for us. He may contradict our plans, he may withhold our wishes, but he will nevertheless order all wisely, and bestow all mercifully. Leave that Spirit to his own way, and he will spread his wings over the troubled chaos of the wrecked and shattered heart, and bring order out of chaos, harmony out of discord, and light out of darkness.

The Spirit of God is the best comforter, because others, however adequate, may be unable to reach us; he never can be unable. "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uppermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me." And therefore the consolations of the Spirit of God can descend to the miner in his subterranean walks, can rise to the Alpine herdsman on the loftiest peak, can minister consolation to the captive in his cell, and impart everlasting joy to that silent and solitary weeper, whose sorrows are too big for expression, and whose griefs can find no tears or a channel for their exit. There is no sorrow so hidden, that the Holy Spirit cannot see it; there is no weeper so distant, that that Spirit cannot reach him.

Other comforters may be weary. The comforter by the bed of the dying may grow tired; the hand may weary in presenting that cup; the heart may faint and fail in the expression of those sympathies. But this blessed Comforter never wearies: "I, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faint not, neither am weary."

Other comforters are frequently withdrawn when their comforts are most needed. The consolations of the earth are, from their very nature, transient and temporary; they are like the summer brooks, that are fed by the summer showers,-they rush, full and overflowing, for a day, and then leave their channels dry. But the consolations which the Holy Spirit gives, are like those streams which are fed by the glaciers, full in the summer, when other streams are dry and other fountains exhausted.

To you, who are the people of God, what elements of comfort are there in that blessed Gospel with which you are acquainted! Can that spirit sink amid the stormy waves of the world, that has an omnipotent arm to lean on ?. Can that soul be without comfort, in the deep cells of which are sounding the very echoes of the voice of God? Can that man despair, who feels that he is the friend of Jesus-the protégé of the Most High? Is it not unspeakable comfort, that the Holy Spirit the Comforter himself-dwells in the depths of my heart, and makes that heart a fane and a temple for his residence? Shall I desecrate that temple by a suspicion, shall I darken it by a doubt, that he who is the omnipotent Comforter, cannot comfort me? "Blessed," then, "are the people that know the joyful sound; happy is that people whose God is the Lord."

By some reader it may be said, "Doth he not speak parables?" All will seem mystery to some, fanaticism to others, and extravagance to more. Christians will feel that what I have spoken is truth, and that my sentiments have awakened echoes of sweet music within them; but those who are not Christians-(and it is not uncharitable to suspect that there may be some such

reader for baptism does not make us Christians; going to the Lord's table does not make us Christians; having a pew in the house of God does not make us Christians; wearing the name, and speaking the shibboleth, and being covered with the badge of a party, does not make us Christians. The Spirit of God changing the heart, alone can make us Christians :)-may feel that all I said is a mystery, there is no response to it in their hearts; they cannot understand it; it is as if I were writing demonstrations in a character which they cannot read, or speaking in a tongue which they do not understand. Perhaps this will teach you. You have sorrow, for which you have no balm; you have troubles, which nothing upon earth has comforted you under; you yourselves feel that you are dying, and passing to the judgment-seat of God. What have you instead of the Gospel? What comfort can you appeal to, richer than the consolations of the great Comforter himself? Compare what you have to cling to, with what a Christian has; and the comparison may prompt you to lay hold on his garment, and beg him to allow you to go with him, for he alone has that which can do you good. I ask you what you have to go to in that hour of trial? Mother, when you lose your babe, what comforts you? Child, when you lose your parent, what comforts you? Husband, when you lose your wife, what comforts you? What have you to look to? Where are you? Whither are you going? What explains this tangled web of human life? Where is the light that will open up all its mystery? Where is the fountain that will give comfort in any of its troubles? Stoicism cannot; human nature cannot; kings and queens and emperors cannot. But this blessed book can. It points to a

home beyond the skies, from which no vicissitude can pluck your dear and cherished ones away; and a Comforter who tells you of one that shall be more than father and mother, and sister and brother, and husband and wife-Jesus Christ-"all our salvation, and all our desire." Ask him, the Comforter, to teach you the mystery, for he is the Teacher also.

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V.

The Great Convincer of Sin, Righteousness and

Judgment

A PRECIOUS office of the Holy Spirit, not second in importance to any of those we have already discussed,. is described by John in these prophetic words :

"And when the Spirit is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not in me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." John xvi. 8-11.

The word "reprove" is not the exact rendering of the original, and in fact does not convey its specific, deep and peculiar meaning. The reproof of sin has been the practice of philosophers, the song of poets, the topic of preachers. Every excellence reproves by its existence that which is its opposite. A parent reproves his children, silent virtue reproves obtrusive vice, but this reproof is not correction. Sin is repulsed by reproof, it is not eradicated. It is silenced by the eloquence of the rebuke, but it is not, therefore, subdued. The wind blows on the bleak hill; the hill is not wasted or worn by its action: the waves beat against the hard