The Work of the Holy Spirit.

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acknowledge that we have indeed viewed faith rather as a mental exercise than as a Divine gift, simply because our purpose has been to present an answer to those who are inquiring, "What must I do to be saved?" While the work of Christ is objective, and must be contemplated and laid hold of by the awakened sinner, the work of the Spirit is subjective, and may take place without its subject having any intelligent apprehension of the cause to which he owes his change of feeling. The Spirit may reveal to a man the things of Christ, while the man himself thinks not of the revealer but of the revealed. There were disciples in apostolic times who when they believed, had "not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." While all Christians ought to be instructed in the Spirit's work, that work was not the subject of the Gospel which the apostles preached when they sought the conversion of men. Their theme then, whether among Jews or Gentiles, was Christ crucified.

But while these considerations will explain our silence in relation to the important subject of the Spirit's work, we must guard against the impression that this work may be either ignored or denied. We should deem our representation of the truth incomplete did we not add, that, in every case in which saving faith is exercised, it is owing to the operation of the Divine Spirit. He makes the truth plain to the sinner's apprehension, and disposes him both to contemplate and accept it. It imparts to the truth its regenerating powers. By means of it He produces the saving change. He originates, directs, carries on and completes the whole process of sanctification. Every truly good work which the saved man does, though it be prompted by his faith, is a fruit of the Spirit. Every good quality which he possesses, though it be a consequence

of his faith, is a grace of the Spirit. His faith itself, albeit he is free in its exercise, is a Divine gift. His privileges are the consequence of the Spirit's inworking, for, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The revolution in his character, though traceable to his belief of the Gospel, is a Divine work, for, “Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth." All the holy traits which beautify his life, though they be the natural consequences of that Gospel which he now believes and contemplates, are produced by the Divine Spirit; for "we all with open face, beholding in the glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises."-Heb. xi. 13.

"THIS witness bore the saints of old

When highest wrapt and favoured most,

Still seeking precious things untold,
Not in fruition lost.

Canaan was theirs, and in it all

The proudest hope of kings dare claim;
Sion was theirs, and at their call
Fire from Jehovah came.

Yet monarchs walked as pilgrims still

In their own land, earth's pride and grace;
And seers would mourn on Sion's hill

Their Lord's averted face.

Vainly they tried the deeps to sound
E'en of their own prophetic thought,
When of Christ crucified and crowned
His Spirit in them taught.

But He their aching gaze repressed,
Which sought behind the veil to see;
For not without us fully blessed

Or perfect might they be.

The rays of the Almighty's face

No sinner's eye might then receive;
Only the meekest man found grace
To see His skirts and live."

Keble.

Their faith different to ours in its extent and object-Enoch -Noah-Rahab-Their faith not faulty or defectiveDifferent because their revelation was less full than ours Faith in Christ essential to our salvation This requirement not arbitrary, but necessary.

C

HRIST crucified for us forms the great object of faith

under the Christian dispensation. But the Apostle's words, no less than the facts of the case, forbid the supposition that all God's testimony concerning His Son was embraced in the faith of these ancient worthies. In the case of Enoch, for example, the faith which the Apostle's argument attributes by implication to him-that faith, to wit, without which it is impossible to please God, is limited to the general belief "that God is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." In Noah's case no mention is made of any testimony or object of faith, except the Divine warning concerning the coming flood; and by his faith in this he is represented as having built the ark, an become heir of the righteousness which is by faith. In the case of Rahab, again, there is nothing in the book of Joshua, or in what the Apostle says of her here, which can be construed as pointing to the Messiah. "And she said unto