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militant or triumphant. Let the anticipation, my brethren, quicken your supplications; and above all when you pray, thy kingdom come," see to it that you are cultivating the tempers and dispositions which become the subjects of such a sceptre.

The history with which our text is connected, presents us with the first inroad made upon that pure and spiritual Eden, and suggests an appropriate counterpart to our meditations on the first temptation. In dwelling for a season on the passage, I propose to consider

I. ITS EXPOSURE OF THE SIN OF ANANIAS; AND

THEN

II. TO GATHER FROM THE EXAMPLE A FEW

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE GENERAL SUBJECT OF TEMP

TATION.

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I. THE SIN OF ANANIAS IS EXPOSED in the searching indictment of the Apostle. Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?" To put you more vividly in remembrance of the precise nature of his crime, I must refer you once more, to the practice which had obtained in the primitive church for the support of its poorer members. In the 2nd chapter the 44th, and 45th verses, we are told that " all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had

need." This unbounded liberality was altogether a voluntary act on their part-not required of them by the Apostle-rendered expedient, indeed, by the necessities of those times-but certainly not intended as a precedent for ours. We have a still

more particular notice of the practice in the 4th chapter, the 34th and following verses. "Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands, or houses, sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the Apostle's feet and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." Then follows an individual example of this munificence, in the conduct of Barnabas, the future colleague of St. Paul. In painful contrast with this, our context records the hypocrisy and selfishness of Ananias and Sapphira, and their awful punishment. Emulous, it would appear, of the reputation which Barnabas had acquired by his disinterested generosity, and desirous themselves, to make a fair show of the same disposition, they also sold a landed possession for a certain sum. Having retained a portion of the purchase-money for their own purposes, the unhappy man brought the remainder, and pretending that it was the whole sum, laid it as such at the Apostle's feet. He was at once detected in his guile. Without any external evidence of the crime, Peter, moved by the Holy Ghost, discovered, exposed and punished it. The words of our text contain his

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arraignment of the false professor, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God." Here we observe.

i. His temptation.

ii. His sin.

iii. Its aggravation.

i. From the apostle's charge we learn that this temptation of Ananias was one of no ordinary character. It was not merely to commit an act of common deception, but it was a direct sin against the Holy Ghost. It was a distrust of his Divine power-an attempt to impose upon his omniscience -an endeavour to discover if the secret things of the heart were manifest to him. The Church, at the period in question was living under the extraordinary influences of that Divine Agent. This fact was evidenced, not merely by the miraculous gifts and endowments in which it is possible that Ananias himself had shared, but in the daily additions to the number of true believers, and in the great grace which was upon them all. Yet amidst these palpable proofs of the Spirit's omnipotence, this guilty man persisted in his unbelief, and thought to mock God by lying to the Holy Ghost. The construction thus put upon his conduct is very observable, and such as we should not have

ventured to infer. But we are sure-and the following punishment establishes the conclusionthat the judgment was a righteous judgment, and that the seeming severity was richly deserved. The apostles were acting under the immediate influence of the Spirit. His power, which wrought in and by them, was the power of God; and hence the attempt to impose upon their body, is denounced by Peter as an affront directly levelled against the Most High himself. The passage has long been familiar to you, as affording the most unequivocal testimony both to the personality, and the divinity of the Third Person of the blessed Trinity. Ananias, who is said in the former verse to "lie to the Holy Ghost," is said in the following, to "lie unto God." But is this a mere barren truth-so much accurate doctrine, and nothing more? Ye children of the Lord, answer for yourselves! Tell the inquirer, of the joy and peace which you have in believing that the holy influence by which you have been regenerated, enlightened, renewed, sanctified, adopted, sealed, is that of a living, self-existent, distinct, divine agent. Tell him the delight you experience from the conviction that "the Holy Ghost, the Comforter," your Comforter-is God the Holy Ghost. Tell him how you are quickened to work out your salvation with fear and trembling by the consideration that it is God the Spirit, " who worketh in you, to will and to do of his good pleasure." It is impossible, my brethren, not to be struck with the importance which the passage

before us attaches to this point-the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. It is impossible not to tremble for those who reject it.

Such being the temptation of Ananias, we have already seen that the particular

ii. Sin to which it led, was the keeping back part of the price of the land, and offering the remainder as though it had been the whole. Now it may be safely remarked, that whenever a temptation is ripened to maturity, and results in sin, there has always been a predisposition in the heart to receive and cherish it. Without indulging in fanciful speculations, it is easy to detect these predisposing symptoms in the case before us. Ananias like many others was convinced that the religion of Christ as set forth by the apostles was a more excellent way, and was earnestly desirous of having "a name to live." He courted, moreover, the honourable distinction of having made sacrifices for the common cause, and of having counted all things but loss that he might minister to the necessities of Christ's saints. He wished in short, to appear other than he was-better than he was

-more liberal, more self-denying, more devoted. He would fain be regarded as not a whit behind the very chiefest of the believers in the most important graces of the Spirit; and for the sake of thus appearing before man, he would attempt to mock that Spirit, and lie unto God.

On the other hand it is evident that his heart still went after his covetousness. He had too