sanctifying grace-that habitual charity which is infused into the soul by Baptism and Repentance, and increased by all the other means of grace. This cleanses man from the taint of sin and clothes him with a spiritual brightness and beauty. This is the distinguishing mark of members of CHRIST, children of GoD and inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven. By this the SPIRIT indwells in the soul and evidences His mysterious Presence there. For this is what we are too apt to pass over, that the Christian is actually the habitation of that heavenly Person-that not only the soul made after the image of GOD, but even the frail body in which we sin and suffer is the Temple of the HOLY GHOST and that the whole man made up of body and soul is consecrated as really by the Presence of the Divinity as the Holy of Holies was in the times of old. "Know ye not," says St. Paul," that your body is the Temple of the HOLY GHOST, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own. But how few among us realize this residence of grace and love in the heart? How few among us have a real appreciation of the dignity of their Celestial Visitant? How few are of such a spirit as to be able worthily to entertain HIM? For the disposition which He requires is one which loves, or at least desires to love God above all things: which submits itself in all things to His sacred will and pleasure: which strives to enter into the joys of heaven, and the savour of Divine graciousness: which is possessed by humility, resignation, and penitence: which regards mankind as God's creation, and therefore cherishes it: which dreads the world: which loves the cross and suffering. But as the SPIRIT requires this character, so HE "prevents" us in forming it. This is one of the first graces I 1 Cor. vi. 9.

He conveys to the soul-a purity of intention which disengages itself from all that is carnal, or low-minded, or selfish. This is the beginning of the spiritual life. The COMFORTER and the spirit of the world cannot live together in the same heart, for "He is the SPIRIT of Truth whom the world cannot receive."" He is called by the Prophet "a refiner and purifier of gold and silver," for He must wash, cleanse and sanctify the soul, casting out all impurity and subduing every affection to HIMSELF. "Make me a clean heart, O GOD, and renew a right spirit within me.

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And this comes not alone-it is accompanied by "the light that enlighteneth the understanding"-by a clear knowledge of the vanity of things temporal, and of the dignity and importance of things eternal. The age lieth in darkness-its passions, and cares, and objects of desire have afflicted it with spiritual blindness, so that it lays a false store by honour and wealth and power and man's opinion, and it cannot enter into the astounding fact that meekness, and pain, and sorrow and humiliation, are really greater and better. The SPIRIT was to come and teach all truth, and this is His first lesson. Nor is this all. He penetrates the sacred obscurity of Scripture, and reveals the unfathomed abyss of the boundless goodness of GOD. HE pierces the dark recesses of the heart of man, instructing him in the wisdom of GOD, and convincing him of the exceeding guilt of sin. How beautifully is this described in Holy Writ. "Blessed is the man whom THOU shalt instruct, O LORD, and shalt teach him Thy law." "The LORD shall fill thy soul with brightness, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters shall not fail-then shall 3 Ps. xciv. 12.

1 Mal. iii. 3.

2 Ps. li. 10.

thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon-day."

And with purity and light, charity and sanctity will come. The disentanglement of the heart and the illumination of the understanding, dispose and fit the soul for the eminent graces of holiness and the love of GOD-by which the SPIRIT establishes His dominion over us. Indeed there is nothing that is good, or holy, or pure, but proceeds from HIM. Every good work from the beginning of the world unto this dayand every one that shall be performed till the last inhabitants of the earth are caught up quick to judgment-proceed from HIM. All the enterprizes and ventures of faith of the great congregation of believers-all the mighty deeds "of great men and of the fathers that begat us" - all the alms deeds, the devotions, the austerities, the perils and sufferings that have distinguished the saints of the Gospel, are from HIM. And as concerns ourselves-if ever we have conquered in an hour of peril or temptation, if ever we have in our own conduct, grievous sinners though we be, illustrated the unearthly character of the Gospel, if ever we have had grace given us to obey, to fear, or to adore, it has been from HIM. For this holiness is accompanied by every other virtue, by a righteousness enveloping the whole man-and with it come its handmaidens and sister-virtues, hope and faith-and after it, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, meekness, temperance, the fruits of the SPIRIT-and in its train the seven gifts that give wings to the Saints in the service of GOD, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength, the spirit of knowledge and true

1 Is. lviii. 10, 11.

godliness and the spirit of holy fear.-Lastly, the eight beautitudes close the mystic procession-poverty of spirit-sacred mourning-meekness-hunger and thirst for GOD- mercifulness - - purity confession for the faith.

peace

Happy is that soul, into which the LORD of Life enters with His concourse of heavenly graces. Rising therein, according to the beautiful illustration of Scripture itself, like a fountain of sweet waters, HE sends forth His streams, fertilizing and enriching all the arid soil of the human heart.

Happy is that soul which has never forfeited this gift received in early infancy-happy, nay, in one sense happier, is that which has recovered it when lost, and been restored to the grace she fell from. In these two classes, the innocent and the penitent, the SPIRIT indwells. In the first HE abides with all His consolations, and to them HE most evidently manifests HIMSELF, for "the pure in heart shall see God." In the latter, the pain of the past must ever, indeed, alloy the bliss of the present, and as the Paschal Lamb, the Sacrament of Redemption, was nevertheless eaten with unsavoury herbs, so the joy of actual acceptance will be tinged with the bitterness of remembered alienation -yet blessed and happy is that soul.

GOD grant that at the last day, when the books are opened and the dead are judged according to the deeds done in the flesh-that we may be found among the number of those blessed and glorious ones, whose souls and bodies have been the Temples of the HOLY SPIRIT here on earth, and who shall then enter in the same SPIRIT into the everlasting habitations of Heaven.

A. P. F.

SERMON LVII.

GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS.

Monday in Whitsun Week.

ACTS x. 34, 35.

THEN PETER OPENED HIS MOUTH AND SAID, OF A TRUTH I PERCEIVE THAT GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS. BUT IN EVERY NATION, HE THAT FEARETH HIM, AND WORKETH RIGHTEOUSNESS, IS ACCEPTED WITH HIM.

YESTERDAY did our solemn services commemorate the Pentecostal descent of the HOLY GHOST, the CoмFORTER; that most precious of the gifts for man which the ascended LORD had received as the reward of victory. This first out-pouring of the SPIRIT was vouchsafed to Jews, and Proselytes to Judaism, collected out of every nation under heaven, in the holy city of Jerusalem. It had been foretold by CHRIST, and was received as the fulfilment of His own, and the FATHER'S Promise. But the Gospel for this day narrates a still more wonderful effusion of the SPIRIT. No longer confined within the channels of Judaism, He now without measure begins to pour His gifts upon the Universal Church. Upon Gentiles, in a Gentile city,