IT was a great era in the history of this world, when" God was manifest" in the person of Jesus Christ; the greatest, we believe, in the his tory of the universe. That was the period to which previous generations had been looking forward with the eye of faith and eager expectation, and to which all succeeding generations will look back, as a period "full of grace and truth.' How blessed the eyes which saw what men then saw: an impersona. tion of the mighty God, in the form and nature of man!-when, pointing to one of human fashion and feature, they could exclaim with heart-felt assurance," My Lord and my God!" What an exalted distinction was then enjoyed. The divine Head of the church was visibly present among his people!

But is the church since the ascension of the Messiah deserted? Nowe have "another Comforter." When sorrow filled the hearts of his disciples, at the prospect of his removal from them, Christ foretold the advent of One who should abide with them forever, whose wisdom should be their guide, and whose power their protection-even the SPIRIT OF TRUTH. The fulfillment of this promise gives us in the place of a visible, an invisible Head.

our language allows perhaps no nearer approximation to the origi nal; though this term no more brings out the full force of the original, than it would were it used in that passage where John (1 Ep. i, 2) applies the same word to Jesus himself. "If any man sin we have an advocate (paracleton) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

Were we here to translate the word as we do when applied to the Holy Spirit, and call Jesus a Comforter, we should have a shade of the original, and that is all we have in the present case. The word advocate or patron comes perhaps as near to the original as any single word in our language. The meaning of "paracleton" is one called upon, i. e. for assistance; one in whom we can confide, who will make our interests his own, like an advocate or lawyer, and not merely one, as the word "Comforter" indicates, whose sole office is to administer consolation. The plain import then of this great promise is, that the Holy Spirit after the ascension of Jesus is to be, not merely what all admit he is-the moving, vital principle of the church, the source of her strength and efficiency-but likewise the fountain-head of authority, her Director and Guide.

Let us now turn to the Acts of the Apostles and see whether the promise was fulfilled in the same sense in which it was made. The scene now changes. The clouds have closed upon our incarnate and visible Paraclete, and there is ushered in "another," an unseen, mysterious Agent, equal to the former in power and glory, though he comes in different state. The book entitled "The Acts of the Apostles," may be called the "Gospel of the Holy Spirit." It is "the glad tidings" of the official advent of our other Para

clete, and a record of his mighty acts among the sons of men.

In the second chapter, we have a record of the fulfillment of this great promise; an announcement of the official entrance of our other Comforter into the world. We say, of his official entrance, for none can be unaware that the Holy Spirit was in the world, as was the Son of God, before he took his official position in the church. The circumstances of his advent, though very unlike those which attended that of his divine coëqual, are of a striking and wonderful character, and deserve attention. In some respects we find a resemblance, in others a contrast, between the states and conditions in which these two Paracletes commence their respective official duties as Head of the church. In both cases we notice a great advance upon the carnal and sensuous notions of the Jewish mind. When the Son of God appeared, the Jewish people were called to advance a step in their progress toward heavenly and spiritual views. They were told the time drew nigh, nay, then was, when the true worshipers should worship the Father "in spirit and in truth." Their attention is called away from their outward and showy forms of obedience, to the necessity of an inward and spiritual service. Their carnal notions of the Messiah, as one who was to come in pomp and power to deliver them from Roman oppression, and lift them to a proud and lofty eminence among the nations of the earth, are met and rebuked, and from the minds of some partially eradicated. In striking contrast with all the glory of their temple service, with their pride, national, intellectual, religious; in open rebuke of the haughty Pharisees, their true Messiah begins his mortal existence in a town that is "little among the thousands of Judah," is born of obscure parentage, and cradled in a manger: his advent is announced in the night, not to the

chief priests and rulers, but to a company of shepherds. He grows up in Nazareth and Capernaum, in the despised province of Galilee, in the family of a carpenter, and finally calls around him, to assist in laying the foundations of his "everlasting kingdom," men unknown to any extent among the Jews. His dress and mode of life are plain and unostentatious, and the haughty Jews even "hide their faces from him;" they call him "the carpenter's son!" He goes from place to place, simply "bearing witness to the truth," and "doing good." Thus he led the human mind one step farther toward the spiritual world. But still he comes himself to the very threshold of the carnal and outward world. He comes "in the flesh," with a material and visible form. He meets the mind of man in the world of sense, that he may lift it up to a purer and more spiritual state, and fit it for a higher and nobler dispensation hereafter.

But lo! he is taken up and a cloud receives him out of sight. The days of "the visible" are accomplished. Nothing now is to be seen on earth but what is earthly and human. Divinity has retired from the world of sense. A cloud has closed the portals of heaven.

The third Person of the Godhead now takes the place of the second, and lifts the mind still higher in its destined progress. He reveals himself, not on the field of outward vision, but in the world of mind. All the visible evidence we have of his advent is simply the momentary appearance of "tongues of fire." In the scheme of things which commences with his official advent, there is little or nothing that appeals to sense. There is none to whom we can listen with the outward ear, and say, as could be said in the days of Jesus, this is our master's voice. Invisible, intangible, inaudible, but still truly present is this other Paraclete, to be to the church,

as Christ was, a ruler and a guide; to announce authoritatively the laws of the church, and to impart to the members the dispositions which become them.

In our progress then toward the spiritual or heavenly dispensation, we are placed in a position one step in advance of that which the church occupied in the days of the Messiah. We are called up from the world of sense in which Jesus appeared, to a higher state. We are brought one step nearer to God. Our Paraclete is a Spirit. We have the exalted dignity of living in a dispensation where the aids of sense are in a great measure laid aside. Our minds are brought into immediate communion with God, and he is now unfolding himself to us, in a measure, as he will in the next or heav enly dispensation.

But let us turn our attention from the official advent of our other Paraclete to some other portions of this writing, and contemplate the evidence that the supreme authority in the church was actually exercised by the Holy Spirit. The most unequivocal evidence of this is found in chap. xx, 28, where in his address to the elders of the church of Ephesus, Paul gives them this significant exhortation-"Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers" or bishops. These elders then derived their authority from the Holy Spirit. Another passage equally clear is found in chap. XIII, vs. 1, 2, and 4—" Now there were in the church that was at Antioch, certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas, &c. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto 1 have called them."

The passage speaks for itself. At the time when the dissension arose at Antioch concerning circumcision, and Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem to consult the apostles VOL. IV.

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and elders there, in the letter which they brought back to Antioch we find an expression which implies the truth we are aiming to establish. The language of the letter is, (xv, 28,)" for it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things." Chap. vi, 29-the Holy Spirit here appears as the counsellor and director of Philip. "Then the Spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to his chariot." Chaps. x, 19, and xi, 12, Peter likewise acts under the same authority. "While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, behold three men seek thee." "The Spirit bade me go with them nothing doubting." In chap. xvi, 6, 7, we have another instance of the exercise of authority over the apostles by the Holy Spir it.

"Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia; after they were come to Mysia they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not." There is likewise something worthy of notice in the phraseology in which the sin of Ananias and Sapphira is spoken of, chap. v, 3. They are said to have "lied to the Holy Ghost," and to have "tempted the Spirit of the Lord." The sin of which they were guilty was evidently not what is termed "the sin against the Holy Ghost." There is nothing in its nature, or in the circumstances in which it was committed to render it unpardonable.

Why then are they said to have committed this sin "against the Holy Ghost," but because he then stood at the head of that Christian community from which they were withholding a part of their estate, while they wished to have the credit of giving up the whole?

The conclusion to which we are thus drawn, that the Holy Spirit occupies the same position in the church militant which Jesus occu

pied in the days of his flesh, has been perverted by fanatics who have fancied themselves to be guid. ed by the direct teachings or inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is no part of the doctrine. Our other Comforter laid down in the times of the apostles all the canons for the regulation and government of his church, and gave all the instructions which he deemed necessary; and what he now does to promote her order and prosperity, is not by in spiration, not by imparting new ideas, but by his operations on the heart, through the influence of truth before revealed. And it is on this last account, chiefly, that it was expedient for the church that her former Comforter should go away, since her" other Comforter," being a divine Spirit, omnipresent, can simultaneously have access to all minds, conveying to all every need. ful impression. Our views have, therefore, no sympathy with the dreams and visions of a wild, delirious excitement. It was declared by Thomas Munzer, the leader of that band of fanatics which arose in the days of Luther, as an excre. scence of the Reformation, that "he who hath the Spirit, hath true faith, although he should never once in all his life see the Holy Scriptures." This is a wild perversion of the doctrine that our "other Paraclete" is now in the place of Christ, the acting Head of the church. His name, "Spirit of Truth," points us at once to the great instrumentality on which he relies for the subju'gation of the world and the discipline of the church-to the kind of sway he exercises and the mode in which he exercises it; and teaches us an important lesson respecting the part we have to perform, if we would cooperate with him in the conquest of the world. It is the glory of that kingdom of which he is the Head, that it has been established, defended and enlarged to the present time, in the face of circumstances appa.

rently most unpropitious, without the aids of stratagem or physical force; in opposition to the power of wealth and learning, the terrors of the dungeon, the rack, the gibbet, fire and sword; in opposition to the power and cunning of the prince of darkness, and the prejudices of Jew and Gentile; that it is destined to be enlarged, till it shall compass the world, and continued throughout an eternity to come, with no other instrumentality than that of THE TRUTH. "Alexander, Charlemagne and myself," Napoleon is reported to have said in his last days, "founded empires; but upon what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force." "In this war," said he, (alluding to the triumphant progress of Christ's kingdom,)" all the kings and potentates of the earth were on one side; on the other I see no army, but a mysterious force-some men scattered here and there in all parts of the world, and who have no other rallying point than a common faith in the mysteries of the cross. die before my time, and my body will be given back to the earth to become food for worms. What an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ, which is proclaimed, loved, and adored, and which is extending over the whole earth!" How does the glory of the kingdoms "of this world" turn to shame, contrasted with the glorious majesty of Christ's everlasting kingdom!

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"The sword" which our other Paraclete wields in defense of the church and in the conquest of the world, and by which he preserves order and subjection in the church, is of no earthly fabric; it does not glitter on the field of outward vision; it flashes out before the mind, "quick and powerful, laying open the thoughts and intents of the heart”— "the word of God." He as well as our former Paraclete is the King of Truth, and all that are of the Truth hear his voice. He address

es himself to that inner citadel, into which none of the kings and warriors of earth could ever carry their authority. He brings down the heart of man before the majesty of Truth and makes him a willing captive."

We can foresee a vast accession of strength and energy to the church, when she shall once wake up to a clear and vigorous concep tion of this great fact. We have reached a new and critical era in the experience of the Christian church. "The night" which has so long brooded over the great body of earth's population is, we believe, "far spent-the day is at hand." We already discern a few, who in anticipation of the dawn, are awake and to be seen moving in different portions of the wide "field" before us. Here and there in the midst of the darkness, at various points-in Africa, in Asia, even in China itself, in many islands of the sea-you notice a flickering light which indicates the abode of the missionaries of Jesus; which tells us that some are aroused and "about their Father's business." A highway among the nations of the earth, before almost inaccessible to one another, has been opened by the hand of God even in our day before our eyes. Almost in a lite ral sense have we seen the valleys filled, the mountains and hills brought low, crooked things made straight, and the rough places smooth; a highway in the desert made straight for our God. Yes, for our God. Who can believe that it is merely for the purposes of commerce? or the extension of the arts and sciences, or any other merely worldly purpose, that the ends of the earth are now being brought together; that "many are running to and fro," and that mutual knowledge is so rapidly increasing at the present day among the nations of the earth? Is it for commerce only? is it to glorify the power and prowess of British arms,

that the wall of China has at length, in the providence of God, been scaled? Is it not a highway for himself, his ambassadors, his Gospel,which God is opening in various directions through this great moral desert we inhabit?

In consequence of these vast preparations, toward which the provi dence of God has been tending for the last two thousand years, in consequence of the facilities here enjoyed for extending the empire of truth over the heathen world, and the demand actually made upon us for the knowledge of God and of his son Jesus Christ, there devolves on the church of the present day, a necessity for action, for pa tient endurance, for self-sacrifice and self-denial, which she is yet imperfectly prepared to meet. If day is soon to break upon the slumbering millions of our race, she must first awake, must soon awake, and clothe herself in the panoply of light. She must be endowed with a life and power, a faith and energy of purpose, far in advance of her pres ent attainments. The cause of mis sions must cease to be regarded as a thing distinct from religion itself. Christians must no longer feel that in aiding this cause they are doing something more than is essential to an exhibition of vital piety. The church must unlock her coffers, and scatter her hoarded wealth. Her converts must in making that surrender to Christ which the Gospel demands, consider not only eir property, but themselves as no lon ger their own but Christ's; to go at his bidding and do what he will. They must like Saul of Tarsus, throw themselves at the feet of Je sus and inquire-Lord what wilt thou have us to do?'

That this spirit may prevail, and the reign of Christ on earth be fully established, it is needful that the church should have unwavering faith in her leader-the ALMIGHTY SPIRIT, who "when the enemy