"THE IRISH FUND," IN ACCOUNT WITH D. A. DOUDNEY, To Mr. Rudd, 7 tons 4st. Indian Meal, To commission for retailing the above To Soup, distributed in quarts To Bread, in penny and three half-penny loaves To the Rev. B. Ormsby, towards the districtallowance, and for special cases To the Rev. W. Sandford, for special cases To sundry poor Protestant Farmers, for the purchase of seed 65 14 6 138 6 10 By Subscriptions CR. £419 18 7 To the poor children in Infant's School, To 100 Copies of Magazine, distributed in THE GOSPEL MAGAZINE. "COMFORT YE, COMFORT YE, MY PEOPLE, SAITH YOUR GOD." "ENDEAVOURING TO KEEP THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE." "JESUS CHRIST, THE SAME YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER. WHOм TO KNOW IS LIFE ETERNAL." VOL. VII.] MAY, 1847. [No. 77. THOUGHTS ON THE PAST. 'I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.”—PSALM CXLIII. 5. which BELOVED, we know of no other passage that so fully expresses our feelings in addressing you, at the close of our seventh year's Editorship. When we contemplate the lengthened period of forty-four years, during your late Editor was permitted to occupy his position, and reflect on the manifold changes with which his successor has been conversant, during scarcely a sixth part of that time, we feel as one plunged into a maze, alike of wonder and apprehension-wonder at the past-apprehension of the future. Yet in such a labyrinth, what can one do but fall back upon the faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God? Adored be "He hath delivered from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom our hope is, that He will still deliver." Having given the greater, O ye poor doubting souls, will He not vouchsafe the less? His name, "And can He have taught us to trust in His name, "His love in times past forbids us to think He'll leave us at last in trouble to sink; Each sweet Ebenezer we have in review, Confirms His good pleasure to bring us quite through." P " "Having loved His own, which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. Suppose sensible enjoyments do subside-if it be needful that we should walk in darkness and have no light-let the pathway be never so dreary and dark, doth He not abide faithful? Will He deny Himself? That be far from Him. 'Although the figtree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." • What Beloved, when in darkness of mind-going mourning without the Sun -and inquiring with the Spouse of old, "Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?" (Caut. iii. 2), how commonly we think with pity-with real sympathy, upon some of our poor Arminian friends (for there are many precious souls among them) "similarly situated-in this state of mind-what do they do?" (we commonly ask ourselves). have they to fall back upon? Their God, in their apprehension, changeable in love, even as they fluctuate in feeling. An object of his love and sympathy to-day; to-morrow a castaway.' Alas! alas! were it possible to encourage such a thought as this, did not God uphold us, we should speedily sink into despair. To have doubts of an interest in His love is one thing, but to question the nature or stability of that love is another; the former is a common feature in the unbelief with which all the children of God are more or less exercised; the latter is most derogatory to the faithfulness and truth of our immutable Jehovah, and with which few, comparatively, of the children are exercised. That the first is dishonouring to the work of the Spirit, we admit-those who labour under it know experimentally the truth of John, iii. 6, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" but the second is tenfold more dishonouring, for whilst the one has to do with the creature, the other has to do with his Lord. 66 He Establish the theory that God's love rests upon the will of the creature, either in its first reception, or in its right use when received, and such a contingency robs the Gospel of its first-its best-its most comfortable quality; the pleadings for such a theory originate in a creature. wisdom and strength, that have not as yet been brought down to a personal knowledge and understanding of the extent of the fall, nor the depths of helplessness and ruin into which that fall hath plunged us. Now, the feelings-the experience-of David, in the Psalm before us, are very different from that which we have just touched upon. was in darkness—great sirking of heart-real soul-trouble. A page or two back, we see he has been tuning his heart and harp in lively gratitude and praise, but now, in common with his brethren in the one family, he must come down from the mount, and encounter storms and difficulties; a cloud must come o'er his Sun, and darkness overtake him. See how he feels it—how he expresses it-in the Psalms just preceding that from which our subject is taken. But is there a word touching the personal character or veracity of Jehovah? Not one. He may suffer he does suffer, but his sufferings arise in self, and from and about self. Were it otherwise; did David, for a moment, stand in doubt of the faithfulness of God, how could he in this, as in most of his Psalms, prefigure JehovahJesus, from whose heart burst forth all those sighs and groans in tenfold deeper key? And, to regard this subject for a moment in its higher and more important sense, as being the language of our adorable Lord, how glorious the contemplation! Here we behold Him stooping beneath the weight -the ponderous weight of the church's sin, we see him as in Gethsemane, "in an agony, and sweating as it were great drops of blood, falling down to the ground "-we view him as in after-day, bending under the ponderous cross which the mighty work He had undertaken laid upon him; and whilst, as in the 4th verse of this Psalm, he speaks of the overwhelming of spirit, and desolation of heart which he endures, he cries, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;" he, as Mediator, exclaims, "I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands:" or, in other words, “I remember the ancient covenant. I forget not our agreement before time as to what should be acted in time: I meditate on all thy works, thy creation-works, but more especially that great redemption-work, respecting which we entered into covenant; and I muse, moreover, on the work of thy hands in that one great love-act, of selecting the one Church, and entrusting the redemption of that church into my hands." We return to David. We find him in great trouble. He tells us (or rather he tells the Lord-ah! this is the best resource in trouble) that "his spirit is overwhelmed within him; his heart within him is desolate." Pondering over his state, and at a loss for a moment to know what to do, he suddenly bethought himself—a ray of light breaks in—and he say's, "I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands." What a precious cluster of thought and expression! And, apart from that refreshing title which is given to the Spirit as the Remembrancer of his people (John xiv. 26), and by which office-character he so endears himself to them, is it not worthy of remark, how continually the Lord will have these, so to speak, notes of remembrance written and filed? Alas! He too well knew the treachery of their memory-the callousness and ingratitude of the heart, of his people, to trust to these; hence, with regard to ancient Israel-the Lord established certain feasts and ceremonies; as, for example, the passover (Ex. xii. 21-28;) in this were the children-the succeeding generations-kept specially in view, as well as the then existing generation's repeated remembrance of the Lord's delivering hand; but there were also other tokens of remembrance-mementos for after ages: the manna (Ex. xvi. 32-34), as a specimen of the bread wherewith the Lord had fed the Israelites during their journey for forty years; and the twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan (Joshua iv. 2-8, 20-24), in commemoration of the cutting off of the waters, and of the Israelites passing over dry shod. But, independent of these, how lively and how refreshing is sometimes that remembrance of past events-past scenes of mercy and gracious deliverance- which the Lord the Spirit awakens in the hearts of his redeemed; leading them back in a moment, ten, twenty-it may be fifty-years, to scenes of peculiar trial-times of deep sorrow, in which he supported them, and out of which the Lord, in his own unfathomable love and mercy, brought them. Surely it was such time as this that the Lord brought specially to poor old Jacob's mind, when He saluted him with the ever-memorable language, "I am the God of Bethel," and, as if already anticipating either Jacob's forgetfulness of that season, or that the anointing, and the vow there made, were beneath his notice, he adds, in the condescension of his grace, and in the love of his heart," where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me." As if the Lord would graciously say, "Thou hast forgotten it, Jacob-the freshness and the savour of that scene have passed from thy mind; but not so with ME. I have not forgotten thee nor thy offering. Thy cries-thy petitionings, ascended with acceptance, perfumed with the rich incense of that one offering, which hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified. Now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred. As I was with thee in coming out from thence, so will I be with thee in returning thither; for, according unto my word, I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.'" Oh, precious, precious communings of a thrice-precious Lord!What a stay-how wonderful the support to the mind-"I am going whither the Lord hath bidden me to go. The Lord sends me. The Lord is with me; and with Him and in His hands, I leave difficulties, dangers, enemies, and all consequences! "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear what man can do unto me." And surely whilst the Psalmist, in the language before us, remembered the days of old, and reflected on the mighty works which belong to the Lord our God, in all that line of faithfulness and covenant mercy and care which He had shown to his Israel up to David's time, yet was there not a peculiarly vivid remembrance enkindled in his breast, of what the Lord had done for David himself? Though we know not the precise date when this Psalm was penned, may we not reasonably suppose it was long after David had been familiarized with his Lord's distinguishing goodness and delivering mercy? Think you not that he had the days of his youth specially in view, when he was so favoured of the Lord; endowed at one time with such a gigantic strength as to slay both a lion and a bear (1 Sam. xvii. 34-36)? and at another time anointed a King of Israel (1 Sam. xvi.)? Moreover, as the Psalm immediately preceding was said to be composed in the cave of Adullam, whither he had retreated from the face of Saul, is it not likely that, whilst suffering from this man's wrath, David wrote this Psalm also? And how remarkable an instance of the remembrances just now alluded to, is given in the connexion of this interesting history of |