eth from heaven; wherefore follow peace with all men, and holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord, and have grace, whereby we may
serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a
consuming fire. To those who disobey Him, eternal wrath; to those who
love Him, eternal love.

Yes, my friends. Let us believe that, and live in the light of that,
with reverence and godly fear, all the year round. But let us specially
to-day, as far as our dull feelings and poor imaginations will allow us;
let us, I say, adore the ascended Saviour, who rules for ever, a Man in
the midst of the throne of the universe, and that Man--oh, wonder of
wonders!--slain for us; and let us say with St Paul of old, with all our
hearts and minds and souls:--Now to the King of the Ages, immortal,
invisible, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be honour and glory, for
ever and ever. Amen!

SERMON XIV. THE COMFORTER

Eversley. Sunday after Ascension Day. 1868.

St John xv. 26. "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you
from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the
Father, he shall testify of me."

Some writers, especially when they are writing hymns, have fallen now-a-
days into a habit of writing of the Holy Spirit of God, in a tone of
which I dare not say that it is wrong or untrue; but of which I must say,
that it is one-sided. And if there are two sides to a matter, it must do
us harm to look at only one of them. And I think that it does people
harm to hear the Holy Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter,
spoken of in terms, not of reverence, but of endearment. For consider:
He is the

"Creator-Spirit, by whose aid
The world's foundations first were laid,"

the life-giving Spirit of whom it is written, Thou sendest forth Thy
Spirit, and things live, and Thou renewest the face of the earth.

But He is the destroying Spirit too; who can, when He will, produce not
merely life, but death; who can, and does send earthquakes, storm, and
pestilence; of whom Isaiah writes--"All flesh is as grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth; because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it." I
think it does people harm to hear this awful and almighty being, I say,
spoken of merely as the "sweet Spirit," and "gentle dove"--words which
are true, but only true, if we remember