III. The address delivered by Peter. vv. 14-21. This consisted of a defence and an explanation. 1. The defence. vv. 14, 15. For those men are not drunken, &c. Here we have both denial of the charge, and proof that it was a slander. The third hour of the day answers to our nine o'clock in the morning. It was the time of morning prayer. Many of the devout Jews made it a rule to neither eat nor drink before this season for prayer, and especially was this abstinence practised during the sacred festivals. They that be drunken are drunken in the night.' 2. The explanatron. vv. 16-21. This marvellous occurrence was the fulfilment of an ancient divine prediction. Joel ii. 28-32. That related to a great and solemn crisis in the world's history, arising from the pouring out of God's Spirit upon the nations, and represented by such similitudes as blood, fire, vapour, a darkened sun, &c., and that would result in numerous prophesyings, and other wonderful signs, It would, indeed, be a mighty religious revolution. It was of special interest to the Jews, because then there would be deliverance in Zion and Jerusalem. But others besides the children of the covenant were to share in the blessings of this heavenly visitation. There would be salvation for every seeker. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The glorious consummation had come. HOMILETICAL HINTS.-Looking at the church of Christ, as exhibited in our lesson, two things strike us very forcibly— I. The great need. Though these believers had consorted with Jesus, seen His miracles, and heard His teaching, they had to tarry at Jerusalem for a further and greater qualification-the baptism of fire. We all need this. 1. To keep our spiritual life and vigour. 2. To help us in our work for Jesus. We want the Spirit for ourselves. To give us light on the Word, to inspire us with love for the truth, and courage to make it known. We need the Spirit to operate on those we wish to lead to Christ. To shew them their state, to beget in them a desire to be saved, to lead them into faith, and to renew and sanctify them by His grace. II. The great gift. The Holy Ghost has been shed on the church, and is at work in the world. 1. This gift has come to all saints; not to apostles and evangelists only, but to the entire body of believers. 2. This baptism of fire rests with the Lord's people in its fulness. When miracles were required, to prepare a way for the truth, they were wrought by the Spirit's sovereign and almighty power. The church has been preserved in most perilous times. The Holy Ghost is still with every one who serves Christ faithfully. Some will mock, as of old; but the word will grow and multiply. Let us seek to have this baptism constantly in our hearts. Amen. ILLUSTRATIONS. The Spirit Hindered.-My Eolian harp is not sounding, and yet a fine. fresh wind is blowing in at the window. Why hear I not its soft mystic strains? I remember, it was put away in the lumber room, and some of its strings are broken. There is a gracious revival in the church, and believers are greatly refreshed by the visitations of God's Spirit, but I am in a sadly worldly unbelieving condition. May it not be because I neglect private prayer, and have not been regular at the prayer-meeting; my family concerns and business cares have kept my heart in the lumber room, and my soul has lost her first love. Yes, these are the reasons. Lord, tune my heart, and I will again seek the places where the heavenly wind of Thy Spirit blows graciously and refreshingly. How can I bear to be silent when Thy daily mercies are all around me singing of Thy love? Power from on High.-However learned, godly and eloquent a minister or teacher may be, he is nothing without the Holy Spirit. The bell in the steeple may be well hung, fairly fashioned, and of the soundest metal, but it is dumb until the ringer makes it speak; and in like manner the preacher has no voice of quickening for the dead in sin, or of comfort for living saints until the Divine Spirit gives him a gracious pull, and bids him speak with power. Hence the need of prayer from both preacher and hearers. TALK WITH THE LITTLE ONES. It was a very busy time in Jerusalem. There was a great feast in the city. That did not mean the same as our feasts. By a feast we mean plenty of good things to eat and drink. But this feast in Jerusalem was a great religious meeting. People came to it from all parts of the country. Many of them had to take long journeys. Let us read where they came from (vv. 9-11). This was called the feast of Pentecost. It was sometimes called the feast of harvest,' because the grain harvest was then complete. Many strange costumes would be seen in the streets of the city-many strange languages heard-Asiatic, European, and African. The disciples, 120 in number, had been holding a long prayer-meeting in an upper room. Day after day they engaged in earnest supplication. The great feast day had fully come. Multitudes were on the way to the temple, when suddenly there was a wonderful sound-a rushing noise heard like a wind blowing-not along like an ordinary wind—but straight down from heaven. Then tongues of fire were seen, one resting upon each disciple. The power had now come and all the believers in Christ were filled with the Holy Ghost. Expect Jesus to bless you at prayer times, at prayer meetings, not with fire on your heads --but with His Spirit in your hearts. This shall be your TINY TEXT-'They were all filled with the Holy Ghost.' Acts ii. 4. CATECHISM ON THE LESSON. Where were the disciples on the day of Pentecost? All with one accord in one place. What was the first sign of the pouring out of the Spirit? A sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. What was then seen? Cloven tongues like as of fire. What did the disciples now receive? They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Who were dwelling at Jerusalem at the time? Devout men out of every nation. What did many of them think and say of what they saw and heard? They were amazed and they said, What meaneth this? Whose prophecy did Peter say was now fulfilled? which was spoken by the prophet Joel. That THE ART OF TEACHING.-I. The first thing to be done is to make the truth of which you wish to speak an inhabitant of the world in which your class are themselves living. This is the grand preliminary. The subject, suppose, is the site, architecture, and furniture of Solomon's Temple. Now what have you to say anent the site. It is an elevated site; the highest Jerusalem has to offer; the top of Mount Moriah. Therefore, you remark, the Jewish worshipper had to look up. Even so you say is it with anyone who would be religious now. He must lift his eyes to the holy mount where God's Temple is. Then you make this idea an inhabitant of the same world where your class live. A young man walking along the road with his eyes bent down saw a piece of money. He rushed to pick it up, and joyed by his find, continued his walk, gazing yet more intently on the ground. He adhered to this practice, and, becoming an earthworm, succeeded in gathering together many pieces of gold and silver. But, alas! with his eyes fixed thus, he saw not the Temple of God; he thought not of heaven; he got none of the treasure which moth cannot corrupt nor thief steal, and at last he had no hope, no home, no substance. II. The second thing in the art of teaching might be compared to the showman's art. When you have fairly got the truth which you want to set forth in the boys world, deal with it much in the same way as the showman treats his wares. You have truth to dispose of, which in your heart you love, and why should not your face be interested? The class have only to look at your face to see that you are handling a treasure; you lift the jewel out of its box. How tenderly you do it! You place it on the black cushion of the sinner's heart. The class can see it sparkle in your gleaming eyes; they can see its liquid beauty quiver in every feature of your face. Love begets love, for 'love is of God,' and even while you speak you know your word is a nail made fast in a sure place by the Master of Assemblies. Jan. LESSONS FOR FIRST QUARTER, 1883. MORNING SUBJECTS. FOR READING. 7............THE TWO PATHS.....................Psalm i. 14............Our First Parents ......... .................. .................. ................. Gen. ii. 8-23 21............ The Fall Gen. iii..... 28............Cain and Abel.... Feb. 4........ The Ark Prepared. Mar. Jan. Feb. Mar. 11............The Flood. ................................... Gen. vii. Golden Texts for Repetition. Ps. cxxviii. 1. .................................. Gen. i. 27. ...............................................Rom. v. 12. ..............................................1 John iii. 15. .Heb. x. 31. 18... The Flood Assuaged 7............ 11............ None other Name........................Acts iv. 1-17 Christian Courage. ......... ......... ......... .... ... ... ... ..... .....Acts iv. 18-33 ............................John i. 4. ................. Verse 12. ............... Verse 19. .................. Prov. xii. 22. ............................................. Matt. v. 10. 11...........The Seven Chosen........................Acts vi. 1-15 ..................Rom. xii. 11. 18...........The First Christian Martyr .........Acts vii. 54; viii. 1-4 ...... Rev. iii. 21. 25............ Review of the Quarter's Lessons. Acts iv. 33. REFLECTIONS ON THE FLIGHT OF TIME. 'Come let us anew our journey pursue, Roll round with the year, and never stand still 'Time by moments steals away, First the hour and then the day. Yet it soon amounts to years.' NEW YEAR'S DAY is here again. Another year has rolled away. A year is a considerable portion of the period of our mortal existence. It speeds away by little portions almost imperceptibly-minutes multiplying into hours, hours into days, and days completing the circle of the year. The Bible fixes the standard of human life at three score years and Where one goes beyond that period, thousands fall short of it. Some just open their eyes upon the light and expire; others live to lisp the names of surrounding objects and are no more; while a third class are spared from the shafts of death during infancy and childhood, to augment our grief by their fall at riper years. If seventy years be the boundary of human life, with the exceptions mentioned, it becomes an important question, How many of our years are already severed from that number? With some who may see these pages, more than one half. Others may be much younger, but they ought to remember that there exists a fearful possibility of their being among the number who die in the bloom of life. If we look back to the first ages of the world, what an amazing difference we see between the lives of men who then lived and ours. Yet their lives were as a shadow that declineth. They were but strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Here they had no continuing city. They desired a better country than this. Many who read these lines have had more years than vast numbers of their fellow creatures. One third of the human race, it is calculated, die in infancy. When we enter our churchyards and burial grounds, and walk among the silent dead, how many monumental inscriptions remind us of the shortness and uncertainty of life. Here a few feet beneath the stone or the green turf, lie human bones, as when one breaketh and heweth wood upon the earth, and the heap continually increaseth, by the axe of death, which lies at the root of every tree. It is computed that nine hundred or a thousand millions die annually; and out of this great multitude, what numbers are never permitted to reach the meridian of life! 'There is a reaper whose name is death, He reaps the bearded grain, at a breath, And the flowers that grow between.' Past years can never be recalled, they have fled beyond our reach. We may regret that they have been unwisely spent, but we cannot live them over again. A man's character may suffer for a time, and be redeemed; he may be unfortunate in business and recover himself; he may be overwhelmed with difficulties and rise above all; but time once lost is lost for ever. Time speeds away. How swift is the present moment! See that shadow on the dial--mark its silent progress, how rapidly it passes from figure to figure, and never stops one moment. Or mark that clock-each movement of its pendulum is a comment upon the waste of time. We are but seldom aware of the lapse of time; but whether we think it or not-whether we weep or rejoice-time, like the restless current, is perpetually bearing us away into the ocean of eternity. Whatever we do, wherever we go, we are travelling to the grave. Thousands, have reached that goal towards which we are all directing our steps. 'Time speeds away-away-away; Like torrents in a stormy day. He undermines the stately tower, And sweeps from our distracted breast The friends that loved, the friends that blest; And leaves us weeping on the shore To which they can return no more. Like firey steed from stage to stage, He bears us on from youth to age; Let us think of our stay on earth in comparison with that eternity to which we are hastening. What mind is capable of measuring endless duration. All the powers of arithmetic fall infinitely short of computing the mighty sum. What a hair's breadth is human life to this? How individuals, nations, and worlds rise and fall like bubbles in a sudden shower, before the High and Lofty One' who fills with majesty his everlasting throne. Eternity! Solemn thought! and especially when we consider that in a short time, perhaps during the present year, we shall realize in our own experience what it is, either among the blessed in heaven, or the lost in hell. These revolutions of time are a loud call to all. Let the uncon |