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"counted not their lives dear unto them, so that they might finish their course with joy, and the ministry which they had received of the Lord Jesus;" but he would earnestly ask such to consider whether their. principles would lead them to face a violent death with the calmness and resignation the faithful martyrs of the Reformation had exhibited? The preacher said he had never entered a pulpit under a greater feeling of solemnity than he had done that evening. As he passed the monument set up in that churchyard, to keep alive in their midst the memory of good Bishop Hooper, it brought to his recollection a fact left upon record respecting a certain bishop, who, upon one occasion whilst driving through Smithfield, recognised one, whom he knew to be a devout servant of God, standing upon a particular spot, in deep thoughtfulness. Stopping his carriage, the bishop asked the aged minister why he stood there in such a mood? The answer was, "He was asking himself whether, if called upon, his faith would bear such a test as did the faith of those men who had suffered upon that identical spot." Both preacher and people in the church of St. Mary de Lode that night might well propose to themselves the same question; yea, it would be well for the congregation, as they passed and repassed that monument, to submit their profession and principles to a similar enquiry. The collections for the Church Pastoral Aid Society were:-The Cathedral, £17 15s. 9d.; Christ Church, £8 17s.; St. Mary de Lode, £9 1s.; St. Nicholas, £5; Mariners' Chapel, £3; Meeting at Corn Exchange, £5 3s. 3d.

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Он, precious, precious Jesus! suffer me to be no longer unfruitful in Thy garden! Do, Lord, as Thou hast said. Dig about me, and pour upon me all the sweet influences of thy Holy Spirit, which, like rain, and the sun, and the dew of heaven, may cause me to bring forth fruit unto God. And, Lord, if so unworthy a creature may drop a petition at Thy mercyseat for others, let the coming year be productive of the same blessings to all Thy redeemed.-HAWKER.

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine.

DEAR SIR,-The wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost to the Church of Christ is for edification and comfort, and His usual way of edifying and comforting is by bringing to remembrance; and this is done in a measure by bringing to remembrance things that have passed by, and for some years might have been forgotten; and then those things will be renewed and made to roll over in the thoughts as though they had but at that instant taken place, the thing been done, or the words spoken. And this has been the case with me many times, and now for some hours, which constrains me to write the following and send it to the Magazine, being confident that what shall be said will enter into the exercises of some one or more of the Lord's afflicted ones, and will be made precious unto those of whom the Lord speaks so tenderly when He says, "Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a feeble heart, Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you.

One of those dear children of God whose hands were weak, knees feeble, and heart fearful, I oftentimes called upon, and in conversation with him have been many times much cheered and taught more clearly some of the deep things of God. One evening I called upon him and inquired after his health, and he answered me with great rudeness. At this I was made to wonder. Ultimately he bid me to leave his house, he never wished for me to call upon him any more. I was certainly filled with surprise, and I was much confounded in my thoughts. I then said to him, "Mr. Green, am I become your enemy? Why do you speak to me in such a strange way?" He said, in reply, "You want me to be guilty of presumption. You speak to me as though I were a child of God, and you want me to receive those things which you speak about as though those things did belong to me, when they do not belong to me; and you shall never teach me to be guilty of presumption; therefore, I wish you to leave my house, and never to call upon me again, for I will not listen to anything you may say."

I said, “Mr. Green, I do not wish to leave your house this moment; J. want to ask a few questions before I go, that you may ponder them over when I am gone."

The poor dear man then said, "Well, sir, and pray what are the questions that you want to ask?" My reply was, "I wish to change places with you; I will be the poor sinner that you have kindly called upon, and you shall be the minister of the everlasting Gospel. Now, Mr. Green, I am a lost sinner, I am distressed in my soul because of my vileness and the damnation of hell; I can see no way by which I can escape. Is there no hope for me, but must I lie down in despair? People tell me that I must repent and believe; but I have no power to do either the one or the other to get any comfort. I try to do good and be good, but the more I try the further I am from it. Do tell me the truth, for I am greatly distressed, and know not where to turn to find

rest and peace. I have heard of Jesus Christ, but I do not know Him in the way that He has promised that all His own people shall know Him; and, notwithstanding what people may say, I have no more power at my command to believe in Him than I have to keep the law. Ah!I am in my soul a poor prisoner, shut up in a pit where there is no water, nor light, nor way of escape. I have felt for many years a hell in sin that I cannot avoid, and seen a glory in Christ that I cannot get at. Oh, sir, you have told me these things many times, and said they were my feelings of destitution; all they in whom the Holy Ghost will bear witness to their sonship have and must feel the same; so that things being as I thought against me, now I see are in my favour. Glad I am that you called this night.

“I well remember telling you that, some months gone by, my eye fell upon those words of Jesus: 'Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.' I pondered over that portion, and thought within myself, Why, those Pharisees were very exact and strict in their lives, much more than I ever was; yet Jesus hath said, that, if my righteousness does not exceed the scribes and Pharisees', I must be shut out of the kingdom of heaven. I well remember, when we were conversing about this matter, that you said the Pharisees were not righteous; they only thought themselves to be so; but that such thoughts must be forsaken, as the Holy Ghost hath said, 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.' Here it is worthy of being noted that it is not said, Let the unrighteous man forsake his way; no, but, Let him forsake his thoughts. Here, ways and thoughts are distinct; ways are outward, and thoughts are inward, and that power must be mighty, through God, that pulls down the stronghold of pride in our hearts and brings our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

"I hope my dear friend will not forget that the Pharisees of old—and it is the same now—were never righteous only in notion. That made the Lord say to His own disciples that, unless their righteousness exceeded the Pharisees', they should not enter the kingdom of heaven. Thus the Lord for ever excludes all creature righteousness from the kingdom. So, then, all that enter the kingdom of heaven must not only be righteous in opinion, or doctrine, but perfectly righteous by imputation in the righteousness of God, as the Holy Ghost by Paul hath said, 'For He hath made Him to be sin for us... that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.' Not simply made righteous, but righteousness; and not the righteousness of man, but of God; for, if we are to dwell with God, we must be made the righteousness of God. Not make ourselves, but be made by God; for it matters not a rush, however fair things might appear in the eyes of men, it is only that which is of God that can be through Him, and to Him, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

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My dear friend has been saying that he dreads the sin of presumption, and, doubtless, this sin is a dreadful sin, and many of the Lord's dear children have been tormented with the fear that they have committed, or shall commit, this sin. And you are afraid that you shall add to your other great sins this, the greatest of all sins. But there is no fear, in the present mould that your mind has been cast into, that you will be guilty of presumption, only as you border upon that sin, by indulging those thoughts that you want to indulge, which you judge will preserve you from presumption.

"I know that my dear friend thinks it to be humility to cherish thoughts that the God and Father of Jesus is not his God and Father, that He hath not loved him with an everlasting love, chosen him in, and given him to, Jesus before the foundation of the world. You say you want proofs that you have an interest in the love of God, and you cannot be content unless that love is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost given unto you. And this you say you want because you have never had this gift bestowed upon you, and without this you cannot find any rest or peace, nor dare you think that you are one whom the Lord loves, and for you to think thus favourably of yourself is presumption.

"You say you have cried unto the Lord for many years that He would be pleased to bestow upon you the same pledges which He has and does bestow upon His own people. You say, 'I want the witness in myself that I am loved with an everlasting love, was chosen in and given to Jesus Christ by God the Father; that Jesus hath loved me, and given Himself for me, and that God the Holy Ghost hath loved me, and hath quickened me into life.' You say, without this witness, you dare not conclude that the Lord loves you, and all that can be said in your favour is a delusion.

"Now, my friend, let me say that either you must be loved by Jehovah or hated; and no doubt but you think that you must be hated, and for you to look upon the Lord as loving you is presumption, because everything that you are by nature is sinful and hateful, and that you not only have sinned, but are still sinning day by day; therefore, the Lord must hate you, He being nothing but holiness, while you are the very opposite. And the longer you live, and the more you know of yourself, the more will you find the truth of Paul's statement, 'In me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing;' but that there dwelleth in you a fulness of every evil thing. And will my friend cut himself off from having an interest in the love of God because of what by nature he feels himself to be? Rather, what he hath been made to know, and feel himself to be, is a great proof that he has an interest in the love of God, which, as we go along, will be demonstrated.

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"Let me then ask, Who are they whom the Lord loves? It cannot be them that are lovely, for none are lovely but those whom He loves into loveliness; for by nature we are loathsome, nor can we make ourselves pure by washing ourselves with nitre and much soap. To know who and what we are, and to have the witness of this in our soul's experience, although it is painful, yet it is a great favour bestowed only upon those whom the Lord loves, as it is written: 'When I saw thee polluted in thine own blood, behold, thy time was the time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness.' Thy beauty was perfect through my comeliness, which I put upon thee, saith the Lord God. I am a sinner, and by nature a mountain of sin, and nothing but sin; and day by day I grow more deeply and feelingly in a knowledge of this; and it must be so with me if I belong to the Lord. But, because I feel this, do I judge truly if I say that the Lord hates me? No, no, this witness is not true, 'for, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us;' but, if the truth is in me, then I shall feel myself to be a wretched man, groaning under the burden of a body of death; and to grow in a knowledge of this is a proof that 'we have passed from death unto life,' being loved. I cannot have faith and be a believer in Christ Jesus unless I feelingly know that I am a sinner;

nor can I know what it is to come to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need' without feeling this. If I am not made to feel myself a condemned criminal, and have not the sentence of death in myself, I shall be sure to trust in myself, and not in Jesus Christ. If the Lord loves me, He will love me in His own way, and according to His own terms, as it is written: 'I will love them freely.' 'For His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved.' Jesus Christ cannot be anything to me truly only as I am made to feel and know myself to be a poor sinner, because He is the mercy promised, and the mercy promised is the rich relative of felt misery confessed.

"Ah, then, for me to droop and despair because of my sinfulness, is giving place to the devil, the great enemy of Jesus, who, to dishonour Him, delights in this pride-feeding, plausible way of misrepresenting Him as loving them only who can bring to Him pleasing frames and lovely feelings. God be merciful to me, a sinner,' is a prayer that will suit my feelings the last breath I draw, equally with the publican; and that it might be so with my dear friend, is the prayer of the

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"OLD PILGRIM.'

A NEW YEAR'S SALUTATION.

To the dear Editor and Readers of the Gospel Magazine. BELOVED, I trust I may be indulged in my wish to meet you all, and greet you in the name of our gracious Master and Elder Brother, at the commencement of a new year. I wish 66 you a Happy New Year." New mercies, new blessings, new directions, new "strength made perfect in weakness," and yet all old-old as the covenant of grace, which is "from everlasting to everlasting," even as the mercy of our God to them that fear His name.

The happiness of a believer consists in being and doing what his Lord and Master would have him to be and do. To feel that he is a child of God, an heir of God, and to live as such; denying ungodliness and worldly lusts; living righteously, soberly, and godly, in the midst of a world that lieth in wickedness, and in spite of a heart that is " desperately wicked." The honour and glory of our God are so concerned in this that we may feel sure we cannot trust to Him too much to cause us to realize it all. This very trust produces love, and love brings forth the obedience that marks the Christian course.

While the Holy Ghost teaches us that we are "vile," and makes us loathe ourselves, we cry out, "Oh, wretched man! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" When he takes of the things of Jesus and shows them to us, we take courage and say, "I thank God through Jesus Christ," there is no condemnation to them that are in Him, "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." To look off self, and on to Christ our Lord, is our blessed privilege, and a privilege which, I trust, we may more than ever enjoy; looking to Him, as sinners, for salvation; as believers, members of His body, for a supply of "all needful grace;" and, as His children, His servants; to Him, as our Pattern and Example. Some one has compared NEW YEARS' DAYS to milestones on the road to eternity! And thus it is true they mark our continued approach to the "home of our souls on high;" but they differ in this respect, there is no

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