poet, and yet more eminent metaphysician, says that hearers are of four classes. The first he compares to an hour-glass, their hearing being as the sand; it runs in and it runs out, and leaves not a vestige behind. A second class, he says, resembles a sponge, which imbibes everything, and returns it nearly in the same state it was, only a little fouler. A third class he likens to a jelly-bag, which allows all that is pure to pass away, and retains only the refuse and the dregs. A fourth class he compares to the slaves in the diamond mines of Golconda, who cast aside all that is worthless, and retain and preserve only what is pure and precious. Our memories are, by nature, of the first three classes, not of the last; the Spirit of God can make them of the character of the last, that they shall retain the precious diamonds-let pass away the worthless and the useless dust. How precious this must be is evident by referring to an interesting instance at Lucknow : how in the case of those shut up in dreary confinement, who when the morning came wished to God it were the evening, and when the evening came wished to God it were the morning; around whom the only music was the roar of artillery, and inside the walls the incidental and the frequent destruction of men, and women, and children that were there-words of Scripture, to which they had not then access, flashed upon their minds like a sunburst, and texts that they learnt at a mother's knee seemed quickened into preternatural brilliancy, sharpness, and relief; and memory, sanctified by the Spirit of God, brought to many a wounded soldier, and many a patient sufferer, those grand truths which illuminate all the road to heaven, and proved what it is so precious to know, and what we want much to learn, that the way to heaven is just as short from the battle-field, from an enemy's prison, from Lucknow, or from India, or from the Peiho, as it is from the sanctuary; and it is as easy to get to heaven from any of these as from the house of God; because the way to heaven is the Mediator, who covers all space; S who hears the Publican's first cry, and sees the Magdalen's only tear, receives the criminal's last breath, and to whom the heart beats prayer when the lips cannot speak, and who hears the dying soldier's and the dying sailor's cry, when no noise is heard by flesh and blood save the terrible din of a battle-field. What a magnificent religion is Christianity, for all places, for all circumstances, for all tribes! What fools they are that try to denounce it, to repress it, or think there is danger in teaching it to Pagan, Hindoo, or Mahometan. What a blessing is committed to our hands in the knowledge of it; what a responsibility for the transmission of it; what thankfulness should we feel that God has thus taught us Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life! In times of affliction, when all God's waves pass over you; in times of bereavement, when the heart is broken, and Rachel weeps for her children, and will not be comforted; in a dying hour, when the senses all become deadened, and outer things all become pale, and the inner life, and the inner light, and the inner links and bonds that knit you with eternity alone are visible, how delightful, how precious, to have a preacher within speaking sweet words, breathing grand promises, and kindling in the heart of the dying man the first beam of life, and glory, and immortality! Oh may that Spirit be given to you, and me, and to all flesh right speedily, for Christ's sake. Amen. LECTURE XX. THE BRIDE. The Bride is being made ready for the Bridegroom. She has heard the cry in the desert, and He has sent down his Spirit to prepare her for his presence. "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized; and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”—ACTs ii. 41, 47. LET us relieve doctrinal investigations by bringing before our minds a model church, the ideal of a Christian church, the type of what the church of the Lord Jesus Christ will be again when the prophecy of Joel shall be translated into actual fact. After the Spirit filled each heart, and the apostles began to speak in new tongues, they that heard were all amazed, and some were in doubt. Here is the impression produced upon the outer world by the evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit of God. They said, "What meaneth this ?"-what jargon is this? what has taken hold of these people's heads? Surely there is here excitement, fanaticism; something has gone wrong with them; what is the matter? Others said, "The true explanation of it is, these men are full of new wine; they are intoxicated; there is something about them so contrary to what we have laid down as orthodox, that we can only interpret their conduct by charitably assuming that the men are either deranged or intoxicated." Such was the impression made upon the outer world. Nor should we be surprised at it. One wonders in the present day that the world, through its various organs, does not assail the church more. Perhaps the church is not what it should be, or the world would not be what we now find it. The antagonism between the church that is the exponent of living truth and love, and a world that is the inspiration of Satan and of the wicked one, is tremendous. Perhaps it is not the world that has come up to our tableland, but the church that has gone down to its cold, freezing, and clouded ledges; that there is compromise of principle, not the concession simply of prejudice. Scripture tells us that the natural heart is enmity against God. The world will put up with what it calls a quiet preacher, a bare theology, a respectable drawing-room divinity; a divinity that is gentle, and kind, and considerate toward their sins, that does not touch too severely the tender part of the conscience, where the forbidden lodger is. But speak the grand old truths that made the air of ancient times eloquent; speak the great truths that the Reformers, Luther, and Cranmer, and Ridley, and Latimer, and Knox preached ; speak glorious truths, even if not with their mighty power, which Wesley and Whitfield preached; speak those great truths that the Puritans of old so loved, that they counted all but loss for the excellency and the glory of them ;—and the world will still say, you are drunk with new wine; much religion has made you mad; you are a fanatic; you are misleading people. It is, nevertheless, the highest compliment the world can pay. Praise offered by the world to the church is a very equivocal compliment; the world's censure, or the world's conversion, are the things one or other of which we should most ardently covet and desire. Well, so it was in those days. But one bold apostle, who stood up, said, "Ye men of Judea, these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day." Why, it is only nine o'clock; you cannot suppose that the worst drunkards drink wine at breakfast. But the truth is, this is what you do not know, 66 yet what we are led to expect; for a prophet has predicted, "It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." Peter proceeds to show that this was now being fulfilled; and it is to be fulfilled during all the last days: it began then; there have been incidental sprinklings since; there are full and copious showers coming, we hope, soon. Him," Jesus Christ, "being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, whereof we are all witnesses." "And when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart." What a blessed result! The men that mocked; the men that said, you are drunk ; you are fools; we do not understand what you say, or what you do; these very men, after the preaching of Peter, and by the power of that Holy Ghost pervading what he preached, were pricked in their hearts; and in the agony of those hearts they called out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" And Peter said, " Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Then follows the account, that they gladly received the word, and were baptized, and what traits characterized this early church under the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit of God. The importance of our directing attention to this practical effect is just this: the Acts of the Apostles is a passage of ecclesiastical history in which we have a record of the exercise of the functions of the apostles originally given in the Four Gospels. We wanted a chapter or two of ecclesiastical history, reliable; and thus reliable, because inspired, to show us how the apostles carried out their functions, and what were the fruits and results of the exercise of those functions, and what were the character and the condition of the Church |