more effectual, we are also guided in our prayers and acted in our devotions by the same Spirit, according to the promise, "I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication.” (Zech. xii. 10.) Whereas, then, "this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us;" (1 John v. 14;) and whereas " we know not what we should pray for as we ought, the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, and He that searcheth the hearts, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." (Rom. viii. 26, 27.) From which intercession especially I conceive he hath the name of the Paraclete given him by Christ, who said, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete.” (John xiv. 16.) For "if any man sin, we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," (1 John ii. 1,) saith St. John; "who also maketh intercession for us," (Rom. viii. 34,) saith St. Paul: and we have another Paraclete, saith our Saviour; which also "maketh intercession for us," saith St. Paul. A Paraclete, then, in the notion of the Scriptures, is an intercessor.

(To be continued.)

SCRIPTURAL CONVERSATIONS:

BETWEEN GEORGE AND HIS MINISTER.

George. You closed our last conversation, Sir, by saying that you would, on another occasion, more fully consider the conduct of the Jews in condemning our Lord for working a miracle on the Sabbath-day. Did you refer to any one particular miracle?

Minister. The very next that is recorded, according to the general consent of the Harmonizers, will afford us the opportunity. The man "whose right hand was withered,” received his wonderful cure on a Sabbath-day. Before attending to his case, however, you will do well just to look at the verses in the fifth chapter of John, following the account of the miracle at Bethesda. You find, at the sixteenth verse, that the hatred of the rulers of the Jews had now become so

intense, that they sought to put him to death. They plainly saw that he was not the Messiah which they expected; and the purity and spirituality of his teaching would appear to the more bigoted among them as constituting an entirely new religion. True bigotry produces effects very similar to those which flow from ignorance. It is, in fact, a wilful closure of the eyes upon certain objects, accompanied with malignant feeling toward them. It was not merely because our Lord had done these things on a Sabbath-day, but because, by so doing, he shattered to pieces the whole system of their religion. Light and darkness were not more opposed than the principles of his system, and those of theirs.

George. And therefore it was, Sir, I suppose, that on the present occasion, our Saviour does not so much defend this particular act, as explain his own principles?

Minister. Exactly so. And these he shows by referring, somewhat cautiously, but yet unambiguously, to the divinity of his person. "My Father worketh hitherto." In one sense, God ceased from his works, when in six days he had "created the heavens and the earth, and all that in them is;" in another, he "worketh hitherto," ceaselessly, in sustaining all that he has made. And this is one ground on which our Lord defends himself. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." And then he opens for them the real power and dignity of his office; very different from their own earthly conceptions. He likewise points out the real source of their opposition. They had not the love of God in them: his truth dwelt not in their hearts. They loved human praise, and sought honour from man: they had no desire after the inward and spiritual life of the soul, and therefore they would not come for it to Him who was able and willing to bestow it on them. But let us proceed with the narrative. Turn to Matthew xii. 1-9; Mark ii. 23 to the end; Luke vi. 1-6.

George. The Evangelists refer to the disciples as plucking a few ears of corn to satisfy their hunger, when they were passing through a corn-field.

Minister. They were evidently on a progress; but not alone, were they?

George. No, Sir; some of the Pharisees, I see, were with

them. And they urge a similar objection: it was unlawful, they said, to pluck those ears of corn on the Sabbath-day.

Minister. One thing let us observe in passing: this gathering the corn was not a regular work, as, for instance, reaping of it Iwould have been. It was, so to speak, a casualty, arising from a present necessity. It therefore furnishes no argument for the prosecution of ordinary labour on the Lord's own day. But how did our Lord on this occasion justify himself?

George. Does he not again, Sir, refer to his own high power? He cites the case of David, and those who were with him, eating the shew-bread, when they were in absolute want of food, and then states that one was with them greater than the temple.

Minister. And as David was permitted to have the bread, so the disciples thus to employ a few minutes of the time, devoted to God. But this only related to the outward portion of the law. And the language quoted from the Old Testament proves that God has always more regarded the inward disposition. "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." That is, God requires, generally, the devotion of the heart, and particularly, that that devotion be LOVE; love to God and love to man. This he requires absolutely and always: the outward act as the proper sign of it; and therefore, on certain occasions of pressing necessity, not interfering with the spirit of the command, he dispenses with it. Our Lord is thus to be understood. "If ye had known the proper nature of religion, as requiring chiefly the devotion of the heart, and particularly a kind, and generous, and merciful temper, ye would have seen that on this occasion, by this mere casualty, my disciples have not incurred guilt."

George. I see plainly, Sir, that this is a very different case from a regular, intentional application to ordinary work on the Sabbath-day.

Minister. Undoubtedly. And you will see the same principle if you will now look a little farther in the three Evangelists already quoted, and come to the man with the withered hand. Before we take the miracle, let us proceed with the subject on which we have hitherto been remarking.

George. On another Sabbath-day, our Lord went into a

synagogue, and taught the people. A man was there with a withered hand. And as the enemies of our Lord began to know his principles, they expected they should now have an opportunity of bringing a charge against him.

Minister. Yes; and the traditions of the elders, the authoritative explanations of Scripture, as they were regarded,—for the Pharisees must have the merit of inventing the plan which condemned private interpretations, these traditions in some cases would not allow the performance of the slightest act. The traditional school has always been the outside school. The purification of the heart they left to follow from attention to minute observances; and thus it became, in the vast majority of instances, neglected altogether. Nay, worse than this: this very carefulness ministered to their pride, and thus increased their distance from that state of mind which God really required. The dead soul became more and more corrupt. Here are a number of men, in God's own presence and worship, indulging their own malignity, and fancying that it was religion.

George. They must have been surprised at his knowledge of their thoughts.

Minister. Yes, if they would have looked at it. But they could not even see that their own conduct often exemplified the very principle on which our Lord had acted. You recollect under what particular class of actions I have arranged these cases?

George. Yes, Sir. They are casualties, occasioned by a present, unthought of, necessity; and thus distinguished from what I would call habitual employments.

Minister. Well; take the case supposed by our Lord. A man has a sheep. One Sabbath-day, he finds it fallen into a pit. No doubt some such case had occurred to some of these very men. And then, when thus placed before the mind, all seems too plain for doubt. When our Lord said, "Will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?"-there was no answering this, but in one way. If such an exigency should arise, thus would men act. And then, when our Lord added, "How much then is a man better than a sheep?" and drew the conclusion, "Wherefore it is lawful to do good on

the Sabbath-day," (that is, It is not a breach of the Sabbath to do, casually, and on the call of a present necessity, acts which might not be done regularly, and as continuations of our ordinary six days' labour,) shameless as they were, they would be obliged to be silent.

George. O, Sir, how wonderful is the wisdom of our Lord! I see now how he distinguishes between a merely outside obedience, and a spiritual submission to God's authority; and even shows how, in some particular instances, the first may be omitted, and yet the second preserved.

Minister. Yes, and more than this. He shows how the outward act may be interrupted, without affording even the shadow of an excuse to those who would make the interruption regular, instead of casual, and depending on their own will, instead of suggested by providential necessity. The Jews made the law burdensome, without securing obedience. Christ actually magnifies the law, and provides for true obedience, even while he is explaining a case of dispensation. But now let us come to the synagogue on this particular Sabbath.

George. As to the nature and cause of the condition of the man's hand, we can, I suppose, Sir, conjecture nothing?

Minister. No; nothing except what is said by the Evangelists. By some means, the limb was powerless. The man had no command over the muscles, and could therefore make no use of it. But go on.

George. After our Lord had perceived the wicked thoughts of his enemies, he called the man to come forward, and to stand forth before all who were there. How every eye would now be directed, first to our Lord, and then to the man!

Minister. Yes; and you may form some conception, if you try, of the dignified solemnity of our Lord's deportment. He sees the deep-rooted malignity of his enemies; their true hypocrisy; their pride; their cherished obduracy: a holy indignation is excited in his mind. They wish to make his very miracles—the attestations of his divinity—the foundation of a charge of profanity; so near were they coming to the fearful sin against the Holy Ghost. He looked