while doing so, think you? Is it desirable? Would it pay? For some are always looking for profits. Should you not like to sit under a powerful ministry, to witness the power of God in the hearts and lives of the hearers of the Word, and to see hundreds flocking into the church, until churches must lovingly divide, and unite to erect new houses of prayer in every direction? If your heart is right, you have already said, "I should." Well, then, shall we set about it at once? Let us go alone, at once, and upon our knees, before a heart-searching God; purpose, and seek grace to carry out that purpose, that we will daily (more than once in the day) snatch a few minutes from this greedy world, and plead with God to pour out His Spirit upon ministers and missionaries, teachers, village preachers, tract distributors, and the entire church. Especially that He will begin with ourselves, filling us with the Holy Ghost; that so we may enter into the truth, drink into the mind of Christ, labour rihtily for God, and be very successful in winning souls. What say you? are you prepared to carry this out? Will you take your pen and sign the following: "I, being deeply convinced that the church in general, and myself in particular, stand in need of the putting forth of the power of the Holy Ghost, do hereby solemnly engage, in the sight and presence of God, who searches the heart, once at least, in each day, to go directly to the throne of grace, on purpose to plead with my God and Father, that He will pour out His Spirit in all the fulness of His gifts and graces upon the church in general, and upon my own soul particularly. "Wituness my hand this day of Come, Holy Spirit, come! 1856." And on this poor benighted soul From the celestial hills, Melt, melt this frozen heart; Mine will the profit be, WHAT SOME SOLDIERS DID. "The Soldiers mocked him."-Luke xxiii. 36. THE sight of suffering softens us. But it is possible to be so hardened by sin, as to sport even with sufferings. This was the case here. Here was a wonderful sufferer. Here were hardened soldiers. Here they were mocking the sufferer in the very agonies of death. Had he injured them? Never. Had he offended them? He had not. Was he the enemy of their sovereign, or their fatherland ? No; he was the friend of men, the benefactor of the human race. Yet "the soldiers mocked him." Let us ask a few questions in reference to this subject. Whom did they mock? Jesus. Who was Jesus? The Son of God-the Saviour of the world. Where was Jesus? On the cross, hanging by his hands and feet; suffering, bleeding, and dying. Why was he crucified ? 234 Because the 241 priests, elders, scribes, and pharisees were prejudiced against him; therefore they stirred up the poople to demand his death, and prevailed with Pilate to pass sentence on him. He was the victim of prejudice. The proof that man had lost all sense of shame, all love to justice, all proper feelings, when the object of dislike was holy, and took God's part against man's sin. But there was another reason why he was crucified, though they did not know it. He desired that sinners should be saved. He knew that they could not without an atonement. That there could be no atonement without sufferings and death. That no one could suffer and die so as to make an atonement but himself. As his heart was fully set upon saving sinners, he agreed with his divine Father to become a man, to appear in our world, to allow himself to be apprehended, unjustly condemned, and cruelly put to death. His nature was holy. His life was one series of kind and benevolent actions; yet so great was their injustice, so cruel were their natures, that they took him, and with wicked hands, they crucified and slew him. The excitement occasioned by his condemnation being great, the soldiers were called out, they saw his meekness, his patience, and his agonies. What did they do? "The soldiers mocked him." These soldiers were heathens. They were the troops of the Roman Emperor. They had been brought up in ignorance, heathenism and sin. They had no Bible, no Sabbath, no law of love. They knew not that the human race was one great brotherhood-that kindness, gentleness, and love were ornaments to human nature. Nor did they know that Jesus was the Son of God-that he came into the world to save sinners-that he was dying the just for the unjust to bring them to God that he was the Lamb of God, taking away the sin of the world. Had they known it, they might have been less cruel. But they were hardened through thedeceitfulness of sin, therefore they mocked him. Do any soldiers mock him now? Yes. What, British soldiers? Yes. Soldiers who have a Bible, who have been brought up in a Sunday-school, and who have often heard the Gospel? Yes. Who are they, then? There is that soldier who professes to be a Christian, but who lives. in sin, who neglects private prayer, and |