"The poorer the wretch, the welcomer here."

I have, as a wonder to myself, known a single sip of it to raise my poor soul above the world, the devil, and sin, to the sweet enjoyment of the glorious Three-One God, and set it a dancing to the solemn and glorious tune and song of "Glory to God in the highest!" Yet, my brother, a few more pull backs, and I shall, through the matchless riches of God's discriminating grace, be out of the reach of all my enemies, and for ever bathe and drink at the spring head, and eternally sing the wonders of electing, redeeming love. Sinners, vile, ungodly sinners, are at their wits' end, overwhelmed with filth and guilt, distracted under a feeling of their horrible condition. Such vile wretches (and such a one am I) are saved by the unparalleled, matchless grace of God, and saved from every foe, and saved in the Lord to every good, and to and with the Lord for ever! This, this is grace indeed! Well may it be said, that they are 66 men wondered at." When a sweet enjoyment of this grace acts upon the conscience, under the bedewing, sealing power of God the Holy Ghost, the poor sinner himself exclaims, "Wonder, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth, for the Lord hath done it!" What a wonderful shout to the heavens of God's free grace will my poor soul give when it leaves this body, and enters into the glorious presence of the Lord, where all will be God and glory!

Well, my dear friend, may it be your happiness and mine, under the glorious teachings of God the Spirit, to drink more deeply into the deep things of God while in this vale of tears. May we never be suffered to rest satisfied with a mere brain religion, but, by the unctuous teachings of the Spirit, daily prove and enter into the glory and power of God's discriminating grace, and then both you and I know that we shall feelingly say, "By the grace of God, I am what I am," and in some blessed measure we shall be enabled to live in the Lord, to the Lord, and for the Lord.

That the best of blessings may rest upon and dwell in you, and the peace of God be in your heart, and that your heart and tongue may be under the sweet teachings and blessed unction of God the Spirit, is the prayer of yours in the Lord,

Manchester.

TAKING THE LORD AT HIS WORD.

W. G.

Messrs. Editors,-There are several high-sounding professors of the doctrines of grace, very much given to charge the tried and tempted mourner in Zion with "not taking the Lord at his word," when nothing is more false. But they mean that he ought to rest upon a wellordained covenant, as they say they do. But the Lord does not intend that he should, and therefore be applies certain portions of his word to the soul that are of a condemning nature, and makes him tremble at his word. But the bastards in Zion are not rebuked and chastened by the Lord; therefore they are not in trouble as good men are, but their strength is firm. I can speak for myself, and say, that I have often found the word of the Lord very piercing indeed. And the

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words that the blessed Jesus uttered to the man that was born blind have thrown me down several times; they are, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" I have been all in an agitation when I have applied them to myself, for I have not been able to answer in the affirmative, and could not if all the world were given to me; and instead of having joy and peace in believing, I have been filled with unbelief, sin, and guilt. Yet I have known, and felt firmly persuaded too, if I have not divine faith I must perish. I have taken the Lord at his word and believed it firmly, that "he that believeth not shall be damned." And O! how I have begged, and poured out my soul before the Lord, that he would cause me to believe to the saving of my soul. I have had knowledge enough of the doctrines of the gospel; I have wanted no one to tell me salvation is all of grace; but I have thirsted for a feeling sense of pardon, and have wanted to feel the good effects of the grace of God within. I have longed to feel my soul melted by divine love, and my heart enlarged to praise the dear Redeemer of lost sinners. And I have longed again and again to hear the Lord speak with power, "I am thy salvation;" and then I must take the Lord at his word, yes, and be glad enough to do so, for the chief cause of one's distress is to find prayer unanswered. But many say they are strong in faith, who I believe are strong in presumption; for, if you watch them, they are very carnal, very worldly, very covetous, very vain in their conversation, yes, and living in such things as a man with a tender conscience could not allow. A man who is really strong in faith gives glory to God; he shines as a light in the world, and his affections are set upon things above, and not upon things below. The chief reason of my doubting my interest in eternal love, is because I find myself so contrary to many parts of scripture. It is said, "a good tree bringeth forth good fruit," and "the tree is to be known by its fruit." Ah! (say some) faith is the fruit. "But knowest thou not, O vain man, that faith without works is dead ?" And if thou dost not take the Lord at his word now, thou wilt have to do. I, for one, believe what the apostle saith, and very often beg for that faith which works by love; which causeth the soul to deny self, and to give up all for the Lord. And I do not consider it Arminianism to doubt one's state, if the fruits of the Spirit are felt to be lacking. It is an unspeakable mercy to be made really acquainted with what vital godliness is. A man that is ignorant of this may go dreaming on all his days with an empty notion, and yet think very highly of his religion. He may say, "the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power," and contend for it too, and yet never be able to give any account of the power of the Holy Ghost in his own soul. "Come to particulars," says Bunyan; we are lost in generals." At any rate, the salvation of the soul is a very great and a very weighty matter; and a man must have something more than a sound creed to assure him he is chosen to eternal life. O the horror of mind I have felt at times, fearing I was only an enlightened man, a letter Christian at most! and I do believe that a man that gets into this state will want something more than notion, and will think more of life than knowledge. And however much he may

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understand of the Scriptures, he will be little in his own eyes, a poor debtor to sovereign mercy; and a token of good from the Lord will be better than the opinion of all the men in the world. But the way in which most of our high-boasting professors take the Lord at his word is dreadfully dangerous; they merely take the letter of the word, and therefore are never affected by any part in a good way. They never find the word as a hammer to break down, nor as a word in season to build up; yet they are very pleased with themselves and their creed, and seem to glory in bantering the Arminians, as this is counted zeal in a good cause. They despise the poor and the needy, and hate that ministry that demands vital godliness. They are "heady, highminded, and haters of them that are good;" but the discerning, experimental, and broken-hearted children of God have to take the Almighty at his word, and come out from among them and be separate.

Rochford, Essex.

"WHO HEALETH ALL THY DISEASES."

J. H.

My dear Friend,-This sheet is enriched with an account of the goodness of the Lord God of spiritual Israel, manifested to my soul on last Lord's day. In the morning I was attacked with inflammation in the bowels, and sent for Mr. who rendered that assistance that the dear Lord was pleased to enable him for the benefit of the bodies of sinful men. The pain of body was great, but the pain of soul was much greater. I felt at that time what I had not felt to the same degree before, namely, the exceeding sinfulness of sin. I never in my life felt such thick darkness of soul, nor such a heavy burden of sin. I thought every moment my soul would be separated from my body, and be sent to that place where hope of deliverance cannot enter. This I truly felt to be the just desert of my immortal soul; my dreadful sins had done this. Hope completely failed. Death stared me in the face. But O! the dear, the precious Lamb of God, that took away the sins of the elect world, was most graciously pleased to manifest himself to my parched, yes, my sin-parched soul, as the God that "pardoneth iniquity, transgression, and sin." O my dear friend, could I but tell you one thousandth part of the joy, the love, the glory the dear Lord the Spirit brought into my soul! But no, it cannot be told; it passeth knowledge. You know and have felt the love of a triune God, and are a witness of his faithfulness and truth. I felt these words pass through my mind a great number of times, but had no power put forth in them: 66 In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved him." "He made his soul a sacrifice for sin." put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." All this I well knew; but the matter was close at home. Was it for my sins? O how my soul wrestled with the Lord, that he would be pleased to come and bless me with one more token of his precious love! And, blessed be his almighty name! he was better than all my fears; his love, his precious, his dying, his everlasting, rich, free, unmerited love filled

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my

soul. My language was, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me praise his holy name! Bless his precious love! Glory, glory is in my soul! Bless his name, bless his love! I feel his free salvation, his sweet mercy, his full, free, and finished salvation is mine! O sweet Jesus, blessed Jesus, I am thine! Whether I live or die I am the Lord's! If he should be pleased to take me out of time into eternity in the dark, I am sure I shall go to be with him for ever and ever! Bless, O bless his sweet, his dear name! I am his; he redeemed me with his most precious blood! He gave himself a sacrifice for me, the most vile, most sinful being that ever lived on this earth! O bless his precious name!"

You know, my dear friend, what David said when the dear Lord shed abroad his love in his soul. It was this: "The humble shall hear thereof and be glad."

Wallingford, March 4, 1842.

A. J.

"WHO ART THOU THAT THOU SHOULDEST BE AFRAID OF A MAN THAT SHALL DIE?"

My dear Friend and Brother,-I feel, at times, that I love you in the Lord, and that I love the Lord in you. I esteem it as a favour that you should have any thought or care for one who can hardly bear with himself; and I assure you that the trouble you take in sending to me and thinking upon me reminds me of the manifestation of God's mercy to my soul, and makes me exclaim, "Who am I, or what am I, that I should be thought upon by you? Can it be right? Can it be from feelings produced in your heart by the Holy Ghost?" If it be from him, then God does love me, notwithstanding all, and I feel humbled within me that poor unworthy I should have a place in your thoughts, or in the Lord's.

I am still walking in the midst of suares, temptations, enmity, and trials. I assure you this place is like a little hell to me; and I feel such a sinking of heart at the thoughts of entering into it, after I have been out on a Lord's day, that my knees have almost let me down; I feel it so hard to stand single-handed, with no one to take my part. I had a sharp trial on my mind about a fortnight ago, which made me roar, and cry, and quarrel with the devil and almost with God. I had made some shoes for a great farmer, and carried them home. He kept them in his house till Lord's day, and then put them on, and sent for me to come and see them on. I did not go, but stood trembling for the consequences, whether I went or stopped away; for I had refused many people before on a Lord's day, and now that the farmer had sent for me it appeared to me that I should be completely ruined if I refused to go. He then sent for me a second time; and I sent him word back that I should be happy to wait upon him on any day except Sunday, as that was a day on which I never did any business. And now the old serpent set on me unmercifully, and showed me what influence the farmer had in the place, reminding me of my debts, and hinting that I should be starved out, and that the whole parish would rejoice at my departure. O how

I groaned and roared on my road to C-, telling God I never could stand it, and blaming him for suffering me to get into such trouble! Yea, I felt that had the devil been a human being I should have fallen upon him with my stick, for setting the farmer at me on a Sunday morning; and as I went on, sobbing aloud, and telling the Lord I never could stand it, these words entered into my mind and heart with light and power: "God is able to make thee stand." O how the power of God did open to my view, while the words were repeated many times over in my heart! I felt willing, in a moment, to stand in the front, and bear all they could heap upon me; yea, cheerfully to bear up the cross. O how I entreated his blessed Majesty to be with me, and stand by me, and help me! I cast myself upon him; and now the words are a strength to my loins. The enemy would wrest them from me if he could, by making me question their coming from God; for I can't quite believe it now. Yet it leads me to lean upon God, and look to him for all; and I shall not give up to the devil yet. Adieu!

F-, Oct. 10.

H. M.

TO MR. HARRIS, MINISTER TO THE PLYMOUTH BRETHREN.*

Revered and truly Respected Sir,-Allow me to state my sorrow and grief at the doctrine that was delivered at the Upper room last Sabbath evening, June 26th, from the 5th chapter of Revelation, and 9th verse, viz.:-" And they sung a new song," &c. The minister told us that no song was now sung in heaven, neither had been since the creation, or would be until redeemed bodies and souls were united in glory; for although the souls of believers who are departed are with the Lord, they cannot and do not sing, from the absence of the body, but are waiting for the final consummation of all things, and then will be sung the new song of "Worthy the Lamb." However, on this part I have nothing to say, only I think Paul has a remark somewhere, and puts a question, "Are ye not carnal ?" I only say in passing, I thought much valuable time was wasted ere redemption's work was spoken of.

But, alas! what a weak and distorted redemption did he endeavour to unfold! He spoke of redemption in allusion to the children of Israel being in Egyptian bondage, and "their redemption was by sprinkling the blood of the lamb on the door-posts, that when the destroying Angel passed over, wherever he saw the blood, he never stopped to ask who dwelt there,-if Jew or Egyptian, a good man or a bad man, whether they had led good lives or bad lives, either having good resolutions or bad, or how they intended to live,- for they believed in the blood of Jesus Christ and that redeemed them from

*The title to the Tract is, "To the Rev. Mr. Harris, faithful minister to the Plymouth Brethren." It will be seen that we have suppressed two words in this title by objecting, 1st, to the Popish title, "Reverend," and, 2nd, by doubting whether he deserves the appellation of "faithful" by allowing such miserable trash to be preached in "the upper room."