secrets are hid; keep me from the hidden evils which are apt to raise up prejudices in my heart, and to disincline me from humbly receiving thy Holy Word. [2] Send down thy Holy Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus, that he may take entire possession of my heart, and that I may devote myself in spirit, soul, and body to Thy service. Guard me against the devices of Satan, and enable me to overcome all his temptations. [3] Give me grace to be always watchful over my tongue, so that I may never speak a single word to grieve that Gracious Comforter by whom alone I can be sealed unto the day of redemption. [4] Keep me from all idle talking, and from every careless expression that may lead to sin; that so the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, may always be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer. AMEN.

Our Father, &c.

SIXTY-SECOND PORTION.

I. BEGINNING PRAYER.

MAY GOD, for the sake of JESUS CHRIST, give me the HOLY SPIRIT, that I may understand this portion of his Holy Word, and profit by it. AMEN.

II. THE SCRIPTURE.

Read St. Matthew's Gospel, c. xii. ver. 38 to 45. III. THE MEANINGS;

or sense of some words as used in this portion

While our Lord was engaged in the discourse, of which an account is given in the last portion, some of the Scribes and Pharisees appear to have grown impatient at the plain manner in which he was reproving them; and they interrupted him with the same question that others had asked Him when He first began His ministry in the temple. (see John ii. 18. Portion 20, vol. i, page 163.) They said that they wished to see Him do something, which should be a proof of his authority for preaching such doctrine. (They had already seen Him work the miracle of casting out the Devil from the blind and dumb man; but

VOL. II.

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they refused to believe that this was by the power of God, and had pretended that it was done under the influence of Satan himself. (see page 160.) Jesus refused to give them the sign or proof which they wanted, declaring them to be a wicked set of people and because they had turned away from God, to whom they rightfully belonged as a wife does to her husband, and had followed their own desires, just as their forefathers had done when they worshipped idols, He called them an adulterous set of people; which was the dreadful name which their idolatrous forefathers had brought upon themselves. (Isaiah lvii. 3-5. Jer. iii. 8, 9. Ezek. xvi. 17—21; xxiii. 37, 38.)

He declared that the only proof that the Jews should have, would be one like that which was. given by the prophet Jonah. Jonah had been commanded by God to go to the people of the great city of Nineveh, and tell them that God was about to punish their wickedness: he was however afraid to do as he was told, and instead of going at once on his road, he went into a ship and sailed away from Nineveh. God raised a great storm on the sea where this ship was; and when the sailors found that it was upon his account that they were put in such trouble, he told them to throw him into the sea, which at last they agreed to do. As soon as he was thrown into the water, God had prepared a very large fish of a kind which has a great bag for air under its stomach, big enough to hold a man; into this Jonah was received, and was kept alive there by God for three days and three nights, at the end of which time the fish put him forth safely upon the dry land. (see Jonah i. ii.) In like manner Jesus said that

He himself, the Son of Man, after being killed would be buried, and remain in the grave the same time that Jonah had done, and yet come forth again alive. (Luke xi. 29, 30.)

This mention of Jonah, led Jesus to warn the people to whom he was speaking, that in the day of judgment the inhabitants of Nineveh would appear before God with them, and would be witnesses whose conduct would give testimony against the Jews, and make it clear that they deserved to be condemned: because the Ninevites repented and turned from their evil ways when they had heard what Jonah preached to them (Jonah iii.); but, though Jesus was greater than Jonah, the Jews had heard Him and had not repented. Our Lord referred also to the account of the Queen of Sheba. He said that on the day of judgment she too would appear together with the people to whom He was then speaking, and that her conduct would serve as a proof how completely they deserved to be condemned; for that the Queen of Sheba, who lived a very long way southward of Jerusalem, had come all that great distance on purpose to satisfy herself concerning the great wisdom of King Solomon, of which she had heard. (1 Kings x. 1-13. 2 Chron. ix. 1-12.) Jesus who was talking to them was greater in wisdom than Solomon; but they had no desire to be satisfied concerning what He said; on the contrary, they only talked to Him that they might endeavour to find fault. (Matt. xii. 10. Luke vi. 7: xi. 54. John viii. 6.)

When our Lord had thus put aside the question with which they had interrupted His discourse, He concluded the subject upon which he had been

speaking; and shewed how different was the state of a person out of whom the evil spirit went for a season of his own accord, compared with thạt state which he had just described, when the strong man who possessed the house was first overcome and bound. (Matt. xii. 29.) He said that when an evil spirit is only gone out of a person without being forced to go by a power greater than his own, he is as uneasy and wretched as a man would be in a hot parched sandy desert; the evil one tries in vain to find any ease or rest, and in this condition he determines to go back again into the person whom he had for a time left, and whom he calls his own house; he finds such a person's heart unoccupied by better affections, and quite ready to receive him; just as a house would be prepared for the return of the master, with no other tenant living in it, but cleaned and properly furnished. The wicked one, however, does not return alone; but taking seven other of his fellow-spirits more wicked than himself, they take possession of the house and live in it: that is, they enter into the heart of such a person and rule there, plunging him into all wickedness; so that the condition of a man, after being thus left for a season by the evil spirit without having given himself up to the power of Christ, is much more dreadful than his former one. In making this fearful statement, our Lord applied it directly to the set of people to whom He was speaking, and said that such would be the case with that wicked generation.

V. THE REPETITION.

Now read again the Scripture, See No. II.