures speak by the mouth of him to whom the revelation was afforded. "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire 1."

May these reflections have their weight with us, and may we, believing that Jesus Christ has ascended into the heavens,

'Rev. xx. 12. 15.

"ourselves ascend thither, and with him continually dwell," who liveth and reigneh with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

SERMON XVIII.

THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST, AND HIS INFLUENCE ON THE APOSTLES.

1 COR. xii. 4.

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

THE same Holy Spirit of God, who "in the beginning moved upon the face of the waters1;" the same Holy Spirit, who under the name of " wisdom," was "possessed of the Lord while as yet he had not made the earth nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world2;" who was "with him when he prepared the heavens, when he set a compass upon the face of the depth, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep,

1 Gen. i. 2.

2 Prov. viii.

when he gave the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment, when he appointed the foundation of the earth;" who was " by him as one brought up with him," who "was his daily delight, rejoicing always before him;" the same Holy Spirit who "spake in time past unto our fathers by the prophets';" that same Spirit we believe was sent down by our blessed Saviour, after his ascension into heaven, on his apostles, in order that he might be "a Comforter" to them in his absence, a guide in all their difficulties, a monitor of their duties, that he might give them a true apprehension of what was required of them, and that he might be with them, and through them with their successors in the ministry, in all their spiritual labours, in all their endeavours to preach the Gospel, and to disseminate the blessings of Christianity around them," always even unto the end of the world 2."

Although we have concluded the his

1 Heb. i. 1.

2 Matt. xxviii. 20.

tory of our blessed Saviour himself, by giving an account of his triumphant ascension into heaven, yet still it appears expedient that we make some mention of that heavenly Guide, who was sent down by him on his apostles, that they might be enabled to preach that Gospel, in which he had already begun to instruct them; and that he might give them a power of comprehending that doctrine, which until they were thus illuminated, they were unable properly to understand. A consideration of this subject will now occupy our attention; and with this we shall conclude our present series of dis

courses.

The necessity which there was for the apostles to receive some assistance, to enable them both to think and to act aright, has already been frequently shewn in our preceding observations. Their worldliness, while their Lord was with them, their terror and dismay when he was taken from them, their misconception of his character while they believed him to be the Messiah, their abandonment of his pre