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the Spirit! what more edifying, than that we should be brought to behold ourselves in that "sea of glass, like unto crystal," to look on ourselves in that mirror of Baptism, that we may know of what Spirit we ought to be!

Marvel not, adds our Lord to the astonished Pharisee, Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit. On Sunday last we read of the Spirit coming "as a mighty wind," and here we read of His effects on the hearts of men throughout the world. The sincere Christian is a marvel upon the earth; he is not of it, but is from above. Of him in some sense, as of our Lord Himself, it may be said, "He cometh from God and goeth to God." This sanctifying Spirit is the free gift of God, coming and going when He wills; His effect is known by its fruits, but He comes and goes unseen; He comes, but not unsought for or unasked; He comes to those who wait for Him in brotherly love, "with one accord." He makes present on earth the things of eternity; He reveals to the heart the mysteries of Heaven.

Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things? Does not the law itself teach you that a washing is necessary before you can appear in God's presence? Does not David speak of a spiritual washing that must be of God, Who requireth truth in the inward parts, and teacheth wisdom secretly? Do not Moses and the Prophets point to this when they speak of the need of sacrifices and cleansings? of passing through the Red Sea before seeing the promised land of rest of the winds.

of God coming on the dead bones before Israel can live?

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. You look on Me as on a Man come from God, because of the miracles you have seen; but yet, notwithstanding this, you receive not My witness. Or rather, "Our witness;" that of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit.

If I have told you earthly things, such things as are explained by earthly similitudes, such as take place here on earth in the heart of man, in the operation of the Spirit and the mysteries of the new birth; and ye believe not; are still incredulous, and say, How can it be? then how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? of those eternal things which are in the bosom of God; of the kingdom in Heaven prepared for those that love Him; of the eternal generation from the Father, and the deep mysteries of Godhead. Of such things our Lord spake to the disciples at the last; of the Three Persons, each and all eternal, infinite, incomprehensible; One God; One in Substance, One in Majesty, One in Power.

And no man hath ascended up to Heaven, there is no one who can bear witness, from his own knowledge of those heavenly things, from having been in Heaven, but He that came down from Heaven,-He alone can bear the key to these mysteries,-even the Son of Man, Who is in Heaven; Who, being ever One with the Father, and in His bosom from all eternity, is still in Heaven. For God and man He is but one Christ; He is with God in Heaven while seen with men below. And He maketh the members of His Body, even while they are on earth, to sit with Him in heavenly places. None can see the kingdom of

Heaven, none can ascend thither but they who are parts of His Body, and who are clothed with His Spirit, which He sends down from thence to bring them thither.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. "Should have life;" not bodily and temporal, as that in the wilderness, but spiritual and eternal. The Son of Man is ever in Heaven, yet the Son of Man is also on earth, and as here on earth must be lifted up as the only sacrifice well-pleasing to God.

Wonderful indeed was that symbol of faith in Christ crucified, when, bitten by the fiery serpents in the wilderness, they gazed on that sign, and in gazing on it were healed; the likeness indeed of a serpent was it, but the semblance only, for it never had within it the life and poison of the serpent; and Christ was, on the Cross, "in the likeness of sinful flesh," being "made sin for us" as bearing sin and its curse, but differing from all men in this, that the natural infection of sin was not in Him. And "in His death," as says St. Augustin, "sin died.”

That Cross was to Him as His Throne, on which the title was inscribed, "This is the King;" the throne before which all created things must bow. His saints gaze on Him there on His Cross, and in looking to Him obtain life, and in living to Him and for Him they rest not day and night; but, all "wings" without, in ever ready obedience, and "full of eyes within," as filled with the light of His Holy Spirit, with Divine intuition and enlightened conscience, watching within over themselves; they give glory to Him, and in Him to the Three Persons in One God, saying, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Which was, and is, and is to come."

And if crowned by Him with any spiritual blessings or gifts, then all the more in humiliation of themselves they fall down before Him, and cast their crowns before His throne, ascribing all glory, and honour, and worship to Him alone; adoring the depth of those mysteries which they cannot comprehend; believing in Him Whom as yet they see not; and in faith loving to be the most where He is most revealed.

SERMON XLVIII

The First Sunday after Trinity.

1 St. John iv. 7-21. St. Luke xvi. 19–31.

LOVE THE MARK OF GOD'S CHILDRen.

He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love GOD Whom he hath not seen?—1 ST. JOHN iv. 20.

WE

E have had occasion to notice that for many Sundays the appointed Gospels have been taken from St. John, almost entirely so from Easter Day, and these consist in some measure of our Lord's last discourses on the coming of the Comforter. And now when we celebrate the manifestations of the Comforter in practical obedience, St. John furnishes the Epistle for the two first Sundays after Trinity; still continuing the one great lesson on which his Lord had been dwelling in those discourses, that of Love.

Beloved, let us love one another. And why? for love is of God; for love is of all things the most Divine-the peculiar gift of God. And more than this, it is the very mark of God's children; and every one that loveth, who has this Divine love, is born of God. Nor is this all; for he adds, and knoweth God. He has that intimate vital

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