by dispensations of wrath. Sometimes things are at such a pass that there is no other way for God to answer the prayers which he breathes into the hearts of his own people. The cry of the oppressed and wronged goes up mingling with voices from under the altar, "How long, O Lord, how long wilt thou not avenge our blood?" "And will not God avenge his own elect?" Yes: "By terrible things in righteousness thou wilt answer us, O God of our salvation." By his wrath poured out upon the nations, or by his rod that smites his beloved ones with a father's tender carefulness, he is working his own work, and bringing to pass the good pleasure of his goodness. When God called the Chaldeans in his wrath, and they swept over Israel like a destroying whirlwind, what were they but the stormy wind fulfilling his word? For aught we can say, such a manifestation of God's wrath may be, at this moment, ready to break upon the world. Ages of systematized injustice and deceit, ages of wrong-doing and oppression on the part of governments, ages of suffering and of progressive degradation on the part of subject nations, seem to have come near to some great crisis. What that crisis shall bring forth, as its immediate results, He only can foretell who is making all things to work together for the accomplishment of his eternal counsels. The year now opening is likely to be, throughout wide regions of the European continent at least, a year of terrible convulsions. Already we begin to see, as it were, upon the eastern sky the glare of the kindling conflagragration. Already we see "upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." It is easy to comfort ourselves with the belief that a new order of things is about to be established in that old world. It is easy to dream that, in the next rising of the nations against their oppressive governments, there shall suddenly come forth from the confusion a new and orderly condition of society, in which all political institutions shall rest on the foundation of justice, and shall have no other end than the common welfare, and in which the Word of God, no longer bound and hampered by the alliance of the civil with the ecclesiastical powers, shall have free course and be glorified. But when we think how long and slow a process it is for a people to learn the art of self-government; how slowly new political arrangements are compacted into strength and durability, and how slowly justice forces itself into law and the administration of law where old prejudices and established interests are to be overcome; and when we remember how slowly, as men count slowness, God's work of making all things new has seemed to advance along the track of ages heretofore; we tremble at the anticipation of the events that are likely to be crowded into the year that has just begun; "For behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity." "O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid."

IV. Blessed are the years in which God makes known his work as a work of power and mercy. The remembrance of such years lives for ever in the hearts of God's people. "I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High; I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember thy wonders of old." How glad for ever in Israel the remembrance of the year when God brought back the captivity of his people! How bright through all eternity the morning when the Saviour rose from the dead! How cheering to remember the days when God gave the word, and the apostles went forth like stars in their courses! How like a jubilee did the gospel sound abroad over the nations at the era of the Reformation, bursting out of the sepulchre of dead languages, receiving, as it were, anew the gift of tongues, and spreading itself by agencies before unknown! What hope is there for the militant Church, what hope for the miserable world, in such remembrances as these! Every such testimony from the past forbids our despondency for the future. Come what may, come whatever reaction against "the good old cause" of justice and of liberty; come whatever triumph of oppression; come whatever deepening gloom of superstition and of spiritual despotism; come whatever despair upon the hopes of those who look for "a good time coming" without faith in God; the believer, remembering the years of the right hand of the Most High, still "bates no jot of heart or hope." His-though the heavens be dark above him, and the earth around be desolate-is that immovable confidence with which our prophet sings, "Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

In such confidence let us look forth on the portentous sky that overhangs the world. Wrath may be in those portents, the wrath which, in the days of old, has made the world to tremble. But high above those lowering clouds of wrath, is the serene and lightsome sphere of God's all-comprehending work, his work of mercy in the world for which the Incarnate Word has lived and died. This very year may yet become one of those memorable years in which God's work is revived and made known, and in which the prayer, "In wrath remember mercy," receives an answer that shall be remembered till the end of time.

And what shall this year be in our assemblies? What shall it be in the place of our habitation? Shall we be contented with what we are now experiencing of the progress of God's work? Contented, while so many in our assemblies, so many of our own children, have never" tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious?" Contented, while the god of this world holds so firm a dominion around us? Let our prayer be, as we hail this opening year, "O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years."

And is there not some memorable year in your individual history? Has there never been a year when God revealed himself to your soul as the God of your salvation; when he made his work to live within you; when he made known to your awa

kened consciousness his thoughts of love concerning you; when, in the midst of the wrath of which your guilty conscience testified, his mercy beamed upon you from the cross of Christ? Has there been no such epoch in your spiritual history? Behold, now is the time. He is waiting to be gracious.

SERMON DLXIV.

BY REV. JESSE T. PECK, D.D., PRESIDENT OF DICKINSON COLLEGE.

THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST, THE GREAT PRESENT WANT OF THE CHURCH.

‘HAVE ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed ?”—Acts xix. 2.

THE reception of the Holy Ghost, in a special sense, is every believer's privilege. This is evident from the promises made. John said, "He that cometh after me shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." The special character of this baptism appears in the language of the Saviour given by St. Luke: "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Now "the number of the names together were about an hundred and twenty ;" and "they were all with one accord in one place ;" "And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them." It was hence evident that this special baptism was provided for the whole Church. St. Peter confirmed this opinion. "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."

Now this could not have been the only work of the Holy Spirit upon earth. He is the great agent of general grace, and must have been engaged in the ordinary work of enlightening, purifying, and saving men since the first promise of Redemption. But the Christian dispensation was to be marked by peculiar responsibilities, and hence of course by peculiar privileges. The full inauguration of the Messiah-King was therefore attested by the abundant outpouring of the Spirit, which was so special as to be announced and described as an original gift.

The instances recorded are ample confirmation of the general right of believers to this special baptism. We have room for but two: "Now when the apostles that were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost; (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them; only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost." Consider also the brief history given in the context. Paul found certain disciples at Ephesus, to whom he proposed the question, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" He supposed them to be true believers-regularly baptized Christians. From both these instances, and other similar ones, it is evident that in primitive theology, a special baptism, in distinction from the ordinary work of the Spirit, was recognized as the believer's privilege. It was not implied in the rudiments of faith, in the first conditions of discipleship. It did not invariably accompany Christian adult baptism. It was received at times more or less remote from primary faith, and hence in different stages of Christian progress. It was given in answer to prayer, which in the forms of primitive simplicity was accompanied by the laying on of hands. And, finally, it was sometimes followed by certain miraculous results, that were in accordance with the spirit and emergencies of those times, yet not essential to the promised blessing.

But, conclusively, the results required imply the special, baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is not merely the conviction for sin, the repentance and faith, the regeneration and witness given in the ordinary forms of divine agency, that will impart completeness to the Christian character, that will clothe it "in the beauty of holiness," that will gird it with power to conquer the world; and yet these are results imperatively demanded in the revelation of God. The Church is held responsible for a state of perfection, for a style of activity, and a degree of moral power, which must be utterly impracticable in the absence of this special baptism. It is evidently assumed in her predicted mission that she will have received the fulfilment of the promise which is to her and her children; and when Christians are found without their intended purity, development and efficiency, it may well be asked, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye

believed?"

It thus appears, from the promises recorded, the instances given, and the results required, that the reception of the Holy Ghost in some special sense is every believer's privilege.

But how is the question of the text to be answered by the mass of believers at the present time? Perhaps few could reply, "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." Unquestionably, however, large numbers must answer in the negative. They have been truly converted, are

recognized as believers by the Church and the world, and perhaps by the Omniscient God. Still they are only "babes"weak in faith and very inefficient. They have at no time felt the corruptions of their hearts so as to make them cry out for deliverance. They have not bewailed their sinfulness for days and nights together, engaged in fervent, agonizing prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, determined never to rest until they could "reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." They have not felt the holy violence of faith, that knew no denial, and claimed, in present renovating power, the baptism of fire. They have not realized the dissolving energies of the Holy Ghost, pervading their whole being, and filling their souls with a burning desire for the glory of God. Or if so, they have been unfaithful, and are now uttering their lamentations by the rivers of Babylon, with their harps hung upon the willows.

Though devoutly grateful for the special manifestations of saving grace, wherever they appear, the friends of Zion cannot fail to see and mourn over her low estate. Inefficiency is felt to so great an extent as to excite alarm and anxious inquiry into its causes and remedies. The Church question-involving the whole field of its essential and organic life, of its historic and prophetic relations to itself, to human governments, and to the ultimate destiny of the race has no one aspect so intensely interesting as this: What is its essential want? With all deference to those who seek to solve this problem in other modes, we believe that

THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST IS THE GREAT PRESENT WANT OF THe Church.

In proof of this position, we observe:

I. The Vision of the Church is obscure.

From the modes of her being, and the nature of her mission, the Church is required to examine with great accuracy the moral condition of the world. She must study profoundly her own state, and the wants and woes of those who are out of her pale. But she does not succeed well in these efforts. Thousands of her members cast a momentary glance at their own hearts, and are flattered by the view, seeing nothing but virtue, where pride, avarice, envy, lust, and revenge have their undisturbed habitation. The soul's reflection cannot reach these depths of concealed depravity. The light is insufficient. The road to heaven is a narrow way, but do not Christians generally think it exceedingly broad? The boundaries of the road, which to an accurate vision would be distinctly marked, seem quite undefined; and when they suppose themselves in the way to life, it is quite possible that they are in "the broad road that leadeth to destruction." There are dangers before them, but they cannot see them; dangers in their worldly prosperity, but they think it the best of fortune; dangers in their levity, but they think it merely innocent joy; dangers in their splendor of dress and equipage, but they think it only decency and good taste;