suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." O, to think that what we so often feel as horribly uncommon in ourselves was common to God in our very nature, yet without sin. O, to believe that He is full of faith or faithful, and will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, for He was able in weakness! O, to "consider Him" who will with the temptation make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it! Bless His holy name! it is not merely reading these sacred truths in the word; but it is by the almighty power of God the Holy Ghost testifying of Christ's temptations, and we passing through temptation likewise, that makes the word of God refreshing to the soul! Jesus was the way of escape! He was enabled to bear it; "and we shall stand through Him," for we were in Him then; but the precious knowledge of the secret is made known to us in God's appointed time. I have often thought of His amazing condescension in dwelling with us that we might not be overcome by the great adversary of souls; for it is written of Him: "and He was there in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts." How marvellous it is, that although in temptation we may feel like wild beasts, yet Jesus, knowing all our vileness in the Adam nature, all our feelings of the same by the light of the Holy Ghost, came where we were. O that dear word "with!" What love springs up in the heart by the Spirit's almighty operation in the soul in testifying of the Father's love in Christ! He, Jesus, has such cheering words for us in every trouble that we exclaim, mouth is most sweet; and as if we could not speak too superlatively, we follow it up by exclaiming from our heart, "Yea, He is altogether lovely!" What, then, shall we stop there? No; but proclaim, that "This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." "His That peculiar heartfelt grief which many of the children of God experience in temptation, and which is almost daily, is also blessedly met by that "Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Here again my mind is brought to a time, a place, a spot where Jesus was such to me. I had been grieving in my spirit, and groaning before the Lord,-("I will bring them with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them,")-when in a moment these words came to my mind as with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven: Mine eye is consumed because of grief." It is very blessed to read these truths, and while so doing, to have an entrance into the blessed import; but for Jesus to expound the things concerning Himself when we hardly know that such a portion is in the word, is something indescribably blessed. Indeed, I do not know anything that comes up to it; for it has the wonderful effect of burying our sorrows in His, and drawing the soul and affections after Him. Now, many have had their eyes so affected with grief that their sight has become prematurely old; but this Mighty God, this Everlasting Father, has such wonderful love for His children in grieving that He consumed His eyes with grief that ours might be spared; so we weep with Him who wept. Marvellous, however, as the subject of His temptations, His weeping, and His weakness have been, not one thought has been more precious to me than Jesus keeping the door of His mouth that He might not sin against God. This brings to my mind another temptation, which is blasphemy. This temptation has sometimes come with such dreadful force, as with an overflowing flood, that I have trembled, the blood has risen in my cheeks, and have been in horror, lest I should curse God, and die. John Bunyan, in his Pilgrim's Progress, is led to touch this string very blessedly. He says, "One thing I should not let slip. I took notice that now poor Christian was so confounded, that he did not know his own voice; and thus I perceived it. Just when he was come over against the mouth of the burning pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him, and stepped softly up to him, and whisperingly, suggested many blasphemies to him, which he verily thought had proceeded from his own mind (page 76). Thus it is frequently with the children of God; but it was for the tempted family's sake that Jesus sanctified and set Himself apart, that they also might be sanctified through the truth; SO we are brought into that "through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth." Yea, as pertains to the children of God, there is not a temptation which they can possibly have except as the effect of that which He, their Almighty Conqueror, had the substance of. Jesus kept Himself, and that wicked one touched Him not. He prayed to His Holy Father to keep us through His own name that we, even Head and members, might be one, as they were. So He, by His own suffering in temptation and obedience, had the sorrow, that the tempted, grieving, and weak children might have His joy fulfilled in themselves. O ye weaklings, ye tremblers, ye nerves and fibres of this glorious body; there is not a promise or blessing which is treasured up in Christ which thou art not interested in, although the set time may not have arrived for God the Eternal Spirit to seal them home to thine heart. That glorious body would not be complete without the tender, sensitive, bleating members. There are members in our body which can only be seen with the assistance of a powerful microscope, but which, when disordered, will distract the whole body, and the head in particular. So with the spiritual body: that which appears the most insignificant is as much cared for as the most attracting; yea, this same Lord Jesus seemed to leave even His own disciples that He might attend to a sick and helpless man; and He is deaf to the complaints of His disciples while He waited upon His daughter with a bloody issue. The vigorous limbs and healthy countenance may appear to demand more attention; but they would be nothing without the nerves, ligaments, and sinews which give action, support, and vigour to the whole of the members of the body: "Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.' " "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Kentish Town. Amen." SAMUEL. THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS; OR, FATHER, WORD, AND SPIRIT, Revealed in the Person of Christ. Written in reply to a correspondent who would draw a line between the godhead and manhood of our dear Redeemer, contrary to the scriptures of truth, wherein it is written, "Thy Maker is thy Husband, the Lord of Hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall He be called." MUCH ESTEEMED FRIEND,-As you have written your letter in affection and faithfulness, we would, with all due deference to you in the sincerity of your motive, reply in the same spirit of affection and faithfulness. You say in your letter, after a few introductory remarks, that, "The Lord in much wisdom and condescension has been pleased to reveal Himself in the economy of human redemption-for our better understanding of the greatest of all mysteries -by three distinct persons in one undivided essence; This you contradict presently. namely, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; or, God, Christ, Is not Christ God? and, in order, the Father, for our better comprehension, is the first person in the glorious Trinity made of none, neither created [nor begotten, consequently of no material substance. The Son, or second person, is said By the Church of England. to be of the Father; not created, but begotton. And the third person, or the Holy Ghost, proceeding. Christ Himself said, 'My Father is greater than I' He also said, "I and my Father are ONE." and, 'If I go not away the Comforter will not come.' person; Who would attempt to deny it? Therefore Christ is a complete and the centre or unity of the Godhead, where the fulness of the Father, and the fulness of the Holy Ghost dwells. To this we add our hearty Amen. But you run away from this presently. But by His being begotten and brought forth, and taking our flesh into union with Himself, not by conversion of the Godhead into our flesh, Church of England. but by taking the manhood into God. It is in this person of the Man Christ Jesus that He is pleased to show forth this great and mysterious work. A body hast thou prepared me.' This is the body that suffered, that bled, that died, See Isaiah xliii. 11; xlv. 21; xlix. 26; lx. 16; lxiii. 8; Hos. xiii. 4; Luke i. 47; Jude i. 25. What have you done with the fulness of the Godhead now? that rose again ; And yet we read, "God is gone up with a shout," &c. But you are wiser than God, and wish to strip Christ of His Godhead. yea, it is here God displays the whole of His mighty works; or, as the poet says, 'God in the person of His Son, Has all His mightiest works outdone. But the Godhead never bled, never suffered, never bare sins, This is most awful! Who did bare them, then? If God did not, sure we are man could not, though as pure as an angel of light. If one sin was charged upon any but Immanuel, God with us, we must all sink under the eternal wrath of God. Those who attempt to reason away the Godhead of our glorious Jehovah Jesus, whether when a babe in His mother's arms, in Gethsemane's garden, or upon the cross of Calvary, are doing that that the devil himself dared not do when Christ was below; for he said, "We know thee who thou art, the HOLY ONE of God," agreeable to Isaiah xlix. 7. Surely you never had fellowship with HIM in His sufferings! never died. He (God) it was that inflicted the punishment on this body, As though our blessed Jesus, our only Rock and Hope, was a mere body. Dreadful indeed! that smote this body, that cut down the great Shepherd with the sword of divine justice, "I lay it down of Myself." that exacted the payment, accepted the sacrifice, received the blood of atonement as a full payment of all dues and demands, A curious payment now the person is stripped of His Godhead! How far this is from counting the blood of the Everlasting Covenant an unholy thing, I leave you and our readers to determine. The demand was an infinite satisfaction for an infinite offence, which none but an Infinite Person could give. and gives a full release and a free discharge from under the broad seal of heaven; in proof of which Christ rose from the dead. We would ask, how did your Christ rise, seeing you divested Him of His Godhead before He suffered? O wretched, wretched divinity! "If God the Eternal Spirit bled, Whoever said that abstract Deity bled? Does not our Bible tell us that God and man is one Christ? If so, it was this Christ, God and man, ONE Person, who died. it confounds the Trinity, and the whole arrangement of the sinner's salvation; as the ransom price is paid in blood, there would be no one to pay it to or to receive it, Here is carnality with a witness! We would ask you to read Ephes. v. 27, where Christ is to present the Church to Himself! How in this case can Christ present it to Himself? Surely you find yourself in the same perplexity, and compelled to say, "There would be no one to receive it." Yet the words read, "That He might present it to Himself." When men attempt to carnalize God's mysterious truth they are sure to stumble at the ONE stone laid in Zion. or to give a discharge; And yet Christ found no difficulty in giving many poor sinners a full and free discharge in the days of His flesh. But I suppose you would say, with those of old," Who is this that forgiveth sins also?" and the apostle could not have said, 'It is God that justifieth (not bled).' It is Christ that died and bled, Is not Christ God? We are necessitated to think from your carnal argument that you have found one of the false Christs which we read should come into the world. and that is risen; Yet the word tells us that "God is gone up with a shout:" and Thomas believed it heartily when he said, " My Lord and my God." But Thomas would not believe that that risen One was his Lord and his God until he was brought by the Lord to recognize the same glorious Person that he had been with prior to the crucifixion. So you see we are not without precedents in our faith. and the Holy Ghost witnesses this fact to all the redeemed family. "And now I beg most distinctly to say that I cannot read Acts xx. 28, through any man's vision; but would read it agreeably with every other passage Isaiah, liv. 5, to wit. where it speaks of the blood of atonement, making or reading the personal pronoun He (Christ) hath purchased with His own blood. Thus you would read it; but we beg to ask, by what authority? you Then we can say with the Apostle Paul, 'Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect And sound in the faith. every good work.' "And now, once more, God, or the Divinity, may be and is the altar: Christ, or the human body, the sacrifice; Still stripped of His Deity, the altar receives the blood from the sacrifice. What have you done with the Priest who slays the victim and offers the blood? Surely you are not an adept in the scriptures! Christ saith, Ye fools and blind, for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Now, if we make the altar the Divinity, and Christ the sacrifice, We repeat, And who is the Priest that offers ? then we may say with David, 'Then will I go to the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy; yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God.' Yours sincerely, "LESS THAN THE LEAST." We will also say, "Behold God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah (this is a better Christ than the |