yon distant country. Would that I could catch a glimpse of his dear countenance, and embrace him in the arms of parental love!" Ah, it is a blank and a pang not to be filled up; but how increased when that pang and that blank is caused by death, and that dear one has been carried to the cold grave. Be the relationship what it may, Jesus can only truly and fully solace then. How sweetly was His sympathy extended to the weeping Martha as she appealed to Him: "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Dear bereaved one, Jesus is ever the same. He ever lives, and He is specially near to comfort the mourner in Zion. Cheer up! Thy brother or thy sister, parent or friend, if sleeping in Jesus, shall rise again, and, according to our belief, shall be recognised again by you in a land where the pang of parting is unknown. The sisters of Bethany were reassured and happy in the presence of the Master. May you have Him manifestly near to comfort affliction. And then there is that your you in Bitter cup of the fear of death.-And we are often led to refer to this, simply because it forms the experience of so many of the dear children of God, and their sighs and their cries often come before us. One troubled one recently writes, "I cannot get rid of the fear of death. Do you know any Christians like me? Our reply was, "Yes, many indeed; but I have also seen that with those who have feared it greatly, when it really comes to the chamber of death, such chamber has been turned into a banqueting-house. We do not say this is always the case. Sometimes it is a gloomy scene; but, be this as it may, according to the will and pleasure of the Holy Spirit, the Christian has nothing to fear. Never is Jesus nearer than in death. Ah, at that solemn hour, whose name is it that stands then with the prominence which it ever deserves? "Jesus." Where then are denominations and differences, sects and creeds, or even doctrines and theology? The whole is wrapt up in that one name "Jesus." Away goes too Arminianism; free will is shivered to pieces; and, if the dying one is really a child of God, it will be then only "free grace," and Jesus, the Author and Finisher of it all. Well, beloved, we must have our bitter cup here; and, whether it be that of sin, earthly privation, affliction, deprivation of the means of grace, bereavement, or death, as referred to, or whether it be in any other form, Jesus is the Solace. "The Lord shewed Moses a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet." But it may be said, "What is all this painful experience for? Why can we not go on smoothly to heaven? Why such continual sorrow and suffering here below?" The reply is easy. If we had it all smooth, we should be making our nest here, while it is the Lord's intention that we should come up higher" and dwell with Him. And the connection with the passage before us puts the reason in its proper place : "There He made for them a statute, and an ordinance, and there He proved them." Ah, this is important. The way in which the Lord proves His people must be for their good. It seems as if the Lord would have them remember this early act of His providential care of them and supply of their need, that they might look back upon it at future fainting times as a pledge and token that He still would strengthen and supply, although they might not be able to see in what way He would do so. And is it not the same in our own personal experience, dear reader? Can we not, even in a cursory review of the pathway, point to PROVING TIMES, in which we were brought to nothing, and shown that our entire trust must be in the Lord? And has He failed us? No, never! We know that past mercies will not do for present emergencies, but it has often been a source of cheer to the writer to peep into old diaries, or fall upon old jottings, or come upon underlined passages; all telling the tale of goodness and mercy manifested in the hour of trial and need. And the old lines we felt the power of years ago are as true as ever "His love in times past forbids me to think Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through." In conclusion, then, dear reader, our object at this season has been to show that, whatever bitterness of experience we have to endure here, Jesus, the precious "Tree of Life," can and will sweeten all. Indeed, that it is a "Sweet affliction That brings Jesus to my soul.” May the Lord grant that, in the outgoings of your spirit under trial, you may receive a complete solace in Him, and by faith may you and I "Draw a gain from every loss, Wanstead. G. C. A LESSON FROM THE CONDEMNED CELL.-Recently, the Rev. Dr. Doudney, vicar of St. Luke's, Bedminster, preached from the passage in Isaiah, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings." The question naturally presented itself To whom was the Messenger welcome? To those who knew they were under condemnation. How different the minds of people in general about the reply to the memorial on behalf of the hapless three lying in Gloucester gaol! Why? The latter were under sentence of death. And so, when and where the Holy Ghost convinces of sin and transgression, and reveals all the dreadful consequences thereof, the Gospel is indeed a welcome message; and how infinitely beyond in value and importance what a reprieve would have been to those whose lives were then hanging in the balance! Theirs would have simply been a release from death, and that, too, merely a death to the world and former associations, and only for a short time at best; but the Gospel proclaims not only deliverance from death, but the gift of eternal life; not simply pardon, but peace; not merely the discharge of the rebel, but his acceptance and adoption into the most blessed of relationships, and the most privileged, lasting, and uninterrupted of companionships. Well, then, may the bearers of such great and glorious tidings be welcome indeed!- Gloucester Mercury. THREE great joys for the children of Zion to know: 1st, the eternal redemption of Christ for His elect; 2nd, the eternal Providence working all things together for their good; 3rd, their eternal safety and glory hereafter.-J. Miley. Words in Season for those who are Cleary. THE WILDERNESS JOURNEY. MY DEAR FRIEND,-It gave me very great pleasure to find that your late severe indisposition was attended with the hope of a relief; both which must come from God. Our spiritual maladies are not so easily removed. I have been in manifold exercises since I saw you, and have scarcely seen any way of escape; but the Lord has been my Refuge. Fears within, and fighting without, troubled me on every side; nevertheless, God, who comforteth them that are cast down, has often come to my relief in the very time of extremity. My sorest enemies, next to my own heart, are those who hold the truth in an unpurged conscience. These smite my life down to the ground, while they establish their own hope upon my ruins. This casts me down, and fills me with fear, and overwhelms my spirit, causing me sleepless nights and sorrowful days. "Hear me, speedily, O Lord, I cry, "for my spirit faileth. Hide not Thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit."" In this struggle the Lord is moved, and He gives me some secret intimation of His tender care and mercy. He still keeps me in a low place, that boasting may be excluded, and that I may keep in remembrance the bitterness and evil of sin, and be humbled. Your I do not find these exercises once in my life, and then have done with them; but no sooner does one wave of trouble subside than another arises. So that I am made in some measure to understand that this captivity is for long, even for length of days, as long as I live; only now and at distant intervals mingled with divine and spiritual revivals, which "drop as the rain, and distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. "You may say, "This is a mournful religion, I want more comfort; but God declares, "This is not your rest." sin and mine have polluted it; yet these drops of heavenly dew upon the soul will teach us to say, "He is the Rock. His work is perfect, for all His ways are judgment; a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right, is He." Yes, my dear friend, these sharp exercises will teach us distinctly the difference between the letter and the Spirit, and between the Word of God as a Word only, and the divine and spiritual work upon the heart and conscience by the Spirit. When the Spirit of Truth thus enters, He "guides us into all truth" essential to salvation, and gives us a peculiar discriminating knowledge of truth and error, a discernment of a wrong spirit where there may be some right words; even so that, "if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." These are dangers which as yet you are not fully aware of. Your friendly bosom receives all who move themselves aright, and whose words give them colour in the cup. You are little aware that at the last "they bite like a serpent and sting like an adder." They have a peculiar soporiferous effect upon the conscience, and you will not know that death is there; but Solomon says, "Thine heart shall utter perverse things." This is a terribly dangerous place, for it is "as he that lieth on the top of a mast," or he that sleepeth in the midst of a stormy sea of trouble (Prov. xxiii. 31-34). Nothing short of the power of God can cause any one to tremble at these dangers. How many are warned of them, and yet venture all, both soul and body, upon their own wisdom, and will not see that their hope is built on carnal reason, which must prove a sandy foundation. If the work of the Holy Spirit takes. place, how it humbles the soul and brings us out of the religious world, as it is called, and makes us look back with abhorrence upon that part of our profession wherein we were then held fast until the rod of correction drove us out, and brought in a little more tender regard for the honour of God, a little more humiliation of self. A due examination of these things, if we are made honest, will discover the nature and extent of our profession; and, whether the heart be duly affected or only the head furnished, if we walk tenderly, I am persuaded that conscience will do its office, and we shall soon come to the true state of the case. May you and I be able to receive instruction from the Lord, suspect our own hearts, and learn to lean upon the Beloved in all this wilderness journey of life we have to pass through. Then shall we safely arrive at the end of our course, and it shall prove the salvation of our souls. Yours faithfully, BREAKERS AHEAD. J. BOURNE. THE Church of God--by which I mean the spiritual people of God-is under sore temptation in the present day. God's Church has been damaged more or less by its intercourse with the things that are around it. There have been tendencies to its injury as to doctrine. It is hard now for a Christian man to maintain his integrity; error is so subtile, it comes in the shape of real piety, it is in such an insinuating form, in the shape of affectionate entreaty, in the garb of austere and devout living, that many of the Lord's people have been blinded by this for a season when they have acted upon a wrong principle of judgment, when they have judged as to what is true by the professors of the doctrine, rather than by the Word of God. There is no greater error than this. We are not to judge of the doctrine by the men, we are to judge the men by the doctrine. We must always remember, if an angel from heaven were to preach any other Gospel to us than that which we find in this blessed Book, let him be accursed, let us have nothing to do with him. We will not allow any man, be his influence, his authority, his learning, or his character what it may, to palm error for truth upon our minds. We must stand by the Word of God. I believe the day is not far distant when the world will not be so tolerant as it seems to be at present of the principles and doctrines of the men of God. In the 3rd of 2nd of Timothy we are told something of what is to come on the world in the last times: "Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, proud, boasters, blasphemers, despisers of those that are good." Then we are told that there shall be a desire for "the form of godliness, but a denial of the power thereof." Still we have a precious truth, and it is this, that in the midst of all the opposition that is brought to bear upon the kingdom of the Lord in this our own day, to remember that there is One who can, who will, maintain it; that as to the individual breast where God has implanted His own truth in the midst of all the temptations, that fiery darts that are around him, enmity and opposition, still the Lord keeps His people, and His Word has gone forth, They shall never perish, neither shall an man pluck them out of my hand." In the last chapter of St. Paul's 2nd Epistle to Timothy, there is a sketch given of how men will act, how men will preach, and how men will hear in the latter days. So, taking 66 all these passages together, it seems that the character of the last days, whenever they shall come, will be an assimilation, to a great extent, between the doctrines of those who ought to know better and those who do not know better, an assimilation as to principle and practice; for it is specially marked out in this 2nd Epistle that the time will come when "men shall be turned unto fables," "when they will not endure sound doctrine;" and we may believe it is beginning even now. There has been a giving way on one side, and a drawing too near on the other side; and in this way the great mass of professors will be led to lower the doctrines of Christianity, and this in itself will tend to an assimilation of principles and practice. Therefore it is of the greatest importance that God's people should be clear and distinct, not only in their knowledge of the truth, but in their profession of the truth before the people of the world. Not one iota of the doctrines of the Gospel is to be sacrificed, in order to yield to, or conciliate, the notions, or the doctrines, or the false, hollow religion of the world. 66 MISTAKE AND ITS RECTIFICATION. H. KRAUSE. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."-TITUS iii. 5-7. THE MISTAKE. WITH Conscious guilt opprest, I treasured up my tears, And raise my sunken hopes. I laboured then to count My sad transgressions o'er; To own the full amount, And shun them evermore. Among my duties, too, I zealously would plod, Upon the way to heaven. Yet all was sad constraint; From fear, and not from love. I wished my sins forgiven- With dark reluctant mind I laboured to repent. To read a chapter through, But what a cold affair! And, yet, behold I thought That this must needs be done Had often heard and read And full atonement made. And save the vilest too. And give Him less to do. And thus reduce the debt. |