of our belonging to him : for the declaration of God is unquestionable, and his decision is irreversible ; nor is there any exception whatever made : " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." He may be in a high and dignified station ; but he is not therefore Christ's. He maybe greatly distinguished for the variety and extent of his intellectual attainments : but he is not therefore Christ's. He may be looked up to as a pattern of moral excellence and virtue ; but neither will that be any decisive evidence of his belong- ing to Christ. Whoever, or whatever he may be, if he have not the Holy Ghost abiding in him, he is none of Christ's. He may now make light of this truth ; he may explain it away ; he may " puff at ite" (as the Scripture speaks), with contemptuous indignation; but he shall find it true to his cost. Let me, how- ever, hope that the minds of all shall " be opened, as Lydia's was, to attend to what shall be spoken f;" and that " the word being received with meekness as an engrafted word, shall prove as effectual, as it is able, to save your souls g."
But, whilst I would impress on all a sense of the absolute and indispensable necessity which exists for our possessing this heavenly gift, I must not close my subject without declaring, for the comfort of my audience, the willingness of Almighty God to bestow it upon all without exception. He has told us, that if an earthly parent will not refuse bread to his famished child, much less will He refuse his Holy Spirit unto them that ask himh. Nor let any be dis- couraged on account of their unworthiness. A more unworthy character can scarcely be conceived than that of the Samaritan woman, whose guilt, it should seem, was not a little aggravated by refusing to our Lord a draught of water ; yet to her did he say, " If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water1." Let all of us then come thirsting for this water of
e Ps. x. 5. f Acts xvi. 14. b Jam. i. 21.
h Luke xi. 13. » John iv. 10, 14.
1864.1 ouu NEED OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 223
life. Nor let any erroneous presumption be harboured in our minds, as though there were nothing peculiar in this gift ; but let every one of us seek it, yea, seek it earnestly, " with strong crying and tears," that so we may be heard and answered, and " the Saviour be magnified in the midst of usk," and " our souls be saved in the great day of the Lord Jesus1."
k Acts xix. 17. ! 1 Cor. v. 5.