ocuses the rays of
God's love on ice-bound hearts.

II. THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.--The aggravation of sin of which
the Spirit convicts the sinner seems to present a gloom too dark for
any ray to penetrate. He cannot forget. The dead past will not bury
its dead. The wind of eternity blows away the leaves with which he
tries to hide the corpses of murdered opportunities, broken hearts, and
dissipated years. He cannot forget. He may close his eyes, but still
the memories of the past will haunt him, the deeds he would undo, the
words he would recall, the dark ingratitude toward the love of Jesus.
Conscience is a flaming terror till a man finds Christ as his Saviour.
Her brow is girt with fire, her voice peals with doom.

"Can I ever be cleansed?" cries the convicted soul. "Can these awful
gnawings be silenced, and these terrors laid? Can I rise from this
ruin and become a new, righteous, God-like man?" These questions are
answered by the Spirit who induced them. "There is righteousness," He
says, "because Christ is gone to the Father, and ye see Him no more."

He is gone to the Father; and the seal of Divine authenticity has
therefore been placed on all He said and did in the Father's name.

He is gone to the Father; and it is clear, therefore, that He has been
accepted as the Saviour and Redeemer of men.

He is gone to the Father in the likeness and nature of men; evidently,
then, man is an object of God's love, is reconciled to God, and is
admitted to the rights and privileges of a son and heir.

The work of Jesus on man's behalf finished at the Cross, accepted by
the Father--of which the resurrection is witness--presented by our
Great High Priest within the veil, is the momentous truth which the
Holy Spirit brings home to the convinced sinner. And inasmuch as we
are unable to see within the veil and discern the Divine marks of
approval and acceptance, the Holy Spirit descends, and in His advent
proves that Jesus has gone where He said, and done what He promised.

How do we know that the work of Jesus Christ has been accepted in the
courts of eternity? On this wise. Before He died the Master said that
He went to the Father, and that when He was glorified He would ask and
receive the Spirit in His fullness. After days had elapsed and the
second week from His ascension was already passing, the Spirit in
pentecostal fullness fell upon the waiting Church, giving it an
altogether new power to comba