But, in noticing Philip's proceedings in the city he went to, we must notice the confirmatory evidence of his mission. He performed miracles. 'He cast out unclean spirits, and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.' This confirms the statement of St. Mark, that the Lord, on having declared that those who had believed on Him should cast out devils, speak with new tongues, (in languages which they had not learned), take up serpents, be uninjured on drinking any deadly thing, lay hands on the sick and recover them, went forth and preached, the Lord working with them, confirming the Word with the signs following.'

Philip was one of those who had believed on Christ during His personal ministry on earth, and in his going to preach in Samaria, the Lord wrought with him, and confirmed his word by some of the signs following of which He spake.

This confirmed the truth of the statements and doctrines which Philip preached; gave evidence, at once, that he was a heavenly-instructed, a divinely-commissioned, servant of the Most High. The people,' therefore, it is said, ' with one accord, gave heed to the things which he spake.' Does any one inquire why these miracles are not performed now? We answer, they were only given for a time. They never were intended by Christ to be continued on. And it was never promised by Him that they should be. They were given for the establishment of the faith at first, and to supply a lack which then existed, and which does not exist now. That lack was the want of the New Testament Scriptures which we possess. We have all the written evidence that is required for our being built up in the truth. The believers, at the time referred to, had not. They had only the statements made to them by God's servants. When those servants were away from them believers had nothing to refer to but the recollection of what they had heard from them. Those servants, then, working miracles in proof of the truth of what they taught, would probably make the hearers more attentive to what was preached, that they might keep in memory what they heard, having no written documents, as we have, to refer to when their teachers were absent from them.

The miracles referred to would cease generally soon after believers came into the possession of the writings of the

New Testament, and cease before all believers could possess the whole of those writings. Churches might possess them, but not individuals: a few individuals might possess a considerable portion of them who could afford to go to the expense of having them written out; but they could only be a few.

We, then, in the present day, have not the necessity of having miracles performed in confirmation of the truth of the gospel which those in the earliest times had. We are more favoured than they were, blessed in a far higher degree, have writtten down reference upon reference to all which we need to know on the subject.

And that passage in St. Mark's gospel (xvi. 17), which has been looked upon by many as a promise, that all true believers afterwards should work miracles, contains no such promise. As it stands in the English authorized version it gives, I admit, an apparent sanction to the idea, apparently authorizes it. But the English reading does not give the sense of the original. The words should not read, 'And these signs shall follow them that believe;' but, And these signs shall follow them who believed,' or, 'these signs shall follow them who have believed.' Our Lord here referred to persons who had believed on Him during His personal ministry on earth, and not to persons who should believe on Him after the time He spake. He did not say that future believers should work miracles, neither did he say that they should not work miracles. He did not refer to future believers, but to persons who had believed on Him; and such went forth, we are told in the last verse of the 16th chapter of St. Mark, the Lord working with them, and 'confirming the word by the signs following'-the signs which Christ referred to.

In connection with this subject there is one remark which may be made, and that is, in Apostles laying their hands upon persons, and imparting to those persons the Holy Spirit in His miraculous power, enabling those persons to speak with new tongues and to prophesy (or to teach). It was only Apostles who had the power of doing it. Philip, who could work miracles, cast out unclean spirits, and heal the sick, could not do it. Peter and John had to go down specially to Samaria to do what Philip could not do-to lay their hands upon persons who had received the grace of God in truth-impart to them

the Holy Spirit in his miraculous power. And this gift was not, and could not be, continued on by those who had received it at Apostles' hands. The imparting of it ceased with Apostles, only Apostles having this gift. And that it was only Apostles who possessed this gift is distinctly asserted by Chrysostom, who died A.D. 407. Chrysostom, in commenting on Acts, viii. 17, says: "Those baptized received not the Holy Spirit. Philip had not such a gift, being of the seven; he baptizing imparted not the Spirit to those baptized, for he had not the power. This was the gift of the twelve only.' The Bishops' Bible, too, with a prologue by Archbishop Cranmer, has this remark on the same passage: The manifest and unwont gifts of the Holy Ghost appeared among the christians by laying on of the hands of the Apostles.'

We notice lastly. The effect of Philip's visit to the city to which he went: 'There was great joy in that city.'

When Jesus was born, what was the message which the angels brought to the shepherds who were keeping watch over their flocks by night? Even this: 'Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.' The good tidings of this Saviour, Christ the Lord, had been brought to the Samaritans by Philip, and the intelligence had caused great joy among them. They, doubtlessly, rejoiced in the benefits which had been conferred upon some of their people by the miracles which had been performed upon them; but their chief degree of joy arose from Jesus having been preached to them as a Saviour. They knew their need of a Saviour; they felt the worth of a Saviour. They now knew where one was to be found; and they rejoiced on account of the intelligence. Some of them, too, had sought Him and found Him to the joy and rejoicing of their heart. They obtained redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of their sins, and were enabled to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Condemnation was removed from them, being in Christ Jesus through their believing in Him. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made them free from the law of sin and death. Such blessings made those who became the subjects of them full of joy. Believing on Christ, they rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory; believing in Him, He became precious

to them. The love of God was shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit which was given unto them. The Spirit bare witness with their spirits that they were children of God, and that they were not only children, but heirs— heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ Jesus.

The joy that was felt was not only of one, but of many: 'There was great joy in that city,' it is said. An expression which intimates that many participated in it. And if we look through the writings of the New Testament we shall find that joy was the invariable result of a reception of Christ into the heart. And that which took place then takes place now; the gospel being the same, Christ being the same, and human nature being the same. And the same effect will be produced to the end of time in respect to those who accept of Christ as 'the Lord their righteousness,' Wherever He is formed in the heart of any one, the hope of glory, there there will be joy: joy on being brought out of darkness into light, on being translated out of the kingdom of satan into the kingdom of God's dear Son, on being made a new creature in Christ, on having one's name written in heaven, on the Spirit renewing the soul in righteousness and true holiness, and making it meet for heaven.

Brethren, do you participate in this joy? Has the gospel come to you in power, in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance? or in word only?

Too many who profess to be believers in Christ are contented to rest short of what it is their privilege to attain unto. There is no struggle with them, by earnest prayer, to have the Holy Spirit imparted unto them that He may take of the things of Christ and reveal them unto them; that He may fill them with peace and joy in believing; that they may know Christ in all His saving power, and be filled with all the fulness of God.

O let not this be your case. Let your determination rather be that of St. Paul where he says: 'I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

XXXII.

"Now when the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans."—Acts, viii. 14-17, 25.

IN our last of this series of lectures, we referred to Philip, (one of the seven chosen to serve tables,') on a persecution arising against the church in Jerusalem, going down to a city of Samaria and preaching Christ there. He wrought miracles among the people, who, with one accord, gave heed to the things which he spake, his ministry causing great joy to many in the city to which he went.

The words, which I have just read to you, inform us, that, on the news reaching the Apostles in Jerusalem, they sent down to the city where Philip was two of their number, Peter and John, who, on having arrived there, prayed for those there who had believed on Christ that they might receive the Holy Spirit; since, though they had been baptized with John's water baptism, 'the Holy Spirit had not fallen upon any one of them into the name of the Lord Jesus.' The two Apostles, however, having laid their hands upon them, they received the Holy Spirit: He fell upon them into the name of the Lord Jesus.

We have from these words to notice, first,

The state of the people to whom the two Apostles went: the believers in Christ where Philip had preached.

When we speak of their state, we would not imply that all of them stood in the same position in the sight of God. We believe that no church in any place was formed without containing a spiritual difference on the part of its members. The gospel came to some in Samaria 'in power, in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance,' and to others 'in word only. Even the church at Rome, whose faith,' St. Paul tells us, 'was spoken of throughout the whole world,