our hearts, to show us our helplessness, to bring down our self-importance, that we may see how deeply we are indebted to the God of all grace for every blessing we enjoy. St. James says, Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth.31 But although the operations of the Spirit of God are independent of human cooperation, yet if we desire to partake of His gracious influences, we are directed to implore the blessing from our heavenly Father; and for our encouragement are reminded, If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.32 We may therefore be assured that none who pray earnestly for this heavenly blessing shall seek it in vain. Prayer may be called the voice of the Spirit of God in the soul. And as the sound of the wind is heard when it blows, although it is not seen; so when the Spirit of God breathes upon the soul, the effects of it are manifested by the offering up of fervent prayer to God. He who is influenced from above, begins to pray earnestly, to seek those things which are above,33 to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteous

31 James i. 17, 18. 32 Luke xi. 13. 33 Colossians iii. 1.

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ness. When a man appears to pray in earnest for the illumination and grace of the Spirit of God, we have reason to believe that the desires to which he gives utterance proceed from the Holy Spirit. Those who observe them, cannot indeed tell whence they come, or whither they go, whence they proceed, or what effect will follow; the people of the world know nothing about these things, their cause or their results. But as the new-born babe utters its cries when it comes into the world, so the cries of the new-born soul are expressed in earnest and importunate prayer for spiritual blessings. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,35 He hears and answers the fervent supplications of the poor and needy who call upon His name.

When our Saviour had explained the nature of spiritual influence, by comparing it to the wind, the effects of which are most powerful, though the cause is invisible, Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be? He could not comprehend this new doctrine. He was overwhelmed with astonishment at the things which he heard. Our Saviour therefore reproved him for his ignorance; Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Nico

34 Matthew vi. 33.

35 Romans viii. 27.

demus, as a Pharisee, was one who being instructed out of the law, was confident that he himself was a guide of the blind, a light of them which were in darkness,36 and yet he was ignorant of the first principles of true religion, and the first step to be taken in order to an entrance into the kingdom of God. Our Saviour therefore proceeded to assure him of the truth of the doctrine in which He had instructed him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen. It was not a matter which admitted of doubt, or respecting which there was any uncertainty. His testimony was the result of His own knowledge on the subject. And yet, He adds, Ye

receive not our witness.

But notwithstanding the incredulity which Nicodemus manifested, our Saviour, after reproving him for it, proceeded to instruct him on the subject of His own Divine nature, and the purpose for which He had come into the world. If I have told you earthly things, or those which relate to this life; if I have spoken of a change of heart and life which must take place on earth in those who would enter into the kingdom of God; and ye believe not; you give no credit to My testimony on these subjects, which are of the first importance to every human

36 Romans ii. 18, 19.

being; how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? of what has taken place in heaven, and has brought Me down to earth? This is a matter in which I alone am able to give instruction. For no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. He had come down from heaven to earth, and yet was still in heaven, the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, and alone able to declare or reveal Him to mankind. As God He was in heaven, while as man He was on earth. He here calls Himself the Son of man, but afterwards, when describing Himself as the gift of the God of love to a lost world, He calls Himself the only begotten Son of God, or a partaker of the same Divine nature with the Father who is in heaven.

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Before He said this, He intimated to Nicodemus that He was about to relate to him something more extraordinary than even that which had excited the surprise and astonishment of the learned Pharisee; and therefore, having explained the purpose for which He had come into the world, declaring that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life; He enlarged on this subject, to the end of the twenty-first verse,

which is the Gospel appointed for the Monday in Whitsun week. He here unveiled the councils of Heaven respecting the means whereby the sinful children of men were to be delivered from that perdition in which sin had involved them, and might be made partakers of everlasting life and happiness in the kingdom of God. Here He testified that the only begotten Son of God had become the Son of man, in order that in human nature He might do and suffer all that was needful for the redemption of mankind from the bondage under which they were held by sin and Satan, and from its consequences in death and hell. These are the glad tidings which the gospel of Christ proclaims; that through the merits and mediation of our most adorable Redeemer, apprehended by faith in His name, the sinful children of men become the children of God, are accepted with the Father of heaven, and shall be blessed by Him in time and in eternity. The Son of man was lifted up on the cross, in like manner as the brazen serpent in the wilderness was set up on a pole, to be the object of faith and hope to the dying Israelites. Those who were bitten by the fiery flying serpents, though mortally wounded, beheld the serpent of brass, and lived.39 And the crucified Saviour exclaims, Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the

39 Numbers xxi. 9.

40 Isaiah xlv. 22.