"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Then it no longer loses eternity in settling a date, nor ruins the soul in chasing a butterfly; it counts all but loss for the excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ; and religion rises before him as the grandest literature, and the Son of God as the most precious study; and all things seen in their just proportions are weighed according to their real weight; and time and eternity, soul and body, the things that perish and the things that endure, are put in their proper relations and estimated at their right value. Who is the great agent in giving this new heart, and taking away this cold stone, and giving this new spirit? That agent is the Holy Ghost. "I will put my Spirit within you." Magnificent fact, that we are capable of such a change! The fallen fiends in hell are incapable of joy, or of redemption; but man is capable of pardon, of happiness, of being made the temple of the Holy Ghost. But it needs the Holy Spirit of God to descend into man's heart, there to regenerate it; to descend into man's spirit, there to make it new with a divine life, and to illuminate it with the splendours of heaven. When He does so, He does not extinguish the person, He transforms him; He does not destroy what I may call his idiosyncrasy, or identity, He sanctifies it. When He inspired the apostles, He did not destroy the apostles, He made use of them. Paul's style, Peter's style, John's style, Matthew's style, each and all are characteristic and different: He seized each peculiarity of character, and inspired with the Spirit of God that peculiarity to record, in its own way, the marvellous things of God. So when the Holy Spirit comes into man's heart, He does not extinguish A, and substitute B; or extinguish B, and substitute C; but He regenerates A and C. Until the Holy Spirit is given to us e cannot pray aright, we cannot praise aright, we ot read the Scriptures aright, we cannot under1 the things of God aright. Without that Spirit, e may be all the exquisite symmetry of a Grecian There statue, but there is no life or vital warmth. may be stretched every stitch of canvas to the gale, but unless the wind blow, it is "a painted ship upon a painted ocean.” There may be constructed machinery such as is in the "Great Eastern," perfect and complete; but if there be no steam the wheels do not revolve, and the ship does not move. The great necessity of the present day, in order that all may feel religion to be what it is, and be constrained by its mighty power, is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. Yet this agency does not supersede efforts; it is no apology to say, Because I have not the Spirit of God, therefore I ought not to pray. The duty is to pray; the privilege is, God hears prayer; and the very fact that you pray is evidence that the Spirit of God is moving upon the heart's troubled waters. "My grace," He says, not is a substitute for you, "but my grace is sufficient for you." This Spirit, we are told in Scripture, abides with God's people for ever. "My Spirit will abide with you for ever." He is not a transient visitor, but a permanent occupant; He makes the body his everlasting temple, the heart his consecrated altar, the affections his holy priesthood, the whole man his anointed servant. He kindles within a divine fire that is not quenched; He lights a flame that is never extinguished. Health may forsake you, wealth may fail you, for riches often take wings and flee away; poverty may be your only property, and graves your only freehold on earth, and sickness your only companion in life; but this Spirit will abide. with you for ever; casting a light into the grave that reveals it the vestibule of heaven; sanctifying sickness to be a ministry of holiness; and in all time of your wealth, in all time of your tribulation, your inward support, your motive force and peace. The fruits of his presence are also portrayed: “I will cause you also to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." Disguise it as you like, the evidence that the Spirit of God is in your heart is that you bring forth new fruits, that you walk in God's statutes, that you obey God's ordinances. But He says: I will cause you to walk in them; not, I will carry you along them; not, I will scourge you into them; not, I will scare you into them. It is a willing and a joyous service. A man walks willingly; if he does not want to go, he will not walk;-walking is always a willing act. When God says, therefore, "I will cause you to walk in my statutes," it means, I will give you the obedience of a son for the terror of a slave. I will work within you to will and to do of my good pleasure. The Christian's is not an obedience that is constrained, the result of force or persecution. Are we thus made willing? Have we this one proof that God has given us the Holy Spirit? But the word walk means also progress. Standing is not progress; walking is. If you be a Christian, sometimes you will stumble-no doubt of that-there is no such thing as a perfect man, or a perfect church upon earth; sometimes you will stand still, occasionally you will even go back and retrograde; but the sum total will be progression. The tidal waves of the sea come up, then they seem to go back; and the water, instead of advancing, seems positively to lose ground; but you find that its momentary retreat has been only to swell its volume, and under a mightier impetus to make a greater advance upon the beach it kisses and embraces continually. So with man. There be the incidental retrogresmay sion, or standing still, or stumbling, but he will rise, and go on, and he will renew his youth, and run, and not be weary, and walk, and not faint. Here is the great want of the world-the Spirit of God in its heart. Men stand still, men are cold, men are unconcerned, men misconstrue everything that is true religion, just because they have not the Spirit of God. The wonder to me is that the world is not more bitter as Christians become better. All these things are foolishness to the natural man; he does not understand religion, he does not understand the meaning of it; he admires eloquence, or poetry; he is charmed with oratory, or with argument; but when you say what touches his conscience; when you show what religion is in its life, its power, its spirituality, the natural man is always offended. And yet it is often a good sign that you are speaking truth, and speaking it in a right spirit, when the world rebels and scorns. The wonder is that the world is so quiet; I fear it is often because the church is so compromising. But when the shower of a corner shall become the latter rain that descends upon the whole world, every desert shall rejoice, every solitary place shall blossom as the rose; and they shall no more teach every man his neighbour, saying, "Know the Lord;" but all shall know Him, from the least to the greatest; and great shall be the peace of his people; for they shall be all taught of Him. LECTURE XXII. PENTECOSTAL PRAYER. God gives in sovereignty, but He always and everywhere answers prayer. Prayer conducts down heaven's best blessings. "Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them."-EZEKIEL Xxxvi. 37. WHAT is it for which God says he will be inquired of by his professing Church, the house of Israel? It is what he promised to do in the verses on which we have already commented, namely, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." That is the promise; the raw material of prayer when you translate this promise into prayer, and lift that prayer to me with anxious and inquiring hearts, then I will do it for you, and translate the promise into performance, and the prophecy into fact, and mine shall be the praise, and yours shall be the profit. The idea inculcated is not simply the necessity, or the duty, but higher still, the blessed privilege of prayer. In other words, we are told that God gives what He promises only in answer to earnest and be |