Re

of the truth;" in some sense, the channel through which divine influence flows to the lost. If the Spirit leaves the Church, He leaves the world. "If the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me, how then shall Pharaoh hear me?" Even in the incipient withdrawal of the Spirit, such as we now witness, how unbroken are the ranks of the ungodly! Let your eyes, my brethren, affect your hearts. Behold the impenitent in your families; there is scarce a house among us in which there is not at least one dead. See them in the congregation, and around youboth frequenters and neglecters of the sanctuary-hastening on by thousands and by tens of thousands, to the world of woe. member, as you look, that the main reason why these friends, and fellow-hearers, and fellow-citizens are unawakened and unblest is, that the Spirit has departed from the Church-that her individual members, that you, have grieved him away. Remember, that as without the Holy Spirit, they will never repent-and as He abides primarily in the Church, and is by the Church, if at all, to be invoked upon the unconverted-the question whether they are to be saved or lost, turns upon that other question, will the Church, will you, be brought to realize the evil of the Spirit's absence, and to pray and act accordingly?

8. Finally, To make the picture we draw complete, yet another shade must be added-the influence of the state of things described. upon the younger members of the Church. It is in some respects peculiar. Many of the older members have formed their Christian character in better times, when the general tone of spirituality was high. Some of them, perhaps, through the habit of close walking with God, early established, and strengthened by many years of holy living, may be kept, even amidst general declension," as a watered garden, and as a spring whose waters fail not." There are commonly "a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled. their garments." But what shall become of the lambs? How are they to be trained? What will be the almost inevitable influence of the general example upon them? Their characters at the forming period-they accustomed to be led rather than to lead-looking up to their elders in the Christian life with respect and confidence and having still hearts prone to depart from the living God, what sort of Christians will they become, if even the present absence of the Spirit's influence shall continue? What manner of persons will take our places, when these heads, some of them now whitening for the grave, shall be laid there? To whom shall we . bequeath the precious truths and institutions we now hold in trust? What sort of warriors are we training to fight, when our warfare is over, the good fight of faith-to take part in the mighty conflict, already begun, for the world's salvation? The absence of the Spirit from us, is not our loss alone, or the loss of the impenitent connected with us; it is the loss of the church that shall live after us-of the perishing souls around her, and of the world at large, whose salvation shall be helped or hindered by her faithfulness or unfaithfulness.

Such, my brethren, are some of the reasons, why we should, like David, deprecate the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit. It leads to deadness in ordinances-to increased worldliness-to destitution of comfort—to reluctance to labor and to give for Christ—to dissension among brethren-to error and apostacy-to the ruin of soulsand to the deterioration of character in the rising generation of Christians. All these evils, as we have already intimated, appear not in their fulness at once. But come they will-gradually, in a natural and sure course-if the absence of the Spirit continue. Can you not now perceive their incipient manifestations? Have I drawn a fancy sketch; or do your own eyes behold, in some measure, the sad original? And is there not enough in what we now see, and have reason to fear, to call forth from us the prayer, Take not thy Holy Spirit from us. Restore unto us-unto the whole Church-the joy of thy salvation, and uphold us with thy free Spirit.

II. But we were to show, in the second place, How we should deprecate the Spirit's absence. We may ask and receive not, because we ask amiss. Action must correspond with prayer; it must be an echo of the prayer, or that will be unavailing. Yet I need not greatly enlarge on this head. If our need of the Spirit be truly and deeply felt, it can hardly fail to call forth the right kind of prayer. It may be briefly remarked, however:

1. We should pray with self-examination. If the Spirit be absent from the church, he is absent from individuals. If absent, he has, as we have all along taken for granted, and as the Scriptures abundantly show, been grieved away. Individuals have grieved him. We should not, then, by a vague, general imputation, cast the guilt upon the Church, nor yet upon our individual brethren; but each ask for himself, how have I grieved the Spirit? What iniquities of mine have separated between me and my God? What is there in my heart, my speech, my aims, my habits, my domestic life, my business walks, my secular or holy things, inconsistent with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Diligently, faithfully, impartially, should we scrutinize ourselves, and pray as we do it, "Search me, oh God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

2. We should utter the prayer of the text with penitence. Not only must we see, we must hate and renounce the sins which have grieved the Spirit. Else seeing will only deepen our guilt. No matter though our sins be as the right hand or the right eye, we must part with them. And we must renounce them, not merely because they have brought sorrow on our souls, and threaten greater, but because they are sins-exceeding sinful-sins against God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit-a Christian's sins-sins against light and love and solemn resolves, and a covenant sealed with blood-sins fitted to ruin other souls, and bring dishonor upon the Savior's name.

3. I add only, we should utter the prayer of the text with hope. "The Lord taketh pleasure in those that hope in his mercy." "He that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." "Return unto me," he says, "and I will return unto you." "I will heal their backslidings, I will love them freely." As to his readiness to give the Holy Spirit, there is a most explicit and wonderful declaration

"If ye being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." If straitened at all, it is in ourselves, not in Him. Let us pray then with hope. It is a good sign if he stir us up to pray. Will he not give us the blessing he prompts us to ask? Seeing our sins-not excusing, but bewailing and forsaking them-realizing the preciousness of the blessing we ask, and the evils of it absence-taking encouragement from God's character and promises, and coming only in the name of Christ-let us cry here, in our closets, in our families, in the prayer-meeting, in the frequent ejaculation of our hearts-let us cry perseveringly"Take not thy Holy Spirit from us."

SERMON CCCCXL.

BY REV. REUBEN TINKER,

WESTFIELD, N. Y.

THE PENITENT THIEF.

Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.—Luxe XXIII.,

42.

THE Scenes of Calvary should be in our daily and everlasting remembrance. For how can the branches flourish forgetful of the vine; or the stones of a temple rest unmindful of their foundation? And can a wandering and lost sinner go a day's journey without looking to the Cross where was hung the light and salvation of the world? Could we, however, for a moment forget our own personal interest in the dying of the Lord Jesus, there is in the event itself, and in the circumstances attending it, an interest unparalleled in the history of the earth.

In the early morning of that ever memorable day, the people were flocking and settling like a cloud on the head and sides of the mountain, to attend "this troubled feast of death." And as the MAN OF SORROws came slowly bearing his Cross up the hill, unut

terable emotions must have been awakened in many a heart. For the doctors saw there the man who, twenty-one years before, had astonished them with his understanding and answers; and the traders in the temple saw there the man who had driven them out and overturned their tables; and the visitors from Gadura saw there the man by whom, as they thought, they had lost their herd in the sea. The lawyers and Priests, the Pharisees and Scribes saw in him the man who had exposed their hypocrisy, denominated them a generation of serpents, whited sepulchres, children of their father the devil, and candidates for the damnation of hell. Men also were there to see him faint, by whom they had been miraculously strengthened with food; the daughters of Jerusalem came to bewail him who needed their tears less than they were needed for themselves and their children; and children came to see nailed to the wood arms in which they had been taken and blessed. A group of spectators, once palsied and maimed, came to behold him mangled by whom they were restored to perfect soundness; and men once blind came to see his eyes closed in death from whom they had received the blessing of vision. Tell us, Martha and Mary, as ye stand there supported by that brother who had been dead four days; and thou widow of Nain, sustained by that son who sat up and began to speak when Jesus met the bier at the gate, tell us, what are your emotions to see him who is the resurrection and the life, on his way to the tomb? And thou, blessed among women-but we ask not after a mother's anguish-this is that spoken of by the venerable Simeon when he said, “ A sword shall pierce through thine own soul also."

Behold this august sufferer on the cross! The earth is quaking, the rocks are rending, dead saints are rising, and the black heavens do thunder like an angel speaking. "Ill wast thou shrouded then, O patient Son of God!" Are James and John drinking of the cup mingled for their Lord? Is Peter following him to prison and to death? No, he is treading the wine press alone, and of the people there is none with him-only on either side a thief. The rabble wag their heads and rail, "Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself and come down from the cross.' The scribes and priests mock, "He saved others, himself he cannot save." Jesus prays, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." One malefactor reviles, "If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us." The other entreats, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." The Savior cries, "It is finished." The centurion confesses, "Truly, this was the Son of God." And the people, who had witnessed the amazing sight, smote on their breasts and returned.

Such was the crucifixion on Calvary; not to be forgotten by those who witnessed it-nor must it be forgotten by us who read and hear it. And while every part is full of interest and worthy of contemplation, the time will allow us at present only to look at the Savior and the man whom he saved-the thief who was that day "caught up into Paradise."

The babe

1. LORD, remember me. Whom does he call Lord? of Bethlehem and of the manger; the child hunted by Herod; the son of the carpenter; the wandering, homeless Galilean; the object of envy and of hate; the despised Nazarene. It was a man betrayed and denied by his own family; forsaken by his friends in his last trial, and forsaken of his God in his last conflict. He was one nailed to the wood as the most vile, and worthless, and execrable object in all Judea. Will you, crucified thief, make account of such an one? Can he help thee? Is not praying to him adding to thy sins? Dost thou call him Lord? Yes, it is well; it is no mistake; it is the Lord of heaven and earth; the Maker, Preserver, Redeemer, and Judge of mankind; before whom we must shortly stand to receive our eternal reward. Are we prepared to meet him?

2. Lord REMEMBER me. How remember? Not his follies, not his crimes, but his wants on the verge of the grave and eternity. He wished to be remembered with the favor which God bears to his people. What is it to remember with favor? Ask that mother who watches with a sick child till exhausted she sinks to sleep, and immediately wakes again to see if all is still, and the remedies properly administered, and then sleeps again only to dream of her darling's recovery or death. She can tell you what it is to remember. And that other woman, who lies waking during the stormy night, and praying to God who rules the ocean, that he would preserve her sailor boy, who may be tossing in the perils of the deep. She can tell what it is to remember with favor, for her affection and her fears render her breast as tumultuous as the sea. And many a widow can tell you, whose tears in summer refresh the sod on his grave, and gems the marble slab in the frosts of winter. Such is the remembrance for which the thief prayed, the kind and constant regard of his heart, whose favor is life and whose loving kindness is better than life. But will the eternal God thus remember mortals? Hear. Zion said, "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." Zion's God replied, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee."

3. Lord, remember ME. Who is this me, that he should ask a place in the memory of Immanuel? The Bible gives no account of his life, only that he was an evil doer, and died a penitent. "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." He was essentially like us, "sold under sin." He had, it may be presumed, fewer religious advantages and wholesome restraints. Perhaps he had not a praying mother to teach him the fear of the Lord, as we had, or may have yet; no pious father's example and counsel as we had, or may have yet. His character warrants the presumption that he did not reverence the Sabbath, nor read the