nity exercise their due influence; the works of your calling themselves be sanctified into a part of your waiting for the promise.

II. They waited in faithful and cheerful obedience. Their LORD had given them but one charge at parting, to tarry at Jerusalem. (S. Luke xxiv. 49; Acts i. 4.) And obedience to this may seem to have been a very easy matter. Yet it was not so. Jerusalem, of all places on earth, was that of greatest danger to them. There their Master had been crucified; and they could expect no less. (S. John xv. 18-21.) They could not even assemble there without doors shut, "for fear of the Jews." (S. John xx. 19.) They fulfilled the command, however, without hesitation, though at peril of death. Nay, they fulfilled it with "joy." (S. Luke xxiv. 52.) For the promise was sure to obedience; and the promise would make amends for any possible worldly sorrow. He had blessed them as long as they could see Him; the eye of faith could see Him blessing them still. And angels had taught them that He should come again as gloriously as He had departed. On the sublime subjects of His return, and the Comforter's advent, they must have meditated much-but as they did not permit their speculations to engender division, so neither did they, in contemplation, forget the all-importance of active duty.

Strange, that any other than this should be thought waiting! We do not so in earthly things. If a king were to promise a great gift, we should not think it much to wait for it. But how should we wait? Breaking his laws, defying the usages of his court,

violating his peace, doing all we knew to be against his pleasure? Surely not surely our conduct would be in accordance with our expectations, and duty and interest would assure our best and most careful obedience. Is God less powerful, less faithful, less disposed to reward obedience than a child of dust? We do not think so, even while we thus act; but sin deceives us; we yield—and then become its slaves. (Rom. vi. 16; S. John viii. 32.)

But even a greater promise awaits us-to which that of the text is but a guide--to which the present season directs us, (Acts i. 11,) for which the Collect prays-exaltation to that place whither CHRIST has gone before. Of these promises the SPIRIT Himself is but the earnest. (Rom. viii. 23; 2 Cor. v. 5; Eph. i. 13, 14; 1 S. John ii. 25; 2 S. Pet. ii. 13.) We are now the sons of God by the Spirit of adoption-but we hope to be equal to the angels, and partakers of the Divine nature! (S. Luke xx. 36; 2 S. Pet. i. 4.) Language awfully grand! Ideas of bewildering majesty. Yet they are promises, and for them we must wait; not in disunion, not in idleness, but in laborious patience. How does a faithful servant wait? (S. Luke xii. 35-48; 1 S. Pet. i. 13.)

We wait on GOD in His ordinances for the promise of His grace-in our lives for that of His glory. Do we seek the promise of the SPIRIT? We must do so by persevering prayer. (S. Luke xi. 5-13.) Do we seek glory, and honour, and immortality? This must be by patient continuance in well doing. (Rom. ii. 7.) If we fail in either of these, we are lost. For if we gain not the means, how shall we compass the end?

and if we obtain the means, yet employ them not, what shall they avail us ?

The true Christian will neither desire to hasten GOD's time, nor to defer it. with 2 Cor. v. 8. He is equally (1 Tim. vi. 12; 2 Tim. ii. 3.)

Compare Job xiv. 14, ready to act or suffer.

If we hope, we wait quietly and patiently. (Lam. iii. 26; Rom. viii. 24, 25.) Wait then with patience. The LORD direct you so to do. (2 Thess. iii. 5.) Let your attendance on the means of grace be measured by the greatness of your wants-employ that grace in improving affliction, hallowing prosperity, defying unholy censure, dreading partial praise, keeping the straight path of truth and duty, in this hostile Jerusalem, in sober joy and holy fear. And it shall be said in the Great Day, Isa. xxv. 9.

[See Outline for Third Sunday in Advent.]

XXXIX.

Whit-Sunday.

Subject. The occasion.1

Text.

Acts ii. 4.

"They were all filled with the HOLY GHOST, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

Illustrative Scriptures. S. John iii., xiv., xv., xvi.; Acts ii.; Rom. viii.; 1 Cor. xii., xiv.; Gal. v.

Illustrative Texts. Gen. i. 2; vi. 3; Exod. xxiii. 16; xxxiv. 22; xxxv. 21; Lev. xxiii. 14-21; Numb. xi. 17-29; xxviii. 26-31; Job xxxii. 8; Ps. cxxxix. 7; Isa. xliv. 3; Ezek. xxxix. 29; Zech. xii. 10; Joel ii. 28, 29; S. Matt. iii. 16; S. Luke xii. 12; S. John iv. 14; vii. 38, 39; Acts viii. 29; x. 19; 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11; Gal. iv. 6; Eph. iv. 7—16; Tit. iii. 5; 1 S. John ii. 20, 27.2

Principal Words. Πνεύματος ἁγίου.

THIS Day "was styled Whit-Sunday, partly because of those vast diffusions of light and knowledge which were then shed upon the Apostles in order to the enlightenment of the world; but principally from the white garments which they that were baptized at this time put on." (Wheatly, v. 23, where some other interpretations, less probable, are given.). Its antiquity

1 On the personality of the HOLY SPIRIT, see outline for this Sunday in Pastoralia.

2 It is obvious that but a small portion comparatively of Holy Scripture can be here cited on this extensive subject.

is great; (see patristical references in Wheatly, ubi supra) perhaps, apostolical. (Acts xx. 16; 1 Cor. xvi. 8; Epiphan. Hæres. lxxv. 6.) It had long been foreshown by the Jewish Feast of Weeks, which was a type of it, and with which it coincided: "for, as the Law was at this time given to the Jews from Mount Sinai, so also the Christians upon this day received the new evangelical Law from heaven, by the administration of the HOLY GHOST." (Wheatly, ubi supra.) On the Feast of Weeks the first fruits of the wheat harvest were offered, as at the first Whitsuntide the first fruits of the Gentile Church were offered to GOD. It was now that the promise of our LORD, so often and solemnly repeated, was fulfilled, together with the prophecies of Joel and S. John the Baptist. (Joel ii. 28, 29; S. Matt. iii. 11.) How this took place is amply recorded in Acts ii. [How far it is necessary to enter on the history must depend on the information of the congregation.]

That we may best carry out the purpose of the Church in the consecration of this Day, it will be desirable to inquire

I. What the benefit of the Pentecostal dispensation was. To the dispensation of this Day is owing all that we possess of

1. Knowledge. The Apostles were to be the teachers of the world. It was needful then that they should be taught. This could only be from above; for they had to impart things undiscoverable by any human penetration. But the Paraclete, given this Day, led them into all truth. (Ps. cxliii. 10; S. John xvi. 13.) Yet this would have only qualified them to discharge their office within very narrow limits. They could not evan