Though you may not be always sensible of God's love to you, does He not always love you?

And though you may not be always sensible of loving God, should not your heart be always given up to His love?-[As we advance farther in the divine life, we shall perceive that, according to its different stages, there is a difference in the manner in which we receive the love of God into our souls, and in which our souls breathe forth their love to Him. In the beginning, since we have lived far from God, we must make many efforts to return to Him; and when we feel His love, we often feel it with greater sensibility and force than afterwards: our souls are then unused to the love of God-we need a more sensible encouragement to love Him. But as we become habituated to the love of God, as it more entirely penetrates our souls, we become less sensible of its operation, though its power is not less efficacious. A person whose breathing is dis

love, means of leading the soul to unceasing prayer, to the entire surrender of its will and affections to Jesus Christ. By communion with God, we as it were draw and imbibe His love into our souls-the spirit we therein receive should be treasured up and abide in the depth of our being--in our communications with others, its powerful energy might act mediately upon them, and tend to draw them towards union with God. The principle of the Divine Love abiding in the soul, will frequently aspire towards its source, thence to receive fresh supplies-it will re-ascend in gratitude to God-it will flow in charity to men.

ordered, is sensible of the action of breathing, because of the difficulty he feels in breathinga person in health breathes freely, he does not reflect that he breathes; he inhales constantly, and without effort, the air necessary for the support of life. Again, with respect to the manifestation of our love to God-in the beginning it is perhaps more active, more perceptible to us, because we have been unused to act by the divine love-our mind, as well as our spirit, is much occupied by it; but, as we advance, we love God with less effort, with less sensible perception :-in a farther stage, the love of God, which is our new life, will become natural to the soul; we shall as easily act by the divine love, as in our unrenewed state we acted by the workings of our own desire. It may be observed, more especially with respect to the last-named states, that the soul will seldom reflect that it loves God, yet it will love Him continually. To make this plainer-in the case of a child tenderly attached to its parent; the heart of the child will always love, though its mind be not always engaged in thinking of its parent.]

Your natural life cannot be maintained unless 、 you breathe the air of this world; can you spiritually live without the love of God?

If you do not love God, for what end do you exist?

PRAYER." O God, who hast prepared for them that love Thee, such good things as pass

man's understanding; pour into our hearts such Love toward Thee, that we loving Thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire.-Mercifully grant that we who know Thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of Thy glorious Godhead, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Amen.

HOLY SPIRIT.

I.

You have heard of the Holy Spirit, but perhaps you have never sufficiently considered who He is, and what He can do for you. We will spend a little time in speaking upon this sacred subject. Let us first lift up our hearts that the Holy Spirit may be present with us.-Take your Bibles; we will refer to some passages in

them.

Is the Holy Spirit spoken of in the Old Testament? [Amongst many other passages, see Gen. i. 2; vi. 3; Exod. xxxi. 3; Numb. xi. 25, 26, 29; xxvii. 18; 1 Sam. x. 10, Nehemiah ix. 20, 30; Job xxvi. 13; xxxiii. 4; Psalm li. 11; civ. 30; cxxxix. 7; Prov. i. 23; Isaiah xxxii. 15; xlii. 1; xliv. 3; xlviii. 16; lxi. 1 ; Ixiii. 10, 11; Ezekiel xxxvi. 27; Joel ii. 28; Zech. iv. 6.]

Are the operations and effects of the Holy Spirit manifested in the Old Testament? *

We read of holy men under the old dispensation, who were manifestly under the influence of the Spirit of God. Not to mention the prophets, who spoke and on many occasions acted under the immediate guidance of the Spirit, as Elijah, Isaiah, Daniel, &c.-we may observe, that all who loved and served God, could only have done so by the power of the Holy Ghost. Enoch, Abraham, and all the saints of old, could not have been the examples of holiness they were, but by the influence of the Spirit of holiness, from whom all good works proceed.

When did the Holy Spirit visibly descend upon our Saviour? Matt. iii. 16.

Why do you suppose He thus visibly descended?

With what is it said Jesus was anointed? Read Acts x. 38; with Isa. lxi. 1.

From whom is the Holy Spirit said to proceed? John xv. 26.

What great promise was to be fulfilled after the death of Jesus? John xiv. 16, &c.

Under what names did our Saviour speak of the Holy Spirit, to His disciples? See John xiv. 16, 17, 26; xv. 26; xvi. 7, 13. .

Mention the particular offices of the Holy Spirit spoken of by our Saviour. [He was to testify of Christ, John xv. 26;-to glorify Christ, xvi. 14;-to "reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment,” xvi. 8; -to teach the disciples, and bring to their remembrance all things which Christ had spoken

The same remark may apply to the characters we read of in the early part of the New Testament history, as Zacharias and Elizabeth, and Anna. Of Simeon it is expressly said "the Holy Ghost was upon him."-The gift of the Spirit promised by our Saviour, and bestowed after His ascension, was a fuller, and more blessed manifestation than had yet been known. The Spirit was thenceforth to abide with men. We may believe that one reason why the effusion of the Spirit took place after this event, was to shew us that the Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father through the Son; the purchase of His most precious blood, whether bestowed under the old or new dispensation. It may be remarked, that Christians are still expecting and praying for the farther outpouring of the Spirit.