d there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire -haps rays of light diverging from a common centre), "and at upon each of them: and they were all filled with the ly Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the rit gave them utterance." This was a fulfilment of the phecy of Joel: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, h God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your s and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young n shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: I on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy :" or tify and teach, which is the first and continuous privilege every believer. The gift of tongues, however, was limited the early church, and, being merely for a sign, it “ vanished ay."

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Besides, this "like gift" with the apostles and brethren, the ntiles, some time after, at Peter's visit to Cornelius, and in midst of the former's preaching, also received. And they only obtained it without baptism of any kind, but even ugh uncircumcised, so that "they of the circumcision were onished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the ntiles also was poured out the Gift of the Holy Ghost." ich gift? The gifts of the Spirit are many and manifold. e answer is: "For they heard them speak with tongues I magnify God." "Then Peter answered, Can any man id water, that these should not be baptized, which have eived the Holy Ghost, as well as we? And he comnded them to be baptized in the Name of the Lord." By expression, "which have received the Holy Ghost as well we," the apostle meant that the Spirit had manifested Himin the Gentiles after the same fashion as He did in the s; that is, by enabling them to pray and praise God, and lare the glad tidings of salvation, or "wonderful works of " in various languages. This was likewise typical of the version of, or rather, spread of the gospel over the whole ld, agreeably to the prophecy of Joel: "I will pour out

my Spirit on all flesh." At least, St. Peter, quoting the phecy at Pentecost, so interpreted and applied that n voiced and eloquent descent of the Spirit.

If His coming in this impetuous and public manner been that peculiar promise of the Holy Ghost and His gift, which all believers, without distinction, and "to the of the world," were to receive at their baptism-Why Peter command his Gentile hearers to be baptized? Ha these already, baptism in their case would be superflu Or, if it had been the Spirit and His gift obtained invis why subject them to the visible ordinance? Merely to n them as members of the Christian Church? Not so. T were baptized because, first (and this they were to learn), sudden and miraculous power to pray, and praise, and pro esy in unknown tongues, was neither the evidence of the a ing presence of the Holy Ghost, nor of His highest gift; second, because both of these were only promised on visible application of water-" Repent and be baptized in Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and" (th “ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost:" or, to enla and make it clearer, then ye shall receive the Holy Gho who is Himself a gift, and with Him the one universal a wonderful Gift, which to the end of the world He brings all submissive and believing men.

The Spirit's gift of tongues, accompanied with fire, descer ing on the apostles and Peter as their chief, was doubtless sign and seal of their commission as inspired preachers, a the fulfilment of their Master's promise that they who h been with Him "from the beginning" of His ministry shou be enlightened "by the Spirit of Truth." Moreover, it e powered them, publicly and distinctively, to convey throug preaching, and baptism, and "the laying on of hands," t Holy Ghost with His great and many of His minor gifts others. And, therefore, "the eleven" stood up with Pet while he raised his voice, and, in the name of them all, mac calmly and clearly his wonderful exposition and speech an

omise, for now was fulfilled to them the words that they ould "be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days nce," and by this coming of His "be endued with power om on high."

To the disciples and brethren on whom the gift of tongues scended, likewise accompanied with fire, it was also "a sign gifts of utterance," " of knowledge and spiritual insight," at they should be taught when, and what, and how to eak, and no doubt, too, of great zeal and fervor in the cause the Lord. But this gift, unaccompanied with fire, and deending after Pentecost, in the presence of Peter and the rethren, on the Gentiles with Cornelius at their head as presentatives of the heathen nations, was only to show and onvince the former that the Gentiles were fellow-heirs with he Jews of salvation; and typical perhaps of the like destiny f the Romans to carry, later, the gospel to remoter heathen. o the Gentiles themselves it was a token of admission from od, the Saviour, to the privileges of His gospel; a fulfilment f His promise, "I was found of them that sought me not; I 'as made manifest to them that asked not after me." To the ews, it was a sign that the Gentiles could be saved by bapsm without first becoming members of the covenant of ciramcision was an intimation that they must receive baptism, ot that they had it already (invisibly), nor its benefits withut it; and as such the brethren understood it, and St. Peter, resistibly led, "commanded them to be baptized in the Name f the Lord." Had those extraordinary manifestations, miraes included, been the result of that wonderful Gift of the foly Ghost which was to distinguish the Christian above the wish and all other religions, they would have continued to is day in the church and marked every one of its members. hat they do not, proves they were only for a temporary purose, and destined to depart as suddenly as they came. That urpose served, like all lesser gifts, "they failed." They were sign that their subjects could be regenerated, not a seal that ey were,; and if not followed by the visible baptism of

water when the opportunity offered, these would, after th withdrawal, have fallen back to their former state, for P had been sent equally to instruct and to baptize.

What then, positively, is meant here by "the Holy Gho and what is that greatest "gift" of His which comes w Christian baptism in the Name of the Trinity, (as this v then implied "in the Name of the Lord," or, "of the L Jesus," or, as it is in some of the older copies, "of the Lo Jesus Christ"), and both of which, Spirit and gift, "abid in the ordinances of His church forever, and were prompt by God's "love," and love alone?

SECTION VII.

The Holy Ghost and His Gift.

By the former is meant here, more particularly, the Spi of God, as, under the new dispensation, He proceeds fro the Father and the Son, as the latter is incarnate in the Me siah. Both the Father and the Spirit, though not incarna like the Son, are ever one with Him because of their indivis ble and essential unity. Therefore, in Christ is said to dwe "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." As the Spirit is th one with, and inseparable from Jesus Christ and the LOR incarnate in Him, He enters the believer. Hence the Scrip tures say at times that "Christ" is in the Christian; and a others, "the Spirit of Christ;" and at others, "the Hol Ghost." Under the old dispensation, the Spirit proceede from the Father and the Son as the latter was unincarnate Under the new, He proceeds from them as the Son is incar nate. Under the old, His work was the natural and super natural creation of unfallen man, out of matter already mad by God. Under the new, it is the sinless re-creation or re-gen eration, or re-newing, or restoring of fallen man: and in al these acts He is, in new and old, spoken of as the Breath o God. "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." "And He breathed

n them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost."

Moreover, under the new, He is represented to be what He never was under the old, the Giver of the life of God. Man, in the beginning, was made by the Spirit of God as He is the giver of breath, or created and mortal human life, in order that -should he stand-he might be generated by the Spirit as He is also the giver of uncreated and immortal human life. But man fell; and to save him from further calamity, and estore him to his original position of sinless mortality, and o give him another trial, the work of his creation had to be one over. This re-creation or re-newing takes place under he new dispensation. It is the first act in the history of its ubjects, and hence the birth of Jesus, the second Father of man, is its first record, though He was really born (and conseuently His people are) under the old dispensation, as it and he succeeding interlap each other and cannot be divided. The New Testament is as much a history of the generations of God's life, as the Genesis of the Old is a history of the creations of His breath. However, the new covenant is furher marked above the old by an immeasurable advance. The life of God, which, under the old, was to be given to man t the end of his probation, should it prove successful, is, uner the new, given to him at the beginning of his second trial; or man had now not only to stand, but to be recovered from deadly fall. His re-creation by God's breath, and generaon by His life, is one act; though in man the life is only tent under the breath, and represented mortal as it, because ependent on it for its preservation and development. The ews "slew Jesus of Nazareth," but at the same time they killed the Prince of Life," " and crucified the Lord of Glory." And the Spirit under this form, or thus proceeding from the ather and the Son, and also through the Son as the latter is carnate in the created Messiah, enters into the subject of egeneration, and enables him to recognize the Christ as perect man and perfect God in one person, sinless and holy by