their imagination help them to a similitude?---it was "as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting." Sit you down, grave, or sad, or restless, or sick at heart, or feeling you know not what, and listen to the wind on some tempestuous night; hear how it will seem as it were to sigh and moan, and pass round and round about you, and then, perhaps, have a strong gust come and shake the very floor beneath you; do this, or fancy it as if it were done, and you will feel within a thousandth part of its intensity; the force of this most just and striking comparison, this

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rushing, mighty wind," which “filled all the house where they were sitting." But on what errand came this sound from heaven, this rushing, mighty wind? it came to announce the presence of him. who sent it, in the mansions of the blessed; it came to pour floods of light upon a benighted world; it came to awaken

millions from the sleep of death; it came to confound the wise, and put to shame the great ones of the earth; it came to break down every image, to root up every grove, to defile every altar, to place a firebrand within every shrine; it came-but hear the words of inspiration, and learn thence the purport of this dread visitation. "And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Jesus! when thou wast on earth, and hadst thy poor, simple-hearted, honest friends about thee, many were the kind and cheering things thou didst speak to raise their drooping spirits; thou didst assure them," the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your re

membrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." And as thou saidst so hath it been; the Comforter hath come; yet, for all that, some will not believe in thee, do thee great despite, speak of thee slightingly, make mockery of thy cross;-this, at least, benevolent Redeemer! thou hast not deserved at their hands. What was the last precious gift thou gavest to us? Peace." Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." Would any break this peace? Could there be one so heartless, so unfeeling?

The Holy Ghost, then, has come down according to the promise; it has given utterance of other or strange tongues; but can so extraordinary an event as this remain concealed? No, it is noised abroad; the multitude come together; they are all confounded, because every man hears them speak in his own language; they are all amazed, they marvel, saying one to another,

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Behold,

are not all these which speak, Galileans;" men, whose natural tongue is the rudest and most unpolished that there is? Come we not from the most distant parts of the earth, places as varied in language as remote in space? Here are we from Parthia, from Egypt, from Mesopotamia, from Pontus, from Arabia, from Crete: a whole life were well spent in the accomplishment of such a work; and yet, if our ears do not deceive us strangely, we hear these contemptible Galileans speaking in our tongues the wonderful works of God!' Others mocking, say, "these men are full of new wine." Then Peter, and with him the eleven, stands up, and by that simple and affecting eloquence recorded in the sacred writings, speaks conviction to the doubting, hope to the believer, pardon to all. Our limits permit us not to follow him through his beautiful and touching appeal. The morning of that day saw

but a hundred and twenty in all, who acknowledged Christ; the evening beheld three thousand which believed. My brethren, this is the anniversary of that remarkable incident-to-day we commemorate the diffusion of the Holy Spirit; since that time, near twenty centuries have done their work upon this world we live in. What changes, what divisions have there not been? What pleasing, what mournful scenes will not the mirror of remembrance cause to pass in review before us? We then possessed nothing that wore the resemblance of worship, save the rude superstitions our forefathers had transmitted to us; they (I speak of Jewry) believed in and accepted the Messiah; now we, by a happier providence, are permitted to have access to the mercies of the Redeemer, whom, as far as our errors permit, in verity and in truth, we worship and adore; while a religion lords it over