instance of Divine mercy which God vouchsafed to His church on the day of Pentecost;and in the prayer we implore the same mercy for ourselves.

It is scarcely needful to remark that the faithful people, mentioned in our collect as taught of God, were the Apostles and first Evangelists, who were to be employed as God's ambassadors to a lost world in consequence of the commission which they had received to " preach the Gospel "to every creature," and to "disciple all na"tions, baptising them in the name of the "Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy "Ghost."

Of this astonishing instance of Divine mercy a particular account is given us in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, which properly opens with a relation of the manner in which the Apostles were qualified for the execution of their high office, and then proceeds to a detail of the success with which it was attended. On that interesting event, the Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit, we shall enlarge a little, as being referred to in the introduction of our collect.

We are informed by the sacred historian, (Acts ii. 1-4) that "When the day of Pente"cost was fully come, the Apostles were all with "one accord in one place. And suddenly there "came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing "mighty wind, and it filled all the house where

they were sitting. And there appeared unto "them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled "with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak "with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them "utterance."

God had from the beginning of the world revealed Himself to man through the medium of sensible objects. And indeed it doth not appear how God, as a spiritual substance, could have made Himself known to us without them. His nature, threefold personality, mode of subsistence, moral perfections, and will, were exhibited, previously to the coming of Christ, by a long train of rites and ceremonies, extending from Adam to the termination of the Jewish œconomy. These all ceased to be in force when He came of whom they were shadowy representations. Yet under the new dispensation, though confessedly more spiritual than the former, God hath chosen to make use of the same method of instruction, explaining spiritual things by natural. Of this method our Lord's parables, St. Peter's vision, the Christian sacraments, the whole book of the Revelation, and the event which we this day commemorate, are instances. And inasmuch as words are the signs of ideas, and all our ideas are derived through the medium of our senses, instruction by words, and instruction by signs, are nearly allied to each other.

The marvellous event which our collect celebrates is a most important link in that grand and golden chain of salvation which reaches from eternity to eternity, originating in the eternity that is past, and to be perfected in the eternity which is to come. It is one of those glorious circumstances which were all comprehended and secured in the antemundane covenant of redemption. For as Christ was to receive the reward of His sufferings in the conversion, sanctification, and salvation of a great multitude of human souls, innumerable as the

dew-drops of the morning; it was necessary that His gospel should be published, that heralds should be qualified for the office of proclaiming it, and that their message should be accompanied by a Divine agency for the purpose of rendering it effectual.

Forasmuch as this event constituted an important article in the covenant of redemption, we need not wonder to find that it was a frequent subject of prediction before its accomplishment. It was comprehended in the first promise made to our guilty parents in Paradise, and progressively explained, with increasing distinctness, by a long train of inspired prophets, among whom Joel is the most remarkable with respect to this event. (See Acts ii. 16-21.) At length the great prophet Himself appeared, and spake plainly of the Comforter and His work.

It may be necessary to remark, that previous to the manifestation of God in the flesh there were many partial effusions of the Spirit on the church at different periods, and that all real Godliness from the beginning, both in the church and in the individuals of which it was composed, was the result of Divine influence. There were from the beginning a faithful few who "worshipped God in the Spirit," being united to Christ by faith, and deriving from Him that vital energy whereby they were enabled to live to Him. But the grand discovery of His grace to all nations was reserved till the Son of man was glorified.

From the time of our Lord's ascension to the day of Pentecost, during the space of ten days, the Apostles and the other disciples, being one hundred and twenty in number, waited in the performance of religious exercises at Jerusalem

for the accomplishment of the promise which they had received. It is the method of Divine wisdom to try the faith of believers before they receive promised blessings. But they who wait on the Lord, having the warrant of His word for their expectation, are never disappointed.

The time which was chosen by God for that marvellous display of His grace which we now commemorate, discovers His wisdom, and the unity of design which prevails in all His dispensations. Pentecost was one of the three annual Jewish festivals, at which all the males were obliged to appear at Jerusalem. At one of these, viz. the Passover, our Lord had been crucified. And He was glorified at another by the mission of His Spirit just fifty days afterwards. The feast of Pentecost was observed in commemoration of the promulgation of the law on mount Sinai, of which the effusion of the Spirit was the antitype; for thereby the holy law, which had been written at Sinai on tables of stone by the finger of God, was now by the same Almighty agency written on "the fleshly "tables of the" human "heart." And it happened providentially that the day of Pentecost fell on the Christian Sabbath in the year of which we are speaking, "the acceptable year " of the Lord." On that day the first fruits of the future harvest were also offered to God and anointed with holy oil; in a pre-ordered correspondence with which appointed ceremony, the first fruits of the Christian church from among all nations were now offered up to God, and received "an unction from the Holy One." The solemnity of this festival, the general expectation of the Messiah which was spread abroad, and the commodious length of the days,

were circumstances likely to bring together a vast concourse of people, as we find from the sacred history to have been the fact. These, assembled from all parts of the civilized world into which the Jewish creed had penetrated, would on their return home widely make known the miracle which they had witnessed, and thereby prepare the way of the Apostles when they afterwards came to preach the gospel to their several countrymen. (See Acts ii. 5.)

The manner in which this discovery of Divine grace was made, corresponds with the usual method of God's procedure. The Divine interposition was accompanied with external symbols of God's presence, and these were appropriate, as on other occasions, to the intention of the visit. The propriety of this remark, with a relation to former instances, may be justified by an appeal to the majestic and awful scenery amidst which the law was promulgated,-to the milder display of grace at the baptism of Jesus by John in Jordan,—and to various other manifestations of Divine interference. The tokens of the Divine presence, employed on the day of Pentecost, were a mighty rushing wind, and conical flames or tongues of fire. The correspondence of these emblems with the thing signified is evident; and yet it is so extensive as to call for some explanation.

Wind, or air in motion, is a frequent emblem of spiritual influence employed in the word of God. For brevity's sake we shall refer to no more than two, one from the Old Testament Scriptures and another from the New. Ezekiel's parable (chap. xxxvii. comp. ver. 8, 9, with ver. 14) will afford the former; and our Lord's words (John iii. 8) will supply the latter. To