two sufficient centres around which all else may rotate-we mean the head and the heart, the intellect and the affections. These two in a greater or less degree of perfection form a character. Uncommonly cold intellectual beings we have met, yet we never doubted they had a heart somewhere, although we have felt puzzled how to reach it. Warm natures we, too, have come across, and though the intellectual seed was rotting, and the powers rusting away in disuse, we have been led to believe that were only something to crack in their heads, as in Dr. Adam Clarke's, they, too, might yet enjoy the pleasure of intellectual freedom and exercise.

Two works are again and again spoken of as being performed by the Spirit; teaching and comforting, both of which evince his character; the one in the intellectual, and the other in the heart aspect.

(1) He is spoken of as his people's teacher. The qualifications of an apt and successful teacher are so well, and we hope experimentally, known by you, as to render dilating upon them unnecessary. Let us only hurriedly indicate a few. He who would teach must think fairly, deeply, and perseveringly. An unthinking teacher can be but one remove from parrotism. A teacher must have good judgment to know the times when, the truths which, and the persons to whom he may communicate his instructions in their fulness and variety. A teacher must at least, to be successful, have some measure of imagination; that power which opens the gates of hades, and renders near and palpable the misery of the lost; that annihilates for a little time and space, filling the soul with the restful joy of heaven. And so must he likewise possess memory and power of persuasion. Thus we see that the work of teaching rightly done involves the exercise of thought, judgment, imagination, and memory, and these combined form the intellectual part of character. We have seen that the Holy Ghost is the church's teacher, and must therefore have the intellectual part of character.

(2) He is called his people's paraclete or Comforter, and all heart affections cluster around this office. He who would be a Barnabas must preserve his heart unveteranized by contact with suffering, having a large love ever ready to melt into sympathy with the tried, the contrite, and the sad. He who would be a comforter must possess a deep, intuitive heart knowledge. This Job's friends lacked, and lacking, wounded more painfully rather than soothed him. He who is the saint's perfect Comforter, must have every heart-affection completely developed and exercised. And thus from these two offices, though we are by no means restricted to them, we have shown that the Holy Ghost, in the intellectual and heart aspect, has perfect character, and character is the second constituent of personality.

(3) The last composite of personality is will. This is the faculty which completes personality. Hodge, quoting and clothing Sir William Hamilton's thought, says: "There is included in the will, that in the exercise of the faculty of volition, or self-decision, the soul truly originates action; i.e., acts as an original cause of its own acts, therein differing from all material causes, which act only as they are acted upon. This is the transcendental element of the human will, generally

* In "Outlines of Theology," p. 222.

marked by the term spontaneity, which has rendered the whole. subject so obscure. The action of an absolute cause, that is, of one really originating action, is a mystery to our understandings, though it be daily part of our personal experience." If the theory of the absolutely self-determining power of the will were correct, then indeed its possession would be the crowning evidence of personality. But we must not strengthen our position with what appears to us to be error. Dr. Chalmers' "Institutes," vol. ii, in a chapter on the necessity of human actions and of the human will, demonstrates, that while every man may do as he wills, yet he wills to do some things to the neglect of others, by the laws of suggestion and pathology. To use his own illustration: "A sweet and a bitter apple are presented to us for choice if we prefer the sweet, it is easy to discover what has caused the volition; or if obstinately bent ou showing the freedom of our will, we choose the bitter, it then becomes still more easy to detect that the love of conquest in debate has overcome the predilection for the sweet apple, and so fixed our choice." What philosophers call "absolute causation," a kind of Deity in the mind, is acted upon and altered by a thousand slight material causes. Giving up this high, and, as we think, untenable ground, will still remains the chief evidence of personality. Give us a man of strong will, not one swelling with egotism, for a brave heart never thinks of assuring you it is not afraid—and we will point you to one who will make a mark on his age, and wield an influence over his brother men. Without entering amply into this question, let us observe, will acts affirmatively and negatively. It commands and forbids. The former the Holy Ghost did when he said, Separate unto me Paul and Barnabas;" the latter, when "the Holy Ghost forbade Paul." Lengthily, and we fear tiresomely, have we dwelt upon this division, only because we knew of no other way of giving our meaning more briefly. To sum up, then, our argument, we have proved the consciousness of the Spirit, because he feels and acts. We have proved the character of the Spirit in its intellectuality, from his office of teacher, and in its heart work from his office of comforter. We have proved his possession of will, because he commands and forbids. He who feels and acts, he who teaches and comforts, he who commands and forbids, must be a person. II. Let us now deal with the Deity of the Holy Ghost. Some few there have been who, acknowledging the personality, have denied the Deity of the Holy Ghost-Patripassianists in the primitive period, and Dr. Samuel Clarke in more modern times. The latter in his "Scriptural Doctrine of the Trinity," says: "The Holy Spirit of God does not in Scripture generally signify a mere power or operation of the Father, but more usually a real person; that that person is not self-existent, but derives his being from the Father by the Son; that as he is subordinate to the Father, so he is also in Scripture represented as subordinate to the Son, both by nature and the will of the Father." Who can, upon a careful study of the history of doctrines, doubt that God has sovereignly caused heresy to exercise a most blessed ministry? Israel's Samsons have never ceased to obtain sweetness out of the rent lions of heterodoxy. May the Deity of the Spirit be more studied and prized by us, because Satan has sought to wrest it from us.

Our first proof of the Deity of the Spirit is

1. That divine attributes are ascribed to him.

(1) Omnipresence. Psalm cxxxix. 7. "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?"

(2) Omniscience. 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11, "The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." "The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God."

(3) Omnipotence, or at least, power. Romans xv. 19, "Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God."

(4) Wisdom. Isaiah xi. 2, "The spirit of wisdom shall rest upon him." (5) Goodness. Psalm exliii. 10, Thy Spirit is good."

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(6) Holiness. Isaiah xlix. 7, " And his Holy One."

(7) Truth. John xvi. 13, "The Spirit of truth."

That some of these proof passages may be received with hesitancy and doubt will not excite our wonder, yet we feel sure the more they are examined the more capable will they appear of bearing the burden of proof that has been laid upon them. As omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, wisdom, goodness, holiness, truth, are predicated of the Holy Spirit, he must therefore be God.

2. The second, which is indeed a class of proofs of the Deity of the Holy Spirit, is the works performed by him.

(1) The first work known to us performed by him was creation. Gen. i. 2; Job xxvi. 13. "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." "By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens."

(2) The second work we notice is inspiration. The sixty-six books of which the Bible is composed contain all possible variety of matter. Their forty writers are drawn from all ranks, with differences of temperament and culture; yet were all prompted to write and speak by the inspiring Spirit.

(3) The third work we notice is, the Spirit operating in and through bad men. Balaam and the disobedient prophet, spoken of in Kings.. In Exodus xxxi. 3, we read of Bezaleel, the artificer, having the super-natural help of the Spirit. May not many of the inventions, original books, and sciences, owe their existence and development to the influence of the Holy Spirit upon the mind?

(4) A fourth work of the Spirit is miracles.

(5) A fifth work of the Spirit is his resting upon Christ. Besides the perfect human soul and body of the Second Person of the Trinity of Immanuel, the Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove, and was given to him without measure. It has often been matter of speculative wonder to us, whether the Spirit was Christ's paraclete, solacing him in his hours of weakness and sorrow; whether he wrought his miracles by the Spirit's power: here we touch on the trinal constitution of the Godhead, and all grows dark with insufferable light.

(6) The sixth and last work of the Spirit we shall mention is the resurrection. Romans viii. 11. "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."

The works of creation, inspiration, miracle, and resurrection form a body of overwhelming proof for the Deity of the Spirit. Did time permit we might from the baptismal formula, and the benediction,

occurring in 2 Cor. xiii. 14, show that he was co-equal with the Father and the Son.

II. We shall now, in the third and last place, ponder the proper honour of the Holy Ghost. There appear to us to be three ways of understanding and rendering honour to the Holy Ghost, which time will allow us but briefly to hint at.

1. The first is by recognising with the heart that this is the dispensation of the Spirit. As the advent of the Redeemer was the subject of Old Testament prophecy, so the coming of the Spirit was the prophetic burden of the Messiah ministry. At the birth of the Redeemer the angels sang, the star shone, and the shepherds worshipped; at the descent of the Spirit mighty signs and wonders were wrought. During the earthly life of the Redeemer the docile few flourished as trees planted by the rivers of waters, while the enmity of the opposing was stirred into greater fierceness. In this ministry of the Spirit the church is being saved, sanctified, comforted; while the hearts of the unsaved are becoming harder by withstanding his gentle drawings.

Had the Jews known the day of their merciful visitation, they would have wistfully hung on the words of him who spake as never man spake. Let but the church and the world fervently believe that this is the dispensation of the Third Person of the Trinity; that he is now in our world, in our sanctuaries, in our homes, in our hearts; and whilst the consciousness will quicken languid Christian life and work, it will bring to the Spirit a revenue of glory.

2. Again, we honour the Spirit by practically attending to the doctrine of instrumentality. Angelic and human ministries are alike exhibitions of the doctrine of instrumentality. Honours he God more who with reefed sail allows the favouring gale to pass, than he who, with auxious effort, makes the winds his coursers, speeding him over the liquid pathway? That minister, that Christian, honours the Spirit most, who with single-heartedness attends to instrumentality, expecting the Spirit's blessing, not apart from, but through the diligent use of means.

3. Again, we honour the Holy Spirit, as must be obvious to all, by addressing him in prayer and exalting him in praise, as we do the Father and the Son. During these troubled ages the Spirit has been secretly working in every heart, savingly and sanctifyingly working in the church. Softly as the night dew in the conversion of the ones and twos, publicly and loudly as outpoured torrents in revivals and reformations. Nor can we bring ourselves to believe that the prophecy of Joel has yet received its complete fulfilment, "For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." In this outstretched valley of spiritual death must the Christian prophet stand, and though he sees under the word the bones becoining bodies, and though the hideous ghastliness of the charnel-house is now partly modified, and corpses seem quietly to rest as in a peaceful dormitory, he knows that death still exercises over them his, to human power, inexorable dominion, and he lifts his eyes Godward, pleading," Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." Yes, O long-limited Spirit, come from any one, or all of the four winds, from any denomination, any preacher, any spiritual agency, and breathe upon these slain, that this Golgotha world may become a deathless, sinless Eden.

The Bible and the Poor.

N pursuance of the more important part of the original design of this magazine, Editor and contributors have sought to make its pages of practical interest. Every mission that has for its object the religious and social benefit of the poor has our goodwill and prayers. We have not withholden hearty praise where it was due, and have commended to the sympathies of our numerous readers the honest labourer in God's vineyard, and besought their interest in his work. In many cases, our visits to the scene of the operations of those who serve the Lord in comparative obscurity, and our sketches in these pages, have been of considerable pecuniary help to them, and have led to the inauguration of new efforts for the evangelization of the lowly classes in this great metropolis. As opportunity offers, it is our intention to continue these sketches, reporting, at varied intervals, the further progress of those institutions which have already been noticed in our columns. We are glad to escape the din of confusing theologians who wrangle about hair-splitting theories, or who vainly seek to impose upon us another gospel which is not another, because, forsooth, it better consists with their whimsical notions of modern culture and progress, to witness how godly men and women, untroubled by these fancies of respectable do-nothings, are grappling with the sterner problems of daily life, and effecting wonders and performing miracles by the Spirit of God, any one of which is worth all the sublime speculations of modern thought. While so many are seeking to destroy the faith once delivered unto the saints, these lowly messengers of God's truth, untutored in elaborate reasonings and uninfluenced by argumentative quibblings, are taking men captive to the obedience of Christ. Often feeling their own gifts to be miserably inadequate to the work their Master has given them to do, they are glad that their weapons are superior to those of culture and intellectual ability; they rejoice to wield the sword of the Spirit, which is "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds."

The publication of a series of interesting papers, in a volume entitled, “God's Message to Low London" (published by Nisbet), affords us the opportunity of giving some further information relative to the work of the Bible-women of London. In "The Sword and the Trowel," of August, 1867, we gave a sketch of this quiet but effective work. It is now in the fifteenth year of its existence as an organization, and is still conducted by Mrs. Ranyard and her council of friends. It began with a simple-hearted woman connected, we believe, with Dr. Brock's church, in Bloomsbury, who sought to persuade the poor of St. Giles to purchase Bibles by small instalments. She was the first agent employed by the Bible-women's Mission. "The messenger was so humble," writes Mrs. Ranyard, and acquainted with all the ways of St. Giles-that the people did listen; her fellow-feeling and sympathy were a comfort to them, and they would often let her come in and find the message for them. Then she did some kind little thing for father, mother, or child, and won her way to their hearts; then a few of them came to tea with her, and brought their own mug or chair, and heard about more comfortable homes." To get them to listen to the simple message of the