teach spiritual truths. God's Holy Spirit himself is spoken of as if he were air or wind. Such is the original meaning of the word "Spirit." The unseen world cannot even be thought of as it is in itself, but we must approach it by means of some allusion to things of which we have experience. It may surprise the unlearned to be told that the word in the 8th verse, which we translate "the wind," is the very same word which in the same verse is translated "the Spirit." We might read with no violence to truth, "The Spirit bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Here the ideas of the wind and of the Holy Spirit of God are designedly so mixed and blended that it is perhaps presumptuous to attempt quite to separate them. In point of fact, how can you obtain closer ideas of the operations of the Spirit, than you thus learn from contemplating the nature of the wind? It comes from the visible heaven, as the Spirit from the heaven of heavens; for wind never blows from the earth's surface, but comes down from above. Men of science in vain endeavour to investigate whence it originates and whither it goes. It is as invisible to human eyes, as he of whom it is the appointed emblem. Yet however involved in mystery, there lives not a man so dull as to doubt about its existence, for he sees and acknowledges its mighty effects. We contemplate with awe the storm,

as it tears down trees or agitates the mighty waves of great waters; we bless its cheerful operation in cleansing the air and refreshing our spirits; we know that all things living soon wither and perish, if they have not free access to it; in it, as well as in God himself, we live and move and have our being; and philosophers prove to us that air is a grand constituent of all organized beings. In short there is nothing of whose substance it does not form so large a part that some have thought all matter to originate in this subtle, invisible fluid. Time will not allow me to forestal you in the pleasing and instructive exercise of applying these resemblances to the Spirit of God; which moved with its life-giving energy on the face of the abyss at the first creation; and who now brings light and order and beauty and purity and happiness to our benighted, our corrupted, our unclean and miserable souls. But water is also a striking emblem of the work of the Spirit. It washes filth from the body, and refreshes it when weary. We should then consider our Lord as intending to point out the Spirit in some of his great offices by the use of this word, as much as by the use of the word "Spirit" or "wind." He purifies from sin; and water is his type in this blessed work, as the air is his type when he breathes spiritually into the soul, and man, once spiritually dead, lives again to God. Fire is another emblem of the Spirit; for he animates his people with zeal and courage, and enables them to

bear testimony to his grace in the face of the world. He refines them in the furnace of affliction, and purges away all their dross; thus he baptizes with fire.

But I must hasten to conclude. And I cannot do it more impressively than in the words of God's gracious promise in the prophet Ezekiel, to which our Lord evidently alludes, and which are at once a proof that I am right in the explication I have given of the use of water, and a paraphrase and illustration of the language which he has chosen. "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. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses : and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God'."

THE COLLECT.

Almighty God, grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

1 Ezek. xxxvi. 25-29.

SERMON IV.

THE HOLY GHOST THE COMFORTER.

WHITSUNDAY.

JOHN xiv. 26.

"The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

THE Collect for this great festival of the Church is evidently founded on the text which I have chosen; and the promise of the Comforter, addressed in the first instance and more especially to the Apostles, is therein accommodated to us, and adapted to the present need and benefit of Christ's Church. It were a melancholy notion, to suspect that we are not blessed with that all-sufficient Spirit, whose mighty working was required to teach the Apostles, and to fix strongly and usefully in their memories and hearts those truths which are necessary for working out the salvation of all the faithful people of Christ. We indeed are not a small and despised number of

fishermen sent forth to convert a proud and wicked world, of whose very language we are ignorant; we need not therefore the miraculous gift of tongues, or the power of showing signs and wonders. But within us and all around swarm the enemies of our salvation, and we still need an Almighty Helper to carry us victoriously through them, and to "exalt us to the same place whither our Saviour is gone before." It is he who puts words of power into the mouth of the preacher; he it is who opens the hearts of his congregation to receive them. Blessed Spirit, teach the hearts of these thy people assembled before the hallowed memorials of Christ's dying love; fit them for a devout and worthy participation of them; grant that they may rejoice in thy comfort while militant here on earth, and set before them the sure and certain hope of thy everlasting joy in the kingdom of glory, towards which they are hastening.

Let us first consider the teaching on the day of Pentecost as the Collect describes it; and, secondly, the benefit from the same Spirit, which it also directs us to hope and to pray for.

1. God is said to have taught the hearts of his faithful people by sending to them the light of his Holy Spirit. The expression is remarkable, and at first sight may appear inaccurate. For the "heart" of man means his affections; and we rather speak of teaching a man's reason and understanding than of teaching his affections. But this expression involves