your path-way into this felicity bring you to the river of death,-and there is no turning to the right hand or the left; and there, leaving kindred and friends behind, you must conflict alone with the cold waves? Have you not seen others, fearful as you, when they have come to the cold flood, borne peacefully through? Have you not seen their fears dispelled, the billows parted before them, and the way opened for them to go through dry-shod? And is He who has done. this for them less sufficient for you? "Fear not," is his word to every faithful follower. "I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen-and have the keys of death and of hell." And will you not commit your selves to Him in whose heart is such love, and in whose hands is such power? Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, occording to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church, by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end.

THE AMERICAN

NATIONAL PREACHER.

No. 7, Vol. xiv.

JULY, 1840.

Whole No. 163.

SERMON CCLXXXV.

Preached at the opening of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, in the United States of America, May, 1864.*

BY REV. BAXTER DICKENSON, D. D.,

PROFESSOR IN THE THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, AUBURN, N. Y.

OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT UNDER THE GOSPEL. "Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest."-Isaiah, 32: 15.

THIS charpter opens with a glowing reference to the coming and kingdom of Christ. It proceeds to a view of terrible judgements that were to fall on the Jews for rejecting the Messiah. Their rich fields would be overspread with briars and thorns, their palaces forsaken, their strongholds demolished, and their splendid capital become the abode even of wild beasts. This dreary scene would last, the prophet intimates, until the Spirit were poured out from on high. Then fruitfulness, peace, and prosperity in every form would return the wilderness would become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field a forest. Unquestionably this language is figurative, indicating a change great and delightful indeed, but a change in moral rather than natural scenery. And it is clearly presented as a direct result of the descent of the Holy Ghost.

* The assembly that held its sessions in the first Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia.

To some extent the predictions before us have been fulfiled. The Saviour has come, and laid the foundations of his glorious empire. His countrymen, in a spirit of malignant infidelity, resisted his claims; and they experienced his withering curse. The Spirit has been copiously shed forth; and millions, both Jews and Gentiles, have enjoyed the sanctifying influence. The redeeming process is still advancing; and all nations shall yet joyfully recognize the Son of David as their King.

In this moral movement and triumph, the great Agent is the Holy Spirit. Other influences co-operate; but they are all very subordinate, and the achievement is his. This truth is clearly recognized in the text; and no Bible truth is plainer. He enlightens, awakens, convinces. renews, and safely conducts the redeemed sinner through his multiplied perils to the promised rest. It is not my design, however, to dwell on his official work, with the view of explaining and defending it. The truth on this subject is familiar, and admitted, I trust, freely, practically, gratefully. The text is a prediction, looking to events of thrilling interest that were to occur under the Gospel. The general fact presented is the extraordinary effusion of the Holy Ghost; and it will be my aim to show,

1. THAT THE OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT IS A PROMINENT FEATURE OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION,

II. ON WHAT PRINCIPLES THE GRACIOUS INFLUENCE IS BESTOWED.

True, the presence and power of the Spirit were granted in a measure before the advent of the Son. His sanctifying agency is identified with the entire history of holiness. And there are clear traces of piety back through the Jewish nation, to the deluge, and even to the children of the first pair. There were exmples of very eminent godliness; and there were times, too, especially among the "chosen people," of extensive religious quickening. And still the heavenly influence is unspeakably more marked, as one of the characteristics of Gospel times.

The outpouring of the Spirit, as a leading feature of the Gospel dispensation, was,

I. A matter of direct prediction by the prophets.

Said David, Heh all come down like rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the earth;-and Isaiah, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry

ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring; and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses;-and Ezekiel, Neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel, saith the Lord God;-and Zechariah, I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of suplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn. In Joel there is a passage of still plainer and broader import. It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants, and upon the handmaids, in those days, will I pour out my Spirit. This prophecy, it will be recollected, was referred to by Peter on the memorable day of Pentecost, and its fulfilment avowed in the wonders wrought under his preaching.

Such predictions, it will not be doubted, all look to events under the Gospel. Their reference to the work of the Spirit is also explicit. And they exhibit his influence by imagery adapted certainly to make a strong impression of its extent and power. It is not simply the gentle dew of night it is the copious shower of summer. It is not limited to any point of time, or to any given spot, or to any particular class it falls upon high and low, young and old, of all nations, at all periods. It is presented as a standing and striking characteristic of the Christian economy. Is any feature recognized with more explicitness or brighter coloring?

:

2. The extraordinary effusion of the Spirit is implied in such predictions as relate to the general triumphs of the Gospel. The Lord shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places. Break forth into joy; sing together, ye waste places. Who are these that fly like a cloud, and as doves to their windows? The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. I will give the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

Prophecy of this character is abundant. It holds up a mighty moral renovation. And the magnitude of the achieve

er.

ment is sufficient evidence of peculiar displays of divine powWhat other agency can meet successfully the array of ignorance, prejudice, and stratgem; and carry forward the cross against principalities and powers? In such a conflict, enterprise and energy are certainly right: But the Church, with all her combinations, and all her zeal and courage, has strength only in the Lord and in the power of his might. She can plant and water, but God only giveth the increase. And with him all things are possible. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

3. The Spirit was promised by Christ as a prominent feaure in the progress of the Gospel.

I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth. It is expedient for you that I go away; and if I go not away the comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart I will send him unto you. And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. Tarry ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.

These pledges are exceedingly explicit. They set forth the personality and agency of the Holy Ghost with a distinctness utterly unknown before. They are also rich in consolation. To the disciples it was an unspeakable privilege to have the presence and counsels of their Master. But in the promised Spirit they would find a substitute of even better adaptation to the exigencies of themselves and the world. Filling all space, though unseen and unheard, he would be an abiding source of light and comfort to the good; inspiring them with enterprise, and courage, and supernatural power. He would quicken perception, and wake up conscience, and lay open eternal scenes, in a manner to overawe and subdue the wicked. And thus he would carry Christianity in triumph from city to city, and from state to state, to the quiet possession of the whole earth.

Who does not discern a fitness in the arrangement we are noticing? The incarnation was the opening of a wonderful dispensation. No epoch of time has its circumstance of such