wondrous influence descended and rested upon them. The apostles became new men-not new in their physical endowments, or wonder-working powers, but new in their views, feelings, modes and ends of action. The day of Pentecost was indeed signalized by the exercise of a miraculous agency; nobody doubts that the scenes then enacted betokened superhuman influence; nor will any undertake to explain the results then brought about, upon ordinary principles, unless indeed, they wish to put themselves in the same category with some would-be philosophers then and there present, who, baffled in their efforts at explanation, and yet desirous of concealing their ignorance, came to the sage conclusion, that the gift of tongues was nothing but the product of intoxicating drink. No! there were superhuman endowments here. It was not in an ordinary way, that the apostles became instantly familiar with almost every language upon earth, so that the assembled thousands who had come up from different quarters of the world, could hear from their lips, each in his own language, the wonderful works of God. It was not by natural, but by superhuman means, that they could arrest disease, cast out devils, and raise the dead; God was working with them "by signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his will."

It is no part of our design to underrate these endowments, or to consider them as of small moment, in the circumstances, or in view of the end for which they were given. They were essential at that time, as the crowning evidence of the Redeemer's mission, as proving that his work was finished, and that he had ascended to his throne, in accordance with his own declaration. They were essential to authenticate the apostles' mission, as the miracle-working power was essential to authenticate the claims of Jesus Christ himself. But, then there was nothing new here. The change which was wrought upon the primitive disciples by the power of the Holy Ghost, does not consist solely in imparting to them miraculous gifts-these had in a measure long since been bestowed upon them by Jesus Christ, and we are told that they returned from their exercise, expressing to the Master their astonishment at the wonderful powers which they wielded; and though unquestionably they were now endowed with miraculous gifts, these did not constitute that peculiarity of the office-work of the Spirit, to which the Savior specially referred, when He promised to His disciples the Comforter to "guide them into all truth," to "take of the things which were His and show them unto them."

We cannot look at this scene with any degree of distinctness, without perceiving that the apostles were the subjects of a wondrous change. Their previous history up to the present moment, shows them to have been very circumscribed and earthly in their

views—men hankering after temporal dominion, to whose minds the grand idea of expiation, through the agony and passion of their Master, had been but faintly and feebly presented. Though they had been long with the Savior, had shared his confidence and enjoyed his instructions, they seem hardly to have grasped the first elements of spiritual truth; but now there seems to have been made to them a revelation of the hidden mysteries of redemption, and they appeared like men standing in the midst of a world which was new unto them, and acting in view of truths which before they had not apprehended. In the apostle Peter we discover indeed, the same constitutional energy which marked his previous history; but we cannot discover the lineaments of the man, who but a short time previous, ridiculed the idea of the death of his Master, as a thing impossible; nor among his compeers, as they exhibit the truth with a peculiar unction, and fervor, and boldness, can we find traces of the men, who but a few days since were bargaining for the chief places in Christ's coming kingdom, and striving among themselves who should be greatest. Nor is there any resemblance between those who now preach so openly Christ and the resurrection, and those who but a few months before, when the Savior was communing with them upon this very point, "kept his saying within themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.'

Nor was the change to which we refer as evidence of the fulfilment of the Savior's promise, and as giving us an insight into the nature of the agency of the promised Comforter, confined to the minds of the apostles. As we read, we discover that the Jews themselves who had rejected Christ, and whose hands. might have been still reeking with his blood, were brought through the simple preaching of Jesus as the anointed of God, to perceive the atrocity of their crime, and to humble themselves in view of it, and under the instructions of the apostles, to receive as their master, one whom they had just treated as an impostor, and to identify their character, their interests and fortune, with a cause which they had given but a short time since, all their influence to crush.

These then are the naked facts upon this subject, presented to us upon the sacred page, as the evidence that the Holy Spirit has descended in accordance with the Redeemer's promise; and now we take these facts and endeavor to analyse them, in order to ascertain what light, if any, they throw upon that wondrous agency, of which they are undeniably the fruit. It is evident then, that there was no change wrought in the mental constitution or physical temperament either of the apostles, or their hearers. In every thing which goes to make up man as man, they were, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, precisely what they were before--no new facts were brought to their knowledge,

to work in them these wondrous changes. The communications of the apostles, after they were endued with power from on high, do not go one whit beyond the truths which our Savior had repeatedly conveyed to them in his instructions; while the fact which convulsed the minds of their hearers, was a fact with which they were perfectly familiar, and about which their own agency perhaps might have been concerned.

If the change under consideration, then, consisted not in new mental power to perceive truths, nor yet in the perception of any new truths, it must have consisted in new views of truths already known, and the effect of these new views upon the feelings of the heart, and the purposes of the life. We need not stop here to show what wonderful effects are often produced upon human character, what changes are wrought, not simply in the feelings and course of individuals, but in the whole aspect of society, simply by means of a fact with which every one is familiar, seen in a new light, and in relations never before supposed to belong to it. The disciples had been the constant attendants of their Master, but they had looked at every thing they learned, through the medium of their prejudices. They were carnal in their views; they knew their Master was about to establish a kingdom, and in that kingdom all their interests and hopes were identified, but it was a temporal kingdom which they regarded, and their views, their sorrows, their joys, their fears, their hopes, were earthly and sensual. But it was not so with them after the day of Pentecost. Then they appeared to understand perfectly the Master's language, "my kingdom is not of this world." They became spiritual men in their apprehensions. They saw their Master's object distinctly, and the means by which it was to be compassed. Things unseen by carnal minds, became realities to their view; and while a new world burst upon their vision, they had new elements and ends of action, moved under new impulses, and had new sources of hope and fear, of joy and of sorrow. In short, the men who before were moulded and moved exclusively by "things seen and temporal," now came under the mighty power of "things unseen and eternal."

The point which seems established from this analysis of Pentecostal scenes, is, that the office-work of the promised Comforter consists in giving new and spiritual views of truths already revealed, and in bringing the heart and life under their controlling influence; and what was needed then to secure these views and their results is no less needed now. We must all pass through a process analogous to that which marked the experience of the first apostles and their hearers-a process of taking of the things of Christ and showing them unto the soul, which can be originated, carried on and consummated only by the power of the Holy Ghost. We have often looked with astonishment at the fact,

that men who enjoyed the personal instructions of the Son of God, and lived upon such terms of familiarity with Him as did the primitive disciples, should yet seem unable to grasp the first elements of spiritual truth, and need a new influence from on high, to clarify their beclouded, and correct their erroneous views. And yet we, with the same instructions which they enjoyed, with the superadded advantages growing out of their communications, after they were enlightened, need as much this wondrous, heavenly, spiritual teaching, in order to understand and feel the power of well known truth, as did the apostles themselves, before the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. It is a startling truth, a painful, because a humiliating truth, one which should put down every thing like the pride of human reason, and show man his absolute dependence upon God, that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

It is a surprising fact, going to illustrate that peculiarity of the natural mind, out of which springs the necessity of this spiritual influence of which we have been speaking, that there seems to be very little, if any, apprehension of the truths, and very little, if any, importance attached to the facts which are spread out upon the pages of God's revelation. Incidents or statements, however plain or important, when connected with religion, seem incomprehensible and devoid of interest-incidents and statements, precisely analogous to those which in other connexions are perfectly intelligible and full of wonder. The story of the Roman youth, who decided the fate of his country by venturing into single combat-and of the intrepid Greek, who went out on an expedition to steal the golden fleece from the guardianship of a sleepless dragon, furnish topics which never weary the attention, nor exhaust the interest of the natural mind; but the doings of God's people, whose confidence enabled them to subdue kingdoms, are weak and insipid; and even such exploits as those of the stripling David, are without their interest, simply it would seem, because faith sinewed his arm. The valor of piety has no charms, and achievements, however wonderful, lose their romance, if the hand of God is seen to be in any way connected with them. Surpassing as the spiritual does the natural, in all that is wonderful and attractive, yet while the former is perfectly intelligible and pleasing to every one, the latter requires the teaching of the Spirit of God to bring it home to the comprehension of any one, and invest it with interest to his mind.

There is, we all know, sensitiveness in the human spirit to the tale of philanthropy. We enshrine in our hearts the name of one, whose friendship has led him to die for another, and if that other were an enemy, whose misery alone excited compassion, no

words could express, no time could exhaust our admiration of, such disinterestedness.

And yet there is no conduct in human history which will bear a comparison with that of Christ, when he "bare our sins in his own body on the tree." No one believes that the deed was ever yet done upon earth, which at all approximated the sacrifice of the Son of God; still "He is as a root out of dry ground, without form or comeliness, and having no beauty that men should desire Him;" and the spirits which assume every form of high-wrought excitement, when you speak of human generosity, and earthly daring, are unmoved and untouched when the theme of discourse is the Redeemer's philanthropy, His amazing condescension, His unmeasured loving-kindness.

And the reason of the fact is as plain as the fact itself. The things of the Bible have no worldly glory about them. The theme of redemption gathers all its magnificence and power from the realities of a spiritual world; and while man is carnal in his feelings, sees nothing, understands nothing, feels nothing, but what appeals to the desires and appetites of his carnal nature; while these appetites and desires constitute the medium through which he looks at every thing, the standard by which he measures every thing, he can see nothing which must be spiritually discerned, and feel the value of nothing which cannot be measured by his standard of judgment.

You may place a man amid the mountain gorges of the Alps, but if the dense mists of the morning hang over the hill tops, he can neither see nor wonder at the mighty battlements which apparently threaten to overwhelm him; but when the sun makes his way onward to the meridian, and dispels those mists which obstruct the view, then he finds himself at once girt round with prodigy, and looks, and wonders, and is impressed and moulded by the scene. The page of Scripture, which keeps the chronicles of the spiritual world, is crowded with the wonderful. It is made up of what is most deeply interesting and overwhelming to man as a spiritual being, and hastening on to a spiritual destiny; but there are resting upon the whole, the mists of carnal passion, and earthly prejudices, and worldly aspirings, which must all be scattered, ere man can see, apprehend, and feel them. And it is at this point precisely, that the office-work of the Spirit of God comes in, as He takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to the soul.

Now we do not undertake to say, how it is precisely that the Spirit acts, or what precisely He does, when He exerts His enlightening and converting agency. But this much we do know, that whenever man becomes truly conscious that he is more than a creature of flesh; that there is within him an undying spirit, which, in its roamings among unseen things, and its pantings after immor