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to the faith of Christ, is not any frenzy or madness, such as the Arabs or Turks might so call, nor yet any stormy impulse of warlike or patriotic fervour, as the ancient Hebrews thought, nor yet chiefly any excellence in gift of song or earthly art, as many modems would teach us ; but is most eminently a partak- ing of that spirit of truth and love and self-sacrifice, which dwelt in Christ Himself, and which the Father had given Him with- out measure. Whereas we have it each in our measure and degree, some with ten talents, and some with only one. The Apostles had it very eminently, and other preachers of truth have partaken of it largely, but no true Christian is a stranger to its eternal and indwelling power. Christ has described it as a well of water springing up in all His followers unto eternal life. St James also speaks of the ingrowing word, which is able to deliver the soul from evil. Touched by this fire, as if with a coal from the altar, we glow with a pure love of Grod, and be- come conformed to His will, and offer up our lives as a sacrifice of the mind, partaking of Christ in thought and in deed, rather than in name. Thus the Apostle says, Let Christ dioell in your hearts hy faith. Now as Christ's kingdom is not of this world, and as He bids His followers not be anxious about worldly things, so the outpouring of His holy breathing upon His fol- lowers cannot be chiefly an enlightenment in worldly things. Thus the Holy Ghost does not teach us whether we shall be rich or poor, for it bids us not * seek great things for ourselves.' Nor is it careful to inform us, how many years have rolled over any earthly kingdom, or over the habitation of the globe, or what was done in ages which do not concern us. But it leaves all such inquiries to the ordinary methods of Divine Providence, which may permit in their kind a certain inspiration by the love of truth and by cultivation of reason, since tlie spirit of the most High gives also understanding. Hence there may be closely con- nected with the eternal spirit of true religion a temporal history, which yet may be liable to whatever accidents of humanity Divine Providence permits elsewhere. It is not in the records of DIVERSE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. 483 earthly knowledge, however sacred may be the book containing them, but in the conformity of our heart and will to the will of Grod as shewn in the mind of Christ, that we are to seek for that truest Inspiration, which is with Christians the gift of the Holy Ghost. Yet, as you often see that a simple and good heart has clearer perceptions of the Right and even of things slightly con- nected with it, than men of proud learning ; so the gifts of the Holy Ghost, in purifying the heart, branch over indirectly into the intellect. The love which the Apostles felt for Christ, would make them more religiously watchftil of His words. The con- formity of the beloved Apostle's mind to that of His Master may have enabled him better to give us the highest import of Christ's most solemn discourses. Again, Reason, though in the narrowest sense of the word it is applied chiefly to ratiocination, yet in a larger sense as comprehending all the capacities of the mind, has its vision cleared, and its best perceptions made firmer, by the breathing upon it of the gift of God. Thus age, and authority, and office, have due place in the Church of Christ, though the Spirit which, like the wind, bloweth where it list- eth, may often give its better life to simple and imlettered people, and is better recognised in the voice of conscientious humanity from the congregation at large, than in the sentences of dignified men. All things with us are done decently and in order ; yet old men and maidens, rich and poor, one with another, have often in the pure instincts of simple piety an inspiration better than that of official doctors, and exert by moral contagion, a power of binding through opinion things to be done, and loosing things that should pass away. But we are persuaded by Christ, that as His words in their highest meaning cannot pass away, so the life of His Spirit in the faithful congregation will never fail. We find by comparing our experience with the records of Holy Writ, that what the Holy Spirit taught Apostles and saints of old. He teaches by the witness of pure hearts for ever. We do not then change what is written. It would be absurd to suppose that facts truly recorded can be undone at our pleasure ; or that 31—2 484 THE LETTER AN INSTRUMENT OF THE SPIRIT. the record of them can be useless as an instrument to make them known. Moreover, since the record is one of spiritual life, it is no slight instrument of awakening the same life in ourselves. As the word of God, when it speaks home to a man's conscience, does not return empty, so neither can its record be void. Thus faith may come by reading, or hearing. But yet since the record is spiritual, we cannot put it above the spirit which it records. Since it is written in order to quicken and make us live, we must not use it so as to quench the life it should cherish. K Christ especially reveals the force of truth as an indwelling power of the mind, and the law of conscience witnessing to the Holy Spirit of God, these principles by their very nature have an expansive power, which reduces all laws of the letter into useful instruments. Thus St Paul* says of the ancient Scrip- ture, that it 18 useful, not that it is dominant. For whatever is usefiil, is thereby subordinate. The Apostle takes for granted, that the body of Christ is tenanted by His mind, so that the aggregate of Christian consciences is animated by the Divine breathing. Moreover the use of ancient Scripture is connected by St Paul with the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom. It is usefiil, he tells us, as having power to make the servant of G^ wise unto salvation. But our wisdom is the fear of the Lord ; and we are saved, when we are delivered from evil. For then our Lord's prayer is fulfilled in us. When then holy Scripture awakens good thoughts in us, it carries on, as an useful instru- ment, this deliverance or healing of the soul. Then it does in- strumentally the work of the great Physician. But yet God is a God of the living, and our Healer is ever present as the Holy Spirit working in us the life of Christ whom He represents on earth. Nor will I here distract you with discussion, why the Holy Spirit, which is said to be shed abroad in men's hearts, and in virtue of such difiusion is called a gift and a breathing of God, is yet in its unity spoken of in the Holy Scripture as a person, though not in such a sense a person, as to destroy the fundamental unity • 1 Tunothy iii. 15, 16. UNITY OF SPIRIT. SCBIPTUBE. CX)MMUNION OP SAINTS. 485 of God. For this would be going back into that discussion of the Trinity, in which we said that the Father and the Word and the Holy Spirit are One God. That is not here our question, except so far as the Spirit, who is also called the strengthener of men, and the Pleader between God and Man, must be remem- bered to be eternal. However much, therefore. His gifts may differ in degree, or clearness, or variety, yet He who lives in every generation of the faithful, is ever One. His life then is the same, yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow. If He could cease to animate the Church, she woidd cease to live, or truly to be what she is. " But just as the Jews erred, when they rested only in the letter of written precepts, neither discerning the intention out of which their system came, nor learning the design which it grew up to fulfil, so Christians would have fallen from their faith if they did not recognise by faith the law of God written spiritually in their consciences* ; yet they would sin against reason and Providence if they did not cherish the expressions of a like spiritual writing in men's hearts of old, which are recorded for their learning in their Bible. Being brought face to face with God in Christ, in His light they see light, and no longer need a mediator such as Moses wasf, yet they rejoice in handing down the inheritance which they have received, and find the better life, which is the light of the soul, wonderfiilly quickened in them by the thoughts which come of tracing its former land- marks.