spirit there may be in our hearts, I leave it to your knowledge of yourselves and your knowledge of the world to determine.'

Fortieth Week-Third Day.

PENTECOST.-ACTS II. 1-3.

WE formerly alluded to the Feast of Pentecost, and described it as the feast which, for various reasons, was frequented, more than any other, by Jews from foreign parts.1 It seems, therefore, probable, that the wisdom of God deferred, for ten days after the ascension of Christ, the striking manifestation which has rendered this Jewish festival memorable in the annals of the Christian church, in order that it might occur at a time when Jerusalem was filled with strangers, who would bear back the intelligence of it, and of the circumstances connected with it, to their distant homes; thus preparing the way for the subsequent appearance and ministrations of the apostles in those parts. Indeed, many returned home from this feast as converts to the doctrine of Christ, and were thereby ready in all quarters to receive with gladness the preachers of that doctrine when they came among them. It is impossible to estimate too highly the importance of the occasion, which, through the Jews present at the feast, and afterwards returning to the countries of their sojourning, enabled the seed of the gospel to be sown broadcast into all lands, yielding in the end abundant and glorious fruits. This, therefore, seems to supply the motive certainly a most adequate one-for the delay of the ardently expected boon.

The Feast of Pentecost is not known by that name in the Old Testament, being a Greek term for denoting the festival, as being celebrated on the fiftieth day from the Feast of Unleavened Bread or the Passover. It was a festival of thanksgiving for the completion of the harvest, which commenced immediately after the Passover. It is hence called in the Old 1 Evening Series: Thirty-first Week-Seventh Day.

Testament the Feast of Harvest; and it was also designated the Feast of Weeks, because it was seven weeks, or, according to the Hebrew mode of expression, 'a week of weeks,' from the first day of the Passover. The primary object of the festival was undoubtedly to render thanks to the Lord for the blessings of the season; and its first fruits were then rendered as an offering to Him in a basket, with the words given in Deut. xxvi. 5-10, beginning, 'A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous;' and after proceeding to recite how they were afflicted in that country, and how the Lord, with great terribleness,' delivered them, ending thus: He hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey and now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land which Thou, O Lord, hast given me.' It was hence also called the Feast of First Fruits.

6

There is no trace in Scripture that this feast was also designed, at least in part, to commemorate the giving of the law from Mount Sinai; but the impression that it was so designed was in later times entertained, and has acquired especial prominence since the Jews have been cast forth from their own 'good land,' and, in all the countries of their sojourning, have ceased to be an agricultural people, or to take interest in agricultural affairs.

This was one of the three great yearly festivals, which all the adult males were, in strictness, required to attend at the place of the Lord's altar. In most of the passages where it is mentioned, under any of its various names, it might seem to have lasted only for a day; but it was in reality of a week's duration, although the first day alone was distinguished by the religious solemnities described in the books of the law.

When this first day of Pentecost was fully come, the apostles (and probably the other disciples) were assembled at their usual place of meeting, and a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, filled all the house where they were sitting. It does not seem that there was actually any wind, but only the

sound of it, which sound pervaded all parts of the house. This wind, or sound of wind, was an appropriate emblem of the descent and ingress of the Holy Spirit, which is frequently designated as a breath or a wind. Indeed, in the Old Testament, the proper term for spirit is a word which equally denotes these two things. It was therefore of the nature of a sign to them of what was to take place, and which they were expecting, though they knew not the form of the manifestation. Presently divers masses of lambent flame appeared moving through the place, and settled upon their heads in the shape of 'tongues of fire'-called tongues, from the general resemblance, both in shape and movement, of a lambent flame to a tongue. Thus was fulfilled the prediction that they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire'-Matt. iii. 11; and the frequency with which the manifestations of the divine presence are connected in the Old Testament with the appearance of fire, rendered this a peculiarly appropriate and intelligible symbol of the descent upon them of the Divine Spirit. They had thus both audible and visible evidence of the reality of this manifestation: audible in the sound of the rushing mighty wind;' visible in the tongues of fire.' That these tongues of fire, or rather of flame, settled upon each of the subjects of this grace, must have been more satisfactory than a single body of flame diffused over the heads of all; as then the question might have arisen, whether there were not some who had not received it: but all misconception was prevented by every one being marked out individually by the fiery sign. And if there were some present who did not receive this power from on high, it was the more essential that those who did receive it should be thus manifestly distinguished. On this point there is some difficulty. The general impression seems to be, that the apostles only were present, and that they alone received the sign, and the gifts which followed. But we have supposed it probable that the one hundred and twenty disciples were also present with the apostles. On that supposition the question arises, Did they also receive the Holy Ghost? It would be improper to be very positive on this point; but from the freedom with which we

6

find the apostles at all subsequent periods imparting (as they were authorized to do) the gifts they on this occasion received, to others who were to preach the gospel, it seems that these gifts were not by any means intended to be peculiar to the apostles, and suggests the probability that the disciples then present were also recipients of the same divine influence. This supposition appears to be corroborated by the large terms employed in describing the event, and especially by Peter's application to it of the prophecy of Joel-Acts ii. 16-18,-the expressions in which are very full and extensive.

The reality of this miracle is clearly and strongly asserted by the sacred writer. There is no haziness in the language. The description is graphic and matter-of-fact. There could have been no mistake, no delusion, no fraud on the part of any of those present. It required no special training, no philosophical investigation, to observe and test the reality of the events which occurred. They were patent to the senses of all those assembled. They all heard the rushing sound, and they all saw the fiery tongues; and under such circumstances the senses could not err. No mere natural phenomena could have produced such effects. Then, in addition to all, we have the wonderful results: They began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.' Lange has well observed upon this subject: Everything in the deeds and revelations, in the means and operations of the grace of God, is both spiritual and material: the word and the sacrament are of this nature; with the material, the visible, and the audible, are the spiritual and the invisible most intimately united. So also is it with the communication of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost lighted upon Jesus at his baptism in the form of a dove; the Lord breathed upon the apostles, and thus for the first time bestowed upon them the Holy Ghost; and now here, when the fulness of the Spirit was bestowed upon the disciples at Pentecost, it took place under visible and audible signs, which, coming down from heaven, accompanied the gift of the Spirit in the world of sense and matter, announcing and glorifying it, not without reference to the promise that the disciples would be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire.'

Fortieth Week-Fourth Day.

THE GIFT OF TONGUES.-ACTS II. 4-47.

THE 'tongues of fire' which rested on the heads of the apostles afforded no vain show. They were a sign, and the fact indicated by that sign was at once known to be a reality by what at the same moment took place within them. 'They were all filled with the Holy Ghost;' by which language the sacred historian clearly means that they then received, in full measure, through the Spirit of God, all the blessings from on high which their Master had so often promised to them. They were at once enlightened, instructed, cheered, exalted, inspired. This was so well known to have been expected, and to have been received, that the historian does not dwell upon the fact, but passes on to specify a most extraordinary endowment, which, from its nature, excited great amazement, and for which expectation had not, even in the evangelical circle, been distinctly prepared. They began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance; that is to say, they began to speak the gospel in languages they had not previously known, but the mastery of which was at once given to them. Much has been said to divest this fact of a miraculous character, under various explanations. But it is all in vain. No other hypothesis will agree with what ensued, or meet all the circumstances of the case. It was necessary that these men-belonging to one small nation, and speaking one of the least diffused of tongues-should, in receiving the charge to preach the gospel in every land, know the languages of the nations among whom they were to labour. And it was requisite, either that they should be inspired with this knowledge, and thereby be qualified for immediate work, or that they should sit down to learn these languages, and labour at the task many weary years, during which the gospel would remain unpreached. There was, therefore, every reason to expect, from antecedent probability, that the Lord would, in this age of qualifying and attesting miracles, remove such discouragement from the path of his servants