the assurance of His richest blessing. Although they had forsaken Him in an hour of terror and had fled, they were not forgotten by Him. He came to them in an upper room in demonstration of love, showed unto them His hands and His side, and said: "Peace be unto you." These words of peace had the accents of forgiving love; and who can doubt that, being justified by faith, they had peace with God? More than this, He breathed on them, and said: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Who could desire more for his own experience than to feel the breath of the triumphant Saviour, and to receive the indwelling of the Holy Ghost?

Nor is it the same with the highest possible condition of religious joy. They were glad when they saw the Lord. Even the last doubts had been dispelled from the heart of Thomas. For forty days they had frequently see Jesus. They had heard Him speak of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. They saw Him ascend from Mount Olivet to glory, and angels. spoke to them of His coming again. Could they be happier? The cross, the agony, the sepulchre, have all vanished. An ascending Saviour, a cloud of glory, angelic promises are in their stead. Then "they worshipped Him, and return to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God." What supreme bliss! And yet it is not minis

terial power.

Nor is it a call or commission to preach the Gospel that they had previously received. After His resurrection He said to His disciples : "As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you"; and before His ascension He uttered the great commission: "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel unto every creature." And yet, with this rich experience, and this grand commission, the direction comes: "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high."

If we endeavour to analyze the elements of this power in itself I think we shall fail. It is spiritual and invisible. All we can do is to trace the circumstances under which the power is given and the results which flow from it. Indeed, power is in its nature indescribable. It is known simply by its results.

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Physical and Spiritual Power.

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Gravitation, that greatest of all material powers, constantly active, everywhere potent, is wholly beyond our research or even our conception. Where are those cords, stronger than steel, which bind the planets to their centres? Where are those ́unseen ties that, like a universal network, involve every atom in the air and make it fall to the earth; and not merely to the earth, but in a direct line toward the centre of the earth, though it be thousands of miles away, and can never be reached? seems to me an emblem of God, filling all space, operating through all matter. If the dream of astronomers be true, that not only secondaries move around their planets, and planets their suns, but that suns revolve about the centres of immense systems, and all these systems move around one great centre, who can conceive the magnitude of a force that can thus operate through infinite space with precisely the same law of attraction

for vast worlds as for infinitesimal atoms? It is a force never seen, and yet it operates in the sunshine and the dark. It is never heard, but it sends these myriads of worlds singing and shining on their way. He who made that power by the word of His Spirit, gives that Spirit to work in us and through us.

Nor is it the only exhibition of power. Consider the chemical affinity that draws together the acids and alkalies. Think of the magnetic power which makes the steel filings, though in the midst of dust and rubbish and clippings of tin and brass, leave them all and fly up and kiss the magnet. It touches the pivoted needle, and men and treasures are secure upon the stormy ocean by its unerring guidance. The winds blow ever so fiercely; the waves roll ever so furiously; the vessel pitches as though it would founder; and yet that strange influence, unseen, unheard, unfelt, holds the needle in its place. Who can tell what is power? We see it in its effects; we measure it in its results.

So with spiritual power. We cannot tell "whence it cometh nor whither it goeth"; but it breathes upon the human spirit, and stormy passions subside, falsehood, fraud, lust, and avarice disappear, and truth, purity, meekness, and love reign supreme in the soul. It is a transmutation beyond what the philosopher

sought in the fabled stone whose touch should turn everything into gold. It is a new creation from the breath of Him who created all worlds and breathed into all spirits.

Spiritual power is not beauty of presence nor dignity of form. It is not learning, nor rhetoric, nor logic, nor oratory; but it can use all these for its one great end. It can burn and shine in the highest powers of the most eloquent speaker, and it can thrill in the accents of the unlettered man. It can infuse the words that drop from a mother's lips, and it can wing the lispings of a little child. It can use all there is of a human being for the glory of God and for the advancement of His Church.

This spiritual force in its highest human manifestation is ministerial power. It employs and utilizes all other forces as its agents. It uses the power of thought, which is immense in its character-thoughts not only of men, but of angels and of God; thoughts which were from eternity and thoughts which shall triumph when earth's history shall have closed. It uses the power of language in all its manifold forms. Its tongue of fire is to preach among all nations, to carry to every heart the knowledge of the power and love of God. It employs oratory in its highest efficiency; and how great is that influence which man may exercise over his fellow men! Listen to the

eloquence of Demosthenes, as he stirred the people of Athens, air

as the sea is stirred by a storm, with his wonderful philippics. See how Cicero moved the Roman Senate and people. Look at Peter the Hermit rousing all Europe in the time of the Crusades. Witness the eloquence which Fox, Pitt, Sheridan, and Burke, displayed in the British Parliament. What a power Napoleon exercised over his soldiers by his short, fiery speeches, as he pointed to the enemy on the battle-fields of Europe, or called them to remember how forty centuries looked down at them from the top of the Pyramids of Egypt. If there be, as is claimed by some, a magnetic power which kindles in the eye, and sparkles responsively from the speaker to the hearer, and from the hearer to the speaker; if there be some subtle current established between them which is manifested in the energy of

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the speaker, and the rapt attention of the hearer-an indescribable force flowing in some way from the intensity of a soul speaking to other souls-that power is subservient to the true and faithful minister.

In examining this promise of power from on high, its first characteristic is that it proceeds from the Father. Jesus said, Behold I send the promise of My Father upon you"; and, again, "Wait for the promise of the Father which ye have heard of Me." Why was it called "the promise of the Father"? One reason, doubtless, was that it had been foretold by Isaiah and Joel, before the coming of Christ. Another reason was that when Christ promised the Comforter He said, "Whom the Father shall send in My name"; and, again, "Which proceedeth from the Father." Just at this point arises the great filioque question, which has divided the Eastern and Western Churches, but which I will not stop to notice. The expression may also indicate the wonderful works to be wrought under the Gospel dispensation.

The power from on high was to be a power like that occasionally seen in ancient times. Indeed, the Old Testament is largely a revelation of the power of God, as displayed among many classes of people and in a great variety of instances. The call and preservation of Abraham, the deliverance of the Israelites, their preservation in the wilderness, their entrance into Canaan, and their subsequent history abound with wonderful displays of the power of God among the highest and the lowest, princes and subjects, prophets and priests, men and women, in every employment of life. Among these wonderful exhibitions those connected with worship have the greatest interest. The word of the Lord on Mount Sinai made the people quake and fear. When the tabernacle was set up and the offerings were placed upon the altar "there came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt-offering and the fat; which when all the people saw they shouted and fell on their faces.” So, when Solomon had finished the Temple and the sacrifice was set in order a fire came down and consumed the burnt-offering and the sacrifice. And when all the people saw how the fire

came down and the glory of the Lord filled the house, they bowed themselves with their faces toward the ground and worshipped and praised the Lord, saying: "For He is good. For His mercy endureth for ever." So, when upon Mount Carmel, at the prayer of Elijah, the fire of the Lord consumed the burnt sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust, and the water, the people fell on their faces and said: "The Lord, He is the God! The Lord, He is the God!" Under the influence of such a scene, the people took the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and slew them before the face of Ahab, who had been their friend and protector. The revelation of the Father was thus one of power. "Our God is a consuming fire."

Strangely, too, the movements of science, art, and commerce seem to wait on ministerial life. Printing had just been invented in time to give the Bible to the people in the period of the Reformation. The magnetic needle was applied to navigation to send that Bible and its preachers to all lands. The spirit of exploration, which has sought out every island, and is now engaged in revealing the character of Central Africa and the steppes of Asia; the study of all languages; the preparation of grammars and lexicons; the knowledge of currents of the air and the water, of the powers of steam and electricity—all these are so many voices crying: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord!" They are so many indications that when man will carry God's message all the power of omnipotence waits on his service. Instead of, like Philip, being caught away by the Spirit of the Lord, he steps on the steamship or car and is borne to his mission. Thus the omnipotence of the Father accompanies and works in harmony with the gift of ministerial power in accomplishing its great results. The second characteristic of this power is that it is "from on high." It comes directly from the throne. Jesus ascended up on high; "He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." "Far above all principalitiy, and power, and might, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come," hath He sat down at the right hand of the Father, and for ever gives forth this power upon the sons of men. It is not found in books, nor does it come from books. It is not